As I get older, I find that raising three boys is the experience of a lifetime!! Everyday there is a new challenge. Everyday there is a new memory and a new story. After this past weekend, we all have a new story that will be told from generation to generation!!
Sunday is my laundry day. Laundry day is the most hated day of the week for me. A family of five has an usual way of producing enormous amounts of laundry. I truly do not understand how my two older boys come up with the amount of dirty clothes that they bring down for the wash. It is the middle of winter. Why am I washing swim suites in January?? What the heck are these boys doing up in their rooms??? I could go on and on about this subject, so I will save it for another blog another day!
After what seemed like 50 loads of laundry, I began the horrible task of folding. Stack by stack I began to seperate each boys laundry to its appropiate space. T's load on the left, B's load in the middle, and C's load on the right. Every stack folded and sorted into jeans, shirts, socks and underwear. Yes, I am good like that!! ;-)
Upon my usual routine of grabbing a handful of clothes out of the basket to be folded, I noticed that in my hand was what looked like a pair of my underwear. I really didn't think a lot of it at first glance because sometimes our laundry does get mixed together for whatever reason. However, when I picked the solid black pair of bikini cut underwear up to fold it, I realized that I probably could only fit one leg in these. Uuummmm????? Wait a minute, these aren't mine!!
I'm sitting here holding this pair of underwear in my hand examining them when by my good fortune, and not so much his, my husband walks in the room. I give him the " What the hell have you done?" look!! He stops what he is doing because I know he can feel the glare burning through his thick skull and says "WHAT?" As calmly as I can possibly be at this moment, I ask him "Can you tell me why I am washing another woman's panties in my boy's laundry?" I still don't know if the deer in the headlights look was because he thought I was accusing him of something or because he thought one of his boys was wearing women's underwear. The first words out of his mouth, without hesitation, was "I have absolutely no idea!!!"
Still holding these tiny little underwear in my hand, I begin to wonder who's skinny little butt has been wearing these!!! I hollar for the boys to come down stairs. They know by the type of hollar that Momma ain't playing and someone is in BIG trouble!! By now, my mind has switched to my 16 year old T and his peppy cheerleading girlfriend. OH LORD, PLEASE LET ME BE WRONG!!!!
They arrive in my room and immediately the look of "oh no, what did she find out about" comes over both of their faces. Again, I calmy as I possibly can ask both them " Can either one of you tell me why I am washing women's underwear in your laundry?" DEAD SILENT!! No response from either of them!! So I ask one more time, except this time it was a little more directed at my 16 year old. The look of utter disgust comes across his face, and I don't know if it was because he thought that I was accusing him of wearing them or hiding them. Then, my husband just has to throw it out there, the question that I know has been lingering in his head this entire time. "Are one of you two wearing them?" Simultaneously, they both answer with an emphatic "NNNOOOOO!!!!"
My 16 year old, then what looked like to me him losing his mind, begins to laugh uncontrollaby. "Mom, do you know what those are?" UUUUMMMM HELLO??? That's why I brought you down here fool, is what I'm thinking, but instead say "Girl's underwear". "No, Mom, that's Micha's jock!", he says. Micha is his best friend who is on the wresteling team and spends the night at our house quite often.
My husband and I look at each other with both the look of "Why didn't you know that's what it was" and "THANK YOU JESUS!!!" Needless to say, there was a long explanation of how and why they were in the laundry and the most laughter out of my two boys that will forever be engraved into their memories! To be honest... I still find myself laughing from time to time about it too!!
Friday, February 3, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
A LITTLE ONE ON ONE....
Yesterday my 13 yr old had an orthodontist appointment to have his braces tightened. I left work about 12:30 and picked him up from school for his appointment at 1:00. As I sat in the waiting room I decided that I was going to take him out for lunch. Now, if you are a mom with multiple children of all different ages, then you probably understand the chaotic day to day running and doing that goes on. My oldest child is involved in everything possible at school. Between practice, rehearsals, and school trips, I keep the roads between my house and the school hot! Then, I have the baby. Well, he's 4 but he is still my baby! He is in constant demand of my time and attention as well. So I feel like when it comes to my 13 year old, that maybe he gets looked over just a bit. That is why I decided that yesterday would be a good day for just the two of us to spend some good quality one on one time.
After leaving his appointment we headed straight over to Chili's. This is one of our favorite places to go eat and living in a small town makes it one of the only places to go eat. I don't know what I was thinking because the poor guy just had his braces tightened and was obviously not going to be able to eat very well. I really don't think that mattered to him much though. From the time we sat down until the time we left, that child talked non stop! We talked about everything! We talked about his favorite teachers at school, the classes that he doesn't care for much, going into the military, what wrong doings his friends are getting into, just a little bit of everything.
