Is there an app for that?

As a mother of four children I'm more than a little familiar with potty training, and thankfully those days are behind me now.  Before today I would have told you I've lived through enough that nothing in the realm of potty training would surprise me.  That changed when I learned of the existence of this product:

  

An iPotty!

You'll be glad to know it has a touchscreen protector to guard against "smudges and messy hands".  Because we all know potty training is not clean business by any stretch of the imagination!

Someday my kids will be able to tell their own children, "When I was learning to use the potty all I could do was read board books and listen to my mom sing the 'potty song'. "  What poor, deprived little toddlers they were!

Finer Things!

My 3 year old's vivid imagination was back at it this morning, but instead of being a baby bird I needed to feed worms, today for some reason it was all about hatching eggs. As in, "Mommy! Come see! The baby chick is hatching! Quick cover it up to keep it warm!" And there he'd be curled up in a tight ball and then suddenly he'd pop up - hatched! By 7:55 am I'd already hatched a chicken egg, a penguin egg, a snake egg, and a crocodile egg!

What can I say? It's a glamorous job!

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Speaking of the 3 year old, I found his new habit of falling asleep on the floor in the hallway during naptime really cute,

until today, when he had a pee-pee accident while sleeping! Now why I don't just put a diaper on him at naptime like we do at night, I have no idea. I guess that would be too easy. Most likely its stubborn mommy syndrome that thinks he shouldn't need diapers at all any more because his big brother and sister were completely done with them by his age, but the little dude? Is a heavy sleeper!

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I found this in my bed recently:
thankfully it is not a real mouse/rat-like thing, but just Num-Nums my daughter's Zhu-Zhu pet. Even so, the electronic hamster will be booted out before I sleep there, I'm not sharing my pillow with anything resembling a rodent!

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I have done many Beth Moore Bible studies where we watch her on video along with discussing the lessons and they are always phenomenal. But, I'd never seen her live until this week. And y'all? It was something! She was fabulous and the place was a sight; imagine a large Southern Baptist church completely filled with women (as in not only did the worship center fill up but there was overflow into the chapel and fellowship hall). I kept commenting on the shear number of women all in one place to my friend who is a veteran of the Beth Moore live Bible Studies and I'm sure she thought I was a nut. But, really it was amazing, awesome, and a little eerie all at the same time! Beth Moore announced that the church had run out of toilet paper and I don't doubt it. We women can use some t.p.!

I went to print off the homework for next week and had to laugh, it's 24 pages! Only Beth Moore can ask a grown-up to do 24 pages of homework in a week! I'll do it, somehow, and be all the better for it!
_____________

Gotta go help my husband track down which of our roughly 12 smoke detectors is doing the high-pitched, low-battery beep!

Happy Friday!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

9 Months 2 Days Waiting, Etc., Etc.

We've now officially been on the waitlist for the child we'll adopt from Ethiopia for 9 months and 2 days!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Only not really! Depending on the day I have a lot to say. Everything from "all in God's timing" to "we should start training to be foster parents in the mean time because this wait may go on forever!!!" But if I'm really honest, as much as I hate the wait, bringing home our girl in the summer (which is how it's looking now) is probably better timing than smack dab in the middle of spring like we expected. In the summer we can really focus on bonding with our girl without all of the running around that goes on for school and extra-curricular activities of our older kids.

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In other news, it's been cold here. No snow like many of you have, but cold by our standards (it even dipped below freezing!!) and we had to dig out some real winter gear.

I have to say, again, I have no idea how you Northern moms do it!!!! The gloves, hats, coats, extra layers of clothes, etc., etc. times how ever many kids you have for months and months on end!!!! This Southern girl couldn't do it! In all likelihood, we'll be back in Crocs and flip-flops next week, which is the thought getting me through the cold spell!
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Oh, and this:

It's how we do hot chocolate around our house. Homemade using this recipe (The best! You have to try it!) with marshmallows and whipped cream, then topped with sprinkles!

Our hot chocolate season is short considering it's usually upwards of 90 degrees outside, so we do it big when we can!

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I'm really excited that my pack-rat daughter seems to have jumped on the January clean-out bandwagon. I told her to go through her cubby (the place my kids keep their random junk that is treasure to them -- think birthday party favors) because it was overflowing. A few minutes later she brought me this and said, "I'm thinking about throwing this away."

It's a used, run out of glow, glow stick bracelet left over from Halloween! Where exactly is the decision here? But to her I said, "I think that is an excellent decision!"

Baby steps, people, baby steps!

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My potty training post got many hits this week, but for those of you who are envious of our potty-trained status, I'd like to share a little glimpse into life post-diapers:

One morning this week when I walked into the bathroom to wipe the 3 year old who had gone #2 in the potty, I stepped in a puddle with my cloth-slippered foot.

I grabbed a bleach-wipe and said to my 3 year old, "Just a second, let me get this, it's a little bit wet."

Then he said, "Yeah, I peed there. . . accidentally."

It was 2 feet from the potty! I knew I'd rue the day I ever let my husband and older son teach him to go pee-pee standing up!

So, we've graduated from pee in the diapers to pee on the floor and on my slippers. The grass is not always greener, my friends!

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Have a wonderful weekend!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

13 Signs you May Be a Potty-Training Mama

Remember my toddler's new year's resolution from 2010?

I'm happy to say he did it! We did it. Potty-trained except for at night. Diapers only at nighttime (although there is the occasional post-naptime sheet change)!!!!

Every time I hear another mom say her child is pretty much potty-trained (it takes a long time before you'll claim them completely potty-trained, am I right?) I say, "Don't you think there should be some sort of award given to the moms (or dads if they are in the thick of the process day in and day out) when they make it through potty-training their kid?"

And I'm serious. Because I know the effort on the parent's part that has gone into that process. The countless trips to the potty, the clothing changes, the washing of urine-soaked and worse clothes, the books read about going potty over and over again, the cheering, the rewarding, the carpet cleaning, the 3 minute car trips that somehow still led to the complete dismantling and washing of the car seat.

It is an experience like none other! Tears and laughter are pretty much guaranteed from both potty-trainer and potty-trainee. But we all make it through, eventually.

So a year away from the trenches I share with you this list I first posted January 2010. We've come a long way Baby!

13 Signs You May Be a Potty-Training Mama:

1. Your 2 year old jumps up in excitement after filling an entire toddler potty with pee-pee, grabs the potty bowl in an eager attempt to dump it into the big potty but accidentally dumps it in your lap instead and you manage to still clap & cheer, "Hooray!!! You went pee-pee in the potty!"

2. You have made up a song that goes, "Pee-pee in the potty, pee-pee in the potty, let's go pee-pee in the potty!"

3. And you sing it loudly whenever your toddler demands.

4. You have also enlisted your older children to join in the chorus!

5. You can quickly calculate the amount of time before your toddler will need to go pee-pee based on the minutes since he last went combined with the critical factors of when he last drank something and volume of beverage consumed!

6. You have washed the car seat cover more times in the last month than in the previous 2 years combined!

7. You begin to think really mean thoughts about the mothers you've heard say, "She just potty-trained herself one day!"

8. You spend a good portion of a day wondering if and worrying that your house smells like urine!

9. When your neighbor stops by you debate asking her if she thinks your house smells like pee, but ultimately you chicken-out.

10. You create a "special seat" which is a folded up towel your toddler must stay on whenever he sits on your couch.

11. You begin rewarding your older children with M&Ms when they go potty in the hopes it will inspire your toddler to do the same!

12. You begin treating yourself to M&Ms when you go potty!

13. When you go potty and your toddler wildly claps and cheers, "Hooray, Mommy, you went pee-pee in the potty!" it occurs to you that nobody else in the entire world would ever praise you for that accomplishment and you are overwhelmed with love and thankfulness for that little potty-training toddler!

