Life with Laundry

I have come to realize that the idea of ever catching up with the laundry is hopeless. For such little people, my children sure do accumulate more clothes than I’ve ever seen.

I put a load of clothes, only to turn around and there’s already another full load of their clothes waiting for me. My husband came out the other morning and asked if he had any clean shirts. I laughed. For some reason, the kids’ clothes always get ahead of ours! One resolution for this year should be to try and keep up rather than get ahead with the dreaded laundry!

Toys Toys Toys!

Well, Christmas is finally over. We are lucky enough to have three families (my parents are divorced and remarried). This being the case, the kids received three different occasions to open presents.

Now, I’m one for Christmas, but what I’m not one for is tons of toys! My children love books. A toy here and there is ok, but the amount of toys the children received this year sent me into a tizzy. I think it’s a combination of the whole year actually and it simply came to a head after this Christmas.

I finally got fed up and cleaned up and stored away half of my children’s toys for a later date. This being done, they still have way too much. I found myself threatening my oldest daughter and son with taking away all their toys if they continued to mistreat them and give them away to children who don’t have any at all!

Hopefully this year will bring some stability to our house and people will learn with time that when I say books are the best gift they will follow my advice!

Pet Peeve

I have not had much time to write lately as one can imagine with three kids and the holidays here. Nevertheless, I need to write about my hatred towards Wal-Mart.

I do not like the word hate. In fact I think it’s a bad think to hate – especially people. Hatred should be reserved for very important things. This being the case, I feel very safe saying I hate Wal-Mart.

I hardly ever shop there, but needed to for the first time in close to two years. I bought one to many of something and wanted to return the extra item. I thought it would be a very simple task. I entered the terrible store, got one of those return stickers and continued to the customer service desk.

Now, I was about third or fourth in line. To most this would be okay because if a store ran efficiently then one would be in and out in a reasonable amount of time. However, being that this is Wal-Mart and not an efficient store, I stood there for almost ten minutes while only one other person got helped. What bothered me even more is she was cashing a paycheck and complaining because Wal-Mart takes a 3% fee! Lord help me!! It was everything I could do not to yell at her “GO TO A BANK FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!”

I ended up getting out of line since the one person helping everyone must be part snail and decided that eating the little bit of money I would get back would be less painful than staying there! Someone should tell the idiots that run Wal-Mart that if they want to keep/get new customers they should try having some customer service (like Target and Costco do!).

My Day’s Been Made!

Being a mom is one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs I think there is. I spend lots of time doing laundry, cooking, and picking up toys only to have them pulled back off the shelves and put onto the floor.

My daughter has made my day today. She came running up to me from her room and said “I love you so much Mommy!”
Then she even said “Thank you so much” when I handed her the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich I had made her for lunch!

There is truly nothing better than that!

Complaining

Having three kids is a hard job. It takes a lot of energy and patience (which I’ll admit I don’t always have). I would not, however, trade my job for anything in the world. My oldest daughter is finally saying “I Love You” for no reason, my son gives out kisses with reckless abandon, and my smallest daughter doles out smiles like candy. There is no better feeling than loving someone so much.

This being the case, I really feel like I want one more. I know I’m a glutton for punishment but I’m ok with that. My husband wonders why he comes home though and I complain about not having had one minute of time to myself. Mmmm…I wonder why. Complaining is my way of venting. Complaining doesn’t mean I’m unhappy it just means even I need to talk to adults and sometimes I even need a break from my loving children.

People see me out with my children and I get lots of “you ahve my sympathy,” or “Boy do I pity you, “or even I wouldn’t want to be you.” Please stop saying this! I do not want nor do I need your sympathy or pity. I’d bet that those you who say this do not get near the love I do every single day from my children!

To those you who are reading this, if you are the stay at home mom – congrats to you keep up the good work and remember to take breaks for yourself (I’m still learning this lesson) and if you are the loved one of someone who stays home – be extra kind to that person and tell them how much you appreciate them and what they do. But for goodness sake don’t say you pity them or they have your sympathy!

