Keep the Laundry Basket Full

Sometimes I feel like all I do is wash clothes, fold clothes, sort clothes, put away clothes, empty the dishwasher, load the dishwasher.  And repeat. Times a million and repeat again.  Really, it's kind of unreasonable that 3 people and a dog should have this much laundry and need to run the dishwasher all the time, but we do.  Between sheets, towels and the fact that eating out isn't regular around here the sink and the laundry basket are always in need of attention.

I made the comment recently on Facebook that sometimes I feel like all I do is the laundry and dishes.  Then someone who has grown children made the comment that in a few years I won't have all those things anymore but that will also mean that the hugs and kisses will be gone too.  

So it made me realize that as we go into a new year, I need to savor the moments more.  I need to focus on not letting the details get in the way.  No dust on my furniture (or fans) or dirt on the floor needs to take precedent over my family.  I need to savor my moments with my son and my husband.  One day the floor will be spotless and my boy will be gone.  I'd rather have dirty floors and laundry piled to the ceiling so I don't forget a moment or a day with my son.  So keep my laundry basket full, I've got a little boy to mother and love.

The Best Part of the Day

Today Austin and I woke up and on a whim took off to Disney.  We bought Annual Passes last spring, so we can go whenever we'd like.  I have a backpack cooler so we take our own lunch and go for the day on occasion.  We can get there in about an hour from our home.  

We chose to go to the Magic Kingdom.  To say it was packed is an understatement at the least.  There were rides that had wait times of up to 180 minutes.  Yikes.  Anyway, we didn't ride nearly what we could have on a day when the crowds aren't as large.  We did get to his favorites; Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Haunted Mansion.  Neither scare him and he gets a thrill from both.  We made our first ever trek over to Tom Sawyer's Island.  I hadn't been over there since I was a kid and I had forgotten about the caves and the Fort.  Austin was able to shoot pretend guns in the fort and you would have thought he'd died and gone to heaven.  I thought I'd never get him off the Island and when I finally did he wasn't happy about it.  We rode the People Mover and we had Mickey Popsicles while sitting on the ground.  In one part of the park, they were having a dance party.  It was a lot of fun, and lots of folks were making pure fools of themselves and having a great time doing it.  Austin decided he wanted to join in.  I got it on video

Here he is after eating his Popsicle:

And this picture says enough:

On the longest tram ride back to the car in the history of the world, I took our picture, and this is what I got:

As we were driving home, I asked him what his favorite part of the day was.  He said "spending time with you Momma".  I nearly cried.  I may have if I weren't driving.  I told him that it was one of the sweetest things he'd ever told me.  What a sweet boy I've been blessed with. 

Out of our Abundance

I worry. I know, the Bible says not to worry. But in this case, I worry about my son.  You see, we are blessed.  My son doesn't have any idea what real hunger is.  He has no idea what it is to want for a meal or to be without clothes or toys.  He's never had to worry about having a roof over his head, and has been provided for well.

But there are kids in his own school who know all too well about those kinds of worries.  There are people all around us everywhere we go that struggle in some way or another.  I don't want my son to think that this is just how everyone has it.  I want him to understand that he needs to be grateful and realize that he's blessed.

So how do you teach a five year old that he'd better be thankful there's something to eat, a roof over his head and he doesn't have to worry about his needs?

One of the things we do to help our son realize this is at Christmas Time.  We intentionally set aside a certain amount of money based on what we feel we can sacrifice to go out and shop for presents for needy children.  We usually choose a child or two to sponsor from an angel tree or from a list of needy children somewhere.  We explain to Austin that these kids wouldn't have Christmas Presents if they weren't donated to them.  Austin is involved in the shopping, wrapping and delivery of the presents.

A second thing I do is donate out of my stockpile.  I could easily do this without Austin knowing.  But he watches me and I tell him that we are giving this to people in need.  We frequently remind him that not everyone has cabinets and shelves full of food like we do.

As my son gets older we will involve him more in helping others.  But it's so important to teach him that he needs to be thankful for all that we have been blessed with.  We may not have the fanciest house, or the nicest cars or go on lavish vacations, but we have a roof over our heads, a stockpile of groceries, he has more toys than I can physically count, he never misses a meal and he goes to the doctor when he needs to go.  God has been good to us and it is our goal to help our son realize and appreciate that goodness.

I am NOT Super Mom

You might be reading the title to this post and think "really, so what, who cares", or you might think "what, but I thought you were", or "if you're not then you better start fixing things".

When I did a quick Google search on "Super Mom", I found some interesting things. First of all, I found this blog where a mom confesses her desire to NOT be super mom. Then I found the how-to blog on which the Super Mom is idolized and there are directions on how to do all things super. But really, what is the proverbial "Super Mom"? It appears that the Super Mom is never behind on laundry, the dishes are always done, gourmet meals are served nightly, the house is spotless, she holds down a job of some kind, the kids are dressed in the best clothes, her husband is never neglected, she volunteers, she coupons with the best of 'em, she is the Team Mom, and always prepared for every possibility.

