Welcome

If you have found me through Mother Letters, welcome to my house. Feel free to make yourself at home and look around.
Put your feet up on the coffee table, see what I have in the pantry, and enjoy our time together.
If you would like to read my entire Mother Letter, click here.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

A Wise Woman Told Me

The other day, Little One asked me why I put on make-up. I was taken back to a conversation I had with my mother as a young teenager. I asked her a similar question. I wanted to know why she would go to all the trouble of fixing her hair and make-up when she knew she wouldn't even be leaving the house that day. Her answer has stuck with me all these years. She said that in part, she did it for when my dad comes home, but more importantly she did it for herself. She told me that she always felt more ready to tackle her day, and therefore accomplished more. She also felt more confident and better about herself.
I have found this to be true for me too. If I hang out in my pajamas all day I accomplish very little. Now don't get me wrong, this in no way means that I am bright and shiny by 7 am. Today for example, I threw on some clothes and a hat over my "Pippi braids" as Paul calls them so I could drive carpool and then come home to till the garden and shovel MORE dirt. Then later I will be digging up raspberries to transplant for my huge raspberry patch that I have been dreaming of for years. But, at some point today, I will shower and do my hair (if only a pony tail), and put on some make-up because it makes me feel better! Some days it is 5pm before I get to this point but I still do it because getting there eventually is better than not getting there at all!
I am not a spa day kind of girl. I've never had a pedicure or manicure, unless you count that one fake nail I got to match the others when my nail broke 3 days before my wedding. I buy my make-up at Target or the grocery store,wherever I happen to be when I remember. I get my hair cut, etc once every 4 or 5 months. You get the idea. However, I hope to never stop making myself feel ready to tackle my world! Besides, it gives Hubby an unspoken message about the kind of day I've had. If he comes home to a make-upless face, he knows he better be on his game because it's been one of those days. :)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Conversations From the Back Seat

We decided with sick kiddos, cold nights, and plenty to do around here, that we would forgo our planned camping trip in favor of a stay-cation.

On the way home today, these were some of the things heard from the back seat. Keep in mind that these are overlapping conversations. No one actually takes turns talking.

Sunshine: "Watch out Mom, the brave squirrel is coming!"
Mom: "What will the brave squirrel do? Why do I have to 'watch out'?"
Sunshine: "He will kill us" (I attribute this to having older brothers??!!)
Mom: "Why would he do that?"
Sunshine: "Ummm"

Then Little One pipes up: "Mom, my top lip is spicy."
Uncontrolled laughter from Hubby.

In the meantime, from the back seat, #1 chanting: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, antidisestablishmentarianism, qugzuang..... (he is fascinated by long words)

Sunshine: "It's okay Mom, the nice squirrel is coming."
Mom: "Oh good, what is the nice squirrel going to do?"
Sunshine: "He's going to kill us."
Mom: "That's not very nice."

This does not include the "Oww", "Ooch", and "Ahh"s coming from the back seat in a never ending game of how many subtle (and not so subtle) ways can I torture my brother, which resulted in our "hands up" consequence which we find very effective! If they work their way through "keep your hands to yourself" warnings, we then say, "hands up!" Which means they must hold their hands up above their heads until they are told they can lower them, or we reach our destination.

Hubby just informed me of some riddles I missed while dozing (I tend to do that in the car) on the way up the mountain.  #1 was telling riddles to which Freckles would answer something to do with farting. Every. Single. One. (That's fluffing for some of you, we used to try... some days I still do) For example,
#1: "...so, how did he get the handcuffs off?" 
Freckles: "uhh, he farted?"
This was then accompanied by raucous laughter. I'm glad I wasn't coherent for that part. But hey, they are 8 and 10 year old boys, and no matter what their mother says, anything to do with bodily functions is hilarious. I just hope with coaching and some maturity, they will eventually grow out of this genre of humor... Or maybe not.