Due to work obligations and lil’ Monkey coming down with a cold (Where is this kid getting all of these germs?! At least, it’s just a head cold and no diarrhea this time!), Politics Wednesday will be postponed until next week.
In the meantime, I said last week that I was going to cover Education this week. However, from our poll, it looks like I’m the only one that voted for it. So should I cover the Environment or Tax Reform next week, or keep on with the Education?
We just recently started the lovey concept with lil’ Monkey, just prior to him getting sick as a matter of fact. We allowed one soft rattle shaped like a monkey (go figure) to be in his crib starting around Christmastime. But his monkey rattle was one of the first causalties during his illness. It along with a few other toys were quarantined in the to-be-washed bag which took me a long time to go through! He’s been endowed with so many toys!
So Monkey has replaced his monkey with a new lovey or shall I say loveys (is that the plural form of lovey?). And they’re kinda strange really. He’s decided that his toy hammer is a source of comfort as well as the rubber ducky we usually have in the bathtub. Seems like two very strange bedfellows, if you ask me. But whatever works, right?
I was wondering, how many parents out there let their child take a lovey with them to sleep? And if so, what kind of lovey do they prefer? And for those with older children, did the lovey become an issue later?
Lately, as anyone who has read this blog has probably noticed, I’ve been more than a little whiny. I’ve been whiny, needy, tired, angry, pissy and not just on this blog, at home and in life in general. Needless to say, DH hasn’t been a happy camper either living with Miss Pissy Pants 24-7.
I think I’ve gone into a mental and emotional downward spiral and I’ve been trying to figure out what to do.
The year didn’t get off to a great start with Monkey’s illness, then my semi-vacation to my cousin’s wedding was good but getting there was a nightmare (I missed my flight) and then this latest resolve that we’re hunkering down to wait out the housing market didn’t help.
Plus, we’ve come to the conclusion that in order to use what space we have to its maximum potential we’ll need to get rid of some cats (we have 4, contemplating dwindling that number to 1). The cats, or the “Girls” as I used to so affectionately call them, were my babies prior to my son’s birth but with lil’ Monkey in the picture, I haven’t been a very good cat mommy. With that in mind and the fact that we’re just not comfortable with Monkey crawling around in the massive amounts of hair deposited in our basement by the Girls, we’re going to have to make the hard decision to give some of them up. I dread this decision but I understand it’s necessary. I’m just going to have to DO IT and never give another thought to where they might be or what happened to them. Or else I’ll just drive myself insane.
So I feel somewhat justified in my pissy demeanor. But I’ve GOT to get out of this somehow. I think I’ll have some wine with my whine tonight and go to bed early.
Feeling a little bitter tonight. Yet grateful for what we DO have.
My bitterness comes from the reality that has slowly set in recently about our housing situation. You see, DH and I bought our home at the peak of the housing market when seller’s were still raping buyers and taking the highest bidder. Now the prices in our neighborhood have slumped far past what we can afford to pay out in order to move.
This realization of not being able to sell our house and move into a bigger one any time soon makes me bitter. I’m talking 5 years possibly if things keep getting worse with the housing market. Which means having a second child will cramp our living situation severely. That just plain sucks. Sure, we could manage and most likely will have to manage. There are plenty of people out there with less than what we have and they have more than one child — some of them managing quite well, others not so much.
However, I’m a complete clutter-phobe so space is really important to me. After having lil’ Monkey, our house has been invaded with the tons of stuff required to raise a little one (and some things not so much required but loved by him). So space in our home is at a premium now. My once sparse home with lots of visible floor, cabinet and wall space is no longer.
Plus, working from home, I need one area of the house to be a home office. Both DH and I are accustomed to using our computers simultaneously (I work while he plays WoW — or sometimes works as well). So really we need an entire room for our home office, not just a desk tucked away somewhere like the kitchen or family room (plus that would set off my clutter alarm). Therefore, our office eliminates one of the rooms in our house. Luckily for us, the previous owners finished the basement and there’s technically a bedroom down there (which used to be our office). This room will probably become our office again when/if child number two comes along and we need to give up the bedroom next to lil’ Monkey’s bedroom. This means I’ll need to run up two flights of stairs if our little ones wake up screaming into the baby monitor and I’m working downstairs! This also means we’ll need to put the guest bed and my sewing machine/table into storage. Which means during the Holidays, our relatives will either need to use an Aerobed or get a hotel room. It all just seems to snowball — all because of the housing market!
Now I’ve re-read what is written above and here is where the grateful part comes in …
At least, we HAVE a house, we HAVE jobs, we HAVE cars, we HAVE a computer for each of us, we HAVE a sewing machine, we HAVE all the furniture and clothes we could ask for … we have EVERYTHING we truly need (and plenty of nice-to-haves). I can’t in good conscious act like a “have not” when in fact we have a lot.
So after watching part of that 20/20 special on t.v. last night about anger, instead of just being bitter and angry about our housing/clutter situation, I’m trying to refocus my angst to what I CAN do. So for the next few months, I’ll be spending some time weeding through my closets, cabinets, etc. to see where I can make space so at the very least, the clutter won’t feel like it’s closing in on me. I can take my bitter butt to Goodwill and give the things I don’t appreciate anymore or no longer need or can’t wear to those who truly are in need.
Anyone a size 10 in need of business suit pants, jackets or shirts?
From the Mom-101 blog post about what each presidential candidate has on their sites about families specifically (the entire post is great, well, unless as the author points out “Skip This One if You’ve Got an Elephant Bumper Sticker on the SUV“)
The funny quote for this week:
“Because as we all know, Jesus said, ‘Ignore the mothers for they are not as important as the gun lobby.’”
LOL! I apologize to my Republican friends but as an Independent who leans to the left, this is hilarious.
She did go on to say: “Now I’m not saying that everyone is going to be pro-choice. But man, shouldn’t everyone be pro-family? I mean they didn’t even mention the FMLA. Try googling any GOP candidate with FMLA.”
Any working mother should really read this post and the references she makes to the sites she researched. It may have just changed my mind about this race. We’ll see.
In effort not to offend anymore, I will try to keep the rest of the posts apolitical until next Wednesday. 
