Mother Knows Best

After a particularly harried week at Wilkinson Manor I sat down last Thursday evening to wait for a client to have a contract negotiation meeting. But, the client is fabulous and someone I consider a friend so this meeting was held over wine and dinner which ain't all bad... clearly... Anyway, before she arrived I had to phone my role model and voice of reason--my mother. Olivia had been to the nurse's office earlier in the day with a bloody nose which wound up as a therapy session talking about how much she missed her mama. Last week alone I had 4 events in 5 days coupled with 3 radio gigs and 2 TV station appearances. Fun stuff but hectic and did not leave much time for my dear girls. In the middle of it all Eric planned an early b.day celebration with a dozen or so great friends and we saw a Neil Diamond cover band in concert. It was fabulous. Here is me and my cousin Matt's fiancee, Hailey, "cheering" Neil!

I nearly passed out from exhaustion due to dancing and crooning to "Forever in Blue Jeans." (Eric truly is a prince as he is NOT a Neil Diamond fan and would not know the lyrics for the life of him. Although, I think I saw him rock out to "Coming to America").

So, back to my mom. She told me to get back to the basics as to why we procreated in the first place. WHY?! Actually we really did want these sweetpeas and we truly adore them. She suggested we go around the dinner table or chat on the the way to school or take a minute as I hand them another healthy homemade breakfast of cereal in a bag to tell eachother what we're thankful for.

Due to the crazy week I blew off church (the one major thing I clearly need especially after Audrey's comment about fish and piss, 'eh?) so as she sorted socks and I folded laundry, I thought I'd bring up the topic of being thankful and doing what's right. So first I started with clearing my conscience which meant I needed some clarification from Audrey after hearing her say a word yesterday she could have only learned from "someone" older and wiser. The word was piss. crude and ugly as it is...

I asked her if she knew what the word meant (side note: in yesterday's blog I mentioned that my beautiful 4 year old told the dog that it smelled like p*ss and naturally I felt horrified as again she must have learned that from "someone"). "No clue, mom," she replied nonchalantly. "Then who did you hear it from?" She shrugged. "Me? Papa?" I prodded. "Yeah, it had to be Dad," she replied. Whew. Although I know the truth deep down. ugh. So, back to being thankful.

I told Audrey that Meme (aka my dear mom) thought we should start sharing with eachother what we're thankful for. She brightened at the idea and decided to start with a prayer instead. She folded her pudgy little fingers and squeezed her blue eyes shut and began, "Please God, help people to stop littering. We know this may never happen in our lifetime but we will try to teach them. Amen." hmmm. Insightful.

We went back to sorting the laundry and I decided to broach the subject again at dinner with the whole clan. This time I came equipped with a journal and told them we can write down what we're thankful for and then we can have our thoughts down on paper forever.

Olivia began, "Thanks for Hannah Montana, Raven Simone, the Jonas Brothers, and oh yeah--friends, family, house, sister, and our dogs."

Audrey's turn, "For Thanksgiving, my parents, our planet and everything God created for us."

Eric--"Audrey, Olivia, Mama, Frib, Alice (the dogs), and the Red Sox"

Me---"I am thankful that Olivia set the table and left beautiful messages at each of our place settings (proof pictured below). That Audrey and I went to the bookstore together and read lots of books and had cocoa and cookies. That papa comes home to us so happy to see us each day. And finally, I started a blog today." (obviously my thanks was too lengthy and I lost my audience).

On that note, thanks, mom, for the advice. I hope we keep it up as we do have much to be thankful for.