Wordless Wednesday

I think that I should use Wordless Wednsday as to express myself, seeing as I am obviously having the week from hell. Between the school problem, my cooking problem (where I have ruined SOMETHING from the last two dinners) and a host of other "problems", the following pictures should help you "get" where I am this week...

(Yes, my husband has fallen victim this week. Even with medication in the bathroom.)

(My children LOVE a messed up, shitty looking home. God forbid we look like we live like clean, normal people that value our belongings.)

(Refer back to previous picture's explanations, seeing as I don't care to repeat myself twice. It's a "mom" thing.)

(Thanks to two major screw ups in the kitchen, two straight nights in a row, and not listening to my "gut instincts" of just going out to dinner, this will be my line tonight or I'll damn well get to go out to dinner as to avoid another catastrophe.)

(I say HELL YEAH! Bring it on, bitches.)

Because...

So This Stay-At-Home-Mom Isn't Perfect...

As a married mother of three kids that stays home as a "Homemaker" (honestly, I never got a Contractor's License so I cannot build homes, but oh well) I am in charge of overseeing all the operations of the home. I'm also a waitress at mealtimes.

I'm a cook (though not a very good one). I'm a maid (also not the best in the world, but I do try, seeing as I DO have THREE kids). I'm an accountant (though I suck at math). I'm a Secretary (who has to jot down names, numbers, and pay the bills and fight with the bank now and then).

I'm the dish washer and the seamstress (that doesn't sew, but can do a mean job of throwing laundry in the washer/dryer and fold it...but not big on putting it away). I'm an Assistant Teacher who helps their kids (the best I can) with their homework (having Advanced/Gifted Student children DOES NOT help).

In between all of that, I am also a wife, a lover, a best friend, a companion to my husband.

Also, I volunteer at the school as much as I can. But also with the Winter setting in, and being that I don't drive, that five-minute walk in severe cold (basically anything under 45 degrees for me) can be costly )financially and health-wise), that soon will take a back seat for a while.

And also, I am to be the Schedule Keeper. I make the appointments, see that we go to the appointments and try my best to juggle appointment times around everyone else's (hubby's work and kids' school) schedules. Last night, I failed. Ooopsies!!

It honestly slipped my mind about Bryce's appointment with his Psychiatrist. He sees him basically monthly for a medicine check and to see how school and family/social life are going, and see what modifications need changing or added.

Thankfully Bryce said that I needed to get Daddy up because he has to see Dr. K (only providing initial for privacy issues) at 5:00. As I looked at the clock, it was 4:23. I sprang in to action and started yelling "SOCKS AND SHOES...NOW!". And I had to scare Scott awake by almost pouncing on him like one of my cats to tell him to get up NOOOOOW.

Just think, it was a smooth-running Monday morning (for once, which is rare) for getting ready for school. Then this old Mom went and wrecked the rest of the afternoon (hence not making home-made tacos) thanks to her brain having a short.

Let this post make you see that while I know (yes, by experience) that being a Working Mom is no cake walk in the park, I can honestly say, being a Stay-At-Home Mom isn't all it's cracked up to be either.

Being a Mother (Or Wife) *Really Is* A 'Thankless' Job!

I honestly DO love being my children's mother. They bring smiles to my face in one way or another, almost on a daily basis.

I've laughed with them. I've cried with them. I've laughed at their actions or words. I've cried for them.

All in all, I would die for them, if need be. I would do almost anything for them. Almost.

When you hear women say that motherhood is a 'thankless' job, they aren't kidding! It truly is a 'thankless' job, indeed. No pay (as in no monetary gain), no vacation (even when you ARE on vacation, away from the kids), no sick days (being you still most of the time, end up caring for them, even when feeling your worst), and no promotion (being that you have the highest job in the "company").

You cook. You clean. You ensure that they have all that they need, basics-wise. You make sure that they are up, ready, and prepared for school each morning. And never once (or so rare, that we often forget it has been said) do you get a "thanks for all that you do, Mom" comment from them.

Lately, I have gotten really tired. Tired of being the (Not Very) Merry Maid around the house. No matter what I threaten my kids with, be it loss of TV or computer time, or any other interests that I can take away, it doesn't seem to sink in.

