The Natural Mommy

Yesterday, I was a horrible Mommy.  Yesterday, I had horrible children.

And I was so mad at God about it, I didn’t speak to Him all day.

He kept trying to talk to me.  But I turned a cold shoulder.

He can do all things, why wasn’t He making me a better Mommy?  Why wasn’t He making my children better children?

I was miserable and distracted myself with the Internet.  Breaking the promise I’d made to stay offline until my Bible was read.

The day was over; I took two Tylenol and went to bed.

I woke up this morning.  Josh had already left.  The children were already awake.  I took no shower and ate breakfast while feeding three other mouths as well.  My headache echoed dimly in the recesses of my skull.

But I didn’t want yesterday.  Yesterday was a cold, horrible day, distant from God.  I kept my laptop off.   I took whatever uninterrupted time I could get (in groups of 3-5 minutes) and read two chapters in Luke.

I prayed for my children.  I prayed for myself.

And suddenly, my children don’t seem so horrible.

Did they change?  Did I change?  Did God give me His eyes through which to see them?

I’m not sure.  But I know this now:

God can do all things, but He prefers I do them through Him.

Filed under: The God, The Mommy on January 27th, 2010 | 10 Comments »

I’ve figured something out about myself recently.  I have an “all-or-nothing” attitude.  And I’ve got it bad.

When I blog, for example, it’s all or nothing.  Either I blog everyday or I don’t blog ever.

I show loyalty towards brands and stores in the same fashion.  I’m very into Leapfrog and will trust (and want!) anything they throw my way.  I only shop at Old Navy.  I know I can get good sale prices there, use great coupons there, find great styles there, and I don’t need to try anything on before buying.

Either I cook everything from scratch or I give up and eat out entirely too much.

When we first switched to cloth diapers, woe to the person who suggested using a disposable for any reason.  (I’m better now.  Four years later.)

And when I eat.  When I eat?  I eat it ALL.

Especially sweets.  If there are any sweets in the house, I can come up with the best reasons on why I deserve to eat them.  Every five minutes.

To reward myself for some mundane task.  To compensate myself for some child-related frustration.  To soothe myself when my husband is working overtime.  To entertain myself when I can’t find anyone online to talk to.

I can’t find the line to draw when it comes to sweets.

And if I’m going to get into a swimsuit come April 2nd, when we arrive in HAWAII for Josh’s sister’s wedding, I’m going to need to find a line.

So, since “all” got me into the mess, I’m leaning on “nothing” to get me out.

That’s right, I’ve given up sweets.  I gave them up on January 1st and it’s been easier than I expected.

I passed out the remainder of the holiday treats I slaved over without partaking of any.  I helped a friend make cupcakes for her birthday party and I didn’t lick a single spoon.  I then went to that birthday party, picked out cupcakes for my children and Josh and delivered them completely intact.  I’ve watched Josh dish up Edy’s ice cream to the children more times in the past month than I care to count, but the most I ever had was yogurt.  And not the frozen kind.

And I think the biggest reason I’ve been successful thus far is pure stubbornness.  I told myself I wasn’t having any sweets ever.  Not one.  And like cloth diapers, I won’t let myself go back.  I know that having one piece of candy won’t hurt me, but it will destroy my will.

Also, I thought through the entire year before making the decision and envisioned what it would look like to live a year without sweets.  I mentally lived through every birthday that I would make a cake for, every holiday I would pass up pie at, and the wedding where I would avoid eye contact with a certain multi-tiered masterpiece.

I know it’s possible.  I’ve seen it done.  Josh’s youngest sister gave up sweets on New Years Day a few years back and after her year was up, she had defeated her sweet tooth to such an extent she has continued on to this day in that fashion.

So I’ll be sitting next to her at Melissa’s wedding, come April.  We’ll be the ones looking awesome in our dresses as the cake passes by us untouched.

Filed under: The Mommy, The News on January 23rd, 2010 | 3 Comments »

As I lay here on the floor, a stuffed tiger at my right arm and a deserted castle by my right leg, a baby crawls over me.

I don’t think I ever just laid on the floor with Olivia.  I didn’t know what to do with a baby and was too proud to admit it.

I knew how to cuddle her, feed her, put her to sleep, comfort her, and love her.  I just didn’t know how to play with her.

Not to mention the fact that I had other things I wanted to do with my day, and laying on the floor with a baby wasn’t on the list.

Now I relish the time when I can stretch out on the floor.  Just lay my head down and exhale.  And listen for the panting baby breaths to grow near.  Feel those hands on my legs.  Hear those baby giggles.

Filed under: Motherhood on January 13th, 2010 | 7 Comments »

When we added our third carseat, we got our first van.  Josh’s family was kind enough to trade us their caravan for our sedan.

We loved that van.

