admin, Author at Mothering in the Middle

Meditations for Mothers

by Rachel Snyder

Leap

Once you warm up with baby steps, you’re ready to take your next leap. Take a leap of faith and know you can make it. Decide to leap over tall buildings with a single bound. Close your eyes and open your own business. Take the leap! March yourself into the recovery center and tell them you’re ready to heal. Make your leap! Take a leap into a second marriage and take the kids with you. Leap off the edge of your personal zone of comfort and feel the feelings you’ve been stuffing for years. Tired of small-town living? Leap into something larger. Frustrated by fear in the city? Leap over the freeway and onto a farm. You’re ready for the big stage and you know it, so take your leap. You can’t keep playing small forever. Take your leap! Keep your eyes on the prize. Let your feet touch the skies. Take a hard running start. Now leap!

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Trends of the Future – Results of the Consumer Electronics Show (2013)

I recognize that I’m slightly behind the times. By that, I mean that I’m four weeks past the unveiling of numerous new gadgets for 2013 (a la the Consumer Electronics Show). Undoubtedly, all of the following is now obsolete. But, in the interest of knowledge, I’m intent on still presenting it to you.

It is the HAPIfork which reeled me in and, quite frankly, that’s all I needed to further explore this brave new world. Before I present a sampling of products, I must confess that I’m not certain whether I’m giddy with excitement, or just plain scared about it all.

HAPIfork

In keeping with my promise to feature trends of the future (remember: as Midlife Mothers, we must know about it all), here are the following wonder-items:

– Trakdot – a small battery-powered tracker that you place in your luggage. Lose your luggage and you can find its location on a Smartphone app.

– Parrot’s Flower Power – a sensor which you place in the soil of your potted plant. This beams data, including amount of fertilizer, PH levels, humidity and temperature to an app on your Smartphone.

– Eton’s Rukus solar – a solar-powered music-blasting wireless sound system ($149)

– Yota Phone – an LCD screen on the front; an e-ink screen on the back. Similar to what you’d find on some Amazon Kindles.

– Samsung’s Wi-Fi Enabled Refrigerator – this year, Samsung added an app to the LCD display (right above the ice dispenser) so that you can note your grocery list. Also has recipe app, radio, news and weather and Twitter. ($3700)

– TV with curved glass displays […]

Quote of the Day

Regarding motherhood and her involvement in the show, “Nurse Jackie,” via the New York Times (2/17/13) – actress and midlife mother (with two young children) Edie Falco, 49 –

“Well, I can’t speak for every mom, but…,” she said with a slightly sheepish grin. “I mean, parenthood is not a hobby. Your life is basically sucked from you.”

Perri Meno-Pudge

http://perriemenopudge.com

Love That Rings True

by Jenilyn Gilbert

I met my husband swing dancing in Grant Park in downtown Chicago when I was 38 years old. We dated for a couple of years and I was one month into my fortieth year when I walked down the aisle.

I recall the time before I met him; all the first dates, sadness over not having a life partner and feeling so left out and so behind my peers. I attended so many wedding showers and weddings that I never thought my turn would come. When I attended a friend’s second wedding, I thought ‘that’s it, this will never be me, now they’re starting to run two circles around me. I will never get married.’ Now that I’m two years into my marriage I just want to be pregnant. […]

101 Affirmations for Children

by Evelyn Lim

I compiled a list of affirmations for children, recently, from a wish to help mine with self-mastery and positive programming. As adults, many of our limiting thought patterns can be attributed to childhood conditioning or having unconsciously adopted negative societal beliefs. While we look for ways to help realign ourselves, how about starting with a better way forward in our children? […]

on loving a teenager

by Karen Maezen Miller

They love us in a different way.

I said that when someone asked what it was like to have a teenager.

I feel like we’ve lost a daughter.

My husband said that after a silent and inconsequential Sunday.

Just shut up.

I said that to her after a ride in the car yesterday.

And yet, there is love, so much love between us and it has gone nowhere! I am standing on the high bluff over death valley, infinite openness in all directions, stunned dumb in the emptiness, but I know the space before me is pure love. Pure love. Life grows here, even when we can’t see it. Refreshed in a cool night, fed by invisible rivulets. A whisper of sea sails five hundred miles across five mountain ranges, and the whisper is this.

They love us in a different way.

They love us in the space, the space that is nothing but love.

Love is not a feeling, not a thought, nothing given or got, not more or less. Not a precaution or warning, not a push or a prod. Not a reminder, not a teaching, not a performance. Love is not what I say and not what you hear. Not how was school how was the test what about homework what are you wearing wash your face eat your dinner pick up your shoes I don’t like her him that when if what did you do what did you say what about your terrible wonderful failure success happiness sadness what about me what about me what about me?

Love is the space between us. There is so much space.

What will you put into that space today, I ask myself before I hear the roar of my own echo.

Just shut up.

Reprinted with permission […]

Love Is More Than A Four-Letter Word

by Rosemary Lichtman Ph.D. and Phyllis Goldberg Ph.D.

Long before it was a song, the saying was a part of our conversation: Love makes the world go ’round.

With all this whirling, love can make you feel off balance and dizzy. Sometimes it’s tricky to keep your personal world turning without having it spin totally out of control. Although our focus is most often on romantic love, there are many different kinds of love that help keep us grounded. […]

My Love Will Not Let You Down

by Ellie Stoneley

At this time of year, when the tills of florists, card shops and chocolate emporia go “ker-ching,” the world is suddenly filled with red heart-shaped helium balloons, and I’ve often been known to become a little cynical.

I love ‘love’, and I love being told I’m loved and I love loving the people I love, but, and it is a big, but, I do struggle with the huge amount of money spent at Valentine’s Day on meals that are that bit more expensive than they usually are and, well, the whole thing really. I used to love the idea of anonymous Valentine’s cards and remember trying to disguise my writing in them at school or trying to decipher coded messages to see if I could work out who a card was from. I also know and do remember the bitter disappointment when no card arrived, or if the rose that did come wasn’t a huge bunch of them. (Yes, I was that shallow as a teenager … and constantly disappointed!!!) […]

Seeking Midlife Mother-Stories and Family Photos

Dear Reader: Seeking Midlife Mothers – I want to feature stories about you! I’ve recently stumbled on a host of gorgeous (facebook) photos – reflecting the wonderful amalgam of new older mother-family units. I will be posting them to reflect who we are and what we’re made of. If interested, please drop me a quick line at midlifemothers@gmail. I look forward to hearing from you!

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