What kind of mom are you?

A few days ago my sweet friend over at The-Good-Steward shared a post from another blogger mom about what kind of mom she is.  I was inspired and have been thinking about this for the last few days.  Every mom is different and we all have our strengths and our weaknesses and in this social media world we too often only see the strengths.  I try my best to be honest here, so I want to share with you what kind of mom I am, the good and the not so good.

I am a snuggle on the couch while we watch shows kind of mom (excuse me while I sneak in a nap).

I am a let you help me cook and then lick the beaters kind of mom.

I am a make you do your chores, even when you don't want to kind of mom.  A forgive me if your stubbornness causes me to yell sometimes kind of mom.

I am a take the kids to plays and concerts so they learn that entertainment doesn't only come from a screen kind of mom.

I am a picnics, car races, puzzles, and read all the stories kind of mom.

I am a teach the scriptures and other things of eternal importance so you can know your Savior (and siblings and ancestors) kind of mom.

I am an oily (as in essential) kind of mom.

I am a bereaved and missing my babies in heaven so I sometimes cry, a lot, kind of mom.

I am not a super organized kind of mom and my house is often messier than I would like.

I am a try to cook dinner every night, but sometimes it just escapes me and we eat out kind of mom.  I am also a throw away the happy meal toys before the kids see them kind of mom (they didn't know most kids meals came with toys until very recently).

I am not a roll with the punches kind of mom, broken plans really mess with me.

I would much rather stay home with my kids than go out kind of mom.

I am a sometimes lose my cool over something seemingly silly kind of mom, because sometimes I let lots of little and big things build up and a needle just breaks this camel's back.

I am a surprise you with a trip to the park or a playdate kind of mom.

I am an attempts to clock out at bedtime kind of mom, who stays up too late trying to squeeze in a little adult time.

I am a sleep in kind of mom.  Early mornings are for the birds.

I am a sing along and dance in the car kind of mom.

I am a stop to blow the dandelions kind of mom.



Now that you know what kind of mom I am please tell me, what kind of mom are you???

Circle Time

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time getting going in the mornings.  I have always been a night owl and when that alarm goes off in the morning all I want to do is chuck it against a wall and wrap myself back up in the blankets/Lawrence’s arms.  Unfortunately kids don’t usually get that, jobs require people to be on time, and dogs need let outside, so I do eventually drag myself out of bed.  The dogs get out, the kids get fed, the husband gets off to work, and I’m left to manage our schedule the rest of the day.

Our display board

For a long time it looked something like this:  7:30-8ish- kids get up, I roll out of bed, 8ish-9ish- feed kids and send Lawrence off to work, 9ish-10ish kids get dressed, I take shower, kids play, then sometime between 10:30 and 11 we were finally ready to start our day’s activities. Getting the kids started on school work was almost always a fight. They had been having lots of fun playing and didn’t want to quit, they were hungry for a snack, and school work just isn’t as much fun.  I was getting so tired of always fighting about this and looking for a new, fun way to kick off our school time.  Enter The Homeschool Sisters’ podcast.

Monday: music

Tuesday: shapes and colors

I had been following Cait at My Little Poppies for about a year and finally subscribed to a podcast she does with another homeschool mom, Kara. They answer questions, share stories and strategies, and interview other homeschoolers, advocates, and teachers to support and help the homeschooling community.  I was scrolling through the episodes of their podcast, looking for ones that sparked my interest, when I saw one titled “Creating a Morning Time Routine.” THIS! This is what I needed, help organizing my mornings better. So I listened, and I found that it was something I could do, even something I had kind of already done when we were in the preschool years.  Basically Morning Time is a time to gather all the kiddos and do some simple and fun learning activities all together. Instead of breaking us all up for our individual tasks before we get going on our more formal learning.  We sit down together and sing songs, read stories, do puzzles, listen to music, and learn.  It came so naturally!

Wednesday: states and capitals

I want to share how we do it. Keep in mind, this is how we do it, Morning Time, or as we call it Circle Time, can look different for everyone; you do you.  These are just some of my ideas.  Back when we did a preschool co-op I made this board (see above) with a weather center, calendar, shapes and letters on it.  It was a foam core poster with a holographic side and a white side and I taped all my things on the holographic side so they would come off without tearing up the poster board, it worked great! When we transitioned to kindergarten I modified the board and added a laminated calendar that I could re-use, a Pledge of Allegiance, and a list of the months of the year.  Since then some things have come off and I put up other learning graphics as we worked on different things. We start Circle Time when I play the song “The Greatest Show” (Greatest Showman), which signals to the kids that it is time to head downstairs and gather on a rug.  They can sing, dance, and play until he song is over, then it is time to sit.  I swipe an essential oil roller to help with focus across the backs of each of their necks then we do the Pledge, check the weather and mark it on the board, talk about the date, sing a few songs, work on memorizing an Article of Faith, then each day gets a different learning activity.  Monday we do music, Tuesday is shapes and colors, Wednesday we work on learning the states and capitals, Thursday we practice Spanish, and Friday we play a game.  I tried to include acticvities for all my kids and the things they are working on, but that they can also all do together and enjoy.  We use puzzles, songs, books, and move a lot (the pictures are just a few of the resources we use).

