If you like this post, subscribe to my RSS feed via reader or via email, or follow me on Twitter for daily updates.

If you’ve been reading my tweets, you know I’ve been taking these early morning strolls to the bus stop with Steev. He needs to catch the bus to class and since I’m up early and enjoy stepping out into the cool, crisp morning air, I love to tag along and chat with him as we walk to the bus stop a short distance away.

Indeed these few mornings with temperatures in the 50s and 60s are just gorgeous and remind me so much of spring. With the sun already up at 6:00am, I can step out in short sleeves and shorts by the time we leave just after 7:00am. It’s a little chilly out but that’s the way I love it !

Life for Steev right now is as close as being a celebrity right now. In anticipation of his leaving for college soon, he’s being invited to dinner practically every night by different groups of friends.

Throughout the day, family and friends have been dropping by our house with gifts for him. He’s hoping someone would give him a gold bar that he can cash in for extra pocket money since we have warned him to be careful with his expenses while he’s away.

Well, for one thing, money doesn’t grow on trees, and for another, he’s there to get an education, he’s not a celebrity yet by a long mile .

Is it me or are high school proms a rip-off these days? In my day, there were no high school proms so my folks got off lucky . These days, they have a graduation ceremony where we have pay like $50 for our teen to receive a bunch of flowers and scroll on stage.

Then there’s the formal high school prom held at a hotel, no less! Mind you, my kids are not even in private schools. During Steev’s time 3 years ago, we paid $75 for the prom held at a somewhat obscure hotel.

These days, it’s not just high school any more, we’re also leading the high life! The school has ‘moved us up’ to a posh 5-star hotel where we have to fork out $180 for the dinner and dance. Remember we haven’t factored in the cost of that evening gown, purse, shoes, accessories and hairdo yet !!

Not to say that I’m a Scrooge or anything when it comes to one-time events like these. But is it really necessary to have an event this posh for teens who, by the way, aren’t making their own money yet and still have a long ways to go before they should even think to spend half that amount for a night out?

I think they’re doing just fine without being given the impression that they need to live beyond their means to have a good time! The organizers, of all people, should know better! What are they thinking?

So guess what? I’ve decided to go along with Steev to set him up in his new environment. To be honest, it wasn’t an easy decision and if there were a way for a mom to be in two places at one time, I would’ve signed up for it right away.

My girls need me here. I’m their taxi driver and master chef. But sometimes there are other priorities and a mom just has to do what a mom has to do even if it means some of us may have to do without her for a few weeks. I’ll miss my girls, of course and they’ll miss me too but they’ve been very understanding in this respect. They know I’d do the same for them.

Hip2bDad and I would feel much better knowing Steev’s nicely settled into his new place and new schedule. We’re the sort of parents who just need to know where our kids are at and how they’re doing. Besides it’ll be a nice little break for me too from my taxi runs and school lunch deliveries. So yeah, California, here I come!

Sorry for the slow posts. It’s been crazy around here.

We’re at an important family milestone and my head is swirling with mixed emotions. Until now, I’ve only heard other parents talk about their kids leaving home for college. It’s often left me wondering how they could be so brave, so indifferent too, some of them, to watch their kids leave the nest and fly off to faraway lands.

Well, now it’s my turn. Steev, my eldest, is getting ready to leave for California soon. I have no experience dealing with this whole idea of my baby living out there, on his own, for the first time, without us. There is no manual that tells me how I’m supposed to feel. This is all new. Yes, I know, he’s 19. He’s a college sophomore. So I should be okay with that?!

But I’m not! I won’t be there to cook his meals. I won’t be there to pick him up from class every day. I’ll miss our long mother-son chats in the car on the way home. I won’t be there to text and remind him to eat, stay out of the rain, mind his wallet… I won’t even be within driving distance *sobs*.

He’ll be there on his own, living with a bunch of kids his age, all probably away from home for the first time too. A scary thought. While there’s a part of me that’s confident he’ll do just fine, it’s going to take time for him, and us, to adjust to this new arrangement.

So what’s a mom to do? To be continued…

I’ve just finished baking a batch of my infamous cheese-crusted melt-in-the-mouth shepherd’s pie and they’re sitting in my oven waiting to be delivered to my two princesses at school.

Wednesdays and Thursdays, I have one finishing school at 4:00pm and the other at 5:30pm. My poor teens are up from dawn and at school from 7:00am with a measly 20-minute recess. That’s 10 hours straight, yes, even longer than working at an office. And of course, they’re most generously allowed a lunch break at 2:00pm.

That’s when I’ll be standing outside the prison school gate with a bunch of other parents waiting to sneak them lunch over the school fence!! I feel so sorry for my poor girls I just have to make them an extra special lunch to brighten up their day.

I pack their school lunches with a bottle of ice-cold water each and sunblock as they’ll be out in the blazing 95 degree sun all afternoon. Sometimes I throw in a couple of candies just for treats. These school hours are a real drag and frankly I can’t wait till they finish high school! Oops, look at the time, I’m off to grace the prison gates !

Right, so we’ve got another teen at the crossroads now. Raine will be finishing high school this year and she’s trying to figure out what she wants to do next. Not surprising since school is abuzz with this topic lately, compounded by the fact that colleges are making their promotional rounds at high schools to recruit students for their next intake.

Suddenly it’s got the high school seniors thinking and wondering. One of Raine’s friends wants to be a pilot and that’s shocked her parents into going, oh no, you’re NOT! And they’re having big fights over this . Thank goodness Raine has no interest whatsoever in flying, whew!

We’ve all been at the crossroads before at that age and for some of us, it’s not been the easiest thing. I remember being clueless and then ended up being somehow nudged into the world of computers which I quickly grew to love. So mine has a happy ending.

But yeah, if you choose a field you’re passionate about, there’s a bigger chance you will do well and be happier pursuing a career you enjoy rather than having to drag yourself in to work every morning.

And I’m so excited for Raine. She has a variety of interests – writing, food, design, people – and there are so many ways she could go with these. She wants to dabble in a bit of everything, of course, but she knows she has to pick one to major in.

She’s feeling the pressure now because some of her friends have already decided or their parents will be deciding for them. We’ve been having these long chats, researching different options, exploring different combinations. We still have a ways to go but we’re getting there !

Congratulations to myself! I made it through yet another report card day. And why not? I’m a very experienced parent as far as report cards go, having gone from the once-a-year meetings during Steev’s time to the current thrice-a-year charade.

It used to be a very important event that I felt I just had to attend, rain or shine. But over the years, my interest, in meeting the teachers, not my interest in my children’s education, have waned somewhere along the lines of hearing only the negative!

Nothing positive, nothing encouraging – when there’s clearly nothing that drastically wrong with my kids or their behavior at school! I would return from those meetings wondering how to get rid of wrinkles caused by meeting people who have nothing good to say.

Now after umpteen years of going to report card days, I’m an old pro at waving everything off with a smile. Oh and you want my autograph too? You got it . It’s all purely perfunctory. I know my kids better than anyone else. They’re well-behaved and they get good grades, no matter what anyone chooses to tell me. So there!

Happy today’s meeting with my girls’ teachers took all of 2 minutes each and I was outta there with a big smile on my face!! Nicely done !