Sunday Night Anxiety....Monday Morning Victory

I read somewhere that it’s not uncommon for children to get anxiety on Sunday evenings; Monday morning looms with the daunting thought of school, tests and the kid-sized daily grind.  I used to be that child, not sleeping, fretting over a spelling test and later Algebra and lunchroom dynamics…"but who will I sit with?” I frequently woke up with a vague ache—stomach, head or famously as my father recounts…”pain that shot from one shin to the other.” I felt sure these maladies prohibited me from going to school.

Now I’m the parent of that anxious Sunday night kid. A weekend can’t end without a coughing fit, sick tummy or certainty that the flu looms in the night. My mantra has become, “You’ll be fine.” To my parents….I’m sorry. Mia culpa. It sucks.  So once again I’m again not sleeping on Sunday nights.

My insomnia comes in the form of early waking. 5 a.m. finds me wide eyed and wondering if my 8th grader will get up and “carpe diem” or present an Oscar-worthy performance of “Wyatt Ails.” I’ve decided I’ll use my tossing and turning time to think about what I’ll do with the day. First, of course, I develop my strategy for waking my son. Coffee for me first, clothes laid out and then a cheery “rise in shine” delivered by our puppy (who could resist that?) with the promise of a yummy breakfast. Second, I make a to-do list of the obvious: laundry, dishes, and a dry cleaning run. Last, I indulge in thinking of something fun I’ll get to do because I’m up-and-at-‘em extra early. Today, that will be writing and SMASH-booking.

Today, no resistance! Hurray for a small victory!

I hope your week starts with a win for you. Remember…stay sweet.

Still learning

{This is the fifth prompt in BlogHer's March NaBloPoMo Challenge--What have you learned about yourself through blogging?}


If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Likewise if a blogger makes a post and no one reads it, is it still great? The answer is a resounding yes!

So far my initial week of blogging has taught me that I still have the same love of writing I had years ago in college. That sense of satisfaction from putting pen to paper (pre-PC days, of course) still exists in me.

Although I think every writer ultimately wants to be read, there is a certain satisfaction for a woman in my place; long out of a paying job and even longer out of school--places where writing happens every day--to flex that muscle again. It feels like a victory and makes me look forward to all kinds of possibilities.

Stay sweet!

Good blogger/Bad blogger

This is the fourth in BlogHer's March NaBloPoMa's Challenge-- "Does blogging bring out your best or worst self?"

Hmmm…This is a tough one. Here's some background….

You may have noted in an earlier post that I like lists and I actively work on my bucket list every chance I get. I also have a plethora of lesser" lists; to-do's, I-should's and if-I-have-an-opportunity  lists. Getting back to writing was on all of these. When I got BlogHer's March NaBloPaMa Challenge in my inbox--a call to bloggers to post every day for a month and writing prompts to inspire them--I thought, "I should do this!"

Although I had no blog, I created one. Now, I have a forum and I am writing every day, so I'm happy about that and would say that reaching that goal is helping bring out my best self. As for my writing voice, well….I am Lemondrop and I try to stay sweet.  Seven posts aren't much of a sampling to judge from, though, so you'll just have to keep coming back to see for yourself….and you stay sweet, too!

Mostly, I'm Mom

{This is the third prompt in the series of BlogHer's March NaBloPoMo's Challenge--When or where do you feel most like yourself?}

I'm always myself. I mean, truly, who else can I be? I understand the question though…when do I feel most like what I consider to be the definition my genuine self? 

When I am a mother...
Whether I am soothing a skinned knee, a bad day or making a memory with my boys, I feel the times with my children most keenly. Perhaps having so many wonderful recollections of my own childhood makes me think of each moment with my kids as an opportunity. I find myself recounting funny stories about joyful times with my parents and grandparents to my sons almost every day. As we stumble through our daily life, I love the idea that our adventures together will become the fabric of their own memories that will bind us together as they venture out into the world.

The boys and I on a recent adventure in Aruba.

What you see {or read} is what you get

{This is the second prompt in the series of BlogHer's March NaBloPoMo Challenge-- How is your writing voice like you? How does your writing voice differ from you}

I hate to sound as deep as a puddle, but what you see is what you get. Or in this case, what you read. This is it. this is all there is. Short post, huh?

I've long held the theory that there are two types of people in the world: closed books and open books.

Five Interesting Things About Me

{This is the first topic in the series of BlogHer March NaBloPoMo Challenge…}

1. I know all the prepositions in the English language... 

…and can recite them in alphabetical order in under a minute. This is thanks to the nuns who taught language arts, ruler in hand, at Monsignor Slade Elementary School. Side note: I also have mad sentence diagraming skills.

2. I'm sleuthy…

I pride myself on my Sherlock Holmes-like detective abilities and, although I haven't solved any crimes, I have figured out some of my life's little mysteries.

Why no Christmas card from our perennially happy friends in Richmond?

Splitsville. That's right.

Why is the information on Ancestry.com for my grandmother's family in two different last names?

Her older brother was (gasp) conceived out of wedlock.

{You heard it here first…}

3. My life-long best friend married my husband's best friend from childhood.

Chris and I met when we were 13 and she moved to Maryland from Connecticut. Craig and Bill grew up in the same neighborhood. Too complicated to really explain, the situation has made for a wonderful, happy group of "practically family" for the four of us and our five collective children who are as close as cousins. 

Sadly, we've known each other so long, there's not even an attempt to filter comments that cross the line. My favorite came from Bill who asked, as I was trying to recount a particularly complicated story if I was, "getting paid by the word." Enough said...

Festive Casual Follow Up

As promised, here's some follow up on the Festive Casual Mardi Gras party that send me into a fashion quandary on Saturday. People's interpretation spanned the sartorial spectrum. I saw….
-Men in jeans with sweaters and on blazers
-Men in jackets and ties
-Women in (almost) head-to-toe sequins.
-Skinny girls in skinny pants and fun, funky shirts and….
A LOT of BLACK…. Black remains the answer when you don't understand the fashion question.

Oh, my husband and our friend Rich (L) found this little lady…