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mom

Um, St. Patrick’s Day? Whoops.

March 17, 2010 · 12 comments

I’m trying to get over a bad cold, and I completely forgot about St. Patrick’s Day.

That’s pretty bad considering that according to my Ancestry.com research at least 50 percent of my ancestors are Irish.

And my name, Colleen? The Gaelic word for girl.

We’re not even wearing green today.

I made some cupcakes, and when the boys wake up from their nap we’ll slather them with green frosting.

Erin Go Bragh.

What I won’t be doing is cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage.

My mom made it often when I was a kid. Not just on St. Patrick’s Day. I didn’t like it at all. A couple years ago I decided to try making it myself. I thought maybe since I was an adult I’d like it. I like lots of foods now that I wouldn’t eat as kid.

Nope. Still don’t like Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Here’s some useless information for you. Do you know eating Corned Beef and Cabbage isn’t an Irish tradition? It’s American. Straight from the melting pot. Back in Ireland they ate a piece of pork called Bacon Joint with their cabbage and potatoes. But Irish Immigrants couldn’t find Bacon Joint in America, so they substituted Corned Beef which they purchased from Jewish butchers.

Isn’t that fascinating?

I know that’s why you keep coming back here day after day.

I did try to explain St. Patrick’s Day to David a week or so ago. I told him he was part Irish, and he got mad.

“I’m not Irish! I’m American! I hate the Irish!”

I didn’t realize how deep his patriotism runs, or how strongly he dislikes Notre Dame fans.

I’m gonna mix up that green frosting now, and if I’m lucky maybe a leprechaun will show up with some gold.

Photo used under Creative Commons License.

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Being Mom

March 15, 2010 · 23 comments

I don’t want to be here today.
I didn’t want to be here Sunday or Saturday either.

The last few days it’s been an effort to be Mom.

I don’t want to change another diaper. I don’t want to figure out what to feed the boys. I don’t want to wash bottles, or play hide and seek.

I don’t really even want to blog.

You know what I want to do?

I want to lay on the couch, and watch hours of reality TV repeats on Bravo. Uninterrupted.

When I worked in an office before I had kids, there were days I didn’t want to be at work. Even if you love your job, it happens.

I could “phone it in” at the office. My job was mostly self-directed. So if I was tired, or distracted I kept busy with some mindless task like scanning (That was way back in 2004 when photos still came printed on paper) and processing new product photos in Photoshop. I pointed and clicked, eyes glazed over, my mind somewhere else. Eventually the clock hit five, and I went home.

If I really, really didn’t want to be a work, I called in sick and played hookie.

Mom can’t call in sick. I’m already at work when I wake up in the morning.

Mom can’t “phone it in”. Children must be dressed, feed, supervised, entertained lest the the house be turned upside down, or worse, someone gets hurt. Their needs don’t stop just because I’m having a bad day.

Being Mom doesn’t end when the clock strikes five. Mom doesn’t even get a lunch break.

Most of the time I enjoy being Mom.

But the last three days I’ve just had enough.

Every time I hear, “Mooooom!” I want to pull my hair out. I long for nap time to come, and dread the sounds of waking children an hour or two later.

Right now it’s overcast, and I’m hoping that it’s raining when the boys wake up, so we don’t have to go outside to play.

I don’t know the cause of my melancholy.

The kids aren’t being uncooperative. I’m not overly tired. My husband is helpful and supportive as always. I’m not stressed.

When I have days like this I pray.

A lot.

Sometimes minute by minute just to get from one moment to the next.

“Lord, help me get through the day. Help me not lose it during Candy Land, because the kid won’t follow the rules. Help me find the will to make dinner. Help me find the pacifier so the baby will stop crying. Please let Spongebob be on so David will sit still and be quiet for 20 minutes.”

Maybe this is His way of drawing me closer. Teaching me to rely on Him.

I don’t know.

I do know I made it through Saturday and Sunday. I’m halfway through today. Tomorrow, I think, will be better.

I’m already feeling a little better.

Blogging is nothing, if not therapeutic.

And the praying helps too.

But I’m still wishing for that rain.

Photo used under Creative Commons License.

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What’s New Monday

February 15, 2010 · 4 comments

It’s been awhile since I just updated everyone about what’s going on around here.

