Dewey, Maslow, Bloom

It has taken me two years to write/admit/post what I am about to type.  Two years of trying to be the same person that I was prior to becoming a mother.  Two years of frustration and unmet expectations for myself and others.  Two years of stress.  I had our second child four months ago, and his first three months were far more challenging than anything we experienced with the first child.  I have spent a lot of time trying to reduce my stress, frustration, etc...  I have prayed for peace and have come to a place of acceptance.  I am not ever going to be the same as I was prior to having children.  Not mentally, physically, emotionally, financially, or even spiritually.  The thing is.... I realize now that I have a choice to make as to whether or not I grow in these areas and learn from this experience or I allow the longing for what used to be to thwart my growth.  I have a choice to let God lead or to let society's expectations for my new role lead.  I am making a choice to have p

When someone you love dies, there are many "new normals" to negotiate.  Some of them are obvious, like setting one less plate at supper or finding a way to honor that person's memory at family gatherings and holidays.  There are also other things that those who are left behind have to negotiate based on who the person was.  If your father dies, there might need to be a substitute person to walk you down the aisle at your wedding.  If your child dies, you have to figure out what to do with their now empty bedroom.  As I grow older and experience parenthood and adulthood, I find that being an only child is lonelier now that I have children.  The experience of mothering young child can be isolating as it is, but when you don't have a sibling sharing the experience with you, it really is tough.  Siblings are the only ones who understand the baggage that you have entering into parenthood.  They understand how your brain is working when you call them to complain about some

I am on day two of a three day process of making chocolate covered cherries from scratch.  This day is the one that I really dread.  It is the day when I have to take the cold sugar-butter-condensed milk mixture and wrap it around the cherry.  The mixture has to be the perfect temperature to do this successfully.  Too cold and it chunks up and won't mold to the cherry.  Too warm and it won't come off of your fingers.  It takes a long time to cover three jars of cherries under these conditions.  I had a lot of time to think tonight. Mainly I spent the time thinking about the woman who had introduced me to these amazing concoctions.  Martha was first the mother of my friend, then my mom's friend, and, finally, my friend.  She would drop off a few homemade chocolate covered cherries around Christmas every year.  I remember that the first year I didn't even try one because I thought that chocolate covered cherries were gross thanks to the nasty ones that come in boxes in t