A FOOT INTO A NEW WORLD... for BOTH of us.

Today is a poignant day.  It's 20 year mark of when I went into labor to deliver Girl.  Something about 20 hits a little differently than one, or 10 or 13, or sweet 16, 18.

I've empty-nested for a little over a year now.  It was less of a nest situation than it was a ship I was tossed overboard from, tumbling in the water and finding which way is up.  The saying goes that the only thing that is constant in any situation is one's self, so I clung to what I knew and that was my creativity. At the same time I opened up to applying that to new scenarios to grow with.  It's been a year of incubating. 

A dear art licensing friend is escaping to Florence, Italy for 2 months (see FiftyJewels.com blog - Kimberly is grabbing the next 50 years by the jewels and living intentionally beautifully and she wants you to as well!)  She made the mistake of inviting me to visit during that time - if you follow my Instagram or FB you know I say YES to travel! The creative inspiration will be off the charts.

When booking my trip and zeroing in on dates, today, this 20 year anniversary of going into labor seemed like the appropriate way to mark my own 'rebirth' if you will.  I will be 'laboring' on the plane tonight, and will land on February 22, my wonderful daughter's birthday, marking my own rebirth-day into the next stage after Stark Raving Motherhood (with a svelter body than my 9 month preggers.)

Like a new baby, I don't know exactly what the journey will be like but I know she will look like me and she will be creative in her approach to life.  She will take whatever is in front of her and make it work, she will create something from nothing and from all of the inspiration that is in her path. She will share it with the world with the end goal of making the journey better for everyone.

By the end of the trip she may look 9 months pregnant again from all of the Italian eating she is about to do...

Once a mother, always a mother, but the Stark Raving part seems to have graduated. (The Stark Raving Motherly Worrying remains a permanent fixture as all mothers will attest to.) So it seems appropriate to conclude this blog with this post, which will also be the first post of my next blog reflecting the next phase of life. I'm ready to call it that and embrace it, thanks in large part to Kimberly, who really walks the 50 Jewel walk and is showing that it's a "buona cosa", a good thing! 

FOOD, LOVE & SHELTER, THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT!

It's new territory.

I originally meant the whole electronics thing, but really every sunrise is new territory in MotherLand.

My newborn humanoid once looked at me for every clue of information, food, care, love, shelter.

At age three, the electronic music from the ice cream truck played and she said "is that your phone?" it cracked open the concept that we were in a different era.

We thought it was cute when at four years old, while visiting Grandma's house, Girl said, "I just want an E-dot to lay down with me for a little bit." We figured out she meant A-dult and reveled in how the electronic age is part of their life right from the start.

Today, getting ready for school, Miss 15 asked, "what's the weather supposed to be today...OH never mind... I have an APP for that!"

Motherhood... there's an APP for that. APParently I am not essential personnel anymore!

MAJOR LEAGUE MOTHERING

Get your sashes out and "stitch witch" on your Force Feeding badge.

I am Forced to Feed.

The whole "feed the family" thing scares me with the same amount of nerve wrack as "they're going to bite my hand off" in a petting zoo.

It's entirely up to me. The nutrition and health or lack-thereof of my family rests on my itty bitty shoulders. I have to make sure everyone gets their 16 vitamins and minerals and doesn't go hungry whether in home or on the run. I have to nag calcium into Girl's bones and see that her diet is more than a parade of after-school-snacks and that the Baconator I married gets some roughage now and then.

In the delivery room I transformed from my previous "happy eating a bowl of cereal for dinner on the couch in front of the TV" to a skilled and trained nutritionist. But I don't remember going to class for it, so I'm making it up as I go.

My basic raw mothering instincts tell me: "too much sugar is bad, three squares a day, get some greens in there, protein & calcium are musts."

I learned on the battlfield (and I'm not saying this with pride) that:

eating something before leaving the house staves off low sugar tantrums, a pizza in the freezer can save the day, pancakes are a good vehicle for sneaking in nutrients, no one really likes Tuna Supreez, there's no fighting halloween candy, oranges have calcium for someone who turns her nose up at milk, chocolate in the evening brings on the nightmare monster and ramen noodles are an embarrassing 'just keep the kids alive' secret in my pantry.

The non-stop merry-go-round of meals is a ride I am strapped onto with handcuffs. Somedays it's a hit, most days it's just tolerable but everyone is still alive and still asking "what's for dinner" so it can't be all that bad... can it?