Hmmm...

Was chatting with a mom I know about back to school stuff. She was upset as her child's class had been split up to form 2 new classes due to overcrowding and that her child was the only person of her ethnicity in the newly formed class. She was going to meet with the school officials today to discuss her concerns to have a more mixed/ balanced class and had contacted a local private school about openings.

Tonight I have some various thoughts about it including whether it is a issue of ethnicity, culture, or being a minority. Our city is basically half White, half Hispanic, and a teeny bit of other. I am an other, so through my elementary school career, I was the only one of my race in my classes too. Never thought too much about it except when kids were making fun of my funny eyes or asked if I spoke English.

Now the acquaintance is ethnically White, so it does pose some interesting questions. Certainly I can see the point of a parent being concerned about her kid being picked on, snubbed, or excluded. But the way kids(people) can be, you can be picked on for almost anything...

My dh doesn't get my concerns about this issue (he is white) or might just not have been in the mood to talk about it (screaming 5 year old in bathtub while we were trying to have a conversation). Our offspring are a mixed breed, so they are probably the only ones of their ethnic background in their class too. Maybe it is just kind of weird as our school district is manic about the balance of ethnic groups that kids are bussed around to get the right mix and to satisfy a lawsuit/ desegregation issues from many years past. I don't know.

Mother Love

I have been reading the book Eat Pray Love again after seeing the recent movie and it has made me think about meditation. I used to do yoga classes regularly and enjoyed the movement part of it but didn't get much out of the meditation part of it due to my mind being too busy. But feeling a bit spiritually adrift/ radio silence lately, I decided to try a bit this morning. Just 5-10 minutes and not even enough time for some yoga before, but hey, I'm a mom on a busy morning schedule. So I am sitting in my room and trying to listen for God. This time I tried to be specific on what I wanted to know about. We are in the midst of exploring church congregations and I wanted some guidance about that. The word/ feeling I got was LOVE. Then my mind wandered over to my work schedule and if I should mess with it/ do less? And the answer I heard was USE YOUR GIFTS. Lastly, I asked for guidance about my family (my husband and my 2 kids specifically) and wow, I started to feel emotional, an overwhelming emotion of LOVE and DEVOTION. I wanted to hang on to the feeling, but it was fading as my furry kitty cat brushed across my leg and brought me back. So, maybe this was just a "popcorn" style meditation but I will keep trying to do this...less jabbering from me and more listening.

Rookie Moms

I read a funny article last night about "rookie moms," you know those who stress about the minutae and blog about all the details of their little ones lives. Yeah, that's me I am talking about. But, as the article goes along, it says those rookies will turn into veterans and become jaded and tired and occasionally wanting to run away. I think I am in that transition period now, or at least I was this weekend. Bad enough to have me googling "mom burnout" last night at 9pm, looking for any nonstop flights out of my town on southwest, and finding this article. I certainly became sorry for myself...crabbily report to my dh...no one appreciates me!!! I didn't get to do any fun things this weekend!!! Wah, wah, wah...kind of annoying huh?! Weekends had been some good and some bad. I, of course, do a lot of it to myself. Cooking, cleaning, etc...but it has to be done sometimes.

I did learn an interesting tidbit based on this weekend's misadventures. Loulou got mad at me and told me I could not do things for her any more...like bringing chocolate milk on demand while she is watching tv. That only daddy could. Well...that's actually a good thing maybe. She doesn't seem that mad at me this morning!!! An article linked to the one above noted that previous generations of children were the staff of the family and today's generation of children were the bosses. I am not sure I like either comparison. I think we should be adults and kids and everyone pitch in whenever they can.

So here is a rookie-turning veteran mom, pondering over the minutae and generalities of my life as a mom.