|
|
Mr. [Blank] - Your turn… If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks truth about enzyte for visiting! But this comment left by Mom Cat under my Ultimate Single Mom Contest post still has me giggling. I asked you all why you love being a single mom, here is her reason: “My house is mine again… It feels good to live in a home that smells like orange essential oil instead of like Mr. Can’t-bother-to-wipe-his-own-butt.” Oh, the memories of the ex-husband stenches and messes. HILARIOUS, I tell you. That’s way better than Mr. Right Now, Mr. Good Enough and even Mr. Man. Let’s remind ourselves why we are single moms… Be nice and funny if you can. If not, vent all you want. I’m not going to do it because I’d have to delete this blog. Filed under: Divorce & Custody, Forgiving the Ex, The Father (My Ex) | 29 Comments » I just want you to know that I’m reading each and every one of your comments. There are just so many that if I can’t respond to them all, I’d rather not respond to any. Is that crazy? But know this - I am reading each and every one and loving them all. More than loving, your comments are better than vitamins. Especially in the Ultimate Single Mom Contest - the comments are absolutely amazing. If you haven’t left a comment yet, do it today because I’m drawing a name Thursday night for a free iHeartSingleParents t-shirt. I’ll announce the winner on Monday with a video. Benjamin will be pulling a name out of a hat. I am also trying to find the time to make my next advice video (have to come up with a name for them, if you have any ideas, let me know). Over 400 of you have watched the first video on How to Get Over Your Ex so either, you’re all laughing at me or you like it - regardless, I’ll be making more… soon. Back to the busy thing. Over the course of the past few months I have discovered more single mom blogs than I can count. There’s no way to tell for certain, but I think the single parent blogosphere is exploding. Each of these posts had me at hello. Seriously, get clicking. Filed under: Being a single mom, Cool Stuff, single mom, single mother | 4 Comments » He would also clean the dishes after dinner - every single night, even when he cooked. When he’d come home from work he’d seek her out, “Where is my beautiful wife?” “Upstairs Dad,” we’d sigh. When he found her he’d scoop her up into a sweet hug and tell her how much he loved her. All six of us, my siblings and I, would groan even more when they kissed in front of us, “stop it!! Gross! Mom and Dad are kissing!” In the evenings, as we drifted off to sleep, we’d hear laughter pouring up the stairs or quiet voices as they talked and talked and talked. About the house, life, us, the future. The morning he died, after they’d been married for 30 years, I woke up my mother to tell her. “It happened Mom, he’s dead.” His cancer had surfaced six months earlier. Three brain tumors. It spread quickly. He’d been asleep for days when he slipped away. “I know,” she said. “How?” “He was just in my dream, he said good-bye. Why am I still here? I was supposed to go with him.” Her eyes were glazed over. Part of her had left with him. No more surprise flowers by her bedside, no more lingering hugs and no more soul mate. That fear of ever losing someone like she did had me frozen for years. But after having Benjamin, after becoming a mother, I’ve realized my father wouldn’t want me to be filled with fear on his account. My mother doesn’t either. And she by the way, nearly 10 years after his death, is in love again herself. We have to go on. We have to keep those we’ve lost alive by living for them, by carrying on and by telling their stories. —– They met on a train in 1967 (I think). He saw her and couldn’t move. His eyes met hers. She smiled and then darted them away. Then he walked up to the empty seat next to her and said,”Can I sit here?” “No.” My mother answered shortly. She was dead serious, so sick of men hitting on her. My father, undeterred, took the seat across from her instead. He asked her what she was reading. My mother told him it was none of his business. You get the idea. But, by the end of the train ride from Columbus to Chicago he had convinced her to give him a chance. I’m giving Mr. Man a chance. I still can’t find the words to write about him but I can tell you the ice is melting… slowly. And besides, my mother thinks he is amazing - he reminds her of my father. And, deep down, I’m a huge sucker for romance and of course, men who treat women like queens. In my opinion, they’re the only ones worth having around. [Photo: My mom and dad shortly after their wedding] Filed under: Dating, sex and love, Falling in Love | 19 Comments » Forget the skyrocketing grocery prices that make me clench my jaw and actually tighten my grip on the shopping cart handle- the grocery store is my enemy anyway. It’s the ultimate test of my will and my skills as a single mother. It’s such an odd place too. All of these people, all needing the same thing, something we would die without Usually any mention of the store invokes a barrage of protests from Benjamin. Poor kid. He always has to go. No dad to stay home with. But tonight, after 2.8 years of going to the store together, something amazing happened. “We have to go to the store, Benjamin - to get food!” I always say it enthusiastically, trying to get him excited about it, faking my own dread. “Okay Mommy, let go to tha stouh fo food.” Say what? Really. Was I hallucinating? There might be a chance, I thought, that we’ll have our first flawless grocery experience. When he got situated behind the wheel of his car shopping cart we took off into the produce section. “Drive Benjamin! Drive!” “Okay Mommy! I’m driving! Look!” The car cart is massive. And so loud. But I love it because inside is the cutest little boy on Earth. I’m cheering him on, grabbing whatever I can, as quickly as I can. I feel like one of those contestants on that shopping game show from the 80’s. We made it as far as the tomatoes before he jumped out. I remember the first time Benjamin broke free from me in a grocery store. He was just over 16-months-old. As soon as his feet hit the ground he just started running down the aisle, screaming some kind of Braveheart freedom cry. He didn’t touch a single thing on the shelves he just ran and ran. I had to let him do it - to deny him this kind of pleasure would just be wrong. But now my little baby is a little boy and he’s jumped out of the cart just to piss me off. Read more » Filed under: Being a single mom, Mommy Stuff, My little guy, single mother | 18 Comments » |