“Oh yeah, I’m there!”

Have you ever had one of those days where the forces of the universe converge for one monumental moment to make your life, and only your life, a living hell.  Yeah, having one of those days.  I haven’t posted because well, the universe was busy taking up my time.  Go figure!  Okay, so here’s the jist of it.  I’m starting school in June to become… a Medical Transcriptionist!  Exciting huh?  So I’m trying to get all my info into the school for financial aid, that in and of itself has posed challenges I’ve never faced before.  But it’s exciting and new and will give my family a better life so I’m all for it.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, my husband isn’t too thrilled with his lot in life and wants to change it.  Even if that means relocating to another state.  I’m not so sure about that one.  But I promised to support whatever will make him happy so that’s become a delicate issue to balance.  Oh joy! 

Then there’s our “Future Plans”.  For the first time in ten years we agreed on our future goals, kinda.  My husband’s career choice requires one to be transient, which means our family has to be transient.  Well, after so many years of moving our asses across the country, I’m tired of living as our ancestors once did and I’m ready to stay put.  The best way to stay in one place for any period of time?  Buy a house!  Yup, most of my imagined income from the future job my education will help attain will go towards paying our debt and saving for a down payment.  And eventually help to finance all the extras an apartment doesn’t require, like bigger bills and a lawn mower.  And maybe, possibly, we don’t know yet; adding another member to our family.

Add to this delightful mix some recent medical problems that may prohibit a future family member and some debt, due to said medical problems, and we’ve got a problem.  So what do you get when you have 1 unhappy and indecisive husband+1 possible relocation+a lot more debt+possible secondary infertility?  A whole lot of shit hitting the fan!  Seriously?!?  Someone up stairs must not be too happy with me right now.  While my dear, sweet and loving husband decides if we’re going to uproot the whole family, again.  I’m trying to deal with the emotional, physical and financial ramifications of our -my- new cirrcumstances.  Did I mention he still hasn’t made up his mind about adding a new member to the family?

For those who are wondering if I’m one of those nagging wives that’s incredibly selfish and I just want to “breed”, um, yeah, not so much.  We had this discussion three months ago, it takes him a while to make up his mind, like a year, so I’m just waiting.  He knows about my new medical conditions, but I haven’t detailed the possible ramifications of said conditions.  If he’s that interested he’ll ask or look it up on his own, trust me. 

Okay, back to the universe converging thing… Have you seen those commercials on TV where someone is standing/sitting on a red dot and says, “Oh yeah, I’m there!”  Well, I’m waiting for my red dot.  I think I need one just to show me exactly where the hell “there” is!  And to add insult to injury, my youngest is starting Kindergarten next year.  Who gave him permission to grow up so fast without asking me first?  *sniff*  Oh yeah, I’m there.

Going Green… For Apartments

    In honor of Earth Day, I thought I’d spread a little green.  First of all, the concept of going Going Green is nothing new, it just took a few decades to go mainstream.  Better late than never, right?  For all the dooms day predictions we’ve been hearing, many of these same scientists are assuring us that if we get our act together maybe, just maybe, we won’t destroy ourselves and the planet with us.  Believe you me, I’m hanging onto that hope with both hands; not for myself, but for my children.  I happen to be rather attached to this planet, and I’m teaching my children to love it as much as I do.  My daughter happens to be interested in science and she asks questions constantly about the environment, what we can do to help and why aren’t we doing more.  She has seen An Inconvenient Truth and has read the book.  By the way, if you haven’t seen it, you really should. 

Living in an apartment has produced some challenges to change our lifestyle to Be Green.  Our complex is into making money and nothing else.  In fact, I called our front office to find out why recycling was not an option in our complex.  The answer I recieved was this:

“We appreciate that you are eco-concious, and we did provide recycling bins up until a few months ago.  But be assured that waste management seperates recyclables from regular trash, so you can feel good about being green!”

WHAT?!?!?  Oh wait… I forgot, I’m gullable and stupid!

First of all, there has never been recycling offered to residents as long as I’ve lived here the past oh, three years.  And second recycables are not seperated from trash by waste management, I called them just to verify that for myself.  But I’m getting off track here. 

For all the resources available, many eco-friendly suggestions are not geared towards apartments, but rather houses.  With a little creativity and some extra work, it is possible to Be Green in an apartment. 

Recycle: Sure, anyone can recycle.  But we have to take our recyclables to a plant ourselves, no one picks it up for us.  Convenient?  No.  Worth it? Definately!  Not only do we feel more involved, but our children know what happens to the recyclables and they are more concious about it rather than feeling like it’s something they have to do it.

Reduce:  With rising energy costs, we want to save money just like everyone else.  However, we can’t replace our windows, air conditioning units, water heater and appliances.  So we adapted. 

• Just like my mother told me, I tell my family to turn off lights when they leave a room. 
• We use energy efficient light bulbs in our light fixtures. 
• I replaced our original shower heads with water saving shower heads. 
• We turn off the faucet while brushing our teeth, washing and shaving rather than leave it running.
• We rinse dishes after eating, rather than waiting until later (we have a crappy dishwasher, so not rinsing isn’t an option) and we switched the dishwasher to Energy Saver
• In the winter we cover our windows with weatherproof plastic to reduce heating costs and energy.
• Our entertainment unit and office equipment are plugged into power strips so at the end of the day, we turn off the power strips and eliminate emissions caused by electronics.
• We keep our small appliances unplugged, such as the coffee maker and toaster, unless we use them.
•  We use green cleaning products and detergent
• Living close to my husband’s work reduces our need for gas and we only have one car, so over all we use less fuel and emit less emissions.  The kids and I walk to where we need to go, such as the park and school.
• We purchase produce from local farmer markets in-season.  It’s less expensive than produce in chain stores and taste great.
• And a great idea I found on a website was to put 1-liter bottles filled with rocks in the tanks of our toilet bowls, it reduces the amount of water used and wasted.

