What Makes Us Good Mothers

With Mothers Day just over in the United States it brings yesterday's encounter even more revelant.  It always amazes me that whenever people learn about Eric and ask if he has any siblings.  When I say yes, the look I always get is should I ask her about her other child?  Some people start out by asking if they are in the same day program. Other just want to know if she still lives at home too.  Yet all are stunned to find out that Teri is a Copyright Attorney in California.  Like how is this possible?  

Motherhood gives each mother a unique opportunity to interact with each child as an individual. I have found that both my child are very unique. My children are polar opposites.  My job as a mother has been to help Teri and Eric each reach their unique potential in an optimal way for their learning style.  

Since Eric was about 6 months old I have always stressed to Teri, that Eric is her brother and not her responseability.  I have always stressed that mom and dad are responsible for the care of both Teri and her brother.  That Teri's job in life is to be the best possible Teri possible, even if it meant leaving Eric behind at times.  In that endeavor Teri has exceeded what I thought was possible.

Each child has made my life so much better in their own unique way. Eric has helped me learn patience. Teri has help me learn to dig deeper for the answers, although on technical issues I am quite sure she hates the line "wait until your father comes home".  Eric has helped me find the time to knit 100's of warm winter items for kids in need. Teri has taken me to England and Italy, which were life time dreams of mine. I would still like to go again and explore some more.  It is not possible now.  Eric has taken me to our nations capital and explore all the history, something that I have dreamed of doing.  Yes each has given me so much. 

I guess in my own meandering way I am trying to say thank you to my 2 increadable kids. They along with John have made my life so rich. For that I am very thankful. 

The Last of the Week

As I write this post load number 30 of the week is in the dryer.  I am thankful that this week of sheer laundry madness is almost over.  I am also thankful that I did not run out of Tide Unscented this week. Just to let you know the wonderful people at Proctor and Gamble did not pay for this blog post and all the opinions are my own.  However, I am grateful for the Tide coupons in my Sunday Arizona Daily Star and the sales on Tide that occur about the same time. 

I know with Eric being sick, that I had a few extra loads of laundry this week. This is a picture of just 2 days worth of laundry for Eric when he is feeling good.  Yes he did go through 5 night time t-shirts in 2 days. That is just Eric. Also if I did not wash the dozen bibs, I would have had a whole lot more laundry to do.  Every bib saves me from washing 1 additional outfit. 

I hope to do a few less loads of laundry next week and spend more time creating. 

Over 800 Yards

I just finished spinning and plying over 800 yards of Merino, Alpaca and Silk today.  Now what should I do with it?  

25

Today is only Wednesday and I hit the 25 loads of laundry mark. I know part of this was do to Eric being sick, yes he made 4 loads in under an hour on Monday night. So I asked Eric if he could possibly slow down his laundry production for the rest of the week and all he did was laugh at me. I think that he is taking his job of being the chief laundry maker a bit too seriously this week.

You would think by the amount of laundry that I am doing this week that I either had a larger family of a small washtub. Sadly neither is the case. There are only 3 of us at home and I have the largest washtub in my machine that Whirlpool made 20 years ago.

On a lighter note Eric is feeling better and is back on formula. His fever is also down below the 100 mark, the 1st time since Monday night. With Eric feeling better I also took the time to clean the stove and the kitchen like I should have done before Passover. Better late than never.

Well I think that I am finally unwinding form my busy day and week. So I think I will try to get some sleep.  It will be time to get my day going again in a little over 5 hours.

The Laundry Monster Rears its Ugly Head

Laundry seems to be my downfall this week. As of this morning I have done 15 loads of laundry since Sunday, 4 of them were made in just a few hours last night. Yes Eric did have a very eyrpy night last night. The outlook does not look much better for today.  I have at least 3 more loads of laundry as of 7:00 am this morning. Its only Tuesday morning!  

I asked Eric if he could slow down in making more laundry this morning explaining that after I finish what is in the laundry room I will have done 18 loads of laundry this week. That we still have 4 more days to go this week. I asked if he could limit his laundry production to only 7 more loads this week to keep his total at 25 loads of laundry. His response was to roll his eyes and give me the look like its my job to make laundry.

Thank goodness Target had Tide on sale a few weeks ago so I won't run out of laundry detergent. Laundry detergent is like gold around here, I can never have too much. I seem to go through detergent like water, even using line one on the cap I am lucky if the 75 ounce bottle lasts for 2 weeks.

So I plan to spend the rest of the day doing laundry and knitting. If Eric does take a nap, I will see how many of the 5 towels that I can get finished, so I can can get more sewing projects out of the way and get some weaving done.

A New Record

Today I actually did 9, yes 9 loads of laundry.  I really wonder if The Whirlpool Corporation makes anything similar to the Imperial Serries Washing machine that I got so last century.  It has a tub big enough to wash 3 bath sheets in 1 load. Also a whole set of California Knig sheets in 1 load.  I just can't imagine how many more loads of laundry I would have to do per week with a smaller tub.  

Conversely I wonder why it is getting harder to get parts for a 20 year old washing machine.  All I need is a work horse that can keep up with Eric's average of 25 loads a week.  I must have laundry on the brain tonight. 

I am Overwhelmed

I agreed to do a project on a very short time frame. I knew going in that it was going to be nearly impossible to finish without someone else helping with the sewing. With any luck at all, I think I should reach about 75% completion by my dead line. I feel really bad that some very good people will be given IOU's,but then again I don't think that I can sit at the sewing machine for another 8+ hours again tomorrow.  

Today I left the sewing room ready to throw the sewing machine out of the window. John in a perfect way that only John can do, ushered me out of the sewing room and closed the door for the night. Then redirected me towards dinner.  The chicken and roasted vegetables were even better the second night.   I am so glad that the asprain kicked in before bed time. 

I think tomorrow I will limit myself to no more than 4 hours at the sewing machine.  I tried the impossible today and did not make it.  My body is worse for wear. I think it's time to rein in my goal to be more realistic. My body and family will thank me. 

Lesson learned from this fiscaso. If I think a job will take 3 weeks, ask for 3 weeks.  Never say that I will try to get it done in 1 week. It's just bad in so many ways.