Thursday, October 23, 2008

Kudos to Me

As I've mentioned before I'm a far cry away from being the model stay-at-home-mom. I see other women canning, sewing, baking, gardening, quilting, making their own cleaning products, staying up-dated on food storage, all the while ushering three or four kids off to school, car-pooling them to soccer practice, scheduling play dates, and cooking a meal with a cute little home-made card attached to it for their neighbor who just had a baby. These women are amazing! I don't fit it with them -- at all! I don't think I ever will.

I'm a good mom (some days I'm sure I could be better). Most days I take good care of my daughter. She's well fed, groomed, and played with throughout the day. We read, color, blow bubbles, seek out activities to do together, etc. My focus is on her. That being said, anything I accomplish besides taking care of Tralee is a huge achievement. For instance, I'm proud of myself when I take a shower and get ready before noon, cook a REAL (all food groups included) meal from scratch, or muster up the energy to go work out at the Y. If I do all things mentioned above AND try out a NEW project--well then--let's just say it's a GREAT day for me, and I give myself major kudos!

Today is a kudos day! After going for a walk, running errands, playing with stamps and ink with Tralee (brave, I know), I packed Tralee up, and we went to a local farmers market. While there I purchased some locally grown apples, came home, and for the VERY first time in my life, I dehydrated apples!!! For you women who are the type-A's I mentioned in paragraph one, this might not be something too spectacular. In fact, it might not even be something deemed note-worthy for you. I, however, am extremely pleased with myself and the aroma of cinnamon and apples that fills up my house! After returning home from my Primary presidency meeting tonight I prematurely sampled some of my efforts and lets just say it was deliciouses! I might add "dehydrate something today" more frequently on my try-to-do-something-domestic "to do" list.

The next "to do" I want to try is canning. Never done it, it looks WAY too intimidating!

It's 10:00 now and I'm exhausted from my productive day. Type-A Mom is probably staying up a few more hours to work on her kid's homemade Halloween costume -- good for her. I, on the other hand, am taking my book up to bed and reading myself to slumberland.

Good night.

6 comments:

Joni said...

Well, I think you are an amazing mom!! And yay for the apples! Sounds yummy! I think you do so much with Tralee and sometimes I wish I was her just so I could do those things with you! I love ya.

Hannah S said...

I am a pseudo type mom like you described. But I can't do it all at ONCE nor can very many women. They may appear to but I think they take turns crafting, cleaning, etc. But I could be really naive and wrong about them too. They really could be super-moms. I am striving to find my balance....it's a constant battle/learning curve. Maybe I should just blog about it instead of write these hugely long posts. lol.

Post the apple recipe! Sounds good!

Necha said...

You really are amazing!!! And a wonderful "house wife!!"
I sure hope you don't consider me one of your "type A" moms...with all my posts about canning. Trust me...I am as nervous about it as they come. I only canned because I HATED to see a whole plum tree full of plums go to waist. If you dropped by on any given day you would see me in my PJ's with a messy house, and no idea what I am going to make for dinner. LOL!

Audie said...

You sound a lot like me. I call it a great day if I can pry myself away from the internet and a book to take care of my kids! Well, of to try and do something domestic! NOT!

Boom said...

Congratulations Leslie. I am so proud of you! Go girl! Not only for the apples, but for being the awesome Mom you are!

Croslands said...

Good for you! I don't do any of those other big domestic things either but I often think I'd like to try. You're surrounded by good canners if you ever muster up the courage to join them. But until then, enjoy that good book.