Moms of Boys
Internet Meeting Place
The paperback edition of my humor book, House of Testosterone - One Mom’s Survival in a Household of Males – will be in book stores by mid-April. There will be 8 brand new essays in the book that were not in the hard cover edition. This one has a different cover (little boy on front). See home page for a photo of cover. Here is a list of my upcoming book readings:
Friday, April 25th, 7:00 — Quail Ridge books, Raleigh, N.C. — Ridgewood Shopping Center by T.K. Tripp’s on Wade Avenue
April 29th, 7:30 - Barnes & Noble, Greensboro, NC
Tuesday, May 6th, 7:00 - Barnes & Noble, Cary, NC
May 9th, 7:00 — Barnes & Noble, Fayetteville, NC
I’d love to meet moms of boys in those cities! Hey, it’s an excuse to get out of the house! Call some friends, meet for dinner, and then come hear me read some stories you can probably relate to very well. A lot of the book is not JUST for moms of boys; the essays are what all mothers and in many cases, all women can relate to (communicating with husbands, etc.).
Last Friday, I was on the phone with someone about a communications project I’m working on with my church when I glanced at my watch and realized Jason, my 7-year-old was not home from school yet. His bus usually dropped him at 4 or a little after, and it was 4:15. Most days, I’m aware of the time and am listening for the bus to stop up the street. So I told the person I was talking to that I had to check on my son. I asked my older two boys (ages 16 and 13) if Jason had come inside and possibly gone back out to play without my knowing, but I hadn’t heard any sibling fights (which usually escalate when Jason gets home, especially if someone has eaten the last of the Bagel Bites). No, he had not come in, the boys said. I went to the refrigerator to get the school magnet with the phone number on it so I could call and see what had happened to the bus. As any parent knows, this is about the time you start to worry, and your mind starts racing, even thinking back to remember if there’d been any sirens in the past few minutes. That feeling in the pit of your stomach. By this time it was 4:20.
Yesterday for about a 35 minute interval, my dirty clothes hampers were all empty at the same time!!!! What a wonderful sense of accomplishment!! Of course they are full again now, but at least there was that brief, beautiful moment . . .
When you live in central North Carolina as I do, you usually find yourself right on the snow/rain line in winter weather. Our winters here are mild, relative to most of the rest of the country, but we do have our cold spells, too (had 20 inches of snow in one storm during 2000). Yet, the precipitation and the cold never occur simultaneously very often, meaning snow is not that common. We haven’t had measurable snow here in four years, and my three sons have been hoping for it winter after winter. I’ve told the guys that maybe we should drive the four hours into the mountains where snow falls frequently, but they insist it’s not the same as it snowing at your home and being able to play outside in your own yard and then come inside to warm up. I also think it has something to do with the fact that at home, they also have all their video games and DVDs, etc. to ward off boredom when they grow tired of playing outdoors.