This Moms Blog

Wife, mom, daughter, sister, aunt. Obsessed with books, reading & writing. Gamer, sci-fi, fantasy, Doctor Who. Baking & cooking.

[thismomsblog]

A few weeks ago, I was checking on my plants and saw a brown leaf in my pothos pot. I was about to simply pluck it out and toss it when I noticed a tiny bit of green on it towards the end of the stem. I thought, “Huh. Why not? I got nothing but time” so I place it in some water to see what it would do.

It did nothing for quite a while. I figured I’d try one more method and dug a little hole in this planter of dirt. The leaf had finally let go of its grasp on this small slice of green so I really only had a sliver of a green stem I could stick in the dirt.

Now she’s showing life! I realize it’s not much but thinking about where it came from and how I almost tossed it in the trash, and now I’m going to have another plant I can spoil!

P. S. Pothos and Spider plants are my two top favorite leaf plants!

[thismomsblog]

Aside from your average run of the mill houseplants, I’ve also planted some herbs. This is a joint effort with my son. We planted them one week ago and already see action! This has to be the most exciting part of plants. Seeing those little sprouts, babies popping out, etc.

[everythingfox]

“Momma cat cuddles her kitten having a bad dream.”

(via)

[thismomsblog]

A friend gave me some Aloe babies that I finally potted about a week ago. Then I found a great deal on the succulents and snake plant. They were all in one pot at Lowe’s for about $26. I separated the succulents and repotted them in fresh soil. I’m trying my hand at propagation with some of the petals.

So far with these I haven’t seen much growth, but to be fair it’s only been one week. A couple of the petals in the separate pot are starting to show what looks like might be roots and one has a blossom starting. Every day I get so excited to see what’s next!

[thismomsblog]

I’ve been having a rough few weeks and needed some type of outlet for all the emotions I’ve been dealing with. The last time I got like this I baked. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I also had to eat it and gained a bit of weight. So I started listening to what other folks were using as an outlet and plants seemed to be a big one. Since I’ve never ever in my life had a green thumb I thought this would be a great challenge for me.

After sharing with friends and family about my new “hobby”, cuttings have been pouring in! I won’t turn anything away!

Today I’m sharing my spider plant. I was gifted this plant a couple months ago by a friend. I repotted it in this fun white planter I found at the local tractor store. I had it sitting inside my dining room and was excited to see a baby pop out a couple weeks ago. I told my friend about the sprout and she told me to put it outside where it could get “some” light but not direct light. We talked it over about where that would be best and decided on the front porch since it only gets a couple hours of evening sun.

She also said that spider plants love humidity and we’ve been having plenty of that here in VA. My mama spider plant has since sprouted another baby and tons of new leaves have emerged! I’m so in love! After doing some research I found that worm castings is a great fertilizer so I bought some of that and sprinkled a little on top of the soil.

I don’t know what I’m most excited about. Whether it’s the fact my thumb isn’t as black as I thought or that stuff is actually growing!!

[thismomsblog]

I’ve mentioned before that the hubs and I had a difficult time getting pregnant. Ten years of trying and suddenly we have a kiddo.

I didn’t realize how much I would miss sleeping. Uninterrupted, sleep like the dead, rejuvenating.....sleep.

Our youngest is now 6, and with this “wonderful” pandemic that has essentially shut down the world, my girl has learned how to get up in the morning and let us sleep while she finds something constructive to do.

The rest of us sleep.

As I sit here in bed, and listen to the sound of my fan (yes, I’m one of those that needs a fan to sleep) and the sound of her shuffling around in the living room, I realize that although this pandemic has caused a great deal of stress to many, our family has not been faced with many challenges, but rather it’s given us a chance to understand each other better and grow together.

I will go to the kitchen shortly and pour myself some coffee, give my girl a hug as she tells me about her new ideas for Minecraft, and start making her some eggs and toast. We’ll probably make some cookies today and I may be able to finish wrapping presents. My son will eventually rise from his warm cocoon of blankets and ask me to make his eggs and toast as well. He may or may not join us in baking, but there’s no doubt in my mind he will join us in eating the cookies!

Our family is not perfect, but we are us. We are catching up on lost sleep from years of having littles in the house, we are sharing ideas of creative play, we are having fun interactive conversations at dinner, and simply growing together.

No, this pandemic hasn’t been a blessing to anyone, but it has allowed our family to gather together and reconnect.

[thismomsblog]

My girl said to me today that I am the “beautifullest momma”. I smiled and said thank you and hugged her as she walked away to go play.

I looked at myself in the mirror and realized I hadn’t showered yet, I looked like I’d fried eggs in my hair and I was wearing my glasses instead of contacts. I hadn’t changed out of my pajamas and there were creases on my cheeks from lying on the sofa.

I didn’t feel like the “beautifullest” anything. In fact I’d had a rough go of it with my daughter for the last few weeks since the world shut down. She’s 5 and super energetic and very outgoing. She misses her friends and her teachers.

