Category Archives: updates

For Whom The Gong Tolls (our weekend of gonging and clapping and no free coffee)

Something is wrong with our car.

Jerry hears a miss and the engine light is on. Well, we say to each other, it’s an old car with 200,000 miles on it. We wonder if it’s worth dumping more money into for repair. We each imagine our life in the future if we pay for more repairs, giving us the slightest hope the car lasts a little longer…

I don’t know what Jerry’s imagination came up with, but mine flashed the mental picture of us stranded in a broken down car in the middle of the desert. I’m wandering dazed among the saguaros. read more

12 Things I Would Never Know If I Hadn’t Become A Mom

This is me back when I was a real mom. My son is on the other side of Goofy, but I had to cut his picture out to keep my promise of not  posting his picture on the Internet.

If I hadn’t become a mom, I wouldn’t have taken the trip to Disneyland in a rented motor home that rattled and clapped all the way from Seattle to Southern California. But our son had never been to Disneyland and so the trip became a necessity. (The Disney character insisted on having his picture taken with me. I’m smiling but I’m thinking how to escape the overly friendly Disney character.) 

I would have never known:

  1. The words to the song “Little Bunny Foo Foo.” Or that Slash is a real person who plays a guitar.
  2. That you will live in your car for sixteen years, driving your child all over the place to soccer practice, music lessons, after school events, children’s birthday parties, and drive-thru McDonald’s.
  3. That stepping on a Lego block in your bare feet makes you scream from the sheer pain while your neighbors slam their windows shut seconds before hollering, “Can’t we get any peace at all!”
  4. That asparagus hidden in the houseplants (near the dinner table) will fossilize.
  5. That you have poor anger management skills exhibited toward the neighbor lady when she complains your kid did something she didn’t like to her sweet angel child.
  6. That you should never, ever, put trick candles (the kind you can’t blow out) on a birthday cake. Moms learn quickly their child does not think it’s a funny, silly joke. Children want success, especially on their birthday, and that includes blowing out birthday candles that stay blown not. The candles that relight themselves do not amuse your child. Oh! I know that now. However, kids will find it extremely amusing to get a whoopee cushion for their birthday. You will go to sleep listening to hideous. gaseous, flatulent sounds over and over accompanied by much chortling (which I think means laughing hysterically).
  7. That you’re quite good at playing “Clue” and have figured out Miss Scarlet committed the murder. But you keep it to yourself and display a dramatic act of shock and surprise when your child beams and announces Miss Scarlet as the murderess.
  8. That the best thing in the world is the day you, along with four other mothers, volunteer to chaperon the school field trip and as soon as your son sees you at school he calls out, “I’m in my mom’s group!”
  9. That the insides of a golf ball contain a zillion little springy rubber bands that spring all over the house. You just had to give in, (didn’t you?), when your son asked you to cut the ball in half to see what’s inside. You pick tiny rubber band pieces out of the carpet for months.
  10. When in the car with your children, you’re happy to sing “You are my sunshine” over and over (and over) because your kids are having so much fun belting out the tune at the top of their lungs. Then for variety you drop the word “sun” in sunshine and fill in your pet’s name and you’re singing over and over, “You are my Pumpkinshine.”
  11. That the most painful event in your life is seeing your child’s heart broken.
  12. That you will save the paper fan your son won for you at the school carnival for a hundred years.

kids mother-s-day

Real Kids Give Real Answers to Questions About Their Mothers

=&0=& 1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff. 2. I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy. 3. They say she used to be nice.   =&1=& 1. His last name. 2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer? 3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?   =&2=& 1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot. 2. She got too old to do anything else with him. 3. My grandma says that mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.   =&3=& 1. Mothers don’t do spare time. 2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.   =&4=&

Wanted: Your Mom

art by Jerry

art by Jerry

To my dear Readers: For Mother’s Day I’d like to post pictures of your mom. Please give me her first name and write something about her, such as what she likes to do and what you have learned from her. I will post what you wrote along with your mom’s picture on Mother’s Day. Here’s what I wrote about my mother. E-mail your message and picture to  www.Bronwyn5Minutes@aol.com.

Beverley 1923-1962

My mom, 1942 (cool hat!)

My mom, 1942 (cool hat!)

Stay-at-Home Mom, Writer, Emmons Jewelry Saleslady, and Baseball Fanatic: My mom wrote a novel titled A Big Dose of Life based on her life as a WAVE (Women Accepted For Emergency Volunteer Service) during World War II. She died before she finished her book. She was caring and fun-loving, and always there for my sister and me, listening to our problems and sharing in our successes. In the evenings when she wasn’t typing away on a chapter for her book, she held jewelry parties at the homes of ladies in the neighborhood. Before my birthday each year, she would inquire the kind of cake I wanted and the color of frosting I preferred. Every year, I ordered chocolate cake with blue frosting. As I recall, all the double-layer cakes she baked resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but all tasted delicious. Every Halloween Mom wore Groucho Marx glasses. Every October, during the World Series, Mom sat transfixed in front of our black and white TV (the one that needed pliers to change the channels). Go St. Louis Cardinals (her team, I think, because the players were so handsome). read more

Why I’m Grateful for Yoga Pants, Costco, Eavesdropping and Other Things

grateful-heart

I’m Grateful For:

1. Sweatpants and yoga capri pants~ These are the pants that make you feel alive by their sheer comfort. Even if you don’t do yoga, it’s okay to wear yoga pants (I’m almost sure). And the older you are, the less concerned you are about yoga and the more concerned you are about comfort. That’s the beauty of it.

Why are these women laughing? They aren't wearing yoga pants. They also probably don't shop at Costco.

Why are these women laughing? They aren’t wearing yoga pants. They must be laughing through their pain.

2. Costco~ A guest hollered at me from inside my bathroom,  “Hey Bronwyn, you’re out of toilet paper!” This unfortunate crisis occurred in the pre-Costco days and caught me off guard. read more