Thursday: Spanish

Friday: games

This has transformed our mornings (mostly)! The kids get excited when they hear the Circle Time song and race to the basement.  We have fun doing activities together, that also help the kids all learn, and we transition into regular schoolwork easier.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still mornings when there’s grumbling, and we do our best to work through that, but for the most part we get into school earlier, faster, and easier when we start with circle time.  The nice thing about it is that it is super flexible, so if we have a field trip, an appointment, or we get sidetracked we can skip a day and it doesn’t matter a ton, but when we do skip it the kids miss it and remind me that we missed it.  I love that we can change it up at any time if we need too.  If the kids are getting bored with the music stuff we're doing we can choose a different way to do it, or even a different subject or activity, it's so flexible!  I love that it gets the kids excited to learn and get going in the mornings.  I'm still working on getting out of bed and getting us started a little earlier in the day, but whether we get started at 11 or at 9 Circle Time will be there to get us started and get my kids excited to learn.





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The Name

Each of our children's names have special meaning.  Both Mr. E and Baby J have family names, Ethne's first name is also a family name.  So when it came to choosing a name for our new Princess we searched for something that would also have some meaning.  Lawrence and I tossed around a few names before landing on one that we both really loved.  But then we remembered that some dear friends had recently named their daughter the same thing.  After really feeling that this was the name we wanted and finding out that we would be having a girl I asked our friends if it would be okay for us to use the name too, they kindly agreed.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise;

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

Thou stock-dove whose echo resounds thro' the glen,

Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,

Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forebear,

I charge you disturb not my slumbering fair.

How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighboring hills,

Far mark'd with the courses of clear winding rills,

There daily I wander as noon rises high

My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye.

How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,

Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow;

There oft as mild Ev'ning weeps over the lea

The sweet scented birk shades my Mary and me.

Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,

And winds by the cot where my Mary resides,

How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,

As gathering sweet flow'rets she stems thy clear wave.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays,

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

~Robert Burns, Nickel Creek

When we found out that baby would be a girl some people asked us if we would memorialize Ethne in her name.  The idea appealed to me, but we wanted her to have her own name, and not one that would place expectations on her.  A few years ago we had an experience with this song that created a lasting love for it and a treasured memory that involved Ethne.  I posted briefly about it here.  And thus we named our newest addition Afton.  It's a name with deep meaning for us that calls to mind beautiful memories of many loved ones that have gone before us, including Ethne.

But for blogging purposes we will call her Princess A.

The Birth

My first labor started in the wee small hours of the morning with my water breaking and lasted 20+ hours.  With Mr. E it started fairly early, and lasted about 11 hours.  Baby J's was a rather exciting start and it went about 6.  Baby girl's labor really started at about 3:30 in the morning, but We didn't get to the hospital for 5 more hours, she came less than 3 hours later.

On May 23 I woke up at 3:30 am to do that thing that pregnant women do often.  On my way I felt a trickle run down my leg and suspected my water had broken.  They tell you that if you aren't sure it's your water that you should lay down for a while, at least 20 minutes, and if you have more when you get back up then it's definitely your water, so that's what I did, and by all appearances it wasn't my water.  At this point I couldn't sleep any more, I tried, but I just kept tossing and turning.  About two hours later I started having pretty intense contractions, they were tough to breathe and talk through, but not super regular or close enough together.  Lawrence woke up and asked if he should get the boys up, I told him not to.  About 6:30 I started packing my hospital bag, it was on the to-do list and I wasn't sleeping, so why not?  Lawrence watched me stop every 8 or so minutes for a contraction.  I still didn't want him to get the boys since I didn't really think this was it, I was NOT about to get sent home for false labor.  The boys woke up at their usual time, 8am and as they did so I raced to the bathroom, this time I was sure it was my water.  I called my mom, finished packing, loaded the kids in the car, and we were off to the hospital.  When we got there the nurses got me into triage, checked me out and informed me that I was much further along than I thought I was.  They rushed me to a delivery room and called anesthesia as quickly as they could.  My epidural went in at about 9:30.  I was able to rest a little, have an Italian ice, and soon it was time to push.  My doctor was still out of town, so the on-call doctor had to deliver Baby Girl.  After my first push it became apparent to me that the epidural wasn't quite working right, I could feel everything except the contractions.  Two pushes (and a lot of encouraging talk from Lawrence and the nurses) later Baby Girl came out screaming.  I held her on my chest and cried.

She was perfect, ten fingers, ten toes, a face just like her siblings, 8 lbs. 1oz (my smallest), 20.5 inches long, and dark hair.  That's right, dark, like my natural color, no real hint of red.  To say we were surprised would be an understatement.  It was certainly not a bad surprise, and she is beautiful. She nursed great and slept well, and just begged to be snuggled.

Then came the wait.  Before J was born I never thought I would pray for something like a stinky diaper, but here I was, praying hard for that very thing.  After about 12 hours I started to get really nervous.  Then, at about 18 hours old it happened, and we had a little party.  Yep, I said it, we had a celebration for a poopy diaper.

After that we were allowed to go home, we stayed in the hospital just over 24 hours.

Mr. E and Baby J (He needs a new nickname) are head over heels in love with their baby sister, they think she is "SOOO cute!" and we tend to agree.