What do you do all day?

Days like yesterday are the norm for a stay at home mom. These are days where you don't know where you would find the time to GO to work! I got up yesterday at 6:30 am and put a load of clothes in the washer and one in the dryer. I finished loading the dishwasher and started it. Then I got the coffee pot ready and waited on its caffeinated goodness to finish percolating. I didn't cook breakfast yesterday morning, so that was a little quicker. We just did frozen waffles. I folded a load of clothes and sipped my coffee.
By this time it was a little after 7 am so time to get Mady and usually Jack up. Mady got up fine, big Jack decided to sleep in. Enjoy it while you can man! So Madalynn and I go downstairs and I talk to her while she eats her 2 1/2 waffles with honey. (Personally, Yuck! honey, I am not a fan. The kids get that from their daddy.) We then go back upstairs and she gets dressed while I make our bed and her bed and I finish getting ready. We do hair and wake Jack up in time to catch the big black bus to take Mady to school. (The big black bus is what I called our suburban when Madalynn asked if she could ride the school bus to school. She was disappointed to find out it was just our car.) Anyway, we head off to school to drop her off. I just want to say the car drop off line is WONDERFUL! I love it. I have always had to get up extra early to do hair and makeup so I could walk her into preschool without shame...no more.
Jack and I return home and I fix him a waffle and straighten up the house. I get him dressed and make his bed. I plan out our menu for the week and get my grocery lists together. I sort through a bunch of recycling and get hangers together to take back to the cleaners. I start another load of clothes.
About 11 we head out to do our running around. We drop shopping bags off at Kroger because I had a huge amount of them and didn't have room to wait until we went to shop. We went to the dry cleaners and the recycling center. Then we headed to Lowe's to return the gas grill burners I had bought because they were the wrong kind. We head to Kroger to do the grocery shopping. I am forced to get one of the "racecar" grocery carts. I hate those things. I always feel like I am driving the grocery store equivalent of an 18 wheeler down a six foot aisle. Jack loves them though. I usually put him off by telling him we only had a few things to get. On this day I was not so lucky. We finally get done shopping.
I run through the drivethru at Sonic because when we walk in the door I want to have something to slap on the table. So about 1 pm we finally get home to eat a quick bite and get Jack a nap in. I get about a 20 min nap after putting all the groceries away. We get up from nap and head to get in the car line to pick Madalynn up. I come home go over what is in her folder, question her about her day, the kids have a snack, and then I make them go outside to play. The weather here the last couple of days has been spectacular!! I fold a few loads of laundry. I am the room mother in Mady's class and have needed to write my parent letter for about 4 days so I go upstairs and finally get that done. I clean up the playroom...again. Mainly because my children think it is an Olympic qualifying sport to see how fast a toy room can be trashed. By this time I need to start supper. Lasagna, rolls, and salad. I had laid out the rolls earlier in the day, so they were ready to bake. By the time dinner is done, it is 6:45pm. We eat, I clean up our dishes and then head out to start mowing the yard.
I mow while Jeremy takes Jack on a walk. He returns and asks if I want to go to Walmart. I want to go to the tanning bed and it is next door to Walmart,so we load up. Well, as we turn into the Walmart parking lot, Jacks says he needs to pee pee. About 1 minute later, as the vehicle comes to a stop we find out he has already peed in his clothes and car seat. So Jeremy and the crew wait while I tan since Jack now has wet clothes. I return and Jeremy goes into Walmart to get his hunting license and other assorted hunting paraphernalia. By this time it is after 9! My kids are usually bathed and ready or in bed by this time. We can't very well skip the bath since Jack wet his pants so we do a quick bath and get PJs on. I just read a page from the Bible ABCs book and we say our prayers and the kids go to bed. I put away laundry, get myself a shower, and clean up supper.
I fall into bed about 11:45 pm.

So when someone asks with curiosity or wonder "What do you do all day?" sometimes I would like to punch them.

