Novel Mom

Things do not suck.  Okay, let's be honest, maybe they suck a little.  I'm an eternal optimist, one of those people who irritate those  who never want to look at the bright side,  who are happy to point out what's bad  about the world and don't think they  have anything to be grateful for. I pride myself on being grateful and on being optimistic. But truly, lately things, well, they kind of suck. First, I'm a mom.  Greatest honor of my life.   My daughter is awesome.  Sarcastic, sharp tongued, witty, intelligent,  strong-willed, ambitions, driven, argumentative and isn't easily swayed.   She's the best thing that ever happened to me.   So what could go wrong, you ask?  Okay, well, she had the audacity,  after 18 years of care, worry and sacrifice,  to go off to college....four hours away.   Who does that?  Well, my awesome, driven daughter of course. That's what I taught her, after all, to go get what she wants

Suffering .... sucks.  Big time.   Suffering really sucks when it's someone  you love doing the suffering. I figured out a long time ago that one of the worst things we  can ever go through  is watching someone we love ...suffer.    I disappeared a little...from this blog,  from my friends, from life a little bit.   It's what I almost always do  when life gets a little overwhelming.   And overwhelming is a bit of an understatement for lately. We are a bit of a mess.  It was so hot and we moved all her stuff in. My daughter went away to college.   That's awesome.   Dropping her off and driving away,  not so awesome.  My heart hurt really badly.   I got a whole evening in of feeling sorry  for myself... .sobbing and feeling sorry for myself.   But it didn't last. In the morning, the phone rang.  And there was more sobbing. First time accessing the port ...she was nervous, but it wen

Parenting is not for the faint of heart.  Like at all.  I say this a lot.  And if you're out there agreeing with me, welcome to the tribe.  If you are out there thinking, hey, I don't get what she's saying. Parenting is super simple and easy, then....well, I don't know.  I guess I want to meet you. The hardest part about parenting, in my humble opinion, is when you are rolling along, like on cruise control and you think everything is going okay.  I should have learned by now that this is the time to worry, that it is the calm before the storm, that I am racing head first into a brick wall, about to crash into certain doom. Every once in awhile, I think I'm doing a good job.  Then, I find out, no, in fact, I am not doing a good job.  There seems to be ample folks out there just waiting to share this news, at any moment, on a day when I'm not on my game that, in fact, I suck the big one when it comes to parenting.  You know what I mean here, I know you do.  Fo