It's a CONSTANT battle to get, let alone KEEP the house (especially their rooms and the play/family room) decently clean for more than twenty-four hours at a time. And instead of THEM HELPING to clean up around the house (mainly their own messes), I end up having to. Or else I have "consequences" to pay. Such as hearing my husband bitch and moan.

In fact, I also have to clean up after him. It's little things. But even then, I feel it is a bit...hypocritical of him to get on the kids about not cleaning up after themselves, but he leaves band-aid wrappers laying around, or a glass on the table.

It must be nice to go to your job, work your ass off, and when you do something that is "above and beyond", you get a compliment. Praise is a nice "payment" or "reward" for a job well done.

Sadly though, many a mother and/or wife that stays home all day doesn't hear those simple, few words that can and does make her day. What are they, you ask?

"The house looks really good. You did a good job".

Honestly, how hard IS this for any man to say? Must be almost impossible. I get "dumped on" with his daily work happenings. I also get told of the GOOD points of his day as well. The same with the kids.

The minute I try to talk about my "roses and thorns" though, I get deaf ears and practically ignored. Or at times even told "I don't want to hear it"...Nice, huh?

I know for a fact, that I am far from being the ONLY wife/mother with these thoughts, and these "situations". But just once in a while, I want to be seen as more than that. I want more than JUST the respect of being 'just' a wife to my husband, and 'just' the mother to my children.

For so many years, I have been struggling to keep MY identity. My pre-wife and my pre-motherhood identities. Thus far, I think I have failed in still trying to be the ME that I was before husbands and kids. I know that I am more than these two things. But apparently, I am not viewed in any other manner. At least not in my own home.

This may be far from the truth. I'm sure that my husband would tell me otherwise. But then again, 'actions speak louder than words'.

Got a small beef with blog followers (from ANY blog).

Just out of curiosity...

Do you 'drop' a blogger from your list of reading ventures due to their not writing a post basically on a daily basis?

Do you, if you blog, write on your blog page(s) on a daily basis, a few times or once a week? Or do you blog when the mood to moves you?

I'm wondering if a (now former) follower dropped me being that it was almost a week or so between posting blog posts. I don't really care that they did so. But it popped in my head that I must not be writing enough to suit their reading taste.

Well, lets take a really good look at my blog and break it down, shall we?

Look at the name of my blog... 'The (Not Always) Happy Homemaker Diary'. Operative word here? HOMEMAKER. Which means that I am a STAY-AT-HOME wife and mother.

I have one husband and I have THREE kids. And those children (through this weekend) are on SUMMER VACATION from school. Which means three kids that need to have MY attention as needed BEFORE anything else.

Plus if you notice, I have written many times in the past about my son, who is a SPECIAL NEEDS child that requires more attention and time consumption than most 'average' kids.

Plus, I have to take care of the home, hence the HOMEMAKER part of my blog name. Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning out cat boxes (being we have three of them) and any other jobs that need to be done around here.

Now, if you have read the blog entry from YESTERDAY, you will also know that I am gearing up to once again volunteer at my kids' school (hopefully) three days a week, if not more. I'm quite possibly being 'promoted' to Co-Volunteer Coordinator. Which means quite possibly more time at the school, as well as 'working' from home.

Plus I will be on not just one, but two Parent Advisory Boards for not only the school, but for my school's district.

So, when you add all of this together, it makes for MUCH less time typing up blog entries. And if you are looking for daily, or semi-daily bloggers, then I am NOT your girl. Especially with school starting.

Also, I have a secondary blog called ParanorMel that delves in to the realm of the Paranormal. Primarily with ghosts/spirits and hauntings. Even that blog gets posted to, maybe, I'd say once a week to every two weeks. It all depends on if I had a personal experience happen, if there is a topic in my head that I wish to cover, or if I found a video and/or article that I found interesting enough to share.

But also, I do NOT see my followers dropping me there. And they know I WILL post. Just not more than MAYBE twice a week. Or for as long as every two weeks.

With that said, I hope that you will stick with me and watch for new posts in the future. At this point in time, you might never know when I will write about my adventures in life, marriage and raising my kids.

