A Mother's Balancing Act

People Watching @ Coffee Shops

The people watching at coffee shops can be downright entertaining – even in the 'burbs where I live!

Today, for example, I headed over to my favorite neighborhood haunt to do a little work while I enjoyed a cup-o-joe.

Well, the web connection wasn't working so hot, and I found myself immersed in other people's conversations and lots of…well, staring. Yes, staring.

Let's see if I can do a good job of recapturing the scene with a little panache…

Back in the corner, we had a meeting of the Old Timers' Cycling Club, complete with oh-so-tight bike shorts – yowza! Didn't need to see all that junk! Lemme tell ya! At one point, one of the gents hopped up and sort of trotted out the front door to snag another friend outside. He nearly skidded across the floor because in addition to his spandex, he was wearing cleats. I'm not kidding. Cleats! Since when do cyclists require spiked footwear? Especially 85-year-old cyclists? He was one noisy cyclist, that one! And, Lordy, that spandex…yikes!

Then, there are the ladies who've just gotten their nails done next door…

"Hi! I'd like a triple soy latte, no foam, not too hot…do you have sugar free toffee syrup?"

"No? OK, then, how about Tiramisu? Do you have sugar free Tiramisu?"

"Damn…OK. How about…uhm…(the line is starting to stack up behind her now…) how about pumpkin? Any sugar free pumpkin?"

"Shoot. OK. Let's just do an Americano. No, wait! A mocha! Yes. A mocha. Triple soy mocha. No foam. Not too hot. Is the chocolate sugar free?"

"Awesome! Oh, and LOTS of whipped cream, please!"

Well, allrighty, then.

"Oh, God…can you get the money out of my purse for me? It's right under that brush…I'm so sorry. I just got my nails done…"

"Oh, thank you. I like the butterfly, too. Kind of different, right? They do a good job over there…yes, it's right there. Can you get my debit card out? It's the Commerce card. Right…let's put it on there…oh, can you sign for me?"

Are you kidding me???

"Oh, really? I have to? Well, OK…if I have to. I hope I don't mess them up…"

I'd say "only in Johnson County", but I've witnessed this kind of thing all over the place. Women and their nails. Women and their hair. Women and their children.

Women. Ya' gotta' love us, right?

Just enjoying that cup-o-joe…

 

Balanced Babe (Molly Wendland)

Expanding the Menu

According to Big Strong Man, I have a bad habit. He refers to it as "Expanding the Menu".

It goes something like this. We plan a party. I make up a detailed menu of all of the items that I am planning to serve, and then, at the very last minute…the 11^th hour, if you will…I Expand the Menu.

I panic and worry that we won't have enough food after all (we always have enough food for a cast of Marines…), and I start whipping up an extra batch of guacamole…or artichoke dip…or gooey butter cake. You get the idea.

Well, weekend before last, I did something similar…kinda.

We were preparing to leave for Chicago to take our daughter to college – in 30 minutes.

And at that very moment, I decided to make her some of my famous Pesto Pasta…'cuz' that's her favorite. And I hadn't made any in a while. So, I decided I needed to do it – right then. (Hey, when you have veritable basil bushes like I do, you tend to want to take advantage of them, ya' know?)

Um, yeah…you might say that I'm a little verklempt about sending this child off to school.

So, I put the pot of water on the stove to boil…throw in the kosher salt and some olive oil and put a lid on, so it will boil faster.

Then, I run back to our room to finish getting ready.

I throw two bags of whole wheat spaghetti in with 20 minutes to go before our ETD (Estimated Time of Departure).

Those of you who have traveled with me before know that I tend to run a bit late…ahem.

Big Strong Man sees the steaming pot of water, and steam proceeds to start pouring out of his ears. He is definitely pleased…He quietly reminds me that we are leaving in now…17 minutes.

"I know," I chirp.

A few minutes later, when he sees me preparing to mix up my creamy pesto, I think his head might just spin right off of his neck. "We're leaving in three minutes."

"I know," I stammer. "I'm just trying to do something nice for our daughter. It's her favorite food on the planet." This to justify my completely inane activity at the last minute… ;-)

So, our daughter comes out to the kitchen, pours herself a "go mug" of coffee and sits down at the table. "What smells soooo good?"

"Pesto pasta," I reply, smiling complacently.

"YUMMMM! Oh, that sounds soooo good! Could I have some right now? Please???"

"For breakfast?? At 9 AM?"

