When the power shuts down.....

All supermoms know they have some" powers" or at least we fool ourselves into believing that. 

Take for example the power we have over what we feed our family. Let me give you an example of my wonderful powers. I prepare food that Jamie Oliver would be proud of, but what happens? Nobody,yes nobody eats dinner that night. Guess who is the healthiest in the house...the dog! Begging, nagging, emotional manipulation, promises of big muscles and huge brains have absolutely NO effect! Now a supermom will stand her ground and not give in, but a "real" supermom will stress about the poor little souls who will now go to bed starving. My family thinks that Broccoli is a swear word not to be uttered.


Now I find I have some serious "powers" when it comes to bed time. I have the power to decide the hour upon descending to bed, but alas deciding something and realizing it is totally two different things. Have you ever noticed how thirsty and hungry the little ones become the minute you mention bed time? Listening to them complain about the fierce thirst and the gnawing hunger you would think they had nothing to drink or eat for the whole day! As a "real" supermom I now have learned to ask about ten minutes before bed time if there is a dire need for anyone to quench their thirst or satisfy their hunger. Problem solved right? 
Of course not, the minute you think you have "won" the battle, a new one comes along. Excuses for not going to bed range from, I have to pee, I do not feel good, I am scared, I forgot to brush my teeth and so on and so on>>>>>
Yes we have "power"!!


I have read somewhere that the power of suggestion is phenomenal, so why not try it. Unfortunately it has not really worked out all that well for me. For instance I have suggested over and over again, that doing your homework and paying attention in class is the key to success, but so far the power of suggestion accomplished no tangible results. 


Yes I have come to realize that in some areas I will have more "power" than in others. I can use my discipline powers by enforcing some sort of punishment, but I do not like using that very much. Sometimes I just wish that I can just shut down, have some power outage! Any of you feel like that?  But I do know that the biggest power of all is the power to LOVE them, and I do not mind using that all the time!


I hope I am not the only mom who has a power shut down once in a while. Let me know how you keep the "power" on.




Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power Moms - 101 Stories Celebrating the Power of Choice for Stay-at-Home and Work-from-Home Moms

How do I love thee? Let me count the dollars.

Reading and watching movies are some of my families favorite things to do. Notice that they both can be enjoyed in a vertical position. Like a real "super-mom", I try to save money and therefore I go to the library and also rent movies from Red Box.

First let me start with the library. A magnificent place, tranquil, peaceful and the best of all: full of books!! The minute I walk into the library, all time stands still and I loose track of everything, including the children. I love the new releases section and most of my selection will come from there. This is actually where all the trouble starts. By this time the smell of new books overwhelmed and intoxicated me and I lost all reason as I pile books into my arms. The only little hiccup is that most of the books from my selection has to be returned within ten days. Probably no problem for some people, but for me who still has two children at home, is a full time student and does everything else that needs to be done this is quite a feat to accomplish. In my effort to attain this daunting task,I distribute the books everywhere. In the living room, next to my bed, in the car (reading while waiting to pick up the kids) and even in the bathroom (no explanation necessary). Needless to say this task never comes into fruition because I simply can not read ten books in ten days. The real problem is when ten days seem really long but go by in a day. I usually become aware of the fact that ten days have come and gone when I receive a letter with the logo of the library. This is when I enter into search and rescue mode. Funny how the books never seem to be where you put them. In my case it maybe very well in the place I left them, for instance on a bus never to retrieve it ever again. 

We as a family have four library cards and with age comes wisdom. I only use one of the library cards per visit. Why? Well it is funny how quickly late fees can add up, especially if you took out more than you can manage or lost the books completely. Eventually I have to pay for my library mishaps, and I ponder on the fact of how many books I could have acquired by now.  


Well it is just great that you can now go to a machine, slide your debit card and voila you are dispensed a movie! For only a dollar!! As you can gather by now, that is not the case in this household. I am over zealous so I get a movie for the kids and two for the adults. OK, who on earth can watch almost six hours of movies in one night? What eventually ends up happening is that we agree that we will keep the movies one more day. Unfortunately life happens and a little red box is ignored and forgotten. 


Yes, I love the movies and a good book, but oh my goodness if I could only get it right. 


Anybody else out there who funds the library and Red Box? I am still positive that the real super-mom in me will eventually appear. Are you waiting too?

    

Pajama party

Every morning as I drive home from my sons school I have this little bit of fear as a passenger. Now you may ask yourself, what on earth can be a little fearful? Well let me explain.

