The Schwinn 'June' Coaster Bike

I have not ridden a bike since childhood.

There- I said it.

I’ve never been ‘big’ into bikes (don’t throw stones, you mountain-bike-weekend-trip-enthusiasts!!).

But it’s funny how life can change in an instant, with a whimsical choice…

Our family went down to Bethany Beach a few weeks ago, while at the very same time- my son had just taken his training wheels off his bike.  I remembered that there was a bike rental shop right in the heart of Bethany and asked my son if he’d like to rent a 2-wheeler for the week, He LOVED the idea and in the next moment I decided that I would rent a bike, then my husband decided he would rent a bike too…

So we spent our Beach Week riding bikes as a family-

~A place I couldn’t imagine getting to in our lives back when I was cleaning up snot or vomit or changing diapers.  We were ‘that family’, riding along, with the ocean breeze at our backs, that you glance at and think, ‘Isn’t that nice?!’

I enjoyed it so much that I thought about getting a bike at home.  So then we packed up everything and drove back to ‘reality’ and left the beach behind.  I arrived home to find a week’s worth of mail in our entry way, even though I had  ’stopped’ the mail… ‘Great’, I thought, as my son trounced through the catalogues and bills mangling up in a even bigger mess.  I reached down to gather a first pile up and on the top of the pile was a flier from Performance Bicycles (where we got my son’s bike) announcing they were having a huge sale- that weekend… (karma ?!).

The next day we all went to the bike store and I bought the Schwinn ‘June’ Coaster Bike (with automatic shifting!) and I love it…

and I LOVE that my son and I are riding our bikes together.

You’ve come a long way, baby!

You no longer have the same support system you had as you did going through the divorce process. It’s easy to feel scared and insecure. But the good news is, there is life after divorce and you can have a more passionate and fulfilling life than ever before…

A friend of mine has a website for divorced moms,

her name is Colleen Bushby,

and she’s created a great support community ,

complete with a blog, free resources, a blog radio show,

as well as cds to buy.

Her site is Savvy Divorced Chicks,

And you can go there and get her FREE GUIDE,

Jumpstart Your Life After Divorce,

5 Savvy Steps You Can Take Now

and you can contact Colleen at colleen@savvydivorcedchicks.com

Mom Power!

Case in point:  my son going to the barber.  Yes, I know he’s 5, I should have started taking him to the barber literally, years ago.  And just made him ‘cry it out’.

But I didn’t.  So now he’s 5 and I’ve been cutting his hair all his life.  This did not start out as a whole ’saving money’ thing, although that part is nice.  This happened because my son refused to go to the barber.  He has thick, wavy hair; he actually has great hair, Paul Newman hair, but people, strangers, have always brought attention to it and him, 

“Look at that head of hair!”

“You’re so handsome.”  And then people, strangers, have actually ran their fingers through his hair or patted him on the head= Result: my son doesn’t like anyone, except me, messing with his hair.

The only problem with me cutting his hair is that-

1) I’m not a barber or hair-stylist and he has a lot of hair, and he’s getting older

2) Sometimes he doesn’t completely sit still for me and makes a fuss and trimming his hair can become ‘an event’ 

So we had enough.  My son has been wanting a Vtech camera, so you know what comes next-

The last time I trimmed my guy’s hair and he made a fuss, both my husband and I told him that
WHEN he goes to the barber, he will get his Vtech camera.  His immediate response-

“How soon will I need another haircut?”  

Are you kidding me?  This seemed too easy…

“In a couple of weeks,” I said.  A couple of weeks went by and so we went to the barber.  We planned out last week which day we would go, and we went.

We went to ‘Daddy’s barber’, a real barbershop.  As we were walking around the block to the barbershop, my son held my hand and admitted,

“Mom, I’m a little scared.”

“That’s just because you’ve never done this before, but you’ve seen Daddy get his hair cut here, and these barbers ARE MUCH BETTER than me at cutting hair.”

“And I get a lollipop,” he chimed in.

We went in.  Bobby, the barber who cuts my husband’s hair was sitting there- no wait.  He was happy to see us (we’ve all been trying to convince my son for the past couple of years to come in for a haircut). 

My guy got a haircut.  He didn’t even wince.  And that was it.  No tears, no drama.  We went back to our car, drove to Toys R Us and bought a Vtech camera.  And my son ‘has decided’ that going to the barber is pretty cool, (and they do a better job than Mommy).

So we’ve reached another milestone…

And it’s all thanks to complete bribery    

It’s the start of a new year, a new administration and a new time in my life. My son has just turned 5, so he’s not a toddler anymore. He calls me mom, not mommy, and will start kindergarten in the fall.

Life is changing and things are good. I love this time of year: the holidays are over, my house is clean, after being a bit of a disaster for the past few weeks because of celebrating my son’s birthday and then Christmas.

