TOGETHER

the boy has been bouncing on the trampoline for years.  since he was a small chubby little guy.   he has always gone out there on his own and would just jump, up and down on his own for the longest time.  it has always been like he goes in a zone, time in his own head, scheming and imagining.  it would calm him, it has always been his go to when he got shooed outside.  well, yesterday was the day that came to an end, snap.  the boy broke his arm.  yes, it was bound to happen yes, trampolines are an accident waiting to happen no, there is not a net around it yes, i am an awful mom so now that we have gotten that out of the way.   it went down like this, the first day of summer break, the boy got shooed outside and off fortnite. jumping away he goes, and attempts the cardinal trampoline sin, a flip.  doesn't land the flip and snap, just like a pencil snapping as he would describe it.     Clea...

Wow... we just pulled in from a great, warm sun filled vacation.  The last days unexpected twist was the road trip part of it all.  I watched airfare for the past month, looking at every combo of days and cities and for the number of people to fly, well it was just not in the trying to pay off everything budget.  I really did not want to give up my week in the sun, so grateful for the generous company I work for we had the house in Naples for 7 sunny days pool/beach side was what I very, very much needed.  More on that  in a later post, this post is all about road tripping with 4 kids and how to make it manageable. This wasn't our first OH -> FL trek. We have driven there multiple times to Disney, but we were going a bit further this time, Naples, so adding another 3-4 hours on the trip.  Also, in previous trips the kids were smaller, not just in age, but in height.  We have driven to Hilton Head several times, but 12 hours is a lot...

22 days in alcohol free, which is 3 weekends and 12 basketball games. so there is that, but what i am most shocked about is the expectations i had on this journey and how off i was! let me preface this with I always have the most ginormous expectations, with anything.   with people, with events, heck any darn day of the week, I have ridiculous expectations. here are just a few that have me shocked thus far on this journey. expectation #1: relaxing, I mean what can be more relaxing then being sober and not having the stress of drinking and mom shame?   i had thought being sober would be the answer to that question!   being sober is NOT relaxing me, not one bit.   there was just something about getting that first drink in me after a game or anything that had me stressed out or had caused me anxiety.   right about when the first glass was empty and moving through my blood stream and the second one was on the way did I start to ‘unw...

i do this to myself every time.  i have this vision in my head, and i don't get things done i want to do, because i do not have them exactly as i have planned in my head.  then i get annoyed, angry, frustrated, the usual.  my head is really not a forgiving place to be. anyway, that is how it went down for watch the polar express on our holiday bucket list. time was crucial, we were running out of time, we had wrapped up the basketball tournament and were on the last night before christmas eve.  we were grouping have a 'hot chocolate bar' and the 'watch polar express' together into one night of fun. you see, when i added have a hot chocolate bar to the holiday bucket list, i pictured it to look like this:  or this mine wasn't even worthy of a picture.  i laid on the couch and the kids popped some hot chocolate cups in the kurig and grabbed the redi whip out of the fridge and most likely squirted it in their mouth.  im am not certain of tha...

it is that time of year, cleveland marathon time, well in my case cleveland half marathon. several years back, after the slowest jog over the finish line of the chicago marathon, i decided i was going to be a halfer girl for my remaining running years.  it is about time for me to run my annual 13.2 miles which also means i have started training to do so.  if you call running a few times a week and maybe throw a 6 miler in on the weekends training, but hey, that is training for me! i have been a consistent runner for about the last 20 years, initially i started running because it burns lots of calories = weight loss.  that is not the case any more, not that i don't still burn a lot of calories, but the weight loss doesn't come with it and that really isn't my goal or my why.  I was recently asked...  'why do you run?' i run because it keeps me sane, or as sane as i can be. :) i know this doesn't just apply to me, nor am i the first to talk abou...