Am I a bad Mom?

One of my friends has something like the following in her bloggy header "She is probably a good mother just not a good advertisement for motherhood." I kind of feel like I might fit that description. As a species us women especially mothers constantly compare ourselves to one another. (This is a gender flaw that DH says makes women rarely win those voting reality shows as well as will not become president.)

Anyhoo....the first reason for my sub par maternal feeling is I don't feel the need to schedule every second of every day for my children. Seriously, a friend of mine has her children's days planned up to September and the kids are 4! I personally have been enjoying this summer of simplicity with mine. Maybe I am a homebody or maybe it is b/c I still do not have a large friend base here in my "new" state (new as in we have now been here a year and I still really don't have a large set of friends.....I guess that is another post in and of itself). The girls and I have been sharing household responsibilities as well as trying to cook a lot of different foods from scratch. Just made my first cheesecake from scratch the other day. :) So am I a bad Mommy for not planning daily outings or crafts every single day? Are my girls going to grow up lacking?

I have also come to the realization that this year we will not do birthday parties for the girls like we have in the past. With us still paying for the house up north at this point there is really just no room in the budget for us to do things like we have before. I hope this does not scar them for life. I know I am being dramatic but....I feel like I am failing them (yet again). I guess if the house sells this could change but with gymnastics season beginning on the oldest's birthday weekend, if I have not planned in advance it probably won't happen.


I don't sit around the 3 hours a day my oldest practices gymnastics. Does that mean I am a bad Mommy? Heck, I am even missing the transportation provided by the gym to get her from school to practice. I have to taxi it both ways. If it were just me I don't think I would mind too much but lugging the toddler and the Middie for the taxi run is just annoying.


I could be considered a bad Mommy b/c after the portable DVD player died after 5 long years of service and several trips (car and plane) I supported my DH when he purchased two portable DVD players (one for each big girl = no more arguing over what to watch). But even more so b/c this morning they have vegged out with their own player. How many movies are too many?

Am I a bad Mommy b/c i don't have the extra funds right now to put my soon to be 2 year old in a class of some sort? At this point in their lives my other two they had taken gymnastics (Mommy and me type class of course) and swimming. #3 is really missing out.....

Well, I think that is probably enough Mommy bashing of myself at this point. I will save this post no longer...posting and letting it all go...ooosa ooosa oosa

NOT hooked on....toddler edition

Since I could not 'unstack' these pictures from the Dora ones, I have created another post of them. Here goes....

I have learned that my toddler is not so much into pop-up books. This is a pictorial representation of what she has done to every pop-up book in our home library.












Although she is very fond of this nonpop-up board book. I do love Dr.Seuss but this is a disturbing story line.

Busy summer days

How is it that I can find a whole days worth of nothing to occupy my days all in my apartment? Playing on FB and checking the blog/email/BHB periodically are guilty pleasures that I indulge in when I pass by my laptop or I don't know what to do next. Another on going challenge is attempting to potty train (or at least indulging in her asking) the toddler. Nothing has actually gone straight from her body to the toilet bowl yet but things are very warm when she asks to go so I am trying to keep at it with her. I have pulled out the plastic panties while hanging at home today and she has wet one pair even though I am taking her to the potty every 30 minutes. She goes in the pants THEN tells me. I am not sure how to reverse that process.

I have reorganized the girls' closet so I have more shelf space above the hanger clothes. What to put there? Don't know just yet. Our next mission was to save their DVDs from the storage spot as it always was too tempting for the toddler tornado. Now they have 3 empty desk drawer waiting to be filled again. But alas, looking something for something toddler friendly to fill them.

Tomorrow we are attempting to (gasp) leave the house and go to the beach. Wish me luck!

Hooked on Friday...toddler edition

Don't forget to drop in to see what others are Hooked On over here....

My toddler is all about Dora so today's Hooked on goes out to her with a sampling of our Dora empire. (*Note: she did not get all these toys but these have been collected over the past 8ish year from her sisters' Dora days as well as her own.)


