I need help! I know I am home all day (eating bon bons and watching soaps...getting pedicures and searching for things to do), but taking care of the kids and doing laundry are a full-time job! Too bad there are a million other chores to be done to keep our home barely presentable and semi-safe. Too bad there are a ton of things OUTSIDE of the home that have to be done each week too, like shopping for groceries, taking kids to/from school, returning library books, taking kids to/from school activities, etc.

I'm not complaining about being a stay-at-home Mom...I love my job. I feel VERY blessed to have this gift - to be able to be witness the crazy things my kids do each day, to be present for the teachable moments I wouldn't otherwise share with them. HOWEVER, I think it is VERY easy to lose yourself in the necessary tasks of taking care of others PLUS the household....and although I've tried for 5 years now, I am waving my white flag. Trying to do it all has only made me feel sad, mad, frustrated and like a complete failure. It is benefiting NO ONE. So....



I need help. I tried a family chore chart awhile back. Remember this? It was met with much criticism and little to NO cooperation. My message (cry for help) was lost. Well, probably more likely ignored than lost.

Then I tried asking for help...actually verbalizing my need for help. Deaf ears. Maybe I'm not being assertive enough. Maybe I'm feeling too guilty because I don't "work" outside of the home. I don't know. All I know is that what I've been trying to do for five years is not working. At least it isn't working for me.


So here's my new idea. Although I don't eat bon bons or watch soaps...I do have a bit of a distraction called INTERNET...specifically GOOGLE READER!!! But I do gather a lot of useful information from these sites....many pertaining to bargain-hunting, couponing, home organization, sewing, meals/recipes...all "job-related" if you will. Anyway - I'm trying to better manage my time researching these things. Oops...there's guilt again...sorry...back to the idea. While reading one of my crafty blogs awhile back, I stumbled on THIS.

This is kind of fun, right? And maybe they'll buy in? Maybe they'll want to help because this is sort of like a fun game, right? Maybe I'll even put a prize in there...so when the task is complete they get the prize found in the tin? I'm going to make it....and then PRAY it works better than the chore chart did.

Disclaimer....MAJOR disclaimer: My husband works VERY hard...it isn't like he comes home and then just sits on the couch and plays on the computer or watches TV. He is a great husband and father, a good provider for our family and loves us all very much. I'm sure he's more than happy to help - I just haven't found the right way to deliver this message. Same is true of my oldest daughter. She usually is very willing to help...I just have to spell it out. So here it goes...I'm S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G it out, family. Mom needs help...I'm drowning and I'm exhausted. I want to do better...BE better...but to do that I need to rally the troops. We can do this! (Lord, I hope I'm not in the doghouse for this post!)


If YOU have found a method that engages your family, please leave me a comment and tell me how you're doing it! Or if you think I should be able to do all of this on my own, tell me how YOU do it....and what medication does it involve? (cuz I'm gonna need me summa that!).


Love my husband, love my kids, love my home....just trying to do all of those things better.


--The Mom of 'Em

Take THAT! Shouldn't be having a shortage of normal-sized coffee filters anytime soon. 700...SEVEN-HUNDRED!!! Thanks, Costco!

Why do you hate me, Joe?

The first thing I do every morning (after changing a diaper, handing out sippy cups and letting the dog out), is make a pot of coffee. Confession: sometimes I even start the coffee before I change diapers and dole out breakfast drinks...what's another couple minutes in a wet diaper, right?). Every morning I wonder why I don't use the auto-brew feature so my lovely would be waiting for me when I rise. But instead I do it in the morning and then wait, wait, wait for the pot to brew. It takes FOREVER to brew when you are desperate for a cup, doesn't it? Especially on MONDAYS!!!

I just bought new coffee filters last night, because we had one...ONE left. That's dangerous! cutting it close! I added the coffee to the filter, poured the water and hit BREW and went about the business of distracting myself from how long it takes by pouring bowls of cereal and feeding the dog. Soon I started to smell the aroma of my Joe...my lovely, wonderful hero, Joe. I raced over to grab my mug and to my HORROR, found water and coffee grounds all over the counter! ALL. OVER. THE. COUNTER!!! AAAAAGH! I cleaned it up and realized I forgot to put the filter BASKET in...just the filter in the big open guts of the coffee-maker.

