Stop the Insanity!

I enjoyed Valentine's Day as a child. 

I loved the excitement of going to the store to mindfully pick the PERFECT cards to pass out. 

I loved deciding which card would go to each person. It was a tough decision at times! I certainly could NOT give a boy one that said something that might make him think I liked him! How embarrassing that would be! :-)  

I loved opening up all the cards, reading them, and seeing who they were from.

I'm pretty sure there was some candy involved. But I'm positive candy was the exception, not the rule. 

So when did the this change? And why?

Does my 5-year-old really need this much candy? Especially after a day that already involved 2 cupcakes and other various treats during the party?

I'd like to give a big thanks to the giver of the pencil. And a hearty thanks to the giver of the cheddar cracker things, too. 

But those I would like to thank the most are the select few who only gave a card. 

I'm not sure the reasoning behind the lack of an additional item. Perhaps it was because they didn't want to spend the money. Maybe it was because they like the simplicity of the card. Or was it because they knew the mass amounts of candy that would be passed around? 

It doesn't really matter the reasoning behind the lack of candy. I'm just glad there was one. 

And I hope those kids didn't feel bad passing out *only* cards. 

Maybe I should ask my daughter how she liked passing out only cards*. But I won't. You know why? Because I have a feeling she didn't even notice that her cards were "inferior" with no candy attached. I'm pretty sure she would simply tell me it was fun to pass them out. 

But I'm not going to ask. I don't want to peel away a layer of her naivety. I don't want to draw any more attention to this insanity. 

I'm also going to hope that we have another year or two in us before she realizes that I throw away 90% of this stuff. 

Come on, parents! Do you really enjoy watching your kids bring home a mountain of sugar? Do you not cringe? 

Or am I in the minority here? I'm not one of "those" parents who refuses to let her kids eat refined sugar. If we're at a bank, for instance, and a sucker is offered (or used as bribery for good behavior - because we do that here) then they get a sucker. But candy is an exception, not the rule. So to see a backpack full of candy makes me cringe.

I'm certain I'm not the only parent who feels this way. So why don't we start banding together and do away with the candy? Do away with the feeling that there has to be more to a Valentine card than just the card. 

They're kids! They have fun giving ANYTHING to their friends! So let them have fun with cards and put away those silly, media-induced, candy company-created thoughts that there has to be more.

Of course then we get to the thought that the holiday and cards themselves are media-created. But I digress...

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic. 

~The Messy Midwestern Mom~

*Confession: Her cards to the boys were just cards. Her cards to the girls, though, did include an extra treat: Jamberry Nails. So I'm a part of the problem. I recognize this. And I will work harder next year to include the girls in this "only cards" mission. 

Goodbye, Normal

Today was our last day of "normal".  Today was the last day Barrett will not having hearing aids.  Confused?  Yeah...I plan on blogging about this journey at some point but not today.

Last night I had painted a beautiful picture of what today would look like.  It's President's Day so the entire family was going to be home.  I thought we could do some fun celebration stuff...perhaps the children's museum.  There was an act from America's Got Talent there today!!  I also decided I wanted to take Barrett somewhere (location had not been determined) and attempt to get some adorable pre-aids pictures of him with our camera and my extremely amateur photography skills. 

It appeared the day was starting out great.  Our little guy, who is always in our room ready to begin the day anytime between 5:45am and 6:15am (fabulous, right?) was not the first in our room.  Today our middle came into the room first and we did not hear the patter of 2-year-old feet right behind her (you have to walk through his room to get to ours).  Was this a dream??  Did Barrett really not wake up when she walked through the room?  Did Piper not go over and wake him up?  Wow!  Now all we had to do was get Piper out of the room (with an iPhone in hand - yep, we do that) without disturbing him. 

It worked!

We slept some more. 

Then Jeremy got up.  And, to my complete satisfaction, there was still not patter of tiny feet!

Around 8:45am I couldn't stay captive in the room any longer.  What a nice thing to get to experience: getting out of bed on my own terms!

I paused on my way through Barrett's room just to check on him.  He was opening and closing his eyes slowly.  Very pleasant and sweet to watch a kid who is not quite ready to wake.  But I lingered.  This was just so unlike him that I kept staring.  Eventually his eyes were open for good but he wasn't making any effort to move.  No sudden jumping up ready for the day and asking me to hold him.  If you don't know Barrett, this is most certainly not true to nature! 

So I walked to his bed.  The poor guy was burning up! 

And my dreams for the day came shattering down.

He spent the day puny and sickly.  Normally I would have been happy that his illness showed up on a non-school day.  But not this day.  I was super bummed about the timing of it all.  And there may have been a tear or two sneak out when no one was looking. 

But it's okay.  We had a nice relaxing day. 

He wouldn't have understood any sort of celebration we would have had anyway.  He's got no clue that his life is about to change.  There is no way we can prepare him.  He's 2. 

There is so much unknown about tomorrow. 

Will he easily adapt to hearing aids or will it be a constant battle to get him to keep them in?

How long will battles last? 

How long do hearing aid batteries last? 

How easily do they fall out?  Do we need to invest in clips that attach to his shirt?

In our MESS of a house, where will we safely keep his hearing aids each night? 

And because I haven't even allowed myself to really sit and think about things, these are all the questions I have.  There are probably questions I should have ready to ask tomorrow, but I don't. 

We are really blindly going into this.  Which is weird for me....a supreme planner.  But it's somewhat freeing.  I'm not feeling any stress.  I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling a lot of it starting tomorrow, so it's good I've not got any right now.  But it is surprising to me and a feeling I'm not used to. 

I think it's because this is COMPLETELY unknown territory for us that I just have no way to plan or stress.  I just have no idea what we're about to face.

That's not to say I haven't mourned.  But that's for another blog. 

So here I sit...the last night on my couch as a mom of 3 kids who appear perfect on the outside.  In 12 hours we leave, in 13.5 hours we will see his hearing aids for the first time, and in 16-17 hours we will be back home and life will be different.

You can expect many blogs on this topic as pave trails into the unknown. 

And you might just see some "pre-aids" pictures that aren't really pre-aids.  I can at least pretend to have accomplished one thing from my beautiful plans. ;-)

Until then, here he is on Valentine's Day enjoying a delicious chocolate chip cookie. 

What's This Momma Doin'?

Time for another round I like to call "What's This Momma Doin'?"

Clue #2

Bibles and Kids

I took Layla to the local Christian book store this afternoon to pick out an early birthday present - her first Bible.  Not a little story bible like we already have a few of.  And this was not a thought-out plan...especially considering the shoes I had on my feet!!  But I digress...

The whole task seemed quite overwhelming!  Of course having all the kids with me in a store they're not used to frequenting could have factored into that feeling.  Too bad I didn't find the kid section with toys & a TV until we were already nearly finished with our shopping!! 

Anyway, we ended up with a bible that's kind of in between a story bible and a traditional bible. 




The front cover looks a little young and it's advertised for preschoolers to "experience the fun!"  However, when I looked through the inside I ended up liking it better than what we had already picked out - a traditional children's bible.  You know, the thing I went in to actually purchase. 

Moving on...I say it's an in-between type of bible because it is set up in stories (85) yet uses scripture (including verse numbers) in an abridged form.  It's "real Bible text" using the NLT for "its clarity for readers of all ages." 

It has hands-on activities on nearly ever page (some pages have more than one).  Some I think Layla will enjoy more than others.  Regardless, I love that it involves physical movement. Yay for adding in some multiple styles of learning!




There is a "Jesus Connection" at the end of each story as well as discussion questions ("Let's Talk") and a short prayer. 
I was really drawn to these aspects the most...especially the prayer.  I love that they're short & sweet and age-appropriate.  As much as I'd like to think I would naturally ask these types of questions after reading a story in a story bible, I'm just not confident I wouldn't simply help the kids summarize the story and promptly close the book.  I am hopeful the prayer aspect will really help us focus on adding family prayer into each day (or at least each day we remember to read from this) aside from our prayer before each meal.  And, let's be honest, that meal-time prayer is pretty rote.

The end of each story also includes another activity or two.  Some are activities you can incorporate during your normal goings-on of each day.  Bonus!  Let's hope we remember them :-)


I really wasn't sure I decided on the right one before typing this out.  I was wondering if I should have stuck with the traditional children's Bible.  However, I am too often trying to make Layla grow up faster than she needs to.  I felt this Bible may have been a little too juvenile for her but I'm not feeling that way anymore.  I think they need to just get rid of that "preschool" title on the front.  And maybe do away with the kiddie animals (apparently named Pockets and Cuddles).  Or is that me making her be too much of a "big kid" again?  I guess we'll see how she takes to the characters.

What did/does your 6ish-year-old use as a Bible?  I'd love to hear suggestions/advice/true stories from those who have gone before!  Whether that mean years before or you are currently in the same stage with your kid and were simply more pro-active on getting him/her a Bible before now. :-)

DIY Laundry Detergent

That's it, folks! That's what this momma was doin' Friday.

Two years ago I started making my laundry detergent.  I can't believe it's been that long! I had to go back and look at pictures to confirm.  My, how time flies when you're making detergent! 