None of those things that describes "Super Mom" are bad in any way. In fact, if someone actually accomplishes all of that above then that's not a bad thing at all. But you know what? None of that is important. My son won't look back one day and say "hey, that time I really needed to talk to my mom and she decided to do the dishes instead, that was so okay with me because my kitchen was always clean". I am not advocating that you should live like a slob. But in the end what matters the most is that I've truly been present for my son, all the while loving his daddy like I should. Because the best gifts I can give my son besides being involved with him is to lead him to love Jesus and for me to love his daddy like I should.

So here's my confession: I have a basket of clean laundry piled up in the laundry room waiting for me to fold it. Guess what? I'm not folding it tonight. And you know what else? There are dishes in my sink right now. Guess what? I'm not putting them in the dishwasher tonight. But you know what else? After Austin got out of the tub tonight (I am not filthy, I do bathe my child) we played word games. And we laughed and we enjoyed time together. Guess what? That's a million times better than the laundry being folded and put away. And something else even better? My husband and I had a moment tonight when the song that was sung at our wedding came on a radio show he was listening to. Those things, those moments, you never get them back. But dishes, and laundry, and mopped floors... those can all be done a little later.

So I don't want to be Super Mom. And if you thought I was before you read this, please change your view of me. I am not that woman who always has it all together, and I never will be. But I'm happy as I can be that I got to be called Mom at all and I sure do love my husband.

I am Mommy

I am the one who you wake up when you are sick or scared.

I am the one who changes your sheets in the middle of the night.

I am the one who comforts you when you have a bad dream.

I am the one who nurses your "boo-boos" back to health.

I am the one who has sat rocking you night after night when you had terrible ear infections.

I am Mommy.

I am the one who makes sure you have clean clothes ready to wear.

I am the one who gives you a bath every night even though you sometimes say you would rather be dirty all the time.

I am the one who brushes your teeth even if you hate it.

I am the one who fixes your hair so it looks like it's "sharked" every morning.

I am the one who wakes up much earlier than I'd like to pack your lunch.

I am the one who most likely packs too much food in your lunch, just in case.

I am Mommy.

I am the one who went through labor for 24 hours and had a rough delivery ending in a c-section.

I am the one who had to have surgery when you were 18 months old due to complications from that c-section.

I am the one they held you next to right after you were born and heard the words "Mrs. Zimmerman, this is your son."

I am the one that told the anesthesiologist I was crying because I was so happy when the tears were flowing just after I laid my eyes on you for the first time.

I am the one who laid in that hospital bed holding you in the middle of the night and through my pain and discomfort was in awe that YOU were my son.

I am Mommy.

I am the one who took you to your Kindergarten class this year one the first day of school, and managed to hold it together while I watched you embark on this new adventure in your childhood.

I am the one who remembered you were just that baby with me in the hospital the other day, or at least it seemed so.

I am the one who now walks you to the cafeteria every morning where you usually find a friend to eat breakfast with and say "Goodbye Mom!"

I am the one who walks away proud that you are doing all these things on your own.

I am Mommy.

I am the one you want when you're sick or sad.

I am the one you ask many questions, some I can't even answer.

I am the one you want to tell when you are excited or happy.

I am the one who gets to hear "I love you Mommy" several times a day.

I am the one who feels a little afraid that these days are going by just a little too fast.

I am Mommy.

I will be the one to help you when you have your first major project.

I will be the one to give you advice when the girls are no longer "yucky".

I will be the one to bid you goodbye when you drive off to take a girl on your first date.

I will be the one in the passenger seat when you learn to drive.

I will be the one cheering you on from the lobby of the DMV while you take your driving test.

I will be the one crying at High School Graduation.

I will be the one in the dorm parking lot with Kleenex and a box of goodies so you can remember home.

I will be the one crying at your wedding because I'll be so proud of the man you've become.

I will be the one in the waiting room at the hospital when you finally get to say I am Daddy.

I am Mommy.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

In the Blink of An Eye

My Dear Sweet Boy Austin,

Tomorrow you are going to come home. You've been in Jacksonville with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days and I've missed you so. I've missed your sweet hugs and kisses and even when you've tormented the dog just a little too much for the day. I miss parenting you (even when you don't make good choices), and spraying you down with the hose in the back yard on these hot days. When you get home tomorrow (thanks to Grams and Mr. Oscar) I can promise you that I will shower you with lots of hugs and kisses.

While you've been gone I cleaned out your room. You have far more toys than I could ever dreamed of having when I was a kid. Too many in fact. It's a lot easier to get rid of things when you aren't around. :) You'll understand one day when you have your own kids. When I told you that I was going to do this, you told me to give your trains away to the children who don't have toys. You told me that you are too old for Thomas, Percy, Diesel 10 and Annie and Clarabel. No longer were you going to fly Harold to the rescue or set up your track to run your trains on. Part of me was glad to get rid of some of the clutter, but the other part of me felt a little sad. Where did my little boy go? He has been replaced by the boy who pretends to be Indiana Jones with an imaginary whip chasing away all the bad guys, who is Bumblebee defeating the Decepticons, or who is Luke Skywalker defeating Darth Vader. My little boy is becoming a big boy. It really feels like yesterday that I was mashing up bananas in rice cereal for your breakfast and nursing you at 3AM. It feels like it was just a few minutes ago that I was up with you all night because you were teething. Wasn't it just recently I had to pack your diaper bag? Now we usually don't have to worry about taking a change of clothes when we're out and about. I feel like I blinked my eyes and all of a sudden before me stands a big boy.

