Welcome to Fun2Parent, my new blog. Whether you’re a mom of younger or older children, or fury friends, or you’re someone who just enjoys a good read; please join me here for my musings on parenting my transracial family and our favorite food. I will be posting a delicious recipe every “Food Friday”. Below, I am relaunching the series I started in September called:

Motherhood from A to Z, the Adventure I Never Anticipated

September 5, 2018

It’s my birthday today, I am turning 52 and I never anticipated having a 13-year-old daughter and 6-year-old daughter at my age. I am in the middle of my motherhood adventure and loving it, except when I am too tired or locked in the basement (more on that later). Many of my long-time friends have grown children who are off at college or already graduated. My kiddos however, are still home. Over the next 26 weeks I will share with you my parenting adventure from A to Z.

The letter A makes me think of the beginning. I have Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music singing in my head, “Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start, When you read you begin with  A,B,C…” In the beginning there was me, my brother and our mom and dad. Then for a long time there was only me and then at age 35, I married the love of my life and my dear friend. We met later than I had planned, but really there is only God’s plan and here we are, 17 years later.

Before I got married, I loved traveling. I lived in Latin America for several years and when I traveled, I stuffed all that I needed into a book bag. I often jumped on a bus or plane and traveled hands free, except for the book I was reading. I traveled with friends and visited the rain forest and the cloud forest in Costa Rica, Machu Picchu in Peru, and Rome and Florence in Italy. Those were my favorites. I lived out of two trunks for three and a half years in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ecuador. I lived and traveled with very little.

Next I traveled with my hubbie and we spent 3 weeks in Spain, the longest vacation I have ever had. It was lovely. We each had a small back pack and a rolling suit case. We traveled by train, just the two of us, unencumbered. Taking in Gaudi’s artwork in Barcelona, incredible fountains and flowers in the Generalife gardens of Granada, and lovely museums in Leon.

Then I learned to travel with kids. We packed a stroller, pack n play, car seat, clothes and extra clothes, diapers, bottles, toys, books, special blankies, a blanket, and snacks. Luckily when I was alone, I already knew how to pack snacks, so that wasn’t new (more on snacks, when I explore the letter S). Gone were the days of traveling with a small back pack and maybe a rolling suitcase. Who knew kids need so much gear – yikes.

Even traveling to the mall takes gear. I can’t just jump in the car and go. Since our kids have a wide age gap between them, we fortunately needed only a ton of stuff, for one kid at a time. We needed a stroller, car seat or booster seat, books, water bottle, extra clothes and blankies and maybe a giant teddy bear. Actually, we still sometimes need blankies and the giant teddy bear. Our youngest still needs a booster seat, and sometimes extra clothes too. I never know when she might need a new shirt, because she has become mysteriously doused with water, or covered in ice cream or maybe just dirt.

As time goes by the load does get lighter. There is less stuff that the kiddos need: no pack n play, car seat, bottles, or diapers. Also, a couple years ago they started carrying their own things in their book bags and rolling suitcases. What a beautiful day!

Join me next week when I share, B for Basement.