Getting to know me

October 2, 2007 · 10 comments

Playing along, I asked Liv to give me five questions to answer. You can see her questions and answers here and Flutter (among many others, I am sure) is playing, too (she’s a show-off though, she has 10 questions! hehe) Getting to know your fellow bloggers – how fun!!

1) I’ve never been to Michigan. Why should I?

One word: Petoskey. Ok, the Mackinac Bridge is cool and so is Mackinac Island. Because you can drive for 12 hours and still be in Michigan (or halfway to Florida from my house). Because there is no other state where going Up North means the same thing. πŸ™‚ Let’s see – surrounded by water, beautiful Fall foliage everywhere, skiing, golfing, great Art festivals and the Harvard of the Midwest.

Michigan is known for cars, unions and bad professional sports teams; we’ve got the worst economy and unemployment rate in the country. You should come because we need you. πŸ™‚

And most importantly, you should come because there is no where else in the world that is shaped like a right-hand mitten. The joy in this is that you can show people exactly where you live (or have been) by holding up your right hand and pointing.

michiganhand.jpg
2) You have the boys, the office to run— if there were time or inclination towards having a “Dream” job, what would it be. (SAHM is a perfectly good answer! πŸ™‚

My dream job is to own and run a bookstore. Preferably, in a small, chic town. Used and new books. In an old building, exposed brick, small little cafe with round, two-person tables – probably painted metal, but maybe wood, but definitely not all matching. A few easy chairs here and there. Well worn, but clean. Dark wood floors and books from floor to ceiling and everywhere you look. The kind of store that you think would smell musty and be dusty, but would, in reality, be clean, smell fresh and be extremely well-lit.

Not that I’ve ever thought about it or anything… πŸ˜‰

3) What has been your biggest challenge as a mother?

Patience.

I was going to leave that as a one word answer, because it’s true and basic and real.  But I wanted to add more.  Patience has been my biggest challenge, but it has also been my greatest success thus far.  I am not, by any means, Mother Teresa, but I have learned to be patient enough to be a good mom.  Do I have days where I want to scream and yell? Hell, yes.  For the most part though, I have more non-screaming days than screaming days; I laugh more than I cringe; I find more joy in my boys than angst.  Being tired makes it harder to be patient. Hell, being tired makes everything except sleeping harder.  πŸ˜‰

Also big challenges, but relatively common and normal: balancing work and home, sleep issues, discipline, and finding time and energy to do all we want, individually and as a family.

4) It flits and floats in your blog as a topic— getting fit/diet, etc… What do you see as your biggest challenges to getting the body you want. (whatever that is!)

I’ve been thinking about this all day. I could easily say that I’m lazy (but really? I’m not.) I thought about telling you all that it’s a lack of motivation (which is sort of true at times) or that it is my lack of willpower (which I truly do lack. Seriously – put a beautiful fresh salad and a chocolate bar with a jar of peanut butter in front of me and even though I know how good that salad will taste and how good I will feel eating it, I will eat the chocolate and peanut butter every. single. time.) I have no fear, because I’m otherwise healthy and don’t have that “I want to be around a long time for my kids” pressure on me (FYI – that’s called idiotic denial – one can always be healthier).

So what’s my answer?

GUILT.

I suck at taking time for myself and doing something just for me. I can’t scrapbook if the house isn’t clean; same goes for sitting around watching tv. I can’t just relax, read a book, sit around and do nothing unless the house is in order, the kitchen, especially, is clean, and the laundry is at least going. And the worst part of that is that I’m actually better than I used to be! Mike always, always says SO? when I use those things as an excuse. He’s right, and I am better about leaving things, but I can only do it so long and so often. I don’t have a problem playing with the boys if the house is a mess; it’s just the me time.

And of course, I add in the kid guilt/husband guilt. Mike works all day and I know he needs some down time when he gets home, so I hate to run out the door or down to the basement as soon as he walks in. Does he mind? Most likely, when it comes to me getting exercise, nope. But can I take advantage of it? Nope. And the kid guilt…well, that goes without saying. Even though I know the whole “if mama ain’t happy, no one is happy” thing, I still feel like I need to wait until they go to bed until I exercise. With my boys sleep schedules, I just don’t want to by the time they go to bed some nights.

All that, and I want the body I want and the food habits I should have instantly. I want success now. I don’t want to wait. Oddly, I’m ok doing the work, but I want instant results. I never seem to last long enough with any one fitness idea or eating plan to make it a habit. Self-sabotage? Perhaps. But why be fat and out of shape instead of fit and trim? <sigh> It’s also, apparently, I am thinking, as I write this out, a matter of control. I don’t want anyone to tell me how I have to eat or exercise or how much I have to weigh. I want to eat what I want, when I want. How childish is that?

It seems I don’t have a very good answer after all. Perhaps I should have gone with lazy… πŸ˜€

5) Readers get a great glimpse of home life, scrapbooking, the kids, etc… but if he’s not off limits, would you give us a glimpse of your other half?

