SingleWorkingMama

I have to thank my neighbor Michelle for this one.

Buy a pack of Yoplait Go-gurt, or for even better value, Moo Tubes from Aldi.

Put the box in the freezer.

Give your kids a tube of frozen yogurt in lieu of a straight-up sugar-water pop! (You may want to wrap the yogurt tube in a napkin to protect small hands.)

My kids love these things!

I think I may have outdone myself today when it comes to embarrassing moments.

By now, you’d think I’d be numb to humiliation, but I learned the hard way that isn’t the case at all.

I took the kids to see “Old Dogs” today, and we invited the SuperManny.

We settled into our seats with our enormous tub-o-popcorn and sodas, and about halfway through the movie, Boo had to use the facilities.

When we re-entered the theater, we got to our row and he went in first, sitting next to Drue. After a couple minutes, I wondered if my coat had fallen under the seat. “Eh,” I thought. “I’ll find it later.”

A couple minutes after that, I got thirsty and realized our soda was missing. I leaned over Drue in her distinct “cabbie hat,” and tapped the SuperManny on his shoulder. “Hey – where’s the soda?”

Drue, wearing the *very* hat in question...

“Excuse me?” said NOT Mr. Brent, but the father of a young girl wearing a hat just like Drue’s.

Suddenly, it all spun together, and I realized that Mr. Brent and Drue were sitting not next to us, but ONE ROW AHEAD OF US.

Yeah! I fumbled, bumbled, and Boo and I scooted down to our seats. I laughed my head off then, and also at the end when I got to confess what had happened to our new friends.

I’m really relieved that I didn’t put my arm around the girl, thinking she was my own child! OMG!

Everyone had a great laugh about it at the end.

By the way, we enjoyed the movie. Cute family flick, to be sure!

We’ve all heard that as you get older, you tend to get set in your ways.

Sometimes, those ways aren’t that great, and whether it is cooking the same dinner or watching the same shows again and again, you might start to notice your life zoom past you. Why is this? I think a big part of it is being in your comfort zone, and feeling too tired to try something new only to flop.

Clearly, I am in a self-exploratory phase of my life. I realized not long ago that it’s very easy find reasons to stick to the status quo and never make a change. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it doesn’t take that much extra energy to branch out and try new hobbies, meet new people, and really just try to “think outside the box” in all different areas of life.

In the past year, I have taken on a few new challenges by choice:

• Knitting - Just for the heck of it, I decided to try. It was beyond frustrating at first, and I wasn’t sure it was for me. However, I took a class and slowly got the hang of it. I sat around a table with 8 other women, many of us struggling in different ways as we dropped and added stitches, and chirped for the ladies who were obvious naturals. I have crashed and burned on a few projects, but the reward of finishing something as minor as a dishcloth is enough to make me laugh it off and try again. (It’s funny – it really DOES go faster the second time you try something!)
• The Gym - OMG, I joined a gym. OMG, I am actually going, and quite regularly. I keep trying new classes, and go into each one with the knowledge that I could very well fall flat on my face, and that is okay. At the end of the day, everyone going into that class with me (with a few exceptions, I’m sure) has some kind of insecurity, and it’s sort of therapeutic to laugh with classmates as our yoga teacher contorts herself into circus-worthy positions as we fall on our bums. It has been fantastic to see people of all shapes, sizes and physical restrictions fight their way through classes, and even better to start seeing them week after week. Camaraderie and pressure are being formed. We cheer each other on through that next wave in rowing class, and give each other grief if someone misses a class.
• Reading. Yes, reading. I read all the time as a matter of business and necessity, but I’ve recently begun reading for leisure. My attention span is short, so instead of giving up on a book, I’ve taken to reading a small, digestible chunk at a time. Whether that means reading a chapter, ten pages, or for ten minutes, I am finishing books.

Here’s the thing about all of these activities: It’s okay if you fail at any of them. The worst thing that can happen to you in any of them is that you may forge new friendships, learn a new hobby, or just become a tad bit smarter.