Sunday, March 21, 2010

Best Mom Tip #82: Keep your receipts

Last month, I decided to remodel our laundry closet based on an idea I saw in a magazine and I decided that this needed to be done before our new baby comes in about 3 months.

The idea was to stack the washer and dryer on one side of the closet and install cabinetry on the other half in order to make workspace and extra storage.

The stacking kit finally came in and the men came to stack the set yesterday. But the drip pan was too small to move the new washer over so the door to the closet could open so we bought a new drip pan. And removed the old one and painted the closet. All before the men came yesterday with just Jay and me doing all of the appliance moving.

We went to Lowe's and bought the cabinets we wanted--one 36" base and a 36"wall unit. The guys came and stacked the washer and dryer. Which, as a unit, was deeper than the individual pieces because of how the stacking kit works. Which made the drip pan too far away from the wall for the hole in the pan to actually be OVER the drain pipe in the floor.

So we spent some time trying to figure out how to jerry-rig a drip pan alternative. Then we slid the new cabinet into place and tried to figure out how to create an appropriate top for it that didn't cover the slightly low electrical outlet.

Honestly, we spent all of Saturday, 3 trips to Lowe's, and a lot of our mental capacity trying to figure out how to make this work in our space. Although everything technically FIT, it just didn't look right.

So we unstacked the set ourselves, heaved the cabinets back down the stairs, and returned them to the store. After we dug the receipt out of the outside dumpster in the rain.

The result is that we have a laundry closet that looks a lot like it did last week and we bought a new king sized mattress just so we could cross something off of our to-do list. It doesn't really make sense, but I am excited about the bed.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Best Mom Tip #81: Rely on your training

I have two family members with really badass jobs. Both involve weaponry, government paychecks, and crazy schedules. I often hear about what they're doing at work and think, "I can't believe that's what you do for a living."

They are well trained and taught how to survive on little sleep and with impaired judgement. Most of the time I feel like their world is legions beyond my own. And then I have a night like last night.

I went to bed at 11:30pm because, due to evil daylight savings time, I was not tired. At 4:08am my son woke up and cried and cried. I walked into his room and he yelled, "Up! Up!" I picked him up and asked if he wanted to rock or snuggle.

He took his paci out of his mouth, pointed toward the stairs and demanded "BA-BA! MUK!" Which is how he asks for a bottle of milk. He does not drink bottles during the day. He does not eat in the middle of the night anymore. But last night he was Napoleon--complete with the short stature and minor hissy fits.

At 4:20 I put him back in his bed and went back to my own.

At 5:00am I heard a thud and then the quiet crying of my daughter. Jay went in to check on her and it turned out that she needed to go to the bathroom but couldn't figure out how to get out of her pajamas because she was really still asleep. She was just standing in her room dancing from foot to foot with her eyes closed.

After she took care of business she came back to my room to snuggle with me where she kept trying to steal my pillow until I woke up at 7:30, late for work, and disoriented by the lack of light outside.

So, no, it is not likely that the "Ballad of the Suburban Mom" will be a hit song that inspires the nation. There will probably not be a cool movie titled, simply, "MOM" that details the excitement of my life.

But I can take sleep deprivation. I can take massive amounts of bodily fluids covering my clothes, hair, and nails and be grateful that everyone still seems relatively healthy when its over--and do it all without throwing up.

I can also lactate.

So, bring it on, crazy problems when I'm at my most tired. I've been trained for this.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Best Mom Tip #80: Take advantage of the weather

I left my children crying at the bedroom door when I had to go into work early today. They were upset that I wasn't able to snuggle longer and that I wasn't taking them downstairs with me. It was horrible.

To have to leave the house with little wails of "Maaaamaaaa, maaaamaaaa" when my son has really only recently begun making an obvious differentiation between the words "more" and "mama" was a pretty crappy way to start my day.

So after work, instead of heading to the Y to work out, I picked them up from school and took them to get ice cream. Then we went to the park for an hour. Then we played in the front yard until dusk. They got to bed a little late, but we had a great time and we welcomed the first really warm day of the year in fine style.

Although my feelings change almost hourly, today quitting my job seemed like a really good idea.