You've started reading. How did that happen? How did I have such a smart child? People think that because your mommy is a teacher I must have taught you how to read. I disagree. You my son are one of the smartest little people I know. You only have to have a word read to you once or twice and you know it. Do you remember when you were about 18 months old and we were on the way to daycare and all of a sudden you were singing the ABC's... perfectly? I almost ran off the road. In your sweet words you told me that you learned it from your teacher at school. You really surprise me sometimes.

Now you are going to start Kindergarten in just about 5 weeks. I can't believe it. One huge perk to teaching is that I get to take you with me to school. Mommy worked really hard to get a teaching job at our neighborhood school and the Lord allowed it to happen. Not many working moms can look out their windows and see their child's classroom. There are some things you need to know about the first day of school. I will make sure you have everything you need; your backpack, your supplies, your clothes washed and neat, and your lunch packed. Then I will drop you off in your classroom. Mommy is going to cry. Not because I'm sad. I will be crying because I am proud. I am so proud that in your five years you have become the boy that you have. I will give you a kiss while you're still young enough to let me. Then I will go. We already have our special finger wave picked out in case we see each other in the hall. After school is over I will pick you up. Then you can tell me all about your day.

Oh my sweet boy... as your daddy and I parent you to become a responsible young man we are proud of the boy we see. But I can't help to wonder why it all must go by so fast. Just as quickly as we've gotten to kindergarten, we are going to get to Middle School and then High School. Before I know it, I'll be the mom in the dorm parking lot with a box of kleenex. But as time goes and I have to let you go little by little, know that I love you. You often ask me if I'll love you no matter what... and I will, always. No matter what. I am so thankful that God gave you to me to mother. I am so blessed to have a sweet, caring, adventurous, energetic, smart, and fun kid to call my own. I love you to the moon and back my sweet boy... even if you are becoming a man in the blink of my eye.

Love,

Mommy

Cloth Pull-Ups Take One

Okay, before I begin there are a few things you need to know:

-I am not a seamstress. I do not have stellar sewing skills.

-My sewing machine is not a modern model. It was a generous gift from my Mother-In-Law and she's had it since Paul was a kid.

-My purpose in doing this is to save $$. I was not making this so it'd look cute. The fashion police are not going to show up at my house in the middle of the night to inspect the style of my son's pull-ups while he sleeps.

-If you're reading this and you are agasp at my sewing or even my idea of doing this, please move on. I am chronicling my attempts, not putting this online for you to pick apart and criticize me. If you have a better idea or a better method I could use, please share. But negative Nellys, please move on to the next blog.

Okay, without further adieu, here's what I did.

The reason I started this in the first place is because I have a boy who does things on his own time. He'll be able to wake up and go to the bathroom when he's ready. I could offer him the world, but he'll do things on his own time. I decided that I'm sick of buying disposable pull ups and I'd rather have a cloth option that is washable. I am also not into shelling out the big bucks for cloth diapers online when I can just make my own. I did some googling, and found things likethis online. After reading this, I began to think about what materials I had at home.

I took 2 pair of underwear and a generic version of a Sham Wow. Yes, a Sham Wow. Only it isn't called a Sham Wow because we got it at the flea market for $1.00. You don't know what a Sham Wow is? Oh, then let me remind you...

Click HERE

Anyway, I thought of the Sham Wow because it's super absorbent. The idea is not to soak the bed, right?

So here are the pictures of the materials:

After that, I cut the underwear on the sides. So I could layer the Sham Wow between the two pairs of undies and sew them together with a seam. When I cut them apart and laid them out, they looked like this:

I only had a few pins, but I pinned down the undies, and used a sharpie to trace the undies onto the Sham Wow. Then I cutout the Sham Wow, and pieced it together between the two pair of undies. When it was all pinned together, it looked like this:

Then I sewed. I ended up using a large straight stitch. I tried a fancy zig zag, but I think the age of my sewing machine couldn't handle doing it through three layers of material. Here are some pictures of all the sewing:

This is what it looked like when I sewed the seams together on the sides:

So here's the verdict. The undies lost their stretchiness (is that a word?) when I layered them with the sham wow. Simply put, they were too small. I like the idea of using undies because it's a fool proof pattern. I ended up taking this apart at the seams on the side and putting them inside his undies to use as an absorbent pad to check the absorbency. It was good, but I think a plastic liner will help. I am going to purchase some bigger boys' undies (maybe on the cheap at the $1 store), another generic Sham Wow (they have them at Winn Dixie for $1) and also a cheap felt backed plastic table cloth. I am going to layer it all together and sew that way. Instead of sewing the seams shut on the side, I am going to make velcro closures of some kind. I am looking forward to making this work for us!