Mothering Many

I have reached a point in my mothering journey where I feel like i can leave the oldest child in charge for a few minutes while I run to the corner store or take care of some needed task. Now, you would think that the best part of this for me would be the ability to get out of the house with dh now and again, and I admit that is wonderful. But the part I am really enjoying is the ability to have deep and detailed conferences with the shower faucets whenever I want, so I can wash my hair early in the day and I don’t have to go to bed with wet hair. When you have hair like mine, these little things mean a lot.

What’s your worst nightmare as a parent? For me, it’s the idea of one of my children being in a place that I can’t reach them, in a situation I can’t fix, in so much trouble that I can’t kiss them and make it all better. That’s what we do, as mothers, right? We FIX IT. We MAKE IT BETTER.

Sometimes, though, they just go further than we can walk with them. Sometimes, they make choices that we can’t countenance, can’t change and yet still refuse to ignore. Sometimes, our kids need an intervention from professionals. I’ve been really blessed with my kids so far, and only one of them has experimented with any type of illicit substance. That experiment lasted about a week, and the intervention I chose was the largest officer on our little PD, who happened to know the name of the guy she was hanging out with, and knew she wasn’t one of his normal hanging partners. He brought her home, and that was pretty much the end of that.

I know other parents that have not been so lucky. Their kids have needed serious drug detoxification, and that has caused immense pain for them. I can’t imagine such a thing. Not the drug abuse, because anybody can make a bad decision that just keeps snowballing, but the knowledge that I could no longer do anything but standby OUTSIDE and pray it all turned out all right. It truly is that nightmare I mentioned above, and it effects everyone who loves that person needing drug rehab.

The scary thing is that in my area, there aren’t many options for rehab. When you need that kind of help, you have to leave home to get it. You may not have to go as far as Chapman House in California, but away from home is still away from home. Away from what you know. Away from your dealer, but also your support system. I know it’s worth it in the end, especially if you can find a place that is CARF accredited, like Chapman, but still, I can’t imagine feeling so alone. I can’t imagine one of my kids feeling that way. Nightmare, like I said.

Has this become a medical mishap blog? Apparently so, but feel free to insert “football practice, cheer leading practice” between each post, cause that is certainly a big part of our lives just now. So the good news, Country only has to use the acne cream once a day since it’s drying her out too much. The bad news is that I had to reschedule the girls’ Ortho appointments so dh could go to a job interview. Where they offered him graveyard shift. Umm, we have 7 children who are here all day long, and we live in 1600 square feet. Night shift is NOT on his basic life plan.

It’s almost time for another trip, and I am getting very excited. I’m off to Florida to spend a long weekend with friends, brushing up my networking skills and having a lot o fun. There isn’t any Orlando golf on my agenda, but I may be going to Universal. I’m leaving in three short weeks, ya’ll! I need to get crackin’ on my packin’!

No kids either, ya’ll! Just me and my buddies!

Hahah, I totally typo’d that as biddies.

You know, I knew kids were getting old fast, but this sports season has really brought it to the forefront: everywhere you look, kids have phones. What possible use could a kid, accompanied by their mother or father, have for an unlocked cell phones?? I mean, I gave my kids a couple of old inactivated ones to play with, but these kids are walking around with flip phones in little cases attached to their belt loops. Hello?

And, yes, I would be the mom in question! In the past month, I have been informed that 2 of my daughters have scoliosis, one of them may be diabetic, one son can’t afford to lose an ounce if her wants to play ball, and another better gain 10 pounds by Saturday or he’ll be benched. Yay! And lest we forget? There was also the pimple cream prescription. For a kid who really does not have much acne. Whatever.

Is everyone listening? It’s time to issue some instructions!

When you are on laundry duty, that means that you must load and operate the machines and PAY ATTENTION so that when they stop, you are able to reload them.

When you are on kitchen, you are responsible for the dishes, even the ones that are not in the sink, and LO! Behold!! The counters must be wiped!

My apologies of these new old job descriptions offend you. I’m just trying to keep us in clean underwear and prevent the health department from closing our kitchen down.

and I mean it! I have been running hard this week. I’ve picked up the blogging pace, and we started football and cheer practice, and it has just been …. frenetic, that’s what. I’m almost done with the projects I lined out for myself this week, and this weekend, I get a treat. It’s a bigger treat that a week spent in hotels in las vegas. Tomorrow, I am taking my husband and six of my children to visit my paternal family. I am so excited I can hardly stand it, and in fact, if I think on it too much, I find myself in tears. This is … a very big deal. I can’t wait.

This week, I have been trying to really buckle down and get my blogging back up. Man, I never realize how much noise my kids make until I am really needing to concentrate. And when I am in the middle of it with them, it’s not nearly as loud as it is when I am off in a corner working. You reckon that;s just my perception of things?

I’m really wishing I could slip away to the bedroom with the laptop for a couple hours a day, but I can’t. My laptop is desk-ridden, and it has nothing to do with the computer memory this time. No. I’m hooked up to an external monitor, because it is so cost prohibitive to repair my LCD. External monitors?? NOT portable!

Have I mentioned that I no longer eat microwave popcorn because of the saturated and trans fats? Well, I don’t. Whenever I will be partaking of popcorn, I do it the old fashioned way: in a pot on the stove. Man, it is so good! But. I have discovered that it is almost impossible to cook enough popcorn for the family without having some burn. The popped stuff just gets too hot while I am waiting for the last kernels to pop. Yes, I am shaking the pan, but a cup and half of kernels is just a massive amount of popcorn. It makes me look at popcorn machines in a whole new light. Mostly green.