There have been many pretty, happy, and funny moments since last week; however, the real has dominated our lives lately. An intestinally-themed virus has been making its slow rounds through the family, and on top of that I've had two debilitating tension headaches within the space of one week. Everyone seems finally to be on the mend, and I've dug us out of the piles of laundry that were threatening to eat the house (the laundry! oh, the laundry!). Mr. Pickles has done an admirable job stepping in while I was incapacitated. I honestly don't know what I would have done without him. We wouldn't have had an Easter feast, that's for sure -- he had to do the shopping for me last week while I was still recovering. He got all the essentials: ham, ice cream, piles of meat, sugar cereal, that sort of thing. Still, there's no substitute for a full-time housekeeper. (oh! the laundry!) I'm glad to be back on my feet, albeit a little wobbly -- I feel like I'm leaving my family to the wolves whenever I'm down for a day. (I actually get the most worried about the baby when I'm sick -- when I can't drink anything more than 2 sips of Sprite for 6 hours I wonder if the milk factory is able to function. Judging by how much he's been waking up at night, my guess is not very well.)
All this is to say that we were sick, we're better, I have pictures, we've got a busy weekend coming up but I hope to post again soon, and HAPPY EASTER!!!
Showing posts with label where is the good housekeeping fairy?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label where is the good housekeeping fairy?. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Saturday, April 02, 2011
The REAL Mom
I've been married for over 10 years.
I've been a mother for over 9.
And still, I keep waiting for the real mother to come and take care of things. When the girls were really little I used to wake up in cold sweats, realizing that I was the one supposed to be in charge. Now I feel like I'm just playing house until she gets here. And for good reason -- the Real Mom is everything I'm not but wish I could be. She is such a delightful person, a true heart of the home.
This Real Mom never says things like, "Well, if you hadn't been so careless you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Instead, she sympathetically kisses the owie and applies a bandaid, even if it's not bleeding.
She also never says things like, "Just a minute," or, "We'll see," or, "Mmm," whenever the children ask her to do something when she's in the middle of something. No, she responds right away with a just answer.
The Real Mom never, ever yells at the kids. She may use a strong voice when needed, but she never yells out of anger. She would rather die than use profanity in front of her children. Instead, she sings a lot.
The Real Mom always dresses stylishly and smells nice.
The Real Mom always gets up on time so she can start breakfast before everyone else wakes up. She also never, ever stays up past her bedtime to watch old movies on Netflix.
The Real Mom keeps the floors relatively clean and the house dusted, and doesn't mind spending her days picking up other people's messes.
The Real Mom smiles a lot. When she has a bad day (everybody has them -- even the Real Mom) she fixes hot chocolate with marshmallows for everyone, and scraps school plans to sit on the couch and read books to the kids.
The Real Mom always has time for Mr. Pickles in the evening, and never even looks in the direction of her laptop when he is home (unless he's on his iMagic).
Doesn't this Real Mom sound like the kind of person who REALLY ought to be in charge of taking care of other people, instead of impatient, disorganized, lazy, selfish ol' me? But until she shows up, I guess I'll have to do. Meanwhile I suppose I should try to be as like her as possible, since family life would be such a beautiful, peaceful thing if she were here.
I've been a mother for over 9.
And still, I keep waiting for the real mother to come and take care of things. When the girls were really little I used to wake up in cold sweats, realizing that I was the one supposed to be in charge. Now I feel like I'm just playing house until she gets here. And for good reason -- the Real Mom is everything I'm not but wish I could be. She is such a delightful person, a true heart of the home.
This Real Mom never says things like, "Well, if you hadn't been so careless you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Instead, she sympathetically kisses the owie and applies a bandaid, even if it's not bleeding.
She also never says things like, "Just a minute," or, "We'll see," or, "Mmm," whenever the children ask her to do something when she's in the middle of something. No, she responds right away with a just answer.
The Real Mom never, ever yells at the kids. She may use a strong voice when needed, but she never yells out of anger. She would rather die than use profanity in front of her children. Instead, she sings a lot.
The Real Mom always dresses stylishly and smells nice.
The Real Mom always gets up on time so she can start breakfast before everyone else wakes up. She also never, ever stays up past her bedtime to watch old movies on Netflix.
