Friday, March 30, 2012

blogging is dead.

does anyone else feel that way? no, yes?

every time i write something on this blog lately, i am surely blasted away with exactly the opposite of what i was writing about.  call it humble pie or maybe a good confirmation that the lord has a sense of humor.

case in point.
a recent post of mine included my ease into the world of vomiting.  yes, i proclaimed loud and clear that i don't get quite so upset when vomit flies at my house.  i am an experienced mother and it doesn't frazzle me as much as it used to.  the next post was regarding the violence with which the stomach bug has hit us this year. all four kids went thru 6, count them, SIX rounds of vomiting bugs this winter.

example number 2.

i took it upon myself to make any mother who does not place priority on getting showered and ready every morning feel awesome when i wrote about how it is my rock.  it still is.  but my trade off is that i take a walk with the kids in the afternoons instead of going to the gym everyday.  i don't need intense workouts or whatever else other mothers do. and, i don't shop. not unless i have to. and, i don't craft. but, i was feeling frustrated with my morning routine of getting ready after the kids left for school, so i switched that up and have it done before they wake up.  it has made a HUGE difference.  the entire pregnancy with little rowan and the past year and a half i have longed for the day when i could do that.  i have been just hoping for that glorious morning when i wasn't exhausted from nights on end with pregnancy woes, or baby screaming all night.

also, i wrote recently about how if you EVER see me in my jammies at dinnertime, you need to call the relief society to bring me dinner because something must be terribly wrong.  rowan somehow got hold of that post and instead of calling the relief society at dinner time, he called the police.  the number 9 to be exact.  this is an offense punishable by having an officer come to your house and lecture the child about not playing with the phone.  i was not feeling up to par and decided i needed desperately to try and sneak some naps in during the day to get over whatever bug was ailing me.  i had myself all talked into it because i had not taken one sick day during all of the misery this winter has brought. i cancelled appointments, served leftovers from sunday dinner all day and laid down as much as possible.  it was totally awesome to have a man in uniform talk to me about the dangers of an infant dialing 9 on the phone. like, awesome. disaster house, kids in pajamas at 5:00pm, and a remodeling project strewn all about my house right there for the officer to see.  and don't worry, i have already received multiple calls about receiving the mother of the year this year;)

so, blogging just might be dead around these parts for a while until i am sufficiently humbled into writing decent blog posts.

i try to steer away from trouble, BUT

i could not help myself.  this really made me think.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that. Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

investment

last month the topic of discussion for the power of mom's learning circle was pertaining to that cute, fun, girl that sometimes gets stifled by the busyness of motherhood.

it was a really interesting discussion.  the topic brought out opinions that were so varied from the different stages we were all in with our present mothering situation.  the bottom line was that at some point in the journey of motherhood, usually when change comes, something often times is sacrificed.  whether it be a routine for getting ready for the day, cleaning, a social life, or the continual desire to educate our minds.

every person sacrifices something for motherhood.  there has to be something given up when heaven's windows are opened.  it was interesting to me that it is usually something that requires a mother ample opportunity to be humbled.

i have had many situations as a mother that have humbled me right into next year.  one thing that has been my anchor for not loosing myself in the insanity motherhood offers is giving myself, husband, and kids a showered, made up self EVERY.DAY.POSSIBLE.

if you come to my house and see me in my pajamas unshowered after 12pm, please call the relief society to bring me dinner.  DONT call the relief society if my house is cluttered or my kids don't have the latest fashion trends.  DO call the relief society if my kids have eaten processed food for a week straight.
there are things i have to have to function as a mother everyday that differ vastly from another.  i do feel blessed that my mother put her best foot forward everyday by never being caught in pajamas at dinner time.  she got up everyday and gave herself the gift of putting herself together.  that one principle has kept me in tact as a mother.  my first task with babies is to figure out how to shower in the morning while they are safely kept.  with my first one it meant bringing in the car seat to the bathroom while i could still see baby and had that shower every morning and took the time to get ready.  with my fourth it meant putting together a little bathroom basket with things he can pull out and play with while i am showering and can still see him. they become part of the routine and can see it is important to me.  all my kids have learned to respect it and follow suite themselves, giving themselves the opportunity to spend some time gaining momentum and confidence for the day by honoring this ritual.  there is no sink of dishes too big, or errand so important that it will win over giving myself that time to get made up and get it together.  i can enter the rest of my day with confidence and pride in the time i invested in me.

i have had to make some compromises on days when the tasks begin early.  in the past two years i have come to be okay with washing my long hair every other day.  it drove me to insanity the first few months i did it, but it has slowly become routine and one of the selling points for long hair.  also, sometimes, a super early morning might warrant a bath the night before so i have have 30 more minutes to devote to getting 4 kids out the door.  as we discussed the article i realized that i have never ever suffered the blahs of motherhood due to the fact that i feel lost as a person.  it made me feel glad that the anchor i held onto as a person has been what has kept me together as a mother.  it made me feel less guilty for the things i am not great at (such as having a spotless house all the time, or volunteering at every one of my kids endeavors to name a few)..  

i love those moments when we discover strength in the thick of thin things! it was such a good feeling!!