MamaManagement

On the to-do list: Change ink cartridges in printer So. I just came back, let's see, 4 days ago, from a culture-sanctioned life-break commonly referred to as: Spring Break. At some point in our culture, everyone got together and agreed that we would celebrate the end of winter and the coming of spring with a little time off. The schools let my kids off of the hook. Nobody questions it when my husband takes time off work. We load everything into the car and head out on a family vacation. Which means that I just had a "break." So can someone explain to me why I so badly want another one? Is it Spring Fever? Is it longing for summer? Is it rebellion against the routine? Boredom with the monotony? Overwhelm with all of the activities? I don't know what it is, but I just want a break in the middle of it all. Not a regularly scheduled holiday. Not a culturally-sanctioned vacation. A Break. In the middle. Of it all. In the middle of the school commute. In th...

I recently saw an interview Oprah did with a man named David Brooks. His face looked sort of familiar, but I wouldn't have been able to place it without some background. Turns out he's a writer and political pundit (a term that makes me go, eew). But that's not why Oprah was interviewing him. Apparently, a few years ago it occurred to David Brooks that he, like many of us, might possibly be focusing his energies on the wrong things. I have to believe that Brooks spends much of his work life surrounded by a combination of really smart people, really powerful people and real dirtbags (these categories are likely not mutually exclusive). I imagine this might make the idea of "focusing our energies on the wrong things" even more glaringly obvious than what most of us experience day-to-day. Anyway, I watched this interview and found it really thought-provoking and rather interesting. And then I went back about my regular business. Not long after I watched the in...