Graduation Day

Last Friday was my oldest baby boy's high school graduation. Of course he is no longer my baby boy standing at 5'9" tall. But he is my baby just the same.

He is my first born so to me that will always be something special. When he was born I went through all of the same thoughts that I am sure every mom goes through. Such as....

How much will I be in love with him?



or will he get along with his siblings?



or how special will it be on his First Holy Communion?



or how will I cope with his injuries?



or what kind of sports will he play?



or who will he take to the prom?



or how will I feel when I see him in his cap and gown?



They truly grow right before your eyes and every wonderment I have is followed by a wonderful memory. With my new graduate I feel blessed to have stockpiled 18 years of these memories. Congratulations to my boy and to all of the graduates and moms out there who survived all of the questions with beautiful answers.

Big Week Ahead

Today starts a week that is sure to be one for the memory books....baseball banquet, graduation rehearsals, cap and gown pictures, and then the graduation mass and ceremony on Friday.


This past weekend I made sure I stocked up on enough tissues to last me. Little did I know that I would already go through one box just today alone.

It's funny how life comes around. I was thinking back when I graduated high school and watched my mom cry the whole week long. And then when my mom and dad dropped me off at college. My dad would later tell me that my mother cried the entire 4 hour drive home. I brushed it off and never really grasped that fact other than it was just my mom being "mom". And then whenever I came home from college, my mom would act like it was the first time she had seen me in years. She would hug me and seem to never want to let me go. Of course I hugged her back because I loved her so dearly and I had missed her too.

So life is coming around to me because I am now where my mom was back then. My oldest son is graduating high school and getting ready for college and I find myself crying at every waking moment...always making excuses that my contact lenses are bothering my eyes and that's why they are red. I stare a lot at the ceiling hoping and praying that the lessons I have taught over the past 18 years were good enough. I now truly understand what my mom was feeling back then. I really, really do.

My only regret is that my mom is no longer here with me so I can share in this with her. So I can ask her how she got through it and so that she could help talk me through this time in my life that we now share as mothers.

Darn Facebook

It's all facebook's fault. I used to blog constantly and loved every minute of it. I loved documenting my life and posting some cute pictures of my family and life. I even managed to attract 50 or so readers!

But then facebook came along and changed all that. My blogging had dwindled down to random status updates and pictures loaded up via my blackberry. I moved into a new era with a different kind of reader. It was easy and with my hectic life with 4 kids on the run, it was also very convenient.




But I always look back at this revelation with sadness. I enjoyed writing my thoughts down in more than 200 characters. I like blog posts because they seem to be good at connecting my words and stories with pictures and links. Blog posts are meaningful.

In my busy life is there room for both? I ponder this all the time. In fact I have visited it so much that I have about 10 unfinished blog posts that I promise myself I will get to just after that last facebook and twitter update of the evening. Then I forget and the post would just sit there unfinished and undone.




When I look back at the couple of years of undone posts I think of what has happened in my life in that time...my oldest getting ready to graduate high school next week, daughter making her First Holy Communion



baseball seasons




first days of school, dance recitals...so much that I didn't blog about.




I vow to myself that I am going to start anew...blog more about my trials and tribulations because looking back on those times makes me laugh and I feel happy to share my laughter and good times with the few readers who happen to find my writing amusing.

Both Sides Now

I listen to XM7 a lot in my car...why not? I was born in 1965 and though pretty young to remember 60s music I do recall some of it on the little AM radio in my Mom's 1966 Dodge Dart. Even though I've upgraded from the little AM radio to XM satelite radio the music is still the same. It's timeless and precious to me. The songs I listen to from back then are folksy and meaningful and speak to a simple way of life.

...I've looked at life from both sides now from win and lose and still somehow, it's life's illusions I recall, I really don't know life at all...




Good ole Judy Collins singing about angel hair, clouds, ice cream castles, and feathered canyons. What did she mean by that? What was she thinking? Was it that deep or was she just on a drug high when she wrote that song?

...Moons and Junes and ferris wheels the dizzy dancing way you feel...