I am NOT a morning person and foolishly still believe in the morning miracle.You close your eyes and convince yourself that snoozing five more minutes will somehow give you the benefit of ten.The saying that time flies is so very true, especially in the mornings. It is usually with disbelief and confusion when I look at the alarm clock and find that the five minutes turned into fifteen! This is where my fright or flight reaction kicks into full gear and I stumble out of bed, now wide awake! Really frightened!

Instantly the real "super-mom" in me comes out as I try to multitask my way through confusion.I run a bath, rush into my sons room and demand in a not too calm voice that he gets out of bed immediately! Now this is truly where the proverbial garbage hit the fan. True to the gene pool he comes from he of course is NOT a morning person as well! Running downstairs I turn on the kettle , shout a few times upstairs for everyone to get up (no reply ,of course). Why do water take so long to boil in the morning? Coffee in hand I charge upstairs to great expectations ,only to find a bath almost to the brim with steaming hot water and everyone still somewhere in REM sleep. Now what is a panic stricken mother to do? I revert to the tactic that has proven results: I change the tone of my voice, which somehow is unbearable to sleepyheads. Getting the bath water to the right temperature of course only adds to the time restraint. Finally having my son in the bath half asleep sipping his coffee, I run downstairs to see if I can break the world record in making lunch, breakfast and finding some clothes for him to wear. Every now and then I take a sip of my coffee but there is really no time for such a luxury.

Finally I have him downstairs half dressed ,because somehow I left the clothes in the washing machine and "conveniently" forgot to put it in the drier. Hoping that clothes can dry in five minutes I leave him to finish breakfast. I run upstairs throw on the closest thing resembling an outfit, run downstairs, get him to brush his teeth while I take out semi dry clothes.

It usually takes about twenty minutes to get to school, but we only have ten! Grabbing my half empty coffee mug I get in the car but have nowhere to put it, because of course it does not fit in the cup holder. Trying to make up time (what a ridiculous suggestion) I drive one handed and just a tiny bit above the speed limit. We arrive in one piece with only a few seconds to spare and a sigh of relief can be heard miles away.

Much more calmly and relieved I drive home, and it is at this time that the passenger I mentioned before comes and joins me in the car. Upon closer inspection I find that I am still wearing my slippers,sweatpants with clorox stains as well as the accompanying t-shirt full of holes and of course also stained with clorox. Yesterdays clothes, the ones I used for cleaning. As I look in the rear view mirror I do a double take. Mascara smeared eyes and a haphazard ponytail is staring back at me. I also realize with horror that I did not brush my teeth. The little bit of fear is having me imagine all sorts of little scenarios. For instance a scenario where I may have to get out of my car or speak to someone else!

You would think that the little bit of fear would keep this from happening again,but somehow I always push the envelope, always hoping for the best.

If you are a "morning" person like me please let me know I am not standing alone.

Me and the refrigerator

I do not know about you, but I have a love hate relationship with my refrigerator and this is an ongoing issue. It all starts very early in the morning when I have to delve into the cold belly to find ingredients,to once again concoct a new and interesting sandwich. Now if you are a "supermom" like me you will sometimes find that in the sandwich department you are out of interesting ingredients. Why? because I could not find the time to run to the store, or if I have to be really truthful, I just did not feel like it! This is when the backup plan kicks in, and as all great "supermoms" around the world we revert to scraping the last peanut butter out of the jar. Of course I have to scrape because like a real 'supermom" I forgot to buy a new bottle on my last trip to the grocery store! I feel the guilt creeping up on me. I can just imagine my sons face when he so expectantly opens his lunchbox, only to find a sandwich , thinly spread with peanut butter. By this time I start to convince myself that I am not that bad of a mother. After all why on earth do the family need to have a designer sandwich everyday? Needless to say I feel super sorry for myself and deflated only to take it out on the refrigerator by slamming the door!

I have this fantasy that I will one day have a fridge that if I open it up it will tell me exactly what I have in it, and will automatically give me a healthy and delicious meal to prepare every night. Ok, back to reality. The problem is that if I do not have something figured out about dinner by the time I drop my son off at school, I am in real deep trouble! I am also really tired of my same ol, same ol food anyways, and am quite frankly in awe of these women who without any effort produce wonderful and healthy dinners every night. But like a real "supermom" I somehow always have my back up: Hamburger meat!! Never mind that we had it three times this week already! Food is food right? Remember the guilty feeling of this morning, well guess what, it is now earning interest, because the guilt is now compounding.

As I mentioned my refrigerator never has anything to offer but trouble!

My question to all women is? where did we get this notion that we have to cook like a Top Chef and to make sandwiches like a restaurant to be considered a good mother and wife? Why do we allow ourselves to feel guilty about silly things like that?

Next time we have eggs for dinner I will enjoy it!!!