Things I've remembered/realized in the past couple of days

1. I seem to have forgotten that my mom had a speech impediment when she was a kid, which has me wondering whether such things can be inheritable given G's difficulties?  I would assume so, since most everything else can be.  She could not say "J" when she was a kid, so her brothers Jimmy and Joe were "Shimmy" and "Show."  And she could not say the "Tr" sound either.

One of the funniest stories she tells is how she and her brothers would play a game whereby they would count the cars that passed by their home, with extra points the bigger the vehicle.  Apparently, one day a huge line of trucks came rumbling down the way, and my mother started screaming with excitement....

"Shimmy!  Show!  The FUCKS are coming!  The FUCKS are coming!" 

2. Sometimes I feel like we live paycheck to paycheck, which is completely absurd.  I have no clue how difficult it is to live that way.  I think because I squirrel away money into various accounts (from which it is not allowed to escape), my checking account looks pathetic.  It only appears like I've got $150 to last me 2 weeks.   (And then I remember that, duh, I made a donation to the state's public television fund and the zoo, adding up to $145....which explains where a nice chunk of the paycheck went.)

In discussions with friends about private/public schools, I often find myself saying, "We can't afford private school," but I have realized that this, too, is not accurate.  We could afford private school if it was a priority.  Instead of funneling money into a "Home Improvement" account or a "Fun" account, I would funnel it into the "School Tuition" account.  As my parents did when I was a kid.  

The truth is that we could afford certain things by sacrificing, as most people can.  It is simply impossible to have it all at the exact same time.  (Unless you are Paris Hilton or someone of her ilk.)

3. Yesterday at the mall, as I was waiting in line at the Starbucks kiosk, I noticed a mom with 4 kids standing behind me.  Her two oldest boys were standing completely still, just waiting patiently, while the younger two kids were doing a St. Vitus dance.  N and G were over by the fountain, with instructions to stand there and wait.  What they were actually doing was running around, chasing each other around the fountain, with N perching herself on the ledge on occasion and G dunking his arm into the water to try to touch the pennies.  M was throwing a fit trying to get out of the stroller.

I asked the smaller of the boys standing behind me how old he was, and he said ten.  I began talking with his mom about the age at which children can stand still.  She said age eight.  So N still has a little over a year to go.

It was nice to know that at some point my kids will be able to stand still in public without me having to repeatedly say, "Stop moving.  Quit running around.  Don't mess with that!"  That at some point the entire mall won't know the names of my kids because I won't be hollering them in a vain attempt to get N and G and M to stop, wait, whatever.  

AN ASIDE----

N said that at one point, she overhead a woman say, "She's got her hand's full" about me.  This may have been when M was walking away from me to the right as N was walking 100 yards ahead of me as I was packing a crying G in my arms (who was upset I wouldn't wait in a line of 50 people to see Santa), as I was trying to push the stroller.  

I am really and truly one of those moms now.   A mom with her hand's full.  

Is it weird to feel a little proud?