I come to realize time and time again that I am hopeless at keeping up with my life. It keeps me busy up to my eyeballs. I have no chance at writing a memoir. Things zoom by too fast, and I forget about them even faster. So, here's a few highlights I came up with while I made an effort to pause, look back, and reflect - which I perceive as such a luxury these days.

1. This is the 4th day in a row that I've faithfully attended gym. How's this possible, you ask? My dear husband made some calculations recently and announced that if I go through the gym door every day 5 days a week it costs us $4.50. If I only go once a month, that one-hour class of mine costs me a whooping $80. He said that from now on I must regard gym as my daily chore and make an effort to put on my tennis shoes every morning and treat myself to a nice workout. I suddenly felt many antagonistic feelings towards the said gym, but I kept my composure and let the guilt brew inside me to make me a better person. (This guilt thingy is not for everyone, but it works for me.) No matter how uninterested I've suddenly become towards exercise in general, I was determined to prove my husband that I CAN keep my commitments and I CAN get rid of my blubber abs. Such is the life of a woman married to a man with a type A personality - you just keep up and you just do it!

If it were just me this new job of mine would just mean enduring some degree of physical pain on a daily basis. But I have an army of little people that have to be in my close proximity at all times. And this, my friends, requires a completely different kind of stamina. I don't even want to get into details of getting these munchkins ready each morning, it might discourage you from ever wanting to have kids. I have to make myself believe that I can do it and just go with the flow. If the shoes are missing - that's ok. If they are mismatched - that's better. If nobody is hungry - it's good. If everyone is happy and agreeable - my day is a big success! I truly don't know if putting myself through a cycle class is much harder than getting three little boys under the age of four into the gym kids' room on time. But I know this, if I pull through this extra work on top of my gym duty - I can do ANYTHING! Very empowering! Gym transforms my day from torture to bliss. I love to feel this contrast. I LOVE leaving the gym! It's totally worth the trouble going in.

2. Ever since the arrival of The Parenting Breakthrough book this week,

I am trying to train myself to be a different Mom. I suspected there is a better way to raise the children, something that involves milking a cow and pulling the weeds. I knew I was doing something wrong by being a hovering type of Mom, rescuing my kids' school projects and depriving my darlings of dishwashing and toilet-scrubbing opportunities but pushing them into a number of after-school activities instead. This book is quickly convincing me that my 8 year-old's ability to do his own laundry can bring him just as much self-esteem as advancing to his next tae kwon do belt. The purpose of parenting is to raise independent human beings that would be "righteous, productive, skilled, smart, helpful, wise, intelligent, and hardworking." The book is a find for anyone who has young (and not so young) children. It's a perfect game plan for doing our job of helping our kids "out of our lives and into successful lives of their own." In other words, it teaches me, a Russian Mom, to do it American way. I've noticed though that Americans themselves are starting to deviate from this tactic. It's definitely not easy. Instead of quickly fixing lunches for everyone, I now spend more time and energy teaching my 3 year-old twins how to make their own peanut butter jelly sandwiches, or how to pour milk in their cereal. Can't wait to see the fruits of my hard labor in about what... 15 more years? Meanwhile, so much to do...