I realized ,as I was listening to him talk, how he was just blossoming right infront of my eyes. This kid has a lot to say and he thinks about a lot of things that I would never even dream that mattered to him. Do you remember the blog about the Good Mom Award?? Yep, once again, I have managed to award myself with it!! You have heard of the middle child syndrome? It really does exist. I realized in that instant how important a little one on one with each child is.
It's easy to forget the quiet, less dominant, less active child in your home. They are not as demanding as the others. It's easy to think that sitting around the dinner table every night gives that child the same amount of time that every child in the home gets. It's easy to think that doing homework with that child is enough one on one time.
I saw yesterday that how just taking him to eat somewhere and letting him express how he feels and talk about what ever he wanted to discuss made a world of difference. Last night when my husband came home from work, he asked my 13 year old if he had enjoyed his time with Mom. My husband said he just lit up and went to talking 90 to nothing again.
I think from now on I am going to start doing mommy/son dates. I will take each one of them out and spend some good quality one on one time with each. To tell you the truth, it was just as good for me as what was for him! Stop the chaos for a little while and your children will teach you a thing or two!!
Genu-WINE Linda
After leaving his appointment we headed straight over to Chili's. This is one of our favorite places to go eat and living in a small town makes it one of the only places to go eat. I don't know what I was thinking because the poor guy just had his braces tightened and was obviously not going to be able to eat very well. I really don't think that mattered to him much though. From the time we sat down until the time we left, that child talked non stop! We talked about everything! We talked about his favorite teachers at school, the classes that he doesn't care for much, going into the military, what wrong doings his friends are getting into, just a little bit of everything.
I realized ,as I was listening to him talk, how he was just blossoming right infront of my eyes. This kid has a lot to say and he thinks about a lot of things that I would never even dream that mattered to him. Do you remember the blog about the Good Mom Award?? Yep, once again, I have managed to award myself with it!! You have heard of the middle child syndrome? It really does exist. I realized in that instant how important a little one on one with each child is.
It's easy to forget the quiet, less dominant, less active child in your home. They are not as demanding as the others. It's easy to think that sitting around the dinner table every night gives that child the same amount of time that every child in the home gets. It's easy to think that doing homework with that child is enough one on one time.
I saw yesterday that how just taking him to eat somewhere and letting him express how he feels and talk about what ever he wanted to discuss made a world of difference. Last night when my husband came home from work, he asked my 13 year old if he had enjoyed his time with Mom. My husband said he just lit up and went to talking 90 to nothing again.
I think from now on I am going to start doing mommy/son dates. I will take each one of them out and spend some good quality one on one time with each. To tell you the truth, it was just as good for me as what was for him! Stop the chaos for a little while and your children will teach you a thing or two!!
Genu-WINE Linda
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
MONSTERS,ZOMBIES, AND DREAMS, OH MY
In my house, we are going through the monster phase with my 4 year old. This all started because my 13 year old son decided that watching the movie "Little Monsters" with my 4 year old would be a good idea. I don't know if you are familiar with this movie or not, but it is not 4 year old appropriate. I take partial blame for this too. When B, (my 13 year old), came to me and asked to watch this movie, I told him it was ok. The title of the movie sounded like a cute little movie and in my mind I was thinking more like Monster Inc. UM WRONG!!
Little Monsters has Howie Mandell who plays a very creepy looking monster that comes out in the dark from underneath the bed and terrorizes Fred Savage in his room at night. Imaginge my look as I came around the corner, after this movie had been on for all of 15 minutes, and C (my 4 yr old) was covered up with a blanket up to his nose, wide eyed and saying "Mommy, I'm scared". I watched this movie for another 5 minutes thinking this has got to get better and much more funny so he will see that monsters are not scary and can actually be funny. I then realized that all my self reasoning that I had just tried was for nothing, because C is not laughing!
For the next two weeks, C woke up every night screaming about monsters under his bed. He would argue about going to bed and sleeping in his room alone. I tried everything, leaving the light on, staying in his room until he fell asleep, removing any and all objects from his room that would look like monster in the middle of the night.
After an hour of one my favorite past times and favorite websites, Pinterest, I came across a picture of a bottle marked monster spray. BING!! The light bulb went off in my head!! After searching every cabinet in my house, I realized I didn't have an empty spray bottle... C'mon Linda, you're smart.. Be creative!!
I found a "save the ta tas" bracelet that I got in Vegas. It's now a monster bracelet. He wears it every night around his leg without fail! I'm a genius!! My 13 year old son also came up with what we call the good dream cream, which is a bottle of saline solution that we poor into his hands and he rubs all over his face before bed. Believe it or not, this actually works. We haven't had a problem with waking up scared in months.......until last night.
