tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919Fri, 25 Oct 2024 02:07:20 +0000SamJulieJessiemilestonesSchoolparenting theoriesgeneral joyMarcextended nursingcleaningJudaismMandiShabbatsecond wifestepparentingNear daily musings of a mom writing about motherhood, attachment parenting, extended nursing, elementary aged children, interfaith and Judaism, stepmotherhood, second wifedom, marriage, and whatever else pops into my mindhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)Blogger863125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-3502911212014558942Sat, 09 Mar 2013 20:21:00 +00002013-03-09T15:21:18.585-05:00I'm writing a book.  Really. I've been thinking about it for years, and it's unbelievably scary to actually put it out there as something that I'm doing.  But I am.  I'm getting serious about my writing.  So I purchased a domain and transferred the blog over to it, and that's where I'll be blogging in the future. My website is http://melissaannecohen.com and that's where http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/03/moving-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6993873022268461492Sun, 03 Mar 2013 03:27:00 +00002013-03-02T22:27:37.579-05:00 I'm a horrible cook.  I don't enjoy it, and I frequently put stuff on the stove and then wander away, get distracted and come back just in time (if I'm lucky) to whisk the pan off the heat before it burns.  I'm not a creative cook, I can do a couple of things well, I'm a functional cook, enough so my children won't starve.  It's definitely not a strong point of mine. But baking - http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/03/baking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6780958089313782774Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:41:00 +00002013-02-27T17:41:46.852-05:00I thought it might be fun to look back at some of my archives, because I've been blogging since 2008, and find an older post that has some relevance to where I am now.  Plus, it's an easy blog post, because I've (mostly) already written it.  So here's a post from March of 2009 - and the reason I chose it is because Sam is, today, walking around with a goofy looking hair cut because he http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/way-back-wednesday-volume-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6742376949365822206Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:44:00 +00002013-02-25T17:44:21.061-05:00Because it's not all hearts and flowers around here... It was a good weekend, Saturday, we had a "friend" birthday for Jessica and Glennys.  Which was lovely, good friends, my sister Aimee came over with her boyfriend.  Aimee is living in Belgium these days, getting her PhD, so I haven't seen her in a while.  My mother and sister Mandi both came as well.  Aimee is my http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/rough-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6441076636505199566Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:52:00 +00002013-02-22T14:40:20.129-05:00I have three kids.  And I adore them.  Really, I do. I also have two stepdaughters.  I also adore them. I've got a Glennys - who's not a daughter, exactly, because she's got parents, but she's my oldest's best friend and practically lived with us until she moved to North Conway a couple of years ago - and yeah, I adore her too. But wow - what an unbelievable disaster they createhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/relinquish-control.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-5215405247306907929Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +00002013-02-14T11:00:57.388-05:00It's not a flashy anniversary.  And after eleven years, we've got a lot more in our lives together than just us.  We've got three kids to get up and fed and dressed, two to drop off at school, a toddler requiring care and attention.  Girls Scouts this afternoon and Boy Scout tonight.  Dinner will be fish sticks, brown rice and mixed veggies, and the kids will exist in a http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/eleven-years.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-810229706750260004Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:22:00 +00002013-02-16T18:13:14.629-05:00Julie and I are the only ones home during the day.  The older two are in school, obviously, and Marc's off at work.  And we aren't joined at the hip.  Julie normally bops around the house, doing this or that.  Watches far too much television (but I justify it to myself by remembering that there's eight feet of snow out there and it's damn cold - plus she's watching educationalhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/devious-toddler.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-1765631945952959041Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:40:00 +00002013-02-09T17:40:56.761-05:00I'm a breastfeeding mom.  I nursed my oldest until she was eight months or so, Sam stopped when he was three and a half (or so) and Julie is still nursing at two.  Not only did I do it way longer than I ever planned to with Sam, I also nursed thru thrush, staph infections, multiple fissures, nipple confusion, nursing strikes and mastitis with Julianna.  I've gone down the road withhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/weaning-sucks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-5373449264458923939Sat, 09 Feb 2013 21:36:00 +00002013-02-09T16:36:57.611-05:00 If I had to describe my perfect weekend, it would look an awful lot like this one.  Starting with Thursday night, when we went out for dinner, Marc and I and the five kids, plus the in-laws, to celebrate Jessica turning ten.  Dinner was lovely, as only dinner with a zillion kids can be.  We went to the Chinese buffet (because if you're taking a ton of kids, it's best to do it at ahttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-4132537522919277866Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:14:00 +00002013-02-07T11:14:27.530-05:00Each child is special.  And vital and important in their own right.  But one of the reasons that Jessie's birthdays are so significant for me is because she's my first.  Ten years ago, right at this very  moment, the snow was starting to fall a little harder (we ended up getting a foot of snow the day she was born) and I was on my way to the hospital.  She was late, and http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/ten-years.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6274560599847471897Sun, 03 Feb 2013 01:40:00 +00002013-02-02T20:40:04.213-05:00Oh, I'm sick.  I've got a cold.   It's been a while coming, I've had a sore throat for several days, a little bit of a nagging headache and now I'm sneezing and congested and just.... yucky.  It's been kind of a wretched day too - Sam still won't go to religious school, and ended up tagging along to a Tot Shabbat service.  I'm still befuddled at how Julie just participates in http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-dreaded-cold.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-7694957874673904187Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:02:00 +00002013-01-31T18:02:51.964-05:00 I noticed that Julianna was getting warm last night.  I have to confess, one of my major parenting fails is an inability to take my child's temperature.  Thermometers just don't seem to last in my house, I don't know why.  And even when I can find one, it always reads some implausible temp - like 97.3 when the child is clearly burning up with fever.  So while I can tell you http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/sick-baby.