Tag Archives: mom

Tom’s Mom

It seems like I have been going to a lot of funerals lately. Last week I went to my Aunt Judy’s funeral, who had lost her fight against cancer. This weekend I went to my mother-in-law’s funeral, who also lost her fight against cancer. It seems that more and more people are losing their battle against cancer, and it is troubling. Although I could totally get on my soapbox at this point, I won’t. This post is about Rebecca Rogers – Tom’s mother, my Mother-in-Law and my children’s Grandmother (Maw-Ma).

I cannot imagine losing a parent. Although Tom knew that it was coming, I don’t think he, or anyone else, could ever be fully prepared for the actual event. I am thankful that he was there with her when she went to heaven. As a Christian, it is comforting to know that a loved one, and fellow believer in Christ, is immediately in heaven with the Lord when the heart stops beating. We miss the person here on Earth, but we also rejoice in the new life that is given in heaven. Rebecca is now in heaven with a new body that is no longer sick. In that, we rejoice.

I have to say that one of the hardest events of the last week was telling the kids that Maw-Ma had passed away. The children literally cried and wailed, Wilson especially. He was really looking forward to going up to see her again so that he could say good-bye to her. Wilson is a sweet and sensitive little boy, and although he didn’t pay Maw-Ma a lot of attention when in Pennsylvania, she was still his grandmother and he loved her. Faith spent the most time with her; they would color together and Maw-Ma would teach Faith about the Appalachian mountains and the Susquehanna River. We were planning to go up to visit this past weekend, but instead of a visit with her, we went to her funeral. It is sometimes amazing how we make plans for one thing, but end up doing another on the same day.

The funeral was a nice memorial of Rebecca. There were many scriptures that she wanted to have read which allowed many loved ones to come up and speak. She wanted to be remembered for her faith in Christ. She knew who her Lord was and hoped that she had pointed to Him throughout her life. I am sad that she is gone and I know that she will be missed. She loved her family dearly and was committed to showing my children how much she loved them and wanted to be with them. I know that they will miss her as well.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Faith and Maw-Ma….

Faith’s New Floor

Faith has been living on a cement floor for almost three years. Her room in downstairs on the basement level and it rarely used. I have refused to put carpet down there because I think that carpet is dirty, covered in chemicals, and collects dust (which is terrible for a girl with a dust allergy). For years we have been talking about laying laminate wood flooring in her room, but have never done it. When I bought my new, beautiful, french door refrigerator from Lowe’s a few weeks ago, I decided to open up a Lowe’s credit card so that I could get a 10% discount on the refrigerator and Faith’s flooring. As I do for most of my home repair projects, I asked my mom to come and help me. She is probably the smartest woman I know and she is handier than most men I know.

Of course, my new rule on project is this: “If you are fixing the floors, you might as well fix the ceilings first.” In our house, this means that that the popcorn ceiling MUST go! Tom was out of town that week so I had plenty of time to work on the ceiling. I have gotten pretty cocky when it comes to scraping popcorn off the ceiling. This time I literally brought the garden hose in through the window, turned it on low, and sprayed water on the ceilings. After that I could easily scrape the popcorn off. It only took about an hour to 1.5 hours to scrape the ceiling. Yes, my arms and neck were tired, but it was totally worth it. The next day I spackled the few spots that needed it, sanded a few spots and then just went for it – I painted the ceiling white that night. In all truth, I had a margarita that night and thought to myself at about 10:00pm, “I should just go paint the ceiling.” So I did! It was easy and looks great! I am so glad that I took the time to make her room even better.

Here is the room after I took everything out of it except the bed….

I am somewhat of a “cut corners” kind of gal. While painting the ceiling I literally just put the roller into the giant bucket of ceiling paint that was left over from the last time we painted the ceilings…..

After the ceilings were done, It was time for the floor. Mom brought over three different types of saws and we went to work. Laying laminate floors requires two brains working on the same project. Mom and I laughed so many times because we kept getting confused and reminding each other how to lay the floor. I think I came up with the same bad solution to the same problem numerous times. We had a great time working on the project together. Mom and I both love a good project so doing this together was just pure joy.

Here is the finished product….

Moms, muffins and Manicures

I went to Wilson’s preschool for the Mothers Day Muffins and Manicures event. It was very cute. When we arrived we found Wilson’s name and our spot at the table. First we put together a picture of him that had been cut up into puzzle pieces. Then we ate muffins and drank juice. We were seated across the table from each other so that we could see each other and then he could paint my nails. After the muffins he got to work. Orange nail Polish was sitting next to us so we used that one. I had a cocktail party to go to that night and was considering wearing orange so it was fine. Because wilson has an older sister he actually has some experience with painting nails. (He used to paint his own). He did a pretty good job with the first hand but had run out of patience by the sixth finger. Needless to say, I had much more orange on the fingers of the second hand than the first. I definitely had a bit of cleaning up to so before my party that night. Wilson was still happy with his work. Even two days later he is checking my nails to make sure they are still colored. I am not sure when I am going to be able to take it off without hurting his feelings.

Wilson and I don’t get to do too many things together just one-on-one. This was a fun little event for us to spend some quality time together and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Day in the Life

I was going to write about our night last night, but thought that writing about a “Day in the Life of Becca” would be more appropriate. You can see exactly how crazy my life is. Today was a busy one and I wanted to write about it before the exhaustion and the humor of it all wore off.

