Each Day Already is a Challenge

What a weekend

So much to say...so much to remember...so much to ponder...

Incurable Romantic 's daughter, Tiffany, was with us this weekend. At one point, she and I were lovingly teasing her dad about something. She made a comment, then said, "Ooops. Did I say that out loud?" And I laughed so much that I almost did roll on the floor. I can't even remember what we were discussing before that.

Things turned rather...well, sticky, when Tiff was supposed to leave us yesterday afternoon. Her mom was asked to switch her day off from Tuesday to Monday, so she asked that Tiff be taken to her grandmother's house. Boy, oh boy, the (tear) floodgates opened up on that one. Tiff did not want to spend the night at grandma's. School is out today, and obviously Tiff needed a place to be today with supervision. I'm home, but Tiff's mom doesn't like me and thinks I'm waaaay too sick to take care of her kid. (I think it's more that she doesn't like me.)

Tiff did end up staying here one more night. Now we just have to pray that her mother doesn't get verbally abusive to her about the incident. Because of her mother's schedule (starting at 5 a.m.), Tiff spends many nights with her aunt or grandparents. She's really getting tired of bouncing around, and I can't say that I blame her for that.

Her mom also seems to have a short fuse and is a very loud person anyway. And she is doing what divorced single moms are advised against time and again. 1) She's putting down dad at every opportunity. And 2) She talks to Tiff as if she is an equal - a girlfriend - rather than her child. (She's only ten!) And Tiff is getting way too much information that way - about how her mom feels about her dad, about men in general, about money, about life. I was a single mom myself for many years and I know that it's tempting to talk with your kid about these things or to vent about them. But you just don't do that to a kid. You just don't.

Of course, this is the soft version of what the weekend was like, since it's a public blog.

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Supposedly, we're supposed to see near 50 degrees this coming weekend. My first reaction to that is certainly, "YIPPPEEEEE!!!!!"

Then reality sets in and I realize we'll be singing, (to the tune of There's a Hole in the Bucket...dear, Liza)..."There's a flood in our backyard, our backyard, our backyard. There's a flood in our backyard, our backyard, a flood."

There will, no doubt, be flooding down by the Ohio River as well. And I'll be wondering why in the world people choose to live there and be flooded year after year. Just like I always wondered about - when I lived in TX and FL - why folks stayed on the Gulf Coast.

Oh well. A swampy back yard isn't too bad at this time of year. At least it's too early for mosquitoes. See? There's a bright side...