d... you're the best! All that you write in that newsletter is so on-point and you write it all so wonderfully.

Just one question - when your book comes out some day can I get a 1st edition signed copy? I'm telling you, it will be a best seller!

Hey guys--I just finished my February article for my PTO newsletter and thought you guys might get a kick out of it...d

I just joined a community book club last month. Our first book traces a woman’s journey toward self realization and is called “Eat, Pray, Love”. I even saw the author on “Oprah”. She retraced her journey of a year through Italy, India and some other country that I haven’t gotten to yet. Apparently the book has energized a lot of folks (mostly women) to step out of their comfort zones and do things they never thought they could, as a move toward living a fuller and more satisfying life. As I read page after page about the author’s eating pasta and gelato for four months in Italy; and subsequently gaining 22 pounds (which frankly I can do on a good Saturday in front of the TV) and page after page about her praying in silence, I’ve come to realize that frankly I’m just not all that deep. All I keep thinking as she laments about another crying fit that she’s had on the floor of a bathroom in some foreign country is that I could never put this woman in charge of a PTO event.
Don’t get me wrong-I think that self exploration and stepping out of your comfort zone is terrific; and said in a speech I gave not too long ago that if you’re not doing exactly what you want to be doing, you better change things up because tomorrow it will be 20 years later and you’ll look back and say “what’s today?”. Most of us however, don’t have the luxury of stepping outside our lives for a solitary journey. If I had written that book when all the boys were toddlers the title would have read “Eat without putting together a Happy Meal Toy….Pray that I get to sleep 3 hours in a row at night and Love to go to the bathroom by myself”. In fact I DO plan on writing a book. The title “There’s a bugger on my lampshade” will attempt to capture my journey of the past five years. It’s a far cry from sanskrit meditation techniques but probably more relevant to most women’s journeys as mothers and professionals.
See here’s the challenge for most of us. Real women figure out their potential and achieve their aspirations in the time that is tucked between flossing someone’s teeth and filling the van’s gas tank. Real women must self actualize and look to make a difference between 10-2 in the afternoon when we have a relative sense that the children in school will be staying there and we can turn our attention to the jobs at hand. Real women have to be so much more in touch with their emotions, their reality and their needs because somehow we have to fit our lives into the reality of our lives…we can’t just pick up and leave or indulge for 12 months in other places to search out our destiny.
On the up side maybe in the course of a year we will eat some pasta or some gelato, and if we are very smart…we will pray for strength and leadership to guide our families and when those little boys and girls come running off the bus toward us, or when they bound out of the door of the school with coats flying and backpacks bouncing, when that happens…we will love. We will love till we’re ready to burst. And if, by chance, we find ourselves needing to cry on the bathroom floor for some reason…we’ll do it and get over it and then we’ll get up and get moving.
Because THAT’S what real women do.
Have a Brilliant Day!

Yuck, yuck, yuck...more snow here! Have I said how sick I am of snow? Where's Shawn? Let's all go visit him in California!

Thanks, d ~ right back atcha!

The whiffle ball game sounds like fun! It's always great to reconnect with friends.

Silver, I'd heard that about the flu shot. I've also been told that no matter which one you get, they're only good for 120 days. Live and learn...

Shorty and I are both on the last days of it, I believe. I spent Sunday washing the whole place down. I used bleach wipes on every surface, washed all the towels, bedding, dishes, everything. I even washed the windows because I was tired of looking through the grime.

Nothing like sun rays beaming through clean windows to lift your spirit!

I'm off to a meeting then it's homework, homework and, oh yippee, more homework!!! My new algebra "study buddy" is a retired Marine going to school on the GI Bill. She has the most positive attitude. Meeting her has been a blessing.

Happy Tuesday.....

They just had a news report on stating that this years flu shot does not cover the most common strain of flu going around right now. I guess when they are making the shot they 'guess' as to what types would be going around so you never really know if you'll be covered from year to year. With those kinds of odds I am not playing ... hate shots ... haven't gotten a shot in the last 5 years and we've been fine.
So glad I didn't waste my money on that book.
Off to thaw out with coffee and some neighbors ... should be interresting.

CC-I'm so glad you're popping around more frequently again. It's nice to hear your take on life. I'm not posting as much as I used to..I do have to start uploading some things though.
My Army buddy who is now an FBI agent came through this week. We all played wiffle ball like the old days except this time we had 6 children on the field and instead of grilling london broil we could afford steak. She is doing amazing and looking better than amazing. Getting me back into the routine of working out. Hope it lasts. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the non-changing aspect of life when you have so much routine.
I'm starting to read a backlash from the "Eat Pray Love" book re: people that think this chick is off her rocker so I guess our instincts were good ladies. I think if I wrote that book as a mom it would be
"Eat - a whole meal without cleaning up a Spill"
"Pray - that no one gets up during the night"
"Love - to go to the bathroom by myself just once a year".

Reality reading .
d