A Year Without Pop

So, I totally made it the whole year without pop! And when the time came to drink pop again, I didn't really feel like it.  I've had pop a few times since the beginning of the new year, but I want to drink other things instead.  I still want a Coke or a Faygo Rock n Rye every now and then, but that's it.  Now, what else can I give up...

Cheers!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Last night was an exciting evening.  A bird got into the house.  I wish I could have recorded the whole ordeal.  Here's how it went down...

Kevin goes downstairs to do homework after Gunnar falls asleep.  I'm doing things upstairs when I get a text.

"Could you come downstairs please?"  
"Close all the doors"

So, I'm pretty much unsettled as I hurry and close all the doors and go downstairs.  Kevin meets me in the foyer and says something is in the house.  Something with wings.  Great.  It's either a bird or a bat, I think as the thing whizzes by my head.  It lands, bird is confirmed.  Now to get it out of the house.  We open the dining room windows, the front door and the living room windows.  We close off the kitchen.  I grab a broom.  Every time the damn thing flies by me I freak out, to my shame.  The stupid bird lands on the open window sills multiple times and doesn't fly out.  Then it lands right in the front door and doesn't fly out.  Freeman is jumping trying to grab it, I'm waving my broom, Kevin has a blanket in the air.  Then it poops on my couch.  

Now, if you know my relationship with my couch then you know what needed to happen next.  That bird had to die.  I start waving my broom with the intention to wack it (before I was trying to guide it) and running back and forth on the first floor.  Basically, I'm pissed. Finally, the damn bird gets tired and flies right out the dining room window.  We can be heard throughout the neighborhood frantically yelling "CLOSE THE WINDOW!  ITS COMING BACK!"

After 30 minutes, the drama is over.  The bird is out, Gunnar is still asleep, the poop has been cleaned up off the couch and walls (oh yes, it got my freshly painted walls).  

And the entire time, all I'm thinking is that squirrel scene in Christmas Vacation.  We had all the pieces for it...

Cheers!

Mom Problems #5

Ok.  I try to keep these mom problems light and funny.  Silly things that happen only when you become a mom.  But today, this problem is serious.  It's one I have been struggling with for a while.  I've tried different ways to deal with it, but they don't seem to be working.  It's fear.  Fear that something, sometime, somewhere will happen to Gunnar.  

Now, I'm not talking about crazy, freak accidents that no one can control.  I'm talking about all the things the news bombards you with on a regular basis.  Kidnappings, murder, abuse, homelessness, hunger, and let's throw in ISIS too.  These things bothered me before I had a baby.  But now, hearing any story about something bad happening to a child, or a baby animal for that matter, makes me physically upset.  Like boarder line crying and hyperventilating.  It's really becoming a problem.  I have blocked a lot of things from my FB news feed, but things still slip in there.  I'm debating about getting rid of FB for a while.  

I don't watch or read the news any more.  I don't even go to the Yahoo main site because there is bad news right in your face the second you get on there.  I have decided the only way to keep my sanity is to become ignorant.  But, if you know me, that is near impossible for me to accomplish.  I like to be well informed but it's becoming crippling to be so.  I am angry at our government for not doing a better job.  I am angry at other governments for not doing a better job.  I am mad that I can't fight to protect my family the way I would like.  I am mad that I can't fight to protect ALL the children EVERYWHERE the way I would like.  

I know that the word needs to be spread about these things so that people can do something about it.  You can't change something if you don't know it needs to be changed.  I just can't seem to compartmentalize this horrible information in a way that doesn't eat at me.  A normal person would hear a terrible story, feel bad for maybe a day, lock that knowledge away and use it when they need to.  I hear a terrible story and I think about it for a week.  Its the last thing I see before I go to bed.  I think about how it could have been prevented.  I get angry that no one prevented it.  I get scared and angry that it will probably happen again.  

This problem I have makes it difficult to enjoy the time I have with Gunnar.  I try to be in the moment, but what if something happens and I no longer have these moments with him? How can I protect him from the bad people in the world, but let let him grow to be a part of the world?  Children are so innocent.  My brain does not have the ability to understand how someone could ever hurt a child.  I wish people were better.  I will never understand how people can have the capacity for such greatness and such evil.  

I pray that in the end, the bad people in the world will all answer for what they have done.  I do not know if God is vengeful, but I do hope there is justice.

Cheers.