Random Thoughts

Well, we are about to start the third full week of school around the Whitman household! I'll be honest, I didn't get alot done around here the first week and a half. I just felt weird without Mady here! She usually is my shadow and is never at a loss for something to say... or three things to say at one time! Jack and I both missed her terribly at first. He kept saying things like when we went to McDonalds to get him a sausage and biscuit - "Mady don't need one, she at school." If I cooked anything during the day he thought it was supper and worried that "Mady no eat supper?" He still brings me toys. "I brought one for me and eww (you) one too. So I know he was lonely at first. You have got to think that he is almost 3 and this is the first time the two of us have been alone together for an extended period of time. When Madalynn was in Mother's Day Outs 2-3 mornings a week, A. We were running errands or B. He was in school too. We have never had just normal days of being alone together. One morning that first week, we sat on the couch and watched Cars. I haven't just sat and watched an entire movie since before I had kids! I am enjoying our time though. Every child needs time one on one with their parents. Jeremy hasn't been terribly busy and he has taken Jack to work with him for a few hours at a time. Jack loves that.
It seems like while we were on vacation he really took up with his Daddy. We had the great-grandparents along on the vacation and one night he and Madalynn both came back to the hotel to stay with us!
I have to get started planning on what we are doing for his 3rd birthday. It is about a month away and I think we will be traveling to West TN that night and visit for the weekend. Not sure yet what we are doing though. Maybe a construction vehicle theme. We did a tractor theme last year. I may even buy a cake pan and make his cake again this year. Last year the tractor cake I did turned out really well.
I am supposed to be the room mother in Madalynn's class this year. So I hope it works to bring Jack along! I have got to get my letter to parents done...tomorrow. I also want to get my menu for the week done. Plus the ironing of M's uniforms for school. We have had 2 birthday parties this week. School, family was visiting last weekend. My garden is finishing up. Playdates with Jack's friends Nico and Zachary. Plus all the "normal" stuff. Lots to do, lots to do.

Our First Day of Kindergarten!

Whew! I am glad that is over and no tears were even shed! This is a major feat both for Madalynn and myself. I have to admit there were times I feared that we would ALL be crying like babies. No so though!

Jeremy was able to come back home in time to drive to school with us. (It is only a few miles from our house.) We walked in and she was the first to arrive in her classroom. The room looked very cute! Their class mascot is the monkeys. That is perfect for kindergartners. We tried not to stay long, but long enough. As parents, you often have to find the line between just long enough and too long. Stay too long and the waterworks are sure to start. She was supposed to have a friend from preschool in her class, but she is a twin and the mom wanted to separate them so of course the girl was the one switched out. I wasn't sure this would go over well with Madalynn, but she did fine.



I hope we have made the right decision about the school she goes to. We chose a small private Christian school here in town versus the public school. I am not against public school and I never thought I would send my kids to private school, but with the public schools we were looking at upwards of 25 kids in a class. Mady has 12 in hers. Everybody says "well it is just kindergarten." It is, but I think it still matters. We will see how this year goes. I want to find time to volunteer in her classroom and maybe others so that I can get a first hand look at what goes on and how things are done. That was something that was strange. Before, I have always been on the inside. I knew what the procedures and routines were; now I am a parent on the outside looking in. Getting in depth info from a 5 year old is like questioning a wall so she isn't much help at this age.

Jack ended up going to work with Jeremy when we got back to the house, so I had ...gasp...FREE TIME. I didn't know what to do with myself. I cleaned the playroom, stripped all the beds and put clean sheets on every body's bed, went to tan. Then I just sat around thinking how weird this was. To not have somebody talking to me or strewing toys around that I just picked up. Weird. Maybe I need another baby. I am not sure I like being the parent of a school age child. Makes me sound old. I can't be old...

When we got home, she was bouncing off the walls! Apparently she loved it! Hallelujah, my prayers have been answered! I am not sure how to break it to her that she has to go to school every day for years. :)

OK. I hope I am ready. At least I hope I am getting there. My baby girl, my Peach, my Madalynn Kayte will start school in exactly 2 days! I have purchased all the necessary school supplies. The monogrammed backpack, the crayons, markers, lunchbox, etc. Today Jeremy went to rope with a friend and took the kids with him. I struck out to Wal-mart to get last minute breakfast and lunch box items.