Anyway, I started making a dry detergent that I had seen floating around on facebook.  It looked like this:
  

• 1-  4 lb 12 oz box Borax (76 oz) - detergent aisle
• 1 - 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda  - cooking aisle
• 1  - 3 lb 7 oz box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (55 oz) - detergent aisle
• 3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap - detergent aisle

For $16.70 I had detergent that lasted about 8 months!  I had guesstimated it would last 9-12 months but I admittedly use more detergent than I should and I underestimated how much laundry I actually do in a week. 

When I was close to running out I made a second batch...this time for $20.55 - darn inflation!...with a slightly different technique.  I heated up the Fels-Naptha in the microwave before sending it through the food processor.  It ended up looking this:

 

                                     Batch 2                            Batch 1
I was much happier with how the soap was more of a powder and incorporated into the other ingredients better. 

However, our washing machine wasn't doing a great job at always dissolving the soap.  I never had a problem before, so I have to assume it is because of drying it in the microwave first.  We also don't use hot water in our laundry.  Not really by choice.  There are two pipes coming out of our washer, one for hot and one for cold, but they end up joining the same cold-water pipe.  Seriously! I'm not sure who the wise guy was who did that but I certainly hope he isn't making that mistake anymore.  Funny side note - my husband lived here a year and a half before we were married and never realized he wasn't getting hot water. :-)  It is fairly annoying that I don't have the option of hot water, but, after 9.5 years without it, I am not sure I'll ever wash with hot water again.  I've had no problems with how our laundry comes out of the wash, we're saving on our energy bills and, consequently, living a little more green.  Well...when we move I actually might do hot water for seriously soiled items.  Anyway - back on topic!  I think if we had hot water perhaps the soap would have dissolved.  But it didn't.

So when I began to run low on batch #2, I went in search of a DIY liquid detergent.  A friend suggested a recipe that looked intriguing. 

 

That white pasty stuff on the bottom right is the final result.  Not really a liquid if you ask me!  I call it my "icing" laundry detergent.

I never figured how much this batch cost me, but it's cheap!  You only use a portion of the ingredients instead of the entire box and I just had no desire to do the math.

• 1 bar Fels-Naptha
• 1 cup of Borax
• 1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda!)
• 4 cups of hot water 

You just use 1 Tbsp of the "icing" per load of laundry.  Again, I admittedly use more.  My HEAPING tbsp is probably closer to 2 tbsps.  In my defense, I always used more than I was supposed to for regular, store-bought detergent, too.  I don't know why.  I just do.  But I'm also certain I stuff my washer with more laundry than I should.  It all evens out, right?

I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure I just made my third batch of this.  Which means each batch lasted me about 6 months.  This third batch I doubled.  Now that I'm actually blogging again, I should be able to easily look back and see exactly how long it lasts. 

   

I plan on sticking with this detergent.  I haven't had a problem with it not dissolving into the cold water I use.  I also feel like my laundry smells better when it comes out. The dry detergent smelled FABULOUS every time I opened the container!!  However, I never noticed the smell lingering on the clothes.  With my "icing" I feel my laundry has a hint of the smell left after being washed. 

If you would like to know how to make this yourself, you can find the recipe here.  It is more labor intensive than the dry detergent (which is simply pouring the ingredients into a container and mixing them together), but I find the results to be better.  It's also cheaper.  Yay!  For 2 years of detergent, I have spent about $50.  Actually, if my doubled batch lasts me twice as long then we're talking 3 years of detergent for about $50.  Woohoo!!  And if we're only going to look at the 2 years of this "icing" detergent, then I'm going to guesstimate about $12-$15. WOWZERS!!

If you end up making the liquid/icing detergent, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

What's This Momma Doin'?

Today on my facebook page I decided to post a picture of something I was doing to see what people thought it was.  I knew it looked a lot more like various other options instead of what I was actually doing, so I was ready to have a little fun.

I posted one picture clue and then a few hours later posted a second - both times asking "What's This Momma Doin?"

Here are my pictures as well as the guesses.  I will blog about my activity and reveal the answer later.  Until then, do you have any other guesses to add?

• homemade shaving cream?

•  Cheesecake?
• yogurt
• Fluffy pie? Lol..
• Cherry delight?
• I don't know but I want some. 

  -----*response from me* You all are making me hungry!-----
• Is it not food??
• Making butter??
• Either cream cheese or Greek yogurt
• Ohh greek yogurt is a great guess! That is kind of what it looks like! Now i want some!

   

  
  

  

• Is it mayonnaise?
• Butter?
• I sure hope it's icing! Haha that much butter or mayo does not look appetizing lol
• Maybe marshmallow cream.
• Oh my gosh! What is it!! Something to do with cream cheese? Soap? Cleaner? Frosting? I dont know!!!!! Lol
• lotion?
• Laundry detergent?
• Snow ice cream?
• It looks like cream cheese icing, but that's a lot of icing!
• churning your own butter?
• banana puddin
• Mayo