Just know that I WILL BE around. Just not as often. I find it sad that some people base their reading on the fact of how often a person posts entries. It should be based on QUALITY of the work. Not on QUANTITY in the numbers of posting.

I'm Me...Don't Expect More, You Won't Get But What I Can Give To The (Blogging) World.

After reading a friend's blog over at http://singedwingangel.blogspot.com/ by it's Author, Angel, I felt like I need to "explain" myself.

I have never been one, even as a little kid (but with rare exception, of course) to want what everyone else has, or to do what everyone else is doing. It's just not in my nature.

I'm the type that I "do my own thing" and I don't care what you think, either. Don't like it? Don't read it/watch it/be around it, I say. I'm not here to honestly please anyone (except my husband, my kids and ultimately, myself).

Have you noticed, I don't have "Bloggy Buttons", I don't do "Carnivals", I don't go out of my way to gain readers, I don't cater to people (unless I ask for topic ideas, which I have, and view as different from 'catering').

My readers come to me. Either by reading a post via Facebook, where it auto-posts my blog entries, by Networked Blogs application over at Facebook, by "word of mouth" via my readers I already have, or by my "Fan Page" I have for this blog page.

I'm not writing really to gain readers or popularity. I write to express myself, my views, my opinions, to share about my life as a mom/wife/Christian/parenting a Special Needs Child. Sometimes, I'm funny as all get out. Sometimes, I'm very serious. And at times, I can be both.

This blog is for ME. It's my outlet. My way of expression. My blog is not for a Popularity Contest, to see how many readers I can get to 'follow' me. Not to gain sympathy or a slew of comments. I like to educate others who may not know what it's like to parent a child with Mental Illness/Disorders/Disabilities. And to educate the populous in regards to Organ/Eye/Tissue Donation (I myself am a Donor, as well as a Corneal Transplant Recipient).

So, while my blog page may look "boring", being I don't have bunch of buttons, links to other bloggers, fancy page decorations and a "Nation's Populations in it's self" number of readers (that most don't even comment anyways), it's who I am...

Simple, comfortable, unpopular (nothing new there lol), and most of all...TRUE TO MYSELF and REAL (what you see on my page, posts and in between is who/what I REALLY am like in the REAL world).

If you want someone to "keep up with the Joneses" in bloggy circles and cliques, please do us both a favor, find another girl (or guy). Because this Blog Writer has too much else to do than keep up with the Joneses. I have a hard enough time keeping up with three kids, three cats, a husband, a two-story home (full basement) and life in general.

What a Week it Was!! Vacation, redecorating and partying...Oh My!!

It was nice. It was not-so-nice. It was everything in between. It was my husband's first of three week's worth of vacation time for this year.

We had fun spending time alone. For the most part. He did A LOT of work both inside, as well as outside the house. Mainly painting the living room, the dining area and the bathroom. As well as placing border up in all three of said rooms as well. We did a "Rustic Country" theme in the living room area. Then, a "Country Modern" type theme in the dining area. We then went "all out" in the bathroom with the Lighthouses theme. It was started months ago with a bath mat and outside shower curtain....Now we got the rest of it done.

How? By spending more money than we REALLY wanted too! The cost of the three rolls of border and the coordinating paint came to a whopping $162.00 freaking bucks!! The paint was only like 40. But the border did us in, being we had to go to a Specialty shop.

Then, we went and bought some flowers for the back yard, as well as noticed that some of our Perennial flowers have sprung alive again (like the one by my basement foyer area).

Sure there were some arguments and spats. What else would you think would happen to a couple stuck together 24/7 for a whole week. Add in a kid's birthday party and it can be so stressful that the Devil himself would stay away. Especially being that I have been PMSing and just HAD TO "start" the day of my son's party.

Plus toss in getting his gift that we had to hunt down, getting the last minute stuff for it, setting it up, seeing that basically almost no one showed that was invited from both family and friends from school that were invited to attend (note to self...only invite the ONE and only kid from school that showed up out of 12 invited next year and any other CLOSE buddies of his).

Yep, it was a wild ride to say the least.