She is not excited...AT ALL! I have tried to tell her that she already knows some of the kids in her class, she will love it, it will be so fun, that this is the year she will begin to read- on her own, and she will be a Big Girl now! The other part of me wants to cry all the time and tell her ..."You are right! Let's just not go!"
I worked for about 2 months after she was born during which time I brought her to school with me in the afternoons and then was off for the summer. (I taught elementary school.) Then I taught school for a year longer. When we moved to Kentucky, I never went back to teaching. I hated the idea of being in a new state and knowing not a soul in this town and certainly having absolutely no one I would trust to take care of my baby like I could. It was hard - in more ways than one! We were lucky to have savings from when we both worked and had no living expenses. (That is another story) If we hadn't had money in the bank I would have had to go to work doing something. I also wasn't used to being alone with a small child ALL DAY EVERY DAY! It was hard. but like everyone says "If you can stay home when your kids are little, you should!" That is so true. The past 5 years have flown by!

I have been very conscious of this being our last summer of freedom. We have taken trips- Dollywood, Tennessee to see family, Knoxville to the zoo, and Yellowstone National Park. We have camped out, roasted marshmallows, and slept late. We have watched movies, ridden horses, and attended the "Happy Hour" at Sonic more than once. We have played in the pool, had picnics, and playdates at the park. It just isn't enough though. I am not ready to loose this wonderful freedom we have had, she and I, for the last 5 years. Sure we had days of appointments and days of preschool at mother's day out, but nothing like this 13 year journey we are embarking on.




I am trying to keep up a good front like all moms of kindergartners do. I am planning to decorate the kitchen like I do for birthdays, complete with streamers and balloons for the big day. I am baking a cake with pink icing just for her. I want it to be a party. I couldn't feel less like being happy or partying, but that is what moms do. They make it all look hopeful and fun and exciting, when inside they just want to crawl into bed and cry all day that day... that day their baby goes off into the big world. I pray that we have made the right decision on where to send her to school. I hope she opens up and just blooms into this beautiful little person who loves to learn when she is there. I hope we get really lucky and she loves it from the get go. I hope I can say the right things if she doesn't. I hope she knows how much I will miss seeing her face between the hours of 8:30 and 3:30 each day and hearing her constant chatter in the house.
Her world will never be the same and mine won't either. I hope she knows that when I turn and leave Wednesday morning, I will hate to go as much or more than she hates to see me go.

Jack's First Playdate

Today was a busy one, but a good one. I have a friend from church that was suddenly sick and needed a babysitter at the last minute. We had already planned to get together with another friend later today and take the kids to the park. So I got up earlier than I usually do and kept her little boy who is Jack's age till about 10 am. We played with Jack's tractors, ate pancakes, and watched a little Dora on TV. Then we all got our picnics and headed to the park. I would have never found it if Karen hadn't been leading the way. We had a really good time. The boys and Mady played for a while and then we ate lunch. We headed home about 1 o'clock. I had a really great time today and hope I can invite them all over for a play day here. they both live in neighborhoods in town and have small yards. We live on the farm and have a gated space with plenty of room to run around. The kids could play with the toys in the playroom, the swing set, even the little pool if we were feeling brave.

We went to the grocery store and picked up a few things and then took a nice nap. Once the kids were up they played outside with the new kittens. Jeremy was nice enough to bring home 2 kittens yesterday. After all I had only told Madalynn about 1,000 times that we would get a cat when we had a barn. I asked him the afternoon he brought them home if he had purchased some property I didn't know about. (He had not.) I worked on dinner and enjoyed a quiet house for a few minutes.

After dinner we all rode around looking for a farm Jeremy had heard about. We didn't find it. The kids went with Jeremy to sit on one of the farm's tractors. While they were doing that I sprayed some round-up, mowed just a bit, and harvested my zucchini crop. I had a few that were so big they were scary when I lifted up the leaves. I had no idea they were ready, let alone of huge proportions! When the kids got back we all roasted a few marshmallows and then came in for baths and bed.

I think I am going to make it

I have had the crud all week this week and part of last week. I first thought it was just a runny nose Jack had had earlier last week. Apparently not. I have had full blown stuffy/ runny nose, coughing, sore throat, sneezing, headaches, and ears that feel like they need to pop but won't. I am glad to report though, I am MUCH better today. Finally! There is nothing that makes me appreciate being healthy more than a few days of being sick! We all that are healthy need to realize how big a blessing our health is. Jeremy and I both know how quickly that can change.