Find more Gratituesday here and Tackle it Tuesday here.

Is it really possible to overuse the word "awesome"?

1.

So after the mind-spinning news yesterday that we'll now have to travel twice to Ethiopia for our adoption instead of the expected one trip, and my reminding myself that God is in control and using the Rom. 8:28 verse that He causes all things to work together for good on my blog, I walked into my Thursday Bible Study this morning and what was written across the white board? "God is in control. He is faithful." And the ladies were reading 8 different verses relating to God being in control and faithful, including Rom. 8:28! Is God awesome, or what?

2.

And speaking of God being awesome. The FedEx delivery man brought a very important envelope this afternoon. The FBI clearances we've waited over 10 weeks for!!! And we passed! No criminal records! I wasn't worried about that part, but I was worried after all that waiting they'd send a notice that they couldn't process my fingerprints, like the notice I got from Immigration. So getting the clearances is a huge relief and huge step closer to the waiting list for us. Now we are only waiting on one document -- our approval letter from Citizenship & Immigration Services - then we will go on the wait list and around 5 months after that be matched with a child in Ethiopia. I know there will come a time when I'll get tired of the wait list, but right now it is very much the green grass on the other side of this enormous paperwork process we've been in for nearly 6 months! And no, I don't believe it is a coincidence that we got this key piece of long-awaited paperwork the next day after getting the hard news of Ethiopia now requiring two trips. I believe it was God reaffirming this path we are on towards adoption.

3.

I know you're sad I didn't post another picture of my mail with all its excitement, but I have a consolation prize in the form of a picture of my bathroom! My toddler is now so good at using the potty that I can even send him in to the bathroom to go by himself, which is awesome, until I go in later and it looks like this. . .

4.

And in case you were wondering, yes I did re-roll that toilet paper back onto the spindle to be used and yes, I am too cheap to just rip off the unrolled portion and throw it away! I hope you're thinking, "Awesome, I would so re-roll that t.p. too!" and not "Gross!"

5.

Speaking of the bathroom, my 7 year old ran in a few days ago, peed and yelled, "Mom, something awesome happened! Right when I pulled down my pants I went, so I didn’t have to wait at all!" Me: "Wow, Buddy, that is awesome!"

I don't pretend to understand the mind of a 7 year old boy!

6.

One more funny kid statement for you. My toddler was doing something a little crazy on the stairs and I cautioned, "Be careful." To which he replied, "I try not to go to the hospital, Mommy."

"Awesome, that's really a good goal for us all!"

7.

Spring Break starts tomorrow so I'll be doing some re-publishing of old posts for some of next week to have more time to hang out with my kids. Assuming I survive all the awesome Spring Break fun, I may post some new stuff mid to late next week.

Have an awesome weekend! And feel free to sound off in my comments on the answer to the question asked in the title.

Find more Friday Fragments, Finer Things Friday, 7 Quick Takes Friday.

Find more Friday Funnies at Homesteader's Heart.

Teaching what I don't know

I love Not Me! Monday (a blog carnival created by MckMama) because it gives us all a chance to relate in a real, every day life kind of way. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have NOT been doing - but really have!

Around here (when I was NOT digging through the dirty laundry to retrieve my 6 year old's basketball uniform to present to him to wear as if it were clean):

I did NOT teach my toddler to go pee-pee standing up last week.

I did NOT already complain about the conditions of the bathrooms in my household with 2 people going while standing up, so there is NO WAY I'd encourage the addition of a 3rd person with less than stellar aim! NO, NOT ME!

There was NOT a point where my 2 year old son was poised standing on the stool in front of the potty with me and my 4 year old daughter in there coaching him. "Now lift up the seat like this before you go." "Point it in the potty!" "Maybe you're holding it too tight!" "Make sure it goes in the water not on the side!" "Good! Look, you're doing it!" "Are you sure that's all the pee-pee?" "Then put the seat back down." "And wash your hands!"