I don't really know what she was thinking. But I do know it is a classic song that will always stand the test of time. When I listen to it on my ipod I think of life back then and how magical it all seemed. My childhood filled with love and family. The world was turbulent back then but I was innocent to it all. My world was all about Sesame Street and the Electric Company. It was all about playing hide and seek with my brothers. It was about having my best friend over my house to listen to 45s on my little battery operated record player. It was about not having air conditioning and never really caring about it. I don't remember worrying that money was so tight that we lived bare bones.

...Tears and fears and feeling proud, to say "I love you" right out loud...

I was busy listening to my records and playing Barbies and dreaming of what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was busy coloring in my coloring books and working hard to stay in the lines. We had one black and white TV. There were no such things as computers or internet or cell phones or electronic games. There were no distractions. For fun we went outside and played on the swing set or stayed inside and made forts with dominos.

...Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, I've looked at life that way...



Those were some great times. So thank you to Judy and all of those 60s and 70s artists that help me to remember old memories that bring a smile to my face every time.

Think about life this way....

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

It's 7:00 somewhere...

It's 7 pm on a Tuesday night and I am sitting in my car waiting for my daughter to finish her CCD class. I got up this morning at 6 am, left at 7:30, and haven't been home since. But I don't mind because I love it all. I truly do. I love my kids, I love my husband, I love my job, and I love my blackberry. I am having a love affair with them all!!!

So I try to do them all well and I can tell you that it is truly possible...well for me anyhow. The happy medium takes work and a kind and understanding boss who will understand if you have to run your kids to the doctors or leave to watch your daughter's class play or your senior boy's first baseball game of the season. But I also understand my duties and flex myself enough to work when the kids are in bed and I need to catch up.

So while I sit here in the parking lot I think about the rapid brain power I had to execute today...end of year appraisals, budget plan, goals worksheets, business plan, conference calls and lunch and an apple somewhere in between. I think about how happy I was to accomplish much at work while running out the door of work thinking about how much I couldn't wait to see my littlest man and princess daughter at the doors of their school. I was happy to then run over to the high school to pick up my son in his last few months of his last year of high school. And somewhere in the middle I met up with my darling husband who relieved me of my load so I could continue on to my daughter's CCD class.

After I leave the parking lot I have one more child to pick up...my basketball loving son who practices harder than anyone I know on his basketball team...through a horrendous cough and stuffy nose and hungry stomach. Note...McDonalds just might cheer him up.....

It seems like a lot and tomorrow I will do it all over again except tomorrow night there is a parent's baseball meeting and a college financial planning workshop. But at the end of the day I feel exhausted but fulfilled because after all of these years I have finally managed to achieve some sort of work-life balance.

PB&J factoid

I was busy last night doing all of my "prep" for the morning which meant a boat load of lunches...one for dear hubby, two for dear teenage sons, and 2 for the little kidsters. The good news is that they all are ok with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So as I take out the bread and line it all up in an assembly line fashion (because I am an engineer after all) I start counting and realizing that I make on average about 8 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day!!! That's about 3 giant loaves of bread.

Then I started thinking about milk. We go through about 3 gallons a week.

I am starting to think I need to invest in a bread factory and a cow.

I used to think that formula and diapers were expensive. Well they are but so is feeding growing teenage boys! It's a challenge for sure and it's a good thing my boys love PB&J.

How To Make A Rue

Back by popular demand...

Last weekend when I posted my recipe for Mac n Cheese I promised to write a little bit about how to make a rue.

It's a few days late but it's here...my basic recipe on making a rue. A rue is very easy to make and extremely versatile. The most popular things that you can use a rue for is gravy or soup. But in reality a rue is a thickening agent because it's a flour base. What that means is that you can thicken any liquid with it to make the sauce or gravy. For example, if you make a rue and add chicken stock to it and stir until the stock and rue is incorporated and heated through it will turn to a nice gravy. Add some sauteed mushrooms and you have mushroom gravy. Add cheese to it and you have the base sauce for macaroni and cheese. You can also add mustard and it makes a really good mustard spread for sandwiches. You see, it's all about the method. You can get as creative as you want for a variety of dishes.

So without any more hesitation here is the recipe:

olive oil, one turn of the pan
3 pats of butter
3 tbsp flour
1.5 - 2 cups of stock or milk (see HINT below)
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the butter and stir in with a whisk. When butter is melted, add the flour and whisk the flour in with the butter until the flour cooks fully and no longer looks white. The flour might clump up but that is ok. Add the liquid and whisk to incorporate until all the lumps are gone and the sauce starts to thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the sauce is at the desired thickness remove from heat and add to the dish you are making.

