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.

Witch Craft or Medicine?

About 5 years ago I started having back problems...NOT fun, I tell ya!

I spent several weeks seeing both a chiropractor and a physical therapist.  It was a really long healing process.  The chiropractor my friend referred me to was weird!  He was into all this holistic healing stuff, Chinese medicines, homeopathic type stuff.  I didn't really believe much in that kind of stuff, but whatever.  The adjustments definitely helped.

Anyway, ever since then I've had on and off problems.  This last summer it got really bad again.  It was to the point where I was in pain more than I wasn't and just could deal with it anymore.  So back to the chiropractor I went.  It was a different guy this time though.  He was good.  He was more a sports medicine guy.  I liked him better than the first guy, but he kept telling me I needed to walk.  So I started walking every night.  It helped a ton!  But then he told me I needed to start pushing myself more and more.  So I tried.  But every time I tried I would end up hurting so bad!  I felt frustrated that I couldn't just go out and run like I use to.  So after my initial care ended...and I was mostly out of pain, I greatly reduced visits to him.

Out of the blue last week, I got a phone call from my original chiropractor's office saying they wanted to update my file and would love for me to come in for a free re-evaluation.  I thought what the heck, couldn't hurt!  So I went in.  He had set up a whole new evaluation process including these weird tests to evaluate my internal organs, blah, blah blah, and did a new spinal evaluation, including x-rays...which I had never had before.  

I go in to meet with him today as a follow and here's the kicker...my right leg is 1/2 in. shorter than left leg which is causing my spine to be all bent out of shape!  Well, no wonder my  lower back hurts!  So he tells me a heel lift would most likely do me wonders with some occasional maintenance visits.  So we are trying that for now to see if that helps.

Anyway, to get to the real point of this post...

He went over the results of these other Chinese and German tests (that I thought was just weird to begin with!)  and concluded that I had adrenal fatigue.  He told me that a special dietary supplement would help me not feel tired anymore and I wouldn't want to take a nap every day at 1 or 2 p.m.  I was a little shocked because I hadn't even told him I was having low energy issues at all!  I felt like he had been spying on me or something because everyday for the last 3 or 4 weeks I have felt soooo tired right at 1 p.m.! (And yes, I have even snuck in a few naps over the last month)

Anyway, I came home and looked up adrenal fatigue and was surprised at how many "symptoms" I really felt!  So I bought the most expensive bottle of little pills I've spent ($30 for a month's supply of a special dietary supplement.)  I am really ready to do anything to help me feel just a little bit better.  

So hopefully, this helps!

I'll know here pretty soon if both the heel lift and the little bottle of magic pills work!  Let's cross our fingers...and toes!

Thank Goodness for Febreeze!

This is my story of my "oh-my-gosh-does-this-really-have-to-happen-right-now?" moment yesterday.

So my dear Mr. S is 3 1/2 and totally not potty trained.  His twin brother is.  But he for some reason has struggled with the concept and I'm about ready to pull my hair out that he doesn't seem to get it...or want to get it!  I was feeling poor last week while at the store buying another package of pull-ups...so I got the cheap ones...mistake #1!  

Yesterday, Mr. S got diarrhea.  Ewww!

My visiting teachers were coming later that morning and I didn't know if he was getting a stomach flu type thing or if he had just eaten something bad.  I figured I had a few hours to decide if I should cancel visiting teaching.  Well, he seemed fine the rest of the morning so I didn't think much of it again.

After cleaning my house (I swear visitors is the only thing that gets my house clean lately!)  I was sitting watching a few minutes of t.v. with my boys playing in the living room and my visiting teachers show up.  I walked to the door to let them in and noticed something all over the piano chair.  I initially thought that Baby Bree had spit up all over and then on closer inspection realized that Mr. S had another problem where his cheapo pull-up didn't hold up.  I'll spare the rest of the details on this part.

