A Mother's Balancing Act

Women Drivers...Are We Really This Bad?

This is a hilarious video. Had to share.  Download FemaleDrivers

As my cousin who sent this to me noted, I have nothing against women drivers. Some of my closest friends are also women drivers. =) I also happen to know some men (who shall remain nameless...you know who you are...ahem) who have every bit as much trouble parking as the one gal in the video here. OK, well, maybe not every bit as much but far more than the average bear...

Clearly, these are very rare examples of what can happen, to anyone, really, in man-made machinery.

Perhaps the drivers were drinking their coffee while driving? Or perhaps they simply just have teenagers? That really can explain a lot if you ask me.

Cheers,

Balanced Babe (aka Molly Wendland)

Dude, You Forgot Your Coffee

So, I guess it's not written anywhere that you have to order something when you go to a coffee joint, right? I'm sitting here in my favorite coffee haunt, in my favorite comfy chair, next to my favorite shelf of books (used books for sale in a coffee shop - how cool is that?).

The music is playing softly, the sun is streaming through the window over my shoulder as I type. There are four other adults and a baby in here. At least, there were four other adults (plus the two barristas). Then, a guy walked in, picked up several pieces of the paper laying on a table next to me, and took the comfy chair next to mine.

No coffee.

No latte.

No frappe.

No chai.

No nada.

He's been sitting and reading the paper now for about 15 minutes.

Whoa!

The guy just left. Took off in his SUV. Never ordered a thing.

Weird.

Dude. You forgot your coffee.

Balanced Babe (aka Molly Wendland)

A Mother's Angst

Ah, the teen years...shopping, movies, going steady, staying up late chatting with your girlfriends, cruising Main Street, going to the "Big Game" and "The Dance"...

OK, who am I kidding? Yes, there's time for socializing, but my kids' lives are filling me with angst. It's more like this:

• Homework
• Studying for the "Big Test"
• Working on the group project
• Staying up late texting about who's responsible for what on the group project
• Cruising Wal-Mart late at night, panicked, searching for that last minute item for the "Big Project"
• Doing the dance between needing sleep and needing to study more for the "Big Test" in AP Chemistry

Is it just me, or has high school gotten out of hand? One of our daughters is involved in sports, and the other is not, but both are in honors classes. And both are outrageously busy. When does a kid have time to be a kid? A teen have time to be a teen? Yes, we want them to be prepared for college. Yes, we want them to do well on college entrance exams and hopefully get good scholarships to good schools. Yes, we want them to be well-rounded.

I pray for guidance every day. As I sit here mulling it over, sipping my coffee, It just seems to me that there isn't enough time for them to be kids. Is it just me? They're such good kids. They're really not even complaining, but their teen years are flying by so fast without them even realizing it. Perhaps it's just me, and I'm just getting old...perhaps that's it.

Perhaps.

Balanced Babe (AKA Molly Wendland)

Introducing...A New Author on Mother's Balancing Act

Drumroll, please...

Allow me to introduce the newest addition to my Mother's Balancing Act team, Coffee Queen!

She's balancing a career in sales while raising two teens as a happily divorced (did I mention available?) mom who has been a dear friend of mine for many years. When not working or attending one of her many kids' activities, you might find her drinking one of the skads of cups of coffee she consumes on a daily basis (usually decaf...go figure), working on her latest quilting project, playing with one of her crazy miniature dachsunds, volunteering for SAFEHOME, helping fight Juvenile Diabetes (which her daughter was diagnosed with last year), hanging out with her adorable mother (yes, she's a member of the "sandwich generation"), or at the gym (did I mention she's one hot mama?).

Coffee Queen goes a mile a minute and manages to pull it all off with grace and style. However, having said that, her feet are firmly planted in the White Trash Mom movement (thank God, or I might not be able to call her my BFF!), and her very first post will carry a "weird" tag, so you know she'll fit right in here. I'm guessing future posts will fit into such categories as:

• Coffee (that great elixir of life...)
• Tales from the Dweeb Side
• Parenting/Teens
• Working Moms
• Single Moms/Motherhood
• Divorced and Dating???
• Muffia
• Pets, namely the aforementioned crazy min dachsunds

OK, so...the next post on this site will be from...you guessed it. Our very own...Coffee Queen!

Cheers!

Balanced Babe (Molly Wendland)

Tales from the Dweeb Side - Coffee Disasters

Yesterday over at our White Trash Mom site, I posted about my youngest daughter's first day of high school and my morning mishap with my coffee in the car.

So, today, I decided to be extra careful and take my Big Girl Mug Thermal Travel Mug with the securely fastened lid. No more morning mayhem for me! I had a client meeting scheduled in the afternoon, and I was looking pretty good, if I do say so myself (and I do...:-).

Taking further precaution, I made sure to place the aforementioned travel mug into the superbly designed cupholder (one of 5 within easy reach in my Toyota mom-mobile Siena). Next, I strapped it down with a piece of taurpalin backed the van out of the driveway and proceeded on my merry way. Since my eldest was driving the carpool to school (wahoo!!!!!), I didn't even have that to worry about. Safely stopped at a traffic light, I picked up my mug out of its safety harness cupholder...and proceeded to attempt not only to drink from the wrong side of the mug but without first opening the handy-dandy spout. When I realized my lame-brained mistake, I first opened the spout while starting to turn the mug around. Having never done this before, I wouldn't have known that there can actually be pressure built up inside one of these things, all from trying to drink from the wrong side of the mug, with the spout closed (who knew?). At that moment, coffee spurted out at my bangs. Like a mini volcano eruption. Dumbfounded, I put the coffee back into its cupholder and reached for the napkins that I keep in my glovebox for occasions just like these and begain dabbing at said bangs clutzily, all while laughing at myself in the car at the traffic light.

I finish wiping my bangs down...the damage was surprisingly scant...and I decide to try this drinking at the safety of the traffic light thing again. After all, I have a safety mug.

I look at the mug to be sure that:

1. The spout is open.
2. I am going to be drinking from the correct side of the mug.

Having never had to qualify these things before, I find myself laughing again. I tilt the safety mug to my mouth, and before it has even touched my lips, there is coffee spilling all...over...me.

What the hell?

Now, I know you'd think that a sane person would be furious by now, but given the events of the previous day, and given that perhaps I am a little off my rocker anyway, I start dabbing away again and laughing out loud. Alone. In my minivan. It is then that I happen to look over to my left at the vehicle next to me. The guy next to me is staring at me with the biggest scowl on his face you have ever seen.

There I am laughing at myself in my car, and this guy is scowling at me. What'd I do to him? You know, Big Strong Man and I are firm believers in one of our favorite sayings:

"If you don't laugh, you cry, so you might as well laugh your way through this life."

Take it easy this week. And when something doesn't go your way, laugh it off, 'cuz' it's just not worth going through life with an ugly old scowl on your face.

The light turned green. I waved at the Scowler and drove away while he was still sitting there scowling. Maybe this wasn't a Coffee Disaster after all. Perhaps it was a Coffee Affirmation! Ha!

Cheers.

Balanced Babe