Moms Still Want To Have Fun

Yesterday, as I was cleaning the house for a party, I thought about how nice it was going to be to have a house full of friends. As I continued to think I realized that this was going to be a grown up evening with a theme and planned discussion. I then realized that I no longer have fun like I did when I was young. It then hit me, I really missed being a girl sometimes. It has been a long time since I had an old fashioned sleep over with girl friends. Men don’t understand what it’s like to get in your jammies, eat snacks until you want to vomit, and laugh and talk until you want to pee your pants. It’s awesome!

My friend Dominique and I had a great mini get away on Cape Cod 5 years ago. I had rented a house and we spent our days watching our 4 and 5 year old daughters argue over sun dresses and flip flops. We had great picnic dinners and played on the beach. It was wonderful. We tried to plan something again this year but my oldest daughter’s Connecticut Mastery Tests dashed our plans.
Trying to schedule a night out is a feat in itself. It would be 100 times more difficult to try and schedule a slumber party with my friends. My friends are spread out in different states and Canada. But the thought is soo tempting. I don’t care if I am 41 and have 2 children. I would love to have a night with friends where I could camp out and act silly with my friends. Husbands could camp out in the upstairs of my house and watch SciFi or SPike TV or something. I wouldn’t even mind if they went out themselves. Our kids could play in Emma’s room. Is a plan forming?
As adults I feel as if we run from one thing to the next without taking enough time for ourselves, our spouses, our children, and our friends. I am in need of a date night and a friend night. It has been ages since I have been to a movie or out to dinner. I love my children more than anything but sometimes Girls Just Want To Have Fun!! Not that much fun, G rated fun, but fun all the same. I miss my friends and I need a friends fix!
We seem to be able to fit so many things into our lives except our friends. I watch my daughter Emma and her friends are everything to her. Not a free afternoon goes by when she doesn’t walk in the door from school and say “Can I call Jasmine or Julia?”.I am lucky if I speak to my friend Dominique once a month. I can’t even seem to schedule a date night with Claus and we live in the same house! Of all the adults I know I am the lucky one, my child only does one sport.
Instead of wondering about these things I would really like to do something about them. My friends need to be bumped up on my life priority list. So for those of you out there reading this what do you say....slumber party at my house? Claus just finished the basement. I’ll provided the space, food, and drinks. You provide the company. Reservations are now being accepted!

Getting Ready For Camp

On a day like today when it’s rainy, windy, and cold, it’s hard to imagine that I have to start thinking about Emma’s summer camp. Yesterday we received a packet from Emma’s sleep away camp meant to prepare Emma, Claus and I for the one week summer adventure know as USGTC summer camp. You would think at 9 Emma might be a little nervous at the thought of being away from us for a week but she does not seem to be nervous in the least. I on the other hand am more nervous than I was on my first one night sleep over at girl scout camp.

When I was about Emma’s age I went to girl scout camp in my home town. Both of my parents worked so I had no choice but to go to camp in the summer time. Every Wednesday the camp would have campers who wished sleep over. Finally I decided I was ready to take the plunge. In the days before the sleep over my mom and dad went out and purchased everything that was required on the list for the sleep over including a new adult size, sky blue, LL Bean sleeping bag. Off I went to camp that morning on the bus with all my gear and back I came on that same bus later that afternoon, sleeping bag and all.

My mother hearing loud honking looked out the screened door. I stepped off the bus in disgrace. If the shame of coming home wasn’t bad enough my sleeping bag unrolled seemingly on cue as I stepped off the last step of the bus. My mother did not know what to say. She couldn’t really yell at me for being homesick. You can’t yell at someone for loving you, can you?

Emma is different child than I was, she is much more confident than I was at her age. She may have occasional pangs of homesickness but they will not bring her home. I on the other hand will be different when she leaves. Her going away is a big deal to me. I am going to miss her like crazy. For me, leaving her at the camp will be like sending her off to college. Emma’s camp is being held on an actual college campus; she will be sleeping in a dorm, eating in a cafeteria, spending money on her own, and deciding what to do with her free time.

Emma will have so much more freedom and responsibility than I ever had at her age. I hope that she will have fun, be safe, and miss me a little bit. I also hope that I have done my job correctly and I won’t any get embarrassing phone calls asking me to pick up my daughter for bad behavior. I don’t want to have to do the walk of shame as an adult. Maybe I am just a bit jealous that I never got to go to sleep away camp, or maybe I am just jealous that I never had the courage?? By the way, I still have that same LL Bean sleeping bag

Coffee, Is There Anything Better?

Is is wrong that my 21 month old daughter knows what the signage of a national coffee shop looks like and cries to stop the car? Is it wrong that instead of her sister's milk or juice cup she instead tries to steal my coffee cup? Finally, is it wrong that every morning she points to the coffee pot hoping that today will be the day I fill her sippy cup with the forbidden, mahogany, liquid? I don't think so but all of you might!

Coffee is my vice. I can not make it through a day, a morning, an hour, without coffee. When I leave the house I am thinking about where I will get my next cup. I always have to have an emergency stash of cash in my car just for coffee; being caught without money is just not an option. When driving I almost never use my GPS, I have become my own caffeinated, human GPS. I can navigate in a 50 mile radius, from my home, based on the location of coffee shops. My addiction is serious.

I have been told by my doctors that I should cut down on my caffeine consumption and I have tried unsuccessfully. For me, quitting coffee is harder than giving up smoking. I can not get past the withdrawal headaches; my family can not get past the angry moods. My oldest daughter has asked on more than one occasion "Momma have you had your coffee today".

In the grand scheme of things there are worse vices to have. Coffee has given me some of the happiest times in my life. Conversations with my Grandparents, dates with my husband, errands with my children. Do I drink too much coffee, yes absolutely. Will I cut back? No way, I don't want to put and coffee shops out of business by cutting back.