So I cleaned it all up and set out to brew another pot. Since I had used up our last filter, I had to crack into the new package...only to discover I had purchased filters for machines that brew 1-4 cups. ONE to FOUR CUPS?! Who makes 1-4 cups of coffee? These people shouldn't even be allowed to own a coffee machine. And now I like them even less because their stupid filters ruined my 2nd attempt at coffee this morning. I bet they are brewing de-caf to boot. ugh.

I tried to brew the coffee anyway - careful to make sure I had the filter basket in this time and that my coffee grounds were within the boundaries of the mini filters. I poured in 12 cups of water and hit brew....and walked away. When I returned....water everywhere!!!! WHAT?! WHY DO YOU HATE ME, JOE! I LOVE YOU!!!! TAKE ME BACK!!!!

apparently I didn't wait for the pot to empty before I cleaned up the first mess and poured in my new pot of water. This created MORE than 12 cups of water and it didn't have anywhere to go...but on my counter and floor...and down my cabinets...and inbetween my cabinets and the stove. (Can I go back to bed now???). So I cleaned up THIS mess, unplugged the coffee pot, turned it upside down to dump all the water and tried again...AGAIN! This pot seemed to be brewing okay, but there are a few grounds in my cup because of the dumb teeny-weeny filters.

But I don't care!!!! I'm finally drinking my coffee!!! I have my Joe wrapped in my loving hands once again!!! Now here's hoping the rest of the day goes better.

december 09 023.avi

december 09 017.avi

Lauren, pre-ballet

My tiny ballerina

FIVE!

Happy Anniversary to my husband today! FIVE years!!! We've grown to a family of five in five years. We've had two dogs, survivied the "floods of '08," put our house on the market twice, found our dream home and moved. We've been blessed. I don't know what the next five years hold for us, but I'm excited to face them together because with you by my side and God in the middle - it's going to be good. I love you and I thank you for being my husband.

Jodi

I ran across this blog post featuring fun Halloween-themed meal ideas. Pretty cool....but I think my regular cooking is scary enough.

I love candles. Love them, love them, love them. But with two small children in the house and a husband who complains that most of my candles stink, I rarely get the enjoyment and relaxation of burning candles in the house. This Fall I bought a new scent for our house - and guess what? Mark didn't complain about the smell! He actually liked it! So since that rarely happens, I deemed it blog-worthy. My new favorite Fall candle scent?

What a fabulous day! My baby boy turned two-years-old today! He is such a sweetheart - and I absolutely can't believe he's two! When you ask him how old he is now, he still sometimes says "1" but he holds both index fingers forward, pointing them at you while he says it. Adorable. He had so much fun opening his gifts this morning...and again tonight when Grandma & Grandpa came over for dinner/cake. He LOVED the rubber "nake" his sister Lauren picked out for him, adored the Hot Wheels and the Tonka garbage truck from Grandma & Grandpa. He also received a bike/helmet and a cool ESPN baseball bat/ball toy. Oh - and a small dino. All of his favorite things!

I also decided to make his cake this year..and I'm happy to report it turned out ok. Grant really liked that it was a train - so I was so happy I made the extra effort. He is such a funny little boy. SO active, SO loving and SO tender - I just love him so much!

THEN...this afternoon while the kids napped, Mark ran an errand. He returned with THIS! Can you believe how sweet he is?! I had been trying to learn to applique with the machine my Mom gave me...but it wasn't working. I thought it was my lack of skill (a good bet) but it turns out it had several problems, including the timing, a broken doo-hickey and something else..anyway - not worth fixing. Now maybe I can get back on-track chasing my dream of opening my own Etsy store and making a little extra money!

I'm anxious to get through volunteering at preschool tomorrow and dr. appointments for everyone on Tuesday so I can sit down and figure out my new machine! So excited!

Oh, and Saturday night was Bailey's first Homecoming dance, which I am not allowed to talk about. She looked BEAUTIFUL! I am not supposed to post any pictures.. Oops.

Who ARE these mothers?! And can I please get the name of the perscription they are taking? Wow. These are SANDWICHES, people! SANDWICHES!

I was going to order a birthday cake for Grant today while I was birthday-shopping....but then I stumbled on this at Wal-Mart and I was hooked.

I have little faith in my ability to pull it off, but it never stops me from trying. I THINK if I fail horribly I'll still have time to order a cake. Cross your fingers!

