I’m A Clubwoman

I want to issue an apology for having let so much time lapse since my last blog. My life as I know it has been turned inside out as I have walked away from a business relationship and started up a new enterprise. I figure this is what this blog place is all about: us women as we go through the great challenges of life, and mine is definitely been a challenge over the last three months. I don’t know if I have said anything about this before, but in addition to being mother of three and a GFWC member I also own and operate my own small town newspaper. I write a weekly column as part of the paper and I would like to share with you my first editorial in my newest endeavor. I hope you enjoy it.

We have all seen that child…you know the one. He is screaming at the top of his lungs in the grocery store, shading his eyes from the florescent lights, and flapping his hands. I betch you think …why doesn’t that mother punish him? Why doesn’t she spank him or correct him? …What if I told you this child was autistic?

As a parent I never ceased to be amazed by the fact that the very ones we are supposed to be teaching are the ones that are in fact teaching us. For spring break this year, my two boys, ages 6 and 4, one set of grandparents, and my husband and I all made the two and half-hour trek to Glen Rose, Texas, which is home to Dinosaur World and the infamous dinosaur footprints at Dinosaur Valley State Park. These dinosaur footprints were instrumental in showing paleontologists how dinosaurs walked in prehistoric times. Previous to this discovery in the 1930s, scientists thought dinosaurs walked like alligators.

If you are a fan of the long-running syndicated show “Gilmore Girls,” then you know about Lorelai Gilmore’s love for snow. Every season when it starts to snow, she sniffs the air and goes through her list of all the wonderful things that happen in the winter, and she (almost) makes me long to be surrounded by the white powdery stuff.

If there is anything that characterizes my local GFWC Pierian Club, it is the annually held, Texas Breakfast. The club has celebrated Texas Heritage since it was organized in 1908. This year the breakfast was held at the local Oldtimer’s Bunkhouse that is a rustic rock building that speaks volumes about cowboy heritage.

I have a confession to make. I suffer from a problem that I am sure many women on this website can identify with. It is one of anxiety. Four years ago I left my husband of five years. There were many problems with the marriage, but the main reason was that our then 2 ½ year old son was diagnosed with autism. This news was like a glass shattering. It was devastating as parents and my ex-husband took the news a lot harder than I did. To him he had lost his son, and this was something he could not and to this day still has not recovered from.

Wow, it seems like 2009 has just begun and we are already well into the second month. This fast pace lifestyle that has been ushered in only means ones thing in my house: Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome or Chaos. I want to take a moment to examine a certain injustice that is taking place in households across the country. It involves one much hated word…housework.

Who is my mentor? My life has been influenced by so many great and wonderful women, but one that sticks out is our local Pierian Club president, Mary Lou Gilbreath. Mary Lou has been part of my life for a very long time.