It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way… 

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

I wonder if Charles Dickens had any idea these words would be considered an excellent synopsis for describing the condition, “motherhood”. Literally - I have experienced The. Best. Times. I have experienced The. Worst. Times… Light and Dark… Hope and despair.

Mercy… holding my newborn babies for the first time - kissing their pink lips and counting all ten toes… That was when Heaven was at the edge of my lips… it was at the tips of my fingers. And within mere days I would “go direct the other way” as sleep deprivation took over. Nothing prepares one for this. Nothing. It is rite of passage… a very dark passage.

Lately, my heart has been in a near-constant state of opposition. There are times I look at my children and swoon so deeply over the blessing I have been given in them. I am so swoon-stricken that I think actual pink puffy hearts blow from my every breath. My son is compassionate and incredibly helpful. His heart is everything I could have desired for a young man… expressive, strong, confident, gentle, AND he likes things tidy! My middle daughter is creative and strong. She is daring, expressive, and resourceful. I am envious of her creative vision and her penchant for daring. My youngest is happy, confident, decisive and when I watch her play “pretend” I find I mindlessly slip into her world of princesses and music. I stand silently at the edge of the room to listen in on her world of delight.

My heart feels like it will explode with joy when the three of them come together and love each other with all their goodness. Seeing my son care for his sisters… listening to the three work together to make decisions… watching them working on solutions to play in a way that fits each of their stages. Two nights ago I checked on the girls in bed and they were snuggled together while the the oldest read the youngest a book. **gush** 

But, you know what? Within minutes - Hell itself can start rumbling from the bowels of the earth. The screaming. The physical assaults. The manipulation of reality presented before The Mother. The bickering. The bickering. The bickering. The tattling. The subsequent pain in my chest because I can’t possibly moderate another “disagreement”. Good golly - I didn’t get a degree in diplomacy! My advice to parents-to-be: get a degree in diplomacy… is there a degree for “Debate Moderator”? That’d be a good one too.

And here I sit. In the span of time it has taken to write this post I have watched my son slice and toast English muffins for his younger sister. I have listened to the youngest scream like a banshee (not exaggerating - I’ll record it sometime - it’s nearly unbelievable the pitch she reaches) as both of the older two decisively aggravate her - because they think it’s cute when she screams at such decibels. Good times. They have giggled together, and have tattled on each other. They have spilled milk and wiped it up. My chest has gone “all twisty” thrice times three, just during this writing. 

And I love them. I can’t imagine life without each one. At the gym today, a 70’s-ish young woman imparted the usual wisdom as I shared the ages of my three, “Take advantage of this time… they’ll be grown and married before you know it…” I sensed a sadness in her eyes.

I wonder if she sensed the fear in mine. Will I blow it again today? Will I fall short… again? What new regrets will I amass? Will I hug them enough? How do I help them learn to be independent, yet be “hands-on” enough to communicate I love them and will take care of them? Why is it so hard to speak gently? How? Will? What? Why? Do you feel my chest getting “all twisty” again?

Breaking news: The boy just assaulted the middle daughter. There is wailing and gnashing of teeth. The youngest screamed at the boy as a protective gesture toward her sister, “You. Don’t. Hurt. Your. Poopy. Sister!” They all stopped. The blood-letting and terrorizing stopped - if only for a moment… and they laughed.

Me? My chest twisted again, and I laughed too. 

And… the tale of two cities in the country of My Motherhood is still being written… I will be accepting prayers, positive feedback, and cash - I am going to start a “Therapy Fund”  for my children… I may buy a few session for myself too.

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In the past, I was a fairly frequent participant in Make Me Laugh Monday, simply due to the fact that making myself laugh is something I enjoy and do quite frequently. Simple minds…. Aaaanywho - but you wanna know what I enjoy even more? Making YOU laugh. Yup. It’s all about YOU here at Jennyonthespot. However, MMLM has been absent the last great number of Mondays. Let me explain a bit… Make Me Laugh Monday was the brain-child of Absolutely Bananas. She decided to take a break from MMLM  and passed the torch to All Things Cherished. Sadly, All Things Cherished has had to take a break, and hopefully a short one. Hugs to you Storm…

With all of that written - I am looking for a new name so as not to be a stealer of the genius, alliterative title Jenny (hot name!) at Absolutely Bananas gave to Mondays. But until then… I will use this title once more - for I have a couple of funny things to share…

This first item came from Blozulfog - in an email she titled, “for your Monday make me laugh”. She’s always got my back…

O.K. The following baking fail picture is NOT MINE! Give credit where credit is due… and the credit goes to — Running Stitch!

