2009 - Year of the Dad

As we were preparing for bed the other night Brett informed me that Ryan has decided that 2009 is going to be "Year of the Dad". I asked Ryan what that meant and he said that it meant that he was going to spend more time with DAD and let DAD do more for him.

I hereby delegate the following to DAD

- Making lunches in the morning
- Changing sheets when accidents happen
- Running forgotten homework to school - Hope work doesn't mind you coming home a few times a week to do this
- Following up on homework
- Making sure the table is set for dinner

I think I can handle the rest since it falls under the umbrella of the MOM job

Ahh....

A toast...

to 2009 - Year of the DAD

Balance

How do you do it all?

1. Primary Meetings
2. Scout meetings
3. Ward Council
4. Cleaning house
5. Breakfast
6. Lunch
7. Dinner
8. Cleaning house
9. Exercise (what's that)
10. Volunteer time at the school
    
11. Time with kids
12. Time with husband
13. Alone time (is that possible without neglecting any of the above?)

Oh how I need to find Balance. Do they sell that in stores? I've heard that Calgon will take you away, but I haven't found a product called Balance yet. If you're out there and you have a product, let me know....I need it!

If you have done it unto the least of these...

Yesterday Brett stayed home from work in the morning as he had a Doctor's appointment and I had some errands to run so we thought it would be best if we just went together.

Sydney was being naughty and had a couple of warnings to stop or else get a spankin' from Dad. Well, the behavior didn't stop, so she got a big whack on her bum. I have found that time-outs work out much better for me when I am disciplining her, but until today, I don't think Brett has completely shared in that. Not because he disagrees, but he really doesn't have to discipline her a lot because he is working.

Anyway...

After the crying had stopped, Sydney came upstairs and into my room to get ready to go. Her face was flushed from crying and I asked her what had happened. (I was in my room when all of this happened so I didn't know the details).

She explained to me that she was being naughty and that Dad had spanked her. Then the conversation went something like this:

Sydney : "Mom, it's like he spanked Jesus."

Me: "What?"

Sydney: "You know, when we do things to people it is like we are doing them to Jesus. So, it's like he spanked Jesus."

Ouch!

Making Memories

Today is Ryan's 3rd Grade class party. I am the room mom for his class and since we have VERY few mothers who signed up to help, I signed up for the Christmas party.

Let me just preface my comments by, yes I know I am an idiot.

Ahem,

I made the suggestion that we might want to make gingerbread houses. I did that for Ryan's class in 1st Grade, and I've learned some things since then so thought it might be fun.

Well....then I found out that I only had one other mom helping. Ahh, good for me! I e-mailed the teacher and let her know with such little help, doing gingerbread houses probably wasn't a great idea anymore.


Well...then I called the other mom that signed up to help and she really wanted to do gingerbread houses, and maybe we could get more help

and....

Then I got another e-mail from the teacher saying that she could get more help....

So, I asked Ryan when he got home from school what he thought we should do for his Christmas part at school and he said "My teacher said we were decorating gingerbread houses."

So....

Over the past week I have baked, cut out and assembled 25 gingerbread houses. It was not a cheap endeavor. It took a LOT of my time.

And...

It's all about Making Memories.

Magic and Tradition

I'm a little behind in updating my blog, so here go a few updates Enjoy.

For years my family has had the tradition of taking Santa to needy girls and boys, families, elderly, friends, etc. There has only been one year out of probably 20 that I haven't had Santa to take around to my heart's content.

Sometimes our visits are the last a person ever gets from Santa Claus.

This year we were able to pick up our tradition and take Santa to some friends. I always love getting the special visit. Sometimes I get to enter the homes with Santa, but most of the time the fun comes when Santa gets back into the car with us and tells us of the fun he had inside. Since we live far away from Santa's home, many people don't know who he is, thus making the joy even better.

I know who he is though, and I know the families in our neighborhood. It's all about the Magic and the Tradition.

Thanks Santa.

Turkey

Tonight I did some mindless TV watching. I enjoy watching the 'how it was made' shows. Well, tonight it showed all of the things you can do with turkeys.

I had no idea you could use nearly EVERY part of a turkey. They even fry up the turkey version of Rocky Mountain Oysters. They say they taste like popcorn shrimp. Surprisingly not chicken.

I'll stick to the traditional turkey breast, Brett can have the legs, and no thanks on the turkey left overs.