Good Enough

Yesterday we hit a new record here in the Seattle area. It was 10 degrees cooler then it have EVER been in June. 10 degrees.

If you read other Seattle area blogs you might sense a certain desperation in their writing, a longing perhaps. Maybe you can just feel the lack of Vitamin D coming through their words.

There was a snow storm in the mountains, it killed a hiker.

It’s been cold, wet, and POURING every day for what feels like a month…

But just when we thought all hope was lost, the sun came out today.

We walked in it. We smelled the flowers. We watched the bees.

It was beautiful.

But it doesn’t mean I’m ready for another month of rain!

Those who know me personally have heard me sigh about my 2 1/2 year old. Bubba.

How many mom’s have to say to their two year old “No throwing benches at your brother!”

Yes Bubba is the one I fear I may fail as a mother.

He has many charming qualities. A dimple that will take him far in life. Beautiful blue eyes, dark long lashes, dark hair.

He’s going to be tall, like his Uncle. And strong.

I’ve never seen a child start hitting at such an early age. I remember it started when he was 8 months old. And when he noticed his hitting me didn’t have any ill-effects, he would occasionally try to bite me.

Oh Bubba.

How one child can cause such turmoil in a family is amazing.

If he’s not terrorizing the dog he will move on to big sister, and then to whoever else may be nearby. He even takes on his big brother…who is 6, and very large. But like I said, he’ll pick up a bench to inflict pain.

The other two children tolerate most of his antics fairly well. Buster is sometimes amused, mostly annoyed. Missy tries to play nice with him but he always sends her screaming into my arms. I’ve had to teach her a few defense moves…but she doesn’t use them enough to intimidate him.

Mostly I’m tired. It’s hard to force a very strong 2 1/2year old into time out.

I think he’s too smart. He can smell weakness. It’s going to be interesting when I’m trying to nurse the new baby.

On the West Coast we lost an hour Sunday night. It’s been brutal. Mr.Good and I can’t seem to get ourselves in bed before 12:30am. Buster can’t seem to get up for school on time, and even when I go in to wake him at 8:15 he’s sleeping soundly.

Yes, good old Daylight Savings Time has struck again. And although in the winter I love it because it’s ONE EXTRA HOUR to our days!.. this time of year is never fun.

So I’ve been even groggier than usual.

But the flowers are blooming and hopefully the sunshine is around the corner? Happy Spring Everyone! 

 I don’t mean to alarm anyone with that headline, but that’s how my son described it. The “it” I’m referring to was the explosion that happened in his pants, during circle time. It went up his back, down his legs, and all over the rug in Mrs.Soandso’s classroom.

“It smells like poo in here!” said one student.

Buster said nothing…keeping his eyes fixed on the wall in front of them.

What is a six year old boy to do with his pants full of poo?

Instead of calling his dear mother they sent to the office where he tried to clean himself off with an entire roll of toilet paper. Wet wipes would have been useful. My poor kiddo. They provided him an extra set of clothing and sent him back to his classroom. And the smell still remained.

My boy is resillient.

I had some moments of fun. My dilemma earlier today was resolved by calling on Mr.Good to come to my rescue.

It went something like this…”honey the kids are sick, there’s no way I can take them over to Kathryn’s house. Katie and her have been planning this lunch and I would just feel terrible if I had to cancel! WHAAAA! sniff sniff.”

So yes, he rescued, I visited and partook of a deliscious cornicopia of food. I am blessed to have such sweet people in my life.

Thanks little sis for the 3lbs of candy you left on my doorstep this morning. I know it was you! Don’t deny it!

And then I received and e-mail from my Cali gals…which I shall share with the world, I know I posted a picture from last year, but you have to see the latest and greatest. They’re still cute as ever, though Shari claims she looks old. I think not Shari.

The conversation came a little earlier than expected, because of another phone call from his teacher during school! Mrs.Soandso said she had Buster there with her, the rest of the children were at music class. Another little boy said Buster had called him an A**.  (WHAT! ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!)

You can imagine my surprise, seeing as my husband and I are cuss free. My first thought was ”where in the world did he learn to use that word, like that?” He’s only six, he still lives in a fairly protected environment. The homes he visits are homes where I am familiar with both parents, the movies he watches are only the ones I have on my DVR or in my cabinet. Where did he learn that word?

We talked over the phone…pretty fruitless. He was crying, he doesn’t like to be in trouble. And he was denying that he said it. Mrs. Soandso said he had admitted it at first. He and this other little boy, Desmond had been pushy with eachother in line. Desmond called Buster a brat. Buster called Desmond an…well, you get the picture.

When Buster came home today we sat down to a cookieand milk. We talked about his music class that he would have that afternoon, and how excited he was for it. Then the interrogation began. I gently tried to help him remember what transpired that day in line. He would not admit to saying the word. I asked him if he knew any other swear words, he did. And it was a very very bad swear word. ”Way worse than that.” He then proceeded to point upwards and whispered “God.”  In our house that is the worst swear word. He was entirely right on that point. We have taught him a reverence for his Heavenly Father, and I’m glad he recognized that. But it still did not answer my question of where and how he knew how to use that other word.