His sister and I do NOT expect a thank you note from his wife in about 30 years!

And I do NOT expect the therapy bills in a few years when the trauma of being coached in the bathroom by his mother and his sister come back to haunt my son!

But for now, my toddler is NOT extremely proud of his new ability and was NOT eager to show it off to his Sunday School teacher first thing when I dropped him off this morning!

The First 28 Minutes of My Day

13 Snippets from my morning:

7:00 am - (It is a non-Shred work-out day because I plan to run later in the morning with the jogging stroller.) I wake-up to the sounds of feet pounding down the stairs. I hear my 2 year old telling my husband who is already in the kitchen, "There's dirt in my bed! Somebody need get dirt out!" I instantly know it is not "dirt" in the toddler's bed, but likely poop from an overflowing diaper. Pull covers up to my chin. Do I have to get up?

7:03 am - Realize no other mom is showing up today, so I must do the job. I get up, put on running clothes and begin working on packing 6 year old's lunchbox with all his favorite things, just like the day before

7:10 am - Husband tells me, "He didn't eat any of his lunch yesterday. I unpacked it all last night and just some of the bread was eaten, nothing else."

7:13 am - I'm feeling the joy of packing a lunch that may return to me uneaten. Instead of writing, "Have a SUPER day. Love, Mom" on the napkin for the lunchbox, I write, "EAT YOUR LUNCH! Love, Mom"

7:14 am - Pour myself some cereal and coffee and head into dining room where my 3 children and husband are already happily eating breakfast.

7:15 am - Am OVERWHELMED by the smell of poop! And amazed that everyone is eating and nobody seems at all bothered by the smell! "Does Toddler have a dirty diaper?" I ask (Toddler still wears a diaper for sleeping). "Don't you smell that?!!"

7:16 am - Husband does not, in fact, smell that, but does manage to lean over to check the diaper status of the toddler sitting next to him. "He's not wearing a diaper!"

7:17 am - The realization hits. Toddler got his bath early last night and was put in jammies without a diaper since he'd still be awake for a while. Then when we put him to bed we didn't think to put the diaper on since he usually gets the diaper with the jammies. Suddenly the "dirt" in his bed makes perfect sense to me. My husband still doesn't get it. "Yeah, I didn't know what he meant about the 'dirt'"

7:18 am - Because I have already poured the milk on my cereal and not had even one swallow of coffee, I opt to try to finish a few bites of breakfast before dealing with the situation.

7:19 am - Toddler is done eating, gets out of his chair, and comes over to me. Toddler wants to sit on my lap! Smell is overwhelming! Breakfast is over!

7:21 am - Toddler gets hosed off in the bathtub.

7:25 am - I head into Toddler's room in total fear of what I'll find.

7:28 am - Thankfully not too bad, as poop hunts go anyway (yes, having 3 children it is not my 1st experience with such things). Fairly easily cleaned up, all the while explaining to my 4 year old daughter why there was poop on the floor. Sheets and jammies in the washer on hot with the color-safe bleach. Bathtub needs a bleach treatment, too!

What can I say? It's a glamorous job!


Find more Thankful Thursday & Thursday Thirteen

Potty-Training 102

There are countless articles out there on how to potty-train your child. Pretty much every parenting magazine you pick up will have one.

They will say something like, “Determine readiness, buy a potty, buy a doll that wets, buy your child underwear, let your child teach the doll to use the potty, cheer wildly when the doll uses the potty, give your child a lot of liquids to drink, encourage them to use the potty, when they do give them a “potty party”.

And that is where nearly every article I've seen leaves you. Assuming you have achieved the chain of events described and your child has actually used the potty, you are still far from having a potty-trained child.

And so I wonder where is the next course, Potty-Training 102?

I cannot even begin to describe the amount of material that could be covered in such a class! There is so much craziness that goes on between a child's first use of the potty and being deemed "potty-trained"!

