Happy Birthday to me ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gosh. Another one. Funny how they sneak up on you after so many. I wonder how many more. I wonder if they will all be as dreaded as this one and the past few. Sometimes it would just be easier not to have any more, to..uh..celebrate. Shouldn't be listening,but...

Mothers Day 2011

I hope the mothers out there had a peaceful day. I know the cards all say, "Happy" Mothers Day, but I believe peaceful is just as good. As mothers, some of us carry around extreme loads of guilt. Guilt for either things we did or failed to do, or guilt for ways in which we perceive we failed our children.

I have plenty of guilt myself. I was never"mothered" as a child so the mothering I did I learned on my own. Some of it was good, some of it was not. I was young, and chances are I was bipolar as well.

I have learned this about guilt; number one, ask your Heavenly Father to forgive you. He will. Next, ask forgiveness from those you have wronged. They either grant you that forgiveness or not but if you ask in earnest that is all you can do. Then, FORGIVE YOURSELF.

That last part is the hardest part. You may have to do it several times over several years. Keep doing it until it "takes", lol. "Fake it till you make it" as the old saying goes.

I forgive myself, again today. On this Mothers Day, 2011, I forgive myself for not being perfect.

Oldies Goodies Maybe....

I've been sitting here listening to some of the top 100 songs from 1999. I can listen to this genre of songs and it carries me back like certain smells will do.

I don't remember other years like I do this one. I mean sure, I remember the 70's because that is when I was young and semi-free. 1999 now, that was when I became free again for the first time in 24 years. I like the songs, but the feelings they leave me with is mixed.

On the one hand, I love remembering the freedom, but on the other hand I feel much older than the short 12 years it has been. I feel like I have lost part of me along the way.

Middle age?

Mothers Day

Every year I dread the day that mothers across our land are receiving flowers and cards and other tokens of appreciation and love.

It isn’t that I don’t want to wish my mother a happy Mothers Day. Oh no. I settled that ghost in my mind a long time ago. I know in my heart my mother did the best she could at the time, given the tools that had been passed down to her. I love my mother. I even talk to her several times a week now.

No, it is me. I was (am) a mother. Evidently I was a worse one than I remember, although I too did the very best I knew how, given those same tools that were given to me.

Regardless of how bad things got between my mother and me, I never once forgot to remember her on Mothers Day. In 45 years, I never failed to send her a card if nothing else.

Mothers Day is not an opportunity to “bless” your mother depending on what kind of job she did. It is not a “payback” based on your opinion of how she raised you. It is simply a “Thank You”. Thank you for trying. Thank you for caring. Thank you for hanging in there. Thank you for loving me even though you may not have been very demonstrative about it. Thank you for getting up during long nights when I was sick. Thank you for doing your best to teach me to be kind to others.

Bless your mothers this Sunday; and every other day too.

New and Improved !!!

I must get back to my writing. It gives me a sense of accomplishment when I can actually get pen to paper (so to speak) and now that I am unemployed (after giveing Huge Corporation the best 10 years of my life) I need that sense of accomplishment.

I will try my best not to do the "depression/manic swing" type of posts any more.

Welcome back me

:-)

De-escalation of the BIG NEWS

Okay. I am down off my, "OH MY GOSH I'M GONNA BE A NEW GRANNY" high.

I have been properly put in my place by a gentle reminder that, "No. You will probably NOT be keeping him at your house every week".

I know. I understand. It is going to be tough with this one though.

BIG News

Today, I received some HUGE news! I am so excited I can barely get to sleep. My daughter is preggo.....again!!!

She has three daughters, ages 15, 14 and 8 and now we have another little on the way.

With the first two, I didn't work and they would stay with me for several days at a time several times a month. That was so wonderful. When the last one was born I was working and after being at work 9 hours every day and being just plain old wiped out, I didn't have the energy to have her over even on weekends. I am looking forward to creating that bond with this one.

Welcome little one; and HURRY!!! Granny loves you.

New Year or 50 Years?

As this old year has come to an end, my mind has driven into overdrive. I hate it when I do this.

We live in an area that has 3 major universities within a 50 mile radius. There is one particular grocery store I go to that always has a lot of college students shopping there. Tonight was no different.

As I saw one after the other going down the isles, I began thinking about the world I missed out on. I wondered what it would have been like to go to college. What my dorm room would have looked like, or would I have lived off campus in an apartment. What kind of friends I would have made. What kind of grades I could have maintained. Would I have been a partier; or settled in with just a close friend or two.