The Real Mom keeps the floors relatively clean and the house dusted, and doesn't mind spending her days picking up other people's messes.
The Real Mom smiles a lot. When she has a bad day (everybody has them -- even the Real Mom) she fixes hot chocolate with marshmallows for everyone, and scraps school plans to sit on the couch and read books to the kids.
The Real Mom always has time for Mr. Pickles in the evening, and never even looks in the direction of her laptop when he is home (unless he's on his iMagic).
Doesn't this Real Mom sound like the kind of person who REALLY ought to be in charge of taking care of other people, instead of impatient, disorganized, lazy, selfish ol' me? But until she shows up, I guess I'll have to do. Meanwhile I suppose I should try to be as like her as possible, since family life would be such a beautiful, peaceful thing if she were here.
Sunday, May 02, 2010
A good reminder
from Pleasant View Schoolhouse, one of the "Mommy blogs" in my Google Reader:
Advice for young moms? Honey, it's different for you. Don't expect to be able to do everything during these days. These days are the most challenging parenting you'll do. Keep up with the laundry, feed your family fresh vegetables, sweep the floor when you have to, get some fresh air, and try, try, try to do a little something creative every day. You'll feel so much better.
I really needed to hear this. Most days I feel like this whole homeschooling mom thing is a superhuman task, and I often go to bed discouraged, mulling over all the things I didn't do on a given day. I know it will get easier, and soon, but that's small comfort when I look around and see all the dust and clutter building up, and feel like a failure of a homemaker -- or when I have to forgo playing with the littles because the laundry is starting to back up or I have to plan lessons or make necessary phone calls I've been putting off for weeks. There is nothing harder or more personally demanding than being a mother of small children, a homemaker, and a homeschooler all in one. I'm still trying to figure out how to manage my time so that I fulfill all my duties reasonably well (I'm so beyond expecting perfection) and yet have occasional opportunities to be creative and thereby refresh my spirit. It's hard when I live in the completely unreasonable terror of CPS knocking on the door and determining that I am unfit to keep these children because they have jam on their faces, or the floor hasn't been vacuumed yet this week, or there are dirty finger smudges all over the walls. Yes, unreasonable, I know. To each his own nightmare. I've never handled criticism well, so living in fear of being judged by an authority with disastrous consequences is just one of the many subconscious manifestations of that ever-present maternal guilt. (We all know we could be doing better, right?)
I think I need to get out of the house more.
Advice for young moms? Honey, it's different for you. Don't expect to be able to do everything during these days. These days are the most challenging parenting you'll do. Keep up with the laundry, feed your family fresh vegetables, sweep the floor when you have to, get some fresh air, and try, try, try to do a little something creative every day. You'll feel so much better.
I really needed to hear this. Most days I feel like this whole homeschooling mom thing is a superhuman task, and I often go to bed discouraged, mulling over all the things I didn't do on a given day. I know it will get easier, and soon, but that's small comfort when I look around and see all the dust and clutter building up, and feel like a failure of a homemaker -- or when I have to forgo playing with the littles because the laundry is starting to back up or I have to plan lessons or make necessary phone calls I've been putting off for weeks. There is nothing harder or more personally demanding than being a mother of small children, a homemaker, and a homeschooler all in one. I'm still trying to figure out how to manage my time so that I fulfill all my duties reasonably well (I'm so beyond expecting perfection) and yet have occasional opportunities to be creative and thereby refresh my spirit. It's hard when I live in the completely unreasonable terror of CPS knocking on the door and determining that I am unfit to keep these children because they have jam on their faces, or the floor hasn't been vacuumed yet this week, or there are dirty finger smudges all over the walls. Yes, unreasonable, I know. To each his own nightmare. I've never handled criticism well, so living in fear of being judged by an authority with disastrous consequences is just one of the many subconscious manifestations of that ever-present maternal guilt. (We all know we could be doing better, right?)
I think I need to get out of the house more.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Yet Another Desperate Attempt to Catch Up
Wow. I am just a pathetic blogger. Apologies to all you adoring fan(s). I finally cleaned off our camera after we ran out of memory (we had pictures going back to February!). Everyone is either gone or asleep, and I'm awake, so since the planets seem to be aligned I'm going to take advantage of this rare occurrence!
All hail, King Joseph!
