I wrote this for the MORE News back in 1997. The first year of Audra's life I tried so hard to do everything by the book. To be "normal" finally I gave up on trying to be "normal" and found that doing what worked was easier then trying to conform to "normal".

Normal is a four letter word. Not technically, but, certainly when it comes to me it is. My brother once told me that I should dress normal and have normal friends so that I would "fit in," so I ditched my baggy hip hugging bell bottom jeans for form fitting pants with designer names on the butt. I gave away my tie dyed halter top for polyester shirts and lost my hippie friends for more "normal" people. (yes folks, it was the '70's)

When my child was born I checked her over to make sure she had ten fingers and ten toes, one belly button, and one nose. When I took her to the doctor he said that "she would never be normal." But I kept her anyway

So, when my children wouldn't sleep in their beds I let them sleep wherever they lay. My husband said that it wasn't normal.

When dinner time at the table always ended in a war over who would eat or not eat and one child regurgitating all over his plate, I let them eat in the living room on TV trays. But my father said that it wasn't normal.

Some time between the re-birth of platform shoes and the Brady Bunch I realized that it was just to exhausting to keep on trying to be normal. I liked the way my household ran, my kids quirky habits and yes, my bell bottom jeans.

Once I looked up the definition of "normal" in the dictionary. It said that it meant ordinary. I often think how bland and boring it would be to go through life simply being NORMAL!