Let’s see…

Wade is nine months old now. He’s growing, and doing new things everyday. But he’s not the early bloomer that David was. He isn’t crawling or talking yet. He isn’t even sleeping through the night. I keep reminding myself that he doesn’t need to keep up with David. He’ll do everything in his own time. But sometimes I think, “Why isn’t he doing this or that yet? Is there something wrong?” I know there isn’t. I’m just impatient.

I do wish Wade would sleep through the night. I’ve had enough of his 2 a.m. wake up calls. He isn’t hungry. He doesn’t need a diaper change. He just wants to hang out. Sometimes he’ll be awake for an hour or two. I think some of it is because of teething. For a few nights he was waking up every one to two hours. That I’m pretty sure was his teeth. And I wonder if he naps too much during the day. I’ve been trying to get him to do less of that.

So I’m tired, and coffee is my best friend lately.

I LOVE coffee.

Have I ever mentioned how much I really, really love coffee?

David is his usual smart, funny and stubborn self. Last week you may have read my plea for help with getting him to clean his room. Thank you to all who offered suggestions. I will be trying them out.

Dave is enjoying college. He’s been back in school for a little over a month now. I think he’s decided to major in International Business. He’s doing really well. I guess I’m not as distracting to him now as I was 14 years ago.

We had a nice Valentine’s weekend. Dave’s quartet sang at a Valentine’s dinner Friday night. My mom and dad came up to watch the boys, and I went with him. It was nice to have a few hours away. Then David went home with my parents for a few days, and it was just the three of us on Saturday.

We spent Saturday catching up on everything on our DVR. You know you’re an old married couple when that’s your idea of fun.

I also spent Saturday laying on a heating pad on the couch. Somehow I hurt my back. I have no idea how, but I woke up Friday, and could barely walk or bend over. Picking up Wade wasn’t easy either. I’m all better now thank goodness.

Sunday Dave had another concert so it was just Wade and I on Valentine’s Day. It was nice to have him all to myself for a little while. I called him My Funny Little Valentine all day. Since he’s only nine months old I can still get away with stuff like that.

And then there were two. Again. When David came back today.

Wade and David were both so happy to see each other. David keeps hugging Wade. Wade keeps looking at David and smiling and squealing with delight. They’re already two peas in a pod. Can you imagine the mischief they will get into together in a few years? David is so much older. I can just see him putting Wade up to stuff.

There you go. Are you bored yet? I know. My life is so exciting.

So, what’s new with you?

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Laundry

February 11, 2010 · 11 comments

Sometimes simple things can create the sweetest moments with your kids.

I took David with me to the laundromat  last week.

The big fluffy comforter on our king-size bed just doesn’t fit in our washing machine. Every once in a while I have to trek to the laundromat, and use one of their super-capacity washers to clean it.

I planned to leave David at home with Daddie, but when I announced I was going he asked to tag along. David is fascinated with appliances of all kinds. He went to the laundromat with me once before, and found the building full of washers and dryers very interesting.

I knew it wasn’t going to take that long, and figured we’d be done and out the door before he got bored. So I let him come.

There is actually quite a lot at the laundromat to hold a five year old boy’s attention.

The ginormous washer takes a ginormous number of quarters. 19 to be exact. David put the dollar bills in the change machine, and filled up the paper cup the laundromat provides with the quarters that came out. “That’s a cool game. I’ve never seen a game like that before, ” David said. He thought it was just another one of the arcade games at the facility.

I guess a game where you break even isn’t so bad. And the paper cup full of quarters does make it feel a little like Vegas.

We stuffed the blanket in the big front-loading washer. David was happy for a few minutes to just watch it fill with water, and start to spin.

Then David saw the real arcade games. I taught David how to play the pin-ball machine. After that he beat me at an auto-racing game.

We bought some gumballs and snacks from the vending machines. Then we just sat and talked as we ate them.

Time went by quickly, and the comforter was ready when we finished our snacks.

As we headed home in the car I thought about how a rather mundane chore turned out to be a really enjoyable day.

It was nice to spend some time with just the two of us. Since Wade was born, one-on-one time with David has been hard to come by. Now that Daddie is busy going back to school it’s even more rare. And at home lately David’s been doing about everything he can to test me. It’s made for some not very fun days for either of us.

At the laundromat there was no baby who had to be fed and changed. There was no TV, no computer, no housework, no toys to distract either one of us. David didn’t even get in trouble once. He certainly had a good time satisfying his curiosity about everything at the laundromat, and playing the games. I loved just sitting and talking with him.