Sure, those Missouri roads had long ago stolen all four hubcaps.  And my two-year-old had not-so-long ago stolen the rear view mirror.

(He’s no longer allowed to play loose in the van.)

But we loved that van.

It had stickers in the windows.

(Not as many as the sedan had - did you ever got those off, Gammy and Pop Pop?)

But we loved that van.

We took that van to my mom’s house for the holidays.  It snowed there.  A good six inches.  They live at the top of a steepish hill.

We loved that van.

We tried to get you up that hill, Van.

And we know you tried, too.

We’re sorry.

We would also like to apologize to the stump.

That stump will never be the same.

But it was minor damage, really.

Until we went down again the next morning to get you with a tractor.

Maybe we should have waited for the ice to thaw a bit.

Oh, well.

We loved that van.

Filed under: The News on January 12th, 2010 | 8 Comments »

Congratulations to Mrs. Taft, Brandie, and Whitney!  You have each been emailed because YOU WON!  Thanks for playing!

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As much as I hate to give up my computer to anyone - ever - I do occasionally for my children.  Because I love them.  More than my computer.  And they love to play on the computer.

Over the years, I’ve been able to find some fun, educational sites with games they absolutely enjoy, which also happen to be COMPLETELY FREE.  And I thought I’d share them with you.  And I hope you’ll also share your favorite sites with me, too!

Fisher-Price Online Games - This is the first site we found, and thus the most explored.  It has games for infants (really?!), toddlers, and preschoolers.  It has some very good phonics/reading games that we like, along with some simple coloring games.  It tries to hit on all the subjects with music and math as well.

It is funded by Fisher-Price, though, so a lot of the games and all of the coloring pages feature characters from their toys.  *cough* Gimmick! *cough* I don’t mind - my kids don’t watch commercials.  :-)

It is a nicely organized site where everything is laid out clearly and you know what you’re clicking.  It is also easy enough for very young children to play independently, depending on what game you choose.

PBS Kids Online Games - This is a new one for us.  We have yet to explore the nooks and crannies.  The games it offers are fun; my children were on it just today, creating parade floats with Clifford the Big Red Dog.  They can also be very educational and include some phonics/reading games that rival my children’s Leapster games.

If your children are familiar with the PBS television shows and their characters, they’ll enjoy it even more as they recognize familiar faces. (Different from Fisher-Price’s advertising gimmick because PBS is FREE!)

However, it is nowhere nearly as easy to navigate as Fisher-Price’s website.  The games were not as clearly labeled or laid out.  I didn’t know what I was clicking on until the page loaded (is it a coloring page I’d have to print?  or a game my daughter can play right now?  Or an online book that she can’t even read and isn’t read aloud?)  I’ll keep tinkering with it.  It definitely has potential as I figure out where all the good games are hidden.

Color with Leo - This website was actually introduced to me a couple weeks ago by the creator*.  It is his passion to mold “the next generation of artists and creative thinkers” and so he created this website to suite that purpose.  As opposed to the previous two sites, it focuses purely on teaching art to children through fun games.

It is very cleanly laid out and easy to access.  It uses real masterpieces from artists such as Van Gogh, and Mary Cassatt.  It is easy enough that my four-year-old can play it independently.  As a homeschooling mom, I can definitely see a place for this site in our curriculum!

Starfall - This site is the newest to me.  Upon opening it the first time, I have to admit I was doubtful; the initial appearance lacked the professionalism of the previous sites.  But after clicking around, you can bet I bookmarked it!  It is a homeschooling mother’s (or any teacher, really) dream website!  It mainly focuses on reading, split into four levels filled with wonderful games, songs, and lessons of phonemic awareness, but it also has neat activities for special days and seasons of the year (100th day!).

It is very neatly organized, manageable, and well labeled.  If on the right age level, I’m sure my almost-three-year-old would be able to play these games as well as my four-year-old.

My Wrap-Up - So I use Fisher-Price for it’s ease-of-use, all-around fun, and mild educational factor, Color With Leo for art class, Starfall for phonics (and special day activities), and PBS Kids for a back-up fun site when they get bored with the other three - I’ll just have to make sure I’m right there to navigate it for them (not while I’m making dinner!)

What are your favorite websites for your kids? Tell me and you could WIN one of the following:

Two (2!) Color with Leo children’s shirts (size 4):

One 12″ Leo doll

That’s right, THREE WINNERS. All you have to do is leave a comment below (one entry per person, duplicate entries won’t count) telling me your favorite free kid’s website.  This contest will go until 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Sunday night.  Then comments will be left open (I still want to know your favorite sites!), but the giveaway will be closed and I will contact you (please leave your email!) if you won.

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Disclaimer:  The creator of Color with Leo did contact me, hoping to spread the word about his website.  All he asked for was a mention; the review was my idea, and my truthful opinion.  In gratitude for the mention, he did send me and my family some art supplies and promotional material.  We, being a poor, homeschooling family, are keeping the art supplies (water colors, construction paper, crayons, etc), and gifting you with the promotional material.

