A New Venture

I have a college friend who works at Psychology Today magazine, and she recently invited me to write for them. I was honored and daunted but after prayer have decided to try that new bloggy venue. It's an odd place for me to be....I feel very much a fish out of water. I don't think what I write tends to be psychological; rather it hovers somewhere between the physical and the spiritual. I wondered what I could say that would be Helpful to this crowd of Earnest Pyschological Self-Improvers. But College Friend seems to think that just writing about our Normal Everyday was what Psychology Today blog readers would like and need. Maybe because Normal Everyday is so rare nowadays? Maybe because such reading is like observing a weird wombat at the zoo? Maybe because psychologists in America want to keep an eye on the divergent section of society known as homeschoolers?

Anyways, you can read it here: Lifestyle Design. The title is a kind of a joke with myself. Years ago I attended a college reunion chock full of successful young bankers, lawyers, businesswomen and the like. I was hugely pregnant and had two toddlers clinging to my legs. I felt a little insecure, thinking that the title Mama somehow wasn't good enough -- I am wiser now. Anyway, with reflection I came up with the title Creative Lifestyle Designer. "Hey, Little People," I said, "I am designing your lifestyle creatively!" and hand wrote some business cards to pass out to the achieving masses.

So when College Friend asked me what I'd like to name the blog, that incident came to mind in the wave of my insecure feelings at all those psychological PhDs on the site pontificating about this and that. So there it is. If you too would like to design your lifestyle creatively, have a look. There's also a link on the blogroll to the right. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Croup

I hate croup. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I hate it more than I hate barfing, which is what I thought Zazzy was doing when he cried out at 1 a.m. Loulou never had a croup episode, but the other three at one time or another have awakened out of a sound sleep coughing, gurgling, crying and gasping for air. That awakens parents out of a sound sleep to instant terror.

We know now what to do, more or less: turn on the shower, pray, make tea, hunker in for a long damp sit in the steam with a whimpering child on your lap. It’s not as scary as the first time with Mina, but I still hate it. Mr. Pete-za once had a croup episode that took him to the ER for steroids because an hour of steam didn’t make the gurgly, blocked sound in his throat go away. All the croup entries in the books I like to call Mom’s Book of Medical Worries say important but impossible things about how essential it is that the parent to stay calm lest the panicking child pick up on the fears of the panicking parent, making the child panic more and breathe less. Much easier said than done when your kiddo can’t breathe. Once I woke up and knew something was wrong just because Manuski was talking much TOO LOUDLY and CHEERFULLY for the middle of the night. That made us all panic, so I took over baby holding duty, and he made the tea. This time at least Zazzy could breathe well enough to tell us in frustration, “It’s not working!” meaning breathing I assume. Yikes. He’s better now.