This week I enjoyed one of the frenziest (that’s a Green Mamma coined word) weeks ever on Green Mamma thanks to Regina of Creative Kismet and her ingenuous pillowcase tote giveaway. As a featured Green Friend of the Week, Regina taught me (and I hope other green people) a couple of new ways to live in an environmentally friendly way. Regina is the first actual person I’ve “met” who drives a veggie car! All around, she is one of a kind, and I’m glad that I stumbled upon her web-site a few years ago. Also, thank you to new visitors for stopping by and leaving a comment and to the regulars, who’ve been making the rounds at Green Mamma for a while now. Aside from all the excitement on Green Mamma, our family enjoyed a more upbeat week too. Here’s a little bit about what happened and why we’re all a little more grateful:
1. Music. Thoreau said, “Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent.” After experiencing two weeks with muffled hearing in my right ear, I am happy to share again in the beauty that is music and sound (even if it is the ever so endearing sound of my daughter’s shrill and frustrated scream). I hear everything now, and with both eyes, I delight in the sight of my daughter dancing and swaying to hip hop music. Holding up both of her hands in the air, and bopping her head to the beat, she is a true example of one who appreciates the sound of music.
2. The Great Tim Russert. On Friday afternoon as I drove home from an Attachment Parenting meeting, I heard the news that Tim Russert had passed away. For some reason, I cried. Of course, I never met Tim Russert, but I knew him as a dedicated journalist and correspondent on NBC’s Today Show and as a moderator on Meet the Press. I joke to friends that Washington, D.C. and its uber-political culture is infiltrating my sense of self; ever so slowly I have become something of a news junkie (I mean c’mon, I flip on MSNBC and CNN to relax at the end of a long day). Tim Russert was a familiar face to me each morning; I listened to him report on the primaries while I exercised or fed Annabelle breakfast. I always considered him a fair journalist. I trusted his point of view, his take on how events would play out. Right now I worry that ethical news coverage in the U.S. may suffer without him, but at the same time, I am grateful that he served as an example and a reminder that the media can have integrity, can be straightforward, and can be fair.
3. Daily To Do’s. I remember the early weeks of being a mom, at home and alone, trying to figure out what to do with the beautiful little girl that the universe had entrusted to me. Most days ran into each other, and it stopped mattering that sleep and wakefulness didn’t coincide with light and darkness, or day and night. Around the time that Annabelle turned 2 months, life returned to something that I might call “normal.” All of the sudden, I had the energy to start getting out of the house, to begin showing my daughter the world, to try and network–making friends with other new parents, and to once again, work to accomplish things.
As a full time mother, it is important to me that I set goals for myself and review my progress. Taken from an article in Discovering Motherhood, I write the following daily list to help me stay organized and focused when I’m on the job as a mom:
1. Household Chores; 2. Appointments; 3. Contact; 4. Milestones (that Annabelle has made); 5. Groceries; 6. Daily Menu (although weekly menu planning is helpful for budgeting); 7. Special Projects and; 8. Personal and Professional Goals
Making the above list helps me look forward to the day, keeps me from procrastinating, and gets me to focus and think about events that I think will be challenging; for example, on days when I know that our family will interact with challenging people, my personal goal for the day is to see the best in people, stay positive, and smile. My daily list also prevents me from forgetting about important upcoming events, like birthdays, talks I want to attend, and visits from family. All together, my daily list helps me to be good at the work I do, which is raising a good human being and making a home for our family.
4. Father’s Day. Yesterday was a special day for my husband. It was his second Father’s Day with Annabelle, who, as anyone might guess a daughter can do, has a rare power for lighting up her dad’s face with a smile. To celebrate, we met up with friends, spent the day outside, and honored my husband’s father (who recently passed) by making spaghetti and clams, a favorite of my father-in-law’s. I also thought about the other great dads who’ve made a difference in my life, including my own dad (who passed away 5 years ago and who I miss everyday), my mother’s boyfriend Joe (who is a dedicated dad to his own kids and is a wonderful friend to my mom), our friends who are loving dads, and many more. Happy Father’s Day Dads!
5. The Iffy Cocktail that is Our Neighborhood Pool. Admittedly, our public pool frightens me, what with its mix of R.W.I.s and high levels of chlorine, but I can’t help but be thankful for it. Since purchasing our pool passes, our family visits the big water hole (as we like to call it around Annabelle) each day; my husband romps around with Annabelle, encourages her to kick and swim, and then does laps. I splash and play too, but I mostly enjoy making conversation with the other parents and kids. And to maintain our family’s safety, we detox after each visit, breathing deep and rinsing all the chlorine and other “stuff” off with a shower.
So, that’s it in a nutshell. Until next week’s Gratitude post,
Green Mamma
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