All the frustration I’d been feeling with David melted away.

I think the trip to the laundromat refreshed David and I just as much as the newly clean comforter.

Kids are pretty uncomplicated. They really just want to be with you. They don’t care so much about the where and the how. It doesn’t have to be a big day out to some place spectacular. A lot of times it is the simple things like a trip to laundromat or a walk in the woods that give you the most opportunity to really interact. It’s hard to have a conversation with your kid when they’re jumping around the bounce land.

I always dreaded that trip to the laundromat before. Now I’m looking forward to the next time, and I’ll definitely be inviting David.

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Signs that You Might have Mommy Brain

February 9, 2010 · 7 comments

1. You let your two dogs outside. You think you let them both back in the house. You leave to go to the store, and come home to find one of them standing in the driveway waiting for you. At least it wasn’t one of my kids.

2. You start to load the dishwasher, forget what you’re doing in the middle of it and proceed to unload all the dirty dishes and put them away in cupboards.

3.  You can’t remember how old you are without doing the math.

4. You’re always calling the doctor, your hairdresser or the dentist and saying something like, “Hi. I know I have an appointment scheduled sometime in the next six months, but I don’t remember when exactly. Could you remind me?”

5. You make macaroni and cheese for lunch, and forget the cheese.

6. In the shower you can’t remember if you just shampooed or if you just conditioned, so you have to start all over.

7. You put the grounds in you coffee maker, turn it on and walk away not realizing you didn’t put any water in it until the smell of burned coffee begins to waft through the air.

8. You have a hard time remembering simple things like how to spell tomorrow, tommorow, tommorrow?

9. You honestly don’t remember if you ate breakfast.

10. You can’t remember your own phone number when asked to fill it out on your kid’s registration form.

I have a bad case of mommy brain, because I have done every single one of these things. Clearly I need help. Maybe I need to get a smart phone to help manage my life. Can I take it in the shower with me? Hmmm…probably not. But maybe the smart phone could remember all the appointments and what day of the week it is. Then the few precious brain cells I have left could think about things like macaroni and cheese.

Verizon and JuiceBoxJungle sponsored me to write this post, and they asked me to talk about the ways a smart phone could make my life as a parent easier.

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Clean is the Thing

February 9, 2010 · 9 comments

Moms I need your help.

How do you get your kids to clean their room?

I’ve tried about everything with David, my five year old, over the last two years. It always ends the same way. First he puts up a fight. Then he goes in his room and messes around, and doesn’t get any cleaning done. He ends up being punished.

I’m tired of the fight. I just want him to pick up his toys, and put them in his toy box. This shouldn’t be this hard.

So what works for you?

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Is Blogging Dying? Not if Mom has Anything to Say About It

February 8, 2010 · 10 comments

Google the question Is Blogging Dead? and you get hundreds upon hundreds of, ironically enough, blog posts discussing just that.

Maybe in some circles blogging is dying. Maybe in other circles blogging is simply changing and evolving. I know there is one circle where blogging is alive, it’s growing and, I think, is in no danger of dying out. That is the wide and varied circle  made up of moms who blog.

Why? Because mom blogs are not generally just about raking in ad revue or selling swamp land in Florida. They’re about connecting.

Some moms blog about family life, some about being a WHAM, some about photography, some about being frugal.  The subjects are as unique and diverse as the women who write about them. But ask moms who blog, and most will tell you it started out as a desire to share and reach out beyond themselves.

You can pour out your heart on your blog, and receive a dozen supportive comments from other moms in the same situation.

You can read a post from another mom, and know you’re not the only one.

There are so many women out there who’s writing moves us to tears, brings a smile to our face, makes us laugh out loud. Because they are putting into words feelings and experiences that we all share.

This circle of moms who blog is a community in a world where community is becoming increasingly rare. We’re so busy with so many activities, there isn’t time for weekly coffee klatches and bridge clubs. But at nap time or the end of the day when the kids are in bed, we can steal a few minutes with the computer.

Some worry that social media is driving us into our homes and away from each other. But for moms who are often isolated already by their family responsibilities blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are all ways to say in touch with the rest of the world. And blogging, more than any of those mediums, allows us to express ourselves fully.

As long as women are giving birth and raising children there will be the need to vent, to express joy, to share sorrows.

And they will blog about it.

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