Are We All REALLY That Busy?

Balance. Yeah, life is all about balance. But there can be too much that you have to balance, too. Have you ever just played with a set of balancing scales? When you put something on one side, that side goes down, then you can balance it out by putting something on the other side and all is good. But like our lives, when you keep stacking stuff on the scale plates, it may balance, but inevitably, something will spill off and then you are unbalanced. And like most good Americans, we don't say, "oh, hey, maybe I've got too much on my plate," no, we just keep re-stacking and pretending to balance our lives out with too much until it all falls off. By then, the damage has been done.

You with me?

My Dad called me lazy once (maybe more than once), and I disagreed. I will work. I will do whatever I need to and I will try to do it to the best of my ability. I will even see what needs to be done beyond my assigned task. But I see no need to take on more than I absolutely need to. Does that make me lazy?

Let me go further in explanation. I had an aunt and cousin killed in a horrible car accident several years ago. My cousin Jan was mother to three young children. Her sister would come to her house once a week to help her clean because Jan didn't keep up with it all the time. I was told that Jan would be doing something in the house and when one of her kids asked her to play, she would stop and sit down to play. So one could argue that Jan didn't balance her scale, but she did have help come in every week to balance that scale. In Jan's story, my opinion is her scale was balanced because now those children do not have their mother but they do have the memory of her spending time with them.

Close to three years ago I backed out of a lot of "things" I was involved with. My pregnancy with Hadyn was hard and then after having her, I just wanted to spend time with my kids. I didn't have the devoted time with Hunter when he was little that I have with Hadyn since I was working full time then. But now I have both kids at home and as trying as it may be at times (lots of times HA!), I wouldn't trade it for anything right now.

I clean my house, do laundry, grocery shop, cook, home-school, but I try to make time for play. Most of the time, our play is just silly fun, not organized game play, but man, we have fun. Sometimes we just sit and relax watching some tube. I realized one day that one thing I don't do is call up girlfriends and chit chat - I'd love to hear some Mommy voices regularly - but when I really thought about it, mostly it's because all I hear from other moms are how busy they are. Kids are involved in every thing possible, and the moms are rushing from one appointment to another every day and just don't have time to sit and visit.

Now my question is, are you really that busy or do you feel like you have to say that because if you're not, then you, too, must be lazy? Both things are unbalancing the scale. If you are that busy, you're scales are either so unbalanced or so overloaded that it's unhealthy. If you aren't that busy, but feel that you must say so, that's not healthy either.

So, I'm not that busy. Obviously, I have time to blog and Facebook. I play with my kids most of the day. I challenge the rest of you to stop and sit for a little while and not feel guilty about it.

Can you do it?

I've Got Proof!

Now I have proof!

My children DO know how to wash dishes, so when they get older and tell me they don't know how to do it, I can whip out these pictures!

Hunter has always been really good at putting his dishes in the sink and helping clear the table, and now Hadyn will put things in the sink when we ask her to.

Since he is always the last one eating at the table, I decided that he could learn how to wash his own dishes. Of course for a while, the washing will be monitored for cleanliness sake.

But I just couldn't resist snapping these pics this evening.

Yup, I've got proof!

You Can't Hide Chocolate Ice Cream from Mama

Everyone in our family knows that I love and adore chocolate. I think that chocolate is truly a gift from God. I mean it has stuff in it that makes you feel good, enhances your "love" feelings, and reduces stress. It's almost perfect!!! The only negative thing about it is that you can get fat by eating too much of it. Bummer.

So, when Hadyn got her new kitchen set for Christmas, Mommy was thrilled to see there was an ice cream freezer and four different kinds of ice cream included. All right, it's plastic ice cream, but that IS the non-fattening kind.

As I was cleaning up some toys today and putting things back in their places, I noticed the chocolate ice cream was missing from Hadyn's freezer. I searched all over her room, in and around her kitchen, in our living room under the coffee table and around the couches. Then, as if my chocolate Ninja senses kicked in, I opted to look under the Christmas tree. Reaching between the two tree skirts (one is a cute automated Santa one and the other is my hand print project skirt), I felt a lump. I quickly peeled the two skirts apart to discover.....THE MISSING CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!!

Yeah, like you could really hide chocolate from Mom. Even the plastic kind. Sheesh. Who do these kids think they are dealing with?

Beautiful Babies

It's been a day. Not a bad day at all, just a day. I love home-schooling Hunter and challenging Hadyn on new things, too. It's really a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) dream. But there are the not so dreamy parts of the day, too. I am finding it very challenging for myself to educate a 7 year old and entertain an almost 2 year old at the same time while Daddy is in his home office working. It's not impossible, just challenging.

And then there is the constant cleaning. I find myself with an almost OCD type of thing going on when I walk into a room with toys and stuff scattered all over the floor. I feel compelled to stop, bend over, pick it up, and put it where it belongs. All day long I do this. So by the end of the day, I'm toast.

After dinner and kitchen clean up, I just want a nice neat house to look at. So, I've sent my children to Hadyn's room to play.

And that is where the beautiful babies part kicks in. My son and daughter are playing so preciously together right now. They are "cooking" and bringing me all sorts of taste treats to try out. Some, I tell them are wonderful, and some need some more work. They think it is funny and they are enjoying playing with each other. Hadyn just adores her "bubby" and Hunter finds it fun to play "down" with his sister sometimes. I just love watching them play in the room together then run down the hallway to give me a treat. So precious.

And beautiful. Yup. God loves me.

Drum Lessons

Hunter is not interested in sports, except for NASCAR, so in trying to find something to "involve" him in, we all settled on drums. Scott's friend, Scott, gives drum lessons, so we got Hunter hooked up and into to lessons. There is a drum kit in Hunter's closet. Clothes on one side, drums everywhere else.

But even though he wants to play, the actual lessons and subsequent practices are lacking in the interest department. He'll fuss and groan through a lesson at which time Mr. Scott will put his sticks down and tell Hunter that since he seems to "know it all" anyway, he (Mr. Scott) doesn't need to be there. And practice at home tends to be "forgotten" due to a "bad memory". Uh huh. This is the child who will recite verbatim things that were said years ago. Bad memory my foot.

So, today, Hunter went to do his practice. Five minutes later he emerges telling me he did his practice. No, that was just the warm up. I sent him back in for at least 10 more minutes and it was on the dot that he came back out telling me he was done. Scott just freaked him out telling him that they were going to go back in for 45 more minutes. Now keep in mind, Scott used to sit with his guitar in his younger days for HOURS on end practicing. So 45 minutes is nothing to him. But Hunter is nonetheless freaked!

Time will tell, of course, whether we have a drummer or not in the house. It would be cool. The we'd have a family band!