Motherhood ain't for Sissies

There is little in life as disturbing and unsettling to me than any of my children being in mental and/or physical discomfort. Right now I'm juggling a bit of that and it reminds me that being a mom ain't easy. Every gray hair is earned.

So, having Nicole 2,500 mile away is really, really hard but if she is horseback riding and making friends and getting flirted with, it's bearable. When she is going to work and being mistreated by co-workers and putting in 15 hour days, it's not so bearable. She is working in the kitchen with the head cook who happens to be a . . . . well, fill in your favorite word for unpleasant female. She is rude to Nicole, insults her, ignores her and generally makes her very long days much longer. Nicole has done everything she can think of to cope with it, but is running out of options. Tomorrow she meets with a superior to ask for some guidance and we are all hoping that that turns out to be the solution. I suspect a transfer to a different team will be the ultimate solution, but we will see. In the meantime, Mama is angsting like crazy for this girl so far away.

Caspian is doing well but is getting ready to leave for the summer and I am not ready to send him off. Coryn is doing well. . .counting the days until Memorial Day weekend because we are going to the Life is Good unschooling conference and he looks forward to it all year.

I am doing well although swamped with work. The last few days have been really lovely and so Joseph and I have been sleeping out on the back deck under the stars. We have an air mattress, lots of cozy warm blankets and it is so lovely . . . I think people think we are nuts but there are no bugs, no morning dew . . . the only thing there is is this DAMN BIRD who greets the dawn by making this incredibly unpleasant squawking noise about three feet from my head. I would sic the cat on it, but the cat is usually curled up next to me on the mattress sleeping thru it all.

So that's life. Oh, although the diet is not as strict as it was, I am sticking to it pretty closely. As of today, I have lost 33 lbs. It's painfully slow, but it keeps trickling down and that makes me happy. Until I think about Nicole . . . . and then Mama ain't happy for long. Keep your fingers crossed for her, say a prayer, throw the runes, whatever you do (assuming you weren't taken up in the rapture today, that is, snicker) and send her good thoughts, ok? Thanks.