Crazy Love Gamble-Style

Today was hard, to put it mildly. Some days parenting brings me to tears, this was one of  those days.  I don't know what it is.  Ava is the sweetest most loving girl.  She can charm the pants off of just about anyone and has a million perfect little qualities...BUT She is driving me bat-shit crazy lately. She KNOWS she is driving me crazy and it seems to just fuel the fire.   Yes, I know what you are thinking, she needs more  attention.  This girl is demanding attention every. single. second.  With out fail, she is asking for something at  all times.   Usually you can find her on me, physically on me.   She is loud, totally obnoxious, sassy, back-talking, instigator of all kinds of trouble, liar, wild and  constantly disrespectful. I am at my whits end.   I talk to her about all these issues until I am blue in the  face, I explain what s...

This whole skiing thing is pretty crazy. I am not a skier at all, unlike the rest of my family, which are more like ski racers. That level of expertise is a bit intimidating to a non-skier like me who basically just wants to become proficient enough to ski with my 4 year old daughter, not start racing anytime soon, or ever, truthfully. When we started this I was perfectly happy staying on the bunny slope where there are no scary chairlifts.  Thankfully I have gotten past that stage, my daughter was ready to move on way before me.  She had mastered going down that hill with no harness, on her own, the very first day. I'm perfectly happy with her staying on that harness forever but can tell that my mom is WAY over it.  Turns out it's a lot of work snowplowing behind a child for hours on end. Mom was ready to let her off the leash, I was worried.  Mom kept saying this while we were on Mount Hood Express, which has all...

I know I am not getting this vacation stuff out very quickly. For some reason I am struggling with that.  It feels like a lifetime ago already. Ava loves the snow, even when it's nearly non-existent. She desperately wanted me to drive her up to Bald Peak where Grandma gets real snow, I told her I don't drive in snow and she said "Put the chains on Mom!!" Norah is jealous, she really wants to go out there. Things have felt crazy this week. Busy getting the household back together and just getting back in the groove of things. I cooked two new recipes, that was pretty fun and inspiring, they both turned out great. Ava told me she doesn't love me anymore,  for the very first time. Sadly, I'm sure it won't be the last. My mind is spinning from several devastating things  that are happening to my close friends.  We are so blessed to have the love & security and health that we do.  I hate to see people hurti...