Florida Sunshine

The afternoon arrived with a sporadic water hose party in the front yard. Moses loves, LOVES the outdoors, even if it means aimlessly wondering around getting yelled at for touching mom’s newly planted flowers. Davy was cleaning the cars and had the hose stretched across the grass and since it was a fairly hot afternoon we thought turning it into a sprinkler was a great idea. We were right. The pictures do not do his expressions justice. The water would stun his body and make him run far away only to return 15 seconds later for another spray down. After getting soaked and cutting his toe in excitement (seriously, this boy gets hurt everyday!) we decided we might as well take this situation to its fullest and give a shower in the front yard. Stripped down to his skivvies and with a popped top of Johnson’s head to toe we gave the quickest shower known to man. It was simply joy; Sunday, sunshine, outdoors, water, smiles.

Check out that red hair in the sunlight!

"O crap, mom you don't want to see this!"

"O whatever I'm so thirsty!"

(what really happened: Davy had an empty bottle he rised out and filled with hose water because Moses was super hot and thirsy- please don't report us ;) )

And of course after the shower they had to do a naked dry-off-ride around the yard!

running the race

When I was in high school I didn’t care much about making the perfect grades to get into a University. I actually didn’t even apply to Florida State because I wasn’t thinking straight and thought I would just head down the community college path and have an easier life. I was slightly jealous once friends started moving into dorms, rush, FSU id’s, all the things freshman look forward to. I received a full two year ride to TCC for a student leadership scholarship and began to feel an embarrassing pride for my school. Working with new student orientation and giving campus tours really helped me understand how a college works and saved me loads of frustration when dealing with enrollment services. I was taking 12-15 hours each semester and besides my part time job, school was my everyday. I lived near campus and spent afternoons in study labs and even hit up the 11x15 square foot gym for time to time. I chose Psychology as my major and had dreams of getting my PhD and hanging the Dr. Caroline plaque outside my practice. All those dreams changed when I found out I was pregnant.
With no intention of being astute my mom said it best when she said “You have such high goals for yourself it’s just going to be more challenging and take you a lot longer to accomplish them”. She was right; so very right. I got a full time job and took the pregnant semester off as well as the post baby semester to focus on being a mom. A regret I have is taking that fall semester off before Moses was born because I felt great throughout my pregnancy and could have knocked out a couple classes; but who knows what those first trimesters would be like so I played it safe.
This past summer I enrolled back into school taking one class at a time. I was scared at the extra responsibility after working all day, taking care of a baby at night and trying to fit studying somewhere into my day. Tomorrow I will enroll in 3 summer classes and finish out my last 2 in the fall. I’m feeling slightly crazy for taking on a “heavier” load then I’ve been used to as Mrs. Waldman, but I’m ready. I remember those days were my dreams reached higher than my abilities and accomplishment excited me. Graduation from TCC and getting an AA is a small step for most students, even a joke to some, but for me it’s a great sense of accomplishment. I.CAN.DO.THIS! The spring will bring Florida State and who knows how that will work out, but I’m willing to take on the challenge. One step at a time and I’m doing it.

I wish these were money flowers!

Money pushes me to the limit. In our house we have a very flexible budget we fit into our lives but lately our money seems to be blowing out the windows with both of us shrugging our shoulders as to where its going. Our bills seem to growing larger and more frequent and every month there is at least one freak out session that we are going broke. Its fair to say I am the money manager/ frugal one in the house. “Manage” meaning I look at the bank accounts everyday and kindly say “stop spending” or “I just paid x,y, and z today so money is tight until next week”. Because I’m in this position of always checking the accounts I’m always worried. Sometimes I know I’m too overbearing about his nickels and dimes and can actually break out into lip rashes because of stress from time to time. I hate that it rules our lives but mostly hate having a desk job with a fixed income. Regardless of my performance I still get paid the same number on the last working day of the month. So many days I sit at work thinking of all the extra jobs, if I had time, I could be doing to earn extra money. Its hard knowing its out of my control (I could write a book about that word….control is our of my biggest issues, there, I said it!)! I’m working on figuring out couponing and trying to cut excessive things without making us feel miserable everyday. What’s “luxury” and “wants”, where do I start clipping.