***HINT*** If you want to make a milk based rue or gravy (for mac n cheese for example) then use milk as the liquid. If you want to make a stock based rue or gravy (like for chicken or turkey gravy) then use chicken stock as the liquid.



Good Luck!

It's Not The Size That Counts

Not too long ago someone I know wanted to buy my sons each a gift for Christmas. This person asked me if I knew what they would want. This was an easy question. My boys were just telling me about this certain type of Axe body wash/shampoo/deodorant kits that come in various scents. I love those gifts because my kids are getting to the age where they need to use deodorant and any time they request it I happily oblige (no offense to my kids but they are teenage boys who play baseball so that's 'nuff said).

When I came back with the kits from the store, the requestor asked how much I owe. When I said $10 each for a total of $20 I was told that was not enough. I was kinda surprised. "But that's what they really want and it didn't matter how much it cost."

It made me think back to all of these years that I have tried to show my kids that it's not the size of the gift or how much is spent on it but the thought and effort that goes behind the gift. Boy does that sound like my own mother but I can't help it. It's true.

The reflection made me think of my own cherished gifts. I have gotten so many of them over the course of my 44 years of life that most are bound to be forgotten. No offense to anyone who may have gotten me gifts in the past. It's not that I don't appreciate them and it's not that I don't love them but most times unless I write it down, I don't remember the details of those gifts 10, 12, or even 16 years later.

Except there was one gift I remember well. When my first child was born over 16 years ago I am pretty sure I received a lot of gifts, flowers and teddy bears. I am certain of it. I think. I don't know. I don't remember. But I do remember very clearly ONE gift that I got on that day.

After the baby was born, my mother, who was waiting in the lobby, came strolling into the room to see me. She had seen the baby in his bassinette and had the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face. She was truly beaming with pride. She was a brand new grandmother for the very first time.

She was also carrying a balloon. A big mylar Precious Moments "It's A Boy" balloon that cost a couple of dollars. That was all she had. This big balloon and a big smile. She apologized for not having more to give me and I told her that was just fine. And I have never forgotten it. And I don't think I ever will.

Where Have You Been?

I have been so busy lately with other projects that I simply have let my blog fall off the radar. With the holidays and my dad's recent passing, life still goes on and on and on. There is so much on my plate with my older ones in high school I am trying to keep up with all that goes on there not just with homework but with their sports as well. They go to a Catholic school so volunteering is essential and involvement is really key to their success. So that's that. Then there is baseball, cross country, and basketball. Practices and games and any other social activities that they need to be driven to. There is also the weekend SAT class for my older one as well as weekend baseball showcase camps.

The little ones are active too. My princess is in soccer but thankfully wrapping that up. She also has her homework and other activities she likes to do. She also has CCD.

The kids are not overbooked but I am. I don't really mind it in fact I think I am quite good at it. It keeps me busy and productive and I don't mind the work. I just feel bad sometimes when my blog activity takes a back seat.

My latest project is starting my princess' own blog. She is a terrific story writer and there is nothing more that I would love than to put her stories up on a blog for others to read. The stories are quite funny and interesting. She tries her heart out to get all of the words spelled correctly. Of course then there are the pictures that she draws to accompany the story. Truly hilarious and I would love to share all of that with my fellow bloggers. Maybe this weekend I will be able to set it up.

I have re-engaged myself in my own Organizing Blog that is really my secret passion. Won't you please visit it here and consider adding me to your blog reader? There will be menus, easy recipes,and all kinds of organizing projects along the way.

Happy Friday everyone!

Drawings

My princess was at it again. Yesterday I found her in my office at the desk drawing her little heart out. I can't explain this talent she has. Neither myself or my husband can draw. Well he is a little bit better than me and somewhat on the artistic side. But I notice with her she has a passion to draw and create art whether it is painting, sculpting, or making jewelry. I notice she loves to have her hand in something artistic at all times. Here are a two of the creations she came up with yesterday.