This… what did she call it???… “Failure to rise” (haha!) was created by the adventurous Running Stitch - baker extraoridinaire! In all my life… mercy. This is awesome. But I want to know - was the pan tossed or washed?

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Does my daughter’s eye level make my butt look big???

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“Look mom! I’m a First-grader now!!!”

I have worked hard to instill the value of the shoe-shot into my children. Here is me and mah girl sharing a moment…. she in the black patent leather, and I in my sparkly Converse.

Creative photography… kindergarten-style…

and may I just say, this picture is so flippin’ awesome. I’m practically verklempt.

“So long, Kindergarten… I loved you…”

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Without further ado, another branch of my family tree.

Ummm, Matthew? I must ask my public - 

I’m sorry… I had to do that Cuz.

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Now Cousin Matthew wants to know:

I can’t tell - your BUTT is in the way!

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Look at these crazies! I think I love them more than ever!

1, 2, 3… A regular methane triple threat!

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Drum roll please……………

I love you crazy family! My hubs didn’t get to choose his family. However - I did have a choice. But(t) I said “I do”, and I married him anyway… I guess what I am trying to say is… … … “I’m glad we’re family!” Thanks for stinking your butts out there for me. **smoochy, smoochy, huggy, hug, hug**

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I logged onto Twitter and all the tweetples were all “What’s with all these avatars?…”Whut, whut, whut!!!” Twitter was all a-twitter! And I was all - waving my hands in the air with my “already know about this thing attitude” and not Twittering because my hands were waving and not typing! And then Mamikaze of Life on the Run @’d me on Twitter and was all, “http://faceyourmanga.com“ and I was all - “I know! I know!”

And I did totally face my manga this morning, but didn’t save her because I wasn’t happy about the curve of my chin…

But that’s it folks. It looks like I am going to need to commit here. Manga - game on! 

Ooops. Wrong picture… Lemme try this again…

 Me. Then…    Manga Me!

My only complaint - no braces… no nose stud capabilites… and my eyes are not the same size. Golly I’m tired.

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I. Know! I have no idea who she is, but I don’t care because she’s not ugly. OK, now I know who she is and well, save the inappropriate content - we have something else in common beside our good looks - she’s Czech, and word on the street is I am part Czech too!

I would like to thank The Bloggess for introducing the My Heritage site to me. It is just what I needed to prove to the world what I have been trying to prove since I discovered mirrors — I should have ben a model… at least from the chin up.

Oh wait. Da@# it.

Did you hear that? My ego balloon just popped. I’ll give you 63% of a likeness why:

You can’t unring that bell.

On the brighter side… the My Heritage people did say that if you match up with the same celebrity 2 or 3 times, they are your celebrity twin. I have a twin! I have a twin! She wears the size -4 jeans and I wear the size shutup.

Hey Adriana Karembeul! We look like Geronimo!!!

OK, I’ll be honest. I am desperate to find a way to get into Dancing with the Stars, and I was thinking maybe the powers that be might develop a new show called “Dancing with the Look-A-Like Stars” and maybe then… just maybe…

“Hello!” Kelly Preston and “Hello!” 76% likeness!

Lastly - it is an entire collage of my celebrity likenesses! It’s like a fruitcake of Jenny. No… It’s like grab-bag of celebrity Jennys. No… It’s like a collage of celebrities that I most resemble. No… It is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, it is ridiculous I spent so much time on this. Your turn!

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In keeping with the bent of my personality - I said, “Yes!” I mean, a whole post about ME and music and ME? Like, of course! I love to serve my public. I’m a giver. I was born that way. My middle name? Giver. Mmmm-hmmm…

Aaaaanyways… on Mixtape Monday, Myra features a different blogger who has made the world a better place all due to her fabulous taste in music  and his/her top ten songs on his/her iPod. Mixtape Monday - isn’t that a great title! Isn’t that a great idea?! Oh, AND she asked for a picture. Dudes, I totally grabbed a picture that one of The Retro people took at one of their gigs. I was all “in the zone”, either dancing with myself or rockin’ the Casbah. Or both.

You want to know my top ten? I’m not telling! You ned to go visit Myra at We Make Three! Oh, and leave a comment - it’s like a virtual hug! Give her a hug for me!!! Go there as I do my part to spread the linky-love that makes to blog-world go-round in perfect circles… and also to read all the yummy, lovey, ever-so-true things she wrote about Me - lil’ ‘ol Me!

