Stone Soup Parenting Recipe

A wonderful friend I met online & hope to meet in real life someday said the following about parenthood: I don't know but if there was a recipe for the making of a good parent I think it would include nerves of steel, a watchful and caring eye, a heart that can not hear the hurtful words that get thrown about, a calm and loving demeanor and a quiet smile to get us through. I asked her permission to print this & she agreed saying to feel free to add my own "spices". This thing called parenting is a recipe indeed, Lisa L. in Long Island, NY you hit the nail on the head there. Sometimes I feel I'm stirring a recipe for disaster, I keep trying to add sugar instead of Cayenne pepper but dang it anyway, at times we end up with stew. Or perhaps, Stone Soup would be more accurate since we each add what we have to the mix then tread either ever so lightly or at times more vigorously to keep afloat within it all. There goes an onion for me to lasso as a life preserver! With all the layers, perhaps I will survive, cherishing each layer as it disintegrates to the next.

I've been trying everything lately to cope with stress. I've cut off my hair, I'm piercing my nose, getting tattoos, exercising, eating dark chocolate, meditating and so on. However, I would have to say, friendship is by far the most wonderful coping mechanism I've encountered thus far. That, and prayer. It truly does take a whole village to raise a child!! Especially when I have a half a dozen or so children whom can raze a village!!

Once again I hail the invention of the Internet & cyber cafes for allowing me access to friends I would have otherwise never "met". These friends, whether they realize it or not, and hopefully they do, are an integral part to my survival.

How the heck did I get this age anyway?! The plan had been to play hard, live fast, die young & leave a good looking corpse. Now that pipe dream is long down the tubes. I have no regrets and I do not mourn it's demise at all, forgive the cheesy pun please. I am thankful for my current sado-masochistically painful-bliss. The bodily scars, wear and tear of motherhood and age I could do without but the family, as crazy as they make me and I them, I do not regret for a moment. While my timing of children could have been better, I have a 21 yr old and a 3 yr old currently with 4 other children in between, it is a chaotic melody that I march in an off-beat rhythm to with or without prescription medication. I still feel like a late 20-early 30-something year old myself, yet I am trapped in a body of an old woman. Funny, I don't even have the energy for bingo. Okay, not funny. I am so confused and unable to keep track of every one's schedules, I feel like I have Alzheimer's. Yes, I'm in my own little world but usually fairly peaceful there. Let's see, husband has a half day of work today then other obligations; 17 yr old will come home from Navy enlistment testing sometime today; 16 yr old remains with her father and Nana for now; 7 yr old is eating yogurt; 6 yr old is awaiting the computer; 3 yr old is watching cartoons; niece and her fiance are asleep after swing shift work last night. How'd I do? Who knows right? I'll grade myself-this time I got it right without the aid of sticky notes even. However, tomorrow is coming & then it's another crap-shoot so to speak.

The work on the exterior of the house is finished, all but the decks and steps. I liken it to us humans, much work left to be done on the interior and structural boundaries needed for accessibility. Maybe we should keep it like it is? hm, more food for thought in this recipe of parenthood and life. For now Dear Readers, Be Blessed and enjoy your season as well as seasoning!