Results tagged “family” from Momtourage: Blogger Knows Best

  Tonight, it's Friday and for the first time in a long time, this Funny Mom comedian doesn't have a gig!!  Yes, for a change I'm going to be home and I'm sooooo loving it.  So tonight, we've made a plan to do pizza and bowling with our 6 year old.  She's bringing her friend Madison along so it should be fun.  I know, Madison, not a fan of the name either but the kid is great.  I also don't like the name Brooklyn...I'm like really?? which neighborhood??  What's next, here's my daughter Park Avenue??  Our son Murray Hill??  Which is just an expression people there are no hills in Manhattan so get rid of all those SUVs for gods sake!  Any rate, bowling is cheap (and I have a coupon...so sexy) so it should be a fun night.  My husband can kick back and enjoy a beer.....or as our daughter refers to it....daddy soda.  We're in a recession and he just started his new part time job (there are no full time ones available yet....hello, can you say lagging economy??), so bowling with a coupon will just have to do.  No wonder Netflix stock keeps going up.  Don't our lives sound glamorous?  Just like a TV show?.....yeah Roseanne.  But it'll be fun.  As long as we're together we'll have a good time.  What inexpensive activities are you enjoying with your family these days??

A friend of mine (let's call her "X"), with two young sons (7 & 2 yrs old), recently took in her elderly mother and helped take care of her during her final days. As you can imagine, this was hard on X and her family. 

Since X's mother passed, a neighbor and I were discussing delivering dinners to help X's family. During the conversation, the neighbor expressed that she "never would have allowed her children to see a loved one die like that." She felt that it would be too hard on her children.

  With the economy being so...for lack of a better word....slow....and airfares being at an all time low, I packed up our daughter and took her to England for a real summer vacation.  Well, it wasn't actually what we'd define as 'summer' over there but at least school was out of session.  We did some sightseeing in London and then headed southwest to spend time with family in Cornwall.  Cornwall is farm country and Lily, being born and raised in Brooklyn, was thrilled to see sheep, cows and horses on a regular basis.  When I informed her that her cousin owned ponies she replied, "Real ones?!"  Here are some photos from our trip.  By the way, those other blonde children in the photo with the lambs are her cousins.  I know, it was like the aryan children ver playing dahlink (imagine bad German accent).  And don't worry, that cow in this photo was a fake.  They only teach milking on fake cows as the real ones are waaaay too dangerous....and stinky.

I try to keep it to a minimum, but I sure can feel sorry for myself at times. It doesn't help that there is next to no reason to do so and that I am mindful of this irritating tendency - sometimes I think that it is an innate quality that I can do little to damp down. (Sigh.) And to be frank, I did have a spell of irritating things happen all at once - my car was unusable for two weeks, the toilet broke, my sons and I discovered we had lice, and an unsavory relative began lurking around town.

And then my dad had a heart attack and my priorities immediately shifted. 

by Yesha Callahan

Last year my 10 year old suggested that he should be able to have an email address so that he can send 'letters' to his friends and family, more specifically his 79-year-old great-grandmother, whom he refers to as "Me-Ma". I'm sure his Me-Ma would have felt honored that he thought she was that technologically advanced, but unfortunately she's not. Personally, I wasn't too keen on the idea of him having an email address, because that would open up another can of worms when it came to his internet usage, which I try to monitor closely.

This year, with soooo many people unemployed and the number only rising, take the time to really enjoy the simple things this 4th of July.  Like the freedom to read this blog and not have your text messaging stopped by pro-government, anti populist forces (hello....Iran).   More importantly, really enjoy the company of your friends and family in particular your munchkins.  No matter what age they are they'll always be our munchkins.  And yes it's loaded with carbs but it's only potato salad.  Eat it for gods sake.  You can go back to the gym....or Harry.....or however you work off those calories on Monday.  Happy birthday America.

Even though I live in one of the largest cities in the country, I still like to indulge in what some might consider more rural pursuits. I home can all of my own jam and chutney (plus various pickled items). I knit 90% of our sweaters and winter accessories. I garden - as much as one can do with containers in a limited space. And I am seriously considering keeping several chickens in our tiny backyard. This is what I have always done and in the past friends have mainly viewed these activities as mildly interesting oddities, or a holdover from my (very) rural upbringing.

Not anymore.

Well, not the end. This is only the beginning, I'm sure, of what will probably be the most disturbingly public separation in television history. On last night's episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8, the couple (finally and unsurprisingly) announced that they were filing for divorce, which begs the question: How, exactly, does a couple go about separating eight children, an enormous house and a television empire? If only it were as easy as the SNL joke from a couple of weeks ago implied: Two TV shows, one called Jon Plus 4 and another one called Kate Plus 4.

This week, my husband had a lecture in the UK, which also happens to be where his family resides. We would have normally tagged along, but airfare is steep for a family of four, so he decided to just take our older son, Mr G.

That meant that D, my younger son, and I have been home without them this week. It also happened to be the last week of school--a 3-day week--so that meant plenty of time together without big brother and Daddy.

Though I tried to give D lots of treats, took him to see "Up", visited the water sprinkler park, and set up playdates, D still really missed his other half of the family. He often asked if we're going to pick up Mr G if we're going somewhere in the car, and one night in the supermarket, he cried, "I wanna go home and see Daddy and Mr G, and give them a hug."

Later in the week, he said that "Spoogee," our car, "misses Mr G and Daddy, but I don't miss Mr G and Daddy." Which I took to mean that he's adjusting to their absence, but I think we both can't wait till the other 1/2 of the family comes home in a few days.

Well, this story would have to involve technology. My family, known for various intense and long-standing feuds of the traditional sort (not talking, avoiding certain streets/neighborhoods/restaurants on the off chance that the you-know-who of the moment may be there) has stepped it up a notch and is now embracing digital shunning. Yes, I am talking about Facebook.

We took Lily to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this week to see the annual Hanami or Cherry Blossom Festival.  This is one of our favorite things to do and this year, with all the constant bad news we really needed a little pick me up, especially since I had just mailed the IRS a check for $3000.  It's okay, I just made it out to AIG (too bad we couldn't just write them off as a dependent)..  But seriously, we didn't participate in any tea bag temper tantrums - I thought that was the realm of my overbearing mum.  Honestly, who do these people that protest taxes think is going to pay for our way of life: the road fairy? the school fairy?  Grow up already.  These are probably the same people who voted for George Bush....not once but twice.  It came as no shock to me that it was all coordinated by the Fox News Channel.