All this music-talk reminded me of a meme I did back in September ‘06. It was called “Musical Fortune Telling“… To do it I set my iPod to “random” and asked my iPod (out loud) a series of questions. I think it’s time for a reprise… I am going to just copy and paste those answers here… the answers from that post were just too awesome to ever “do-over”:

How does the world see you?
“Everybody Dance Now” by C&C Music Factory (Is anyone who knows me really surprised??? In fact, it’s a little freakay…)

Will I have a happy life?
“Like a Child” by Jars of Clay (kids are happy people, especially when they get chocolate milk and coins for the bubble gum machine)

What do my friends really think of me?
“I Must Have It” by Veggie Tales (eww, that’s charming)

What do people secretly think of me?
“Man Of God” by Audio Adrenaline (that’s better)

How can I be happy?
“Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden (black sun = happy…)

Will I ever have (more) children?
“He That Is In Us” by Hosanna Music (I have nothing to say)

What is some good advice for me?
“Believe” by The Newsboys (true, true…)

How will I be remembered?
“Self Control” by The Music Machine (yeah. no.)

What is my signature dancing song?
“Majesty” by Delirious? (picture flags of many beautiful colors, flowing scarves, tamborines and a big open field)

What do I think my current theme song is?
“Yuletide Medley #1 (Oh Holy Night/Joy To The World/Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem/Deck The Halls) by the Glenn Miller - In The Christmas Mood Holiday album (OK, I do love holiday music)

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
“I Will Sing” by Hillsongs of Australia (sure if I’m at a karaoke bar - and have had a dose of “liquid courage”)

What song will play at my funeral?
“Gargantua’s Last Stand” by Man…Or Astroman? (seriously)

What is my day going to be like?
“It Is You” (Live) by the Newsboys (huh?)

Now. How about you? I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read about your answers! Go - do this, post it and would ya put a comment about it here? Then I would know when to go, and so would all our friends who visit here! It could be a regular musical carnival! C’mon! PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASE!

Alright. I am off to bed… Kiss, kiss.

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The summer rolled in like a steam train and I guarded my family time in the beginning… floated in the pool, went to the park, tried to keep things a little tidy around the house, and sorted through mountains of hand-me-downs that had been filling my basement for a year. I kept up with training after my half-marathon the beginning of June, and rolled half-heartedly into my triathlon training. Then Blog Her ‘08 came and went, a  week-long visit from my parents, then my triathlon… Soon, Grandma will be here for a week and then a couple of other short family excursions will wrap-up August. School shopping needs to get done, neither of my 2 older children have had their check-ups, I need a blood-test to check on my thyroid levels, and there is a local sprint triathlon coming up the beginning of September, and I really want to do it. I gave up on the whole “Half Iron” tri - for this season. Oh, should I try a full marathon in November? I chalked the October marathon option last week. Too soon. If only I had no interests…

And NOW… the Olympics! I could gorge my eyes on all that is swimming. Michael Phelps… go! I watched his mother cheer for him on Saturday… my word it was precious. I cried with her. She doesn’t know it, but we cried together in celebration of her boy’s first gold in this Olympics. And then there’s Dara Torres, who could be my nemesis, except I’m not fast like her so I am just green with envy, and 6 years younger.

Did you see the Men’s 400 freestyle relay??? Me. Neither. !!!!! Why? Because I needed sleep. I set my alarm for 4:10 so I could get a sufficient workout after taking almost a week off. To assure I would get better rest - I took a tablet of melatonin. It takes me forever to get to sleep… except with this new tablet of magic takes over. I love thee melatonin…

SO. Whilst my husband laid in bed next to me and cheered the US mens freestyle relay to what look like the single most incredible swimming race any human could ever see !!!!!!!!!!… I slept. Hard. 

And that, My Dears is a post in which I clear my head. 

How do people do it??? Live. Blog. Eat. Mother children. Read and comment on blogs. Twitter. Work. Have an iPhone. Exercise. Go dancing. Blog. Sleep. ???? Any secrets? I am feeling like something has to give. And right now, I am thinking I am not ready to give up that melatonin… 

Oh, here’s a first step… I’m not linking in this post. I’m sure Google will take you to all the hot Olympic coverage. I already ran 4 miles, but now (instead of linking)… I have to do some dishes, fold some laundry, sort some bills, make a hair appointment (roots are not pretty), get the spawn their breakfast, remind them to brush their teeth and wash their faces and find their shoes, and then we must catch a ferry and pick up Grandma from the airport. I wonder what I should make for dinner. 

***rusting in pantry for Hamburger Helper***

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