On a less stressful topic, the weather and weekend was wonderful! Brought to tears of joy Friday night and shared quality hang out time Saturday. Successfully pulled off a 13 year old birthday party scavenger hunt and ate about 100 M&M’s. Sunday a permanent item on my TO DO list finally got crossed off, I worked on the yard! The bed in the front of the house was filled with weeds, growth and junk. I was able to go in and pull all the weeds in and around it and removed all the old pine straw. I also planted flowers and laid fresh pine straw. I should have taken a before picture to show the big different but the after makes me happy. I hope to link another update a month down the road when the flowers have grown and look better than day one. Davy informed me I need to pat down and fix the pine straw, but I was hot and tired so this is it!

(don't mind the little grass around the blocks, they are slowing being killed with grass killer!)

Teetering on the Scales of Parenting

Who is the perfect child and when can this measure be made? Sitting next to someone’s death bed with a checklist making sure they’ve never done anything wrong and in turn grew up with no emotion, physical, or psychological issues? Getting all A’s, clean driving record, and dated to marry the perfect girl? What should and should I not do to make sure my children are who they want to be with manners fit to meet the Queen. Yes I know to give him lots of kisses and I love yous, but what about when his innate human nature catches up with his balled fist holding a ball of pasta noodles? Should I tell him NO firmly, swat his hand, his hiney, his mouth, put him in time out? And who is going to tell me I’m wrong?
As Moses grows older and more defiant everyday we are starting to cross the bridges of discipline. One can read and read until they know every experts advice on reprimanding, but who’s right? A study came out yesterday that children who were spanked at three years of age were more aggressive at age five. Were they spanked for no reason, too hard, too frequent? Davy was pinched for discipline, I was spanked. We both made many mistakes in our lives but neither of us considers the other “aggressive”. We started swatting Moses on the hand and telling him no but lately our actions and words slip through the cracks. He’s a boy who likes to explore and finds it humorous to make us irritated. We see other child rearing actions and hate x, y, or z about it but don’t have the perfect formula. It’s hit or miss (no pun intended- seriously) and we need to find something that works for Moses. We both decided last night to “spank” less and try to use the seriousness of our words more. Even though he is young, we want him to know what’s right and wrong, as well as why he is getting in trouble for his actions. People could argue he is too young for any of this but when we can see in his eyes and actions that he knows what he is doing is wrong but does it anyways, we step in.
I promise to update on this more, not because anyone cares about my sons mistakes, but honestly it’s embarrassing to admit I’m not perfect and neither is my son. But I want to see our progress as parents; to learn from the 15-month-in mom and hopefully the 18-month-in mom will have improved skills.

A whiff of Spring Cleaning

It’s been a rough few days. Being sick, nauseous, irritable, emotion, are all not good combinations (wow I just read that and it sounded like I was preggo) I hate going to bed regretting my behavior and tell Davy I’m sorry five times a day. Regardless of my physical and emotional state kindness and love should still pour through. Last night, determined to make up for not lifting a finger over the weekend, I created a cleaning list for Davy and I work on. (Since we both work full time and enjoy playing with Moses after work we tend to spilt domestic chores like laundry, cooking, cleaning, ect. We have little tifts every now and then, and some things are strictly “mine” or “his” but it works for us). With minor distractions we set aside two hours to finish at least half the list and I’m proud to say we did. It felt wonderful to not have one piece of “junk” on the kitchen table, or bedroom dresser, or on the floor. It felt good to brush my teeth in an immaculate bathroom this morning. Looking at the house as a whole can become overwhelming on a Saturday morning but breaking it down and working one room at a time, for a long period of time can really accomplish something! Tonight I have hopes to finish the second half the list and next week start on the terrifying office. Small accomplishments, like bleaching bathing bath toys, can make you feel good.

Speaking of accomplishments another mountain I’m looking into climbing is couponing. Growing up my mom never used coupons and therefore I’ve never understood their value. After reading numerous blogs of everyday moms saving tons of money on groceries I can’t keep turning my head. I’ve done some reading on the subject but I need to work on “building my stash” and then planning on my trip. I would love to meet up with a coupon-er at the store and see how she shops and more importantly how she handles her coupons at checkout. If you are a coupon-er or know someone how could give me some pointers, bring on the advice!