So, obviously we're not dead yet. We've just been sucked into that swirling vortex known as The School Year. Wait, I thought homeschooling was supposed to be relaxed, flexible, customizable, and all those happy go-with-the-flow things?
must... keep... straight... face.... Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa!!!!! Who am I kidding? Any family that is certifiably insane enough to assume the full-time task of educating its youngest members is destined to be suck into the educational vortex for a couple months. School itself only takes up about 3 hours of every day -- even less, excluding breaks. But there are weekly library trips, field trips, CCD, co-op classes on Thursdays, art projects, science projects, plus all the usual homemaking stuff like cooking and dishes and laundry and housecleaning and phone calls and doctor appointments....
So, yeah, that's where I've been the last couple months. Not that I'm complaining. Life is very full right now -- in a good way.
(Speaking of pathetic -- our garden's yield this year. I'm finally coming to grips with the realization that I just do not have a green thumb.)
One thing I've learned in the last few months is that I need to take better care of myself. Why do we mothers think that by completely sacrificing ourselves, we're doing our families a favor? I'm not being a good mother when I stay up late at night, even if it's doing something important (and not just watching free movies on Netflix). ;) Our daughters are watching us, and learning what it means to be a woman through our example. I don't want to appear tired, frumpy, and run-down on all time. My family is not forcing me into slavery -- I'm doing it to myself. So I've taken Mr. Pickles up on his many offers to take time off. Often I go shopping (SOMEONE has to support this economy!), :) sometimes I'll just go to a bookstore or the library. Another mom and I have also worked out an arrangement where we trade off babysitting each week. I've had to use most of my days so far for medical appointments, but once I did get a haircut and go to the mall. I'm learning to squeeze in these little breaks that I now know are so important -- I'd lost sight of who I was outside of Homeschooling Homemaker. I'm much more at peace with my life and children, now that I know I don't have to surrender everything I am to them.
Another benefit is that the kids get more time with just Daddy. Daddy is fun. He takes them to parks and McDonalds and all those fun things that their mean mommy NEVER does. :)
Ah, playground static!
Why yes, I do have monkeys for children.
Sigh... the baby is getting so big...
All hail, King Joseph!So, obviously we're not dead yet. We've just been sucked into that swirling vortex known as The School Year. Wait, I thought homeschooling was supposed to be relaxed, flexible, customizable, and all those happy go-with-the-flow things?
must... keep... straight... face.... Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa!!!!! Who am I kidding? Any family that is certifiably insane enough to assume the full-time task of educating its youngest members is destined to be suck into the educational vortex for a couple months. School itself only takes up about 3 hours of every day -- even less, excluding breaks. But there are weekly library trips, field trips, CCD, co-op classes on Thursdays, art projects, science projects, plus all the usual homemaking stuff like cooking and dishes and laundry and housecleaning and phone calls and doctor appointments....
So, yeah, that's where I've been the last couple months. Not that I'm complaining. Life is very full right now -- in a good way.
(Speaking of pathetic -- our garden's yield this year. I'm finally coming to grips with the realization that I just do not have a green thumb.)One thing I've learned in the last few months is that I need to take better care of myself. Why do we mothers think that by completely sacrificing ourselves, we're doing our families a favor? I'm not being a good mother when I stay up late at night, even if it's doing something important (and not just watching free movies on Netflix). ;) Our daughters are watching us, and learning what it means to be a woman through our example. I don't want to appear tired, frumpy, and run-down on all time. My family is not forcing me into slavery -- I'm doing it to myself. So I've taken Mr. Pickles up on his many offers to take time off. Often I go shopping (SOMEONE has to support this economy!), :) sometimes I'll just go to a bookstore or the library. Another mom and I have also worked out an arrangement where we trade off babysitting each week. I've had to use most of my days so far for medical appointments, but once I did get a haircut and go to the mall. I'm learning to squeeze in these little breaks that I now know are so important -- I'd lost sight of who I was outside of Homeschooling Homemaker. I'm much more at peace with my life and children, now that I know I don't have to surrender everything I am to them.
Another benefit is that the kids get more time with just Daddy. Daddy is fun. He takes them to parks and McDonalds and all those fun things that their mean mommy NEVER does. :)
Ah, playground static!
Why yes, I do have monkeys for children.
