Lazy Parenting

I read a blog post a couple weeks ago that spoke about the current trend of lazy parenting.  Of course I can't find it, but trust me when I say it was a really good post.  The post got me thinking though about the blogs I follow.  Yes, they are funny.  I love self deprecating humor and certainly reading about chaos in someone else's home can be good comic relief. 

But....

It also got me thinking about what kind of role model I want to be for my girls.  I grew up with very different parents.  My dad is a very neat person, always cleaning the house, doing yardwork, etc.  My mom never cleans her house unless we give her 6 months notice that we are coming to visit.  Unfortunately I did not inherit my dad's housekeeping skills. 

I think there are more important things in life than having a super clean house.  Playing with my girls, reading to them, taking walks in the evening, planting flowers are more important than spending my entire day cleaning and doing laundry.

But...

I don't agree with the current blog trend of lazy parenting.  I want my girls to see that our house is fit for company.  I want them to see my being productive and balancing work with play.  I want them to grow up to be responsible citizens who care about other people.  I'm not saying that the children of those bloggers who talk about how much they hate parenting or how tired they are won't grow up to be awesome people.  I'm sure they probably will. 

But...

I want to leave my girls with a legacy other than reading about how mommy wants to drink wine or sleep for a year (and yes an uninterrupted night of sleep would be amazing) or sarcastic comments about a lack of parenting or house cleaning skills. 

So...

I am finding balance.  I am pushing myself to keep my house fit for company.  You may not be able to eat off the floors, but you won't kill yourself tripping over a toy or see a dust bunny rolling by either.  You will see flowers planted around our house and you will see a play area or two or three.  There will be baby blankets covered in spit up on the couch during the day, but they'll be put in the laundry at night.  The beds might not get made every day, but they won't be covered in clean laundry either.  The dishes will get done at night because I hate waking up to a sink full of dirty dishes. 

And yes, there may be days that our lives are filled with chaos and I may talk about it on Facebook, but there will also be calm among that chaos.  I want to be the mom that my girls grow up and can say, "Wow.  I had a great mom," and mean it. 

What's In A Name?

Before we left Boston we went downtown for family pictures.  On the way back to the car we were walking behind a man who was wearing camo pants and rocking out to a WALKMAN as in with a tape cassette.  And of course we ended up in conversation with him and by we I mean me.  My hubby thinks crazy people gravitate to me.  Some of my friends do not help his perception. 

Anyways, being the polite person I am, I introduce Paul and Emma as well.  He says, "Emma.  Like Lizzie Borden's older sister." 

Huh? 

Lizzie Borden's older sister was named Emma.  Wait a second.  Lizzie Borden.  Lizzie.  Elizabeth.

Holy shit!  We named our children after people that killed their parents! 

Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her father forty wacks and when she saw what she had done she gave her mother forty one. 

And it took a crazy, drunk, homeless man to tell us.  Our children can never hear that poem. 

My girls

Christmas in July

In honor of my birthday the hubby agreed to go to church with me this morning.  The hubby is not huge into going into church so this was a big deal.  I think this is the first time we've been together that we weren't attending a wedding. 

Apparently twice a year they do a special church service that is 2 hours long and today was one of those days.  Since I had missed that information on the website we showed up about halfway through the service.  We were going to put the girls in the nursery, but ended up just sitting in the crying room which was AWESOME because you could hear the service, but no one could hear you and there were toys for the toddler.  Well, no one could hear her except when the hubby took her to the potty and she screamed "I went potty!" before she got back into the room.  haha

And today's theme was Christmas in July and if there is one thing the hubby hates loves it is Christmas music...and there was a LOT of Christmas music in today's service.  It was pretty much a Christmas service with the pastor dressing up like Joseph and everything.  I pretty much chuckled through the entire service knowing how much the hubby was enjoying himself. 

Church was followed lunch at the Outback where we sat by a family who complained the ENTIRE meal and then didn't leave a tip for the waitress even though their 3 young children were nasty to the waitress.  Really?  I guess the child apple doesn't fall far from the parent tree. 

And the toddler got up from her nap, took off her diaper, and peed on the potty WITHOUT BEING TOLD!  Best birthday present ever!  I mean the spa gift certificate the hubby got me is nice, but pee is a golden gift!  haha

Enjoy your Sunday!

Charlottesville Farmers Market

We have been in VA for just over a week and have gotten 98% of our stuff unpacked thanks to the tireless efforts of our friend Jen and her willingness to sweat through box after box when our ac wasn't working.

Today we decided to venture to the local farmers market.  Apparently this is the place to be on Saturday mornings and, having formerly lived in an area with a thriving weekly farmers market, I was super excited!

Seeing as we are now early morning people thanks to the 2 midgets who run our household, we were up at 6am and out the door by 7:15am.  We had some directional issues, but found the market without too many wrong turns.  Seeing as it's only 3 miles from our house you'd think we could've found it quicker.

We saw tons of beautiful flowers and produce.  It wasn't as inexpensive as what I was used to; however, the quality of products was apparent.

We bought peaches and nectarines from a couple who had been selling at the farmers market for 40 years.  They had to be in their 80's and were so cute!

We also got veggies, fresh caught trout, and wild boar chops!

My favorite part was the hot, fresh, glazed donuts and coffee!  Hubby loved the blueberry lemon bread he got.

Two hipsters were selling kombucha.  As I see my healthy friends always posting on Facebook about how much they love kombucha I decided to try some.  They were set up like a beer truck with different flavors of kombucha on tap.  You could choose what you wanted by the glass or they'd bottle it right there for you.  As I had never had any the nice young man started pouring different samples.  I love iced tea so I thought I'd like it.  I thought wrong.  I first tried a mint flavor.  I was NOT expecting it to taste so fizzy.  And it did NOT taste like iced tea.  I declined trying the straight up ginger flavor as I hate ginger.  I next tried a combo of peach and crap with a little ginger.  The words that came out of my mouth were, "I can taste the ginger.  I don't like it."  What I wanted to scream was, "I just threw up in my mouth.  Get it out!  Get it out!"  He then asked me if I liked hops.  I like beer so I said yes.  Imagine the most disgusting beer in the world and that's pretty much what this tasted like.  As I tried not to gag I guiltily ordered a bottle of the mint kombucha.  Why does healthy stuff taste so so bad???

As we were leaving we saw another set of hipsters brewing coffee.  Our friends Cody and Ryan are super into brewing expresso and they talk about it way too much.  I asked these hipsters if I could take their picture and this is what I ended up with.  I'm sure Cody and Ryan will appreciate this as their future.  I did end up buying a $5 cup of coffee, but if I bring the coffee cup back next week they'll give me my $5 back!  And the coffee wasn't half either!