eatthefrostingfirst

   It’s time. Summer is coming to an end. Target is filled with school supplies (and Halloween candy- which is totally premature ) Kids are off to college (kinda) Kids are getting ready for school (kinda)  And that sums up 2020 so far. Kinda. School, work, date nights, meeting friends for lunch-  All in a “kinda” way. Virtual school Zoom work meetings  Social distancing lunch  Masks in outdoor restaurants until you sit down. What we thought would be short lived has turned into anything but. Our kids are trying to adapt to a whole new way of school while parents figure out how to simultaneously attend a 9AM managerial meeting while helping their elementary age student with their diarama (am I dating myself? Do kids still make diarama’s out of Stride Rite shoe boxes?) Point being- none of us know what the hell we are doing.  There has been no book written and no guidelines to follow. But somehow- we got from March to August.  And I have no doubt we will make it to December  And beyond.

  Dear Stranger,  I see you losing your patience. I just ask you, for a second, to put yourself in the other shoes. My son does not speak as naturally as your or I do.  What comes off your tongue does not easily come off of his.  I ask you, as you reach to finish his sentence for him, to just take a few extra seconds of time.  He isn’t searching for the word. He knows what he wants to say.  I ask that you direct your questions and comments to him- not to me.  He is a 17 year old bright and  kind young man.  He happens to have a speech impediment. He happens to have a stutter. Did you know that Bruce Willis and James Earl Jones and  Tiger Woods have also stuttered?  And that presidential candidate Joe Biden, has worked through a stutter his entire life?  Talented, smart and successful people.  Stuttering does not make you incompetent. It does not make you unable to form an idea or thought.  You know what it does do?  It often feels isolating.  It often feels frustrating. Anxiety ridden.

 With a little (HA. That's an understatement) extra time on my hands, I dug up my old diaries.  I started journaling at the age of 12(ish).  Originally my pink diary was under lock and key because I wrote about my huge dark secrets like my crushes on Andy Gibb and Scott Baio and how my Mom didn't understand me.  I then became WAY more mature (and daring. Journals with fancier covers and no keys) and wrote about REAL boys, how I sucked at school, and how my Mom didn't understand me.  It was a hoot to look back upon. (Do people say hoot anymore?)  I realize I was way more advanced than my boys are now (and am thankful for this) and that my Mom definitely understood me. We were so alike that we were oil and water at the time (combined with teenage hormones).  I wish I could read the pages back to my Mom now. She would get a kick out of them and we would laugh. "Oy, those teenage days" , she would say, and then something like "but how lucky I am now".  I mis

Inspired by a friend who posted on fb asking what have you learned since quarantine. What have I learned... How much I’ve missed Honey Bunches of Oh’s (which is now a meal for me at least once a week. And not for breakfast ) I hate the smell of all hand sanitizers- except green purell (which brings me back to my NICU days with - ironically- bittersweet memories) My dog is the best thing to come out of 2020. 5 months is equal to a decade. It is confirmed. I hate making dinner. Insomnia has won. “Maskne” is real. Six feet apart is further than anyone thinks. 20 seconds is also longer than anyone realized. We’ve learned about tigers, Jimmy Fallon’s adorable kids, how to Zoom, how to exercise from home using make shift weights (are gyms doomed?), bake banana bread, use hair clippers, and that almost the entire world can now work from home. Trey Kennedy is a freakin riot and gets it spot on every time. Kanye thinks he is presidential. Andrew Cuomo has a new following. We have had to be war

People who say “enjoy every stage your kids are in” didn’t warn me that my boys would still think poop is funny as teenagers. For those following along, here is the blog post you may have been waiting for .. Our birthday trip to visit Mary from Somerville (no kidding- this is how she refers to herself). Mary- the woman who has a TV show because she makes things out of poop. We drove to Somerville (population 500. 4 roads in town). Because my boys are such "fans" of the show (and by boys, I include DH), we all laughed when we saw Hussey's. The general store they often refer to on the show. We were running late for Mary so we decided to stop on our way home). We were greeted at home of Tirdy Works (lovingly referred to as the crap shack) by a dozen roosters cockle doodle doo'ing at us, a bunch of ducks, a few cats and 3 dogs a howling (sing it with me..and a partridge in a pear tree). I could not stop laughing as I walked my way up to knock on the crap shack door.  We w