Now he is affraid of Zombies.... ZOMBIES!!! What the heck?? Apparently there is some Zombie game out there that now has him freaked out and having bad dreams. Again, thank you B! I guess its time to look for Zombie spray. If any of you out there knows the recipe for this, please let me know. I'm thinking it begins with no electronics in our house!! ;-)
Genu-WINE Linda
Little Monsters has Howie Mandell who plays a very creepy looking monster that comes out in the dark from underneath the bed and terrorizes Fred Savage in his room at night. Imaginge my look as I came around the corner, after this movie had been on for all of 15 minutes, and C (my 4 yr old) was covered up with a blanket up to his nose, wide eyed and saying "Mommy, I'm scared". I watched this movie for another 5 minutes thinking this has got to get better and much more funny so he will see that monsters are not scary and can actually be funny. I then realized that all my self reasoning that I had just tried was for nothing, because C is not laughing!
For the next two weeks, C woke up every night screaming about monsters under his bed. He would argue about going to bed and sleeping in his room alone. I tried everything, leaving the light on, staying in his room until he fell asleep, removing any and all objects from his room that would look like monster in the middle of the night.
After an hour of one my favorite past times and favorite websites, Pinterest, I came across a picture of a bottle marked monster spray. BING!! The light bulb went off in my head!! After searching every cabinet in my house, I realized I didn't have an empty spray bottle... C'mon Linda, you're smart.. Be creative!!
I found a "save the ta tas" bracelet that I got in Vegas. It's now a monster bracelet. He wears it every night around his leg without fail! I'm a genius!! My 13 year old son also came up with what we call the good dream cream, which is a bottle of saline solution that we poor into his hands and he rubs all over his face before bed. Believe it or not, this actually works. We haven't had a problem with waking up scared in months.......until last night.
Now he is affraid of Zombies.... ZOMBIES!!! What the heck?? Apparently there is some Zombie game out there that now has him freaked out and having bad dreams. Again, thank you B! I guess its time to look for Zombie spray. If any of you out there knows the recipe for this, please let me know. I'm thinking it begins with no electronics in our house!! ;-)
Genu-WINE Linda
Monday, January 23, 2012
BAD MOM AWARD GOES TO........... ME!!
Have you ever forgot to get your kid something that he needs for school, and they make you feel horrible for it all the way to school? Yeah? Well, that's how my morning went today!! I usually get a list of things that's needed the night before, but this time he did give it to me last Friday and of course I forgot!
He is doing a research paper in his AP English class and gave me a list that consisted of 3x5 notecards, 4x6 notecards, paperclips, a highlighter, and a manilla enevelope. So at 9PM on Sunday night, my son says, "Did you get my supplies that I needed for English?" After a brief a pause of what the heck are you talking about look from me, and then a slap to my forehead with a favorite four letter of mine, I exclaim "NO!".
So the race begins to find all the stuff needed in my house. I start with the easy one, paper clips. I knew I would have those laying around somewhere. Bingo! I find a whole box in my desk!! At this point I'm thinking " No big deal. Who needed to go to the store for this stuff, because I am awesome and will provide!" Next, I remember that I had bought some 3x5 cards at the beginning of the year with all the other school supplies stuff that I stock up on for the upcoming year. BOOM! I am on a roll!! Here are you're notecards!
One would think that because I own my own business and have an office in my office that highlighters would be something logical to have, and I might add that I do have several highlighters laying around in my desk. What I didn't know was that my 4 yr old had decided to use them all to color with and left the cap completely off or half off so that every one of them were dried out. REALLY? UGH!!! So, I begin to tear apart all the junk drawers in my house. Although, finding a car charger that I had been searching for was a delightful surprise; it wasn't helping my current needs.
Now the next two items I knew for a fact that I didn't have at home. 4x6 notecard? Who uses 4x6 notecards??? And now, I'm questioning the teacher! Why do they have to have two different size notecards? Back in the day when I was in school, we only used one size!! I have an office where I work too, so I was for sure that we could get the rest there. I told him to go to bed, and we would swing by there on the way to school in the morning and get the rest.
We get up and leave a few minutes early. We jump in the car and pull into my office and I run in to grab the manilla envelop and a highlighter! WOO HOO, my awesomeness factor is rising!! Well, the 4x6 card, whatever, I will get those later. I jump back in the car thinking four out of the five items is not that bad! I look at my son who had complete and utter disappointment on his face, and ask what the problem is. "The manilla envelope doesn't have prongs on it." Again, the look of what are you talking about shoots across my face and another four letter word of my choice, followed with "are you kidding me?"
