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Busy? It’s Okay Not To Be
I noticed a thing early on in my marriage-hood and mother-hood. Since I didn’t work outside of the house, the home and the kids were my job. And so, when I’m in my house, and there are kids in the house, I should be “working”. The house doesn’t sleep, the kids barely sleep, so my job was 24/7. So, I should be busy all the time. Right? I should always be doing something. There should always be something on my to-do list. While there may always be something on the list, does that mean I have to be doing it? I saw in the world, media and even my church…
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The Grinch: How My Heart Grew From Grump to Grateful
I am the youngest of 4 kids and the only girl. Yes, everything you may be thinking is true. I wasn’t spoiled as in I got lots of material things. But I may have whined a bit and felt entitled to my way sometimes. I got my own room while the 3 boys were cramped in one small bedroom. I was perhaps resented and definitely teased a lot by my brothers. Teenage Linda was the only one left at home, with brothers that had gone off to be adults. I loved having my parents to myself. In my humble opinion, I was an easy teenager. I didn’t give my parents…
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Covid Infiltrated our Home: Our 2020 Coronavirus Story
“I’m getting a little tickle in my throat” Robert said on a Friday. Uh oh. In any normal year a sore throat, cough etc.. would be no cause for alarm. But as you may have heard, 2020 is not a normal year. It’s the year of quarantines, masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper hoarding, and distance learning. It’s the year I can’t hang out with my 84 yr parents very often. It’s also an election year and a year of race riots and protests. 2020 will be one for the history books. All in all, it had not been an absolutely horrible year for our family. Robert was and always will…
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My Adventures in Anxiety Part 2: Drug Withdrawal Hell
It was January. A new year. Our European travels, Christmas and a family trip were behind us. But my hell was just beginning. As I wrote about in my last post, My Adventures in Anxiety During the Merriest Time of the Year , I had started a pretty heavy-duty drug, that was classified as an antipsychotic, to get through the anxiety I had about our first trip overseas. We ended up having a great time and in January I was ready to go back to just my run of mill anti-depressant. It had served me well and I knew for my regular life it was all I needed. Not really…
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My Adventures in Anxiety During the Merriest Time of the Year
It was Thanksgiving morning. I got up to get the meal going and I stood in the kitchen shaking. My hands were trembling. My anxiety was through the roof. The holidays are known to be stressful, especially for moms. Planning merriment for a large family can suck the life out of an already worn out woman. If the kids don’t feel fed, loved and heaped in family traditions during this time of year, it’s mom’s fault right? We make the menus, plan a service project, make the gift lists, make the gift-giving for kids appear evenly dispersed monetarily. We try to decorate according to Pinterest standards, bake goodies for neighbors,…
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My journey to the magic Oprah Winfrey and back
I watched her from the beginning. From 1986 to 2011 she was my guru. She was everyone’s guru. The Oprah Winfrey show was part of my daily routine, especially after I started having kids. The days were long and sometimes lonely and she was like a friend in my living room. I sat and nursed every one of my babies, changed their diapers, and dried their tears while watching, listening, and learning. I sat in awe, and envy as I saw women get makeovers, win ALL her favorite things, be enveloped in her magic. She was magic. Even though her daily life didn’t resemble mine at all, she was relatable…
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Missing the boat (literally) and what we learned about love
We sat at a McDonalds somewhere in Los Angeles, Calif. area. I was at one table, my entire family at another. I was fuming. I was in disbelief this was happening. And I was angry at everyone. Months earlier I had planned for this day and THIS was not the plan. Every year we had some sort of family vacation. Some big some small. It was usually the beach, mountains, or amusement park. This time we planned something new. A family cruise. With one son out of the country, we would not all be there. But we decided once the kids were adults, we couldn’t keep from having fun and…
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20 years after miscarriage: The trauma then and now
I had four beautiful kids. Girl, boy, girl, boy. As a family we were young, poor, and happy. It was perfect really. We could be done adding to our brood. Little did I know I was tempting fate by wanting another. I really wanted another girl. And of course, with my blessed track record, I knew it would happen. We never had trouble getting pregnant. My husband Robert and I simply had to be in the same room. So, a few months before our youngest was 3 yrs old, we were expecting another. I sailed through as usual with just a little morning sickness and exhaustion. Then at about 12…
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What I Want To Be When I Grow Up
In the second grade, I wrote the all important essay on what I wanted to be when I grew up. On a brown piece of wide lined paper, in pencil, I wrote: “When I grow up I want to be a hair stylist and make $25 a week. If that doesn’t work out I guess I’ll be a plain old mom.” Well, guess what? The hairstylist thing didn’t come to fruition and I turned out to be a plain old mom. Being a mom was always HUGE on my list of what I wanted to be. And I knew when I had kids, I wanted to stay home with them.…
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Why My Son Has Green Hair
My 15 year old son has green hair. Before that it was pink with dyed with colorful flowers. And before that it was half pink, half purple. What I tell myself is I don’t care anymore. He’s the youngest of six. I’ve been parenting for 29 years and I’m tired. But of course, I care. I care about his health, mentally and physically. I care about his heart and if he’s kind to others (he’s not when he plays video games. We’re working on that). I care about his goals and what I can do to support him. What I don’t care about, is his hair color. I wasn’t always…