"Yes??" she pleads.

"Sure. I don't care," I smile, absolutely thrilled with the early result of my domestic toils. I dish her out a big scoop of the creamy, green, garlicky pasta into a cereal bowl.

"That's plenty!"

She sits down at the breakfast table and starts twisting the strands of noodles around her fork. "Mmm, it's perfect."

"Doesn't need anything?"

"Nope! Why did you make this today?"

"For you and your roommate."

A look of surprise, then, perhaps embarrassment – but finally, pleasure crosses her face.

"We'll put it in a big gallon baggie, and it can go right into your dorm mini fridge. A little touch of home that you can warm up in the micro your first week of school."

Smiles all around.

9:08 AM…ready to walk out the door.

Not bad. Not bad at all…

Balance Babe (Molly Wendland)

Care Package for Your College Student

Our local newspaper ran a feature story yesterday about care packages for college students.

And that got me to thinking...what would my soon-to-be college student like in a care package?

Well, we all like to think that our kid is "special" - different from the norm, if you will.

But I'd have to say that the Star's article certainly hit the mark with the advice to pack it chock full of homemade goodies. Those will be a homerun with our girl, that's for sure.

So...

• Gooey Butter Bars, or
• Nieman Marcus Bars
• Homemade Brownies - always a hit
• Perhaps a few sundry items like magazines, toilet paper and snack items (mac n cheez, granola bars, etc.) - these will make good packing filler

And now for the items that might make our daughter unique:

• The KC Star crossward & NY Times crossward
• Coffee from Hattie's, our neighborhood java joint, preferably Yirgacheffe (yum!)
• Individual creamers (Mini Moo's?)
• Raw almonds - probably the bag from Costco; she loves those!
• KitKats - if it's not too warm out anymore!

This is a great start and a productive exercise. Thanks! I'll keep you updated on future shipments as I think of them.

Hopefully, you've gotten some good ideas for your college student, as well.

As far as I'm concerned, ther are no bad ideas, only bad hair days...so have at it!

Happy packaging!

Balanced Babe (Molly Wendland)

College, Cash and Condoms???

Yes. You read that right. We tasked our 18 year old daughter with locating a nearby banking option at her new college campus. So, what did she find in the busy metropolis she has chosen? Well, the Jesuit university is nicely situated right next to a Bank of America ATM, which is also conveniently adjacent to the Planned Parenthood. Um, yeah...don't get me wrong. I'm all for safe sex. It's just...she's our first. I don't know. It's a little ironic, isn't it?

So, she can get a little Calculus in first thing, stop for Cash at the ATM, grab a Cup of Coffee at the Dunkin Donuts, and stop in the Planned Parenthood for her Condoms, all in about 2 hours' time. How Cleverly Convenient, I must say.

All at the Catholic College, man.

Crazy.

Balanced Babe (Molly Wendland)

Digging My Way Out

I should really start writing when I first wake each morning. Seriously. Almost every morning, I wake up with these great ideas, fabulous verbiage and all, streaming through my groggy, sleepy mind. Eyes not even yet open, lying in bed, barely conscious. Later, in fact, after I've gotten up, made my coffee, sat down to read the paper, I am hardly able to conjure up the ideas, let alone the terrific verbiage. I hate that. What I find most frustrating of all is that I am sooo not a morning person to begin with, so dragging myself out of bed to record these fascinating tidbits, and I must say, it's good stuff. Well, the thought of peeling back the covers and hustling out to my computer to do that is just not very appealing - even with the reward of a well-written post at the other end.

I used to be a pretty darn good blogger - relatively consistent, both on White Trash Mom and Disney's Family.com. Then, the Disney gig dried up (that was sweet while it lasted, let me tell you!), and I don't like to talk about it much, but we had an incredibly harrowing medical challenge with our daughter, and the rest, as they say, is history. I pretty much got bogged down by over 60 medical appointments in about a 6 month period and depression. Frankly, blogging took a back seat.

When I have tried to get back in the swing of it, I just haven't been able to make myself be consistent. Anyway, enough about that. The idea here is a fresh start. I constantly think of things to write about. I take pictures of our meals/people/events and say what great posts they would make.

I will occasionally be blogging about an interesting wine I've tried, so watch out for that. I also plan to continue writing about raising teenagers. Our eldest will be leaving for college in just two months. Hard to believe. So, there you are.

I'm back.

Right???

Balanced Babe (Molly Wendland)

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