New toys have replaced old ones and I have made my new year’s resolution:

I am going to bed earlier.  It’s a pretty good one, isn’t it?

It’s good because it’s pretty easy…  at first glance.  No more watching mind-numbing shows that add nothing to my life, I’d rather sleep.  I always have things I want to get accomplished after my son goes to bed, but I can do these and still not stay up late…

That’s it- I’m sleeping more this year !!  Yey!!

I can do this and I will have more energy.  

And with a 5-year-old boy, that’s what I need

The perfect pair of jeans.

Last year I started back into my love/hate relationship with jeans. I go through phases when I don’t like jeans and don’t wear jeans. But last winter I decided that I really needed some good jeans, so I started looking.

I have never been a ‘big’ jeans gal, no pun intended, because I’m 5-feet-tall. So getting jeans involves hemming them,

and this involves really liking them enough to motivate myself to take them to my tailor and try them on,

get them fitted and then go pick them back up.

And jeans aren’t supposed to be like that. Jeans are All-American casual pants. Cowboys wear jeans. I’ve always longed for the day that I just slip on a pair of jeans in a store, they fit perfectly, and I wear them that day. I’ve dreamed of waking up in the morning, going to my closet, seeing pairs of jeans and just sliding them on. I’ve dreamed of jeans being so inconsequential, so normal to my wardrobe, that I don’t even think about having cool jeans anymore.

These are the dreams of a 5-foot-mom… I’m sure most of you are scratching your heads right now; well stop scratching and thank your lucky stars that you are in the middle of the bell curve! You’re normal size! Jeans fit you, you don’t know your tailor on a first-name basis, he doesn’t ask about your kids… be thankful:

YOU ARE NORMAL.

So last winter I began my quest for not a perfect pair of jeans, but some nice, durable pairs of jeans… simple right?

I went first to a mom’s party at a local jeans store/boutique down the street from my home. There were great jeans there, but none of them fit me well. And these jeans were all over $100 a pair.

$100 for a pair of jeans? I know that people spend that on jeans nowadays, but why? However, my visit to this boutique was good because it made me focus and realize what I really wanted:
a cool pair of jeans that fit me well and that I could (GASP) possibly wear off the rack.

I went to many stores and bought a couple of pairs of jeans… that I then got hemmed.

But I didn’t LOVE them.

So then I thought. And thought some more… Who makes jeans? Who started making jeans a long, long time ago…

Hmmm…

Levi’s !!

But where do you find Levi’s? I didn’t even know. I googled it…

Sears?

So I went to Sears. They had a lot of Levi’s. I found my size- cool! But then I saw a huge area devoted to petites- yey! I almost ran across the aisle, looking, looking, I found my size in a petite (meaning shorter). I started getting excited.

Then I saw the mother-load… the jackpot tag of jeans: petite AND short.

Are you kidding me?????!!!!!!!!! I didn’t even know they made petite AND short (even shorter than just petite). My heart was racing as I walked to the fitting rooms. I wanted to run, but that would have looked weird. I was so excited- the possibility of jeans that would fit me and wouldn’t need hemming… and I liked them!

I got to the fitting room and tried them on. I looked at myself in the mirror and they fit PERFECTLY! I just grinned at my reflection. I turned around, looked some more and just grinned, because I had reached the holy grail of jeans:

the jeans you just throw on and they fit.

Levi’s has me, they had me at ‘Hello’. Go back to basics and what do you find? You find what you want.

Now, I can even go online and buy my size and know that they will fit. This is jeans nirvana!

I’m wearing them right now

I have a new beauty salon…  I went to my husband’s barber shop to get my hair trimmed today.  

Before you get worried and ponder my lucidity:  

I’m growing out the layers in my hair.

I’m actually in a very good hair ‘place’ right now.  I’ve finally realized that my hair IS pretty thick and it can look good all the same length.  In Fact, I’ve realized the hard way, that

I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR LAYERS!!!

I don’t have time for the styling in the morning, the fuss throughout the day… I’m Done.

Why have layers in my hair like an updated ‘RACHEL’ haircut?  Even if it is complementary for some face types, it’s completely retro at this point:

‘Friends’ went off the air years ago and I’m a mom… with a station wagon.  

Besides, when my hair has been VERY LAYERED, by the end or middle of the day, it’s up in a clip- done…

So back to why I’m in a ‘Good Hair Place’ right now-

I can see the end is in sight; my layers are almost grown out and my hair is looking better 

WHILE BEING EASIER to fix… I don’t even need to really fix it, I just comb it- done.