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-4094421594480213324Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:53:00 +00002013-01-29T13:54:17.373-05:00I get weekly emails from my synagogue, and, a few weeks ago, I noticed that there was a little paragraph tucked in between notices from the Sisterhood and requests for coat donations. A bar/bat mitzvah meeting for parents of kids fourth thru sixth grade. It took me a minute, but I realized quickly that it meant me. My daughter is in fourth grade. It's actually time to start thinking about herhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/bat-mitzvah.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-994058258871943631Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:28:00 +00002013-01-23T12:28:31.849-05:00When Jessie first started school, I was very hands off about homework.  She started getting it in first grade, which seemed ridiculous to me, but my assumption was that I wasn't supposed to help with her homework.  If she asked for assistance, sure, I'd help out, but hand holding and correcting?  Nope, I didn't think I was supposed to do that.   I was wrong.  Which her http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/independence.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-565783147919472187Sat, 19 Jan 2013 21:08:00 +00002013-01-19T16:08:27.309-05:00I was always going to be a writer.  My two favorite literary characters growing up were Jo from Little Women and Emily from the Emily trilogy by L.M. Montgomery.  I kept a diary from the time I was in second or third grade, and just kept writing.  By the time I hit high school, I had settled into an identity of being a bookworm (twenty years later, I can't tell you how many people http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/being-writer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-3559935669859311570Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:36:00 +00002013-01-15T09:02:40.557-05:00http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-tate/change-of-life_b_2443691.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009The link above is to a post on starting a new chapter. On moving from growing a family to raising one. To saying goodbye to the part of your life when you're having babies. And while I thought, have thought, for a while now, that we're probably done with that chapter - I realized after reading http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/httpwww.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6873085056651985217Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:31:00 +00002013-01-11T11:31:57.065-05:00I loved my grandfather. I loved my grandmother as well, but my grandfather was special. He and I were kindred spirits, and I have these amazing memories of times we spent, just the two of us, at museums or hiking or stargazing at the golf course. We were the only readers in the family, and he bought me a subscription to National Geographic magazine because he wasn't at all impressed that I was http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/grandparents.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-4252859684279150328Wed, 09 Jan 2013 19:09:00 +00002013-01-09T14:09:03.646-05:00 Marc's job has grown to include nights.  Not all the time, but mostly, at night, he's not home until nine or even  later (all this week, he's been working until midnight).  So I've had to develop my own new routines for putting all three kids to bed.  Since they're all different ages, with different sleep needs - I put them to bed one at a time. Sam is my boy who requires http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/paper-towels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-5369407678641052511Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:48:00 +00002013-01-08T19:07:08.181-05:00I went out today.  Not for long, just for lunch and shopping with my mother in law and Julianna, but when I came back, Jules went down for a nap.  Marc went to pick up the kids from school while I was putting her down, and when they got back, Jessie and I sauntered down the street to return her boots at Payless and get the right size. None of this is remarkable, except that when I http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/cleaning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6330094178345011095Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:30:00 +00002013-01-01T10:30:28.038-05:00I don't really do New Year's Eve.  It feels redundant to me, with Rosh Hashana as the Jewish New Year, and my birthday in January, I've already got the holiday covered.  So having another day to celebrate another beginning of the same year... I'm okay with skipping it.   That being said, I do have children who believe wholeheartedly in New Year's Eve.   Complete with take-out,http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-years-eve.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6911457443484391066Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:06:00 +00002013-02-07T13:12:21.675-05:00It's very different from raising a daughter.  Not in some ways, but in others - it's a completely different experience.  I'm not talking just about pointing the peepee down when changing diapers (a lesson I sincerely wish someone had mentioned before I went thru a week of leaking diapers - postpartum, with no sleep, it took a ridiculously long time for me to clue in).  I'm not evenhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/raising-son.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-5462725178384274060Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:19:00 +00002012-12-27T17:19:54.326-05:00We survived another year.   And in the end, we did really well.  Only one serious fight, and we resolved it that night.  We'll probably always have at least one battle every year, but we work thru it.  In the end, I'm always going to want Marc to embrace Christmas the way I embrace Judaism.  And in the end, he always comes thru in awesome ways, I just ... I don't know. &http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-vacation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-702856674800698875Sat, 22 Dec 2012 01:27:00 +00002012-12-22T08:39:18.237-05:00I'm Jewish, and pretty happy about it.  But, yeah, I still celebrate Christmas.  I don't celebrate it as the birth of Christ, but it's still a tremendously meaningful and important holiday for me.  I wouldn't say it's my favorite holiday of the year - there's too much other stress going on for that.  December is decidedly a challenging month for us here, between the number of http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-christmas-means-to-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-6836851205789930180Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:51:00 +00002012-12-18T13:03:23.978-05:00I'm strict about some things with my kids.  There's not a lot that I'm really hard core on, I'm lackadaisical about bedtimes, devil may care about wearing coats in the winter (I rarely wear them, I see no need to shove a crying kid into one for the sake of keeping them warm, I'll carry one along, but not force it on them).  I don't force kids to eat, I let them have soda at parties, andhttp://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/being-mean-mommy-works.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1532081783124040919.post-5727082684631845176Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:18:00 +00002012-12-14T16:22:00.704-05:00According to the National Center for Education Statistic (which is the link that I got when I googled), there are 93,295 public schools in the United States.  I'm clinging to that number today.  Because when I look at that, and I think that this horrific accident happened in one out of 93,295 schools, I can remind myself that this is rare.  And it's an unspeakable tragedy.  http://musingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/93295.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Anonymous)0