The more we talked the more I came to believe him when he said he didn’t use it, and he didn’t know what it meant. I had the uncomfortable realization that I needed to talk with him about the swear words he would probably start to hear in grade school. One by one we went through them. I told him what words people liked to use to swear and what the words meant. It was very uncomfortable for me, much more so than the talks on “where babies come from.” On one hand I thought if he knew these words, he may want to use them, and test them out…But I wanted him to hear them and their definitions from me, before he heard them on the playground and started using them. Many people don’t consider “Oh my God” to be cussing. It’s in Disney movies, it’s on Nickelodeon, it’s definitely on the playground. Both Buster and Missy have used it like they’ve heard it being used. After some clarification at home, neither one has used it again. This is my hope with our conversation today. I hope I did the right thing. I hope he doesn’t go and teach all the other first graders the bad words that his mommy taught him. Wouldn’t that be an interesting phone call from teacher?   

Well folks, The Office is back and treating us to a 1 hour episode this Thursday night at 9 pm! To celebrate I’ve bought some prizes that any Office fan would be more than delighted to own… or re-gift.

To win the mystery Office Goody Basket, please leave your predictions for Thursday’s episode, and your favorite office quote in the comment section. I will be drawing names from the list, and since I get about 10 comments per post, you have a 1 in 10 chance of winning the prize! Isn’t that cool?

Also, only residents of the United States are going to qualify for the win…sorry, I can’t afford the shipping to places like Australia!

Good Luck! And happy Office viewing!

Yet another adventure for the domestically challenged…

Kathryn wrote about her challenges she is facing with over-scheduling and becoming a little too ambitious in the home- making category. I don’t disagree with her on what she said about doing too much…to know her is to understand the hurricane that is the Daring Young Mom. When she does something, she does it with gusto and passion. Please read the post and take note of the beautiful pictures.

I, on the other hand, rarely feel overwhelmed by my domesticity. I don’t like feeling over-worked and under-appreciated. Mr.Good rarely notices if the house is clean or dirty. This frees up my need to clean for anyone other than myself. I warn my friends that they take their chances when coming to my house. You just never know what you going to get.

Although I love to cook, I hate grocery shopping, and the money I spend on rare ingredients that go into a delicious meal. After my third child was born I didn’t know how I was going to get dinner on the table ever again. I found the answer here and my life has become monumentally easier, and dinners have remained tasty.

I don’t sew, or craft, and I’m very bad with yeast products…my garden consists of 3 ears of corn, one pumpkin, 2 cherry tomato plants, 3 cucumber plants (2 if you don’t count the one that died) and a few pots of strawberry plants. These all get tended to when I feel like being outside with my kids.

I’m not trying to bash on myself, my strength remains in my ability to have fun with my kids. That’s why I became a mom…all the rest of this homemaking stuff is something I do to make life a little more interesting. I really do look at each new experience as an adventure. If you’re a stay-at-home-mom you have to find joy in small things.

Take the canning experience…I don’t think the canning was necessarily cheaper than buying a box of canned peaches at Costco, but I enjoy helping out the local economy and I like to know where my food comes from.

I also wanted to can because I wanted to understand part of my heritage. My mother and grandmother and great grandmother all had to can. I have some jars that they used. It was exciting to me to learn how it was done. I could have never done it alone, so I tricked Kathryn into doing it with me. She was fabulous and even started a day ahead of time and in doing so made all the mistakes before I got there. And she let me mess up her kitchen!

When I have my dream farm (which will hopefully come to pass in the next 5 years) I don’t want to waste the food that I toil over. I have visions of neighbors and friends coming over to reap what we’ve made. Heaven knows I need a good reason to get outside in this dreary Northwest weather, and animals and plants just might make me get out of bed in the morning. Despite the frigid, wet air.

I liked canning. Next time I’ll start it earlier in the day, and in a mere six hours I’ll finish two boxes with time left over to relax and watch some movies. That’s not necessarily something Great Grandmother could enjoy!  So take it easy on yourself people! Don’t do something you don’t want to do, unless it involves changing diapers and feeding the family. These are two must-do’s you can’t get out of them. Everything else is negotiable.

Thanks Melanie. I do miss seeing the flag on everyone’s house, in those days following the disaster.

At first it was simply a matter of laziness, the young one would get up much too early for me to be bothered with breakfast…yet. Crackers seemed a simple solution, as long as they were eaten on Daddy’s side of the bed. With that I was bought 30 minutes of extra shut-eye before wholesome food was required.

I admit that each night Mr. Good would come to bed I would break in to silent hysterics as he muttered under his breath, sweeping the sheets with his hands. “How did all these crumbs get in the bed?” He would ask. “I have no idea!”

So why when my official employment title is HOMEMAKER and I have control of the bed sheets at all times, crumbs are mysteriously showing up on my side of the bed?

FACT 1: The children have not been in my bed for some weeks now, we’ve been on vacation, they’ve been sleeping in, there is no need for snacking while mommy sleeps

FACT 2: Mr. Good had been burning midnight oil at his wood-shop, unless he’s been spreading a pocket full of crumbs before climbing in at night, I’m baffled.

The mystery has yet to be solved. But washing my king sized sheets more than once a week is a very unsavory thought.

The site is coming along…by the end of the day I hope to personalize it even more…
I have to giggle when I say that because whenever I say “I” when it comes to web design, I’m referring to my friend and her smart husband, to whom I owe all of this finagling too. Thanks heaps!

I will be coming to you in the next few days with full bloggy ferver. I’m counting the days till BlogHer (8) where I will meet my bloggy idols…but I’ll try to stay cool and not blubber and make a fool of myself.