The Year of Surgeries Continues

I made mention on Facebook on Thursday that my husband was having another surgery, so I thought I should explain.

It was sort of sudden. I mean, we knew it was a possibility that the latest dialysis fistula "hook-up" (the 3rd) in Mark's left arm was diverting too much blood away from his hand. But we were for sure holding out hope that it wasn't.

After all the previous surgeries he's had this year (they now know and remember us on the 3rd floor of the hospital), Mark's vascular surgeon decided the fistula had to go. It was indeed stealing blood from his hand. He was in a great deal of pain from the lack of blood, and he has a couple of sores on his pinky finger that may not have healed because of it.

The View From Here: On Being a Jewish Mother

This week's View is very timely considering some of the awful events dominating the news this month.

It's along similar lines as Keesha Beckford's post, "Dear White Mom", published on

Bonbon Break, and further illustrates how much we parents -- no matter what we look like

or what religion we are or where in the world we live -- just want the best for our children.

The piece below was written by Gailyc of The Madness of Joy.

__________

On Being a Jewish Mother

I worry about the sensitive soul we are raising, the little boy who is scared of bugs and wants them gone, but who cries if I kill them. My heart is in my stomach most mornings as I scan the headlines. I am horrified by the recent election results in several European countries illustrating just how much of a political uptick in anti-Semitism there seems to be.  The violence in the Middle East, the anti-Semitism that feels more visible daily, rattles me.

Ask Jen Blog Post Series

The View From Here has had its year in the sun and is winding down (last post will be 9/25).

I have thought of something new to try, however. Not another guest post series....although it could be, maybe, a way for ME to guest post for others....

This idea has actually been knocking about my head for quite awhile. Ever since I had you guys ask me questions for my blogiversary in 2012.

I got lots of questions! So many that I did a series of posts to answer them.

5 Things I Noticed During Our Kid Free Week

Being a mom is wonderful and honestly pretty much everything I hoped it would be.

Truly. I swear. No joke. I genuinely like my kids and think they're pretty cool.

They're not perfect. They whine and squabble and talk back. They don't want to do homework or eat veggies.

But -- and I know I don't even need to say this -- I love my children to the moon and back. And I know my husband feels the same way.

However.....there is absolutely a difference between having kids around vs. not.

Summer: Um....What?

So I guess there's this thing called summer. Maybe you've heard of it? It's when the kids aren't in school, the weather is really nice, people do a lot of traveling and reading. There's lots of grilled food and refreshing cocktails. Many of which are sipped on beaches....

I mean, this is what I hear. I wouldn't really know.

We have had nice weather (for the most part), the kids haven't been in school, I've had a few delicious cocktails and my husband has grilled meat like four times.

Summer is normally pretty low key for us, and this year has been even moreso, mainly due to Mark's healing foot.

Also? It's like I blinked and it's nearly September! I genuinely do not know how this happened.

I don't know how much I can go on about my family's boring summer, but it's Elaine's Old School Blogging topic (yay, it's back!) for this month, so I'm gonna give it a shot.

Sometimes I'm a Bitch

Am I a bitch, or are you just annoying?

Of course I'd like to think that it's the latter.

If you're doing something that's irritating the hell out of me, aren't I within my rights to bite your head off?

No?

Oh c'mon!

I contend that we all have certain things -- perhaps more than a pet peeve -- that get under our skin, make us lose our cool, and we really don't think we should have to apologize for it.