Ok, so this blog thing is harder than I had anticipated. It takes time, seriously, time away from cleaning the house, time away from dealing with the kids, time away from cruising pinterest. I love, love, love pintrest. I may have dishes to wash, kid's homework to help finish, clothes to fold, plants to water, dinner to cook, and somehow I still steal just a few moments to check out pintrest. And by a few moments, I really mean an hour and a half. And when I finally peel myself away from the laptop and discover how much time has actually passed, although I feel guilty for getting dinner on the table so late, I also feel SO CRAFTY and CREATIVE. I feel like the things I pinned I personally had a hand in, even if I never intend on cooking that recipe, or sewing that nifty outfit or installing a revolving three story shoe rack in my closet, I still feel like a rockstar. I feel like they are MY ideas even though they are not.
Yes, I have made things I found on pinterest. I have baked some casseroles, printed out Christmas labels and took my cupcakes to the church Halloween carnival in clear solo cups wrapped with cello treat bags to prevent them from being smushed while also displaying their sheer awesome deliciousness. I have thousands of pins. I can't use them all, but I'm sure they inspire me every day. I love seeing all the creative ideas people have not only created, but spent the time to write down. They took pictures, showed the steps and the finished product. And now they are all now showcased on my colorful virtual bulletin board.
Which brings me to why I started writing this blog in the first place. I have ideas, lots of them. I'm not really an expert an anything, but I'm pretty good at a lot of things. And I have a lot of good ideas to share. Often I tell share how I do something with someone (how vague is that?) and they tell me, "oh, you should write this stuff down." And by "write this stuff down, " I am fairly certain they really mean type, tweet or text since this 2012. Also, my handwriting is so bad, my childrens' teachers think their mother is a doctor. Writing them down would leave them even more lost than when they are rattling around in my brain.
Several times in the last 2 weeks, I have started
writing typing, only to be interrupted by a kid needing their bottom wiped, a pot just about to boil over, or the telephone ringing (actually it sing "ring a ding ding dingy dong). I come back to the laptop, unable to reboard my train of thought and just close the window (and go to pintrest). Well, today I treated myself like one of my own children. I told myself I could spend as much time as I wanted on pintrest, after I wrote a blog (and emptied the dishwasher and folded the laundry). I want to share all my crafty ideas with my kids, and all the tens of thousands of people who follow me (yea right). My new years resolution was to start keeping a journal, so they could one day know me just a little better. I want them to value the fact that I sat down and wrote, I mean typed, my ideas and thoughts just for them. As an added bonus, I am hoping that by writing this blog, I will better express my thoughts and be more well spoken. And there is passive voice. Well, I qualified this post with the title "I'm not an expert at anything" for a reason. My mother in law is an English teacher, not me. You probably already knew that from my reading my run on sentences.
So this morning, I awoke to my youngest child Jane sick. I'll spare you the details, but lets just say I'm glad it was the day to wash the linens. My middle daughter Audrey is so good. She actually cleaned up the bathroom and THEN told me about it. She's so awesome.
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| Our love bucket |
So I bathed Jane, brushed her teeth, and dressed her in clean clothes. She still felt awful. I sat her down with my secret weapons, a glass of ginger ale over ice with a bendy straw (bendy, not straight - very important) and placed the love bucket next to her. What is the love bucket? It is a decent sized purple plastic pail with a handle covered in happy stickers. Everyone in the family recognizes it. It stays in the top of the linen closet (scrubbed clean of course) with plastic trash bag in place, ready to be called into duty at any time. In our family, when you are sick, it stays by your bedside and you carry it where ever you go. It is so much better than cleaning up the hallway and bathroom and carpet, etc when your little one couldn't make it to the toilet. I think it also helps contain the germs. I guess they could just carry around a dirty ole trash can, but carrying around a trash can is humiliating. The love bucket brings a smile to everyone's face. I can't always make them feel well, but hopefully I can make them smile. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not an expert at anything. Now on to pintrest!
