One Month Ago

One month ago was drop off for summer camp on an island in New Hampshire. Today is pick up. I wonder if we'll be picking up the same little freckle faced boy or a tall, tanned, teen imitation????

I'll keep you posted.

Hormonal Roller Coasterrrrrr

I'm so very sorry, dear readers. You have been innocent passengers on my hormonal roller coaster.

I should have realized it sooner: I was very nostalgic and irritable on Wordless Wednesday, sentimental and a little weepy on Tuesday and just plain old mortally exhausted and achy the day before that. Hmmmmmm.

last night, after consuming half a jar of green olives with pimentos,
a Little Debby peanut Nutty Bar and a snack size Pringles,

and I was still standing there looking in the fridge for something else and it occurred to me...I'm PMS-ing!

Yeah - that crazy salty-sweet craving. You know: the "I could gnaw on a chair leg if it was coverd in salt or chocolate" craving that comes a day or so before...well you catch my drift.

With any luck, I should be off the hormonal roller coaster soon and back to normal. Well, as normal as I can get...

I'll see you then!

Ruffled Feathers

War. Disease. Famine. Drought. Floods. All that and more is going on in the world as we speak and I have the gall, temerity, effrontery, audacity, and nerve to have my feathers ruffled. All because James is completely obsessed with wearing ONLY black plain undershirts. I sent him to a 5 day sleep-away camp with 7 shirts (2 long sleeve and 5 short sleeve) Four short sleeve came back unworn. Yeah. Four. The blue, brown, charcoal, and green ones to be exact. What did he wear for 5 days in 90 degree heat? Yeah one black T shirt. Really.

Last night at Football Practice he spent more time bending over to dust the dirt off his cleats and then standing up to brush the imaginary lint off his black T shirt and smooth and fuss over the hem of the shirt, then look at his shoes and bend over and brush the dirt off his cleats.....Lather rinse, repeat.

Wondering why I'm posting a pic of his team? He's not even in this picture. Why? He's on the sidelines bending over to brush the dirt off his cleats. Again. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

War. Disease. Famine. I clearly have way too much time on my hands if I am worrying (and blogging) about this.


Speaking of too much time on my hands, I spoke to The Stork yesterday (our son's former adoption worker...) and told her the Division of Family Services had best place some kids with us QUICK before we get too used to this being ALONE business. Seriously. We could get used to being child free. Again.

I say AGAIN because prior to 2005, when we first fostered a teen girl, we did get our fair share of alone time. Even when Alex was growing up with us, and ever since he was a baby, he spent half his time at his Dad's...so The Other Mother and I ALWAYS had alone time. *sigh*

With James AND Bobby both away at camp TWICE this month, The Other Mother and I have had time to rest, relax and remember what it is like to NOT have children. I'm here to tell you it is pretty nice to be child-free. Really.

No stress about constantly monitoring who is doing what and where with whom, no worry what to cook for dinner or when to cook it. We can have cereal for dinner if we are so motivated. Sleep late when we are tired, Play when we feel like it.

We were able to talk about ANYTHING anywhere and I did not need to edit every.single.thing.that.came.out.of.my.mouth Which, I gotta tell you, is really, really hard because I like to talk and talk and talk. And talk some more. We have a child that thinks he should be (and acts like he is) the parent and we are his peers and staff. Really. Thus The Other Mother and I must often edit/structure our conversations to limit his opportunity to be in the middle of and direct all of our conversations. Exhausting sometimes. Really.

Before I got too used to the Child-Free idea myself, last night, I went online to our humble New England state's website for adoption and found a sibling group (girl 5 and boy 9) that, based on their needs and interests, may be a good fit for our family (boy 11, boy 13, and our adult son, 20.) I asked the Other Mother to check it out if she had any down-time at work and we'll see what she says. Two brothers, school aged, would be an even better match...but of the few listed, none are a fit (some kids need a Dad not 2 Moms, or need to have no pets or no other children in the house- both of which we have). *sigh*

In the meantime, I am home doing housework - being a domestic goddess in training, blogging, puttering, cleaning the fish tank, vacuuming... The list goes on....

I better get goin' before the Beav and Wally get home...

Wordless Wednesday

Connections and Blessings

Connections and Blessings. There are things that sustain me when parenting is hard. Chocolate. God. My spouse. Shopping half price day at Salvation Army. Reading. God. Sleep. Coffee. I do have to say that the fail safe to get me goin' and keep me runnin' for the past year or so has been reading other blogs. Yup. You all. Y'All. In fact, All Y'All have been my go-to-gals. The wonderful connectons with other foster-adoptive-bio moms here in the blog-o-sphere has been a sanity saver. Really. For this, I thank you.

This past fall, when we were newly foster parenting Baby Dee, we kept her close. Baby Dee was quite sick and failure to thrive on top of all of her conditions. We were carrying the baby EVERYWHERE. Dia por Dia was sweet enough to send me a comfy and safe baby sling. Thanks.

When I wasn't sure what to do with one of my children's escalating PTSD reactions and developing our own PTSD in reaction to their reactions, Dia kindly offered her phone number and a friendly ear. Knowing I could call was enough.

Recently, Dia traveled the east coast on her annual summer vacation trek and we were blessed to have her drive a few hours out of her way to come see us in our neck of the woods. Of course, after seeing her comfy mini-van, a few extra hours driving in her van could be considered a treat!



Anyhow..we hung out. The kids played in the park and ran through the water features.



Together we shared both plain and fancy pizzas with our children: chicken broccoli and walnuts on one and pesto, spinach, garlic, feta and plum tomatoes on the other...YUMMERS)



Did I mention we talked and talked and talked and talked until it was dark....and the park was closed. And still we talked some more in the empty parking lot.

The highlight, well, if you must know, was meeting one of my favorite authors in person: Corazon. Over the past year I have enjoyed reading her journal: well written clever responses to creative writing prompts.



We've tentatively made a plan to connect in October when our travels take us to Texas for a Women of Faith Conference.

I can't wait.

Alone Time

Alone Time. Vermont style.

Saturday In Vermont

A panoramic and time lapse view of Saturday, July 30, 2010.