Whistle While Work

Yesterday morning I was sitting a midst the piles of laundry waiting to be folded and I began watching 2 year old Aubrey.  She had taken a clean dish towel from my pile and was "cleaning" the piano.  

The thing that struck me was that she was singing as she was wiping the piano.

I smiled as I thought of how many times I have seen Ellie sing as she was cleaning as well. 

Then I thought, "Do I do that?"  

I honestly don't think I've done that for a really long time!

I use music as a motivator to get my kids to do Saturday morning chores or to push me through a workout.  I use music as a "fun" thing to get the wiggles out at night or to dance to in the car.  I have even tried to use music as a motivator during Ellie's homework time.

But how often do I truly "whistle while I work?"  

Not much, lately, that is for sure!

I remember my Grandpa Cannon would always whistle while he loaded the dishes into the dishwasher.  He usually whistled something like "Washington Post March" by John Phillip Sousa.  

Something upbeat and happy.

What is innately in us that makes makes my girls naturally sing while they work?

I think it is that we feel good when we work, whatever type of work it is.

Work helps us feel accomplished.

Work helps us build confidence.

So why do we learn to hate work?  

Work seems to be the opposite of "fun."  

Which is what most people desire isn't it?

If work is the opposite of fun than work isn't fun.

And how many times have I told my children

work before play?

But I don't think that is necessarily true... it is just our mindset.

I think work can be very enjoyable!

I've had many "fun" times while working hard.  

We have emphasized in our family the last year that 

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!

But how often do we do hard things begrudgingly...instead of with a song in our hearts?!

I think I need to set a better example of "whistling while I work." 

Maybe then when we tell our dear 3rd grader that homework can be fun she might believe us!

And be a little more willing to complete the things that are hard for her happily!

And maybe if I work with a song in my heart I might enjoy folding my piles of laundry a little more!

    

Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words

My mom and I play a puzzle game online.  She just created a new puzzle from this picture of the 5 oldest grand kids eating ice cream outside an old fashion ice cream shop in Philipsburg, Montana.  We were enjoying some time at a cabin on Georgetown Lake with family last summer.

Looking at this picture I realized that as imperfect as this picture is, this picture will be a family favorite for a long time to come.  

And then it hit me...how many times do we look at a picture years later and realize it is a favorite.  A picture that helps you recall the details of a trip, feelings, love, family.  

And what is amazing is that you never know when or what that picture will be, until later, sometimes quite a while later.

And usually, they are not professional pictures.

They are not edited.

They are are real pictures of real times and real memories.

In this digital world how many photos can we instantly snap with our cell phones?  I know I have hundreds of pictures on my phone and computer.  I know for sure I don't take enough time to find those special and meaningful pictures and DO something with those pictures.  It has made me stop and ponder how my kids will be able to look back at photos of themselves.  How fun is it to look back at our childhood pictures and try to remember or see how even then our personalities showed!  How can I best preserve those memories for my children?

This very imperfect picture recently taken with my cell phone shows all my husband's siblings and spouses. I think this will be a special picture as well...or at least I hope it is.  

Technology today has made it so much easier to use, organize, and share our pictures.  But on the same hand it also makes it so much harder.  So many more photos, so many more options than before...and oh the digital storage!  It is a blessing to be able to store so many photos, but what about actually seeing them?  How many do we print or preserve in a way for our kids to see?

I know I need to be much better about this.  It use to be something I was very good at when I was regularly scrapbooking, but as I have made the transition away from traditional scrapbooking it has become a challenge.

Here is my wake up call!  I am going to get my photos organized and figure out the best way to preserve those memories for my children for years to come!!!  

Why I Do What I Do

I never thought I would feel like I had to justify what I do.  I thought I was just being a fun mom.  I was hoping the little extra smiles would be worth a little extra work.  But after reading this blog post that is floating around Facebook right now from the blog Rage Against the Minivan I feel I need to tell my perspective.

I am a stay at home mom.  I have 4 kids between the ages of 2-7.  I am a creative person who enjoys sharing my talents with my family.  I am also, according to my 7 year old daughter, the meanest mom in the world.

I saw a quote the other day that I just love! "Instead of saying 'I don't have time' try saying 'it's not a priority.  Often that's a perfectly adequate explanation....If we don't like how we are spending an hour, we can choose differently!" -Laura Yanderkam (I'm not sure who she is, but I think she is one smart lady.)

