30 Ways To Make A Mom Smile January 30, 2012

There’s a Trending Topic floating around in the online world 30 Ways To Make A Girl Smile, but I think 30 Ways To Make A Mom Smile would be way more amusing…so here we go, in no particular order:

1. Your kids actually eating what you’ve made for dinner
2. Your kids not complaining, while they are eating, about what you’ve made for dinner
3. Everyone in the house remembering where the hamper is
4. ….and how to use it
5. Getting to sleep in, even just 15 minutes
6. Your spouse making kiddo breakfast
7. Your spouse making any kiddo meal
8. ….and cleaning up the dishes after
9. The kids throwing their trash in the trash can instead of hiding it under/in the couch
10. Curling up on the couch watching Saturday morning cartoons or movies with the kiddos
11. Little boys remembering to flush
12. Little boys remembering to put the lid down BEFORE flushing
13. Caffeine IV’s
14. Mommy Juice – Yes it’s real…it’s that special juice mommies drink at the end of a long day to avoid ripping someone’s head off during evening shenanagins
15. Someone inventing a washer/dryer combo, no more mildewey smelling stuff because I forget to switch the laundry for a days
16. A laundry fairy *Calling the Laundry Fairy…can you hear me???*
17. Good notes from the teacher saying how spectacularly awesome your kids are doing
18. A full night’s sleep
19. Homemade gifts from the children
20. Family Vacations
21. Free Family Vacations – Are you listening Disney & SeaWorld?? If you want to spend a special needs family of 5 to your park, all expenses paid, I’d be HAPPY to volunteer my family for the job ;p
22. Grocery shopping when the store is nearly empty
23. A kid free dinner out every now and then
24. People learning not to stare….loud stimmy kids are NOT the same as loud unbehaved kids
25. Diamonds, flowers, chocolates…really anything that sparkles, smells delish, or tastes sugary good
26. Someone in the house taking a second to say ‘Hey we really do appreciate all you do’, you’d be amazed at how far a few simple words can go to make ones day
27. The kids waking up the first time you wake them in the morning….or even the second….but by the fifth time it starts to get a little ridiculous lol
28. A winning lottery ticket….okay this one isn’t just for moms but it’s be nice either way!
29. Someone else taking the trash out…before the trash man runs
30. Plastic Surgery – I know some of you may disagree but I say there’s nothing wrong with a little nip and tuck every now and then…kids can do a number on your body…oh can I add *FREE* to this one too? ;p

What’s on your list?

Wait…You mean you want more?? How about a few pics to make a mom smile 🙂

Proper ways NOT to handle a baby

And finally an old ad from a magazine to make us feel just that much about our parenting….

Disclaimer****All of these pics were pics I ran across on various sites like FB and across the web. None were taken by me, but I’ve had them so long I can’t be positive where they all originally came from.*****

The ABC’s of ME December 6, 2011

I ran across this at great list at Chosen Chaos and thought I’d join in….I have filled this out on FaceBook before as a note, but this is an updated version of my ABC’s of Me

A – Age – 27

B – Bed Size – Hmmm…..I think it’s a queen? But truthfully by midnight many nights my bed has been taken over by children and dogs and I’ve migrated to the couch

C – Chore that you hate – Can I say all of them? No…Laundry then. I hate laundry….with 5 people I can never keep up!

D – Dogs – Rocco (a lab/chow mix) and Magnus (a pit mix)

E – Essential start to your day – Caffeine…and lots of it….just hook the IV up and I’ll be good to go

F – Favorite color – Blue

G – Gold or Silver – I don’t discriminate…..the more sparkle the better

H – Height – 5’1

I – Instruments you play – I’m musically challenged

J – Job Title – Hmmm…..SAHM / HBIC / Co-CEO Co-CFO / Chauffeur / Short Order Cook / Laundry Expert / Minor Injury Fixer / & the list goes on…you know all the typical SAHM duties 😉

K – Kids – 7 year old twins and a 6 year old, all boys…and yes the dogs are boys too…I’m pretty outnumbered

L – Live – Wouldn’t you like to know {j/k}….I’m in the US

M – Mother’s name – Mom

N – Nicknames – none since I was in school

O – Overnight hospital stays – 3 – When I was 11 I was in the hospital for a week after a back surgery, then for my twins birth and for their little brothers’

P – Pet Peeve’s – I did a blog post on this one 5 Pet Peeves…go check it out, I’ll be here when you get back ;P

Q – Quote from a movie – “Don’t take life to seriously, you’ll never get out alive” – Van Wilder

R – Right or left handed – Right, my left hand is practically useless

S – Siblings – Nope, an only child

T – Time you wake up – Too early! Usually 5:45

U – Underwear – Not even going there….

