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Main Page Site Index Getting Pregnant Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy and Parenting Journals Fertility Nutrition Pregnant Moms Morning Sickness Women's Health Child Health	Martha Stewart Syndrome by Paula Refici Cummings Some women get PMS. I get MSS: Martha Stewart Syndrome. I know I’m coming down with MSS when I wake up in the morning and make the bed. Then I bathe with the handmade lavender soap I bought on a whim last month (during my last episode of MSS). I wear a French twist instead of a ponytail, blouse and vest instead of a sweatshirt. I actually make breakfast - today it’s oatmeal (cooked, not instant) with cinnamon and diced apples. It tastes better than the usual cold cereal in milk. Afterwards, I plan some educational activities for my toddler. Yesterday it was the library. Today it’s the museum. When we come home, I look at the flower bed where I planted tulip and daffodil bulbs a few weeks ago. I remind myself to buy mulch. I’d better do it while I still have MSS, otherwise it will have to wait until next month. Another symptom of MSS is the urgent need to bake something from scratch. I want to make the apple spice cake I saw in Martha Stewart Living. But I don’t have any rum. So I make monkey bread. It’s Mom’s recipe: small balls of dough rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked in a bundt pan. My son spoons a generous amount of cinnamon sugar in his mouth. This time I don’t try to stop him. I let him be a kid. That’s what I enjoy about MSS - it brings creativity, inventiveness, and fun. I’m patient and understanding with my son. I surround myself with beautiful things. I take time to appreciate art, nature, and food. After a lunch of pasta with roasted garlic sauce (out of a jar, sorry Martha), I dress the table in a tablecloth. Then I pull out the quilt in progress. I haven’t touched it in a month. I sew a few blocks together by hand while my son reads some books. The load of laundry I started this morning is done. I even used fabric softener. I fold all the clothes, then put them away. Any other time of the month, we get clean clothes out of the basket, not the closet. I put on some classical music as we play together: feltboard stories and finger plays like The Itsy Bitsy Spider. We go for an autumn walk, collecting leaves and sticks. Tomorrow, we’ll turn them into a collage. My husband comes home, and we rush to give him hugs and kisses. He makes dinner, which we eat in the dining room. I drink out of a glass instead of a child-size cup. Then it’s bedtime. I sing as I help my son get ready for bed. We lay down together, and I fall asleep. It’s only 8 o’clock. I could be as perfect as Martha Stewart, if only I had the energy to keep up this pace. After a few days, it’s a relief to settle into a more laid-back schedule. I don’t have to be supermom all the time, but it feels good to live up to the ideal every once in a while. Paula Cummings is a freelance writer. You can find links to her work through her website http://members.aol.com/paucu/page/index.htm