Just Keep Swimming.....

Whew!

It has been a big ol' steamin' pile of constant activity here at Chez Us the past few weeks.

Beloved put up his musical production for the year at the high school where he teaches, and it was a great success. That of course has meant I have been a single parent while he put in a gazillion hours working, hence the lack of blog postings. Well...that and obsessively watching the 7th season of the Gilmore Girls on DVD. That takes up a lot of a girl's time.

The musical wrapped up just in time for Thanksgiving preparations for the huge masses of people that rained down on our home. We clocked in just over 30 people this year I believe. I chronicled my cooking adventures in earlier posts as you are likely aware. I was gravely disappointed to see that I was the only family member to actually bake pies this year. We had a boatload of pumpkin and pecan pies purchased from the local Sam's Club. Neither pie is my favorite and I flat out do not like baked goods that come from a grocery store bakery. Not cakes, pies, nuthin'! I am devout about making birthday cakes and decorating them myself such is my dislike of the grocery store bakery. My family members were arguing that the store bought pies were just as good as homemade. Take a guess which pies went first come desert time????? Harrumph! I did not gloat to anyone except BH after everyone left. I have that much restraint. Barely.

While I have negelected my own blog recently I have kept up my devout perusal of other people's musings. Lot's of interesting things going on in the blogs that I read lately. Some have given me some food for thought. One particular day or maybe it was over a few days I seemed to be reading a lot of posts about Stay At Home Mothers (SAHM). Most of those posts seemed to be about guilt, or justification. I thought I would put in my two cents here speaking as a Working Away From Home Mother (WAFHM...I really wanted an acronym! There is probably an official one out there but I am woefully uninformed if there is.) My two cents is this: Stop feeling guilty and stop feeling that you have to justify what you are doing. Because you don't have to and shouldn't do either of those things. More parents need to spend more time with their children. There is no guilt or shame in that. That time is especially crucial the first five years of life for a child.

I will not lie and tell you that I did not get a little pissy reading about this topic. I did get a little pissy and it has everything to do with jealousy and I recognize that and own it completely. If it were possible for me and my family I would walk away from my job right now, but it isn't so there is no point in "going there" as the kids say. My initial thoughts were, "Guilt?? I'll give you guilt!! Try coming home after working for 8+ hours to kids who just want to play and have some attention from you, and have every right to expect that attention but you just snap at them and start cracking the whip as soon as you walk through the door because you have dinner, chores, homework, reading aloud, showers, hair drying, violin practice, lunches to make, and God knows what else to accomplish in the two and half hours before the children must be in bed to get the prescribed amount of sleep to keep them healthy and happy. All the while knowing (because you are a professional who deals with children and what is best for them and their mental health) that you are not being the best mom you should be, but what do you let go of? Homework has to be done, people have to eat and be clean and..and...." then I got overwhelmed and had to stop thinking.

So SAHM's embrace your situation! Celebrate it! Hats off to you from me! Wish I could wear your hat too!

I think that is all I have to say about that.

In other news....my pie baking seems to have set off a very strong desire to bake within me. This is good because I have much baking in my future. #1 turns....GULP....I don't know if I can type this.....ok....here goes....10...YIKES!!! On Sunday. That means one cake (I am going totally from scratch this year!!!) Cupcakes (yup...going for the from scratch on those too!) and a batch of cookies. Speaking of cookies I made some kick ass peanut butter chocolate chip cookies on Saturday. Got the recipe from my Ghiradelli Chocolate Cookbook. Yuh-HUM!

Alrighty I think I have ranted enough for now. Hopefully I can come up with something interesting to say with more frequency over the next month.

Ta!