glenrockschwartz

Hi delicious children, I'm sorry if I've been a little short with you lately.  Too many people in our lives have been sick lately and not the kind of sick that you feel better after some chicken soup and good night sleep; rather it's the sick that lives with you for months or even years and makes you wonder if you will ever be healthy again. When I think about how absolutely blessed we are with our health, I feel badly about my anger towards what I perceive as imperfections: the house not perfectly clean and in order, shoes and backpacks and teddy bears not put back in their proper place, a not so nice work colleague making me want to quit my job for all the wrong reasons, my not being better at filling out school and camp forms and scheduling playdates and participating in each and every school activity (and not staying through music time with Avery today - I'm sorry my darling shana, I know how important that was to you today and I don't want to ever let you d...

The answer is of course, yes, as a family, we can get through anything together.  The "this" that I'm writing about is: A] two kids with lice (a.k.a. the straw that broke the camel's back) B] one horrible head cold (it made leaning forward over kids' head to peer and make sure all nits were gone all the more fun) C] one husband away for the week for work (in the best of situations, I am co-dependent and saddened when I don't get to hang out with Eric on a daily basis) D] nary a work from home day in the past month....until today, when infested heads beckoned me home. I'm exhausted.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs this evening and was saddened to discover that the writer had bared her soul and shared with the world that she and her husband had just separated.  Here is a woman that I have never met, yet I am invested in her daily life and believed that I understood the inner-workings of her family.   I do hope that she is able to work it out, but in a somewhat narcissistic way, reading that post had me being introspective about my own relationship.  I thought about how I could best express how I feel about Eric, the love of my life.  Because even on my darkest and crankiest of days, I simply love Eric.  The idea of being apart from him never crosses my mind.  I miss him when we are apart even for one evening.  I am lucky, I am blessed and I do not take the joy I get from this relationship for granted.  Eric is truly my beshert. Beshert is a Yiddish word for one's soulmate.  I was reading an artic...

Dear Alex, This past weekend you had a few firsts.  Your first wrestling meet: three matches of which you won the first and  lost the second and third.  And your first time playing Words With Friends (with me, Grandma, Pop pop and Auntie Dawn). I do not believe that I have ever heard your dad cheer so loudly.  In fact, he was hoarse later in the day from all that screaming.  And he even told me that he has never been so proud of you in your entire life.  Not just because you won, but because even when you lost, your perseverance was just amazing. You also started playing Words With Friends.  You are mainly using 3-letter words and don't quite get the strategy of double and triple letters and words, but - if I may be a little nerdy for a moment - the fact that you are playing Scrabble with me and other members of your family evokes such a warm, bubbly, enormous sense of pride in me - even more than watching you succeed in wrestling. ...

....has been a whirlwind.  So much to write.  So much to remember. Since the last post was about the anxiety I was feeling before Avery's surgery, I wanted to write that she is fine.  My memories of that day include Avery's anxiety manifesting itself as anger - angry that she had to wear the hospital pajamas and a hospital bracelet and that she had to go into an operating room and breathe into a mask.  Her tiny fingers clutched onto me for dear life as the anesthesiologist had her breathe into a mask. The surgery was successful.  And then the anger returned in post-op.  Amongst the meek other children in recovery, Avery was a banshee "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" she screamed repeatedly. "I WANT MY OWN PAJAMAS!"  "GET THIS IV OUT OF ME" (and then) "GET THIS BAND-AID OFF WHERE THE IV USED TO BE".  The nurses actually let us leave a half hour earlier than they were supposed to because she was inconsolable.  And as soon as she got back int...

Dear Avery, Tomorrow you are having your adenoids removed.  We have spent the entire three-and-a-half years that is your life constantly wiping your nose and listening to you snore and the past six or so weeks squirting Nasonex and saline up your nose every evening to shrink your adenoids (it didn't work, which is why we are on the eve of your surgery).  You loved and seem to sincerely miss the Nasonex/saline combination because it meant getting to eat two jellybeans everyday. And you seem to be responding to the idea of this surgery in the same way you did the nasal sprays - "You mean I can eat ANYTHING I want!?!!?  Juice? Candy? Ice-pops and ice-cream?  So when is this thing happening when I can eat anything I want?" Your dad and I have had a bit of a different reaction both because we are older and understand more what is about to happen and because you are our child and we love you more than you may think is even humanly possible.  I worry most about t...

Dear Kids, I want you to remember the year that you were seven and three (or almost eight and almost four, as you both like to remind me) and the storm that we have just experienced.  For the very first time in your lives, our house was without power for three days.  We stayed with family and friends because it was too cold and dark to stay in our own home and I want you to always remember how kind people are. Sadly, this is the Halloween that wasn't.  There were too many tree and power wires in the road so it was not safe to trick-or-treat.  You have not yet worn your costumes or gotten any candy, but you have been such good kids an have not complained even one bit. You will have many Halloweens in the years to come, but I think that this will be the one that you remember most - the Halloween that wasn't. Thank you for being such good kids. Love, Mom