I get easily frustrated because....well aren’t we all? This is not “normal”. Though we’ve never been a family that’s always on the go, we are accustomed to leaving the house as a family on the weekends, and the kids going to school during the week while the hubby and I work. In the beginning, we were like no sweat. We love being home. Even my introverted son had zero qualms about this.

Yesterday he told me that he wished this would all stop. Yesterday my girl said she wished the virus would go away.

I couldn’t agree more with either of them. As the grown up, the parent, the adult I couldn’t understand why the kids were being such difficult little “treasures” 😉. I know this isn’t easy for them but geez, all they are being asked to do is write a sentence or two every so often, read a few pages to someone and play the rest of the time. How hard can that be?!

Pretty dang hard when this is not the lifestyle they’re used to. They’re used to still being in school. Bedtimes, alarm clocks, bus rides, teachers, friends, the occasional bully, after school snacks, and study time. I know from the bottom of my heart that I’ve been short with my kiddos when I should have had patience. I’ve yelled when I should have taken a deep breath, stressed when I should have walked away, and become angry when I should have taken a different perspective.

2020 has been the honest to God most difficult year for many if not all of us. Why wouldn’t it be difficult for our kids too?

I love that my girl thinks I’m the beautifullest momma ever. It gives me something to work towards.

[thismomsblog]

So I am now working with animals, something I’ve never done. I can say with absolute sincerity that I truly truly love my job.

Except on days like today.

I have a soft spot for pit bulls. Especially the mistreated/misunderstood ones. Today one of our pits was put down. She didn’t do anything, in fact she was absolutely sweet and had definitely had some type of training. But she was very aggressive towards other animals and would have only been able to go to a home as an only pet. I don’t think that’s a reason to euthanize an animal, however we are living in strange times right now.

I’m so completely heartbroken about her death. These are the days that make my job suck. All I want to do now is work on opening a rescue for this breed. I’m sure that these types of decisions are not easy and as the founder of the rescue I would have to make these types of decisions. But I really like to think that had this been my rescue and my decision I would have held onto her until I found the right home.

RIP my sweet girl.

[strongermonster]

quarantine feels kinda like that area between christmas and new years where i have no idea what day of the week it is, or if i’m supposed to be going to work. AM and PM blend together. i’ve taken four naps in 10 hours. leftovers are my primary foodsource. got that weird sunday anxiety except it’s every day for the next 2 weeks

[ourashenbride]

How To Make A Rounded Bay Window

Video tutorial on how to create your own bay window.

[thismomsblog]

My sons school had a scare today. Evidently someone threatened to come back and blow the school up last night.

We live in a very rural area. There’s a city about 20 miles from us, but there’s enough space in between to allow us that feeling of separateness and an allusion of safety.

I was grocery shopping when I received the call from the school. It just so happens I was on the phone with my mom at the same time. I assumed the school was calling to let me know he wanted to come home. I get these calls about every other week or so. He has anxiety and ADHD, so school can be overwhelming for him at times. When I answered and heard the recorded voice of the principal reading a letter informing parents of the threat, my blood froze.

My stomach started to roll and all noise in the store ceased to exist. My first thought was to call my husband and let him know and my second thought was I needed to go get him.

The principal assured us that they had investigated the issue and had involved the local sheriffs department. They had police on site and felt that the threat, after investigating, was invalid.

That’s great, but I still drove immediately to his school and pulled him out. As did the majority of the parents. Although I understand there was no need to panic, they had everything under control, I wanted him with me.

This kind of stuff doesn’t happen to us. This is something that only happens in the news and to other people.

Famous last words.

I don’t want my kids to become another statistic. I don’t want our family, town, school, country, to become another statistic. Thankfully I had taken my anxiety medication this morning so that I could hold it together all day. I swear if I’d missed my dosage today, there’s no telling how I would have handled this.

He is the child that made me a mom. He is the child we prayed for, for 10 long years. That’s not to say my other child is less valuable, because LAWD help anyone that so much as touches a hair on her head! But, I don’t even want to think about the worse case scenario.

These people need help. They need to be weeded out and provided psychological help. They don’t need to be put out on stage for us all to see and throw rotten food at. But they do need to be pulled out of genpop when they show signs, ANY signs of questionable behavior.

If you’d have asked me yesterday how I felt about these things, I’d have said I’m sorry for those families, and hope that everyone involved is able to get through it the best way possible. After today....I don’t necessarily think tighter gun laws are needed, because let’s just be honest, laws are in place only for those that follow them. If someone has a desire to terrorize a community, they will. Gun laws won’t stop them.

I pray though. I pray that God sees what’s going on down here and steps in. I pray that He stops the next shooting, bombing, act of terror. Too many people are dying. Too many people are affected by this craziness.

[thismomsblog]

I tend to think of myself as an empath. I’m probably not to the extreme with it, since there are times I feel like people get what they deserve, but generally speaking I’m fairly empathetic towards what people are going through.

