9/11

This morning we turned on the TV to see the shows dedicated to the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. It brought me back to that day. As most people that were old enough to remember, I will never forget it.
It was exactly a month after my husband and I got married. I woke up in the morning in my normal routine. He was at work, I grabbed a bowl of cereal and turned on the TV to watch my usual shows. The first thing I saw was one of the twin towers with smoke coming out of it. They were saying they thought a small plane hit the building, there was a lot of confusion, the idea of terrorists wasn't there yet, at least not spoken. The feeling in the pit of my stomach when that 2nd plane hit is something I will never forget. The reporters went silent for a moment, everyone was just stunned. We were attacked. Then they started talking about the plane that crashed that they thought was headed to the pentagon. It made me, and I'm sure lots of other people, wonder what would happen next. How many more of these could there be, how many more places could be attacked, who did it and why? The scenes of people walking around the area covered in ash and debris were so surreal, something you see on the news in other countries that are seemingly at war, not something that you see here in America. Then the first tower fell, another moment of stunned silence and then waiting and knowing that the 2nd one would fall too. The thoughts of how many people were in those buildings and in the streets below was so overwhelming.
I can say that I was not directly affected by this. I didn't know anyone that was there, I didn't even know anyone that knew anyone that was there. But yet I talk about it 10 years later and still can't hold back tears. It's a moment that my grandchildren will study in their history class, and I'll be able to tell them about where I was and what I remember from that day.
Take a moment today to think about the mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, uncles, aunts, grandparents and friends that died that day, along with all the people who have lost their lives since then protecting us and making sure that it never happens again.



A Round Tuit

I seem to be much more of a procrastinator than I used to be...not sure how that's possible, but it's true. The words "I should..." or "I'm going to..." and such come out of my mouth MUCH more than they should. Unfortunately most of the time it's not often that the thing I should or am going to do actually gets done. For example, I have been saying since the beginning of the summer that I want to go through the kids' toyboxes and get things organized, throw away broken toys, etc... Well, here we are, summer is over, school has started again and, you guessed it, I haven't gone through their toys. We did get their rooms more organized and have gotten a lot of other things done around here, but not that.

Growing up, my grandma always had (and still does have) these silly things called Round Tuits. It's a circular piece of paper with the word "tuit" on it. I used to roll my eyes when she'd give me one after I uttered one of the phrases I just talked about. I think I need about a hundred of those right now, not to mention another 12 hours in each day would be nice.

Another "round tuit" that I need to do is get my butt in gear to lose weight. It sounds like such a normal thing, especially for a woman and mother of 4 kids to say, but this is a NEED type thing at this point. Since I had my youngest daughter and had my gall bladder removed, I'm no longer at the level of at least maintaining, now I'm gaining, not good. Unfortunately, for a procrastinator of my level, sticking to a diet and exercise program can fall right along the lines of impossible. Excuses pile on top of excuses... not enough time, it's too cold/hot to go for a walk, no money for a gym membership, I need to catch up on orders, we can't afford the healthy foods, the list goes on.... Not to say these things aren't true, they are, but I need to make myself get past these excuses and do it in spite of them.

My procrasination has gotten to the point where I actually don't even want to start things because I don't think I'll be able to keep up with doing them. A friend of mine recently went through what is called a Muchness Challenge. Basically it's 30 days of doing the things you need to do to get your muchness back (If you've seen Alice in Wonderland, you'll know what this means, if not, well, look it up cause I probably won't get around to explaining it to you, haha).  This is probably something I should (there's one of the phrases again) do, I definitely feel like I've lost my muchness recently, maybe I will discover what it is I need to do to get it back. Of course, I haven't started this because I don't have time! Oye Vey!

I think I will be changing my phrases to I WILL instead of I should or I want to. Maybe I need to write myself out a daily schedule so I can stay on track. It sounds so elementary to do that, but with 4 kids, a very small house to keep clean and uncluttered and only 24 hours in a day, it may be the only way for me to keep myself on track.