Thursday, January 20, 2011

Good Day!

I've posted a few comments on some of my favourite blogs today; so I thought I'd give them something current to read if they stop by here.
Hey! Connie, Laurie, and Wannietta!

In knitting news...
I turned the heel on my sock. I may have come upon a stitch that will provide an answer to my husband's hat demands issue...the swatch will tell...
~
As far as JSS #5...

I've decided to go with an alternate stitch marker. I've also decided that I'm going to wear this to my daughter's Gala at the end of February. I'm happy with my decisions.

Speaking of Happy Decisions...

I had a "High Five Mother Moment" yesterday and since I have on occasion vented/whined/complained about the 'joys' of motherhood, I thought I'd let you know that sometimes I think that I don't suck at it too.
Let me set this up for you.
My son is in Grade 9. He is ending his first semester and preparing for his first set of exams.
He came down with a cold on Monday.
He is his mother's son, ie. the procrastination apple does not fall far from the tree.
So he stayed after school to try to complete a project that can only be worked on at school and I picked him up after dropping my daughter off at dance.
Shortly after entering the van...the teenage angst, drama, hyperventilating, over exageration, self defeating dialogue...begins.
I try to be optimistic, encouraging, etc., but what do I know?
I did point out that maybe after 40 something years and having gone through high school, that I may know a thing or two. He was at least polite about that one, but I don't think that it really made a difference.
The 'freak out' grows in intensity until well after we are home; it has already been decided that he won't be going to his drum lesson and he was o.k. with that. Right there. That tells you what kind of state he had managed to get himself into.
" I CAN'T RELAX!!!", he exclaims!
Well, I don't buy that for a minute!
I get him to sit down facing me on our kitchen chairs.
I tell him to sit up straight.
I show him how to put his hands on his legs palms facing up and ask him to close his eyes.
I say, "Now, breath in through your nose."
"I can't; it'll sound disgusting." And then he starts laughing. Then the dog comes over to see what's going on and because she hasn't seen him all day and his hands are just sitting there she starts licking them. And he laughs some more.
Now, I was going for calm, relaxed and focused so that he could then, without the aforementioned anxiety, write a list of what he needs to do and to prioritize them so that he is only faced with one task before he moves onto the next.
He's still laughing; so I grab a pen and paper and say, "Quick, just shout out, what do you need to get done. Go!"
"Geography. Wait, do you mean in order? Hahaha"
"No. Just say it, don't think; just tell me what you have to get done. Go!"
And so came the list. He's laughing, which I know releases endorphins and we're getting the information that we needed to get started. By the time he settled down we had a list, a plan and what looks like a reasonable chance that it will get done in time.
I don't know if I ever got him to take that deep breath, but you know what a did get?

"Thanks, mom." And a hug.

It was a good day.

TODAY, (being Thursday and all) has also been good. My son went to school without the weight of the world on his shoulders.
My husband went skiing with my daughter for electives.
Most importantly...
IT WAS SUNNY!!
I feel I put a reasonable amount of domesticity (aka cleaning and laundry) into my day; so I went upstairs to do a little spinning.

And because I couldn't decide which picture I liked better...

I posted both.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Both of my kids are pro procrastinators. Kyle would leave it and then not do it because it couldn't be done, Amanda stresses because she wants it to be done as perfectly as if she had been doing it all the time. I like her approach better but it's totally drama and trying to get her calmed down and on a positive note ... that takes all of my skills!!

Lovely spinning!!!