But as excited as I am to make Grant's "choo-choo" cake for his 2nd birthday, I am bummed that I didn't see this idea before now. Have you ever seen anything so cute in your whole life?! It makes me want to be that person that throws a party for no particular reason...just so I can make this stuff! What do you think? Play date extraordinaire? Maybe this winter when I'm going stir-crazy in the house. We'll see. Thanks to Hostess With The Mostess for sharing such cute ideas on her blog!

Hola! It's the weekend and there's LOTS to do! Mark & Bailey are headed off to the Latino Festival where Spongebob is making an appearance. Or is that Spongeroberto? I guess Dora and Diego were used in the past and that pretty much takes care of Latino cartoon characters I guess. I'm not sure if it is required for Bailey's Spanish class or extra credit - but either way, they're going.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, I will be taking the kids with me to run errands (on a Saturday - yuck!). I'll be stopping HERE to see what Cricut cartridges they still have left (all on sale for $39.99 - that's half-off folks!) Then off to THIS STORE for some fabric. Holy cow! I sound like I am actually domestic or something! I'm not...but I'm determined to find something I can make that doesn't require sewing, knitting or anything else involving skill. I want to open my own shop on HERE and make some money! It's a long-shot....but I'm going to try. Then it's off to the dreaded Wal-Mart for a few groceries and new pillows. I am having heart palpitations just thinking about that place on a Saturday! God be with me! And finally I have a couple returns to make HERE and HERE.

Then it will be time to come home and clean. I can't avoid it any longer this week. Vacuuming, counter-cleaning (I know they are under there somewhere), bathrooms (ugh - Wal-Mart AND Bathrooms in the same day?!) and the kitchen floor....and of course, laundry.

I also HAVE to spend some time thinking through G's 2nd birthday too. It is in 8 days! My baby will be TWO! So, how to combine choo-choos, dinos, sharks and snakes (all of his favorite things) into a party theme. Hmmm.
It's a big agenda with 2 kids....wish me luck!

A childhood and college friend of mine posted this Youtube video of herself painting. It's kinda fun knowing someone so talented! Here it is....Laurie Maves Art...

Happy Labor Day! We enjoyed our long weekend at home this year. Lots of relaxation, playing with the kids, selecting a new chair/ottoman from the furniture store (I chose a stripe...and I'm worried to death that I'm not going to like it when I see it on an actual chair instead of just the sample fabric. Crossing my fingers though!)

I enjoyed a lunch alone with my husband, several trips to Menards...where I did NOT save big money, painted the mud room "smoky purple," avoided laundry and other much-needed cleaning, worked my last scheduled shift in the nursery (moving to the sub list - yea!) and then took the kiddles on an impromptu photo shoot. I'm definitely NOT a professional, but I don't think I did too bad with my little digital camera. I'm now really wanting a bigger/better one though because there were a lot of good shots I missed. I want a camera that lets you hold down the button and it will click, click, click away without a delay in-between shots.

Here's a slideshow of all the pics I took...they aren't all good...but all-in-all...not too bad I think.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I really hope Grant's phase of throwing things away ends soon. I looked in there today and found a couple crayons and dog toys. I wonder how many things have been thrown away without us even noticing? Of course he never throws actual GARBAGE in there...always things like toys, remotes, phones, pens....ugh. Now...where did I put those keys....

Big to-do list this weekend! The weather is supposed to be nice again, so I want to take advantage and get out there and get to work! I have plants to move and plants to throw away (oops..guess watering them daily helps). I also want to paint the mud room (that little B**** Maggie...she's chewed the wall TWICE now! The second time JUST as my drywall mud was almost dry). I want to repair driveway/sidewalk cracks, fix the holes I made yesterday in Lauren's wall while I was installing her curtain rod. It is NOT a job for one person, people. I should have waited for help...but a girl can only wait so many days for help before she goes crazy and tries to do it herself! I also need to clean out the van, catch up on laundry, clean up the basement, get a shade/blind/something hung over the kitchen window...that afternoon sun drives me NUTS while I"m trying to make dinner.

I also hope to do something fun with the fam...but not sure what or where or when.

Hope all of you (yep - all 3 of you) have a great Labor Day weekend!!!

Me: Lauren? Do you remember what you call a person that writes a book?

Lauren: An Arfur!

Me: How about the person that draws the pictures in a book?

Lauren: An Elevator!

(close!)

Lauren starts Preschool:

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Lauren's 4th Birthday - August 30, 2009

Make a Smilebox scrapbook