Mother's of Small Children

You know most days as a mother your like this...

Yeah, you can handle anything.

Then there are days when you wonder what happened to you and how did you get there? How did you become somones parent? You used to be patient, fun, interesting and talented? Then you had small children.

You arrogently go into it thinking that you are an adult, you can handle anything. Then one day you look down and yourself wearing "mom" jeans, soft around the middle, massive split ends, and who knows what shape eye brows really should be. You are now the MOTHER OF SMALL CHILDREN! Gone are the days of reading a great book outside the bathroom, eating adult food for lunch, and trying new recipies for the fear of the dreaded phrase, " Eeeuuuuu, I don't like that!" The faint of heart need not apply when it comes to being a parent. You have to have guts of steel, literally because you children will lovingly give you EVERY virus they bring home.

So I compiled a true grit, no holds bar, list of what motherhood is REALLY like.

1. You will never seem to have a clean shirt, stains on everything, and just when you think you have made it out of the house with a clean shirt you enter a restuarant bathroom, for a rare date with hubby, and discover that some sort of cootie had made it's appearance.

2. At some point in your days of motherhood you will find your 2 year old's favorite blanket and bink laying on the dogs hairy bed in the garage.

3. One of your children will put some sort of foreign object in some hole on their bodies. My 7 year old put a rock in his ear and didn't tell us for 9 months, yes you just read 9 months. It wasn't until the skin in his ear canal started to grow around the rock and he couldn't stand the pain any longer that he tells you there is a rock in is year. So like every good parent we rush off to the ER for a $2,100.00 bill to have the rock removed. Had we been informed that is had already been in his ear for 3/4 of a year I would have saved myself alot of money and waited to go to the Pediatrician on Monday.

4. You will find pee in mysterious places. For instance, finding ziploc bags of urine amongst the stuffed animals, because your son "couldn't get to the bathroom fast enough." But, he had time to walk past the bathroom and into the kitchen to collect said ziploc, then walk past the bathroom a second time to his room and "quickly" pee in the bag.

5. You will find strange colored mold growing in your bathroom that you haven't been able to get too in 3 weeks, because just cooking dinner, folding laundry, doing dishes, and meeting every child's need will fill your time so completely that mold will be well down on the list.

6. You will put away approximatley 47,374 baskets full of toys, socks, books, bags, clothes, tissues, and leftoers.

7. If you have boys you will find socks in the oddest places of places, cupboards, flowerbeds, under trampolines, in the garden, under the shoe rack in your garage covered with garage cooties (you know the kind I am talking about).

8. It will be required upon the arrival of toddlerhood to purchase a Costco or Sam's Club membership for the need of never ending snacks and if there are not graham crackers, yogurt or string cheese in the house that means you have NO food.

9. Your obituary will read, "Surived by huband and 3 children, who are now drowning in 3, 489 loads of dirty laundry." Death by laundry is not a pretty way to go.

10. Several times in you motherhood career there will be crayon left in pockets so it stains your last somewhat decent white shirt. It will never appear in the dark load of laundry, it will rear it's ugly head only on your whites.

11. The ever dreaded question, "What's for dinner?" Always followed up by, "EEEEEWWWWWWW I don't like that, how many bites do I have to take?" Need I say more on the subject.

12. The bewitching hours are from 5:00-8:00 every evening. Mealtime chaos will take on a whole new meaning. You will never getting to eat a hot meal again, or you will not get to finish said meal, because someone will want more, or want to get down, which requires an army of stratigally placed wet papertowls to make sure your latest new shirt does not get a spill on it. It will be in vain.

13. You will have to share your food when there isn't enough while your husband gets nice and full. They won't want what Dad has on his plate, but yours like "just right."

14. You will feel the pressure to plan nutritious, gourmet (without kid complaint), inexpensive meals while having a meager budget to do so. You will secretly keep a box of Hamburger Helper in your pantry and swear on your kids life that you don't really feed them that fake food with the bad reputation.

15. You will discover the real reason why romance novels and chocolate were invented. Romance novels were created for mother's of small children, because there is NEVER any romance going on in your life or your home with small children. You are either interupted (heaven forbid) or too exhausted from the above mentioned list to do anything remotely romantic.

16. Date night will be so rare that your husband gives up and takes up watching UFC cage fighting.

17. You will pick up the house before you go to bed and sometime during the night little trolls will come through and make another mess. In the morning you swear you picked up, but it looks just the same.

18. You will see at least 826 trees pass your kitchen counter with all the papers kids will come home with from school. If not kept under some control your house will soon look like horders just from school papers.

19. When you complain to your mother for sympathy she just giggles and tells you to hang in there.

20 Finally, but not least, your kids will wrap their arms around your neck on Christmas morning and say it was the best Christmas ever and you are the best Mom over. Suddenly the above mentioned list melts away and you have strength to carry on for one more day.