Here she is jumping rope while two bunnies watch her. She just learned how to jump rope which has quickly become another of her passions.



In case you didn't get a clear shot of what one of the bunny's faces looks like she drew you an up close picture of it.

My Perfect Pantry

So excited! My pantry is featured this week here.

Check it out and also check out this blog and my other blog in general. I would love to have you as a reader.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Isn't She Cute?

Yesterday my princess came home from school and in her planner was her homework assignment. I am beginning to really love first grade! And I love that she is taking her work seriously enough to look like this.

Whew..where did time go?

All of my followers must be thinking that I fell off the face of the earth. Actually I have been working hard at some various projects that just take up most of my time. One of them is this and the other is this.

For two weeks in July I was also away at jury duty which was a most awesome experience that I promise to blog about one day in the near future.

I've been working on some business stuff while trying to brace myself for the coming school year that is about to start in just 12 hours. The older ones are off to high school and the little ones are in elementary and preschool. Good thing I am organized or I fear I would never make it.

Back to planning dinners a week in advance, preparing and planning for school lunches, and waking up early in the morning to get everyone ready for school and out the door.

I have a new driver in the family so maybe I can get him to drive us to school. And then while he is driving us I might be able to catch a few zzzzzzzzzzzzzz's in the car.

RIP MJ

Unless you have been hiding under a rock this past week, you know the tragic news of Michael Jackson. Now admittedly, I did not really follow MJ since "Bad". I just thought he was going off the deep end with the crazy behavior. I liked some of the newer music like "Man In The Mirror", "Feed The World", and "Black or White"...but his behavior and the accusations and the plastic surgery caused me to lose interest.

However this was not how I felt growing up. Now that I am approaching 44 years of age, most of my life had some piece of the Jackson empire in it whether it was the Jackson 5, the Jacksons, or MJ. In the spirit of this week I revisited my albums, youtube and my ipod to enjoy the music that I grew up with and was amazed at how so MANY songs from many different eras brought back a distinctive memory. I don't know of another group or singer that has spanned my life through music as clearly as MJ has.

When I was growing up in elementary school in the early to mid 70s, we all tried to do the robot dance in Dancing Machine. Even though I could not dance like this I knew the words and I sang the songs. Include in there "Ben" and "I Want You Back" (which is one of my top 5 Jackson songs). Then I went to junior high school from 1977- 1980 and we oozed the Jacksons and MJ there too with my personal favorites "Shake Your Body" and "Off The Wall". In high school, obviously it was Thriller. Gosh, they played so many MJ songs at my senior prom. I don't have a favorite but I know the words to each one on this album. In college, it was "Bad" which is one of my all time favorite videos. I loved MTV at that time. It was new and exciting. It was something that I had to distract me from my college homework. MTV was a neat outlet. Back then it was all about the videos that I really liked so much. "We Are The World" was a great video and I still love to re-watch it naming all the stars in the video and drooling over the younger and oh-so-hot Bruce Springsteen.

After I grew up out of college, I appreciated more of the charity type of songs that MJ produced and sang like "Heal The World" and "Man In The Mirror"...such beautiful songs about giving and loving and helping.

In the mid to late 90s and into the 2000's I didn't care for MJ because of the strangeness that followed him. I was disturbed by the molestation allegations and I still don't know how I feel about his involvement (if he did it or didn't do it). He didn't produce much after this and I lost track of him. But now that he has tragically died at a young age, I am really enjoying my ipod and youtube reliving my memories of yesteryear. It was such a great time to grow up.

How do you feel about MJ? Have you been reliving music from the past like I have?

Has It Been A Month Really?

I just noticed that it has been a month since my last blog post...shame on me. I feel like I should join that group "Blogging Without Obligation". I must have lost some followers along the way. :(

But it was not without reason. With my summer vacation (where my laptop conveniently broke and I could not blog from the vacation trail), all of my kid's activities (isn't summer supposed to slow down?), and my business ventures and social networking it's no wonder I have not had any time to blog on here. Oh and did I mention that my home computer crashed too so I have been spending time trying to reinstall every program on there that gave me such great convenience?

So my goal is to blog as soon as possible regarding my summer vacation which took us through our great state of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. It was not just a vacation but a tour of colleges for my older guy who will be going off to college in two years. Every time I say that I shake my head in amazement that it is not far off.

