When is enough, enough?

You read everywhere that moms are usually on the go-go-go. From grocery shopping, to driving the kids back and forth to school, to the cleaners, to the pharmacy and back again, "on the go" moms appear to be super-mom's that all of the 'other' moms aspire to be like.

But what's the story behind them? Who are they really? What is their go-go-go mentality hiding?

As a mom of two, ages 8 & 5, I find myself "on the go" a lot, but not nearly as much as many of my friends. Both of the kids are in baseball/tee-ball this season, I'm the PTA secretary and always at an event, meeting, or trying to organize a future event, plus this season I'm running the carpool. Not to mention the "normal" responsibilities of laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc. In the middle of all of that, we've "officially" started the move, but are in limbo between two houses right now, redesigned our review and receiving department, and are thinking of taking on another mom to help out part time since Marissa has been concentrating on graduating with Honors this semester. Yeah, life is hectic.

For me, I run because I hate the chaos of it all. I'm afraid that if I stay still long enough the stress will get to me and I will utterly collapse. That being said, I do try to unwind a little over the weekend, because otherwise I'm a bitch on wheels, and that's not fair to the husband or the kids.

What really gets me is that at the end of the day, my husband still asks, "So, what did you get done today?", and I still have no answer for him. Yes, I did some laundry, but it's still in the dryer, the food is cooked and eaten, and the kids are in one piece, fed, watered, clothed and in bed, but I still have no idea what I did, aside from racing around in the figure 8 that is my world right now.

So my question to you is: Are you a mom that's on the run? Why do you keep yourself on the go? If you stopped, what would you find? For the "seasoned" parents reading this, how do you successfully balance everything?

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Paypal-Ebay Vent. Who's fault is it? Plus a warning to Ebay sellers.

The holidays always seems to bring financial strain on our family. A friend of mine suggested selling some gift cards I had on Ebay, to try to get a few extra bucks. I had sold a gift card awhile ago and made a dollar more than face value, so I decided to try selling a few (literally, three) gift cards. All three had digital codes, so they could be emailed to the winners. I figured "win, win", right? Wrong.

Two were sold to one person. Long story a lot shorter-I owed a seller $10 (either in credit or in another gift card) which I told them I would send them, and they applied for a full refund- and won the entire purchase refunded. How? I have no idea. I even sent proof of communication with the buyer to paypal. This totally messed up our entire paypal account, putting us in the negative. It was horrible. The buyer asked me to send an adjusted invoice, and he still hasn't paid me. This was almost a month ago.

Then, today, I get another email from this other card I sold before the ones mentioned above, saying that it was an "unauthorized charge". What the heck?!?! So now I've sent my communication to Paypal, and am waiting for them to respond. In the meantime, my account is once again negative because this transaction from OCTOBER is now being scrutinized. I'm hopeful that this one is resolved quickly.

Aren't sellers protected under Paypal?? Nothing like this has ever happened before.. we've been buying and selling on Ebay for over 7 years.. this is ridiculous! It makes me want to give up on Ebay, and find a whole new money exchange system. I really wish Paybox.me was up in full force. I would be there in a heartbeat. UGH!

So my warning for you  is: please be wary selling on Ebay. Apparently, you really can't trust anyone these days.

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I've been having a rough week...

You all know that in life things come up. Well this week has been especially difficult for me. I have two sisters, the oldest passed away in 1995. She was 25, and the 14th would have been her 40th birhtday. For some reason this birthday really seemed to knock me on my ass affect me more than years before.

This year my family is broken. My parents, after 43 years of marriage got a divorce; this is the first time (since Colleen passed away) that my family has been so damaged. My father has basically disappeared- which for a daddy's girl like me, has been very difficult. My husband doesn't get it, and thinks I'm hormonal. I probably am, but that's besides the point. 

Today is my birthday, and instead of being able to enjoy it with my FULL family- I'm down a sister, down a dad because of no other reasoning but his own, have a mom with cancer, another sister with something going on the doctors can't seem to pinpoint, and, well,  my stomach is in knots. Why do I let my emotions affect me so much?

It's weeks like this that I really hate being a female, miss Long Island, and wish I lived in a cottage far, far away.. with plumbing, of course!

Wishing you all a great three day weekend.

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