Anyway, I have actually felt good enough to catch up or attempt to catch up on our laundry. All moms know - one day down and it begins to heap up. I have experienced what 4-5 days of that can look like in the past week. It looks a lot better around here now. I weeded in the garden, straightened the kitchen, dealt with the builder who was here working on our front door lock, worked on some school type stuff with Mady and run a few errands today. In addition to the required feeding and tending of children. Those two things I just can't get away from.

We will miss tonight at Bible school though. I have missed all week, but the kids have been attending. Jeremy said he would probably be working late tonight since he was off yesterday. He has been picking up the kids after I drive them to church and drop them off. I was supposed to be helping this week. My assigned duties were to be the 1 year olds, the 2 year olds, or refreshments. In the state of my health this week, not a good idea. I appreciate sick people trying to keep their germs to themselves, so I am trying to follow this advice. I am not obsessive about it, I just hate to have healthy children that get exposed to people that know they are sick and choose to be around others anyway. I am still coughing like I have TB so I didn't figure I need to go spread germs all over small children. The kids technically don't know they aren't getting to go tonight. I know there will be a certain 5 year old that will have quite the dramatic reaction when given this information and I am delaying that performance as long as possible.

The weather has been great here this week, so I hate that I haven't felt like doing more. It would have been a good week to go to the park or something, but I just haven't had the energy. I weeded a little in the garden today and dug potatoes Monday night. The rest of my garden seems to be in slow motion. It will probably all be ready the week we are in Wyoming. Temperatures of 70's and 80's in late June and early July just don't happen that often. Oh well, I am just thankful I am feeling better and it isn't something more serious.

Summer Time

We have been having so much fun lately. I don't know if it is because I have kids that are older this summer or the knowledge that one of them will go off to "real" school this fall or what, but I am really enjoying our summer this year.

We have traveled to an amusement park and stayed in a hotel, visited family, camped out, attended VBS, swam and played with friends, enjoyed cookouts, and enjoyed sleeping in the past few weeks. We also each took one child on a date this past week. Jack and I went to sit on tractors at the local dealership and Jeremy and Madalynn ate at Applebee's complete with dessert.


Jeremy actually took me on a date Saturday night too! I was so impressed. We went to eat at Steak n' Shake, to Kohls's and looked around, (he never goes shopping) and then to a movie. It was so fun! If I hadn't been sick we would have really had a good time. I hope he does this more! I keep asking what he has done, because this is highly unusual! (ha ha) He has been very good yesterday and today about offering to go get the kids at VBS so that they didn't have to miss or me spend 30-40 min on the road dropping them off and picking them up. He also had a day off today. THE FIRST DAY OFF IN THE YEAR 2009! He had camped with Madalynn last night. (Although they got an early morning wake up call courtesy of Dr. Caleb! Gotta love being a veterinarian) Anyway, we all went to Cracker Barrel and had a good breakfast this morning.

We have attended a rodeo here in Georgetown and the kids and I have been to rope with Jeremy a couple of times. We are also doing the summer reading program at the library and trying to do a little "schoolwork" so that Jack and Mady's minds stay somewhat focused.




We still have our real vacation to Yellowstone National Park yet to go later in July. I am dreading the worry of the flight, or should I say FLIGHTS but other than that it should be fun. We are meeting Jeremy's grandparents out there. They are driving out with some of their friends and staying in their camper trailer. I just hope my kids don't get eaten by a bear or something. Jeremy wants to let the kids stay with the grandparents, but I have reservations. (No pun intended) I just don't know that all of us folks from West Tennessee, especially the older ones, take the threat of wildlife that could eat you seriously enough. I would feel better knowing I was the one in charge of keeping a close eye on them. I think bears are less likely to be found in hotels than in campgrounds.

I have apparently been blessed with the crud. In summer no less! I really didn't feel good yesterday, but the weather was great and so I fixed up an old sheet as a "tent" in the yard and made the kids a picnic lunch. They loved it. Jack at one point had taken his John Deere pedal car out to the tent and had it parked underneath. Priorities you know!





I am trying to enjoy each day with my little ones, because I realize it will all too soon be just a memory. It won't matter if my laundry was caught up (it never is), or if my house was clean, or even if we had leftovers or fast food for supper. I want my kids to remember the things we did with them.