I love the preschool form you have to fill out at the beginning of the year with the question, “Is your child potty-trained?” and there is a check box for “yes” or “no”. Preschool administrators ought to know better, we don't need a check box. Moms need an entire paragraph to be able to answer the question of if their preschool child is potty-trained.

There are all sorts of variations I've seen in my own kids, friends' kids, and the kids I've taught in preschool at church.

“He'll go pee in the potty, but not poop.” “She still wears a pull-up but will occasionally use the potty.” “You have to bribe him to sit on the potty, but once there he may go.” “She is potty-trained, but needs reminders to go.” “He's potty-trained during the day, but still wears a pull-up at night.” or “You must sing a song, while running the sink faucet, and bribing him with matchbox cars before he'll go.”

From my experience potty-training 2 children and in process with the 3rd, Potty Training 102 has 3 phases (all involving M&M rewards):

• 1st phase - Get child very used to going in the potty by having them spend a lot of time there; read books while they sit on the potty, sing songs, even let them watch a TV show while sitting on the potty. With all the time on the potty (and increased fluid intake helps, too) they will become more relaxed about using the potty.

• 2nd phase - You take the child to the potty at fairly regular intervals, like every 30 min. or every hour. They don't sit there very long, but just try. Accidents become less frequent during this phase.

• 3rd phase - You stop reminding your child about the potty and he begins telling you he has to go.

During the transition from stage 2 to stage 3 the accidents actually increase. I know very personally, because that is where my toddler is in the potty-training right now.

When you stop reminding them about the potty even though you know they need to go, it is hard, you are letting your child fail, but they have to learn just how long they can hold it before they need to get to the potty. They need to learn to initiate getting to the potty by themselves.

I'll never forget the hilarious email my 1st son's 3 year old preschool teacher sent out to all the parents after some of the parents complained that their kids were having accidents at school when they rarely did at home.

She said, "If you are regularly taking your child to the potty or reminding them to go, you are the one who is trained, not them."

I am grateful my little guy is actually telling me when he has to go now and that we may actually enjoy some diaper-free days (he'll still wear a diaper at night for a while) here around the Chaos House before child #4 gets here, anyway!

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Find more Gratituesday and Tackle it Tuesday.

Pondering Potty-Training

At least the stuffed bulldog is potty-trained!

Remember my toddler's new year's resolution? Well, we're nearly 1 week in and there has been significant progress, but we are still very much in the thick of the process!

So from the trenches I share with you. . .

13 Signs You May Be a Potty-Training Mama:

1. Your 2 year old jumps up in excitement after filling an entire toddler potty with pee-pee, grabs the potty bowl in an eager attempt to dump it into the big potty but accidentally dumps it in your lap instead and you manage to still clap & cheer, "Hooray!!! You went pee-pee in the potty!"

2. You have made up a song that goes, "Pee-pee in the potty, pee-pee in the potty, let's go pee-pee in the potty!"

3. And you sing it loudly whenever your toddler demands.

4. You have also enlisted your older children to join in the chorus!

5. You can quickly calculate the amount of time before your toddler will need to go pee-pee based on the minutes since he last went combined with the critical factors of when he last drank something and volume of beverage consumed!

6. You have washed the car seat cover more times in the last month than in the previous 2 years combined!

7. You begin to think really mean thoughts about the mothers you've heard say, "She just potty-trained herself one day!"

8. You spend a good portion of a day wondering if and worrying that your house smells like urine!

9. When your neighbor stops by you debate asking her if she thinks your house smells like pee, but ultimately you chicken-out.

10. You create a "special seat" which is a folded up towel your toddler must stay on whenever he sits on your couch.

11. You begin rewarding your older children with M&Ms when they go potty in the hopes it will inspire your toddler to do the same!

12. You begin treating yourself to M&Ms when you go potty!

13. When you go potty and your toddler wildly claps and cheers, "Hooray, Mommy, you went pee-pee in the potty!" it occurs to you that nobody else in the entire world would ever praise you for that accomplishment and you are overwhelmed with love and thankfulness for that little potty-training toddler!


