Muddling & Mishaps - Reality Blogging

"Hun. Could you get up and get him. Please?" Another 5 AM wake-up call after a night where Teddy woke up once in the middle of the night. Wait - maybe it was twice. I can't remember. (Although I can  remember running into the door frame as I went to get him back to sleep.) Tim doesn't usually answer my request right away, because we are both secretly giving in to that amnesia state of mind where Teddy falls back asleep, both kids sleep past 7 AM, Clinton and Trump drop out of the presidential race, and all is right with the world. But, after a few moments of Teddy squawking - followed by him banging his paci against the crib's bars of oppression - Tim rolls out of bed and trudges towards the door. It's our unspoken contract:  I get up with Teddy in the night, and he lets me sleep in for an extra fifteen minutes so I can be a kinder, gentler soul. Fast-forward to 7:30 AM, where Tim is kissing foreheads and running out the door while I'm pouring myse...

It's been ages since I've written up a blog.  And truthfully, it's not for a lack of trying - it's embarrassing how many half-hearted, lousy entries I have drafted and stored away, never to be seen by anyone but me.  (Well, me AND the NSA.) I keep stumbling upon topics that make me unbelievably passionate, topics that have me stewing for the entire day as I mull over ways to say what I want to say.  As soon as I get to the keyboard, though, I blank. ...Actually, it isn't blanking.  It's almost as if my brain is shutting down before I allow myself to spill out all of the pent up frustration and emotion that I've been twisting and twirling endlessly in my head.  A cross between mental fatigue and a safeguard. For example, the whole story regarding the gorilla and the three year old  threw me into this downward spiral of reading way. too. damn. much.  I read articles about what happened, and then the comments on those articles (which, might I add, i...

The word "overwhelmed" seems to resonate in my life at this point in time. For starters, our world has been rattled by our six-month-old son over the past three weeks.  What started as a double ear infection quickly turned into the realization that he is highly allergic to amoxicillen.  After being referred to an allergist and watching the poor little guy endure a skin test, we learned that he's also highly (if not severely) allergic to dairy, eggs and peanuts.  Shortly after the skin test, he got a ridiculously bizarre GI bug that spun out of control and dovetailed into another allergic reaction, resulting in one ER trip, one abdominal ultrasound, one blood test, and a total of five doctors' office visits over the course of seven days.  He's fine now...but, let's be real... My friends - the past three weeks have royally sucked. It's hard for me to wrap my head around Teddy's allergies.  Can you imagine a world without cheese?  Because I can'...

I haven't had much for a full blog post lately, so rather than waiting for inspiration to strike in my brain, I thought I'd jot down some of the more prominent thoughts: 1.  New job, new beginnings. As of last week, I officially became the Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at Oakland University through St. John Fisher.  God truly blessed me (and my family) with this position.  For starters, a life in ministry has been tugging at my heartstrings for a long, long time - I just never felt that I was...well..."religious enough" for such a position.  Little did I know that there were many people in my life who felt the exact opposite and have been pulling for me to get into this line of work for years . Furthermore, this job a.) is part-time for this year, but has the potential to grow into full-time (meaning I get tons of my time with my kidlets while they're itty bitty, and then when they go off to school, I can go back to work), b.) pays well enough to just...

Dear soon-to-be-mommies:   Hi.   I feel compelled to write this because of recent events in my life.  I'm going to preface this whole letter to you by telling you that I love my children to the point where my heart physically aches .   Now, moving on: There are some of you who have read every article under the sun, discussed a multitude of topics with a plethora of mommies, and have even taken part of the raising of a child in some capacity or another.  There are others of you who have never even held a baby, who are terrified of what's to come, and who feel guilty because of that terror.   There are some of you who have had magnificent pregnancies where you've been glowing from head to toe the entire time.  There are others of you who are convinced the "glow" is sweat...sweat that comes before and after puking throughout the whole. damn. pregnancy. Some of you want to breastfeed, and some of you can't imagine restricting your li...

My daughter has to take a whole slew of stuffed animals with her to bed each night.  They are these big-eyed, perfect-for-toddler-hands-sized little guys from TY...one black and white cat ("Kitty Cat"), one blue cat ("Byoo"), one little lamb with ginormous green eyes ("Lamby"), and one ultra-special pink giraffe that was an "I'm a big sister" gift from her Mima and Papa ("Jaffy").  [Side note:  I keep telling my husband that we have to have back-up animals, especially for Jaffy.  If she loses one of these guys, Lord have mercy on us.]  She does inventory each night after story time and grins from ear to ear as she tries to walk up the stairs herself with her hands full of her little friends. Tonight, for whatever reason, one was rejected. She scooped up the four fuzzy fluffballs and started to head up the stairs, when all of sudden, she turned her gaze towards Lamby.  "No," she sternly said, "Don't want Lamby,...

My husband had been preparing for a six month (or longer) deployment for the past year.  We actually knew about this deployment before we were pregnant with Teddy - and even when we found out that we were expecting the sneaky little ninja baby, our plans didn't alter in any way.  We needed the money, he wanted to be with his guys...it was a sacrifice we were willing to make as a family that would be brutally painful in the short-term, but pretty darn good in many aspects in the long-term. There is a whole lot of thought and planning that goes into getting ready for a longer deployment.  I won't even get in to all of the emotional hurdles and changes of mindset that my husband had to undergo to get ready.  That's his tale to tell.  From my perspective, however, I had to get ready to mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually be with two very young children on my own.  In particular, our two year old daughter is beyond attached to her daddy. ...