However, without divulging too much info, I am privy to a situation where a friend of a friend of a friend had a non-physical contact relationship with a member of the opposite sex that was not their spouse. What I find interesting is that so many people think that since there’s no physical contact or sexual relations, it’s not an affair. I disagree. I feel that if there are emotions involved, if things are being shared with this person that your spouse has not been told and you are confiding in this person rather than your spouse, then YES, it’s an affair.

Then there’s the other side. When the person knows this individual is married, and is in a relationship themself. Now mind you, none of this is any of my business but it bothers me. (That’s the empath in me). I have contact with all parties involved, and for whatever reason I blame the female in this situation. I tend to feel that way anytime I hear of this type of issue. I don’t know why, but I feel like as a female, we should respect other women and leave their significant other alone. But I suppose if the female is in a relationship themself and they are in this situation, one of two things. Either they just don’t care and if they ruin anyone’s life, oh well. Or there’s something going on in their life that makes them so unhappy that they have to seek consolation and approval from someone else.

I’m in no way a judge, there’s only one true judge and I hope that when their time comes they can explain themselves to Him. I try to understand these people, I try to see the other side. It’s difficult for me to understand. If a person is that unhappy in their relationship, then they should leave. I’m not an advocate for divorce but it’s for sure an option that’s not frowned on anymore. I realize it’s easy for me to say when I don’t know the situation clearly, there could be abuse, there could be any number of things in play here. I just don’t understand the point of bringing another individual into the situation that had/has nothing to do with the relationship. If it’s abuse and help is being sought, okay. I get it. But if not, then geez. Leave others alone.

Then there’s the side of the individual that gets this sudden attention from outside their marriage and they react. I’m sure there’s insecurities involved, there’s the idea “Someone other than my spouse thinks I’m attractive/smart/whatever.” I get that, and as humans we tend to navigate towards individuals that give us attention, but by responding to the attention, I wonder if that person realizes they are in fact insulting their spouse, they are contributing to their spouses insecurities.

These things really frustrate me. I know of several couples at this time that are going through similar situations. This is in no way directed at any specific person. I really don’t get it. I’ve had people show me signs of interest, even when they knew I was married, and some didn’t know I was married. Though it’s a nice boost to the ego, I never felt the need to reciprocate.

Am I alone in this?

[thismomsblog]

FYI - Don’t trust the results on the box for hair dye.

I took one for the team. You’re welcome.

[thismomsblog]

People are always saying to stop looking at the past. Look to the present and future. I get it. Let it go. Move on.

But there’s something I think about from the way Way WAY past often. I lived in Oklahoma for a very short period as a kiddo. I was age 2-4ish when we lived there. Most people don’t have memories from that age but I have a few vague memories from that period of my life. One that I’ve been thinking about lately isn’t really earth shattering.

My parents had enrolled me in some type of pre-school program, I don’t remember the classes, what I remember was that my mom walked me there in the mornings. I remember one particular morning that was beautiful. I’m guessing it was Fall, but it was slightly brisk but the sun was shining nice and bright. I remember wondering what my mom did while I was at school. I couldn’t wrap my little mind around the fact that moms world was not solely revolving around me. I don’t think I was spoiled or a brat, I just couldn’t comprehend that stuff happened when I wasn’t around.

I think, I think about that day now because my role is as the mom now. I walk my kiddos to the bus stop every morning and get them on the bus. It’s a bit different than my childhood. My mom didn’t drive, technology was not even a thought, communication happened via a phone tied to a wall with a curly cord and to block a caller you left your phone off the hook. We had maybe 2 or 3 television channels and played outside completely unsupervised all day.

Life was so incredibly different then. I envy my parents. I feel like life was so much simpler then. I know raising kids is never easy, regardless what era you are raising them in, but I feel like families were closer then. They communicated better. Which is a laugh when you think about all the different varieties of communication we have available to us now.

But we don’t use them to talk to each other. We use them to get on social media and “connect” with people hundreds or thousands of miles away that we may not really know but think we do simply because we’ve had a couple “conversations” with them online.

I sure do miss the good ole days. (As I sit here in the dark listening to my husband softly breath as he sleeps, staring at a glowing device and type out a post on social media for people to read that don’t really know me.....)

[thismomsblog]

So I really want to do a re-read of Wheel of Time, but it’s SOOOOO long! I have all the time in the world now, but I’m just not sure I want to commit to it. It took me about 5 years (give or take) to read the whole series with a couple random books in between. I was also working full time and was a new mom.

Now that I think about it, I feel like that’s a challenge!

Also, I’m in the middle of another book, and then there’s my tbr pile....

[thismomsblog]

They turned out pretty darn good! Hubby and kid approved!

[thismomsblog]

I’m starting to feel like Betty Crocker, or Susie Homemaker! Tonight I prepped scones to throw into the oven in the morning. I also made sausage, potato and cabbage soup for dinner. Yesterday I made my family’s favorite chocolate chip cookies. I love cooking! I’m enjoying this whole stay home thing!