Find more Thankful Thursday, Thursday Thirteen, and Thousand Words Thursday at Cheaper Than Therapy

#1 Sign It's Time to Potty Train Your Toddler

You walk upstairs and find a diaper and pants. You did not take off the toddler's diaper and pants. Your husband did not take off the toddler's diaper and pants. Your 2 older children did not take off the toddler's diaper and pants.


Then you actually catch the toddler in the act of taking off his own diaper!
My daughter started doing this when she was 23 months old. I did 2 cycles of cleaning up #2 that had been spread on more than one surface in my house before I potty-trained her at 24 months! It was either potty train her or figure out a way to duct tape the diaper on!

But the problem is that a few previous attempts at potty-training my toddler have not gone well, which is why he's made it to 2 years and 7 months old and still wearing a diaper when his big brother and sister were potty trained months earlier.

Take my advice and if your kids' preschool offers a special lecture with a guest speaker, an expert, even, on potty-training, don't skip the lecture because you have potty trained 2 children already and feel you know all you need to know in order to train your 3rd child. Don't do it! Or your 3rd child will be like mine and destined to go to college wearing a size 19 diaper!

Find more Wordless or Wordful Wednesday.

What's New?

A fun part about life with kids is there is always something new going on. Or is that the bad thing about life with kids? I guess it depends on what that new thing is!

Seven new things around our house:

1.

My 4 year old daughter just learned to pump herself on the swing. She is so proud, we are so proud, and now she spends a good part of each day doing this!

Is it just me or do little girls like to swing much more than boys? Boys would rather climb and slide and don't have the patience to stick with the swing long enough to actually get themselves going with the pumping.

2.

But, my boy? The 6 year old has entered this phase:


And I love seeing it so much! He's reading chapter books silently to himself, often, and by choice. Sometimes even while standing! We bought The Boxcar Children Books 1-4 at my daughter's school book fair on Monday and he is totally loving them!

3.

For the toddler, he has entered the phase of language development where he realizes the need for past-tense (as in adding -ed to words) but is still not quite sure when and how to do it. Favorite things I've heard him say recently:

"I sleep-did!" meaning, "I slept."

"I hop-did!" meaning "I hopped."

and my absolute favorite:
"I naked-did!" meaning, "I'm naked!"

4.

And speaking of the toddler, at 2 years and 6 months he is not potty trained even though his big sister was at 23 months and his big brother at 2 years and 2 months. I tried. I failed.

But on a positive note, the toddler has been grabbing wipes and wiping himself during dirty diaper changes. So, I've switched my strategy and instead of trying to potty train him, I'm just gonna teach him to change his own diaper!

5.

And this has been going on a lot around here lately. In fact my house is over-run with them. The acorns! They are in piles on kid tables, in envelopes brought home from school, in little baggies, in cups, basically everywhere! Anyone else have little acorn collectors?

6.

Oh, and the Batman turkey. I'm not sure whether to count this as the high or low point of the week. But we did complete the 1st grade family Thanksgiving project. A note came home telling us to cut out the attached turkey and paste it on poster board and then decorate it in a creative way. We embellished our turkey with felt Batman accessories, a cape and mask made of silky fabric, and fabric feathers.

7.

And my husband and I? May or may not be navigating the waters of exactly how much to help on kid school projects. Granted this one did specify it was to be a "fun family project". But still, I draw the line at actually coloring over an area my child had colored just to make it look better. My husband, however, apparently does not have that same line! He may have caved to the pressure of the other turkeys he saw hanging in the school hall that were turned in early (before we even started ours) and looked as he put it, "professionally done, like the parents took it to Michaels and let someone there do it for them!"

Find more Friday Funnies at Homesteader's Heart, Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.

