Facebook Pinterest Twitter Instagram

Pages

Monday, April 28, 2014

The Mean Mom

I like to think of myself as being easy going as a mother. I think I laid a good foundation for my kids when they were very young. It's made the teenage years less angst-y, if that's possible. Don't get me wrong, we've had rolled eyes, pouting and bad attitudes, but when it's good, it's easy.

I am most proud of what great students Trevor and Tuesday are. I set the bar so high with them and never let them get away with anything less than outstanding. Got a B on a test or paper? We always talked about what they could have done more to have gotten that A. It's never been shaming, it's been constructive.

When we were all together, Trevor and Tuesday had a heated competition for who had the best grades in the house. It was good natured and healthy for them. Always trying to outdo one another, I was a mom blessed with kids with straight A's.

That first year school year when Tim and I divorced, Trevor got his first C on a report card. I had a hard time with that. Not because of the C so much, but that what we were going through as a family was affecting Trevor. He ended up rallying though.

Which brings me to the reason I'm thinking about this so much today. Tuesday had a math test last Thursday. She has been sitting on a 100.56% in math and she informed me when she got in the car that she was sure she failed her test. Failed? Ugh. With Tuesday, in math, failure is subjective. A C is consided a failure to her. A low B is also not usually on her radar. We found out her grade today, 2/10. Two out of ten!! I gave her a stern talking to because no way is a two out of ten anywhere near acceptable. It never matters to me what any of the other kids did on the test, it doesn't matter to me that even her equally smart BFF's failed the test also. Tuesday FAILED? Her 100.56% nose dived to a 95.66%. Thank the dear Lord Jesus Christ that this teacher allows full credit retakes!!

Via Pinterest. Pinned this weekend not knowing how appropriate it would be today.


And here is the part that I love about Tuesday, she took her stern talking to and then we discussed what went wrong and how she was going to fix it. She explained to me what she did wrong on the first section and how to fix it. And while i understood NOTHING about what she was talking about, it's important for me to hear what she has to say. I can gauge the way she explains it to me and know that she knows the problem. The teacher handed back the test and Tuesday is upstairs right now redoing all the questions she got wrong, mastering the concepts that she got wrong, and preparing for a test that hasn't been scheduled yet.

It's not about her being scared of me or being upset because she let me down, it's all about her. SHE does not accept failure if there is a chance to do better. I have full confidence in her and I love that about her as a student. I'm pretty dang proud of her.
Friday, April 25, 2014

Just A Little Spring Cleaning

I try and keep my house a close to "company ready" as I can. Unless it's Adult Only Weekend and then I've learned, Wade and I are total slobs. Haha. I do not enjoy my home when there is clutter everywhere and things that are not put in their place. Just ask Wade, there are times I go around huffing and puffing to myself as I am picking up things and putting them back where they belong. I don't say too much about it out loud because, it's just easier to do it myself and get on with my life. I'm a control freak like that and I try not to impact my family's life with my issues.

Anyway, back to the fridge and the vinegar! Miracle stuff, vinegar is! I love it. I need to invest in some essential oils though because, Wade doesn't like the way it smells when I clean with it. I don't really care for it either but, who cares? It's really an awesome cleaner.

The fridge in door drip tray has been looking a bit shabby lately so I went to my favorite internet resource, Pinterest to find a cure! Sure enough, there are tons of ways to clean that baby!  I ended up going with a link to an embroidery blog of all places. Whatever, her method worked and I'll show you!


I am pretty lame and I forgot to take a before picture! But really, people, we all know how bad our in door drip tray thingies can get. GROSS!! Hard water stains galore!

1.  I grabbed a couple paper towels and doused them in vinegar. I squeezed out enough of the vinegar so that the paper towels wouldn't drip when I walked over to the fridge.

2.  All you have to do is lay the paper towels right on the tray. If you're lucky enough to be able to remove your tray from the door, please be my guest. Sadly, mine doesn't disengage. Bummer. Anyway, lay the paper towels down and walk away. I left it for about ten minutes but, the lady on the embroidery blog says she left hers for 3.

3.  After about ten minutes, I grabbed my cleaning toothbrush, put a little dish soap on it, and scrubbed my little heart out. It really doesn't take much effort. The vinegar has done a lot of the work.

4.  Then, I took and wet (with water) paper towel and wiped it clean.



When I laid the vinegar paper towels down the first time, I accidentally hit the water button thing and got water on my paper towels. It was enough to dilute the vinegar and it didn't work on that spot, so I had to reapply a vinegar paper towel to get that spot. Whatever.



It's not the best picture, but trust me, it's sparkling!


In the end, I came out with a super clean and pretty in door drip tray. It was such hard work. Just kidding, but tell your husband you worked really hard on it and it took forever. That way you don't have to tell him that you really spent the morning watching every true life crime show on Investigation Discovery. Did I just say that out loud? Haha

Have fun!



Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter Bathing Suits



I am addicted to bathing suits. I have been since I was a teenager and my cousin Dawn worked for a bathing suit company. I have more than Wade thinks is acceptable and I love them!

To satisfy my bathing suit addiction, I buy the girls a new bathing suit each Easter. I love shopping for the suits. I get to buy three suits. Ahh, it feels so good.

Last year I was able to give them their suits in their Easter Basket, but this year, we had no kids home for Easter so, I gave them a small gift with the suits in them.



I love listening to them when they see that there are gifts at their spots at the dining table. Not to mention the huge plate of cookies that I made for them this morning.

Wade and I had Adult Only Weekend this weekend and as much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE my time alone with that man, I miss the girls and I am happy when they come home. I especially love the part of my job where I get to make them happy and hear their cries of happiness.

After they wiped out the plate of 40 mini cookies, they ran upstairs to try on their suits. Tuesday, oh Tuesday, I should have bought her a bigger top, but when I bought it, I had a hard time convincing myself that she needed a juniors large. I was wrong! Haha. I bought Rylee the first juniors size suit she's had. She was slightly uncomfortable and I will end up buying her a girls large before the weekend. We'll just put her new "grown-up" suit away for now. And Emma, last year I was buying her girls large suits, but our little girls has grown so tall and slimmed down (thanks to the growth spurt), I bought her a girls medium and it's perfect.

Our girls are growing up so fast! I can't wait and at the same time, I know I'll be sad when it's all over. For now, I can't wait, I'll worry about being sad later (a la Scarlett O'Hara).

Today is one of those days I love being the mom of three girls. Never thought I'd say that.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014

One Would Think I'm Super Busy

You know, because I haven't blogged for awhile. I wouldn't say I'm super busy, just busy with life. This is Wade last night:

Wade: Tsk tsk tsk, March 20th.
Me: What? What's March 20?

And it was on! I made a couple guesses and then he pointed out to me that I hadn't updated my blog since March 20th. Sigh.

There are times I just don't have much to say or I don't think anything I do is interesting enough for anyone to want to read about. Haha.

Spicing up my blogging in 3...2...1...Go!