Sigh... the baby is getting so big...
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Week in the Life
So how was your week last week? Get lots of work done? Play with your pets? Meet anyone new? Good, good. Glad to hear it. Well, we had a busy week. Here are some pictures that Miriam drew of what we did. Can you guess?
If you said "spent three hours in the emergency room on a Saturday evening" you would be correct!!
She was running. It had rained. It was muddy. She slipped. A rock or stick or something jumped up and bit her in the leg. It was deep. She screamed a lot. We cleaned it out and called the pediatrician, who recommended bringing her to the emergency room to check it out. So we had to put all our other plans on hold (poor Mr. Pickles had to cancel his "pizza and a guy movie" guys' night). Fortunately it was slow at the emergency room, so we didn't have to wait long for any one period, just lots of little waiting periods.
The nurses were very nice.
They numbed her leg with a special cream (see the poultice on her leg, pictured above), then cleaned out the cut with a nifty syringe thingy:
Then the attending doctor stitched it up (4 stitches in the back of her thigh). Sorry I don't have any pictures of that. But you can view Miriam's rendition, also above.
Miriam was a little trooper through the whole thing. After the initial trauma of being injured was over, she was very stoic, if not downright curious, about the whole thing. After all, this was her first trip to the emergency room. She was mostly concerned about how much the needle would hurt when she was being stitched up. (It didn't -- she was numb.) And then afterwards, she took great delight in describing the whole ordeal to anyone who would listen.
She got the stitches taken out this past Friday and everything is healing up nicely. Now we're just waiting for the bill.
In other financial news this week, we had to take the car in to get the rear windshield wiper fixed, after it had been mauled by a neighborhood kid. While it was in the shop, the rear brake lights stopped working for some mysterious reason. A one-day fix turned into a multi-day carless streak. They finally gave us a loaner after we whined and pleaded and begged so that at least our family life could function (you remember we have only the one car). The loaner was a "mini-minivan." So, technically, it could seat 7 people. In theory. And assuming they were all the size of Katie. As it was, the 3 carseats were pretty packed in there. And we had no trunk space. So no major grocery shopping allowed.
We FINALLY got the van back, all fixed, huzzah huzzah, on Monday. Mr. Pickles had to take off of work early, before they closed (we just missed them by 20 minutes the previous Saturday, rizza frazza grrrrr), since I had to run an errand that evening.
Meanwhile, I was trying to plan how to attend this year's big homeschool conference that I'd been looking forward to since I missed LAST year's conference. When I got the news that our car was out of commission, I despaired. How was I going to attend the conference AND get Miriam to the doctor, with no car? Or even with one car? Well, Providence intervened in the form of my cousin Martin who flew in to man a booth at the conference. (Yay JP Catholic!) He had a rental car, so I carpooled in with him, and Mr. Pickles hauled all the kids to the doctor's. But since I couldn't stay all day, I had to scramble around and beg for an early ride home, but again I providentially bumped into a friend just as she was getting ready to leave. The next day I had free reign with the car, went to the conference, spent lots of money (of course!), and brought home some great books. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Pickles was sick this whole time? He very generously and self-sacrificingly made it possible for me to attend the conference even though he was feeling lousy. Isn't he great? I don't deserve him. He handles sickness much better than I do -- I get so whiny and pouty!
Anway, speaking of whining, where was I? Emergency room, car, stitches, conference, I guess that's it. Oh, in good news, Joseph is a healthy 15-month-old, and he didn't react from his MMR vaccine on Monday, plus I found a swimsuit that I actually sort of kind of like that even fits and stuff, although it makes me look like the Queen of Hearts. But back to our regularly scheduled whining: this Friday I'll be bringing Joseph back to the pediatric dentist to make sure he doesn't have nerve damage from when he cracked his tooth (I already blogged about that, didn't I?). I've also begun the mad scramble to get ready for vacation, which includes, but is not limited to, errand-running, extra shopping, finishing up 3 sewing projects, conquering mountains of laundry, vacuuming popcorn and granola off the dining room floor several times a week, catching mice in the kitchen, catching gerbils in the living room (Joseph has discovered how to open their cage), making to-do lists, making packing lists, making lists of lists, and in general feeding 4 hungry people at various times throughout the day.
So now you all know why I haven't blogged in a while.
