My Dance Card is Full

Well, it's official, I am no longer the least bit "cool" in the eyes of my children. I admit this has probably been the case for quite some time. Not only am I not cool I am actually "really old" too. Their words not mine.

See over the course of the past couple of months my kids have been letting me know just how uncool and old I actually am. I have been told I must spell out everything when I text. In a  recent text to my oldest son I wrote, "I love u". His reply, "Spell out yr words. Yr a big girl." I guess he's got the do as I say not as I do lesson down. My middle son was even more direct. He recently asked me to do something for him and my reply was, "Okee-Dokee." He was quick to tell me, "You should stop saying that." He was kind enough to add, "You should also never say, Wakey-Wakey Rise and Shine" or Oopsadaisies, either."

My daughter is a little more subtle. While hosting a let's get dressed together, make-up session and pre-dance dinner at our house she and her friends were playing music and dancing around. A fun song came on and I began singing. She walked into the kitchen looked at me and just shook her head. An "Ah NO" look came on her face - the one with the raised eyebrows and mouth to the side smirk. I awkwardly laughed it off and slunk into another room feeling frumpy, old, and out of place. I did pour myself a Margarita first and took it in the room with me - I haven't lost all sense of myself. In addition I am also no longer supposed to say, "My Dance Card is Full", because no one knows what the heck that phrase means. No one says "smidge" any more, as in, "I'll just have a smidge of Ice Cream." It's also completely uncool for me to say "Dude". Apparently it makes me sound stupid.

I want to respect my children's wishes so I am considering tempering my language and actions. Their message really may be, "Please don't speak to us anymore at all but please do continue to do our laundry, make our meals, and drive us everywhere." It's so sad. I was convinced my kids would never get sick of me being around.

So the other day when my son asked me to do something for him I shook my head, gave him a mouth to the side smirk and said, "Sorry Dude - My Dance Card is Full", I then dropped my keys and with a quick, "Oopsidaisies",  picked them up and was out the door. (Without even a smidge of worry about what he and his sister were going to make themselves for dinner.)

Watch this for more parenting fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_NspDWssIY

Magda

Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell

Today would have been Norman Rockwell's 119th Birthday. Now it's probable that Norman Rockwell would not have wanted to live to be 119 Years old but I believe it to be true that his spirit has never died.

Norman Rockwell portrayed life with affection and good humor. Many times I find myself saying, "Now that is a Norman Rockwell moment."  Thanks to the iPhone I try to capture these moments whenever I can.

In Norman Rockwell's own words he "Never used a professional model." He captured every day life with every day people. He captured life's wonderfully funny moments and traditions. He captured important social issues of his time. I often wonder what would he capture in this new century. Life seemed so simple in his pictures. Is it still?


Norman Rockwell was brave enough to paint Ruby Bridges. Would he take on issues such as immigration or gun control? I wish he were around to answer this question. His quaint pictures were thought provoking. Simple but powerful messages.

Here are some links for more information on Normal Rockwell:
/http://www.biography.com/people/norman-rockwell-37249
http://www.nrm.org/

Thank you Mr. Rockwell. I wish you had more time to paint all the pictures you wanted to paint.

Magda

Make it a Happy New Year

At a time when most people are dropping the ball on their New Year's Resolutions I have to admit I am just getting started. Being a Last Minute Lucy I procrastinated on my list. The list has but one item on it and that is to be Happy!

There are no big happenings planned to achieve this goal. No changes in job, marital status, or dwelling. I welcome changes in body image or just body but am not putting all my happiness eggs in the basket of whether I can shed the extra twenty pounds that have stuck to my body like some extra adhesive super glue.

Instead the hope is that being happy lies within me and the small decisions that are made every day, in forgiving myself when I fall off the happiness wagon, and in finding an easier way to get back on track without letting others keep me off too long.

It could be all about awareness and being still long enough to not react in an unhappy way. The world is full of instants. Everything has to happen in an instant and immediately or something may be missed. What is missing is the time to process thoughts or develop long term plans. Sometimes magic moments are missed because too little time is spent thinking something through. It's hard to keep one's eyes wide open to see what's ahead of us if we don't have time to take it all in. And then there are other people who want to mess with your happiness. Don't give your power of being happy over to someone else. Most of how people behave or what they say is more about them then about you anyway. Don't let another persons behavior mess with your happiness.

Reverend James Martin, S.J. wrote in America Magazine that "There are five things you can do to be happier."
1. Be Kind.
2. Relax a little bit more.
3. Be a little bit more Grateful.
4. Enjoy Nature More.
5. Pray just a tiny bit more

What ever it takes to be happy choose it over the alternative. There are things that make us sad and it's hard to be happy when we are grieving or when other people are hell bent on making us miserable. It's important to find out what helps us during these times and return to ourselves. This is my resolution for a Happy New Year, this year and every year to come.

So here it is the one item on my Resolution List: Be Happy. If none of this works I can always watch Caddyshack or an episode of Modern Family. Nothing makes me happier than a good laugh!

Magda

Happy Birthday Mom

Today, on what would have been her 92nd birthday, I celebrate my mother. Yes I mourn her. I grieve her loss. Every day I thank God she was my mom.

My mother is my inspiration. She was a realist. She saw many things in her life. She saw pure joy and pure hatred. She was a true patriot and lived an authentic life. She wanted to be remembered for her choice to live life as a person who was loyal and supportive. She fought for justice, always took care of people, and our home was always open to our friends and to anyone who could not be with their own families - especially around the holidays.

She was brilliant. A gene, that sadly, I did not inherit. She loved to laugh. Something I did not see much when I was a teenager and I am confident my own teenage children know how that feels. She taught me to look at the big picture, a gift I try to work on every day.

In her early years she wanted to be a journalist and figured out a way to achieve her goal. At the end of World War II, right before the Communists took over Poland, she boarded a train by herself and left her beloved family and country to save her life and hope for a better tomorrow. Eventually she landed in the United States of America and gave us all the gift of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It was decades before she was able to return to Poland - to the family and land she loved. She gave everything she had to her four daughters. How lucky we were.

At the end of my mom's life she had dementia. All of her gifts, among them writing, painting, broadcasting, sadly taken away from her. My hope was always that the awful memories of life in Nazi occupied Poland as well as the pain of not seeing her parents, sisters, and brother were also taken away.

In the simplicity of dementia my mother remained a warm, gracious, and loving woman who up and until the end of her life she taught me what it meant to be really, really brave.

As I do every day, but especially today, I celebrate the remarkable woman named Roza Fredericka Nowotarska Kobylinska and all the wonderful gifts she taught me.

Love you mom and Happy Birthday (Sto' Lat).
Magda