"No other success can compensate for failure in the home. The poorest shack in which love prevails over a united family is of greater value to God and future humamity than any other riches. In such a home God can work miracles and will work miracles." -David O. McKay

And that is why we do what we do as mother's in this world. Hang in there all you mother's. We are all doing better than we think we are!

Kittens and Puppies Personality

I had to spend a lot of time and energy (Hubby helped) this weekend locking down my site from a family member, because they were taking pictures from site and posting negative things about me, my parents, and my family. Hence the new picture warnings on my blog. I feel bad for people who are so caught up in being negative that that is how they see the whole world. My life is far from perfect, but I choose to share the best of what my life has to offer. I am grateful for all that I have and try and let that show through what I choose to post on my blog. I am sure none of you want to hear about me yelling at my kids, getting impatient with my Husband, or having a bad bout of PMS.
I have been uplifted by so many wonderful women on blog land, that I too want to contribute in a positive way. I hope you all enjoy what I put out there. If you don't, then please, please, please keep it to yourself.

I admit to being a kitten and puppy kind of person and don't like to let myself stay down in the pit of life. There are too many wonderful things to enjoy in this life. I hope you will join me on the positive train and focus on creating love, beauty, joy and kindness. Those are the things of God and I hope to stay on that side. Anyway, enough fussing, lets get back to the good life has to offer around the farm. Thanks for listening.

Confessions of a Slacker

Ok, you may have noticed I have been random and sporadic at best on my blog lately. I have not been feeling the post love lately, and have had little desire to get back to it. I have even thought about ending my blog. Take a deep breath, I am not going to do that! Breath in...breath out!

I have decided I want to continue, because I really enjoy this for myself.

The past two years have been chaotic in our house with job changes and health issues and a third child, and the stress has truly fried my brain. How do I know this? Well, do you ever get to a point in your life where your brain won't shut up? Do you find yourself going into a room and not remembering why? Do you forget appointments? Do you kids have to ask you several times for the same thing? Well that has been me for the past year. It was really starting to get me down. I couldn't get motivated or organized, and that is just not like me!

So what is the change you ask? Don't think I am fruity, but I went to a friends house and laid on a mat and did a light therapy session. kooky sounding, I know, but after 15 minutes my brain finally quieted. All the chatter(no, I don't hear voices), no perpetual to do list running in my head. My brain is quiet. I feel like I am living in the moment every day.

On Monday I got more done than I have in months. I don't feel anxious about all the things I need to get done, I just worry about what I am doing right now! It is so freeing! So there is some explanation as to where I have been lately. I do have lots of posts to catch up on and I will be working on that. I may not get something everyday, but I am working on it. Thanks for being patient!

Mommy Time! Yeah for Me!

I finally got a few minutes to myself tonight. After the drama of Landon getting stung by a wasp four times (poor little guy). I ended up canceling going to the meeting I was suppose to be at, and got to stay home for once. So after I put the poor bee sting victim to bed the other two kids and I hung out on my bed and did homework. It was so relaxing and fun.

Now, the house is clean (enough)and I am having a cup of tea and watching one of my favorite movies, The Holiday!

I just want to run away to that adorable, snow covered cottage in England. Maybe I'll just dream about it!

Good night and hope you get a relaxing moment too!

Falling asleep at 6:30pm

Well it is week two of the kiddos going back to public school, and I'm wiped. I had a meltdown last night (a real honest to goodness temper tantrum). If I hadn't been too tired to get up, I would have thrown myself on the floor kicking and screaming like a 2 year old! If I had done that I think my hubby would have checked me into the loony bin! I could go to bed right not and sleep til morning, and it's only 6:30 pm! Now that is just sad!

I would love to go to bed but there is always a list a mile long to complete, dishes, phone calls, animals to feed, soccer games to go to, church activities, homework to complete, diapers to change, dinners to make, lunches to pack, and the NEVER ending loads of laundry to fold! Oh, and my bathroom is getting pretty gnarly too. When am I going to clean it? I have no idea. Anyone got a cleaning fairy handy?


I don't mean to be such a whiner, but dang I'm tired. I wish soccer season was over and the kids have only had one game each! Yikes, I have another month and a half to go! Good grief Charlie Brown!

It is great that we are on a good schedule, and there have not been any major disasters, it is just a lot. With home school there is a different kind of stress. I think I have driven my suburban more in the last week and a half than I have driven it since we bought the darn thing! It's a good thing I like it, because I am seeing a lot of the inside of it!

Now I am going to stop whining and go make a quick cup of tea to rejuvenate me. Just when I think I am going to loose it Landon runs by me pushing a baby toy as fast as he can and I smile and remember that they are the ones I do all this for. Tired or not I think I can live with that! Who can resist a face like this anyway!