I give up! I will accept the Bad Mom Award today and just be glad in the fact that I got them to school on time, dressed and fed this morning!! ;-)
Genu-WINE Linda
He is doing a research paper in his AP English class and gave me a list that consisted of 3x5 notecards, 4x6 notecards, paperclips, a highlighter, and a manilla enevelope. So at 9PM on Sunday night, my son says, "Did you get my supplies that I needed for English?" After a brief a pause of what the heck are you talking about look from me, and then a slap to my forehead with a favorite four letter of mine, I exclaim "NO!".
So the race begins to find all the stuff needed in my house. I start with the easy one, paper clips. I knew I would have those laying around somewhere. Bingo! I find a whole box in my desk!! At this point I'm thinking " No big deal. Who needed to go to the store for this stuff, because I am awesome and will provide!" Next, I remember that I had bought some 3x5 cards at the beginning of the year with all the other school supplies stuff that I stock up on for the upcoming year. BOOM! I am on a roll!! Here are you're notecards!
One would think that because I own my own business and have an office in my office that highlighters would be something logical to have, and I might add that I do have several highlighters laying around in my desk. What I didn't know was that my 4 yr old had decided to use them all to color with and left the cap completely off or half off so that every one of them were dried out. REALLY? UGH!!! So, I begin to tear apart all the junk drawers in my house. Although, finding a car charger that I had been searching for was a delightful surprise; it wasn't helping my current needs.
Now the next two items I knew for a fact that I didn't have at home. 4x6 notecard? Who uses 4x6 notecards??? And now, I'm questioning the teacher! Why do they have to have two different size notecards? Back in the day when I was in school, we only used one size!! I have an office where I work too, so I was for sure that we could get the rest there. I told him to go to bed, and we would swing by there on the way to school in the morning and get the rest.
We get up and leave a few minutes early. We jump in the car and pull into my office and I run in to grab the manilla envelop and a highlighter! WOO HOO, my awesomeness factor is rising!! Well, the 4x6 card, whatever, I will get those later. I jump back in the car thinking four out of the five items is not that bad! I look at my son who had complete and utter disappointment on his face, and ask what the problem is. "The manilla envelope doesn't have prongs on it." Again, the look of what are you talking about shoots across my face and another four letter word of my choice, followed with "are you kidding me?"
I give up! I will accept the Bad Mom Award today and just be glad in the fact that I got them to school on time, dressed and fed this morning!! ;-)
Genu-WINE Linda
Thursday, January 19, 2012
At the beginning of the New Year, I decided to make the same resolution everyone does at this time of year.... to lose weight. What was I thinking??? I was thinking my jeans are too tight, and the poor little button that tries to hold them together is just about stretched to its capacity! So what do I do? I run out and reactivate my membership to the gym. Did you catch that? REACTIVATE Yep, the getting up and going to the gym lasted all of ONE week.
Now, let me give you the list of excuses that I used to convince myself that I really didn't have the time to go to the gym.
1. I have to work, and if I get up at 4AM to go then I am tired all day.
2. If I get up at 4AM to go the gym then I have to go to bed super early and night time is the only time that my husband and I have time to spend "time" together. (by the way, my husband LOVED that excuse)
3. I don't have time at night to go, because with 3 boys and running them everywhere, I just can't fit it in.
4. I need to catch up on laundry.
5. I think I feel cramps coming on.
I could seriously go on and on and on..... Bottom line is, I'M LAZY. There I said it. I am too lazy to go to the gym. I don't have that kind of dedication to go do something I don't like to do. So what do I do now? Diet? At this current moment I am trying the whole counting points thing. My friend that I work with has already lost 10lbs doing this. YAY HER! Really, I am very happy for her. She has worked hard and you can definitly tell that she is losing weight. To be completely honest, this whole counting points thing tends to piss me off. I am HUNGRY!!! I need to eat. I like to eat, and don't want limits on what I want to eat!
Here is the kicker that I know everyone will understand.. I am NOT going to buy the next size bigger jeans!! So, I am really trying to stick with counting points. Less face it, you need to change the way you eat if you want to lose weight. I know this in my mind, but sometimes that's easier said than done. When you are running from activity to activity with your children, sometimes its just easier and faster to stop and grab some fast food. I really envy the moms that cook every night, and cook good healthy food for their families. June Cleaver, I am not, but I would really like to be more like that!
