Human Solar Panel

We inherit a lot of things from our parents! My grandfather was a work-a-holic, the man needed to be busy every day of his life. As my mother grew up, he worked 7 days a week whether he needed to or not. In his last years he busied himself growing a garden and tending it rain or shine just to keep himself active. My mom inherited this trait from him and I’ve inherited it from her. I’ve known this for years, if I’m not busy I just don’t know what to do with myself.

Recently I’ve discovered something else I’ve inherited from my mom. It really has no label, I can only describe the behavior. Growing up, there was a certain feeling to my house during the spring and summer months! My mom all of the sudden had a burst of energy! She’d have the radio on, cleaning the house with all of the windows and doors open, letting all of the fresh air and soft breezes fill our house. She’d have us playing outside, make us lunches and she, all of the sudden, had energy and motivation. Not to say she was awful and dreary during the colder months, but there was a switch that seemed to be flipped during the warmer months. In the spring and summer my mom blossomed like a flower! As a kid, I loved those times!

I have always said that I’m like a solar panel, I need the sun for energy! In my younger days, if I needed a quick pick-me-up in between school and working, I’d go to the beach and take a quick cat nap on a beach towel in the sun. As I get older I notice that I have seasons of energy. The spring and summer are my times of year. It is only recently that I’ve realized that my mom is the same way!

As the days begin to warm, I feel myself coming out of my mental hibernation. All of the sudden I’m motivated to volunteer at church, take the kids out to play, clean my house, get exercising and tend to other chores that have been forgotten during the low energy winter months! But, why is this? Do others do the same thing? Can I get out of this rut?

Hmmmm…

The Perfect Afternoon

I’m pretty sure we all have nostalgic memories from our childhood, a time we remember as PERFECT! A time we wish we could return to again and again for happiness and comfort.

My perfect happy childhood memory was the feeling of my house during the spring and summer months! My mom all of the sudden had a burst of energy! She’d have the radio on, cleaning the house with all of the windows and doors open, letting all of the fresh air and soft breezes fill our house. She’d have us playing outside, make us lunch and there was a certain positive energy that filled the house. When we were younger, she’d let us take naps on their big bed in the master bedroom with the window open and the ceiling fan spinning above us. She’d often tell me, “You don’t have to go to sleep, but you do have to lay down and rest”… A line I often use on Roxy.

I wasn’t to the age yet where wished I were grown-up already, but I was old enough to have crystal clear memories. Well, today is a super lucky day for me! Somehow I have recreated my favorite childhood feelings in my own, grown-up house! The weather is warm, I’ve been on a walk with the kids, I have the radio set to KyXy 96.5FM, listening to mostly nostalgic music, the doors and windows are open, natural light is flooding the house, the kids are napping and I’ve just finished cleaning both of the bathrooms. It may not sound like much. But to me, I’ve somehow recreated my idea of the perfect house/perfect mommy!

It may be only one perfect afternoon this week. But it could turn into two perfect afternoons next week and even three perfect afternoons next month. This is looking to be a fantastic Spring and Summer!

There's a Reason I Haven't Posted in a While

When I started this blog I was so excited! I have SO much to write about! I didn't anticipate being my own road block for posting. I have no shoratge of stuff to write about! I just either forget to make time to do it during the day or I FORGET to do it!

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m a fairly spontaneous person. I mean, its not every gal who elopes in Vegas with her boyfriend of only three weeks! I decide to paint a room on a whim or rearrange the bedroom while watching the evening news. Not long after we moved into our house my husband came home from work to find I had ripped out all of the carpet in the master bathroom! (I couldn’t bare the thought of what awful things might be under there… it needed to be replaced with hard flooring and I couldn’t wait any longer!)

As an actor, I guess this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants lifestyle is good. New shows, new auditions, no shows, no auditions… everything in an actor’s life requires a flexible personality who can handle anything life throws at them. Even in my day-job of theme park performing, nothing stays the same. Our schedules change every time there’s a holiday or change in the season!

