We all remember those quotes from Mom....the ones we vowed never to say to our own kids. Well, for the most part, I don't say those things. Instead, I've come up with my own.

My new favorite is, "What do you want me to do about it?"

The conversations go something like this....

Tyson (the hypochondriac) says,"Mommy, my big toe hurts!"
I say, "What do you want me to do about it?"

Owen says, "Mommy, my cap gun is breaking!"
I say, "What do you want me to do about it?"

Big O says, "I don't have any short socks clean!"
I say, "What do you want me to do about it?"

Tyson says (after I already put salt in his grits), "I didn't want salt!"
I say, "What do you want me to do about it?"
His reply, "Pick it out!"

I used to try to fix everyone's problems all day long, but sometimes, things just can't be fixed! :o)

Living on one income in a two income economy!

Being a stay-at-home mom, I've had to find ways to cut costs here and there over the years. One of the biggest ways we've saved money is by being organized when it comes to meal preparation. I've learned that you can have it healthy, and you can have it cheap, and you can have it fast, but very rarely can you have all three at the same time. I've learned that if I make out a menu for the week and stick to it, then I'm less likely to go out when we're in a rush to get to an activity. If I know what we're having for dinner ahead of time, I know how long it takes to cook and can just plan to start dinner at a certain time. I've really messed up dinner a few times, and we had to go out, but that hasn't happened in quite a while. (By the way, I didn't know much about cooking when I first got married, but I learned a lot from watching Rachel Ray!)

I was able to spend the morning with my friend Rachel earlier in the week. Not only is she the QUEEN of thrifty, but she is also a very Godly lady, and I count myself blessed to know her. She gave me a few money saving tips while we were together and taught me how to make bread.....without a bread machine! (Mine didn't rise, but I'll try again!) A few of her blogs are about ways she's learned to save. She also let me borrow a book that helped has her to live frugally. It's called Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy.

One more tip. I found this website last year that has a lot of good ideas. I used some of the recipes at Christmas time for gifts in jars and gift baskets. There is also a link there for you to download a free book telling how one woman learned to feed her family of 4 for $200 a month. Some of her ideas are a bit extreme, but she's got a lot of good advice that could be adapted to any family.

Growing up

One night the boys spent the night with my friend, and she had them take baths by themselves, including washing their own hair. I couldn't believe that they did it.

Owen has been bathing himself for a while now, but I was still drawing the water and getting his towel and washcloth and helping him wash his hair. Tyson did NOTHING for himself.

For the past 6 weeks, I've been working on teaching my boys, especially Owen, to be more independent. Now at bath time, I have them get their own towel and washcloth and find their own pajamas. Tyson now washes himself, too, and they both can wash their own hair (but sometimes I still help Tyson). I taught them how to turn off the water without burning themselves (our hot water is really hot, so this is an issue). After they'd mastered that, I taught Owen how to turn the water on without burning himself (this just within the last week and a half or so). This week they've been taking their baths from start to finish without me. I know that it's a good thing that they are able to do these things for themselves, and it really helped out when I left them overnight with Owen twice last week while I went off gallivanting. It's nice that I can tell them to go take a bath and they can come back all clean and dressed for bed without me ever lifting a finger.

But I miss that time with them. They're growing up.

Those of you with young little ones, especially those of you that have 2 in diapers, I know that these days sometimes seem to drag on and on. All you can see is one dirty diaper after another and one meal preparation after another and feeding and baths and dressing and brushing teeth and the list goes on and on and on and it seems like you will be doing this for the rest of your life! Don't wish away these times. Look for the memories that you will cherish. My mom always says, "Write it down!" Then one day, you will turn around and you will realize that your children don't need you as much as they once did...at least physically speaking. You'll realize that there's a lot more to being a mom than that aforementioned list. You'll begin to see them as children and not as babies.

That's where I am. Until August, I'll be a mother of a preschooler, but that time in my life is almost over. I'm looking back at the last 6 years, and even though I've stayed at home with my children for 5 of the 6 of them, I still wonder where the time went.