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This post is a contribution to Frugal Friday.

Filed under: Frugal Fridays, Giveaway on January 8th, 2010 | 14 Comments »

Hey guys! Hey, hey, can I play? Guys?  Can you hear me?

HEY, I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU.

That’s right.

Movin’ in.

Oooh, a castle?  Awesome.

I love playin’ with castles.

Is that a Barbie, too?

Aw, thanks Brother, I love you, too.

Is it me, or is this castle moving?

Sweet!  Do I get the panda?

Nom, nom, nom…

Whoa!  What did I do?

Seriously?

Fine.  I don’t need you.  I can have fun all by myself.

Just me and this Rubbermaid container.

Or, maybe, me and this house.

They don’t even miss me.

Hello, Orange Plastic Thing.  Will you be my friend?

Their toys are so much cooler than mine.

I don’t need them.  I’m leaving.

[The sound of raucous laughter erupts from the Toy Room.]

I’m made a huge mistake.

Filed under: Motherhood, The Benjamin, The Levi, The Olivia on January 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Before we left for Grandma’s for the holidays, Josh was offered a job in San Diego.

Pros:

- It sounds like an awesome job.  The guy said the retention rate is 99% and it’s a big company.  Josh’ll be able to move around within the company to work on pretty much whatever he wants, so that eliminates the bore of the normal 9-5 (or in this case 7-4 (with a half an hour lunch break and every other Friday off).

- Oh, and did I mention that I’m pretty sure every office in the building has an ocean view?  It’s right out there on a peninsula.  Amazing.  The lab where he works right now doesn’t even have windows.

- San Diego has no snow.  And it has beaches.  And no snow.

- With weather like that, I would have no excuse for that lack of exercise I currently enjoy.

- It’s a job.  With money.  More money than we’re making right now.  More than six times what we’re making right now.  Which is a testament to how little we’re making right now as opposed to how much the job is offering.  But if Josh waited and reapplied when he was done with his doctorate, it would be $20k more.  Which brings us to the…

Cons:

- Houses in San Diego cost oodles and oddles of da moneyz.

- San Diego is not the Midwest.  And I’m a Midwestern girl through and through.  I make conversation with strangers in line with me at the grocery store and I hear they don’t do that on the West coast.  They’re gonna think I’m crazy.

- And as much as I like the temperature and the beaches of San Diego, I would miss the grass.  The love of the lush greenery of Illinois and Indiana is embedded so deep within me that the tans and browns of San Diego simply dehydrate me.

- All our family is in the Midwest.  And we are in a kind of central location.  We see a lot of grandparents who are passing through on their way to other places/family.  San Diego would not be on the way to anywhere except Australia.  Although now we have family there, too!  {Waves to Australia Dave.  HI AUSTRALIA DAVE!}  (He asked Aunt Sassa to marry him on New Years and SHE SAID YES!)

- If he took a job right now, he’d quit school for good.  Which is sad, especially as he finally passed the Qualifying Exam this year.  But he is not interested in doing school while working 40 hours.  He knows his family life would suffer and that’s just not acceptable to him.  Which brings us to a possible third option:

He applied for something called a SMART Scholarship.  (Is it an acronym?  Possibly?  Or maybe it’s just for smart people?)  If accepted, he would get paid to be in school, and have his schooling paid for.  And the pay would be three times what we’re making right now.

It’s a government defense-type program where he would need to find a government defense-type company to fund him, and then he would work at that company every summer until he graduated (which would have to be in 2012 - he has a deadline).  Then he would have to work for that company, I believe a year for every year they funded his schooling (so, two years).

And, while filling out the scholarship paperwork, he saw that this San Diego company (also a government defense-type place) was on the list.

So, best case scenario, right now, looks like this:

He gets the SMART scholarship and the San Diego company funds him.  He then gets to finish his PhD without worrying about finding a job or providing for his family.  Every summer, we’d all move out to San Diego and get great tans.  Then, in 2012, we move to San Diego, and with the extra PhD bonus money the company would put in his salary, we might even be able to afford a nice sized house that isn’t an hour away from where he’d work.

So that’s what we’re praying for.  Well, technically, we’re praying that God’s will be done.  But then we add this teeny tidbit on how it’d be REAL NICE, Lord, if this would happen to be Your will.  :-D

So now you know!

(Let me know, Josh, if I messed any of the details up.  I do that sometimes.)

(This just in:  Josh just read the post and declared it the bonifide truth.  Doesn’t it feel great to not be misinformed?)

Filed under: The Daddy, The News on January 5th, 2010 | 10 Comments »

Yeah, there’s a baby on my lap.

