(tap, tap and clearing throat)

I have an announcement to make. Will the pea green Chevy Nova parked in the lot…? Oh wait, that’s not the right announcement.

I’m outta here. Yeah, that’s the right one. As some of you who follow me on twitter know, I’ve been thinking of cutting lawmummy off for some time now. There are a million reasons why and in fact, you’ve probably already heard me say them so I won’t go on and on about it…

I’ll just say that my family is more important to me than writing this blog (no matter how much I love) and let’s just leave it there.

Oh wait. That sounds like it has to do with my marriage crumbling or something. It’s not like that. Lawdaddy and I are good.

It’s the other crap. Transparency, anonymity, you know the drill.

So maybe you and I will run into each other in the blogosphere in the future. I’m still at taxgirl – and on twitter. And who knows, you might see me somewhere else, too?

Early Spankings Make for Aggressive Toddlers, Study Shows – Yahoo! News

Wow. There’s just so much in the article to wrap your head around. But the one thing that stood out was the number of spankings. While I’m not going to insist that spanking is always wrong for every child, if you’re spanking your 2 year old an average of three times per week – shouldn’t a light be going on? Maybe it’s time to try something new?

So if the rain ever lets up (and maybe even if it doesn’t), I’m running a 5k tomorrow with SuperNanny. Quite the event to end what I can only describe as a terribly taxing week. And not the good kind of tax.

Wish me luck!

SuperNanny announced earlier in the week that she was probably losing her job – along with everyone else at the Rec Center where she works. Today, I saw pictures of signs announcing that Philadelphia libraries are closing. Also slated to close? Six engine and three ladder companies, five medic units, and two health centers are closing.

In case you’re interested in the gory details, you can find out how Philly got into this mess here. And you can find out how to help the libraries here.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot today. And selfishly, I’ve been thinking about how it affects me. Until I read this from the Free Library: most Philadelphia public schools have no libraries.

I don’t know which I find most appalling: the idea that most Philly public schools don’t have school libraries or that Harrisburg would try to take away the only access that these children do have.

Please, make a phone call, send an email, let someone know that this cannot stand.

This is hilarious:

I didn’t get the chance to watch Obama’s speech today but I did read it. For those of you who missed it, here it is (I’ll write more about it later):

Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning. Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in. So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals. And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

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Well, a day and a vodka tonic or two.

Yesterday was a disaster. I ranted, I rambled, I had a cocktail or two, I moved on.

Today is much, much better.

For starters, I got up at the crack of dawn to go to Target. Notwithstanding the fact that, as someone who has worked a lot of retail in her day, I think holidays should be off limits when it comes to shopping, I was really happy to find out that Target was open. Not only was it open, this one had school uniforms – in Katie’s size! So, luckily, Katie has to neither find a way to miraculously shrink a size nor go to school naked. She has a school uniform. And shoes that both fit and meet with her approval (which, in and of itself is nothing short of amazing). There is a God.

Target also had coffee. Did I mention that we were out of coffee? And we cannot be out of coffee at my house. There are severe consequences for that sort of thing, not the least of which involves a very ugly side of lawmummy that nobody needs to see.

I loaded up on some juice boxes and snacks for school, picked up a dress for me just because it was cute (and I never shop for myself) and got home, all while Amy happily chomped on popcorn which I bought for her at 8:30 in the morning. That’s right. I’m that kind of mom.

By 10am, the family had eaten breakfast, I had a few cups of coffee and I was feeling much, much better.

This afternoon, while the rest of the laundry went round and round in the washer, we went out for a family walk in the park. We made it almost 2 miles with all three kids and the dog – not one tantrum (if you don’t count the sporadic “But I’m the line leader!” yelling as between the girls).

The trails in the park were nicely trafficked. It was good to see so much use on a holiday – I was sure that everyone would be at the shore. But of course, the weather was a little overcast but otherwise perfect so why wouldn’t you want to be outside? The feeling must have been mutual – we ran into friends and neighbors, chatted, and then headed home.

Lawdaddy thought he’d take a nap (insert maniacal laughter here) but the kids had other plans. While he tries to talk the 3 year old into a nap, I’m catching up on some blogging, making some bread and contemplating watching some DVR’ed episodes of Project Runway. After my mild breakdown on yesterday, life is finally good again. Let the school year begin!

Here’s a quick photo from my vacation:

Yeah, that’s what I left behind (insert sobbing here). More pictures to follow.

Note: this post is not for the faint of heart. I’ll warn you ahead of time that it’s just a whiny, mopey pretense of a post. So there.

I’ve been home just over 12 hours and I’m already regretting it.

Oh sure, I was excited to see the exit signs to Philly last night… but today? Blech.

For starters, my house is not clean. I hate coming home to a dirty house. And the thing is, I tried to clean before we left. Which is why it was surprising, for example, to see that the dirty clothes hamper was filled with pre-vacation clothes. I refuse to comment further on the matter.

So, I start cleaning last night. And doing laundry like a crazy person.

And then Brad Lidge blew another save. Really, Brad? I love you but I have to come home to this?

Sigh.

And it got worse. The house was warm. No more 40 degree nights (ahh, Maine, you tease, you). Warm. And muggy. But I was tired so I managed to fall asleep about midnight.

And I was promptly awakened by the rude, terrible, horrible neighbors that threw a “Labor Day” party. That’s right. The rude, terrible, horrible neighbors who, I sense from their loud conversations, aren’t even employed. And so, they apparently get back from the bar after 1am and decide to have a loud party. Outside.

