Boys

The boys are watching cartoons this am, some batman thing, L asks who the female was in the show, Erik ~ the all knowing comic guy tells L who it is (so super important I can't even remember) and follows it up with a ghoulish reply, "Watch out for Women, boy, they will suck out your soul!" (Maaahaha!) My little baby boy says tentatively, "Like.....my.....mommy?"

Last weekend a bunch of us were up at the lake gathered in somewhat of a family reunion. Now, just a little bit about Duluth for those of you who don't know....or at least the part we are subject to. If you think about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox,  take Paul, with red plaid flannel shirt on, shorten him by about half (but the same weight), change the ax to a fishing pole and add the ever-so-delightful Tim Allen "Ahr, ahr ahr" and that pretty much sums up the men of Duluth. They have fancy man-caves, they go out on boats for hours together, they bring each other beers, they gossip about neighbors and throw sticks into the water for their dogs to retrieve. They change shoes and hats depending on the weather, talk sports and secretly (yeah right) smoke cigars and think they are super sneeky. Then to top it all off they make jokes about "Man tests" and "woman's work" -- now, if you look at this paragraph again, I coulda been talking about a bunch of "chicks", as they say.

The women however are sturdy, hardworking, take no BS kinda women. They know the men are joking, roll their eyes and make sure all that needs to get done, gets done. The men might make it for a week (Duluth women at this point again rolling their eyes would say, yeah, more like a day, an hour, 5 minutes they'd say) or so without his partner but after that.....completely helpless.  (I guess that is most men...) Anyway.

So back to the story, the gaggle of men go to play golf one day. Logan is the lone male, left with 3 adult women, and two pre-teen girls.....we were going to take the "kids" fishing off the pontoon. Logan asks me, "Does this mean I get to drive the boat?" (he is 6 mind you) "What do you mean buddy?" I say. He says, "Well all the other men left, does that mean I get to drive the boat since there are only girls left?" As I vow to never let my little boy get initiated into the man-club, I choke out...."You don't think the women can handle it?" He knows he's stepped in it by now and starts backing away from me, he gets that ornery glint in his eye (exactly like his mother's) and says with a grin....."Uhmmm, no???"

Rotten boy.

So the real life solution, mama's don't let your baby's grow up to be cowboys or Duluth "men".

First Timer

So, I got signed up, filled in all the profile info, sit down, roll up the sleeves and get writers block. Ugh. Oh warning, English majors I like parenthesis, the words "so" and "and", and run on sentences, so you'll have to deal. oh, and commas too.

I am a mother of 2, wife (of 1), leader of a company, sometimes student of an MBA program, board member of an association, friendly, sarcastic, dry, well-rounded (pun intended), workaholic.

I am on a continuous journey to "find myself" which isn't quite right since I didn't really "lose myself" to begin with. I am constantly learning and being educated by life. My children, as little reflections of their parents, are my greatest teachers.

I turned 36 this month, which isn't especially meaningful except that a person could get really depressed thinking that their life could be 1/2 over by now, assuming one didn't think that since they were 25! So where does that leave a woman who has so many time-consuming roles? It leaves us crazy and with multiple personalities, multi-tasking at its finest, to the point we loose our minds and put our keys in the fridge and call our kids by the dogs name (which they'll remember and I'm sure the story will be "Mom ALWAYS called me by the dogs name, she was so".....I don't know, damaged in some way).  On the other hand, 36 is just right, when we have some work/life/family experiences, we start "settling in" to our skins and finding new furniture rather than the hand-me-down mattress that your grandma used for longer than you've been alive and "it's still good". But really other than new mattresses and settling skin, what have we done for ourselves lately?

I keep changing between we and I because I am part of the community of women everywhere in the world who do the best they can to make it work, every day. I am completely stressed out and finally forcing myself to pay attention to me.  Having emergency removal of my gall bladder in March reminded me that life is what I make it, not just one obstacle (managing a team, dishes, laundry, conflict resolution for brothers/sisters that keep "Mom s/he's mocking me", choice of cake or an apple) after another day to day handling what comes my way with a (sparkling white) smile, a little toss of the (Natural Instinct colorized) hair over the bronzed bare shoulder, in the latest fashion sun dress, and freshly manicured nails (yeah right). So what am I doing about it?  It's a process. (Kinda like reading that last sentence! Regardless, You get the point)

I'm lucky to have a supportive husband and family to help me keep balanced. There's only so much they can take until they let me know (usually in that whiny, I need mommy to snuggle voice and 'tude about how "daddy lets me", or say letting the dishes pile up until h.e.-double hockey stick freezes over). Not a complaint but definitely a shift in gears. Solution = shift gears, family is more important than anything else. Get balanced again. You can always get up early to catch up on work (or dishes)!

So this was kinda fun. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

P.S. *some or all parts of the title of this blog may or may not have been recycled from a motto at work
P.P.S. *does it count as recycling if they are still using it?