A Year of Gratitude: Day 199

Today I am grateful for technology.  This will shock some people; as my husband so aptly put it the other day, I am a bit of a "technophobe".  (Seriously, though, have you seen the commercials for TVs you can control with the wave of your hand?  Too much.  It's just too much.  It all makes me feel like we're headed for After Earth or Wall-E.)  But today technology let me see and talk to my parents and sister who are currently away.  It let my kiddos see their Oma and Grandpa E and Aunt Christine from so far away.

So today I say, "Thank you, technology.  You're okay in my book."

"Just don't get too ahead of yourself."


Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 198

Today I am grateful for the fact that my dad loves to drink milk.  At the dinner table tonight, Mollie was itching to get down and refused to drink her milk as a result.  I told her she couldn't get down until she drank all her milk, and still she sat there.  Finally, I told her that she would never grow up to be tall like Grandpa E (a dream of hers) if she didn't drink her milk; I told her that he loves milk and drinks a lot of it every day (which is true).  After gathering up another dish, I turned around and her milk was gone!

Just like that.

Hey, you know milk ... it does a body good.

Have a wonderful night!

Things We Need to Work on This Summer

Only two weeks into our summer vacation and I've come to realize there are a few things we need to work on this summer.  For starters ...

Not calling "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  MOMMY!" to alert me to the fact that you'd like to get up.  (Mollie, I'm looking at you on this one.)  I get it, you're up.  Calling like this too early in the morning will get you a cranky mommy, particularly when you emphasize the "MOMMY!" part every five or six mommys.  (Yes, typically when I actually get into her room and see her little face smiling at me I forget the rage I was in just seconds before, but it really gets my heart rate up and starts the day off on a shaky foot.  Having said that, I realize how lucky I am to have two amazing kids who want to see me so badly.  I really shouldn't complain ...)


Not wiping our hands on whatever surface/article of clothing is available.  You can reach the tissues, you can reach the sink and have access to the soap (for better or worse), heck, you can even ask for my help if you're stumped.  But please, for the love of my sanity, don't wipe your hands covered with who-knows-what on your clothes, the couch, the table, your sibling, ... okay?


You have three responsibilities at our house: putting away you shoes and coats after having been outside, picking up and taking care of your toys, and setting the dinner table.  None of these things take much time and all of them are within reason for us to ask of you.  Want me to list out my responsibilities again?!  Or, better yet, want me to stop doing some of my responsibilities?  None of these things warrant flopping on the ground and screaming at the top of your lungs; you guys are smart and know that won't get you anywhere; it just ends up taking up more time and letting us do fewer fun things.  (And it pushes Mommy ever-so-close to losing it on a daily basis.)  Please help things be more peaceful in our house and just participate with a smile.  (Yes, I know they are 3 and 4 and this might be too much to ask of them, but I still want to work on it.)


Please understand that Mommy is a human being and does not always want to sing along to every last word of every last Beatles' song on their number ones CD.  Sometimes my throat hurts, sometimes I've been talking and really just want to give it a rest, and on rare occasions when there is another adult in the car I'd really like to talk to that person.  John, Paul, George, and Ringo would probably be appalled at my singing anyhow; wouldn't you rather just hear their fantastic, professional voices?  And, at the very least, if I'm going to be singing could you sing along, too?  I know you know the words.  It'd make it that much more fun if we were singing together.


Baylor, this one's for you.  You need to stop reading over my shoulder.  Yes, I know you can read and love to do it (and I'm very proud and amazed at how great you are at reading already), but it's not really polite and quite frankly you're too young to be reading anyhow.  There are far too many things in this world that are NOT appropriate for you to be reading at the ripe old age of four, and sometimes those things pop up on Mommy's computer whether she knows it or not.  (Thank you, Facebook.)


As the summer moves on, I'm sure we'll add more things to this list.  *sigh*  Hopefully by fall we'll have made at least a little progress on each of these items, though some I have more hope for than others.  We'll see!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 197

Today I am grateful that I finally figured out what to do with extra chicken broth.  (Amazing what thrills us as we get older ...)  Instead of letting half a carton of low sodium chicken broth sit in the fridge until it has ultimately expired, I read that you could pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it for future use.  Awesome!  So I gave it a try, and now I have a gallon-sized baggie full of what appear to be urine ice cubes in the freezer.  They smell terrible (I don't know about you, but chicken broth is not an appealing smell to me) and they look awful, but now I can feel good that I didn't waste a bunch of perfectly good chicken broth and that I will have some ready to go for later!

Win-win!

Have a wonderful night!

That's What They Said: Misunderstanding and an Advanced Vocabulary

Me:  Mollie, can you go remind your brother to put on his socks and his shirt.
Mollie:  (walks into the living room)  Baylor, your sock is on your shirt!


