A Fish Tail

Last week was the Great Kern County Fair. As always happens, we went on one of the last weeknights of the fair to avoid the pressing crowds and weirdos and we were pretty successful. It was busy of course, bit not near as busy as it could have been had it been a Friday or Saturday Night.

The kids enjoyed corndogs, lemonade, and a few rides (are those things REALLY all that safe?) and while Hubs and Logan went off to enjoy some of the “big Boy” games and rides that Caleb was too little for, I took him around by myself for a few kiddie rides and games.

One of the games was the an obvious dollar drainer; for $5.00, you get a small bucket with 30 ping pong balls and have to attempt to land one in a teeny tiny goldfish bowl to win… well, a goldfish.

Believe it or not, Caleb sank a ball after about 8 throws. In an attempt to just keep him busy for a few minutes and avoid a melt down at not being able to join Hubs and Brother on some rides, we ended up taking home a goldfish, complete with mobile home.

If I had EVER thought that he would have been able to ACTUALLY win a goldfish, I probably never would have taken him to that game booth. Dime store stuffed animals are one thing, but a $0.29 goldfish you paid $5.00 for screams SUCKER!!!!!

He named it Helicopter.

After Caleb won his goldfish at the fair on Thursday, Logan was bummed that he didn't have one. So Saturday we loaded up the family and made a trek to the pet store to get Logan his own goldfish and a tank.

Sunday night, Fire Flame (Logan's goldfish) bit the proverbial dust and we "buried" him at "sea" IYKWIM. He was fine with promises of a replacement when he got home from school, Fire Flame 2.

Thank goodness he wasn’t scarred for life.

Then Monday morning, Helicopter, Caleb's goldfish also had to endure the same treatment.

Unfortunately for Helicopter, the damned fish started flipping around in the bowl of the toilet as it was flushed.

Oops.

Caleb's new fish is named Choo Choo Train. Lets hope this one puffs along longer than Helicopter.

I'm Not Perfect (and Neither Are You)

It's a common misconception for women who take the plunge into leaving their careers for SAHM status that their homes will instantly become tidy (they're at home all day), their bodies will become fit and slender (lots of time for exercise and creating healthy meals), and that their children will remain perfect little darlings with impeccable manners.

Really?

For the first few months of my tenure as a new stay at home mom, I thought I could do it all. I’m at home all day, every day, so why not.

The first week I spent cleaning my house from ceiling to floor in every room until it sparkled. I even got down on my hands and knees to scrub the bathroom floor with bleach and a brush to get the grout back to its original white color.

The next week was spent coming up with fantastic, wonderful gourmet meals for my family. I didn’t care that they weren’t met with the same enthusiasm that I had in making them. It’s the thought that counts, right?

After that, I scoured my cookbooks and the Internet for cookie and bread recipes, telling myself how much my family would like it and love that I did this just for them.

After a few months of this, I quickly started losing steam and my “progress” faltered. Things started going in the opposite direction.

Piles of laundry. The sink overflowing with dishes. “I don’t wanna cook, let’s order a pizza.” Again.

I think the reason I started out so well is that I had this idea in my head that I had June Cleaver, Martha Stewart and The Pioneer Woman all wrapped up inside me, just bursting to get out.

It’s now been one full year since I started staying home with my boys. A lot has changed and will probably continue to evolve.

First, I’m not really that crafty. Quite frankly, I pin a lot of crafty and fun stuff on Pinterest (have a look through my boards and you'll see what I mean), but am I really going to do all those projects? Probably not. One or two maybe…

I don't even know how to use a sewing machine, people!

Source: gltc.co.uk via Stephanie on Pinterest

I love the photos of perfect living rooms, perfect kitchens, perfectly organized pantries and linen closets. I’ve come to realize my house will never look like those pictures, at least not until after the boys are grown and moved out. I like our lived-in look. 

I’ve found that simple meals are much more preferred by my family than the complex meals I tried when I first started staying home. I realize my five year old doesn’t like prosciutto or avocado as much as I do and may never. Oh well, spaghetti it is then.

I’ve found MY way of organizing my pantry and I like it. So what if all the labels are facing different directions or the peanut butter is next to the pasta? It may not make sense to others, but it works for me.

My kids are not as perfect as I’d like them to be, but that’s okay. There are MANY days when my boys are not the little darlings I’ve always wanted them to be. They somehow morph into devil children heathens little monsters misbehaved little boys, but I’ve learned to accept the bad days. They are far outnumbered by the good ones. 

Dishes and laundry still pile up, and I’ve come to terms with it. Don’t believe me? Take a look at these pictures and you’ll see I tell the truth!

Advice Your Mom SHOULD Have Given You

There comes a time in every mom’s life when you say to yourself, “Why didn’t my mom ever tell me these things?” What’s some of the top advice your mom should have given you? Here’s my list: 

1. Your child may be a picky eater, but they will eat anything from the floor or that comes from a trashcan.
2. When your child uses the “F” word and uses in in context, don’t laugh.
3. Move your “fun times” stuff somewhere they can't reach it, or preferably a locked box. They will find it and either model it for you or play with it. Again, don’t laugh.
4. Even though you said you would NEVER yell at your child, you will.
5. Baby wipes are for more than butts; keep them everywhere!
6. Buy more diapers than you think you’ll need, eventually you will run out and freak out; if any are leftover when he outgrows them, give to charity or another family.
7. Trial-by-fire is great, but Google is better. 
8. You will never eat by yourself again; there will always be some little person's germy fingers in your plate. Watch out and don’t stick them with your fork.
9. All diapers leak.
10. The weight on the box of diapers is NOT how much they will hold. 
11. You do not have to have your kid potty trained by the time they are two years old. Stop stressing out about it!
12. Stop trying to keep up with the other mom’s in your playgroup, they are not June Cleaver and neither are you.
13. Your kids are more important than a clean house.
14. You will talk about the kids during date night.
15. It's okay to talk about your parenting failures as well as the triumphs.

 What advice do you wish you had been given?

 

 

Mommy's Guilty Pleasure

Every once in a while I get the urge to shut out the noise, the boys and the rest of the world and take a little time for myself. One of these ways is to escape through reading.

I’m a romance novel junkie.

Yeah, I’ll admit it.

When I was thirteen, my aunt gave me a HUGE stockpile of Harlequin romance novels to read shortly after we moved from the small mountain town we lived in to “the big city” to keep me occupied over the summer before school started.

Oh, my. If only she knew what a voracious devourer of books she unleashed!

Luckily on a tight budget, there are lots of ways to fill my addiction without breaking the bank. Did you know you could download an app to your smartphone and laptop that allows you to read books published for the Kindle?

I “discovered” this while researching whether or not I wanted to drop the cash for a Kindle shortly before Caleb was born and I haven’t looked back since.

The best part of that discovery, after purchasing a few books to read on my phone and laptop, was that there are also TONS of free books, in every genre, that you can down load for FREE!

Did you know they’re FREE?

FREE!

At last count, I’ve loaded at least 80+ books to read and have quite the “stack” to work with.

You can download most classics for free, and lots of new releases for just $9.99. The best part is that you can search by genre, change your filter settings to look for “$0.00” and find all the great deals you can. Plus there's a tab on the right side of their page you can click that lists their 100 Top Free Bestsellers.

Here are some other resources for filling your reading addiction:

Open Library

Project Gutenberg

Many Books

So now that I've admitted mine, what's yours?

(I don't make any money when you click on these external links, so click away!)