The Simple Life at Home: I Think I've Got a Crick in My Neck

9:23 AM | Posted by Lori ~ The Simple Life at Home | | Edit Post

Before I start, I just have to ask - do normal people say you've got "a crick" in your neck when you've strained your neck? After I typed the post title, I started thinking that I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say that outside my family. Being from Western PA, they've got all kinds of weird sayings and expressions that this might fall under. Like red meaning to clean or yuns being a strange version of y'all or a licking means a spanking.

As in, "Yuns better red up the living room or I'll have to give you a licking and I might get a crick in my neck!!"

I'm just a hillbilly at heart, it would seem.

But I digress.

As I was considering what kind of post to write for New Year's Eve, I thought I should write something kind of summing up the year. But then I realized that I had already done that. In fact, it seems I've spent the better part of the year looking back. Thinking about how my life used to be. Wishing for the way things were.

And isn't that just a waste of time?

The reality is that my life is now here in Doha. That I'm no longer homeschooling. I don't get to be a stay at home mom anymore, but instead I work full-time. I have teenagers who don't listen to me as though the sun sets and rises upon me anymore.

And that's life.

Life changes, people change, things happen. It's time to stop wallowing in missing my old life and embrace the changes that have come to me.

Living in Doha is providing us with opportunities we never wold have had in Miami. Especially given the current economy, we might well have been jobless had we stayed there. My children have the opportunity to receive a better education than I could have ever given them had I continued to homeschool. The school, paid for mostly be Hubby's company, is top-notch. We, eventually, hope to be able to travel to places we never would have dreamed of going while living in the States.

And even though I miss being the one to introduce my kids to new things, and spending every day with them watching them learn and grow, I know that putting them into school was absolutely the right decision. They are learning and doing things which I could never have given them. Some of the lessons have been hard (girls can be mean!), but all in all, it's been good for them to have people who aren't so lax and have higher expectations from them than "Mom."

Harder than giving up homeschooling even, was giving up being a stay at home mom. To be honest, I'm still trying to find the positive in it, but there are some things to be grateful for. My salary covers the balance of the kids' tuition that Hubby's company doesn't cover. Being at the school allows me the opportunity to get to know the kids my kids are with and to watch them interact with others their age.

And, no, my kids question me and challenge me and push my buttons every day. It's frustrating and maddening. But it's also part of the process of them learning to be adults. I want my kids to be strong-willed and independent. I am proud of them and how they deal with events in their life. They've been challenged and changed and stretched in every direction just as much as I have over the last two years and, for the most part, have come through it beautifully. I'm so proud of them. I know that the struggles we are having right now are like the butterfly emerging from the cocoon - the struggle of it makes the butterfly strong enough to fly on its own.

So my point to all this rambling? It's time to stop looking backwards. It's time to move forward, embracing where I am now. I've got to be excited about what the future holds and live each day fully rather than just making it through the day. I have a good life and it's time to make the most of it.

Or my mama might just come over here and give me a licking.

6 comments:

Leeann said...: Yep, we use crick too.. and I'm sorry you have one! They hurt!

This was a really amazing post. It has been a major adjustment and a ton of changes since you all moved over there. You all have been stretched and grown in all sorts of directions.

You are right in looking forward.. I hear the view is gorgeous!

xoxo; December 31, 2009 at 5:24 PM
Erica said...: My mom grew up in Minnesota with German relatives, so maybe my opinion doesn't matter, but I think most people at least know what you're talking about when you say "crick in my neck." :)

Great post!; December 31, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Claire said...: I was born and raised in So Cal, where I still live, and I've always heard the term "I have a crick in my neck." I think it's American. :) Yes, let's look forward. If I can, I'll join you.; January 1, 2010 at 8:02 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Lori, Sorry I haven't read your blog in a long time but it was nice to check in and see what you've been up too.
I really like your new house!! It looks very nice and I have noticed a new trend with islands and cabinets being totally different colored woods so you're quite in!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
I miss you all.
Laurie; January 2, 2010 at 4:35 AM
Mimi said...: In Tennessee, we say crick in the neck, too. I think it may be a generational thing. I used to hear people say it all the time when I was younger, but I don't hear it quite as often now. But, as Erica said, I think most people know what you mean when you say crick in the neck.

It's not unheard of for someone to say "lickin'" for a spanking around here, either. But, I haven't heard the "red" up the room one. I suppose it comes from "make ready"?

Do y'all say "fixin'" when you mean, "I'm going to go somewhere?" Someone teased me for saying that the other day, as in "I'm fixin' to go now."

In the Appalachians, they do say "you'uns", but most folks around middle Tennessee and West Tennessee say "y'all" or "you all". I'd know what "you'uns means, though.

Lots of folks who live in the South (including me) had ancestors who migrated down South from Pennsylvania in the late 1600's or early 1700's (before American Revolutionary War), so, maybe, there are some faint connections in our speech still. Or, maybe, some things are just Americanisms.; January 16, 2010 at 1:44 AM
Claire said...: Lori, come back! Wondering how your new year is going!; February 3, 2010 at 9:51 PM