I’m certain that you thought it was Taco Tuesday. You probably woke up this morning, like I did, thinking about tacos. No? Ok.

Yesterday I was just mad. Mad, I say, about everything. It was one of those days that every little thing was shredding my nerves, and I could simply not relax. I checked the calendar to see how far away the start of my cycle is because I was sure PMS was to blame. Still 11 days away so that can’t be it.

I was so teeth-grinding mad that I was planning on writing a grand, tyrannosaurus size rant today and that actually made me feel slightly better. Funny thing that. I really want to try not to do that though, well, I’m on the fence about it actually. On one hand it might make me feel better and on the other hand I want to try, as much as I can, to send only positive vibes out into the Universe. You get what you give, you know?

Soooooo…. instead of a Dinosaur size rant, I’m going to write about the dinosaur size amount of love and respect I have for my amazing Pudding Pie. My daughter, who is 17, would probably be mortified by the fact that I’m telling people what my nickname is for her. Some days, I will try to guess what might bother her and I’m often wrong  –  like 100% of the time (as most mothers of teenage girls are), so perhaps she would not be upset at all.

Today she is taking final exams for her junior year in HS and at the same time having her first day of college. That’s right.. she’s not even out of HS and already taking a class at UNO. The university has a program called summer scholars and it’s only for high school students. They get to live in the dorm rooms for a week and are also enrolled in one entry level class on campus which lasts the entire month of June.

The program has spots for 90 kids and they had to fill out an application, write an essay, and even have an in person interview. I did not know about the program. She found out about it through the school and took the initiative to start the process all on her own. One day she told me about it and the next thing I knew she was communicating with the program coordinator to schedule the interview. Today was the official first day.

We got up super early this morning so we could be at the dorms for check in just after 6:30AM. They get to live in the dorms for a week to get a taste of what dorm life is like. But these are not like any dorm room I’ve ever seen. Each unit is like a mini apartment. There a shared bathroom, individual bedroom for each student, and a little living room/kitchen area. It comes with furniture and a refrigerator and microwave. Her room is on the 4th floor and overlooks a lovely green space.

We got through the move-in process pretty rapidly and then hopped back in the car to get to school. Due to lots of snow days this past winter, the school year was extended into this week. Normally the kids would not have school past Memorial Day. Missing her first two days of class at UNO is not ideal, but taking finals and finishing strong is a priority. In case you missed it.. I’m extremely proud of her for taking this on and all the other things she’s doing.

Not only is she finishing Jr. Year AND jumping into college, but she also draws and paints and is quite good (her instagram is https://www.instagram.com/draw4life_15/?hl=en ). She loves anime and writes her own fan fiction and creates videos to accompany the stories. She has a Youtube channel where she publishes the videos (Zoella Dragneel) which, last I checked, had 7191 subscribers. That’s incredible right??!!

Last night we were heading to the market and she was asking me what words rhyme with “faces” (among other words), and I asked what she was doing. She said “I’m writing a poem”.

I said that was awesome and asked if it was for an assignment. She said “no, just felt like it”. I completely melted. She read it to me as we drove and it was really quite good. Of course I’ve got parental bias, but there were a couple of lines that were strikingly great. That’s my Pudding Pie. 😜

She’s got a good sense of direction in life already and has an internal motivation that’s sometimes absent in teenagers. If there is one thing I want to make sure of, it’s that she understands that her future is hers and there are so very many possibilities. I want to encourage her to choose the path she wants to be on and not feel pressure to go against her instincts because of some limitation or someone else’s expectation. Based on comments in her latest video (a 1 year anniversary “thank you” video), I have no doubts that she will continue to “go her own way”.

Anyway.. so that’s a much better thing for me to focus on than all the other silliness in my head. I’m quite certain I have turned my own mood around by writing this and am starting the week off right instead of sour. Cheers to you all.

Now… about those tacos…

Until Next Time,

~Miss SugarCookie