Then, I thought about where I would be career wise had I got an education. Would I be in medicine? Would it be human or animal? Would I have married or chosen to remain single.

Finally, I began thinking about the mistakes I have made in my life. Where I’d be if I had shown more self-control in some areas. How many people would not have been hurt by my actions?

Maybe it isn’t just the new year coming quickly upon me. Maybe it is the fact I am 50. Fifty sounds so ancient to me. It sounds like I should be further in my life. Have more to show for 50 years I have been here. Be happier, more content, instead of looking back over the mistakes I have made and where I’d be had I not made them.

I love everyone in my life. I would not have traded my loved ones for anything, so this is not a slam against anyone. Some of them I would not have had I not taken the roads I took.

I just can’t help but think though. Should there not be more out there to show for 50 years?

Seasons in the Sun

I heard the Terry Jacks song, "Seasons in the Sun" today. I was reminded of climbing trees, playing ball in the neighborhood, riding my mini-bike, playing in the yard with my dog.

I remember hurrying through homework so I could get outside with my friends. Playing so long and so hard. Getting all sweaty and dirty. Hurrying through supper so I could get back outside with my friends.

I miss my friends.

Pretending

I used to pretend everything was different. Outsiders would never have guessed. I don't even have the energy to pretend any longer. Not even just for me.

Th Perfect Mother

I was not a perfect mother. Matter of fact - I was FAR from it. I had just turned 16 when my daughter was born and I had no clue how to be a mother.

I was a yeller and I was way too strict. I used a little paint stirrer stick for spankings. I expected A's when B's and C's should have sufficed. I did not buy her name brand clothes and for that she suffered ridicule from her peers. She didn't get to go to all the functions she wanted to go to, and according to her when she did go she felt like she was a "charity case".
I was a stay-at-home mother and we just didn't have the money for these things every time.

I took my child to my shrink years ago when she was 15 and asked her forgiveness and along with my shrink explained why I mothered in the fashion that I did. I was abused horribly as a child, and my mother had it even worse when she was a child. I'm not placing blame, just explaining how things turned out the way they did.

Over the next 15 years, I allowed her to "vent" to me about how bad her childhood was. She was allowed to say whatever she needed to say and I answered any questions she had. I won't attempt to guess how many times I have apologized for my actions. I also know that no matter how many times I apologize, nothing could make up for the actions she suffered from.

As a grandmother, the first few years of the grandchildren's lives I kept them a lot. The first two, I kept for days at a time several times a month for 2 or 3 years. I enjoyed every minute of it. Once I went to work outside the home, and as my mental health has become worse, I have had no energy - physical or mental - to keep them or go to games and other functions that they participate in. Working from 8 until 5 every day then going straight to a ball game or whatever it happened to be was just too much for me. This caused friction with my daughter as well.

Her youngest child, has behavioral issues and does not like to be told "No" nor be told what to do. She will for instance, aggravate the dogs and when told to stop she will turnright around and do it again. She doesn't allow adults to talk without constantly interupting them. I had never been around a child who behaved this way and after trying to keep her at my home without her mother once, and having to call her mother to come get her, (which NEVER happened with the others), I knew I could not keep her for visits. Because of this, my daughter told us that if we can't keep her we can't keep the other two either. She said it wasn't fair.

A few months ago, she made several comments pertaining to her childhood and how sorry it was and how she would never put her children through the same thing. She HATED how she couldn't wear "nice" clothes and she HATED how she couldn't go to all the extracurricular activities she wanted to go to and she was determined her kids would have better.

After the last vent session, and a comment made on facebook about how she believed she was born to aliens and put in our family, I decided in my heart that I was finished letting her say things to me about it all. I cannot take it back and I feel like 15 years of letting her "vent" is enough. As I get older these things were beginning to wear on me more and more and my mental health is not in the category of "healthy" to begin with.

I wrote her a letter and told her I no longer wanted her to tell me about how bad a mother I was and how bad her childhood was. I tried to explain it in as nice a way possible while not taking away from the fact she did have a rough childhood.

Since then, she has had very little to do with me. Mothers Day came and went with no word. This isn't the first Mothers Day I've been ignored, but it bothered me the most.

I'm sorry I wasn't a perfect mother. I'm sorry she felt so "different" from the other kids because she didn't have the name brand clothes. I'm sorry she didn't get to go to every function and that she felt she was a charity case. I did the best I knew how to do at the time, with the resources available to us on my husbands income. I would have loved to have had more clothes instead of wearing the same 2 or 3 dresses to church every week. I would have loved to have been able to do some things I enjoyed as well. Instead I was too busy doing my best to keep a home for four people on a one person budget.

