From the trenches

I'm guilty of waxing over my parenting challenges here and on my various social media accounts. This isn't because I want you all (hi, you five or eight readers!) to think I've got it all figured out and mothering my rascally boy is all laughs and sunshine. It's because I really don't want to bum you out with every negative thing that goes down in life. That there is the preamble.

This is the official statement: This stuff is hard, dude! My kid is a firecracker, but that's why I love him. He's energetic, funny, wildly creative and honestly, he's never given us a dull moment. All of that comes with a little bit of stubbornness, willfulness and a strong sense of self (he's never going to have an identity crisis). We sometimes butt heads over things and neither of us likes to give in (even though I am always right...come on, he's only six - give me this for a few more years). Yesterday we had a dust up over something trivial that escalated quickly (it was stupid and I'm waxing over it anyway). At any rate, Ira was angry, I was angry. We both went to sleep apologetic, but still knowing we disappointed one another. Don't worry, there's a happy ending. This morning it was all but forgotten and by the time he was off to school, I got about 20 silly kisses.

While I say it's all better now, I always have a hard time shaking that feeling that I've failed to control my child's behavior. It could take a few days where I'm not thinking back on this and post-gaming it from start to finish. That's a nice way of saying that I remain so anxious about my parenting problems that it takes me days of replaying them in my head until I work through that anxiety or find something else to worry about. The act of working myself into a froth over non-issues is one of my specialties and not only is it great at making me feel totally isolated ("I'm the only parent in history with a child that sometimes misbehaves and I don't always handle it correctly!") it's completely exhausting. Plus, it's not even a good party trick. I need to figure out a better way to do this.


It's a good thing this kid's got such an adorable face.

Kittens Looking Good

The band I'm in has been working hard on adding to our set list and mixing down a split single. Once we have enough done, there may be a music video in the works which seems so I don't know...wild? Exciting? Kind of unreal? I mean, we haven't even played a show yet.

Anyway, faced with the prospect of being on video for all eternity has some of us sweating (send wine). What will it be like? What song will we do? What will we wear?! At her request, I took some notes from our singer and came up with two fun looks for her. I'm no fashion expert, but I love doing these personal style boards! It sort of feels like playing paper dolls with my friends. I have a lot of fun finding pieces and putting together these collages, imagining that who I'm making them for might be inspired by what they see. M, I hope you found this helpful!

Life and Times

DOGS! I love these two little puppins. Before getting Rusty, we often fought over who got to cuddle with Heylove while we watched TV at night. Those dark times are no more. I've come down from the mountain on my winged horse to declare in an Oprah-fashion:
"Okay, look under your chairs...everybody gets a Boston!"

Or jeez...something like that.




It doesn't even stop there. I got this funny Valentine's card and two precious Boston salt and pepper shakers. I am totally going to need a curios cabinet for all my terrier treasures when I'm an old lady. It's the sturdy confidence that comes with my mid-thirties age that allows me to be okay with stating things like that. I also hope one day to lead a life that allows me to slow down enough to be able to enjoy my supper at 4:00 p.m. and watch Jeopardy daily. And you thought you knew me.




On with love! I made these little tomato hearts for my tiny's lunch on Valentine's day. He didn't eat them. I guess that's part of being a mom: doing shit that no one notices on a daily basis, since the beginning of time. Well, at least I photographed it and received loads of appreciation from my internet friends.




I think it's because he's so busy making plans for world domination, that he doesn't have time to eat twee cherry tomatoes.
1. Make a Volcno-shped mound of flavo.
2. Sell idea to Taco Bell.
3. Profit.

I wrote 2 and 3, in case it wasn't clear.



This is not the best picture, I mean I'm pretty sure I'm not going to win a Pulitzer for it. But it was an excellent pizza from Pizza Rock. We've been there maybe three times in the last 4 weeks. As FLAMES, ROCK AND ROLL and TRUCK BURSTING OUT OF THE WALL it is, the pizza is actually pretty good. I like it anyway. Tiny loves it for the capitalized reasons mentioned above.




Some friends took us to KP International, a double-sized grocery store with food from just about everywhere. We picked up a few really tasty things, but these cookies were not one of them. I have a friend who taught English in Japan and she told me what Kancho means. Trust me, you do not want a cookie that has anything to do with Kancho.


Well, that was fun. I don't know why I don't come here more often.

Rusty eats snowballs

Here's a video of Rusty, the totally pro traveler, the complete opposite (but in a complementary way) of Heylove. No leash, no problem! Snowballs? Let's try to fetch them, then go bananas when they crumble apart. This guy is a dog's dog in the best way.