HELP PLEASE!!!

I have a lot of important birthdays coming up.....my sister, my grandmother and my best friend all have birthdays within 3 weeks of each other......and I am dead broke! I need creative and meaningful gift ideas, PLEASE! (Angela, don't read any of my comments!!!!) I should not have waited until the last minute, but it all kind of sneaked up on me. The first of these birthdays is this weekend.....party is FRIDAY...two days hence. I know that it's not the gift the matters it's the thought behind it, but the problem is, I have NO THOUGHTS OF WHAT TO GIVE!!!!

If you read my blog but have never left a comment, now would be the time to let your voice be heard!!!!

Thanks guys!

How cool is this?

This morning I went out to the Suburban to get something I'd left after church last night, and almost walked into this.....





In the past, I would have turned and run screaming to the house, but lately, I've been viewing things in light of the fact that I am the mother of BOYS. Instead of running screaming to the house, I ran to the house saying, "Boys, come look what I found!!"

We drove the Suburban last night to church, so the spider must have built his web during the night. I showed it to Owen and Tyson and pointed out how awesome it is that God made a creature that could make this! The main web was about 18 inches in diameter, but it also had a web underneath it that looked like a failed attempt. I wonder how long it took him from start to finish.

It amazes me to think that the God who created the universe also created creatures that can do this. He is also the same God who loves us and says in His Word things like "I will instruct you and teach you in the ways that you should go," and "I will guide you with My eye and with My right hand, I will hold you up."

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet...
O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!"

Psalm 8:3-6, 9 NASB

This is my life.....

You may have read this before. Someone sent it to me in an e-mail.

When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied.

Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.

You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn't matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for "seat covers" (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door knob if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would be mortified if she found out you put it on the FLOOR! ), yank down your pants, and assume "The Stance." In this position your toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance."

To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your thighs shake more.

You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail.

Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn't work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom made made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try . You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get."

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your tush and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in, too.

At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks.

You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel, and pray that there is Germ-X in the car.

You walk past the line of women still waiting and are no longer able to smile politely to them. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."

As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?"

This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with public restrooms (rest??? you've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the door!

Tagged

Angela tagged me a week ago and I'm just today having time to get to it. So here goes....

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
1. 5th grade teacher (LOVED it!)
2. Piano teacher (still am....need lessons anyone?)
3. Call center rep for Vystar Credit Union (was Jax Navy back then)

4. Mom (by far the hardest yet most fulfilling job of all!)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:

1. Gone With the Wind (Scarlet Ohara is just AWFUL, but I love her!)
2. The Little Mermaid (always was my favorite Disney movie)
3. Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews is amazing!)
4. Top Ten Countdown (a movie I watch with the boys that puts the Ten Commandments on their level)

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1. Everybody Loves Raymond (makes me thankful for my family)
2. House (so smart)
3. What Not to Wear (even though Stacy and Clinton are cruel!)
4. The Office (no comment necessary)


Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation:
1. Centrifuge (actually it was a youth camp, but it was so awesome that it counts!)
2. Cherokee, NC (where our car was stuck for a year....literally)
3. Disney World (not a good idea to go on the 4th of July)
4. Laura Walker State Park (many childhood memories)

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Spaghetti (seriously, I could eat it every day)
2. Rice (I should have been Oriental)
3. Potatoes cooked any way (craved them during pregnancy)
4. Chips and Dip (reminds me of Aunt Lisa)

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Hotmail.com (I'd wither up without email)
2. Angela's blog (need I say why?)
3. Facebook.com (keep up with all the latest gossip at TBC....j/k!)
4. Weather.com (gotta know how to dress the kids)

Four Places I’d Rather Be:
1. With Owen
2. At Patsy's house
3. At the Melting Pot (Patsy got me hooked....shame on her!)
4. Playing the piano with NO INTERRUPTIONS!

Here's the part of the show where I tag you....but Angela already did, so if you read this blog and don't comment on it, leave one this time and play along!