Priorities

Last night Ellie had Girl Scouts.  I love Girl Scout nights.  Evan calls it "Stacy Time".  This is true.  While Ellie is downstairs learning all kinds of fun Girl Scouty stuff, I sit upstairs in the church lounge and talk to my friend.  It's an hour and a half of adult conversation.  It's AMAZING!  Granted, we talk about kids a lot, but still, Evan usually has the other 3 at home with him and I can just--BREATHE! This year there are a few other moms that stay and wait for their girls so it's not quite as much "Stacy Time" as it is just adult time (I'm slowly coming to terms with this) but I always leave there feeling more like and adult than like Mom.

We talk about all kinds of things but last night there were two topics in particular that I keep going over in my head.  One was about Stella's surgery.  This is actually a conversation I've had with a lot of people, but I was AMAZED, at how many people would have put Stella down had they been in my place.  The thought never even crossed my mind.  She's my child.  I adopted her with the intent to
love her and treat her like a member of my family.  I guess I just thought everyone did that, but some people actually have dogs, not fur children.  It's been so odd having this conversation with so many people.  "But she's only 5 months old.  It's not like she's elderly.  You'd still put her down?!?!"  Nods.  It's just so weird to me.  Maybe I should back up and mention that Stella's life-saving surgery was expensive.  Really expensive.  We can't afford it at all expensive but we did it any way.  What choice did I have?  Well, besides that one.  The good news is that Evan is totally on the same page as I am.  I'm so lucky this is the case.  After talking to so many people who wouldn't have made the same choice I did, I'm so fortunate that the one person who's opinion really matters agrees with me 100%.  I've heard him say AT LEAST 2 times over the last week "Look at that face!  How could you put her down?"

The second issue that we discussed (and I swear to you I used restraint and didn't go crazy when this topic came!  I admit I threw out my opinions a lot, but I really reigned it in!) was clean eating.  You know, high fructose corn syrup, organics,  non-dairy milk options, cooking vs eating out, all the stuff I've blogged about over the years.  They were saying that they know that a lot of things are bad (parabens in shampoo, pesticides in food) they just don't really care.  This is how Evan feels too, so I know people feel that way.  It's just so crazy to me, as I sit here writing a blog about how I'm trying so hard, failing and feeling guilty and trying again to live a greener life and they just wave it off.  It kind of made me jealous.  I wish I could just not care.  It would sure make things a whole lot easier!

The more I'm around other families the more fascinated I am with how each and every one of them is so extremely different.  They dynamics, what's acceptable and not acceptable, their values and priorities.  And these are families of people I consider friends!  People that are similar enough to me that we move in the same social circles (is that a thing real people say or does that make me sound like a character in The Help?) and our kids are in the same activities.  I hope this doesn't come across as being judgmental.  I don't mean it that way.  It's more of a sociology study for me.  Even after all these years out of school, I'm still fascinated by Psych/Soc issues.  (Did I say "all these years"  I meant just a few, of course. I've only been out of college a few years.  It couldn't possibly be 14, right?)  We ended the conversation talking about making time for the things that are important to you.  I think about that a lot, when people ask me how I have time for the things I do (like blogging or running or some of the more time consuming greening things I do).  It's a give and take.  I care about these things, they're important to me so I do them.  I rarely go out with friends--not including Girl Scouts-- or take time for just me (I call that showering at the Y--ALONE!!).  I'm sure there are other things I don't do that lots of other people do in a day that gives me time to do the things that they don't have time to do.  Of course, I move at warp-speed a lot too.  That's why I drop things and spill and hurt myself so often.  My brain just quit on me.  I totally lost my train of thought.  Olivia's watching Veggie Tales in the living room and it's distracting me.  I really need to focus on the important job that was entrusted to me--babysitting Olivia's doll.  I was informed that she was crying. She was given a pacifier and handed to me to hold.  She's now unattended on the kitchen table.  I'm a terrible grandmother.  See, priorities.  I focus on blogging instead of caring for my grand-doll.