Seriously Dog

Wow - what a long week! It is amazing the amount of work that goes into being a full time SAHM.




I am a newly retired Working mom (just sold a business) and am getting used to not having clients to answer to and deadlines to meet. Ever since my oldest was born (he is now 8) I have been able to work from home with a flexible schedule but this can be both a luxury and a curse. Being at home allowed me to be with my kids and pick them up from school, allowed me to take care of my home and get dinner on the table each night, and allowed me to do the things that need to be done each week (groceries, clothes, sports practices, dry-cleaning) without having to designate the entire weekend to it.




The curse is that work never stops. Your office is in the next room so when something is on your mind about work insomnia sets in and inevitably you end up doing some work when others have left that at the office for the next day. There is always one more task, email, project that you think you can squeeze in while the kids are finishing their homework or while they are watching their favorite show. There is never a time that you can see the stack on your desk and think of all the things you should be doing for work.




The added pressure comes from the fact that, while you can do all of the motherly/housewifey things mentioned above, you can't do any of them well. There have been plenty of moments when my husband has discovered that there is no clean underwear in the house for him that day, multiple occasions when my kid's lunches have been less than spectacular because I haven't been to the store in 2 weeks, and plenty of times we have had hot dogs for dinner because I just didn't plan ahead.




I thought switching gears to being a SAHM would have allowed me to find a little more peace in the house but, sadly that is not the case. Now, instead of being irritated with a client's email or an unreasonable request, I find myself getting irritated that I spent an hour cleaning the downstairs of our house and come back to it 30 minutes later to find it trashed. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to clean all the bathrooms in the house (which is the WORST job in the world) only to find the blob of toothpaste left in the sink after your children brush their teeth. Even the animals chip in on the mess making - the cat with his errant cat litter scatterings and the dog with her incessant need to destroy something in my house each day.




I have decided that it doesn't matter if you are a SAHM or a working mom, no one has it all. There are ups and downs to both and that both jobs are challenging - each in its own way. Each of us juggles different daily responsibilities and no one is sitting around eating bon bons and watching movies all day (despite what some of our husbands think).




I have experienced both sides of the fence and love and hate different aspects of each. Eventually I will most likely go back to work as my kids get a little older but right now I am enjoying discovering new activities like blogging, twittering, deep cleaning the house, organizing, etc, etc. I also enjoy that I can stop and actually take in the world around me. This week I have discovered:

• That a Starbucks Chai Tea Latte a day is a requirement for me to function each day (I am on my way there right now to fill the quota)
• That an 8 year old has the memory of a gnat and will walk out the door for a baseball game right past the baseball hat needed to complete his uniform (even after several reminders not to forget the hat)
• That there is a woman in my neighborhood who chooses as her work-out closes and long sleeve t-shirt and an ankle length skirt
• That it doesn't matter that your kids have been in school for 8 months now they will inevitably walk out the door and get in the car without their book bag an average of 3 days a week (see above - gnat memory)
• That your 4 year old will rat you out to the girl driving carpool and tell everyone that his mom runs red lights (which is totally untrue) and that she talks mean to cars when they won't get out of her way (which I categorically deny).
• There truly is a phobia of clowns (this post by The Blogess chronicals what I image to be my 4 years old's worst nightmare when he is grown and married)
• There is never a time where someone in the house (and that includes the animals) doesn't have a grievance to share with you
• There are days when you truly are over the driving and prep for the kid's activities and you just pray for rain so that everything is cancelled.
• That no matter how much you complain about how your kid's activities are taking over your life that in the end you truly enjoy being there with them.

Here's to the start of a new week - hope it is a great one!

Over the years I have struggled with organization tools. It is a joke in the house that every month I am overcome by the unrelenting desire to buy either a new planner (written or electronic) or a new phone (cordless or mobile).   My collection includes:

• Day Runners in Multiple formats - Day at a Glance, Month at a Glance, Day at a Glance with a Month at a Glance page, and Week at a Glance
• A series of 3 different Franklin Covey Binders all of different sizes (tiny, medium and mammoth) and all different materials (Pleather, leather and fabric).
• Microsoft Outlook plus a written calendar (which is tedious and for some reasons the calendars never had the same info so I was always double booking things).
• A Palm - a plain old digital organizer - no phone, no email or text (which I don't think even existed at the time).  The entire family got them for Christmas that year and we sat around all Christmas day entering contacts and then trying to beam them to each other. 
• A Treo phone - great for organizing and would sync with Outlook but the phone sucked and email was very temperamental
• A Blackberry - which I love
• And finally, the mom organizer which is really cool and pretty and has lots of great pre-made list pages to use but is bulky and is used in conjunction with my Blackberry so it kind of defeats the purpose of being efficiently organized.

There is a planner graveyard in my house (more commonly known as underneath the guest bedroom bed) and this is where all of my old relics lie. My biggest challenge is that I need my system to be non-bulky and portable because, while I am a working mom, most of what I need relates to my kids and running the household.




At any given time my items will be housed in a purse that is stuffed full of necessary items like: wallet, keys, phone, pen, paper, crayons, obliterated goldfish in a sandwich bag, a spare pair of kid's underwear (sometimes I do worry that if people see it they will think I am a pedophile but that is a story for another time), matchbox cars, Nintendo DS with games, stuffed animals, and some chapstick.




After much discussion with my neighbor, who is also facing this problem, we have decided that we both NEED IPhones and IPads. Our husbands beg to differ and say that we really WANT these items so my argument is that yes we do WANT these items because we NEED to get out lives in order.




We search daily to see if there is an update on the rumor that Verizon is getting the IPhone in June - please please please please Verizon we NEED the IPhone. We have determined that we would do just fine with the WiFi IPad and don't need the 3G one (that will save you some money Dear). These 2 items would satisfy my strange desire to purchase organizers and phones all in one fail swoop and would make my life complete -- until the next new cool tool comes along

All I have to say - my kid's know better than to mom my ride!

Doggie Dribble (noun) - the trail of tissue/ shoes/ toys/children's art projects/unmentionables left behind when a bored dog is left alone.... Even for only 20 minutes.




Here is the face of the normally cheery and happy dog in the house:




Today's offense involved tissue, a ziplock bag and my kid's art's projects (she chose one from each of them). At least I didn't find the cat litter mixed among this (which is evidence of a raid on the litter box which is just a whole other level of gross).




I was doing the carpool run and was gone for no more than 15-20 minutes. Apparently I left a bedroom door open so clearly this must mean in dog - come in and ransack what you will. Here is the result:


I thought I was done with the child proofing. Out comes the arsenal and today is doggie proofing day. She is determined but so am I. Today the war begins...

I have never and will never give anyone the impression that I am an artist.  Never had a talent in it and never will.  I do however appreciate artistic talent and love to see people who can create beautiful pieces.

My favorite art is that brought home by my kids from school.  My youngest attends a pre-school now where they do wonderful projects.  I am always excited to open his bag and see what is in there.  They commonly use body parts to create their masterpieces like these 2 he brought home around Halloween:

Why is the dog bed the place of choice for napping, chilling out and watching TV.  I am beginning to worry that this is a refelction of my housekeeping skills: