A Winter Drought - by Margaret Hart

According to the weather forecasters, we're experiencing a winter drought in New England. This is a first in my recent memory.  And I, for one, am not upset about it. I don't miss the snow, sleet, ice, and piles of frozen dirt all over the roadways and parking lots (not to mention my car). I am happy that we've only had seven inches of snow this winter. Old man winter, you can keep the snow; I am ready for spring!

It doesn't seem to bother the kids that there hasn't been a lot of snow this winter; at least the kids I know.  My son and his friends seem very happy to have fifty degree days where they can ride their bikes and not have to be weighed down by heavy coats, boots, hats, scarves and mittens. 

My son, while born in the wintertime, is not a winter baby. He isn't big into skating or skiing, but he does enjoy sledding, and I had hoped to hit the slopes with him a few times this winter, but it doesn't look promising. And now that I've said this we'll probably get a huge snow storm next week. But that's okay. I am grateful for the winter of sunshine and warmer temperatures.   And I know he is, too. This past weekend he spent almost an entire afternoon outdoors, hiking through the woods, climbing trees and rocks, riding bikes and having a great time with his friends.   

Having grown up in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York, I experienced some nasty Nor'easters and a lot of lake effect snow. But not even the meanest snowstroms held us back from carrying on with our daily lives.  I don't recall my parents ever losing power.  And the plows cleared the roads  like clockwork. We were never stranded.  We drove everywhere. In fact, I can remember one time when my girlfriends and I all piled into our friend's parents Chevy, and slid some twenty miles on the local highway during a snow storm to a nightclub across town.  It was ladies night. I don't know why our parents allowed us to go out;  maybe they didn't know!

Living in New England, I have shrugged my shoulders more than once when the weather forecasters talk about snow storms and predict heavy snow fall of up to six or eight inches. It makes me laugh when people rush to the grocery store to stock up on food items, as if they think they will be stranded in their homes for weeks.  And the plows just don't seem to know how to plow the roads.  

I am already in springtime mode.  And I'm not the only one.  The birds are chirping as if they are happy, too, that this winter has been mild, and spring is just a few weeks away. The daffodils in my garden are happily peeking through t he ground, anxious to extend their stems and bloom. I'm ready to put away all our winter coats and boots, and break out our flip flops.  

If spring comes early this year, I promise not to complain if it rains a lot to make up for the so-called winter drought. After all, April showers bring May flowers.  

Mommy Rants - By Cara Potapshyn Meyers

Every Mom needs to rant and vent from time to time. Now that it is the unofficial middle of summer, with our “balmy” 100+ degree weather, it is the perfect time to get some “pet peeves” off my chest! And since the air quality alert is so high, it is recommended that everyone stay indoors. The time is ripe for my annual “Mommy Rants” blog! So, since it is so dang hot, I think I will first start with the “balmy” weather rant...

“Balmy Weather”

For close to the past two weeks, the temperatures here in NYC and surrounding suburbs has been either close to, at, or over 100 degrees. So hot, that watering my grass and potted plants for two hours in the early morning and two hours in the early evening still has left them shriveled! So hot that they are keeping the kids at my son’s day camp indoors half the day to watch movies. The early and late parts of the day, they are spending extra time in the pool. They did go to a Water Theme Park one of the days. I can’t help but think though; Why am I spending hundreds of dollars for my child to go to a pool that I could take him to and watch DVDs, which he could do at home? My rational is that he is with his friends all day, plus I get some peace and quiet. That, alone, seems like a pretty decent reason to me. I can also get so much more done when my son is out of the house. Okay, so now that this rant is somewhat rationalized, let’s move on to my favorite rant...

Day Camp

It is only halfway through camp and so far my son and the camp has “misplaced” (ie. lost) several items. The first of the “misplaced” items is two...not one, but two lunch totes!! One has my son’s name embroidered across the front in bright red!! How in the world do you loose two lunch totes in less than two weeks!? Knowing my son, the answer is entirely apparent. But don’t the counselors keep a small eye on some of this stuff?? My son also lost one shoe (yes, only one), a ratty towel (I hadn’t even noticed...the counselor brought it to my attention. At least they keep an eye on ratty towels), and a sport water bottle. Now here’s the best one: The camp also lost my son’s Epi Pen!! A medically indicated device that the ADULTS are supposed to be in charge of!! This completely boggles my mind! Since we are at our insurance limit for Epi Pens until the end of August, it would cost $150 to replace it! The camp told us they would replace it if they couldn’t locate the original. But this is absurd! Also highly negligent! And what have we accumulated in return? About 15 camp shirts! Enough so that I can throw out the small ones at the end of the season and still have more than a week’s worth for next year. If we send my son next year. I’m losing faith in a camp that loses a life-saving medical device! Oy! On to my next peeve...

RSVPing to Birthday Parties

My son’s birthday party is this coming Saturday. I sent out invitations about a month ago. As of the RSVP date, I received exactly 5 responses out of 21 invites sent. I am highly understanding of families that were away for one or two weeks and missed the RSVP date. I understand that this heat is getting to us all and we are all a little lightheaded. But I now have to track down, make calls, leave messages, and find phone numbers of the families whom have yet to RSVP! All this while finishing the final touches for my son’s party!! I even put both our phone number as well as my e-mail address on the invites, to make it even easier to RSVP!! I think I rant about this every year, and every year I think it gets worse. Along with not receiving even a handmade thank you card for a gift you went out of your way to get a party child. As Ms. Manners would say, “Tsk, tsk...”

Last, but not at all least...

Laundry, Laundry and Yet...More Laundry

I know I moaned about this several blogs ago. It seems that no matter how many bathing suits, SPF shirts, ratty towels, shorts, camp shirts and socks I stock up on, I still find that I need to do laundry every other day, for one reason or another. This time, the culprits are my son’s karate outfits. My son has karate after camp three days a week (nice, tired kid!). He only has two karate outfits because he only was able to take two classes a week when school was in session. Now he takes three. I asked to purchase a third outfit, but the karate school is out of my son’s size and is waiting until mid-August to place a large order for the Fall classes. My son is drenched when he finishes his karate classes. These clothes cry out to be laundered! So, after my son’s Tuesday and Wednesday classes, I do a load of laundry to make sure that he has a clean outfit for his Friday class. It is a good thing that they have a home delivery service called Soap.com. In this weather, I hardly feel like shopping for and shlepping home hoards of laundry supplies! I make a purchase online, get free shipping if I meet a quota, and in less than 2 days, I have laundry supplies on my front porch! Now how cool is that?! (Shout out to Soap.com!!)

Well, that is all the ranting I can stand to give at the moment, although I’m sure there is more!

Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what your favorite Mommy Rant is! I’d love to read them all! Let’s compare rants!

Side Note: Today marks the official, second anniversary of my blogging for MotherhoodLater.com! I hope you have enjoyed my blogs just as much as I enjoy writing them! For those of you who are curious about what I wrote for my very first blog, I am adding a link directly to it. I must admit, it was probably one of the most creative blogs I’ve written to date!

Enjoy!