Friday Funnies

Ok, so this week I've heard all my funnies from Jacob, my 3 year old, inform me that he had balls. Yes, I'm refering to his gonads! He was very proud in the fact that he knew they were called "balls".

He also was going potty and screamed out "Look mom! A waterfall!"

He calls Buzz Lightyear "Buzz Right Here" and almost every time we walk in to a room that he is in, he proudly announces "HEY! I've seen you 'afore'!"

Gotta love 3 year olds!

Thankful Thursday

As Easter is just around the corner, there is SO much to be thankful for. Thankful for my family and for my friends, even though so many of them are a long ways away and I don't get to see them. I'm thankful for being given the crazy chance to go back to school and to better my families future. I'm thankful for a husband who is motivated to keep pursuing this crazy dream of ours, even when it gets hard and overwhelming! I'm also thankful for our amazingly good health, and all that we have learned regarding HOW to STAY healthy!!

Now to a bit more light heartedness. I'm thankful for my Starbucks Java Chip Frappacino that is so totally refreshing on this hot, spring day.

I'm thankful for a beautiful, sunny 81*!

I'm thankful that Jacob is almost finished with daytime potty training!

I'm thankful that I'm DONE, FOREVER, with my basic sciences at school.

Worldess Wednesday 3-31-10

Tuesday Tantrums

I HATE that I'm on break and I still have to get up every morning at 6:30 so I can get the kids off to school! I'm so tired and don't feel like I'm getting caught up on any sleep. I just want to sleep in ONE morning!!!!!

I hate potty training!! It is such a daunting task and it seems that once it starts, it has to be seen through to completion. It seems that there is a good day, followed by a bad. Yesterday was the first full day of starting Jacob with potty training. He did amazingly great and even told me a couple of times that he had to go. Today, totally different story. He told me 2x that he had to go, only it was after he had already gone. The good thing is that once we are done, we are done for GOOD! No more babies=no more potty training!!

On a different note, my biggest tantrum for today is about people who refuse to take any sort of responsibility for their actions or the actions of their families. I hate listening to people make excuses about why they are acting the way they do, why their children do they things they do and why they shouldn't be held responsible. It grinds me to no end!! Take responsibility. Stop blaming everyone or everything around you. Stop pretending that you don't have any options or that no one understands. Stop letting life make it's decisions for you and take control of your life and your actions.

Tantrum done....until next week!

The gods & fairies didn't show up!

This is an old blog that I wrote a couple years ago, but thought I'd bring it and post it here.

Ever have those days where you are made to feel like you just don't do enough? That you have sat on the computer all day and so you OBVIOUSLY have neglected everything. After all, the things that did get done, probably got done by some 'outside force'.Let's see what all we don't do as SAHM.

1. The laundry fairy takes care of all the washing (at approx 15+ loads a week). The fairy then makes sure it's all folded, put into drawers or hung up, socks are folded and everyone has what they need.

2. The food genie does all the grocery shopping and makes breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

3. The school god gets up at 6:45 every morning, gets the uniforms out, kids fed, lunches packed, kids dressed and to school, not only on time, but early. He then picks them back up every day at 3:15, and goes back at 4:45 or 5 if they have an activity.

4. The homework helper makes sure that the kids get their homework done everynight and has it all packed back into their backpacks so they don't get into trouble.

5. The money tree sends out automatic payments to the mortgage company, car company, electric company and everyone else who wants money. PHEW, glad "we" don't have to deal with all that. EVERYONE seems to want money so I'm glad that the money tree takes care of all that for us.

6. Then there is the veteranarian who is here to clean up the dogs throw up and make sure the dog and cat are fed everynight and the cat liter box is cleaned out. The nurse is on call so that she can bandage every scrape, put ice on every booboo and kiss every pinched finger. The landscaper is here to mow the lawn and pick up the crap that is thrown from the white Explorer that so conveniently parks in the driveway and feels the need to clean itself out every morning, right onto the front lawn. The maid stops by daily to pick up all the toys, clean up the dishes after the meals, clean the kitchens, make sure the bathrooms are clean, and do the vacuuming. (Thank God for her...that job would suck!)

