Daily Life

Motherhood. And Stuff.

One of my greatest accomplishments in life are how my children turned out either despite me or, well… yeah. Despite me. But my friend and probably the person I talk about and link to more than anyone else lately, Karen, still asked me to be a part of The Motherhood Project. She interviewed me and asked questions about my children and my mom that I answered and she posted the results of that here.

Like a Psychadelic Mushroom Trip

I guess what they say is true: booze and pills do not mix. This is not to say that I was hanging out near a homeless center with a bottle of Jack and some blue and red pills a la The Matrix. I am far too innocent for all that mess. No, I simply thought that some Benedryl and a teeny tiny itsy bitsy glass of Syrah would be enough to relieve me of the woes of the allergy season. NOT SO. Instead, it makes me talk funny and agree to things which would normally seem absurd in my healthy, normal mental state.

Kid Stuff Again.

Speaking of children, which I did 2 paragraphs ago, I find it hilarious that every single day of the school year thus far some student comes to realize that Mason, our playground supervisor, is my son. The conversation usually goes like this:

Mason: Hey, mom? Blah blah blah (because he has to tell me something)

Me: Oh, yeah? Blah blah boogety (because I have to respond)

Random kid on the playground: He’s your son? What? No way. Noooooo. (Shakes head back and forth in disbelief.)

Me or Mason: Yeah, we get that a lot.

I have pictures up in my office of my children and some of the students will be in there and notice one of Mason. Last Friday, a girl asked me why I had a picture of “Mr. Mason” (as the kids call him) and I said it was because I had pictures of all my children in my office. Her reply cracked me up and there was no hiding my laughter at this thought: “Oh,” she said. “I just thought all the teachers had pictures of him in their rooms.” She giggled along with me once she realized the error of her assumption and then I shared that story with both of my secretaries. That led me to bring in pictures of Mason and plaster them on their desks which another source of hilarity when I walk around my building.

An Update on Mr. C’s Class

When I wrote about helping out a teacher on this post, I didn’t realize just how far this venture would be taking me. He has another project up here and you can vote or donate again. Recently, I also wrote an article for BlogHer on the topic of Donors Choose and their 10th anniversary. That article is here. But the best part of all is that last week I got to go visit Mr. C’s classroom at the end of the day. All of his students were lined up to go out to get on the busses after school and when he opened the door and peeked around the corner to where I was standing he got a huge smile on his face and then turned back to his students.

“Class, we have a visitor here and I think she’d like to take every single one of you home with her!” Those kids made my day. Their faces, their smiles, their instant trust of an adult that they don’t know was absolutely incredible. I realized that it didn’t matter if I wasn’t able to see them after having done what I can only call ‘fundraising’ for them, but it was so satisfying and I feel lucky to have done that. The entire drive home that day was emotional and I can’t quite put my finger on this entire phenomenon.

Wanna Hear Something Cute?

Since we’re a magnet school we bus students all over the city and we have to be sure that they all get on board before we let the bus drivers know. Several busses line three of the four blocks surrounding the school and we usher students out the side door as they leave the locker area. We have to be very careful that no one gets left because it’s a hassle to call the busses back to pick up a kid that took too long getting their materials ready to go home. The system that’s in place is to get the “ok” from the person clearing them out of the locker area and then we all stand outside and wave to the bus drivers to signal that it’s fine to take off from their position.

Almost every single kid that is looking out their window at us as we are waving to them wave back and smile. Not a day has gone by when they don’t wave to us thinking that we’re giving them the Bye! We’ll miss you! See you tomorrow! wave when really it’s just a hand signal to the bus drivers. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

Things I Didn’t Learn While Getting My Master’s Degree

Sometimes, I’m not prepared for the conversations I have with parents about the issue of poop. That’s all I have to say about that.

This is me and my monster boys. Seriously, they are huge. Both of them cleared 6 feet in the last year and they are still racing to see who will be the tallest. Sorry, Mason. Your younger brother has you beat now.