Reuse: Rather than throw away ink cartridges, old electronics and cell phones, we donate them to the school and local charaties to be reused.  A lot of schools collect ink cartridges and cell phones donated to the police department are given to domestic violence victims for emergency situations.  Old electronics can be refurbished and sold for charity.  We also donate the kids outgrown clothes and household items we no longer use or want to Goodwill and the Salvation Army.  DVDs, books and CDs you no longer want can be swapped with others at the following websites:

• http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php
• http://www.swapacd.com/index.php
• http://www.swapadvd.com/index.php?f=cds

You can even save money and the environment by renting toys instead of buying them at http://www.babyplays.com/.  Talk about a great mom-friendly idea!  I wish I’d thought of it.

With retailers listening to their consumers, there are so many ways to go green and still contribute to the economy.  Some more ways to Go Green:

• You can shop at stores that support and offer green products.  Office Depot has products specifically for the environmentally concious office. 
• You can purchase recycled checks and make an impression with design and wording; we did. 
• You can switch to paperless billing, either arranging for automatic payments or using online bill pay with your bank.  Talk about saving money, there’s no postage!
• You can also opt to receive paper bank statements by mail, but rather online. 
•  And something I just learned this week; you can shop for eco-friendly clothes by choosing 100% cotton (a renewable source) and shopping vintage (reuse!).  And rather than throw old clothes away, you can turn them into something new (recylce!).

So with a little thought, some research anyone can Go Green, no excuses!  We may not have compost heap, grow our own food or invest in energy saving appliances, we still care enough to do our best.  For more information on how you and you’re family can Go Green check out these websites:

• http://www.ourearth.org/
• http://www.thegreenguide.com/
• http://www.liveearth.org/news.php
• http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3915

Morning of Migraines & Temper Tantrums

I love my children dearly, but there is one thing I can’t stand; temper trantums.  The very sound of a child wailing is like nails on a chalk board.  My daughter decided to throw one this morning, she’s ten.  I thought after age three they’d be done.  I was wrong… very, very wrong.  My sweet, loving, smart daughter is often ruled by her emotions.  She controls them quite well at school.  Her teachers think she’s a delight.  She saves all her frustrations for at home, lucky me!

So this morning I’m curled up in bed trying to control yet another migraine and in my child prances in to play with the dog.  We keep the dog in our bedroom for two reasons; 1st so she doesn’t eat the cat food before the cat and 2nd she can’t rough house with the kids without our supervision.  This is for her safety, not the kids.  When you are battling a migraine the last thing you want to hear is the high pitched squeals of child and the barking of a dog all while shaking the floor with their playing.  I told my daughter that Mommy doesn’t feel good and to please go watch tv instead.  Despite the blinding pain behind my eyes, I was fairly patient.  I’ve had ten years to practice.  She pouted, stommped out and left the door wide open.  The dog takes off, I hear the cat hissing in the kitchen (there goes her food!) and the kids begin a free for all.  I stumbled my sorry ass out of bed, rounded up the dog, fed the cat – again – and put on PBS Kids.  When all was calm again I crawled right back under the covers. 

Two minutes later the door creaks open and in creeps my daughter.  This time she thinks by crawling on the floor somehow I won’t know she’s there.  Before the playing can commence I once more tell her to go watch tv.  She sweetly asks, “But Mooooommmm!  Why can’t I stay in heeeeere and play with the doooogggg?!?”  Her whining goes right through me and I said the one word she can’t stand, “No!”.  This time she breaks down.  I mean this kid should be strapped to the top of fire truck en route to a fire she screams so loud.  I can’t deal with the screaming so I send her to her room.  Of coarse, she’s not about to stay in there, so begins the back and forth of her opening her door, screaming into the hallway and me closing the door.  Let me tell you, not slamming that door took all the effort I had left.

My daughter does not throw these tantrums out of spite, she really has a hard time controlling how she feels.  I can understand that overwhelming sense of frustration, but screaming and whailing is not acceptable.  After a few rounds of the door thing I go in to try and calm her down.  It’s like preparing for combat without the protective gear.  I’ve learned a few things over the years; yelling doesn’t work, it only makes things worse; spanking doesn’t work, it really makes things worse; talking calmly works only sometimes.  It wasn’t working this morning.  So I took a time out.  I closed my own door, downed a couple of Excedrin and waited.  It didn’t take long for the raging creature that was once my child to come barreling into my room.  Out of the blue I offered her a sip of my tea, she stopped screaming in a nano second and just looked at me.  I have no idea why that worked, but I’ll take it.  I was starting to get desperate.  We talked about why she couldn’t play with the dog, why Mommy needs to rest and why trantums don’t work.  She’s ten, I don’t expect her to understand everything, but basic listening shouldn’t be beyond her understanding.  Finally an hour after the drama began I was finally able to get rid of that damn migraine! 

Sometimes being a mom really pushes me to the limits.  When all was said and done, for the rest of the day she was my little girl again.  There were moments I would stop what I was doing and just stare in wonder because in no way was this child the same raving lunatic of this morning.  The emotional changes a child can go through are amazing, I’m just glad I survived this time.  I had my doubts.