What kind of Change are we getting?

With all the news stories and town hall meetings we have been hearing about it's hard not to get involved. I am becoming more and more upset with the lack of respect our leaders are showing to it's citizens. We are being ignored, criticized and ridiculed as ignorant. I find that scary and frustrating. I even went so far as to write a letter to my own Senator and received a nice pat on the head response. Saying "There, there I know better than you and no matter what you will do what I want in the end."
I am seeing my freedoms taken away everyday, and it seems with almost every vote I cast. What happened to the Founding Father's America? Where there was freedom from government oppression, religious freedom, and personal liberty.
Why am I posting about this? Because I want people to stand up for freedom and educate themselves. I know not everyone will have the same opinions and views, but we must be educated at the very least. And by educated I don't just mean watching the 5 o'clock news. I am going to challenge myself to become more educated on how this country was set up, and what the vision of the Founding Father's truly was. I hope you do the same.
I have also attached a post from Tammy at Time Flies. One link is about the Obama school speach (just a warning, there is one profanity in the post) and the other is a true story of a health care nightmare on our already established government health care (Medicaid). Take a minute and check them out.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag,
Of the United States of America,
And to the Republic for which it stands,
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with
Liberty and Justice for All.

I pledge to no other!

What was I thinking?

What was I thinking when I wanted land with animals, gardens and flower beds galore? I think I had a moment of insantiy. I am thinking that a condo with a cute yardman to keep all the weeds under control.
Imagine what he could do with those. No need for a weed wacker. But I can't complain too much because I have an awesome hubby who sure knows the business end of a shovel!

So we spent all day working in the yard on Saturday, and got a lot done, but I think I broke myself. Thank goodness for keeping the Sabbath day holy, becaus all I wanted to do was SLEEP! I woke up sore, sunburned and stuffy nosed. But, complaining aside we did some serious buttkicking on our flower beds. My hubby even said, "I LOVE WORKING IN THE YARD!" I had to chuckle and laugh, because last summer he had Mono and slept through the whole thing. This year he is the energizer bunny. It is great to be getting so much work out of him, but that also means I am working too. Bummer! I do like working in the yard, but I think I over did it this week. Ok, enought sniveling, here are some of the things we got done.

Logan & Addison were such good helpers weeding and planting the corn and sunflowers.

We planted the corn in this unused flowerbed in our back yard. We planted to many things in the garden this year, so we moved the corn here. We had great luck with extra heat radiating off the fence, and there fore great corn. Most people around us didn't get any corn last year because it was such a cool summer. A little gardening tip for you.

Then we finished the front flowerbed, that was quite a mess. We transplanted all the plants to the fairy garden and then put down wildflower seeds for this year. We are not sure what we want to do with that flowerbed, so we will buy some time with wildflowers and plan something great over the winter.

The last thing we did was finish the fairy garden, but I want to post that on it's own in all it's glory! Here's a sneak peek!

Dinner Disaster

I am pretty sure that a week trapped in the house with a puking baby has made me completely loose my mind. I thought it would be fun to do a few things for Earth Day and get back to the simple things of life. We did a few fun things that you can take a peak at on our homeschool blog. One of the things I wanted to do was make a good old fashioned dinner of roast chicken, potatoes, garden fresh carrots, and homemade wheat bread. In between activities, a fussy baby, laundry and phone calls I managed to get dinner in the oven on time. Then Addison reminded me that the movies we rented needed to be returned by 6:00, it was exactly 5:57 right then. So we jumped in the car and peeled out of the driveway and headed to the video store. Got there just in time and raced home to have a great meal.

The kids picked up while I got dinner out of the oven and dished up. I pulled the chicken out of the pan, check, dished up the potatoes and carrots, check, made the gravy, check, pulled out the bread from the oven , check, and got the warmed (in the oven) gravy boat, check. Can you see disaster headed my way? Oh believe me it's coming, like a raging loco-motive, it's coming!

I pull out my best knife and start to carve the chicken up, it smelled divine I must add. Then, all I see is dark meat, and I thought "What is up with this bird, where is the nice white breast meat?" My personal favorite, by golly. I HAD COOKED THAT DANG THING UPSIDE DOWN in my mommy craziness. I couldn't believe that I had been soooooooooooooooooooooo scatterbrained that I put the thing in the pan upside down! Duh, dingbat, ding dong, ding-a- ling!!!! But, again I was determined to have a great dinner, so I start carving the buried breast and get down the middle and it's not cooked all the way through. Sigh! But alas, we are GOING to have chicken for dinner, dang it. So I took the meat that was fully cooked and nuked it just in case, don't want anymore puking in this house for a while.