Life returning to normal

Well, I haven’t written in what seems like forever. I can’t believe it’s December already! I can’t even remember the last time I had several minutes of time! Thanksgiving was great. The food turned out well and the weekend seemed to be a hit.

My in laws were in town from Wednesday until Sunday morning and my father and his family came by on Friday. This being the case the kids were completely off their schedule! One thing about having three kids in 29 months teaches you is that a schedule is extremely important for all parties involved – mom included!

I have spent this entire week trying to get the kids back to some sort of normalcy. Needless to say, by the time I fix it it’ll be Christmas. Boy, I love holidays but they can be stressful!

The kids are truly enjoying decorating for Christmas. My 2.5 year old wonders everyday when Santa is coming. She is quick to “call him on the cell phone.” She walks around talking to Santa a lot during the day. My little boy isn’t sure about what’s going on but he loves the stockings hanging on the mantle!

Well, my children are calling so I’m off to play!

Son moves from crib to a big boy bed

Well, this weekend after much debate, we decided it was time to move our son from his crib to a mattress on the floor. Right now, he shares his room as it is necessary in our house. He had begun to notice the fact that he had bars and couldn’t move freely and big sister could. He had also started putting his foot up like he could crawl out of it or something silly like that!

This all being the case, the good hubby (and daddy) that he is, he took apart the crib and opened a whole new world up to our Little Man! Needless to say the transition for him has been easier than the transition for me. Besides the simple fact that my little boy is growing up way too fast, I spend countless times going into their room during nap time and stressing the fact that they are to be sleeping not playing! Luckily, these two are best friends and share lots of laughs and those laughs make me laugh or else I’d be losing my mind!  Also, we are very lucky that there is never a problem at night, everyone simply goes to sleep in their own bed and without a word heard from them! Hopefully this will continue!

Politics and News thoughts

My husband began blogging this past spring when I was out of town. He really seems to enjoy it so I thought I’d give it a try. If you are interested in reading about politics, crazy news, or college football give his blog a shot!

Big Families

As of now, my family is considered to be a big family. We are a family of five having been very blessed with three beautiful children. I’ll just say that I think children are the best thing in the world!

I read a very interesting article about the idea of big families coming back. It simply talks about how more and more people are choosing to break that two child barrier. I find that wonderful! The article says that more wealthy and educated families are making the decision to have more children. It seems that more people are choosing children over “things.” This switch is something I see as a positive move for our future.

I think Americans have become very material driven (I’m no different than most) and I think that society could benefit from more people choosing children and the love that brings to families.

My one problem with this article is that is says intelligence level decreases with each child. I think that if you are an involved parent and want to work with all your children, then each child will be intelligent.

When I’m out with my children, I no doubt get lots of looks from people who must think I’m insane. I’ve even had a man say to me sarcastically, “Wow, you’ve sure figured out the home making thing haven’t you?” To say I think these comments and looks are rude is an understatement. I think that my big family is wonderful. I even hold hope that I might want one more child (of course that might make me crazy but oh well!). I was told that the move from two to three was the hardest and it was for a little while but the love felt from that baby has made the transition smooth! If you are thinking of breaking that two child barrier remember that no one can tell you what is right for your family and no matter how many kids you have there is always enough love!

The need to be in the know

Well, many people tell you of the wonderful stage kids reach where everything is “why?” but they neglected to mention the stage where everything is “Doing Mommy?”

We have entered this stage and despite liking to explain to my children what I’m doing, the same question over and over gets really old. I feel like a broken record answering with the same answer time and time again. I hope that this is a stage that will not last very long! I’m sure when she gets done with such question, my son will express that need to be in the know.

This of course, really begs the question of how long will they stick their nose into everything I’m doing – which at this moment is Christmas shopping! Hopefully, I’ll find time to shop for my daughter without that wonderful question of “Doing Mommy.”