It’s the first day post-vacay.  Josh went back to work today for the first time in two weeks.  And, this being my third baby, I knew just want to expect.

The older two had to be reintroduced to routine and rules.

The youngest one had to be reintroduced to his crib.

And as a result, his longest nap today has been 10 minutes.

He also got used to the carpeting at Grandma’s, and he protests loudly when I put him down on our cold hardwood floors.

So I’m holding him a lot.

But I expect tomorrow will be better.  So all the great and wonderful posts I’ve been writing in my head over the past two weeks?  I’ll start on them tomorrow.

Just wanted to pop in and say, “Hi!  I’m back!  I had a wonderful break, and took lots of pictures!  Don’t give up on me, I’ll share them eventually!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Filed under: The News on January 4th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

First of all, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas full of family fun, great food, and gratitude to our God for coming to earth as a baby so that he may save us all!

Second of all, thus starts my bloggy vacay.  I know, I take a lot of these and don’t usually (or ever) announce them.  What can I say, I love being my own boss.  I don’t imagine it would have gone over too well if I had decided to take sp0ntaneous vacations back in my teaching days.

And it’s not like I was blogging regularly before this.  But that was because Josh was gone.

And, funny enough, this vacay is because he’s here.

I have my husband back.  And I will be cherishing and relishing every moment with him.

Also, I will be visiting my mom for a good week or so.

And I’m not quite done crafting all my Christmas presents.  We’ll see.  Some of them may end up being birthday presents.

{weak smile}

See you in 2010!

(Look for a Moby Wrap giveaway as one of my first posts in the new year!)

Filed under: The News on December 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment »

When I first scheduled the two sets of Craft Days (or #craftday, as known on Twitter), I wasn’t thinking that the second set would fall on the final days of my husbands semester.  And that I really wouldn’t have the time or sanity to do much crafting.

Or blogging.

But I managed, after two days, to finish two children’s aprons anyway!

(Nevermind that I haven’t done the dishes since the night before last.  And that I haven’t showered yet today.)

First, I measured both kids and found that, except for length, I could use the same measurements for both the two year old and the four year old.

Those measurements, by the way, are as follows:

If you can make sense of that.  (Click to make bigger)

After the measurements, I cut the fabric:

And then made lunch and changed diapers and cleaned up toys and did dishes and stuffed diapers and folded laundry and nursed a baby.

And when I came back, I saw that the fabric I’d chosen wasn’t as perfect as I’d once believed.

Turns out I’d used this fabric to make Olivia’s crown.  And had, er, snipped rather carelessly.

So I fixed that:

(Oh, and yeah, that’d be one of my hairs, if you look reeaaalllly closely.)

Then I cut out the accessories:  The rectangle for the front pocket, and two curved strips to help me defeat the dreaded rounded hem.

Then I cut it out again (sure hope I measured right!):

And I hemmed all the straight edges on the apron.

Now here’s what I did with the curved strips:

I cut 1/4″ slits in the outer (wider) edge, and ironed the hem flat.  Then I folded the 1″ sides in a couple times until it lined up with edge of the apron.  Then I sewed the 1″ edges so that the hem was permanently down.

Then I sewed the inner edge of the curved piece to the matching curved side of the apron, wrong side up (with the apron right side up), so the right side would be up when you folded it over.

Here’s a close-up of the tiny snips I made to make the rounded hem:

Then I ironed that curved piece down and sewed it, careful to keep a wide enough space inside for a strap, and to keep the sides open.

Then I made a strap, taking 60″ of 1″ wide fabric (more like two 30″ pieces for me, but you do what works, right?).  Fold and iron the long strip in half, short-ways.  Then open it up, and fold the top and bottom to meet at the crease and iron again.  Then fold it in half, short-ways, again, so that the unfinished edges are tucked inside all nice and neat-like.  Then sew all along the strap.

(I know that would have been easier to explain with illustrations, but I had two children tugging on my sleeves begging for their lunches at this point…)

Then I thread the strap through the sleeves like so:

And, as this one is Benjamin’s, I folded up 5″ and loosely sewed it down.  Now, when he’s four, I’ll be able to take that stitch out and this apron will still fit him!

Here is Olivia’s finished apron.  Note how I strategically placed the pocket so that all but one of the little Frankenstein stitches are covered up.

(For the pocket, fold up all four sides twice - first 1/4″, then 3/4″, and iron in place.  Hem one of the longer sides.  Pin in place on apron, then sew three remaining sides.  Then stitch down the middle to make two pockets.)

And here is Benjamin’s apron.  Note how I strategically placed the pocket so that it mostly covered the wide pink stripe.  I wouldn’t want him to get a complex or anything.  :-)

And yes.  That is a chip bag on the table.

What did you make for Craft Day?

Filed under: Craft Day on December 16th, 2009 | 6 Comments »