I then proceed to put the finishing touches on dinner. Oh wait, what is roast chicken, potatoes, and garden fresh carrots without and bath of gravy. So I pour the gravy in the warm gravy boat and grab it to take to the counter. Yikes!!!! The gravy boat had been in the 350 oven for pete's sake, and it was scorching hot. The gravy boat then proceeds to tumble on it's side and pour all over the stove. Yes, even into the burners. It was a golden lake of gravy. Before I knew what was happening I yelled, and I mean yelled a four lettered word that I would prefer my kids not hear, let alone say in front of their Grandmother. I am pretty sure people in the next county heard me yell that word. I just know that it's going to be Landon's first word, and I will for sure win worst mommy of the year award.

Despite the undercooked chicken, spilled gravy, and swear word we did manage to have a yummy dinner. Logan even ate the carrots and said "Those carrots were yummy, they only made me throw up a little bit." If you knew my son's gag reflex, and the food issues we have in this house, you would be laughing right now! I think I need to stick with our normal routine and casseroles for a while!

P.S. In my swear word extravaganza I did not have enough of my wits to think to take a pic, so I snagged one from the web. That is what it would have looked like if I had not got buggy! Maybe in my pre-kid days, and even then it's a big maybe!

Dish Abyss!

Ok, I have had the strangest two days. Landon is finally on the mend from what turned out to be rotavirus, double yuck. Puke and diarrhea for 7 days. (Parents worse nightmare, and one of the things that they should teach you about in childbirth classes, not strange breathing that you forget how to do because of pain so great you wished you had rotavirus instead.) It is by far the nastiest thing my family has ever has had. All 5 of us have had it now, so it should now be banished from the Gardner home! Bye-bye, not going to miss ya!!!!!!!

Anyhoo, the past two days I have been determined to get going and get back to real life, so yesterday I got a wild hair and decided that I was going to wash the dishes by hand after breakfast. Logan toasted my rinse aid cap and now my dishes have been coming out looking like the dog licked them instead of the sparkling fresh they should be! I must have still been a little light headed from the barfing, and thought I would dredge up those fond childhood memories of washing dishes by hand (stop laughing, Mother) and plunge my hands into a warm, bubbly sink full of dishes. I got out the old trusty wooden dish rack that we have had for 15 1/2 years, and it has never once even thought about molding. I love that thing.

I did have to laugh when both my kids came into the kitchen, skidded on the brakes, and asked with a crinkle in their noses, "What's that thing?" "A dish rack!" I reply. "Where did we get that?" still crinkling their noses at me like it was a monkey with a dirty diaper sitting on the counter. I then realized that I need to school my kids on the business end of a dish rag. Can you hear the running and the screaming right now! Next weeks homeshool lesson.
So, I was having my little moment of pretend bliss, with the window open and the sun shining over the back yard and music playing softly in the background. I thought, "Oh this isn't so bad. Kind of peaceful." Then a glass slipped out of my hand and into the bubbly abyss below and...you know what I am going to say don't you? Yup, the darn thing had the nerve to break into several shards of razor sharp pieces. I then had to fish out the plunger and hunt for the darn things and start over again. There is the little dickens mocking me and my moment of peace. Actually it is just the pin bursting my revelry bubble and slamming me back to the reality of the fact that I "HATE" to do dishes, period. By hand or machine, I loath it, and I am sure it is from all those hours of "contributing to the family well being" (slave labor, torture) that my parents made us do when we were kids. Just ask my three siblings they will tell you, we are all severely scarred in the dish washing department. Here's to getting someone else to wash the dishes!

What a week!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Whew! Now deep breath! That feels better.


That pretty much sums up the kind of week I have had! I went to my moms at the beginning of the week and, even though it was fun, that threw me off by a mile. I just couldn't get myself back together after that. We ended up no doing any school this week, and I am just going to call it end of winter, clear the cobwebs, break!?! They have breaks like that don't they?

Anyhoo, with the help of my kids, (they actually thought it was fun to move the furniture and vacuum under it, can you imagine) I did manage to get the house clean and in shape for Landon's party this weekend. Now if we can just keep it that way. I am considering bribing them with a trip to Grandma's Kitchen for ice cream on Monday if they keep their crap picked up all weekend. Do you think it will work?

This is how I woke up this morning. Feeling hopeful that some little cleaning trolls would show up during the night and clean everything for me. Fat Chance! This is more my reality!

So after yelling really loudly twice and scowling most of the day, I remembered that I had not taken my vitamin B this morning, which would explain the yelling. I ran, and I mean ran, into the kitchen to take it. Soon after I felt more like this!

Not really, but I am trying to stay positive here, no one likes a downer.


And, I just want to smack this next one, because no one is that happy about a clean pan. And who could stand that fluffy thing in her shirt hitting you in the face everytime you bent over to pick up your husbands socks! I'd throw them in his face after a day of that thing hitting me in the face!

OK, I am done ranting, I promise to be better tomorrow. Thanks for letting me whine just a little.