I watched the movie Annie last week with my kids. It was on sale for $5 at Target and I couldn't resist buying it. It was really fun sharing a movie I loved as a kid with my kids. And the unexpected bonus? My 2 year old is hooked on the "Tomorrow Song" and has been randomly breaking out into his own rendition of it and requesting I sing it over and over again!

2.

Speaking of songs, this post from Boo Mama totally takes me back and makes me want to visit iTunes and download some songs I don't hear nearly enough in my 2009 life!

3.

Can you imagine my husband's horror if I suddenly started playing some Survivor, Kenny Logins, or Celine Dion?

4.

Just as soon as I get my kids settled in school, tackle all the spring cleaning I never did, finish potty-training my toddler, jump back into a regular exercise routine, get caught up on a year's worth of photos, and re-volunteer for my volunteer job then I'm totally going to try making one of these shirts. How cool is that idea?

5.

What? Did someone mention potty-training and exercise? My 2 big goals for the summer. 30 Day Shred -- complete; Days 31-90 -- not complete. What can I say? I just got so sick of the video and hearing the same comments and not funny jokes. It is a great workout, but even with there being 3 levels to rotate between, 30 days, every day, in a row is enough to make you sick of just about anything! I need a new exercise video or the temp. outside to drop below 100 degrees so I can run! As for potty-training, as long as my toddler can be naked from the waist down he's potty-trained, very few accidents. But, you put that Bob the Builder underwear on and it will be soaked in minutes. Do you think they'll let me send him to Mother's Day Out wearing nothing from the waist down? Now that would be a finer thing!

6.

One thing I did accomplish this summer, I'm proud to say my 6 year old can now tie his own shoe laces! I thought we'd never get there, but yes, he'll start 1st grade in non-velcro shoes!

7.

Last, grab a couple Kleenex and head over to this post of Megan's. You'll be glad you did!

Find more Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, Hooked on Fridays at Hooked on Houses, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary,

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! In this blog carnival created by MckMama everyone has fun telling all the things they DID NOT do (but really did). You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
Here's what has NOT been going on around here:

My son DID NOT finish kindergarten last week and is NOT officially a first grader! I already felt old being a mom to a kindergartener, there is NO WAY I have a first grader!

That same boy DID NOT wake up on his first day of summer vacation on Friday and immediately begin working on the first grade workbooks I got him to stay fresh on school work a little over the summer. He DID NOT complete 3 lessons before even breakfast! Who would do that? Seriously! The first day of summer break!!

I'm NOT on Day 14 of the Shred, DID NOT get brave on Day 6 and move on to the Level 2, DID NOT feel like it was a ton harder than Level 1, and DID NOT feel like I was going to throw up after completing it. I DID NOT stick with Level 2 and actually think it got easier. I have NOT found that with Level 2 there is no waiting a few hours before I shower after the workout. Let's just say the Level 2 is sweaty and you must shower immediately upon finishing! I am NOT actually considering Level 3! I have actually done the Shred every day, but have NOT many times really wanted to skip a day (like after spending 3 hours in the sun helping with my son's field day and then another 2 hours at a pool party for my daughter's friend) and waited even until 11PM to do it! I do NOT really need to go do the Shred right now and am blogging instead of just getting it done!

I have NOT decided to undertake the beginnings of potty training my newly-turned-2-year old at the same time as doing the 30 Day Shred and facing no school for my older 2 kids! That would be crazy! He has NOT had a few accidents and I have NOT actually hosed him off outside in the backyard a couple times!

The potty training has NOT renewed the toilet paper chaos around here. I did NOT enter my bathroom and see this . ..

and then this . . .

and then this . . .

I DID NOT use my expert mom-detective-work-skills and surmise that the toddler had unrolled the entire, nearly new roll of toilet paper and thrown it all in the trash can. I absolutely did NOT pull it out of the trash and pile it on the toilet paper dispenser, like so . . .



NO! I am frugal, but absolutely NOT cheap!!!

