Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Ladies, you freaking INSPIRE me!!!

Why, why, WHY DIDN’T I FIGURE THIS OUT WHEN I WAS A STAY-AT-HOME MOMMY???

Picture this… For 19 WHOLE months, I stayed at home with my child, occasionally selling a house or two along the way. I spent the time in between the home sales doing the following things: Changing diapers, reading stories, watching TV, playing with the baby, crying, surfing the net, playing spider solitaire, and sleeping (oh, and as my husband will most assuredly point out… Eating). I really didn’t do much else.

I’ve been reading the blogs of stay-at-home moms recently, and I am astounded by what all they accomplish in a single day! I feel like I have let my family down in a HUGE way. This feeling in my chest is just indescribable when I take the time to consider it, and feel regret and remorse. Good grief! There was so much more that I could have been doing!!! I have, quite literally, THOUSANDS of photographs that could have been scrapbooked or put into a baby book. I have major milestones still written on scraps of paper and wedged into a giant tote bag with all the boy’s baby book items. I have a list of projects in my head that were never completed or even started BECAUSE I WAS SIMPLY TOO DAMN LAZY!!!

So I’m sitting here at work, reading Dooce (you may be liberal, but you are amazing!), and I feel like a really large sack of worthless shit. I will say this for her… Since I started reading her website (and many others which are too numerous to name), I have been inspired to become three things:
1) A more well-rounded mother
2) A more understanding and loving wife
3) A better writer

I think that this shows up in my current entries, but I’m biased, so who knows?

I’m going to get that damn baby book finished, too, and it will be the baby book to end ALL baby books! So there!

So, to Dooce, Emily, and all the others… A GIANT THANK YOU and a HUGE CYBER HUG for doing the absolute best job on earth and for doing it so well! You ladies inspire me to become "Super Mommy/Super Wife" each and every day.

The following is a real-world example of what I'm talking about:
This past Sunday, the little one woke up around 8AM (okay, okay, he really woke up at 7:15AM, but he was content to talk to his stuffed animals and his blanket and pillow until 8AM). I got him up and out of bed at that time, changed his diaper, plopped him on the couch, and handed him a banana and a cup of milk.

A sudden urge for blueberry waffles overcame me. So I asked the little guy if he wanted any. "Yesh," he replied. So I proceeded to make a batch while the good Doc was sleeping in. I fed the boy and then put the remaining waffles in the oven on "warm." Word of advice: Doing this to waffles will turn what were once slightly crispy, deliciously perfect waffles into what I can only describe as things that are the consistency of roofing shingles (remember Green Acres and Lisa Douglas's hotcakes? Yep. JUST like that!).

So while we were waiting for Daddy to get up and play, I opened the fridge and looked at the massive amount of beef in there. On a whim, we had purchased ribeyes, stew meat, and a chuck roast Friday night. Knowing that it had to either be frozen or cooked ASAP, I decided to make a pot roast, in the crockpot! So I proceed to dig out the croc pot, chop vegetables, season the roast, throw it all in there with some broth, and turn the dial. There! Dinner is taken care of!

I then look around at the disaster area that is my house. And for the remainder of the morning (at this point, Daddy was playing with the little hellion), I cleaned. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. Floors were mopped, counters were scrubbed, furniture dusted, carpets vacuumed. And I worked well into the afternoon. Then then THEN!, I put the boy down for a nap and made cupcakes. AND ICED THEM! Then did laundry.

I told my husband that he'd better enjoy this new kick while he can. The house is never going to be this clean again! ;-)

1 comment:

emily said...

Ok, I'm tired from reading about your day. I need a nap.