But, I have an odd dilemma… Although I’m very impulsive I also crave routine! How is this possible? I enjoy being spontaneous, but lately I’m longing for a set schedule. I want to have a plan that I can stick to. I want to read my bible every morning, go to the gym 3 times a week, walk with the kids every day, make my kids a healthy lunch, take them on play-dates, happily greet my husband when he arrives home, have dinner ready by 5:30 every night, have a house cleaning schedule so it always looks nice, go on a ‘date night’ every week, read every night and still have time in the week to fit in some self-pampering at the salon! There’s no way on earth to do these things without having a set schedule, which I just can not seem to manage to create!

I can stick to a set schedule for something specific, for example house cleaning, for MAYBE two weeks, tops! There’s no way on earth that I can ever imagine having my entire life organized. I’ve tried. I’ve got at least three organization books that I purchased just last year, I just can’t seem to implement any of the techniques!

I enjoy my madcap, impulsive episodes, but I want those things to be instances rather than the normal way I live my life. How is this possible? IS it possible?

A Lesson in Sneakiness

I quickly check to make sure Roxy is sufficiently distracted with her playtime not to notice me. Then, quiet as a mouse, I open the pantry door and fish out the stray mini sized Kit-Kat bar, left over from Halloween that I found behind the bottled water yesterday. Just as I take the first bite I hear Roxy's voice, "Mama?" I start chewing faster, hoping I won't be caught!

She calls again, "Mama?"
"Be right there..." I quickly respond, desperately trying to finish chewing before she sees me.
I hear the patter of her little feet coming through the house and I try not to let the panic show in my face. There's only one tiny piece left and I don't want to share it! Besides, she doesn't need any chocolate this close to lunch!
As she gets close to me she says, "What's in your mouth?"
I open my mouth, praying there's no sign of chocolate, and nonchalantly say, "Nothing. Why?"

Every parent's 'You Won't Believe What My Kid Did' story begins with, "All of the sudden I realized it was really quiet..." But, its not just the kids who are guilty of this behavior! Grown-ups are very sneaky as well, maybe even more sneaky than the kids are! But, we don't often get caught... and if we do get caught, we always have a 'really good reason' for our actions.

Growing up, I would have never thought that my parents were sneaky. But, now I realize there's no way that they raised three kids without being sneaky. Now that they have three adult children and four grandchildren, I'm sure they're as sneaky as ever!

The key is to be selectively sneaky. Sneaking medicine into a child's favorite food so that they'll take it and get better is a good thing. However, I may want to rethink sneaking that candy... after all, it WAS her Halloween candy. Not to mention that I don't need chocolate any more than she does!

So, for the next week I'm going to re-evaluate the times I sneak things around my kids (and others, I mean its not like I let my husband know about that candy bar either)!

Work in Progress

How do you balance two kids, a husband, a house, two acting jobs, auditions, volunteering and spirituality? I don't know either, but I'm trying and its an interesting journey. I know I'm a Work in Progress and I have all of the Self Help books to prove it!
Each day is a chance for improvement. I have my successes and failures. For example, a recent great success: I managed to finally clear my kitchen countertop of the huge pile of junk mail, coupons, old bills, to-do lists, Dr. appointment reminder cards, kids' Birthday cards, store reciepts, pens, pencils and highlighters which has been there, seemingly, since the beginning of time! Contrasted by a recently discovered failure: I stumbled upon the THREE Organization books I purchased over a year ago under the huge pile of junk mail, coupons, old bills, to-do lists, etc. which once covered my kitchen counter! Did I use these books to organize my kitchen? Nope, because I couldn't find them!
I know that I'm scatter-brained and I often bite off more than I can chew. But, according to my friends and family, this often accounts for my most interesting stories!
I'll try to keep my posts short yet frequent... I hope this goes well!