Ah, my other half. πŸ™‚ Mike is a man of deep thoughts, great knowledge of many things you never knew you needed to know, and a born sports commentator. He has a fantastic sense of humor that tends to mirror my own and always knows how to make me laugh, even when I really, really don’t want to.

We met when we worked together at Goofy’s Car Wash. Yes, really. πŸ™‚ We fell in the love the summer before I was to go away to college and our first kiss followed the best line spoken in young love, EVAR. He visited me at college; I came home a lot. We wrote the love letters that youth and innocence are famous for (yes, I kept them all). After one semester away, I came home and we moved in together soon after. I continued my education a variety of ways, but most importantly, got my degree and we were together. We’ve had our rough times, learned to communicate the hard way, and have landed in a comfortable, happy marriage. His parents have been married forever; my parents divorced when I was 4 – my mom has been married 4 times; my dad 3. We’ve been married for 12 years – feels like forever and yesterday all at once – and I can’t imagine my life without him.

He is the best dad I know. He is hands on, loving, caring, funny and knows just the right things to say and do. The boys worship him. He is doing all those things a dad is supposed to do – teaching them to play ball, about airplanes, using computers and being good men. He gives them baths, he teaches them about cooking, he reads them stories and makes them laugh and repeat movie lines. He is my better half.

He is not perfect, but neither am I. He makes a HUGE mess when he cooks, but I am happy that he cooks because I generally just don’t feel like it. πŸ™‚ His socks are always turned inside out in one way or another and it annoys the crap out of me when I have to turn them all right side out after I wash them. He only does chores when reminded (but not nagged. Nagging equals annoyance and things do not get done then!) Mike has a gihugeous love of baseball, loves every kind of music, has a good sense of direction (even without his navigation system), has a fantastic memory and has common sense in nearly every situation. And he puts up with me.

He is the love of my life.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

amanda October 2, 2007 at 3:57 pm

I think you\'ll figure out the fitness and diet thing, if for no other reason that you worked so hard and the answer. And with a guy like Mike, why wouldn\'t you? This was fun to read!

Reply

liv October 2, 2007 at 5:27 pm

Wow. This was a wonderful read. I\'m glad I asked! And I will tell you what I told flutter tonight: it\'s the beginning of the exercise habit that sucks. when I was 30 pounds heavier, slamming through the kind of work out I do now would not have been fun. I don\'t ever want to change my diet, so I decided that I had to bust it somewhere else. Oh, and being a yoga teacher, it wouldn\'t be a great example to my students if I weren\'t willing to sweat with them! πŸ™‚

Reply

amanda October 2, 2007 at 10:57 pm

I think you’ll figure out the fitness and diet thing, if for no other reason that you worked so hard and the answer. And with a guy like Mike, why wouldn’t you? This was fun to read!

Reply

liv October 3, 2007 at 12:27 am

Wow. This was a wonderful read. I’m glad I asked! And I will tell you what I told flutter tonight: it’s the beginning of the exercise habit that sucks. when I was 30 pounds heavier, slamming through the kind of work out I do now would not have been fun. I don’t ever want to change my diet, so I decided that I had to bust it somewhere else. Oh, and being a yoga teacher, it wouldn’t be a great example to my students if I weren’t willing to sweat with them! πŸ™‚

Reply

Michelle October 3, 2007 at 2:52 am

Sniff…reading the part about Mike just makes me teary. YOu have a real way with words, I mean, SERIOUSLY gifted. I just don\'t know if I could put my heart into words as eloquently as you do… And as for the sox, Pjh does the SAME THING and I\'ve resigned to wash them as he leaves them AND put them back into clean dry sock balls inside out or not and let him flip them around!! And it works for both of us!! Love you DAWNAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply

Michelle October 3, 2007 at 9:52 am

Sniff…reading the part about Mike just makes me teary. YOu have a real way with words, I mean, SERIOUSLY gifted. I just don’t know if I could put my heart into words as eloquently as you do… And as for the sox, Pjh does the SAME THING and I’ve resigned to wash them as he leaves them AND put them back into clean dry sock balls inside out or not and let him flip them around!! And it works for both of us!! Love you DAWNAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply

flutter October 4, 2007 at 5:56 pm

HOw did I miss this? It was really sweet

Reply

flutter October 5, 2007 at 12:56 am

HOw did I miss this? It was really sweet

Reply

my minivan is faster October 8, 2007 at 10:01 am

I\'m originally from the Detroit area and my husband still likes to mock me when people ask where I\'m from. He always holds up his left hand and point. He thinks the joke NEVER gets old!

And thank you so much for the blog roll shout-out!

Reply

my minivan is faster than yours October 8, 2007 at 5:01 pm

I’m originally from the Detroit area and my husband still likes to mock me when people ask where I’m from. He always holds up his left hand and point. He thinks the joke NEVER gets old!

And thank you so much for the blog roll shout-out!

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