All In A Mom’s Day

It was bedtime so the lights were out when my 2 1/2 year old son called me back into his room because he wanted to give me something. This isn’t unusual because he’s very particular and a lot of times he wants things taken out of his room that just don’t belong in there. As I put out my hand I said what it is. Well, luckily I have good reflexes and was able to pull my hand away fast when he said, “It’s something that came out of my nose.” I quickly went to get a tissue so I could collect the item he was so kindly trying to hand me. He, of course, thought that was funny and was laughing at me. I hope you have a good night without any visits from the boogie man!!!

We really can learn a lot from our children. I know it’s inevitable that they will become affected by the world around them but for now they have such pure hearts and minds (well maybe not when they are lying on the floor throwing a huge temper tantrum in the middle of a public place . . . but that’s a whole other subject). We were at a party the other day and my kids didn’t know everyone there. Later, when my 2 ½ year old daughter was telling a story about the party she was talking about a little boy she didn’t know so she just called him “the green guy.” Life is so simplistic and non-judgemental when you’re that age. Nothing about skin or hair or the way a person looks – just the color of the clothes they are wearing. My older daughter did this same thing when she was younger. We went to the beach for a long weekend with some friends. She couldn’t remember two of the guys names so for the entire weekend they were known by the color shirt they were wearing when she first met them. It works for them and it gave us a good laugh for the entire weekend. Now if we could only come up with a way for them to continue this type of thinking forever.

I started writing this post a few days ago but got distracted (the story of my life) so now it’s almost the weekend again. Just a quick update on our Golden Retriever. He is doing better. We opted against the surgery they were recommending because they couldn’t give us a lot of answers and let us know the surgery was just exploratory because they didn’t know what they would find. They got the biopsy results back and don’t think it’s cancer but they are not 100% sure. Right now they think the masses might be from a perforated ulcer. Our dog is 11 ½ years old and we just decided that surgery was not the best route. He’s on medication and is almost back to 100% of the way he was before he got sick. We’ll just have to wait and see how he does over the next few weeks.

I hope you have a good weekend!!

This isn’t something I normally do (AAAHEM – sorry, just had to clear my throat) but I found myself in the car at lunchtime today and the kids needed to eat and we had someplace to be so I decided to do fast food and let them eat in the car. Normally (I mean, in rare cases when we’ve found ourselves in this situation before) we have gone to Wendy’s or McDonalds. However, one day we drove through Burger King and I discovered something interesting . . . their milk has a foil type covering over the opening. I started to open it and then thought better of it. I just poked the straw through it (well, actually it was too strong I had to use something else – at home a fork works well and in the car the tip of the key will do) and that way there is less concern about spilling. Needless to say, when I found myself in this situation today, I made the fast food decision based on what the top of the milk jug has covering it and we headed to Burger King. Somehow, with all of the advertising they do, I don’t think the fast food people would be thrilled by the way I decided which one to give my business to but that’s life as a mom. If it’s potentially less work for me (not having to wash the car seat cover after milk is spilled on it) then they have my vote. Of course, the toy wasn’t anything great – who needs two bobble head kings? – but my 2 ½ year olds don’t pay much attention to that. It’s my 6 year old who decides on the fast food joint by what type of giveaway they have – My Little Pony, Hello Kitty, Polly Pocket – she’s there (well, only on those rare occasions!).

My 2 ½ year old daughter woke up with an ear infection this morning which meant a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. The 1:00 trip to the doctor meant no nap time at home today. Since nap time was already missed and we had time to kill before picking up my other daughter from school I figured I might as well run errands. I decided to go to Marshalls to look for a baby gift because I keep getting postcards and e-mails about this huge baby event they have going on. I didn’t really see any great big baby event but it turns out that they were having 25% off all of their clearance for the next three days. That was a good and bad thing – I’m sure I bought more then I would have (if there hadn’t been an extra 25% off) and more then I should have (I didn’t really need everything I bought). I’m still working on retraining my thinking. I need to be in frugal mode (not spending money) not in frugal mode (buying things at a good price) – see my previous post about saving money.

When we were baby shopping before I gave birth to the twins we went through the big debate about a side by side double stroller or a long front/back one. I talked to other people, I went to as many stores as possible and I checked things out online. To make a long story not too long, we ended up with the Peg Perego Aria – a side by side stroller. For the most part, I have been very happy with this stroller. At first I was nervous when I would go places using the stroller – I was always worried I might not fit through the door but the only place I ever found that I couldn’t go with the stroller was into the exam room at my pediatrician’s office. I could fit it through all the other doors of the office – just not into the exam room. The only bad part is that the kids are sitting right next to each other. This is fine when everyone is happy but on a day when my daughter has a fire engine red ear infection and she’s missed her nap and mommy’s been shopping for too long I tend to question that stroller decision. You would think that someone with an earache would be gentle with other people’s ears. I’m here to tell you that’s not so. I don’t know if my daughter thought that my son should be having sympathy pains but besides hitting him and fussing at him she kept grabbing his ear and trying to twist it. I finally decided the best course of action would be to remove my son from the situation so I took him out of the stroller as I was going through the check out line. This never ceases to amaze me – maybe it’s a twin thing – but what does he do? He walks back over to the stroller and stands right next to her so she can beat on him a little more. We finally got back to the car and my daughter was asleep within seconds of getting buckled into her car seat.