I am very happy that her husband is able to provide all these things on his income alone so that she doesn't have to work. He obviously makes much more money that her daddy did. I am happy that her kids won't come to her one day and complain about what they didn't have or where they didn't get to go. I hope she never has to feel the way I feel at this stage in my life.

Mothers Day ??

In my nearly 50 years, from the time I was old enough, I NEVER forgot my mother on Mothers Day. Nor did I ever ignore her. We may not have been close, but I have always respected the job of raising me that she did her best at.

I forget now just how many mothers days have passed that I have been forgotten or ignored by my children.

I haven't been doing this. I have thought about it and determined in my heart not to write unless I can say something positive. But tonight, I can't sleep or get in a position that doesn't hurt, so I'm gonna break my rule.......................... again.

Since I lost my job in January, I have felt so lost. I don't miss the drama and the stress, but the actual work I did, I miss that. I was good at what I did. I was virtually error free and whether or not that company appreciated it - I did a good job for them. I miss having a purpose; somewhere to get up and go to every day. ROUTINE!

I have tried to incorporate a routine into my new life. I still get up early. There is one positive on that; I can take my pain meds and sit for 20-30 minutes until they kick in. I couldn't do that when I was working because I didn't want to drive after taking them, I'd have to wait until I was at work to take them and by then the pain was intense.

Sometimes my mind will replay that afternoon when my boss took me in his office and said, "I have some bad news". As soon as he said that I knew what was coming. Ever since I went back from my "nervous breakdown" 4 weeks earlier, I felt they were trying to push me into quitting. Really, it was a relief. As much as I loved what I did, it was such a stressful atmosphere it was eating me alive. I've never done well around "yellers" or people who might go 8 hours and never speak to you.

I guess I've entered a new phase of my life. I don't like "new". Soon, maybe I won't see it as new.

I think back a lot. Too much. Some people have a drinking problem; I have a "thinking problem". I am aware of this and I am working on it. But I was thinking back trying to decide when it was I was really happy. I think I know now...it was when I had children at home. As much as they got on my nerves sometimes, I miss when my kids were little, or at least when they were at home. My son still has nothing to do with me. It has been 10 years since I left his daddy and he still has not forgiven me. There is a difference now though - I can think about it and write about it and not break down. Maybe that is a self-protection mechanism...you just kind of become cold to the situation.

I think about my parents. They are getting old. I never thought that would happen. We were never close. They were always busy and working and trying to survive their own dramas of middle age and I just kind of grew up without them. Now, as they have gotten older, they want to have this parent-child relationship. I'm working on that. At first, it was kind of an artificial relationship, but now it is more real. I love them. I'm going to miss them terribly when they die. I'll miss them for what they are now, and I'll miss them for what should have been way back when.

My marriage is ... "different". He is super good to me. He has stood beside me through all this mental illness. He does whatever he can to make me happy and comfortable. If it were not for the big elephant in the room it would be an ideal marriage. That elephant though sits there - blocking that full, open, "safe" relationship. On my part anyway.

So this is where I stand today. Searching for whatever is missing. Whatever is keeping that all elusive "happy" that I know must be out there if I could just unravel the web that is my mind.

Terminated

I was terminated from my job of 10 years week before last. That is a huge adjustment but I am actively trying to keep an eye on my mental health while I adjust.

It was a shock. I wasn't allowed to take anything with me but my purse, and after 10 years I had plenty of personal items in the office and breakroom. They packed it all up the next day and my husband went after it all. He said my boss turned his head and wouldn't even speak to him.

They said it was because my position was being eliminated, but it happened just four weeks after I came back from a 4 week MLOA due to what I pretty much think of as a "nervous breakdown".

I had never in 10 years been out of work before that. They said the MLOA wasn't it, but who knows. I had asked for help in the past couple of months; basically asking if the guys in the office could help with the constant phone calls coming in. I was having a hard time concentrating and being constantly interrupted was NOT helping.

I was told that it was my job and that wasn't going to change. Just weeks after asking for help they fired me.

For 10 years I had received yearly raises and bonuses. Nothing negative in my file at all. Then I got sick.

Thinking Back

Back in my day, teachers didn't tell what they saw. Neighbors minded their own business. Relatives didn't get involved.
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