Did I know it was Christmas time at all?

Uh, not really.

Christmas came really hard and fast, it seems, this year. Now I hate myself for even typing that because, really, it came at the same rate and same TIME PERIOD as it does every year; but I seemed particularly unprepared for it with regard to shopping, cooking, anticipatory stress, etc. It came and we opened some gifts and visited with some family and now it's gone. On to the next thing.

I find the older I get, the less I am waiting for things to happen. They just seems to sort of arrive and I don't get all freaked out (for good or for bad) any more. Probably sanity-saving for my family, but kind of sad that I've lost all that holiday wackiness that defines a mom. I don't care if we decorate, don't care if we take the decorations down, just don't really care...period. Not in like that overly dramatic, depressed, Eyoreish (sp.?) way. Just in that whatever kind of way.

I am making waffles tomorrow. Exciting!

Melancholia, thy name is Impnjmom.

Sigh.

It started innocently enough. A Facebook friend gave me a band and I had to name a song I love, one I like and one I don't like. I was done in 12 seconds and then other people hopped on the bandwagon and I was distributing late '70s and early '80s bands like nobody's business. Of course, I wanted to see what people were responding with and I saw the titles of songs I hadn't listened to for ages! A quick trip over to YouTube and then Pandora radio (how I love thee) and I was swept back to a time of itchy cheerleading sweaters and large hair. Right now, it's a Journey down Memory Lane with "Faithfully". WAH! Oh, First Love, your name still torments me 30 years later! Then a cousin chimed in with the Kiss classic, "I Was Made For Loving You"; how our parents were not mortified to hear us singing that at the top of lungs in my aunt's front yard, I will never know. There was probably too much Salem and Benson Hedges smoke in the living room for them to see us anyhow, so I guess it's all okay. An acoustic version of "Hotel California" made me dash off a thank you email to my 8th grade English teacher, thanking him for teaching me about poetry. Yes, we're still in touch; don't judge. My sister (probably the only reader of this blog ever...hi, You!) was stuck with Fleetwood Mac and I listened to the original of Landslide. How did Stevie Nicks know THEN what my life would feel like NOW? Amazing. Now America is on with "Sister Golden Hair". Summers at Dad's.

Music is always the trigger for me. Always. I might actually be able to cry later tonight!

Well, imagine seeing YOU here!

Hello again, Internet! It has been over four years since you and I met this way, if you can believe that. And what's more unbelievable is how eerily similar now is to then! Here's the skinny (Kidding! Skinny? Please!):

I've followed a number of blogs written by moms of younger children and now that The Boys are no longer younger, I've found a dearth of blogs that describe how it feels to be a mom of kids of a certain age. Now, I completely understand that teens need anonymity about their doings (as do I sometimes), but I hope that with this resurrection of sorts, other moms of teens or just moms of olders will chime in. I feel so weird telling a mom of a 3-year-old about my experience, wonderful as it was, because I'm sure I sound like, "Back in my day..." with a crotchety old voice and everything.

I also feel like I'm moving into a different phase of my life, with The Older Boy going off to college (wah!) and The Younger Boy going into high school (bigger wah!). I decided while at the beach in July that I would try, really TRY, to improve my outlook on things and be more positive, which is NOT my natural habitat. When I reactivated this blog, I looked over the old entries and some of them were very funny; but I noticed that there was too much complaining about EVERYTHING and so I wiped the slate clean, which hurt a little because some of them really were that funny.

So, here we are. Question One: Am I dead inside because I did not cry at the last "Harry Potter" movie? Or "Toy Story 3"? One of The Younger One's friends has declared me soulless, Discuss.