mommy duty

Every morning I have mommy duty with my three year old. I am thankful at this point that I only have to get one child ready in the morning and not both. But these morning, are not easy. If you have a three year old, you know that they have developed their independent skills by now and dont need ANY help with ANY thing! I try to be very organized with her; I lay out clothes for the week on Sunday night. I have socks, underwear, and shoes ready too. I have everything ready so when she wakes up, we just pick which outfit to wear and off we go. Well, that is the intention anyway. I wake up my little girl about 40 minutes before we have to leave. She only needs to do a few things to get ready: get dressed, brush her hair and teeth, put her shoes on and eat breakfast. So forty minutes should be plenty of time... you would think. But it takes about 30-35 minutes for her to actually wake up and get out of bed. I guess I shouldnt judge. I dont want to get out of bed at 5am. And I roll around a bit each morning, slapping the snooze button on my alarm clock, a few more times than I should. But I know that about myself and compensate by setting the alarm clock earlier than I need. I have even tried to compensate for my little girl. I go into her room and turn the light on about 15 minutes before I really need her to get up. But it seems to backfire. Every day! And so the cycle continues... everyday! I wake her up with my sweet mommy voice. "Good morning sweetheart. It is time to get up, sunshine. Wake up sweetpea!" Then I go pack her lunch and get my bag ready for the day. Then about 15 minutes later, I go in and have a little more stern a voice, "honey, it's time. get up. we are going to be late." Then, about 10 minutes before we actually have to leave to make it to school and work on time, I run in, pull the covers off her, and start the "not so nice" mommy voice. "Get up! Now! We are going to be late! Your teacher will be so disappointed if you are late, again! Do you want to go to school in your pajamas? Mommy is leaving in five minutes!" But nothing works. I lose my patience more with her in the mornings than any other time of the day. And a confession... there are days when her hair and teeth don't get brushed. Actually, more often than not, that is the case. I am a horrible mother. What a job! It is dinner time now, so off I go. Don't ever forget you are a hero, even when you don't feel like it. Even when your kids' teeth don't get brushed. Even if your kids go to school in their pjs. You are a hero, in an invisible cape.

This is me. And my beautiful family. I am a normal mommy, working woman, wife, sister, daughter, and all around superhero. That's not me tooting my own horn; I am just making a statement about all mommies. I think ALL mommies are superheros. We just have invisible capes. Hence the name of the blog. :)

I started this new blog for several reasons.  The idea started simply because my parents, who have lived in the same town for almost 30 years, just retired, packed up and moved away. They are living their dream. I wanted a way to share my daily craziness with them. But I also want to share the story of my family. We didn't come about in the usual way. I want to share my thoughts on motherhood and the interesting, complex things that occur in the house of children. I also want to just share stories that show that none of us are perfect, not matter how hard we try. This may simply be cathartic for me and be uninspiring or boring for others, so I will apologize ahead of time. But, no offense, I am doing this for me, not for you. Although I hope that others will find humor and relief if the posts.

I wasn't sure where to start. So I will start by telling you a little about myself. I was born in Kansas. Yes, there are people from Kansas. No, I didn't live on a farm. No, I didn't know Dorothy. I lived in Kansas until I was almost 9 years old when my family packed up everything we owned and moved to Florida. I, of course, was devastated. My friends were there. My extended family lived just a few hours from our small town in Kansas. How is it that my parents could be so mean to move me away from my family home.

Here is the part of the story that is hard to believe. My parents never really intended to move to Florida. They came here on vacation with a family friend. They drove through a small town in Central Florida, stopped to eat lunch in a cute little downtown eatery, and my dad was offered a job. Really? How does that happen? He was chatting about his job at the time and a lady overheard him. She said she was opening up a new company and he could come work for her if they decided to move to Florida. They just laughed it off. There was no intention of moving to Florida. I mean, why would they!?! They came back to Kansas and thought about it. They decided to leave it up to fate. The decision was made to put the house up for sale but to mark it up really high. The house was listed and within 4 days it was sold full price and we had to move out within 30 days. We ended up moving into a rental house so I could finish 2nd grade. To celebrate, we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Dad's fortune cookie? Said "you soon will be moving to the land of sunshine". Guess it was fate. June 1st we moved to Florida (and yes, my dad went to work for that lady at the restaurant). Within one month, our family friend, who had accompanied my parents to Florida for vacation, moved his entire family to Florida and lived in the house right next to us. And about 3 months later, another close family friend in Kansas got lonely and loved to Florida as well and lived 3 houses over. So three families, all from a small town in Kansas moved to a small town in Florida within three months of each other. Weird, right? I told ya!

So here we are in Florida, eager to meet new friends, but also thankful we have friends who moved here with us to ease the loneliness. What a beautiful feeling! New town, new neighborhood, new school, new jobs. But the comfort of old, dear friends being right next door. One day, when I grow up, I want to move away to the mountains (I dream of a porch swing, a good book, my kids playing in a huge yard, and a mountain view... one day). But I only pray that my wonderfully beautiful friends will move with us, so I can have that bond. My parents still hold close the bond they have with those dear friends that moved here with us. I want that for my family.

Well, that's my story for the day. More will come soon.
Don't ever forget you ARE a superhero, even if your cape is invisible.