So, for a trim today, instead of going to my expensive hair salon and ‘hair guy’ who has been cutting my hair forever, I went to my Big Guy’s barber.  I had planned to do this even before the Dow went down today, and I’d decided to do it on principle:  It’s not that hard to trim hair- straight across the bottom- and snip off growing-out layers.  It’s   just   not   that   hard.  Yet, some ‘hair stylists’ do this and get paid more than the $18.00 I paid today.  And I love my trim…

The price is good.  But you know what’s a little better… HOW SMART I FEEL!  I feel like I’ve outsmarted the system: that big, hair-styling, self-inflating, self-important, rotating-cog-wheel of hyper-consumer-falsely-inflated-capitalism.

I WON TODAY ladies and gentlemen!

This is empowering!  AHHHHHHHHH!  

Whew.  It always comes back to hair, doesn’t it?  or food… Stop.  I’m getting away from my point:

I guess what the editors at VOGUE say is true,

‘There’s nothing like a good hair day.”

doing art projects,

playing with other kids,

playing on a great playground,

leading a game of Zingo,

making new friends,

not doing EVERYTHING with Mommy,

and allowing Mommy to have a couple of hours 3x a week to do things like blogging, bills and cleaning,

I started a good habit while he has been at camp.

I walk to pick him up.  His camp is about a mile walking from our home.  So I set out a few minutes earlier than I ordinarily would, push his jogging stroller and arrive at camp.  We then ‘walk’ home together…

He, riding in his jogging stroller,

Me, pushing him and his stroller, and getting a good workout.

This has been a great way to incorporate exercising into my day to ‘trick’ myself into exercising!

I was even visiting one of my girlfriends last week, and she asked me if I had been working out,

I told her ‘yes’

Friends of ours invited us down to their Bethany Beach house. They have 5 boys… the last two are ages 2 and 3. Our son is 4. Needless to say, there was always something going on and I was reminded of how important schedules are.

Yes, the mom of these 5 boys is a super woman… and she’s running a half-marathon soon (like she doesn’t every day). I could talk for hours about that,
but I want to share with you what I learned at the beach this past weekend…
from our friends’ 5 sons and our own.

1. When little boys run around the beach all day,
they go to sleep with no problems and sleep very soundly.

2. It’s really nice to share.

3. All boys love chocolate milk… and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

4. No matter the age of the boy, he understands more than you may think.

5. When you pay attention to someone (younger than yourself) for even just a moment and listen to them-

Everyone is happier and
Everyone is the better for it.

And lastly, I learned the amount of orange juice you go through is incredible.

Note to self: make sure your child is really excited about something before you travel 2 hours for it.

Last summer I learned that Thomas the Tank Engine was coming to Cumberland, Maryland. My son loves Thomas and I was excited that a full-size Thomas existed. I read that it makes stops all over the country to historical railroad stations. So, wanting to give my child a wonderful experience, I bought tickets online… and then looked at a map.

Cumberland is FAR from Bethesda where we live, as in about 2 hours and 15 minutes… and that’s without stopping. Still I thought, my little guy will love this, he deserves this.

I told my son about it and seemed to like the idea.

We set out that Saturday and after driving for a full hour out I- 270 my son announced to us,

“I do not want to ride the train”.

My throat closed up. I couldn’t breathe. My husband gripped the steering wheel. We didn’t look back, we just looked at each other. John took a deep breath, and mouthed, ‘Relax’.

I took a moment and looked back at my little guy and cheerily said, “We’re just going to take a look at it, I think it will be fun!”

Another hour and 15 minutes later we were in Cumberland. The railroad was great, but we were holding our breath. We walked without saying much up to Thomas the Tank Engine and waited in line to board. I brought a small Thomas along with us that my son played with while we waited in line. As he played with the mini version of what stood beside us, John and I just kept looking at each other and crossing our fingers.

We boarded the train, he was a little fidgety, but cool. The train started, “We’re on!” I thought. Thomas the Tank Engine then went about 10 minutes down the track, then stopped and then went in reverse back to the station.

Honestly, my son liked running around the little hay-bale maze afterwards much better.

FAST FORWARD TO LAST MONTH-

I got an email that a movie theater was doing a special debut of a few new Thomas episodes at 10am on a Saturday in Gaithersburg.

So, I looked at a map… THEN I bought the tickets.

We went, NO traffic since it was Saturday morning. We bought popcorn, watched Thomas on the big screen and had a great time.

I learned from my rookie mistake and didn’t repeat it… Yey- Victory!

I’m posting it!

Wow, has my life come to this?

I guess it has because I’m thrilled with this.  I am so knee-deep into motherhood that I am actually watching my artistic progression when it comes to these box transformations.

I am a painter, albeit a beginner. And when I see my advancement in the art of construction paper, a gluestick and markers, I think to myself, ‘Pick up that paintbrush!’

I’m kidding… but not totally.