At 2am, party still going.

At 3am, party is even louder. I finally call the police. It’s already been reported, I’m told, and the police have been notified. Since there’s rarely anything else happening in my neighborhood, I’m thinking that the police will be out soon and I can go to sleep.

Nope. At nearly 4am, it’s even louder. I call again. The police are on their way, I have been assured. Some time, about 4:30am, it stops.

It’s worth noting that this house is not even on my block. They’re on the block behind mine. Yeah, that’s how loud they are.

So, I wake up this morning, cranky and tired. I’m hopeful that I’ll have some time to relax. Not in the cards. The kids are already up, making a mess in the living room and fighting with each other. Amy is whining that she doesn’t want to be a princess anymore (was she ever to begin with?). Katie starts complaining immediately that she’s starving. Charlie brings every toy that he’s ever owned into the middle of the living room. And I still have mountains of laundry to do.

No time for a run. No time for the paper. I start breakfast. Blueberry pancakes and bacon.

Lawdaddy sits down and reads the paper – the Inquirer and the Times. And later, sits down to eat breakfast, noting that I didn’t have to make breakfast (really? What are the kids eating then?). And then complains about the brand of bacon I bought. Yes, really.

So, at some point, I’m irritated. And yes, this makes me the bad guy.

I’ve decided that I hate vacation. I hate it because it never lasts and this is what I have to come back to. Blech. And blech.

You may now resume your normal programming.

A little more than a year ago, I couldn’t run a mile without stopping. I was ridiculously overweight and out of shape. I made a goal of running an 8k in November (my first ever race) and I stuck to it. I finished in less than an hour – an amazing feat for me. And I was hooked.

In May, I followed up with a 5k in just over a half hour.

I was really proud of myself for running those races. I know that “real” runners will look at those times and shrug, maybe even giggle, but I don’t care. It’s not about anyone else. It’s about me. And being a better me.

I’m in much better shape than I was a year ago. I’m still a chubby girl and I still limp behind SuperNanny when we run (insert grumbling and swearing here). But I feel better and stronger. And that’s what is important.

I have another race coming up – this one in Oaks, PA, on next Saturday. My goal for this 5k isn’t so much to improve my time as it is to run a smoother race. I have a tendency to run unevenly – fast bursts and then stops. My plan is to run an even race – fingers crossed.

The next race? If you’ve been reading, you know it’s the half marathon. You also know that I signed up – like a great big idiot – when my good friend said that I couldn’t do it. I can’t bear a challenge like that, so I signed up that day. Again, great big idiot. But now, the framework has been laid and I have to move on it. Finish or not, I’m in.

So, I’ve been training but it’s been difficult to plan lately. Crime against single women joggers has increased in the park, so finding a running buddy and/or a busy time of day to run has not been easy. And finding time for the Y? Nearly impossible.

This past week, we went on vacation. I thought about skipping running altogether but I didn’t. I got up every morning and took a short run. I have to admit – it was hard but I felt great. It was a little odd to be running in a new place – I worried about the wildlife and other people’s dogs, mostly. On yesterday morning, my fears came true… nearly. I was making my way down a lonely country road in Maine and I heard the sound of jingling. I glance back and I see a big, black dog bearing down on me.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Dogs are one of my biggest fears. And yes, I have a dog. But he’s the first dog that I ever had. And I got him because Chris was allergic to cats and I missed my cats. But I grew to love him. And Lyle (my big, black dog) has helped me understand dog behavior a lot more. I’m much more comfortable around dogs now. But not completely comfortable. So when I saw this dog out of the corner of my eye, there on that road all by myself, I almost panicked. I summoned all of the courage to muster and I turned around to yell “GO HOME!” at the dog. My dog. Yes, the big black dog that was bearing down on me was my own dog. He had escaped from the cabin and chased me down about 3/4 mile.

He clearly needed to go home. But getting a 75 pound dog down a strange road without a leash isn’t all that easy. So I tried to maneuver him back home. He thought I was playing. He was delighted.

Despite the fact that we live in the City, Lyle isn’t that great with cars. When he gets walked in the park, he doesn’t see them. So he doesn’t know how to act when he sees them – other than to walk out in front of them and kind of dare them to go around him. And as luck would have it, not one, not two, not three but four cars and trucks came down that otherwise nearly unused road at that time. It was a struggle to keep him off the road. I finally chased him down and apologized to the woman who had to stop her car for him – she looked at me and said, “Are you chasing him?” I tried to explain what happened but it was tough – Lyle was roaring to go.

Lyle is fast. Really fast. At one point, when I let him go, I looked down at my watch. I was running a mile at an 8:30 pace – just over 7 mph (not a realistic pace for me at all) – and Lyle was leaving me in his tracks. He was hundreds of feet down the road already. When I caught up with him, he looked at me like “What?”

This, for a ten year old dog. He’s in crazy good shape. And he loves to run. He may just be my new inspiration.

So this morning, I put him on leash and tried to take him out running. It hasn’t worked in the past – he’s too easily distracted to run more than a half mile usually. But it worked okay this morning. My pace was off since he was pulling me and antagonizing skunks (fortunately, the spray missed us on two occasions). But it was oddly comforting to have him with me. And he loved being there.

Maybe this week, I’ll take the old man out with me in Philly.