The kids, the meeting, and the analogy of the piano

This week my 15 year old daughter told me she needed an assistant.

With Memorial Day quickly approaching, I've been scrambling to put a fun family vacation together for my little family of three - my husband, myself and our one-year-old daughter Alyssa. My problem is defining our new "fun". Before Alyssa came into our lives, vacation planning was easy: we'd rent a beach house with a bunch of friends, beach all day and bar all night. Obviously those days have come and gone. The bar is no place for a baby and neither is a house filled with single middle and upper twenty-somethings.

My 3 year old son and I just got back from a 7 day trip together...alone! Now, my son is a well traveled little boy. And we have traveled together by ourselves since he was about 5 or 6 months old. But this time was different. The last time I traveled with him by myself was on a trip back from LA last May and it wasn't truly by ourselves because a coworker was with us. This time I did not have any additional support while actually traveling.

The only thing worse than having one surgery is having two ! Every mother in the world knows that none of us have time to get a cold, much less land in the hospital for surgery. However, that is exactly what I am going to be doing, for the second time in eight months. Can you hear my disgusted sigh ???

I was making dinner while Lizzi worked on a History Project at the dining room table. She had to work there because for some reason her teacher felt that in order to plan the next presentation, the group had to use a 4 foot square piece of butcher paper folded origami style into 24 sections. While I support his big picture thinking, it was an ungainly effort to make notes in the center boxes.

I've always been an early riser - that is, until I had kids. I remember as a teenager, I'd get up WAY before the crack of dawn to go for a run. I lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and sometimes I'd run all the way to mid-town, which is about 50 blocks each way. It was exhilarating!

Raising two girls has not only been one of the most tremendous joys of my life, but it has also been a wonderful education. It was fascinating to learn what motivated them to explore and accomplish. As parents, it’s challenging to identify what motivates us let alone figuring out what motivates our children. Both pursuits are worthwhile. Why is it that we do anything? The answer varies as widely as we do. We are not made from the same mold and what motivates you to accomplish your goals is different from what motivates your kids.

What is it about us moms and our super-long, seemingly impossible “to do” lists? Is it because we’re moms – and we want to have it all and can’t say no - that our lists are long and overflowing? Does the endlessness of your “to do” lists cause you to procrastinate or freeze into inactivity? Or do you accept the ongoing challenge of crossing items off as quickly as you’re adding new ones on? However you approach your lists, I’m guessing that at some point you have experienced some stress and get overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of what you want and need to accomplish every day.