Homemaking, Motherhood, and being a Wife

I came acrossed something this morning I wanted to share. This article was written by Nila B. Dayton back in 1980.

My Philosopy of my Role as a Homemaker

For me, homemaking is a creative, spiritual experience, and I have come to realize that there is no greater responsibility than that of showing and teaching love and training a child to be an honest, honorable, and righteous citizen. And there is no stronger or more effective way of doing this than for me as a parent to be what I would like the children, who have been entrusted in my care, to be. For this reason I believe that motherhood is truly the greatest responsiblity a woman can have.

Because attitudes are taught, not caught, [a mother's] attitudes towards homemaking as well as all that life encompasses, creates either a world of love or a world of distress.

Homemaking encompasses not only the daily duty of maintaining in the home an enviromnent conducive to the physical, mental, and spiritual development of the children, but also the real responsibility of being a sweet, supportive companion to my choice eternal partner. Our home is the residence of the heart as well as a place to feed and rest the body. I believe that the sprit of the home created and maintained by the parents determineds the quality of its product, which is our children.

Well, there you go. What more can you say that isn't snivilling or self degrading? Nothing is more important that rearing, cultivating, and loving productive and wonderful human beings.

Yeah, ok, so I told you about the ridiculous drivers this morning...it just doesn't stop! I went to get my little kindergarten girl and, remember the SUV that made me mad this morning for parking in the DRIVE WAY, well, a blue minivan was parked in the drive way at the elementary with another minivan behind her, leaving me out in the street with others behind me, when she should have pulled forward...she was just camped out there! The way this works is that you enter the parking lot on the right, move around the outside of the lot in a counter-clockwise direction, exit on the left side; you're entering and exiting out of the same drive way. There are cars coming out on the left, cars moving long the edge picking up children, we're waiting behind this woman who apparently thinks she's at a campsite rather than getting because she simply refuses to move to the right when all of a sudden someone gets out of her van and she does a U-turn right there in front of the on-coming cars and "parks" AGAIN!

OH, and let's not forget the "loving, concerned, safety-minded" parents who double-park, holding up traffic in the street to yell for their children to get in the car making them manuver between on-coming traffic, stand in the lane their parent are stopped in, and climb into their car with the other lane driving past them...yesterday, I was blocked from leaving where I was parked on the side of the road while this woman did that very thing...she's lucky one of her children wasn't hurt...I mean, where's the wisdom of encouraging children to dart in and out of traffic so that you don't have to go through the trouble of finding a decent parking place?!!!

So I'm taking my children to school; first Tyler to the middle school and then the girls to the elementary across town (it's just worth the drive for a better school than the one I live right next to).

Right off the bat I begin having an issue with drivers. I approach an intersection, I'm moving forward through the intersection watching the woman facing in my direction stopped with her left turn signal on, now remember, I'm moving forward, she begins to turn and gets angry with me for not stopping because she wanted to turn! Whatever...she'll get over the fact that lefthand turns have to wait for traffic moving forward.

