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Friday, May 12, 2006Sweet Perspective
Frozen-pixel moments like this erase a plethora of doo-doo from my life. Doo-doo like five days' worth of technical problems with my blog. And discovering that we owe $288 for a life insurance policy (we don't have a dime of it, so I guess I'd better not die). And a draining bath tub that suddenly decided to back up into our shower unit without explanation or warning. And the fact that Eric is leaving on Sunday for five days in San Francisco -- without me. Yep. One look at the sweet faces of my progeny snaps it all into perspective. (With the possible exception of imagining Eric touring Napa Valley without me.) Don't worry -- this isn't going to be a sappy, golly-gee-it's-great-to-be-a-mom blog entry. Actually, I think it's a therapy session. Welcome to my therapy session. It's so important not to lose perspective, you see. And the more frenetic our lives and/or our personalities (I fall into the latter category), the more important it is for us to stop and take several deep breaths on a regular basis. Those are the times when we need to look into the shining eyes of the wee ones who love us best, and remember the real reason for just about everything else we do in life. (With the possible exception of flying off to the west coast without one's wife.) One of my biggest failings is a propensity to be irritable. Not because I'm thankless or unloved or unable to see the goodness in life, but because I allow the doo-doo to drain my joy. That, and I absolutely can't stand it when someone interrupts me while I'm writing. But I suppose that falls into a different category. (Probably the same category as having been left behind while Eric flies to San Francisco.) I think I need to drink deeply of my children's smiles on a regular basis. I'm not going to find myself in those smiles, but I am certainly going to find that oft-elusive perspective. Again. A couple of months ago, Eric and I watched some old families videos. Of particular interest was the segment containing a close-up of Maggie-on-the-toilet. She was just a couple of months past her second birthday, and I was obviously proud of the fact that she was already potty-trained. I'm not quite sure what prompted me to film her, other than the fact that she tended to wax loquacious during poop sessions. So I captured her on video (from the waist up, of course.) And every few seconds, she flashed the most ridiculous, contrived grin you could imagine: nose wrinkled, baby teeth bared to the lens, eyes scrunched into slits, dimples front and center. To be fair, I suppose it was disconcerting to be filmed whilst pooping. After a while, what else can one do but grin at the camera? Well, to be sure, one can take a peek between one's legs to check the state of things, which is what Maggie eventually did. "Oh!" she said, head bobbing up from her peek at the prized poopy. "It's HUMONGOUS!" This is definitely footage for her bridal shower, don't you think? Heck, how many two-year-olds use the word "humongous" in the course of normal conversation? We'll have to pull out those old videos more often. (Not next week, though, since Eric will be minutes from the Pacific Ocean without me.) I'm really not that hard to please. My children's smiles mean the world to me. And most of the time, I do have the right perspective...thanks to my beloved offspring who daily remind me what is most important. It's just that I'm not doing very well with the left-behind-while husband -goes-to-San-Francisco -and-eats-in-all-the-smoke -free-restaurants -without-me thing. But I guess you probably picked up on that. |
About Me
I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....
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17of my readers are feeling chatty:
Keeping on the poop theme...
This post made me laugh :-)
Last night, my son (11) stuffed up the toilet. Bad. Real bad. The word "humongous" was definitely tossed about during the 30 minutes (30 minutes!!!) it took for me to get the toilet working properly. I have huge muscles from all the plunging I do (he's a habitual toilet plugger).
And you know what? The entire time I'm working on the plumbing, my son and I are laughing and making jokes and having a grand old time. It's definitely going to go down as one of the most recalled good memories in the future.
Like I said on the post below, it's a guy thing.
You sounbd a lot like me. I don't like to be interrupted either, but that pretty much goes hand-in-hand with computer geekdom. It is a common day's fare to be working on a project that is an interruption of a "hey, can you do this?" which came in the middle of a "before 10 minutes up please" stuck in between two "plops on the desk marked ASAP" that came while eating breakfast in the car on the way to work.
THEN...
I come home from work and am greeted at the door with "I want to play a game on your black computer with you", and "honey, the printer isnt working" which preempt the "have a tunno-crap to do for my business" and my brother calling "can you fix the website to have dancing bears and a mariachi band?" or "I need you to calculate the circumference of an Indonesian farting wombat's eyeball in summer".
THEN...
After I succeed in getting the Bear to bed, I try to sneak in some writing, but by then the ol' brain is fried and men in white coats do drive-bys just in case.
THEN...
I go to bed, wake up, and do it all over again.
Gotta go... almost time for breakfast in the car.
What a wonderfull reminder to not let "life's doo-doo" drain my joy!
Very well put. I needed to hear that.
Hope Eric's time away goes quickly for you.
Jillian- thanks for visiting my blog! I will have to come back more often to read about poop. :)
Allow doo-doo to drain joy? It must be genetic. But fortunately, I've gotten much better at allowing Ida's smiles and serious commentary brighten my days and make the doo-doo less overwhelming at least.
Now I'm wondering what redecorating/remodeling project you'll do when Eric is out of town. Isn't that one of the things you usually tackle while he is gone?
From now on, I think the word 'Humongous' will always make me crack up. What a vocabulary for a two year old!
(And obviously, you're not dwelling on the whole husband on the West coast thing...)
((Jill)) your blog entries always touch me. I needed to read this and it has blessed me today....my little ones will get extra hugs for sure!!
You and Jamie will have to stay connected this week as she will be going through the same situation....minus three children of course.
I love you and I want you to know that you have blessed me 100 times over. Muah! Yes, the southern girl in me just had to give you a little smooch. Sorry....you can rub it off.
Awww, I can feel the love!!
Eric better bring back a really nice bottle of wine.
Awww, this is just what I needed to read right now.
I hope the next five days fly by you.
Now, you know Eric will be working nonstop. From the moment he leaves your side he will be miserable. He'll ache and yearn to be with his family, every second of every day. Isn't that right Eric?
On another note. LOOK AT THOSE SMILES! What did you do, drug them? Siblings aren't supposed to get along so well!
Ken
Yeah - no kidding. I think you don't like to be left alone when hubby is taking a trip to the west-coast. I hope it is business trip...
Yeah, we can find joy raising our children (child). Just remember that they grow up TOO fast...*sigh*. Happy Mother's day my friend.
BTW - I have problems visiting your blog in my default browser Firefox so I had to visit via IE (yuk!!!!)
Happy Mothers Day!!!
Ken
Your children are BEAUTIFUL! =D
Jerry -- You've definitely redined "guy thing." I mean -- poop? :)
Dave -- Do you feel better now?
Debz -- Thank you...so far, so good!
Tess -- I've been known for several years now as The Poop Queen. It's one of my online personas. Lovely, huh? ;)
Jamie -- Actually, I'm going to clean out the attic storage room and my office! LOL But that's not technically "redecorating" because there's nothing to "decorate" up here. Just bare drywall!
Sweatpantsmom -- She started talking at 9 months and never stopped...
I know who you are and I know who I know who you are is, too...
:)
Thank you, Claire.
Ken -- Who, me? Drug my own children? Not on this particular day, anyway! It's actually a self portrait; Rachel is holding the camera herself. Pretty good for doing it herself, eh?
And thank you for the Mother's Day greeting...that really made me smile yesterday.
Tarie -- Thank you! :)
My above comment sounds kind of schizophrenic when read out of context.........
Beautiful photo!!!
I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.
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