First the important potty training devices all Dora-fied. We have the seat that sits in the normal potty (her preference at the moment) and the stand alone potty. She likes to destroy and reconstruct this as it is modular. For instance the base can be a step stool and the other pieces can be used in other means as well.








Of course we have the Dora house with all the furniture. You will have to forgive me for not setting it up for you but I am happy no pieces are out right now as they are walking hazards.





I would bet we own about 90% of the plastic figurines and about that much of the larger dolls. Here they are peeping out of one of the drawers. There are at least 3 like this. I specifically pulled out the tennis Dora in honor of Serena's recent win.









I think we are only behind by one DVD from owning all of them and I bet that will be purchased soon. We rock the Dora fiesta CD music in my minivan. Yesterday, when stopped at a red light the three girls in the middle row were loudly singing with the CD (which I had cranked up for them) and the man in the pick up truck nest to us gave us a look. I could not interpret the look. I think to him it was like a car wreck b/c he could not look away. I was proud and embarrassed all at once.

So as you can see we are big time hooked on Dora here.

Hope you have enjoyed a look into my life!

Hooked On Friday Party

Check out what the others are hooked on here.

This week I have been hooked on scanning paper copies of the lessons, labs and other useful papers for my teaching arsenal into PDFs. Then the PDFs will be used in my blackboard as well as having the papers in 'copy ready' form. (See prior post describing blackboard.) In my district the paper copying is electronically out sourced which means I need a version I can send through cyber space. No more old fashioned c&p for me. Kind of bitter sweet.

Here is the stack so far. It continues to grow larger.


Here is the beastly scanner, printer, copier that I have been canoodling with for my digitizing.



Speaking of growing and since that is not the most entertaining thing to be hooked on I also want to share my tomato plant story. In May-ish we bought a planter box and decided to try to plant some tomato seeds (2 packets - 1 beefeaters, 1 cherry variety). I had "help" planting by way of my three girls so half the box was the packet of one type the other half was the other packet. Those of you who are agriculturally savvy can predict where this is going.

Here is the box and the growth after just a week.


A little crowded, eh? So I try transplanting them into anything I could recycle into a big enough holder. Here you have my "redneck garden". Some I left in the planter but joining it are two milk jugs, Gatorade bottle, butter tub, Sam's club cheese ball vat bottom and two pots I had from other things.






So, what do you think are they going to live to die? What can I do to help?

Rock On Caillou's Parent

The beginning of today's show had this dialog.

Caillou's Mom: Today is your Father's and my anniversary. It is a very special day.

Caillou's Dad: And we have a very special surprise for you too....a new babysitter!


Awww yeah.....:)

True 'dat

So as a revisit to some of my goal posts (he he he, I said goal posts...like as in football but not...lol).

In no particular order......

I have been scanning my little heart out of school papers in an effort to go green in my files (not really...more of a convenience thing but it is a bonus environmentally so I will go with it). Not finished yet but that is the precursor before doing the blackboard goal.

I have a binder with baseball inserts and have begun my coupon sorting. DH requested to departmentalize it. I rationalized that he had a say in the organizing being that I will most likely ask him to find the needed coupons while I kid wrangle.

I have successfully completed 3 new recipes since returning from the north: Crockpot turkey breast, Noodleless Lasagna, and Taco Soup. All 3 are crockpot recipes too taken from this site. I LOVE this site!!! You should too.

The girls' chore chart (well, excel spreadsheet that stays open on my laptop) is underway. The Middie is empathetic as usual. We recently had a toothpaste and toilet bowl issue but I really don't want to talk about that right now. The Oldest is really into it though. I consider it a math lesson too. I have to admit she is a GREAT helper. She unloads the dishwasher, toddler wrangles, cleans the table and highchair after meals, folds laundry, etc., etc. She really impresses me.

I have purchased and received the Twilight series as I wanted but have not yet reread as 'prescribed'. I read what is available on this Stephanie Meyers' site of Midnight Sun. I want to read Twilight with the Midnight sun together. I am already planning on a personal day for November 20th - New Moon any one? :D


I still do not have my weekly schedule down as I had hoped (traveling kind of got in the way) butt so far I am feeling quite accomplished with what I have done so far. I will keep y'all posted though!