I will also blog my kids activities between the baseball tourneys, the basketball league, dancing recitals, and swimming lessons, it will fill up the holes of my blog.

And when am I not pursuing a new business venture..ummmm..NEVER! It's always something in my mind. But check it out on my two newer blogs...and if you can follow me there or add my blogs to your reader I would be forever grateful.

The Mommy Organizer
Organizing Your Home and Life

Feed A Cold....With Exercise

Yesterday morning I woke up with the first signs of a cold..sore throat and post nasal drip. I started to become upset because we are going on our one and only summer vacation next week and the last thing I need is to be bogged down with a nasty cold on the trip. I took a few vitamin C which always gives me acid reflux but I take it anyway hoping to fight off the cold. All day long I was feeling the sore throat and it was making me feel tired and lazy. I contemplated calling off my personal training session. I don't have that many left and I don't want to waste one on a day where my performance is not optimal. But something made me keep the session and off I dragged my achy body to the gym.

When I got there I did my usual warm up which is a mile long jog around the upstairs track. It was ok..not my best and not my worst but the throat was bothering me and I was feeling lightheaded and my stomach was acidic from the vitamins and the drip. Disgusting.

When I got back to the exercise floor my trainer, Amy, tells me that today was going to be a unique day. We were going to be doing our entire hour long workout with these ceiling straps that dangle almost to the floor.



There were so many different exercises and they were extremely tough and left me winded and dripping with sweat all hour long. But I made it through somehow without barfing, although a couple of times I swear I almost was going to.

I was beat on the way home. I dragged myself into the house, took a shower, and went to bed. And then the most amazing thing happened this morning. I woke up and my cold and sore throat were completely gone.

Maybe there is something to this exercise thing. It must build up immunities. Maybe I sweated the cold out. I am not sure but there is one thing for sure...I know what I will be doing if I ever feel another cold coming on.

End of a Great School Year

The school year is coming to a close and it is bittersweet for me. It's been a hectic year logistically because this is the first and only year that all 4 of my kids were in different schools. This made getting them to and from a big huge challenge. In all honesty that was the only draw back.

I enjoyed watching my princess in her first year of school. She really thrived in kindergarten much better than I had ever hoped she would. Her teacher was so wonderful and the year was filled with so many exciting lessons and activities. She started off the year learning how to read words and ended the year reading full books. Not only is she reading but I have noticed that she is actually understanding and comprehending what she is reading. She is able to feel what the author is saying. She is in love with the library and we just went and checked out 15 books this month for her to read.




I am also so pleased with the great progress that my baby boy is making too in his preschool. He is speaking so well now and his thoughts are so cute and keep me smiling. His latest venture has been on the computer. He loves the computer and enjoys playing on some of the reading websites like starfall and funbrain.




The older boys had a great year too. My younger teen ends his middle school years on a happy note. Straight As and a first place math trophy. He is off to a foreign school next year where the only person he will know roaming the halls is his older brother. He is going to miss his friends, I know that. But we are able to give him a really great opportunity at a wonderful private Catholic high school that will hopefully open more doors and teach him on a deeper level than he would have gotten at the high school near our house. I know he is sad but I have faith that he will meet some really great kids there too.



What can I say about my oldest boy except that I am finding bittersweet in all of the days that lie ahead of me. I no longer feel like I have oodles of time left before he is walking out the door to college. It's only two years away and suddenly two years feels like tomorrow. When he was on the JV baseball team I didn't worry because that meant he still had Varsity. But now he is at Varsity and there is nothing after that at high school. He is getting his high school ring in a few months and the milestones keep rushing in. It feels like it is all coming so fast. He is into men's clothing, shoes, and smelling nice. He is not shaving yet thank goodness. Still a baby face to me. I remember when he was a baby. I had all kinds of time with him then.




We are going off on our summer vacation next week and I think that there will only be a few more of them before he is off to college. I hear a lot of parents say our jobs are to give them roots and wings. I like the roots. I don't like the wings.

I promise to embrace the roots as long as I can and give thanks for all of my four wonderful blessings. I love them so very much.