So please share what you have NOT been up to and also the answer to this little question: If you found your toddler had unrolled an entire roll of t.p. and thrown it into your trash can would you a) leave it as trash or b) remove it from the trash and attempt to put it back on the toilet paper spindle?

Tackle It Tuesday - The Ziploc Bag

Have you ever had one of those Ziploc bags, hanging over your head? All you potty training moms know what I’m talking about, the gallon size one that is filled with clothes your child has gone #2 in while you were out somewhere. Your precious, adorable offspring that nearly always makes it to the potty, but that day they just couldn’t.

For me that day over a year ago, we were at the park, so she was playing (distracted) and she was on some medicine that maybe kind of upset her stomach a little. I knew when I spotted her up on the playground with that telltale walk before she even told me what happened. The moments that ensued were not very pleasant.

Cleaning a child up in the car just is not fun and neither is pulling off poopy tights! “Yucky, yucky, gross, gross!” is what I kept saying outloud to keep myself focused on the mess rather than being annoyed at the child that produced it. Anyway, literally 17 wipees later she was fairly clean and I was left with the lovely Ziploc bag filled with, well you know. And then I was faced with the age-old decision. “Do I like the clothes in that bag enough to deal with cleaning them up or do I just throw them away?!!”

Come on! I know you’re calling me wasteful for even having the thought, but really, do you realize the process that goes into cleaning up that bag? First there is the initial overwhelming smell upon opening the bag, then where do you put the soiled clothes? They are too dirty for even the washing machine to bear. They must be dealt with a little before the washing machine step and any surface they come in contact with, be it sink or counter must be thoroughly sanitized following! So sometimes the answer really is to throw the entire bag away.

That is certainly the answer some times when we deal with sin (messes) in our lives. It is Biblical, Matthew 18:8-9 says, “And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into fiery hell.”

Whatever that sin is, there are times that God tells you to throw it out, because He knows either it won’t really come clean or we can’t handle the cleaning process!

What is in your Ziploc Bag?

For me it is alcoholism. It runs in my family. Thankfully the Lord brought this to my attention during my college years and revealed to me to throw it out by staying away from alcohol, so that sin has not plagued me. I could have tried to clean it up – “I’ll just have a couple drinks in the evening but I’ll not over-consume like my parents did.” But, that thinking may not have worked. Those few drinks may have been all Satan needed to get a foothold in my life and lead me down the pathway of destruction!

In closing let me urge you to deal with that bag of sin in whatever way God leads you, but do it soon! I know from experience that ziploc bag just gets nastier the longer you let it sit!

Head over to 5 Minutes For Mom for more Tackle-It Tuesday.

The Car Potty

I’ve been so humbled through having and raising kids that I’m not ashamed to admit that I have a potty in my car.

Yes, a little blue plastic kid’s potty tucked under one of the seats ready to assist that potty trainer that just can’t wait to get to a real bathroom. It is a little embarrassing when I go to the full service car wash and return to my vehicle to see that they have discovered the potty during their vacuuming and brought it out in all its glory to sit in the very center of the floorboard!

Then there are the times when we'll be out somewhere and my child will announce that they have to go to the bathroom and will just "USE THE CAR POTTY!" when we get back to the car. I love the looks I get from others in the store, vet, etc. as they try to figure out just how it is that we have a potty in our car!

But, that potty has saved me countless times when out and about with my kids during that 2-3 year-old potty training stage when they can’t always wait to find a bathroom. Parks that don’t have bathrooms – no sweat—we’ll use the “car potty”!

The problem with the “car potty” is in the emptying it. I usually wait until no one is looking and dump the pee-pee in the parking lot. But, one day my darling 2 year old did a little more than pee-pee in the potty. Afterward we just had to pick up my son at school and then head home, so I decided rather than try to clean it up in the car, I’d just let the mess sit in the potty until we got home. It was a stinky ride! As we passed other drivers I remember thinking, “If they only knew what was in my car!” I was thankful no one could see!
potty training