Needless to say that I was a little flustered trying to get him and the living room cleaned up...all while my visiting teachers were sitting in my family room patiently waiting to visit.  I'm sure they were thinking, "ah! we don't want to get sick!" or "that smells disgusting!" or "should we just go?"  I was so sickened by the smell that I even pulled out the Febreeze and sprayed everywhere as to cover up the odor!

But fortunately my visiting teachers were very patient and kind about the situation.  Every once in a while something like that makes me all worked up, flustered, a slightly mortified!  But I guess everyone has those moments!

Thanksgiving Printables

I get to host Thanksgiving this year for my husband's side of the family.  We are expecting around 17 peeps...including a handful of kids...mostly mine. :)  I was trying to find something fun the kids to do...not like they can't create their own fun, but I figure a little something might help calm antsy kiddos for those last few minutes of quiet conversation at dinner.

Click here to link to busybeekids

Anyway, I came across this awesome website with great Thanksgiving printables...and believe me, I looked at a lot!  Like...

This one from Whatever Dee Dee Wants

This one from Kinder Latino

This one from Parents magazine

I ended up printed the place mats, some word searches, some dot to dots, and some mad libs from Busy Bee Kids Printables.  Hopefully, it will be a fun little addition to Thanksgiving dinner!

Not So Cutesy Chore Chart

As school has started in full swing, I felt the need once again to have a new chore chart for Little Miss. She is in the Spanish Immersion program in first grade and it is a little intense!!! I needed a way to reward her for her hard work.

I tried a cute idea from Family Fun, but it totally did not work for us!

So I chose to do something more like this.

However, mine's not nearly that cutesy. But it is a very functional chore chart.
Basically, I took an old clipboard and spray painted it blue (to match her desk.) I glued her chore chart to the clipboard and slipped an overhead transparency in the clip w/ a vis-a-vis marker. When she complete her chores she (I) can check off the chore.On Monday evening, we tally up the previous weeks' checks and that is how many points she can redeem for prizes (such as ice cream, small treats, etc.)
Then we can just wipe off the chart and start over for the new week.
She LOVES it!
It has been so rewarding the last few weeks!
I also created my own weekly chore chart schedule.I didn't do anything cutesy with this. Just printed it and put it on my fridge. I've had this schedule in my head now for a while, but having it printed out to look at daily is a big help for me. Not only does it help me remember what I need to be doing, it looks so less daunting, than a huge "to-do" list. Don't get me wrong...I still have my "to-do" list. But now when I have "pay dentist bill" on my list I know I am going to do that on Wednesday, and not keep procrastinating day after day.

Fresh Food Feeder

Miss Sunshine has 2 teeth now. She is starting to crawl. She also has a growing appetite. I came across these fresh food feeders at Walmart and decided we needed to try it out.
We love it! (meaning both baby and I)
So far she has tried some melons, strawberries, bananas, cooked carrots, and mango. Her favorite by far was the cantaloupe.
I can't believe it took 4 kids before finally trying this nifty contraption!
Now the question is how long it will last.

Jewelry Holder

I found this lovely cabinet piece at the D.I. for $6 over a year ago. I just knew I could do something with it since it was in great shape, just a little funky in color. I originally thought I could do something for Little Miss' room for her special things.
I almost took it back to the D.I. a few weeks ago, because I just didn't know what to do with it. But I didn't. And then, suddenly it came to me. It would be a perfect jewelry holder!

So I pulled it out and took off the door. I originally thought I would paint and replace the door, but ended up leaving the door off. I also used those white cup holder hooks and screwed them up to the upper lip of the cabinet.

I primed it gray and then used Rust-o-leum 2x coverage in espresso. Love it!

I couldn't believe how perfect if fit in my bathroom cubby, that had originally been holding all my lotion and homeless jewelry. Now my lotion and jewelry have a nice looking home. Yay!

Here is a final look at my bathroom. And guess what? It drives me crazy to see model home perfect pictures of areas we use ALL the time. So this is the way my bathroom looks, junk on counters and all...of course, I did quickly wipe down all the counters and mirrors before snapping this picture. :)

Well, it is 10:30 at night and dishes still aren't done for the day, but hey, at least my bathroom is clean and organized!

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