My trusty old friend

I knew something would eventually happen to my computer's hard drive. After all, it is older than my princess by a few months. That would make it 6+ years. The computer has seen me have another child since then. It has seen us buy a new larger flat screen monitor for it. It has seen us evolve with newer programs for preschool children that will only tax it's memory and processor speed. Two older boys would now do their homework on this computer that used to be just mine. It's been through thousands of downloaded photos. It never failed me, ever. Sure it's slowed down over the years and has caused me to reboot many many times but I felt loyal to it. I never looked to replace it. Yes I knew one day it would die. I knew I would have to back up my files. I kept postponing that process hoping that it would come more later than sooner.

But just last week I opened up my own account on igoogle and google docs. I got out of my denial and purchased a few jump drives and emptied all of my photos onto a jump drive, just in case. I started uploading my important files to google docs and also downloaded my outlook calendar to google, just in case. I was going to work on email and contacts this weekend. I was going to do the rest of the files today, just in case. But last night while working on my trusty Dell in the midnight hours while everyone else had gone to sleep, something went terribly wrong. The screen froze. But that had happened before and maybe I had too many windows open. I rebooted and then got the message that this might be the end. It was the blue screen of death. The one where it gives you the message that some important looking and too long sounding file is corrupt. What was I going to do. I had not yet completed my documents backup. I rebooted. It didn't help. I rebooted again. Nothing. The tower started making funny noises. This wasn't good. I knew it. My just in case moment came and I felt panicky. I lost my internet access. I lost my email. All of them. I could not get to my blogs or my reader. Nothing.

I went to my closet where I have carefully stored all of my computers disks and backups. The only thing I knew was to reinstall Windows and pray. I found the disk, put it in, and hope that something can be saved. It rebooted, reinstalled, but everything was lost. My internet access, drivers, files, email, applications, programs, and my bookmarks. I turned it off and went to bed. I couldn't sleep. I felt like I lost a special friend.

When I awoke this morning, it felt like a sad day. No computer. I was going to have to start shopping around for a new one. Initially I thought of just starting from scratch on the trusty old Dell but I have come to the realization that 6 years to a computer is like 90 years to a human. I am going to retire and bury my trusty Dell and replace it with another Dell, a newer and improved model. I am sure I will get to love my new Dell, once I buy it and set it up. But I know that it will never be the same as my old best friend. RIP my old Dell and I hope that the new Dell is as good to me as you were.

So Much Going On

There is just too much going on but for some strange reason my brain likes being on overload. I have always been that way but never could explain it. A lot of times people say to me "Where do you get all of your energy" and I tell them I have no clue. I can no longer blame it on the caffeine from my daily diet cokes (jumping for joy). But the strange thing is that the more sedentary I am, the more tired I am and the less productive I become....ie, lazy...and I hate that. I guess I will never fully retire.

I cram a lot of things in my one day. It's like a personal challenge to try to get as much done but a lot of things that I do are just plain fun to me...like playing with my kids, polishing my daughter's nails, cooking my family dinner, making brownies, playing on facebook and catching up with old friends and relatives, sweeping up the mud and dirt that the kids drag in, working out with my husband, organizing, decluttering, cleaning, yada, yada, yada.

I feel compelled to tell how I do all of this every day. Take my 4 kids to 4 different schools and then manage to get myself to work, take on the demands of my job, pick the 4 kids up from the 4 different schools, make dinner, do laundry, get at least 2 of the 4 kids to some sort of sport or extra curricular activity, get baths done, homework done, get the kids to bed, and then get myself to bed. I swear seeing it written down on paper makes my head spin. I forgot to mention that I pay the bills, clean up, prepare for the next day, and countless other things. I have a husband who helps A LOT..thank goodness for that because I know people who don't have that support...but even with his help, I seem to be the one driving the train. I am ok with that because I am a bit of a control freak in that respect. Do you kind of relate to that because I think a lot of us moms do.

I love this life. I wouldn't slow it down at all because it keeps me fit, physically and mentally. One of my goals in life, god willing, is to be active, fit and healthy enough for my future grandchildren. I want to be a hands on mother and hands on grandmother. I can't imagine retiring because even if I retired from my working life, I would still find some other ways to occupy my time like spending time with my kids, babysitting grandkids, traveling with my husband.....

the list goes on and on and on and on and on......