Summer Fun

Well, I must suck at writing more than once a month, because here I have done it again. I think I might do better if my computer were downstairs or if I had a laptop. Those might just be excuses though.

Jack is up to his normal tricks. He has fallen several times and sported various bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Last week it was a HUGE knot on his head from falling out of a kitchen chair onto the tile kitchen floor. This week it is a big lip from falling out of the swing. He wasted no time on this one. We got home from running errands I walked in the garage door the kids went around back. I used the restroom and by the time I could do that and walk around to the kitchen he had already managed to fall out of the swing and bite/bust his lip. It looks terrible, both inside his mouth and on the outside. (He likes to do things up big!) He is also quite mouthy. He likes to say naughty words and talk back to me. This is not cute at all. He does have moments where he redeems himself though. We were driving the other day and out of the blue he says "I love you Madalynn". How sweet!

Madalynn has learned to ride a bike with no training wheels and managed to have the worst bicycle wreck I have personally seen. That is not saying much, but it was a terrible accident. She and I were riding bikes behind the house and I made a real dumb decision to ride down a hill, figuring if it was too much for her she would drag her feet and slow herself down. Not so much. She also wasn't wearing a helmet. She had quit wearing it around the house and I forgot to make her put it on before we left to ride around on the farm. (It is pretty hilly, so I was really stupid for forgetting the helmet.) She fell and had a bad scratch on her elbow and scratched up her face, busted her lip. (The lip was so big it really changed her looks as it swelled up.) She was very upset about how this made her look! She is fine now and you can barely tell anything happened.

Last week I took the kids to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a few days after Madalynn finished up preschool. I had my doubts about taking 2 kids on a trip by myself, but it was all for nothing. We had a great time!! I really wasn't ready to come home and neither were the kids. We got to relax, have fun with an old teaching buddy of mine and her boys, and swim! Three things we don't seem to do often enough. Poor Daddy had to stay at home and work. He was also about as sick as he has ever been so we missed that! It was a really fun trip and I can't wait to do it again! It was cheaper to buy season passes than tickets for two days so that is what we did. Now we must go back!

Look Mom Two Wheels!

I originally wrote this post back in May. I am not sure why I never published it? Maybe I didn't have my camera handy to download pictures?


I have to brag on my little girl! She turned 5 in February. Well, Wednesday (May 20, 2009) we took the training wheels off the bicycle she has had since she was 2 1/2. I had finally gotten my bike down and was riding it. She decided she wanted to take the training wheels off of her bike to be like Mommy. On Wednesday she got pretty good at riding with me holding onto the bike and for a few seconds at a time on her own. Steering wasn't much of a priority for her yet.

Yesterday, Thursday, I explained that the next step was for her to learn to get herself started.

This initially didn't go over very well with her. After all, what could her mother have to do that is more important than bending in half and running alongside a tiny bicycle for an hour? The housework fairy comes in and does all the cooking, cleaning, errands, bill paying, laundry, etc. ...right?! Well, after catching her in a dramatic moment out in the driveway crying because I "wouldn't help her", I informed her that she could always just put the bike away. Apparently, her calmer side prevailed and she began to practice pushing herself off to get started.

Well, this morning I have been watching my beautiful 5 year old daughter ride her 2 wheeler all by herself! She is so awesome! There is no limit to what she can accomplish when she puts her mind to it. I am so proud of her!

She has a goal in mind, though. Next Wednesday is the last day of preschool and the kids are allowed to take their bikes. She wants to be able to show Mrs. Tiffany her newly found skills. We will see...

This week...

Well, so much for being good about posting regularly. Oh, well, such is my life. For someone who from all appearances should have a life conducive to having a regular schedule, I most certainly do NOT. Since the last post, Mady did lose that tooth and didn't freak out quite as badly as I had imagined. She was very impressed with the gold dollar coin that the tooth fairy left since it was her very first tooth. I made sure to tell her that this may or may not be the case every time she loses a tooth. I am unsure if the tooth fairy has access to gold dollar coins for all teeth or just the first one.

This has not been the best week. My Mother's Day was not what I had envisioned. My husband who had been getting home around 3 or 4 in the afternoon on Sundays, did not get home until 6:30 pm. It had been a beautiful day and I had hoped maybe since the kids aren't baby babies anymore I might get to do something with my family - Including the HUSBAND. Don't get me wrong, but at this stage, I see my children all day everyday. I do not see my husband very often. This was not to be.