7.Then there's the nanny. WOW! What a job she has. Getting the younger kids dressed every morning, changing all the diapers, washing all the sticky fingers and faces after meals, helping to keep the potty training kids on track and not wet all day long and breaking up the fights that seem to happen almost hourly. Her job seems so stressful. Don't forget the baths that need to be given (that alone is an hour of time), teeth brushed and in bed between 8-8:30 EVERY NIGHT....always on time!

8.Let's see, the sex goddess. Yep, thank God for her too. We'd hate to think that when a husband comes home after a long days work that we need to have sex because he is stressed but horny. PHEW, thank goodness that all these other people take care of everything else so that if we wanted to have sex, we'd have the energy to actually do it.

Wow, these men are right...with all the help from the gods and faries, nanny and babysitter I guess we really DON'T need a break. Now, if they would show up just ONE time for their job, it might all be good.....

Not Me Monday

Today is my first "Not Me Monday". I did NOT laugh at my 3 year old son yesterday as he ran around the house, pretending to shoot his siblings, while screaming "You killed my wife!!!" I did not tell him today "Please do not put boogers on my phone". And I most definitely did NOT encourage him to put his new underwear on his head to try to encourage him to go potty on his new potty. Nope, that wasn't me!!

I did not sit at the computer and watch as my husband took out the window cleaner and cleaned the glass door. (Ok, so I did...and I enjoyed it!) I did NOT giggle everytime I told my son that he couldn't pee in his new "Woody" big boy pants (and I'm not STILL giggling even when I type it!) And I didn't encourage him to keep saying "Buzz Right Here" instead of Buzz Lightyear. SO CUTE, but I would NEVER encrouage improper words like that. ;)

I'm not the one who rolled my eyes when my daughter needed my help with her homework, knowing that she really could have done it without any help!!

And I most definitely did NOT encourage my sons to keep teeter-tottering excessively roughly, just so I could it on video. Nope, I didn't do it!!!

Such a slacker

I've been so bad with this blog, but I promise to do better!! I got caught up in the quarter at school and blogging just sort of fell by the wayside. I'm going to work on doing something a bit more daily though. Here's my plan....

Monday-"Not Me Monday". For this, I'm going to do all the "Not Me/I didn't do it" sort of things from the weekend. Just wait and see tomorrow. ;)

Tuesday-Tuesday Temper Tantrum. This is my place to rant and rave!

Wednesday-Wordless Wednesday

Thursday-Thankful Thursday

Friday-Friday Funnies. This will be the crazy, off the wall things my kids have said or done during the week.

Saturday-Serious Saturdays-HOPEFULLY this will be the things I've learned for during the week. Could be about parenting, might be about not taking myself so seriously, might just be something cool I learned at school. Who knows

Sunday-Sunday Simplicity. A place to post the Top 10s of the week. Top 10 things about me, about my family, about our life, about whatever Top 10 I choose for the week.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Does anyone dread this day as much as I do? Why is it that I always feel like "I" am the one being graded? I feel like I'm being graded on my parenting, how clean my kids are, how much I push them in school, their behavior, etc etc etc. With having 5 kids, each kid has a totally different personality, but a teacher in class only sees one kid so bases all their ideals about the family on that one child's performance and behavior.

I wake up this morning, absolutely dreading this day. I spent extra time in the bathroom curling my hair, doing my makeup and getting ready. "Put on your best face" is all I kept thinking. I had class today myself so went to school for a few hours then races back home to change into something a bit more classy (ok, not really....jeans and a cute sweater with a long necklace down the front, clunky black boots, adorable beaded bracelets that match my sweater). I check the mirror again. CRAP! Need some more style to the hair so quickly throw in a few more minutes at the mirror before I race to the school. Sunglasses are propped nicely on top of my head to add to my 'cuteness'. I'm ready!!!

