MOMS Club

Today was a MOMS Club monthly meeting day. When J. was about 6 months old, I joined a local club for moms who are at-home, either all of the time, or for part of the week like I am. It's so local that it's only the northeast portion of my town, Pasadena (there's another chapter for the southwest part of Pasadena). It stands for Moms Offering Moms Support.

After a year I was on the executive board as Secretary. The next year I was Vice Pr

esident of Administration. Today was my last monthly meeting as a board member. Starting July 1st, I'm chairmom of several committees but not on the board anymore. I decided to decline my nominations bc I anticipate that I'm going to be very busy in the next year. 

Fall 09-Fall 2010 plan: 

• begin and become consumed by my husband's campaign for Delegate
• J. starts preschool at a Co-op where I'll have to volunteer in the classroom several times per month
• get house ready for and possibly already have my Grandmother move in with us
• perhaps at some point become pregnant with our third child (although scarily my aunt and a friend have had dreams in the past week or so that I am pregnant again which I'm not)
• Plus regular life and work.
  

So I decided to cut out what I can. But I still will probably do something with MOMS Club each week. Each of my girls are in their own playgroup, plus I'm hosting regular yoga activities and a monthly craft for moms. I've made some really great friends here and I love the community we've built and how it benefits our kids.

best moment of the day: Probably the 10th time that C. majorly overreacted over something that didn't go her way and started crying and storming around and collapsing on the ground. Sheesh. She's only 14 months old but she can tantrum like a 2 year old!  Anyhow, it was great bc J. turned to me with sympathy in her eyes and said softly "I can't believe she's throwing a fit over this."  After that, the other 20 tantrums were a bit comical and J. tisk-tisked with me so I couldn't get worked up about it.  

worst moment of the day: We're all sitting at dinner and C. is fussing so we let her up from her chair even though dinner had just begun. She tries to climb up on my lap, fussing and pulling on me. Then I feel that she's got cous-cous stuck to the bottom of her feet and now it's on me. And there's gross spilled food all over the floor around me. And the table's full of crap. And the sink's overflowing with dirty dishes. And she's trying to throw my food on the floor too. And I'm paralyzed, being pushed around by the baby while J. and my husband continue to talk and eat. And I'm surrounded by gross food so I can't get up. 

I started to make soothing ocean noises. My husband chimed in, Simpsons style, with fog horns and seagull squalks.  This surprised the kids. Then he took them both upstairs so I could finish eating and get some peace for a few minutes. 

thoughts of the day: 

The local politicians are all republican because we live in a republican district. The local paper has several pages on Pasadena Politics, so of course it's all about what our republican politicians are doing. There's absolutely no alternative voice. 

I'm not used to this- there's usually multiple viewpoints, stories that represent the interests of all political parties. I get so absolutely steamed every time that I read this section and it's just a page of self-promotion and political theories that I disagree with. But I don't want to write and complain- that's lame. It would be much better to write in with these alternative stories and alternative points of view that stand on their own, not as a whiney reaction.  

But I don't. No time, and yet I write in this blog every night. I guess I'm scared that my thoughts aren't as well researched or as well formulated as theirs and that I'll do a crappy job representing.  I'm also a little scared to put my neck out there. I can use the excuse that this is my husband's job since he's running for delegate as a democrat. But really, I'm just a wuss.