Here are a few pics from the past week....Party and home.

Snow, school & sickness. What a combo!

It's been a ride, that's for sure.

My youngest, Skyler has been home since last Thursday, due to a severe Chest Cold. Then, on Friday, in came a nasty snow storm. That dumped about fourteen inches around our city. Some areas, mainly south of us got even more.

My oldest, Hayley was with her father for her visitation weekend. She called and let me know she was outside although she had been SICK! So I got on her for that and for not listening. Who knew? My ex-husband actually was being a parent for a change and putting his foot down. Only for her to do as he said NOT to anyways. That was going outside. So, we both jumped her for it.

Man, then along comes the Stomach Flu in to my home. And who did it strike? You guessed it. Kinda. It got a hold of me, as well as Scott. My poor husband came in at 5:30 in the morning, after working his last 3rd shift after two weeks of doing so. He was visibly shaking and had the severe chills. Plus the all-out fun diarrhea. Mine was mainly problems with vomiting.

Oh, and one of my kitties, Stinky is in the Animal Hospital. He has a Blocked Urinary Tract. I thought he got hit by a car or drank Antifreeze. He was so sick, I was ready to put him down. But then the doctor realized what was wrong and saved his life. Today, Stinky is still in the hospital with a catheter to drain his bladder. But he is moving around, eating and drinking well. He may even come home in the next couple of days.

Like I said, fun times!

Today, the kids are once again home, due to icy road conditions. My husband is at work this morning, back on day shift. And we are looking at another big system of snow and sleet to come back to our area on Friday. So, I'm hoping and praying that the kids get to go to school for at least ONE day this week. That would be tomorrow.

Don't get me wrong. I love my kids. I love spending time with them. And I love that we can all be together as a family. But they REALLY need to be in school. For their sake. And for mine. The City School System could have made it a two-hour delay, instead of no school at all. People are on the road this morning in full force. And no one seems to be having problems at this time...And it will be even better on the roads in an hour or two.

Sometimes, I wonder if the head-hanchos at Home Office do this as to just get more time off. I feel bad for the homes of children that have a 2-parent home where BOTH parents work to make ends meet. And those of single-parent homes. Both types of family dynamics cannot afford to stay home due to the kids being out of school for so long. Or to add extra days of having to pay the babysitter.

I'm one of the lucky ones in this respect. We are a one-income-provider family. I'm a Stay-At-Home Mom/Homemaker. My husband is the sole "bread winner" of the family. But, believe me when I say that all this "kids are staying home AGAIN due to weather conditions" is taking a mental-toll on me. They need to be with their friends in a classroom. The arguing, fighting, constant messiness and the dreaded all-day long "I'm hungry/thirsty" has GOT TO stop.

Soon I will be kicking them out the house and back on to the school bus before I know it. It just seems like it's so far away. *sigh*

Hi-ho....A-Bleaching we will do.

There are days that I can hack it. Other day's I can't.

Today was can.

My nose has been just tore up from the floor up, thanks to all the freaky weather changes. One day, it's colder than Frosty's butt. Next thing I know, we have Spring in the air. Only for Old Man Winter to come roaring his was back in to town.

Needless to say, my sinuses, especially on the left side have been having lots of "plugged" days. Which in turn has been making my worked on eye teary, red and stingy. So, down goes the Sinus Medicine to open me up.

This morning, I have been trying to get the house back in order. With three kids, ages five to ten, you can imagine what the house looks like.

Being that I am one to refuse to clean everyone's messes, I had Bryce clean the table, chairs and bench in the dining room. With bleach cleaner.

Holy cow!! That spray can really do the job of a whole pack of Sinus pills from just a few squirts from the bottle.

As soon as I had breathed in the aroma of the Bleach, I noticed that my nose was doing something it's lacking. Taking in air!! Man, it felt good until....

It opened me so well, that I started to get teary eyed from the scent of the powerful fume.

Bryce did a pretty good job on the dining area furniture. And most of my upstairs is back together and looking like a normal family lives here. Not a bunch of savages from 10,000 B.C.

Now, on to the down stairs. I swear! A Stay-At-Home Mom's work is never done. Even when it is.