Walking down the hall, I felt like I was going to the principal's office. The nerves were there. I know the kids are all good kids, and that they are smart, but there is still that "What if" playing out in my mind. This is the day that I may have to full admit to the world that I'm NOT SuperMom.

Teacher #1 greets me and we make small talk before getting down to business. All in all the conferences have gone well so far. 3 down 1 to go. I'm currently sitting at Panera, grabbing some lunch and preparing for my 4th conference of the day. This is the one I'm probably dreading the most!! It's the Middle School conference and my middle schooler has really struggled this last quarter. I believe that in the district we live in, which puts so much emphasis on performance in academics, that most of the parents probably do the homework FOR their kids. There is no way that the kids are doing some of this middle school work.

Question:

When you have parent teacher conferences, who goes? You or the kids dad? I can't think of a time that Tim has gone with me and I made the decision today that this is changing with the next ones later this year (if they have them). Why do "I" have to admit I'm that I'm not a super hero? I think it's time he joins my world....

I hate potty training

Jacob is 3 and probably should be potty trained by now, but I'm a realist and know that most kids REALLY aren't ready until about this age, unless of course you can take all day everyday for a few days in a row. Jacob is definitely showing interest, but he just can't figure it out. He'll all of the sudden yell "I have to pee in potty potty" and it's so cute. On Sunday I put some Tigger underwear on him and told him that he needed to keep Tigger dry. About 15 minutes later I hear him screaming "OH NO!!!" I ran up to the kitchen to see him standing in a puddle. I said "Oh no, Jacob. What happened??" He responds with "Tigger Peed!"

I found a journal entry that I wrote about a year ago. I figured I'd share it because I think so many can relate!

I have to the world's worst mom. I love my kids, I really do, but I don't always like them. Today is one of those days. The kids had me to tears tonight. The defiance, the disobedience, the screaming the fighting. All I could do was yell back. My patience was gone. My sanity, pushed to the brink. I was done! I wanted out! I tried so hard today. I got the girls lip gloss. I did their makeup. I played in the sandbox with Micah. I tried to do things with them to keep them busy and active and all of us being together.

A mom wants the perfect child. We look at them as a baby and have big dreams. dreams of perfect grades, beautiful looks, athletic, the works. We have the polite, well loved, obedient child with exceptional manners that amaze everyone. Pipe dreams? Maybe, but it's what we all dream of when we look at our small baby. As they grow older, they learn to push every button that we have. They smart off, argue, fight. They backtalk, scream, get angry. And we lose it.

We hate this side of us. We hate that we yell and scream back. We hate that we can't be the perfect mom who has all the answers on how to raise that perfect child. It's not necessarily the child though, it's us. If we could just figure out how to correct our children, point them in the right direction, and keep our cool while doing it, these stages would end quickly and we could all move forward. My anger pushed my children further. My screaming made their screaming and fighting first. I didn't keep my cool and that only made matters worse.

How can we become the moms we want to be? How can we have the child that we dreamed of? We hear that consistancy is the key, but when we don't know what that looks like, we don't even know where to start. Dr Phil often has moms watch videos of themselves, which leads to them breaking down and crying. Most of us don't have the option of seeing ourself on video though. So, start your day by looking in the mirror every morning. Talk to yourself. Give yourself a pep talk. When the kids get out of control in the afternoon and you feel yourself losing your mind, tell them you are going to your room for a minute. Take 5 minutes to again look yourself in the mirror and get your head on straight. I have a friend who is swearing by playing praise music in her house in the mornings while getting the kids ready for school, that they are much more controlled and things go more smoothly. That's my plan of attack for this week.

So, know that if you feel this way, that you love your children, but don't really like them, that you aren't a horrible person! You are a mom and you are normal. You aren't in this alone, but we can all become better moms through encouragement of each other. If you had ideas or help tips, I'd love to hear them. Leave me a comment!!! :)