Well that was my day from 12 o’ clock until 2:30. I hope you had a better day – with less fighting, no ear-aches and a healthier lunch. If not, I hope you at least got to save some money on clearance items that you really needed!! Tomorrow can only be a better day (or at least a mom can hope).

Yesterday was an extremely mischievous day. Everytime I turned around the kids were into something else. From trying to empty their Capri Suns into little play cups to putting a rocking chair on the bed (on top of pillows) - anything they could think of. Even the dog got in on the act and decided to leave the yard and saunter down the street. I figured things just had to get better. My husband came home early and we all went to pick up my daugher from Brownies. That seemed harmless until I got talked into going on a 2 day camping trip (not exactly my thing) but what could I say when confronted by another mom (in front of my daughter) asking how could I not want to go when it would be some of the best mother/daughter bonding I would ever have. I thought that’s what they said about breastfeeding. Oh well. The trip isn’t until February but I’ll let you know how it goes.

My find for the day was the sale at www.disneyshopping.com. A few of the children I buy gifts for wanted dress up outfits for Christmas. Disney has all of their costumes on sale plus free shipping (over $75) and I found a coupon code (FAMILYFUN20) for 20% off. They also had a lot of their pajamas on sale. My kids already have some of the Disney pajamas and they are a very good quality. There’s a super cute pair of Ariel pajamas that was only $7.99 and with 20% off that’s a great deal. I love to shop and especially enjoy buying things for the kids but I don’t like to pay full price so I’m always looking for a deal. The only problem is when I find the deals it’s hard to pass up on them even if it’s not something we really need. As my friend’s husband says “Stop saving us so much money.” My husband would definitely agree with that. However, in this case my kids do need new pajamas (they just keep growing) and I had to buy some Christmas gifts so it was a justifiable purchase.

Have a good day and feel free to share any good deals you find. I promise not to take advantage of all the deals - just the ones I can justify with some good logic!!

Welcome to the birth of a new blog! I have been reading two other blogs faithfully for the past few months and have learned lots of interesting things. I thought I would start my own blog so that I can pass on interesting findings, stories, etc. to others. I’m a SAHM (stay at home mom) and WAHM (work at home mom). I live with my husband, 3 children and our Golden Retriever in Florida. I have a 6 year old daughter who is in first grade and 2 year old boy/girl twins.

Trying to name my blog wasn’t an easy task. My husband was helping me set it up and wanted to know what I was going to blog about. I couldn’t really come up with one thing in particular that I was going to focus on but I’m sure most of it will have to do with being a mom, having kids, raising a family and all of the things that go into that. Several of our first choices were not available as domain names so we came up with All In A Mom’s Day. I hope you’ll journey with me through my days and maybe even add some comments of your own from time to time.

I just heard two bins of Mega Blocks being dumped on the floor and now there’s a lot of screaming so I think I need to go check on that . . . The screaming just stopped and things seem to be peaceful again so I guess I won’t interfere. Raising children is a challenging yet rewarding job and raising twins just adds a whole new twist to things. They always have a constant playmate which means they always have someone to fight with. They also always have someone to cause mischief with. My daughter is the instigator but my son is usually more than willing to go along. My older daughter rarely caused mischief when she was younger and my friends used to tell me that I just had no idea . . . the other day I told my friend that this time around I got it all . . . the crayon, highlighter and pencil drawings on the wall, broken toys, ripped books, lots of mischief (usually accompanied by fits of giggles) and the list goes on . . . when I’m home during the day it’s two against one and it’s hard to keep up!!

Something that I recently discovered is a company called Simply Fun. If you haven’t heard of it - it’s a company that sells games, puzzles and puppets. You can only get them through their home based parties and on their web site. You can check out their site by Clicking Here. Debbie is the hostess who did the party for me yesterday. The web site is really neat. If you’re interested in any of the games you can watch a video which will show you how to play. We had a bunch of kids here yesterday so they got to play the games and see which ones they liked best. My 6 year old’s favorites were Walk The Dogs and Zoodoku. They have adult and children’s games - a lot of which have been featured on different shows and in magazines. If you’re into playing games and already have all the ones you can buy at the store then check this out.

It’s time to go sort through papers, pay the bills (after I find them in my stack of papers), feed the kids, walk the dog, put the twins down for a nap (ah! a moment of peace), pick up my daughter from school, go shopping for some cooler weather clothes (it does sometimes get chilly even in Florida), eat dinner and get everyone to bed (another moment of peace until it starts all over tomorrow) but that’s okay - It’s just All In A Mom’s Day!!