Mindy's Non-Adventures

The last week or so has been extra busy and life changing for the Dumont crew so here's a quick rundown of our lives in no particular order. First, Charlotte and Tommy got braces on Monday. Last Friday they got spacers in preparation for Monday so they've basically been in varying levels of pain since Friday. Tommy is despondent over the foods he can't eat. His only consolation is that I've been supplying milkshakes, frozen yogurt, pudding, and Jello whenever he wants. Charlotte hasn't been as bad off, but she had a rough night last night. Crying happened. When they complain about not being able to eat, my only option is to offer to buy them a milkshake from wherever they want. If you saw me in the Chickfila drive thru at 8:30pm last night, it was for Charlotte's chocolate milkshake. And then she cried because "I CAN'T ONLY EAT MILKSHAKES!" Ahem. We're holding on for Thursday when the orthodontist assures me they'll be feeling noticeably ...

Part I (Friday night) Friends, I'm writing this as I lie in the king size bed in my hotel room. All alone. You couldn't see, but I just took a good 60 seconds after writing those first two sentences to close my eyes and breathe. I checked in my room on Thursday for my stay in Greenville for the homeschool convention. As a mother that has chosen to homeschool my children, I have chosen to give up myself as a person for about 90-95% of the time. I am an amalgam of mom, teacher, home administrator (that's a fancy word for the person that cleans the bathrooms and generally keeps the house from decaying beyond repair), chauffer, momager, wife, friend, church volunteer, tutor...I could keep going but I think I've made my point. Before I go any further, let me give the obvious "I love my kids and the life we've chosen."  But people. This life is exhausting on every level. It's physically demanding although less so since my kids are older. Now that I'm ...

A few years ago I went to this ladies event at my church. We were all seated at tables, and at one point we were asked to share something we're struggling with to the rest of the women at our table. Let me just stop right now and point out that my church is made for extroverts. While the person at the microphone thought she was simply asking us to share something personal to the rest of the group, she might as well have asked me to slice open my arm so that everyone can see the muscles, tendons, and bone. Some of you reading this will think I'm exaggerating. The rest of you know exactly what I mean. Can I get an amen from my fellow introverts?? Then we were asked to share something we're still in the midst of because the tendency is to share something we've already experienced and resolved. Ugh. Forget slicing open my arm, now you're going for my abdomen. Since I had no intention of doing an emotional dissection at a table of women I hardly knew, I did what any o...