Closing in on the middle school I pull into the parking lot--well, the first car length of the parking lot at the middle school because the SUV in front of me had to STOP right there were cars are pulling in and out to let a child out of the vehicle...holding up several cars behind me on the road...but, you know, whatever, they're more important than anyone else, right? Then the SUV drives into the parking lot and around to the front of the school--as the rest of us normally do, and then pulls into a parking slot to allow other children out at the front door...WHAT?!! I mean, why did that one child need to get out of the car, weave through the MOVING traffic to get to the back door when he could have gotten out with the others at the front door and had the same length--but SAFER--walk. Anyway, I'm sitting there waiting to turn into a stall, myself, just waiting for the line of cars to my left to get past me so I can pull in and let my son out...it looks somewhat like leaving the county fair or some other crowded event...slow, long lines. I see a space where I can park--one of MANY--all I need to do is move up a bit to get past the car at my side and turn, but the white SUV about five car-lengths ahead of me (going the opposite direction on my left) just hurries her little buns up to the car on my side closing up the space... WHY? it's wasn't like she was going anywhere...everyone was stopped, it wasn't like I was going to take her spot in line...I was trying to pass THROUGH it to park...AND I even had my Magical and Mystical blinker on...annoying! After I wait for three more imperceptively moving cars to pass, I park, my son gets out of the car, and now I want to back out of the spot I had to wait for but I can't because there's now a minivan PARKED behind me...I mean, really folks, there's like TEN open spots to my left and 20 to my right, choose one and pull in--this one was going the opposite direction than I was so s/he didn't even have to wait to turn through the line. AND, you know what, the line was thinning so much at this point, there really wasn't much of a line anymore, just like five cars. I'm sitting there waiting for the minivan to move so that I can back MY awesome little Honda Odyssey out and this little sporting car tries to muscle me back into my spot by pulling up...AGAIN, there's 30 some OPEN parking spots, PULL INTO ONE for crying out loud! OK, so I'm finally out of the parking spot and into the northbound "line" of cars--you know, moving the opposite direction from whence I came to begin with, we're moving pretty steadily at about 5 miles per hour along the legth of the school getting ready to turn right and go along the north side of the school so we can get out when this BRILLIANT woman just coming INTO the parking lot decides she isn't going to deal with all of that, dumps her child out so that HE can weave through the moving vehicles, and then she does a U-turn right there and pulls in front of the small black car ahead of me--no blinker, no wave of the hand, no thank you--nothing! Ugh...good morning to you, too!

So I got out of that mess and we're off taking the girls to school and all is well. We're just driving and singing to Rascal Flatts having a pleasant morning. (Yeah, I know...a pleasant morning?! with MY group?! it does happen sometimes) We pull up to the school and it's the same thing as before...pull into the parking lot, stay to the perimeter, drive in a counter-clock direction, stop in front of the school to let your child out of your car on the side closest to the school, and leave; you can also pull into the lot driving to the left of the other cars in order to park. So, there I am with my girls in the minivan, we're slowly progressing forward when a mother in another car thinks, "Hey, I'm too SPECIAL to have to wait, and my child is carproof, so I'm just gonna pull up in this space here and let my little girl out to walk through the cars," and she does just that all the while blowing kisses and announcing her love for her baby...you know, the little bitty princess squeazing between two MOVING vehicles who have to slam on their brakes.

What is WRONG with these people?!!

Top Heavy Balloons

Kristina, you'll recognize this story since you were on the phone with me while it happened...let me tell you...the laughing was PAINFUL!!!

So the other day I was in my roon talking to my friend, Kristina, on the telephone when my little girl, Ashlynn, came in to complain that her sisters were playing with her two balloons. They were going to put water in them and make the pop and that was just NOT ok with her, and the mere fact that they were even touching them was beyond reasonable because they belong to HER. "OK," I tell her, "I'll take care of it in a minute."

Well, a minute came and went, I'm still on the phone and there sounds to be peace and compromise happening in the home with the girls. GREAT! Teamwork. I LOVE IT!

LOL...yes, well, I had NO idea what they were "working" on together.

Here's what I found out:

While laying on the bed nursing my baby and chatting away with Kristina (it really wasn't as long as it may sound...I think a grand total of 12 minutes and some seconds for the ENTIRE conversation which goes through the majority of the following story) Karlie pops into my room and says something like, "Presenting the Amazing Ashlynn!" So I look up toward the door expecting to see my little princess spruced up with some play make-up or wearing some fun little hair do... Just then Eliana sweeps in and announces, "Their names are Hot and Cold." Huh?! Who's names are Hot and Cold? About 4 seconds later Ashlynn comes BOUNCING in with her two balloons filled with water, stuffed into one of my bras inside her shirt! She looked like a little Dolly Parton, minus the massive amount of make-up and year supply of hair spray. So, I laugh, because, dang it, it was FUNNY. She's standing there making her chest rise up and down so the balloons with jump and jiggle...you know, it was so fascinating for her. Eliana tells me the filled one balloon with hot water and the other with cold...I don't know why, but it must have felt wierd. So they're just reveling in their fun of simple augmentation making all kinds of noice so I leave the room and head for the quiet in the family room.

