This has been a hard week for me. I'm in a little bit over my head (okay, so what's different about every other week?). I know that I will make it through this and am fairly confident that in a few months or so I will look back on this week with nostalgia and think," Remember that time when life was so simple?"

I have been struggling with my seven year old - I pretty much have struggled with her since she was one. I like to call it the second child syndrome - you know - sassy, doesn't listen to a word I say, just extreme in almost everything she does. We (my husband and I) know that she struggles. She doesn't really fit in with other kids, especially other girls and she hasn't figured out that rules, societal or otherwise, apply to her. We have tried so many different "methods" and I most often feel like I have failed her as a mother. I'm really quite tired of feeling like a failure and wish that I could find some better way to help her. We had her evaluated at age three and she was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Attention Deficit. I thought that all three year olds could qualify as ADD and ODD. They also felt that she had been molested based on a drawing she drew. The drawing was of a dog toy, they didn't believe me until I brought the dog toy in - then they told me the dog must be important and not to get rid of him. I was not impressed and felt like I obviously was not going to get any real answers or help through that avenue. I finally got the courage to have her evaluated again. I hope that I can get some answers so that I can get the help I need to help her.

My husband sprung on me that we are taking a vacation next week. He asked for the time off and left it to me to get everything else taken care of (I love that part). I had three appointments scheduled for the kids next week, talked to their teachers, arranged for a dog sitter and a substitute for my Sunday School class. I was able to book a hotel right across the street from Disneyland and now I just have to get five people ready, bake a dozen sugar cookies (crazy little story), get the car drained and refilled of all fluids and register the car as it will expire as soon as we get home. I think this is all very doable and I am so looking forward to a reprieve from the everyday is the same blues.

Feels good to vent.

I am only creating this blog as an outlet for my thoughts. It is not called the blog that I don't want family to see because there will be anything shameful or embarrassing on it, although there may be; I wanted to create a safe place to express myself.

I have a lot of opinions and I am surrounded by people that have a lot of opinions. Unfortunately, a lot of the people that I am surrounded by also have no clue how to treat people with differing opinions with any sort of respect. I don't like conflict, but also don't see why there has to be conflict when people don't share the same opinions. I wish that people could treat each other as civilly in political and philosophical debates as they do about menu choices. I realize there is a little bit more at stake in politics and philosophy than what one likes to eat for dinner, but I still wish they could be treated civilly.

I am a mother, a wife and all sorts of other roles in a family. I relish my roles in the family, even if sometimes they (family and my roles) drive me crazy. I also like to think that I am a fairly decent friend. At any rate, I try to be.

I have not yet met a person that I can not find something about them that is positive. That is not to say that I like everyone - I like most everyone that I have met - it is to say that I believe that everyone has something I can learn from and appreciate. I may not agree with them, but I can learn something from them and become a better person from having known them.