V – Vegetable you hate – carrots

W – What make you run late – My scatterbrainedness, playing on my phone, 3 kids, 2 dogs, locking myself in (yes in), misplaced keys, should I go on?

X – X-Rays you’ve had – too many to count

Y – Yummy food that you make – Sticky buns

Z – Zoo Animals – I don’t like zoo’s …between the fact that we’re caging animals for our amusement to the funktastic smell, it’s just not my kind of place..but if we can throw in Sea World animals to the mix I’m in, and my favorite would be the dolphins

So there you have it, The ABC’s of Me…..What are your ABC’s? Let’s link them up 🙂

For you list lovers out there check out these other posts:
Sayings, Quotes, and Good Advice
Sanity Savers
ABC’s of Life

What Our Kids May Never Know…. November 8, 2011

I can’t imagine growing up the way kids today do. Technology has changed so much, and continues to change just as quickly. It amazes me the things computers / tablets / cell phones can do. Then there are the changes in trends in fashion, television, and music. The things we (as a society) see as acceptable, what’s considered safe, it’s all changed. Every move kids today make, the mistakes, all so easily shared with the world. It’s such a different world than the one I grew up in….that being said, I’m sure kids today can’t imagine some of the stuff we grew up with.

:::::Things Kids Today May Never Know:::::

• Cassette tapes
• Mix tapes made from songs on the radio
• 8 tracks & Record Players
• Laser Disk Players & VHS
• Life without a computer
• Floppy Disks
• Life without the Internet (And I don’t just mean the pre Facebook days of the Internet, I mean having no Internet in the house at all)
• Dial up Internet (Okay, some of you may still have this one)
• Actually having to go to a library to do research
• The bag cell phone (Or for that matter, any cell phone that only made calls)
• The days before Call Waiting and Caller I.D.
• Pagers
• Pay Phones…and Pay Phones only costing a quarter
• Cameras with film
• The significance of sayings like ‘You’re killing me Smalls’ and ‘McFly McFly anybody in there?’
• Passing notes in class (Maybe they still do this one, but I imagine it’s all done by text these days)
• Playing outside unsupervised until the street lights came on
• Rabbit Ears (In our first apartment our rabbit ears were covered with aluminum foil so we could get really good reception lol)
• Saturday Morning Cartoons on Regular TV
• TV Guide (When it was mailed out weekly and not a channel on cable)
• MTV playing music
• TGIF on ABC on Friday Nights (As a kid I loved Friday Night TV)
• That every time I say ‘Whoa’ I’m channeling my inner Joey from Blossom
• Speaking of Joey’s, they’ll never know about ‘How You Doin’ either
• How much video game graphics have improved since the days of the Atari and the NES
• The awful (but at the time awesomely amazing) special effects of 1980’s movies
• That Dwayne Johnson was The Rock, Mark Wahlberg used to be Marky Mark, and Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton would never be known if not for their sex tapes
• The WWE was known as WWF until the World Wildlife Foundation got mad and made them change their name
• The only reality show on TV was The Real World
• Napster and Free Music Downloading
• Gas costing under $1.oo / gallon
• How to write in cursive (unless we teach them, but the schools don’t anymore)
• French Fries in their kids meals (Don’t worry, I don’t deprive my children from that daily vegetable serving of fried potatoey goodness, we just don’t buy kids meals…which by the way are always OVERPRICED)
• Candy Cigarettes (I can still find them occasionally, but for the most part I think they are kind of frowned upon) As a kid we’d sit and ‘puff’ them so the powdered sugar coating would look like smoke

I have to say, while kids today may not be able to relate to some of my childhood memories, they definitely aren’t missing out. I watch my sons at 6 and 7 on their iPods and iPads, they have the world at their fingertips …It’s pretty awesome (As long as we teach them responsible Internet etiquette). When it comes to things like not being able to play outside unsupervised, maybe that’s not such a bad thing…We as parents just have to see it not as ‘my kids can’t play outside because it’s not safe’, but as ‘we get to play outside as family’. My list could go on and on…the differences in then and now, the good and the bad in both…but I think I’ve wasted taken up enough of your time. So what’s on your list of Things Kids Today May Never Know?