Moments later, here comes Karlie. She now has my bra on and the two balloons safely snug inside. She slides up to my side and with this hilariously husky voice says, "I'm HOT!" and then glancing downward from one side to the other raising the appropriate shoulder to elevate her chest, she says, "...and this is Chili, and this is Pepper!"

OH MY GOSH!! Are you kidding, I could hardly stand it...it was so funny!

She then takes off her shirt and is standing here with my balloon filled bra on, I tell her they're really too high to be a representation of really ones and begin to pull them down a bit on her chest (Look, there were no boys in the house and it was just cute to watch them trying to emulate 'women'...shoot me for thinking they were amusing at that very moment) Eliana, with a certain amount of disbelief and light-hearted criticism, scolds me, "So you're going to make it so it looks like she could really have them?!" Karlie replies with a whole lot of "duh" in her voice, "Yeah, she like them" while running her left hand down the side of her left balloon. OK, I'm beginning to have a need for an oxygen mask and a diaper...you know, it was simply hysterical.
THEN she does the unthinkable for which I'm going to need resuscitation; she grabbes hold of each balloon and kisses the right sided followed by the left in this "gym-nut, Jock, self-loving, muscle adoring approval thing" sort of way. TOO MUCH!!! This girl is a riot!!

Black Eyes and Stripes

Yesterday morning on my way taking my girls to the school we were listening to music--having a good time when all of a sudden I see movement out of the corner of my right eye. I look over and see this big ol' fat cat...no, little dog...NO, RACOON...bookin' it toward the road where I would be in 2.573 seconds. This little bandit was racing out from behind a house just 2 lots away from the school, in fact their back yard fence boarders their soccer field. School wouldn't be starting for another 15minutes which meant children could still be walking up past that house--or the one acrossed the street to which the raccoon ran to--and not know exactly what they were creeping up onto. Those little guys aren't the most friendly, they are defensive, they carry--or have the potential to--parasites and viruses like rabies, and children are so curious and naive that they'd probably try to catch it, pet it, or even tease it. Gosh, could you imagine?!

I told the crossing gaurd since her she works for the Ogden City Police Department and the principal of the school to beware if a child comes in with a "cat" bite that it might not actually be so.

This is when I hear they've been having an "invasion" of sorts of raccoons in that area...nice. I don't wish those little critters any harm; I do, however, worry more about children than them.

Sports Physical

I realize that most people have this already figured out; but just in case, I thought I'd pass this little tidbit by.

When your son expresses and interest in sports at school and you enthusiastically agree, and when the school for which your son will be playing sports for alerts you to the convenience of having a physician come to the school to give all the athletes a physical, one needs to understand that this REALLY does mean a COMPLETE physical and IF your son has not had THAT particular exam, a loving, thoughtful, and UNbraindead parent would kindly explain, warn, mock...SOMEthing to give the poor soul a heads up BEFORE he's dumbfoundedly turning his head to cough!

Yeah, that would be a nice, thoughtful thing of which THIS not unbraindead parent did NOT do, and my brave--if UNimpressed--son came home wanting answers yet lacked a burning desire to talk to ME to get them! Hmm...

Today is Miss Ashlynn's first day of school EVER...she's a big Kinderkid now. She was so excited to start school and fire me; no more mornings with Mommy!

She has a wonderful teacher, as does all the others: Hillcrest simply doesn't have negative teachers--it's the cream of the crop for them!

Doesn't she look cute!?

We had a bit of a difficult start to our morning though, because yesterday she just thought it be a REALLY good idea if she used her scissors (you guessed it) to cut some of her hair (and YES, again) right in FRONT! So I used scissors to soften the blunt carving in her mane, then with added and sudden disappearing act of ALL usable hair accessories we had to fight against the evil bad-hair-day powers at work; it was difficult, somewhat painful, but we made it through with minimal casualties and a pretty cute looking little girl---well, the cute little girl part was never in question.

It was sad for this Mama, it was like taking the last walk down a long, dark hallway to an execution or something...For ME...my little partner was moving on to bigger better things and I'm not left to be the big grown up all by myself...Until Mykayela starts to take over, that is.

Oh these milestones come so quickly and they're so bitter sweet. I'm excited to hear all about her day at school today!