about me

I always said that if I ever wrote a book on my life, I would call it Ruled By Bananas!

A Day in My Life

When I wake up in the morning, I have my coffee and outline my day. I am a planner and it helps me have a list and a schedule. As I put down my pen, my husband will announce, “Honey, we are out of bananas!” or he may ask, “Are you getting groceries today, we have no food”.

My eyes roll- we have no food. None what so ever. The conversation might continue something like this:

“What food are we out of?” I would ask, looking at my fully stocked fridge.

“Well, bananas.” There it was.

“How can we possibly be out of bananas, again. I just bought like 2 bunches 2 days ago!”

“Well, they are gone. You didn’t buy that many.” Sighing, I grab my pad of paper and add “Grocery store” to my to do list, which means I have to scratch out 2 other errands that were on the opposite side of town.

I always thought his obsession with bananas would diminish- I mean, don’t most of us, when we consume massive quantities of a specific food, eventually tire of it and move to the next thing?

Alas, it is just as strong today as it was then. I realized at some point, he would never change.

Which meant, in turn, that I would be the one that would need to change. I would need to anticipate needs, budget accordingly, purchase in varying degrees of ripeness as well as make myself vulnerable by opening up to my husband and letting him know, that while I loved him and sometimes I would really like to have a nice banana from time to time!

At some point, I am sure you realized that being ruled by bananas has become the metaphor for my life! Many times in my life I have had to apply this principle. Never more true than when I had my first child!

Believe me when I say, I was very ambitious. I always intended to have a career. I was never very patient with children and that coupled with being a horrid housekeeper, being a full time mom was out of the question. I could not even utter the word “Homemaker” without feeling physically ill.

So imagine my surprise when I had my first child and I the thought of putting my kid in daycare was what made me feel phyically ill! I will never forget looking at these care facilities. The YMCA was in our price range, and when I looked in the window I saw what seemed to be about 20 baby swings. My baby absolutely HATED baby swings. I know this because I was so excited to get him the new style baby swing that was open at the top and every time I put him in it, he would WAIL! There could be no question- it was a Hard NO!

“But what do we do?” I asked my husband. His reply changed my life. “You don’t have to go back to work, you know. My mom stayed home with us, and it was great.”

Worried about money, he told me we would work it out. I will write a separate post on how the money thing actually did always work out. I worried about a lot, actually. But one thing I did not worry about- my kid was safe. With me.

This was one of my first big realizations that things were going to come up in life that make you change course. Sometimes it is small, like your to do list needs to include a grocery run to get more bananas. Sometimes it is larger things, like deciding to quit your job to be a full time mom. Can you think of a time when your life had to take a complete change? I would love to hear about it!

I hope you will keep visiting me and learn more of how I handled this complete change in course. It was not easy. Growing up in a society that tells us to work and have kids brainwashes us in a way to make us feel inadequate if we are not earning our own money. My blog is going to go battle against that.

When they come to interview me for my 100th Birthday ask me if I have any regrets, I will say NO WAY. If I had not made this choice, I can guarantee you that would not be the same answer.