And why I plan to spend two weeks on a beach in California drinking Bellinis every day.
Or mimosas.
I'm not picky.
If you said "spent three hours in the emergency room on a Saturday evening" you would be correct!!
She was running. It had rained. It was muddy. She slipped. A rock or stick or something jumped up and bit her in the leg. It was deep. She screamed a lot. We cleaned it out and called the pediatrician, who recommended bringing her to the emergency room to check it out. So we had to put all our other plans on hold (poor Mr. Pickles had to cancel his "pizza and a guy movie" guys' night). Fortunately it was slow at the emergency room, so we didn't have to wait long for any one period, just lots of little waiting periods.
The nurses were very nice.
They numbed her leg with a special cream (see the poultice on her leg, pictured above), then cleaned out the cut with a nifty syringe thingy:
Then the attending doctor stitched it up (4 stitches in the back of her thigh). Sorry I don't have any pictures of that. But you can view Miriam's rendition, also above.
Miriam was a little trooper through the whole thing. After the initial trauma of being injured was over, she was very stoic, if not downright curious, about the whole thing. After all, this was her first trip to the emergency room. She was mostly concerned about how much the needle would hurt when she was being stitched up. (It didn't -- she was numb.) And then afterwards, she took great delight in describing the whole ordeal to anyone who would listen.
She got the stitches taken out this past Friday and everything is healing up nicely. Now we're just waiting for the bill.
In other financial news this week, we had to take the car in to get the rear windshield wiper fixed, after it had been mauled by a neighborhood kid. While it was in the shop, the rear brake lights stopped working for some mysterious reason. A one-day fix turned into a multi-day carless streak. They finally gave us a loaner after we whined and pleaded and begged so that at least our family life could function (you remember we have only the one car). The loaner was a "mini-minivan." So, technically, it could seat 7 people. In theory. And assuming they were all the size of Katie. As it was, the 3 carseats were pretty packed in there. And we had no trunk space. So no major grocery shopping allowed.
We FINALLY got the van back, all fixed, huzzah huzzah, on Monday. Mr. Pickles had to take off of work early, before they closed (we just missed them by 20 minutes the previous Saturday, rizza frazza grrrrr), since I had to run an errand that evening.
Meanwhile, I was trying to plan how to attend this year's big homeschool conference that I'd been looking forward to since I missed LAST year's conference. When I got the news that our car was out of commission, I despaired. How was I going to attend the conference AND get Miriam to the doctor, with no car? Or even with one car? Well, Providence intervened in the form of my cousin Martin who flew in to man a booth at the conference. (Yay JP Catholic!) He had a rental car, so I carpooled in with him, and Mr. Pickles hauled all the kids to the doctor's. But since I couldn't stay all day, I had to scramble around and beg for an early ride home, but again I providentially bumped into a friend just as she was getting ready to leave. The next day I had free reign with the car, went to the conference, spent lots of money (of course!), and brought home some great books. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Pickles was sick this whole time? He very generously and self-sacrificingly made it possible for me to attend the conference even though he was feeling lousy. Isn't he great? I don't deserve him. He handles sickness much better than I do -- I get so whiny and pouty!
Anway, speaking of whining, where was I? Emergency room, car, stitches, conference, I guess that's it. Oh, in good news, Joseph is a healthy 15-month-old, and he didn't react from his MMR vaccine on Monday, plus I found a swimsuit that I actually sort of kind of like that even fits and stuff, although it makes me look like the Queen of Hearts. But back to our regularly scheduled whining: this Friday I'll be bringing Joseph back to the pediatric dentist to make sure he doesn't have nerve damage from when he cracked his tooth (I already blogged about that, didn't I?). I've also begun the mad scramble to get ready for vacation, which includes, but is not limited to, errand-running, extra shopping, finishing up 3 sewing projects, conquering mountains of laundry, vacuuming popcorn and granola off the dining room floor several times a week, catching mice in the kitchen, catching gerbils in the living room (Joseph has discovered how to open their cage), making to-do lists, making packing lists, making lists of lists, and in general feeding 4 hungry people at various times throughout the day.
So now you all know why I haven't blogged in a while.
And why I plan to spend two weeks on a beach in California drinking Bellinis every day.
Or mimosas.
I'm not picky.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
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