Management has declared a moratorium on face shots.


Gah. It’s a Monday. Witness:

  • After prematurely weighing in last night and getting all giddy about a 3lb weight loss, I discovered that the scale wasn’t set properly. Hello 1 lb loss this morning. I’m not complaining… exactly. But that’s 1 lb in a MONTH.  Which has me seriously considering a legal name change to “Tortoise.”
  • My child. Oh… my child. My facebook status this morning read: “Monday Mothering is always such drama.” I’m underplaying that, folks. Homeschooling is like regular schooling when it comes to Monday. You spend all day undoing the nasty habits built up over a weekend. In terms of schooling, Monday tends to be a net loss for the week.

Now, the photo above is a throw-away from the monthly photo session charting my ridiculously slow weight loss journey. IZ thinks he’s funny and snaps all kinds of  unflattering pictures until my only recourse is to cover my face in my hands.The photos are just a reminder. They’re posted (privately at the moment, when I get a few more months in, I’ll make it open) on the other site. Mostly because I wanted one central place to keep track. And it’s helpful to have a visual reminder of WHY I’m doing this when progress is soooo slow.

I’d tell you I’m frustrated, but I’ve grown weary of whining. The bottom line is, the weight is not coming off easily, but it IS coming off. I’ve managed to drop almost 10 lbs since December—that’s the 10 lbs I put on when our lives went all wonky 2 years ago. And now I’m working on the next 10 lbs. We’ll negotiate how much further I go when I reach the next milestone. I’m not hoping for perfection, wishing for miracles, or attempting anything extreme. I’m simply altering my lifestyle, so that when I finally do reach goal weight in a year or so, I don’t have to kill myself to maintain that weight.  It makes for a very tedious process, but I’m nothing if not stubborn!

As for the child. Oy Vey! He spent this morning negotiating slothdome. Monday is always like this. He started by suggesting that he was too sick to unload the dishwasher–“I’m germy.” Um, no you’re not. Lazy does not equal sick. Note to you, it’s Monday, and I’m not buying it.

Then he attempted to renegotiate the terms of school. Yes, you do have to do math this morning. NO, you may not do it sitting in your bed. I don’t care if you think it’s faster that way. Because I said so and those are the rules. And it’s taken you 3 hours to do ONE lesson. And when you’re told to do something, it’s not negotiable. It’s not cool to wait until I leave the house and then go back to your bed and just sit. I don’t care if you’re waiting for your father, you have other things you can be doing. Like reading. Or German.

The child actually ignored a direct request by his father to start his PE. Because he didn’t want to do it. “I’ll be too tired to lift weights if I run on the treadmill first.”

And so, when his father looked at me and said, “You’re about to hear grumpy bear sounds, I’m just warning you.” I said, “Oh, go grump all you want.”

And then he refused to shower. And then he spilled his protein shake all over his computer (and my vintage tablecloth.) And then it was my turn to be all grumpy bear and deliver the “Life without a computer” lecture. The kid is so darn lucky that his computer escaped any injury (crossing fingers and toes!)–but he has spent the day being utterly resistant. And it makes me wonder why do we do Mondays?

The truth is, though,  a week must start somewhere. All journeys have beginnings. And sometimes you get off to a rocky start. Sometimes progress is slow. Sometimes you spill things and tempt fate and try to renegotiate the terms of your life. But, no matter what you do, Monday always rolls around again.

It’s inevitable. The only question is, how will you greet Monday next week?