Well, our anniversary is May 11th, but based on most of what my husband did that day you could not tell it. For him it was just another day. From a woman's perspective that doesn't hate her husband's guts, this should be a special day. He knows that he doesn't have to spend a lot of money, but a little effort, a nice card, that is MY minimum. On this, our 13th anniversary, I got a whole lot of nothing. He will claim he said Happy Anniversary back to me when I said it as he was leaving for work and I got an invitation to a stressful dinner out with 2 misbehaving kids. Not the picture of romance I was hoping for. I made a comment with my level of pleasure of the Mother's Day/Anniversary combo this year on Facebook. He was less than thrilled at being (in his words) "slammed" on FB. I wanted him to know how disappointed I was and since I see him awake without kids around about 5-10 minutes a day, I did not get the chance to tell him to his face. Let's face it, during those 5-10 min he is usually working on going to sleep.

This time of year is so stressful for us. He thinks he is the only one that has any right to be stressed though. He has never been one that is good at putting himself in another's shoes. He doesn't think I have anything to complain about. I understand getting up at 4 or 5 am and working until 7 or 8 pm is not a walk in the park. He does this 7 days a week. (He works 7 days a week most of the year for that matter, but the start and ending time vary a little. ) Neither is dealing with two kids that don't see nearly enough of their father and proceed to act like freaks when he does walk in the door. Kids need more time with their father. Jeremy thinks that by working like this he can make us more able to afford a farm for the kids to grow up on. I am worried that while he is working himself to death, the kids are growing up without him.

I will be honest, I wish we still connected as a couple. We don't see enough of each other to do that. The kids went to Tennessee and stayed with Jeremy's grandparents for a few days the first part of May so I could go to the Oaks and so our kids could make an appearance at the decoration at the church Jeremy's family attends. I loved it this year. Last year all I did was cry because I was not used to being at our house without them. This year, I would have probably enjoyed more time apart. During those few days it felt like Jeremy and I were the old us. It was great. He invited me to ride along to some of his farms, we went out for a nice dinner. It felt like we were friends again. I usually feel like everybody's mama because he is too tired to do anything when he gets home. So instead of his arrival from work taking the pressure off, it just seems to compound it.

I can't make him see that while his job affords us a lot of things, it creates at least as many problems for our family. I bought The Power of a Praying Wife and it was a great book. I am going to try and read it again and hope it gives me a better outlook this time of year. I bought The Power of a Praying Husband and wanted him to read it. He ignored the book on the nightstand for months. I finally just placed it in a drawer. I bought a book a few weeks ago, that has tips from couples who have been married for 50 years and asked him to read a page a night. He has yet to read page one. I have tried talking to him and he only sees it as criticism and nagging. I just don't know what to do.

Also, this week, my father who has remarried proceeded to place a headstone for his current wife NEXT to my mother! Not on his side of the double headstone they have, on my mother's side. #1 He is her 4th husband, this may or may not last. #2 he placed the current wife next to the dead wife the week before Mother's Day. My sister saw it for the first time on Mother's Day when she went to put flowers on our mother's grave. How classy is that. Who does that for a 50 something year old woman when she is healthy and on her 4th husband?! That is what my family has become- a bunch of people who are led by spite. They want to keep things stirred constantly. I am so tired of this. I am able to distance myself both physically and otherwise, but my little sister isn't able to do this as easily. I really hate that for her.

We have a little baby at church, cute as she could be whose daddy found her blue and not breathing the day after mother's day. They got her revived with CPR, she was taken to the hospital. The outlook was never good, she was having seizures and had to be sedated. She passed away last night. Her parents are a young couple whose parents both attend our church. They had grown up in church together. It was their first baby. She had a head full of hair and pretty blue eyes. She was 5 months old and is gone. She was a healthy baby Sunday.

It has not been a good week. I hope for a better week next week. I am thankful I still have a husband even if our situation is a lot less than ideal. I have 2 healthy kids and I thank God for that in my prayers every night. Jack took a fall down the stairs last week and I am thankful it isn't us planning a life with an impaired child or a funeral. You just never know...

Be thankful for what you have; you could have it so much worse.