Mama in Pajamas

http://www.mycutegraphics.com

Sitting around the kitchen table, doing school work together as a family, beginning the day at whatever hour works best, wearing pajamas and fuzzy slippers, a typical homeschooling family starts its day. I remember back when I was researching homeschooling this was one of the scenes that was repeatedly painted by homeschooling experts.

I never quite understood the appeal of sitting around past breakfast time still in pajamas. Pajamas are for sleeping and nothing else, that is, unless you're sick or you have a newborn. The thought of going past breakfast still wearing my pajamas is depressing. I can't walk to the mailbox in my pajamas. I'm not sure why, but all I know is that if I have to open the front door for any reason, I will at least put on some real pants.

Apparently, I'm strange (surprised?). It seems that wearing pajamas in public is the thing for the PTO crowd to do, particularly while dropping children off at school. It's like a scene straight out of People of Walmart. I almost feel overdressed in the morning dropping my children off while wearing jeans, a Target crewneck, and gym shoes. That's right, I didn't get the memo. I can almost hear the other moms thinking, "Who does she think she is? Wearing real clothes here like that."

So, in tribute to these moms, and dedicated to their traumatized children, I present to you, my highly-regarded, award-winning, five-star poem entitled "Mama in Pajamas."

Mama in Pajamas
by http://mamarantingnow.blogspot.com/

she drives the kids to school

with rollers in her hair

she looks like such a fool

you wish she wasn't there

she walks out of the car

with slippers on her feet

why does she walk so far

why can't she be discreet

you hope your friends can't see

maybe they're all asleep

oh, Lord please have mercy

or else you just might weep

mama in pajamas

morning, noon and bedtime

tell your shrink your traumas

of mama drama school time

The Reverse Miracle

It's really strange how sometimes a child can feel perfectly fine until it's time to go to school. We've been having some problems with getting Googie off to school in the mornings. He has a behavior contract at his school stating that if he finishes his homework before 8:30 in the evening, I sign his homework notebook and he gets extra time in the gym when he gets to school. You'd think it would be that simple?  Ha!

The main problem we seem to be having is that he comes home completely exhausted from his school day. I pick him up from school (which is about ten minutes away) and as soon as we get home, he falls asleep and stays asleep until the morning. You can imagine how hard it would be for someone to complete their homework while sleeping. You can also imagine how hard it would be to wake up a sleeping child that is either a very heavy sleeper or a gifted actor, one so talented that he won't even wake up for pizza and ice cream.

And so, here we are, it's morning and the dreaded homework wasn't completed the night before. Everyone wakes up, eats breakfast, and starts their day. Googie is happily sitting on the sofa reading a book about family games (that child doesn't read fiction, but I digress) when he calls out, "Mom, do I have to go to school today?" Which actually means, "I didn't complete my homework so I don't want to go to school."

I continue what I'm doing and casually answer, "Yes, it's Thursday. You go to school on Thursday, you know that." He doesn't say anything for quite a while and I continue to pack his lunch and get ready to leave.

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, I start to hear strange, wild animal sounds coming from the family room. It either sounds like a raccoon is dying or a coyote is giving birth. As I ponder how a raccoon or a coyote got into the house--maybe the kids left the back door open again last night, or there is something trapped in the chimney; stranger things have happened at this house--I walk over to the family room and find Googie doubled over in apparent pain, groaning, and clutching at his stomach. "My stomach hurts," he moans.

"It's a reverse miracle!" I exclaim as I usher him to the car and take him to school.

Winner, Wiener, Whiner

 or What Does a Winner Do After Winning?

Right now, all I can think about is that line from the movie Shark Tale when Oscar says, "Wait, Lola, I'm not a nobody, I'm a wiener." Because instead of feeling like a winner, I feel like a wiener. You see, you're probably thinking that after winning NaNoWriMo I just sat down, took it easy, basked in my glory and gave up on writing. And you wouldn't be too far from the truth considering that it's been about five months since my last blog post. There was something about writing a 50,000 word novel that resulted in what appears to be a complete writing moratorium on my part, but not really. I've actually been doing a lot of writing, that is, if you count posting on Facebook, writing text messages, writing responses to e-mails, writing and whining in my iPad journal, and now writing cutesy titles for my boards on Pinterest. In short, I've been doing absolutely anything and everything to get out of revising my NanoWriMo draft.

Then one day not too long ago I found myself pondering a Mark Twain quote that keeps making its rounds on Facebook. It goes like this:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

At that point reality hit me on the head and I realized that  I only had about six months until NaNoWriMo started again. That little voice inside my head, that same little voice which kept saying that I needed a few weeks to regroup after NaNoWriMo before revising the novel. That same voice which kept saying that I needed to just forget the whole thing. That same voice which made the New Year's resolution to have a working draft of my novel ready before the end of the year. Yes, that voice, just told me that I needed to finish what I started.

Because when I really thought about it, I realized that years from now, when I looked back on my experience with NaNoWriMo, I would regret not having a finished draft of my novel more than I would regret giving up because the story would never be perfect.

In short, I'm back and I will finish that novel, even if it turns out to be silly.