I don't have a demanding church calling, I don't have a ton of "extra curricular" things going on.  In fact, every time I sign my kids up for something I now make sure it is just a short commitment thing because I HATE taking all 4 kids to karate or swimming or gymnastics.  It is a huge pain for me!  My goals right now are really quite simple.  I am trying to be the best me that I can be.  Which right now just means being a good mom!  But I fall short of this EVERY day!  I yell more than I should.  I get impatient.  I feel less than motivated at times.  My list could go on of things I do wrong as a mom.

But then I look at what I do right as a mom.  I make my kids work (which is why my kids think I'm so mean.)  I read with them and try to teach them.  I make a homemade meal 9 out of 10 nights and we eat dinner together as a family.  And every once in a while, I try to make the everyday humdrum of life fun.  I am not great at "playing" with my kids.  I'm not great at laughing with them every day.  I'm not great at celebrating the little things.  But I can put a smile on their face with some silly leprechaun tricks or a special "love potion" drink for Valentines day dinner or a surprise dessert in the middle of the week to celebrate Pi day.

I can't speak for why others do or do not celebrate the "phone it in" holidays, but I know why I choose to spend my time this way.  I am a creative person who doesn't have many chances to "create" much of anything now a days.  Scrapbooking and crafting gets set aside for homework and piano and homemaking and laundry.  Maybe taking the time to do cutesy things for my family is part of my "love language" or maybe it is just an excuse to create.  How many people use St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to drink?  Well, I don't drink so maybe holidays are my excuse to do creative and fun things?

I don't travel much, or run races every weekend, in fact I barely get the minimum exercise requirements in so I don't blow up like a balloon.  I don't go out to many movies, or go out with the girls very often and I only put in the minimum amount of work it takes to keep my home in semi descent shape.  I am not in any book clubs, but Pinterest is my "virtual" club of awesomeness.

So I have to quickly tell the story of Saturday, March 16.  My 7 year old had asked to make a leprechaun trap and I told her we could after her work was done.  I spent from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. trying to get her to accomplish a math worksheet, cleaning the toilet, practicing the piano, and doing her Spanish reading.  Yes, the better half that 4 1/2 hours was spent with ONE child.  However, once her work was finally done it was time to go to a birthday party for some cousins and visit with Grandpa.  By the time we got home and dinner done, it was bedtime and I still needed to go grocery shopping.  So I left the hubs to put the kids to bed and took off.  When I got home at 10 p.m. my husband said that E was still upset about not making a leprechaun trap and he told her he would see what he could do.  He asked if I had bought any candy, which in my attempt to be healthier, I really had nothing to leave.  So after the groceries were put away and I sat down for a few minutes, I had a fun idea.

It took me all of about 25 minutes to type up a silly note about how the leprechaun was disappointed because we hadn't left any gold and that he decided to play some tricks on us.  The toilet water had turned green as well as the milk.  It only took me a couple of minutes to make some leprechaun prints on the toilet seat and fridge.  The leprechaun left the kids some green veggies.
As I lay in bed Sunday morning listening to the giggles and squeals from the front room and shouts of "What? No candy?  Green vegetables?"  I felt like the 25 minutes I spent the night before was all worth it!  They truly got a kick out this years leprechaun visit!

I guess this is why I build up the little holidays more than the average mom.  I love their surprised faces, their smiles and giggles!  I love making a humdrum, normal day into something a little more special.  Why not?  They are only kids once!  And once they grow up and remember these fun days I hope they know that I did it out of love.  As bad as I am at communicating my feelings, I hope they understand that it is one of my ways I express love.

And I feel confident enough about being a good mom, that I don't feel guilty if I skip or play down a holiday if I'm not feeling up to putting in the effort at that particular time.  I don't look at other pictures of fun holiday traditions on Facebook and think, "I"m such a horrible mom that I didn't make leprechaun hats for my kids!" So what I'm trying to say, without offending those who are so irritated by the posting of cute leprechaun footprints, that for me it's a choice to spend my time and use my talents that particular way.  And seeing pictures on Facebook shouldn't be what we base our judgement of other moms on.  I know I have had to remind myself many times that when I see pictures of all the "fun" things other friends do on Facebook or blogs that that picture is only a small part of what their life is really like.

Anyway, there you have it.  My little soapbox about not judging other moms and looking at what we do individually that makes us good moms.  And that we all choose to spend our time and energy and money in different ways.  And that we all have different talents that we share with our family.