Bryson:  You guys, we need to pick up.
Me:  Yup, it's time to pick up.
Kids:  NOOOOOOOO!
Me:  You guys, we do this every night.  We have to pick up.  If you don't, we'll have to take away any toys that are left out.
(Kids proceeded to goof off and not pick up toys.  As we started gathering things up and taking them downstairs ...)
Baylor:  NO!  STOP!  This is nonsense!



Me: Baylor, you need to put on your clothes before we can play (Cars Monopoly).
Baylor:  NOOOOOOOO!  I WON'T DO IIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!  AHHHHHHHHH!  (ear piercing)
Me:  (yelling)  Baylor!  STOP!  (calming a bit)  I'm sorry I yelled, but we talked about this last night ... you need to stop screaming so we can understand you.
Baylor:  (angrily)  Mommy, you yelled and you teached me that yelling was okay when you did that.
Me:  (in my head)  F*#%!  (rests head on hands and internally laments having a smart child)

A Year of Gratitude: Day 196

Today I am grateful for a surprise package we received on our doorstep.  My dear college friend Katie sent us Amalia's cross-stitched birth announcement!  Yes, Mollie is three years-old, but Katie had good reason for the delay: she had twins, a boy and a girl!

The announcement is beautiful, just like my Mollie, with two happy frogs beneath her name and birth info.  I can't wait to hang it in her room!



Katie, thank you again and again for the beautiful birth announcements you've made for the kids!  I know how much time and effort it takes you to make them, and I wanted you to know how truly grateful we are to have them.  Thank you so much, dear friend!

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 195

Today I am grateful for how this morning started.  I woke up exhausted and had a tough time getting through my shower with any sort of speed, but when I got downstairs something magical happened: I actually got stuff done.  I put away a bunch of the kids' toys in effort to curb the crazy messes they've been making lately, I cleaned off most of the island, I got rid of toys that needed to be gotten rid of (Wendy's kid's meal toys, anyone?).

And not only was it wonderful because I was being productive, but because I had been productive (and had still managed to check my e-mail and scan facebook for any earth-shattering updates) I was able to feel ready and glad to see Mollie when she woke up.  (Baylor, too, but he woke up after her, and that second wake-up is typically less jarring for me.)

Here's hoping I can hold onto that feeling and start to make my mornings better!

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 194 (a day late)

Today I am grateful that Baylor was a no-cavity kid at his dentist appointment.  The hygienist and dentist both said his teeth and gums look fantastic, and he did an amazing job sitting still and doing what the hygienist asked of him.  All that was great for me to hear, very reassuring.

In addition to all that, though, the hygienist explained to Baylor what nearly all of the tools were and let him try a few of them out, pulled up my messed up x-rays so I could show them to Baylor, and answered just about every question he had.  Then he got to pick a prize out for being a good boy and they gave him a bottle of water for the ride home.  And for all that, I thank my lucky stars for the wonderful dentist office we go to; not only do they care for my kiddo, but they make his experience an incredibly positive one.

Have a wonderful day!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 193

As we were getting ready to leave for an evening out at the lake, I pointed to a bracelet Mollie had on her wrist and commented on how nice it looked.  She said, "Am I a mommy?"  I smiled in response, knowing she wondered that because I often have a hair tie about the same width around my wrist, always at the ready in case I need to toss my hair away from my face, and she likely thought that was a symbol of 'mommy'.  I said, "Well, if you want to be a mommy you need to have a baby.  Do you want to go grab one?"  And at that she took off, galloping through the kitchen to retrieve one of her baby dolls from the living room.

Today I'm grateful that my daughter, my beautiful girl, sees value in being a mommy.  Whether she grows up to be one or not, she sees value in what I do, value in being there for someone else, and value in caring for one's family.  In a job without real pay, without progress reports or performance reviews, it felt good to have a little validation.

Have a wonderful night!

A Year of Gratitude: Day 192 (a day late)

Well, our dishwasher finally died.  After about twenty years of diligent service, our Maytag conked out and refused to release any of the detergent we put in there.  And while I'm not at all thrilled it broke or that I'll be doing dishes by hand for the next few weeks (apparently our dishwasher opening is smaller than standard so we had to special order one), I will say this ...

I am so grateful that that's all it did.  I'm grateful that it didn't flood the kitchen as its last hurrah, as so many dishwashers do.

I'm also grateful that we have the means to get a new dishwasher.  Yes, I realize I am absolutely spoiled that we have a dishwasher, and I am grateful that we are able to have such a lovely, useful machine.  It makes my life a little easier, a fact I am realizing more and more as the days without one go on.

Have a wonderful night!