I think I am going to change my New Year's Resolution to eating healthier. I will also attempt going to the gym here and there, but I am not going to feel bad if I only make it once a week. I know I will probably be kicking myself in the butt come summer time when we go to the beach for vacation and I pull out that swim suit, but for now, I have to go find a rubber band to loop through the button hole of my jeans and see how many points this cream cheese danish is. ;-)
Now, let me give you the list of excuses that I used to convince myself that I really didn't have the time to go to the gym.
1. I have to work, and if I get up at 4AM to go then I am tired all day.
2. If I get up at 4AM to go the gym then I have to go to bed super early and night time is the only time that my husband and I have time to spend "time" together. (by the way, my husband LOVED that excuse)
3. I don't have time at night to go, because with 3 boys and running them everywhere, I just can't fit it in.
4. I need to catch up on laundry.
5. I think I feel cramps coming on.
I could seriously go on and on and on..... Bottom line is, I'M LAZY. There I said it. I am too lazy to go to the gym. I don't have that kind of dedication to go do something I don't like to do. So what do I do now? Diet? At this current moment I am trying the whole counting points thing. My friend that I work with has already lost 10lbs doing this. YAY HER! Really, I am very happy for her. She has worked hard and you can definitly tell that she is losing weight. To be completely honest, this whole counting points thing tends to piss me off. I am HUNGRY!!! I need to eat. I like to eat, and don't want limits on what I want to eat!
Here is the kicker that I know everyone will understand.. I am NOT going to buy the next size bigger jeans!! So, I am really trying to stick with counting points. Less face it, you need to change the way you eat if you want to lose weight. I know this in my mind, but sometimes that's easier said than done. When you are running from activity to activity with your children, sometimes its just easier and faster to stop and grab some fast food. I really envy the moms that cook every night, and cook good healthy food for their families. June Cleaver, I am not, but I would really like to be more like that!
I think I am going to change my New Year's Resolution to eating healthier. I will also attempt going to the gym here and there, but I am not going to feel bad if I only make it once a week. I know I will probably be kicking myself in the butt come summer time when we go to the beach for vacation and I pull out that swim suit, but for now, I have to go find a rubber band to loop through the button hole of my jeans and see how many points this cream cheese danish is. ;-)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
So, here we go.... my first attempt at blogging. The reason I wanted to start this is because I feel like there are so many things that go on in my life that I know, for a fact, other women deal with. The balancing act of being a woman... a mom, a wife, a friend, an employee, the head chef, the taxi driver, well you get it... I could go on and on about all the different rolls a woman has in her life. I want to create a sounding board for the daily balancing act that we do just being women.
I believe that we all go through things in our lives that other people experience and sometimes its just good to know that you're not the only one that deals with these things. For instance, I was talking to my friend on the phone the other night. She stops our conversation to speak to her crying child in the background. "What's wrong?" she says. Whatever her son replied, I was not able to understand because of the high pitched sobbing, but the next question is what really got me. "DID YOU CHOKE YOUR BROTHER?" is what she asked her oldest son.
All I could do is laugh and thank God that I am not the only mother that has to ask that question in her household! It's little everyday things like that that I want to discuss. Whether it be husbands, children, work, friends, or finances, we all deal with it. Just knowing that there are other people out there that have to ask rediculous questions like that is a huge comfort to me!!
So if you would like to join me in my discussion of all things women, please do. I will not be perfect. I will have typos and grammar errors, I'm sure. If you read this and are not interested and do not care for what I have to say, that's fine too. Please just move on, no reason to leave hateful messeges on here. And lastly, I would love to hear your trials and tribulations of this balancing act we do as women. It could make for some really great conversations!!
Thanks for reading,
Genu-"WINE" Linda
I believe that we all go through things in our lives that other people experience and sometimes its just good to know that you're not the only one that deals with these things. For instance, I was talking to my friend on the phone the other night. She stops our conversation to speak to her crying child in the background. "What's wrong?" she says. Whatever her son replied, I was not able to understand because of the high pitched sobbing, but the next question is what really got me. "DID YOU CHOKE YOUR BROTHER?" is what she asked her oldest son.
All I could do is laugh and thank God that I am not the only mother that has to ask that question in her household! It's little everyday things like that that I want to discuss. Whether it be husbands, children, work, friends, or finances, we all deal with it. Just knowing that there are other people out there that have to ask rediculous questions like that is a huge comfort to me!!
So if you would like to join me in my discussion of all things women, please do. I will not be perfect. I will have typos and grammar errors, I'm sure. If you read this and are not interested and do not care for what I have to say, that's fine too. Please just move on, no reason to leave hateful messeges on here. And lastly, I would love to hear your trials and tribulations of this balancing act we do as women. It could make for some really great conversations!!
Thanks for reading,
Genu-"WINE" Linda
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)