I'm off to the wild blue yonder, well, more like the rainy and brightly lit skies of Shanghai. Look for me over at Silicon Valley Moms where I've got a post on balance and will soon have one up about my brand spanking new job. I've left yummies in the freezer for the boys while I'm gone, and expect a pile of dishes and dirty happy faces upon my return. These happy faces to be exact.

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The Possibility of Everything

It's book club time again over at Silicon Vally Moms blog, and I loved this month's choice, The Possibility of Everything. Hope Edelman wrote about her journey to Belize where she met with healers to help with her child's issues and imaginary friend. The book was wonderfully written, honest and emotional and there was so much I can relate too. My kids are so different, one seems sad so often, takes my irrational ravings about the messy house to heart and ends up working extra hard to clean the house and please his mommy. As much as I appreciate his help, I see myself in this dire need to please and avoid conflict, and I just hope it doesn't take him 35 years to grow out of. My other son could care less about this stuff, but gets way more time outs for his behaviour. I mostly trust my gut that we're dealing with our babies the right way, but it can be tough.

The part I could really relate to, though, was the issues with her husband, her role in the family and her feeling like a single mom. There's a passage where she takes her daughter to the city, and gazes longingly at a group of apartments, imagining what it would be like to move there with her daughter, have her own little place, leave all her problems behind. My fantasies too revolve around just walking away from it all, deciding the "for worse" part of those marriage vows are just too much for me. Hope felt like she had to do everything and rarely saw her busy husband, although they were clearly very much in love. My husband and I may take on the opposite roles this year, with me being away on several business trips with lots of late nights in between, while he juggles his stuff and the kids. I can only hope they don't eat Frosted Flakes or In and Out more than once a week. We'll see where that takes us, but sadly Belize won't be in the picture.

Hope had to really step away from her practical side, look at her beliefs and open up to possibilities, to use her title. I want to take inspiration from that, do something out of character, more spiritual and less practical to wake myself up from my funk. I've got two trips to China planned this summer, so perhaps I'll find something there.

I got a free book, but no other compensation or obligation to write this post. Head over to SV Moms to see more posts inspired by The Possibility of Everything.

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Apartment for sale, Americans need not apply

Since I'm going to China, I've been asked to pick up a Hong Kong phone book while there so someone can track down her parents old friend (a ped named Yik Ting) from 20 years ago to give her a contact for a Hong Kong newspaper to advertise her mom's Palo Alto apartment. She wants to advertise there since foreigners value apartments more than Americans.

Following this surreal conversation my dad called to apologize for giving my number to this woman.

He then had to hurry back to my mom, who is recovering from a broken pelvis in a rehab center. I'm not ready to join the sandwich generation, and I doubt I ever will be. My dad is still in excellent health, and keeps himself extremely busy. Unfortunately that makes it harder to be there for my mom. It's not that he can't get away, but it's got to be tough to see his wife like this. My mom has accepted her limitations, but this may prove too much for her. They are taking the rehab very slowly since she's pretty much in pain all the time, and any movement just makes it worse.

I joke that my knees and back and other joints are all in excellent shape since I haven't made them do much, while my poor husband suffers from arthritis. But the reality is you have got to keep your body moving, exercise, push yourself, and keep that body of yours in working order.

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Winter Break California Style

Unlike many other families, who really took "ski week" seriously by actually going skiing, this is what Brian and the boys have been doing for winter break, except for the day they spent at the skate park and jumping at Sky High.

I worked, but look for a post at Silicon Vally Moms blog soon to find out why I was a-ok with that.

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