Mom & Pop Culture

my achey breakey tooth

Turns out that I don't have a sinus or ear infection, after all. Upon returning from Iowa, my tooth erupted in intense pain.  I believe this has been the ongoing source of my pain for over two weeks, and the airplane pressure must have been too much for it. On Thursday, my dentist performed a root canal, my first ever.  He's not done, though, so I have to return next Thursday.

greetings from iowa

I'm back home from my whirlwind tour of Iowa, my first time ever to the Midwest.  It was definitely an eye-opener for me, and an interesting journey into America's heartland.  We went to Iowa on official business, busily researching The Grotto of the Redemption and the man who built it, Father Dobberstein. 

mothers and daughters

A couple of weeks ago, I received two review copies of two different memoirs about a mother and a daughter.   I'm happy to say that I dove right into both books and was pleasantly surprised and entertained by both, although they are quite different from one another.

The two books are It Hit Me Like A Ton of Bricks and Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back.

more good stuff, bad stuff

I have a sinus infection and earache and was feeling so horrible last week that I was going to write a long, depressing post on Friday about how much my life sucks.  But then, I reminded myself that when I wallow in self-pity, it's ugly and it doesn't help my mental or physical states at all.   Instead, I'm learning to acknowledge the bad, and yet, always acknowledge the good as well.  So here's what's been going on with me.

the diet cure

In the past year, I've been trying to detox my body in an attempt to become healthier.  In January of this year, I cut alcohol out of my diet completely.  I wanted to give my liver and kidneys a rest, and jumpstart the latest diet.

Five months later, it turns out that giving up alcohol wasn't that difficult.  True, I had a couple of glasses of wine at the Superbowl Party and then a beer at the Nets Game on my husband's birthday (February) but since then, I've been able to abstain completely.  It wasn't easy in the beginning.  Turns out that alcohol plays a big part in a lot of social settings.  But once I started skipping it completely, I realized I didn't miss it.  I found out that I

With that toxic substance eliminated from my diet, I decided to go farther and eliminate Diet Coke from my life.  That turned out to be a helluva lot more difficult than going cold turkey on alcohol.  First of all, I am truly, deeply, ridiculously addicted to diet soda.  And I had no idea how bad my addiction was until I tried to go cold turkey.  I COULDN'T. 

losing my blogging mojo

After posting last week a rather bitchy rant about my kids (that I later deleted out of fear my daughter might read my blog) I feel as if I've somehow lost my blogging mojo. 

I can't really speak frankly or freely here, not because I have any sense of self-censorship, but because I have no intention of hurting people close to me.  I'm just not one of those bloggers who can dish the dirt about everyone.  Sure, I have no problem exposing myself.  But I feel weird about possibly saying something here that could have detrimental effects on my children.