To give an accurate picture, I must start the day about an hour after I fell asleep last night…..

Miller woke up at 11:00pm whining and crying for me. I got up, gave him the water that he was asking for, held his hand, and sang him a few songs until he was ready to go to sleep. He did drink the entire water that I gave him so I felt that the whole episode was worth it and a valid reason for him to wake up.

At about 4:00am I woke up to find Wilson in between Tom and I, and Faith standing next to me. She was looking to get into bed too. I decided to give her my spot in bed while I walked across the hall and got into Wilson’s empty bed. Honestly, a fabulous decision on my part. It was quiet and I was alone. I was also able to sleep in a bit more since Tom was in bed with the kids who would wake up first.

I woke up around 7:30, showered, and quickly got ready for school. I am still teaching preschool on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I love it, but am ready for school to end…only because I am tired of going somewhere in the mornings. Today I taught eleven two-year-olds for four hours. Fun, but tiring.

After work I went to the grocery store because we didn’t have any food in the house. I had been putting off going to the store for over a week. Tom was very gracious not to get completely annoyed with the fact that he had no good food to eat all week. After the store I unpacked the food, set the timer on the oven, and took a twenty minute nap. I set a timer for everything. The oven timer get more use than the oven. The nap was just enough to get me through the day. I woke up to the alarm, packed Faith’s soccer stuff and headed out the door.

Then I went to pick up the cousins from school. Will and John were done with school at 3:00pm. I took them to my mom’s and hung out a while until it was time to take Faith to soccer practice. While at mom’s I fed the kids some mac-and-cheese so that they wouldn’t be hungry. I was actually making it part of their very early dinner.

Now, here comes the interesting part…..

I left mom’s with my three kids. As I was leaving I grabbed the boys’ shoes, Faith’s backpack, an outfit for Miller (because all he had on was a diaper and no proper clothes to wear), and the bag of food to eat at the soccer field. We left a bit early so that I could go to Trader Joe’s while I was on that side of town. As we were pulling into the Trader Joe’s parking lot Wilson announced that he had to go to the bathroom. As usual, I found a spot in the back of the building for me to pull over, open the door, and let him pee right out of the minivan and onto some bushes. As he is peeing I realize that he doesn’t have a shirt on, only pajama pants. Now, anyone that knows Wilson knows that he lives in his pajamas. I usually let him live in them unless he is going to school or church. Of course, in the winter he puts his clothes on OVER his pajamas. Not a battle worth fighting, in my opinion. Who wouldn’t want to wear pajamas all day everyday?

I found one of Faith’s soccer jerseys in the back of the car for him to wear. Then Faith tells me that she didn’t have any shoes on! I tell her that she will have to wear her soccer cleats only then realize that I had left the bag with all of her soccer stuff at my mom’s!! I couldn’t believe it. I told Faith that she was going to have to wear Wilson’s shoes at soccer practice with no shin guards. Not ideal, but I was not going to go all the way back to mom’s house when what I really needed was inside of Trader Joe’s. Thankfully, Wilson was okay with the idea of going shoeless at the soccer field. So, I got out of the car, got a shirt on Miller, got shoes on Wilson, and had Faith go into the store with no shoes (I made her sit inside the tiny cart). We were a pathetic bunch. Here is what everyone had on….

Faith – school uniform, no shoes

Miller – shirt and a diaper

Wilson – pajama bottoms, shoes and a soccer jersey

I pushed Faith and Miller around in the cart while Wilson hung on to the front. I was zooming around Trader Joe’s like my cart was on fire! People literally moved out of the way as I cut them off and smiled. It is too small of a store to have three kids with me – especially ones that looked as raggedy as mine did. The kids behaved wonderfully in the store. I was very thankful for that and praised them for it after we left. I am probably exaggerating on the speed at which I traveled around the store, but I definitely walked fast and took charge of the route that I took.

Luckily, Doug met me half way with the bag of Faith’s soccer stuff after we left the store. At the field, my friend laughed and said that if I combined all of the kids’ stuff we would probably have one complete outfit.

Yes, this is typically how many of my days go. Part of it is my fault. I should teach the kids a bit more responsibility when it comes to making sure they have all of their stuff. Faith went to church the other night with no shoes as well. You would think that we both would have learned, but we didn’t. I have to laugh and just roll with it many times. Having the wrong shoes, or no shoes, isn’t the end of the world. I am not embarrassed by my children that have on pajamas or only a diaper. I am sure people look at me and think, “Poor thing, she has three young kids…”. I will never see them again and therefore, I don’t worry about it. The thing I try hardest to do is have a good attitude about it all. i have to laugh and just go with it. I can’t change what the current situation is, all I can do is control my attitude. I definitely give them a short lecture, but we move on in style.

I finally got all three kids in bed by 8:30pm after a bit of crying and whining….from all of us. Tom is out of town this week and it should be an interesting one. This was just the tip of the iceberg!

Faiths cards

Now that she can write, Faith has been making everyone cards. Most of them say about the same thing and are very sweet and loving. It really shows who she is as a person. Here are a few examples of what I have received lately:

I am going to keep all of these so that I can show them to her when she is sixteen and thinks I don’t know anything and that I am mean because I won’t let her go out with a certain boy. I know that day will come but I will continue to pray that it doesn’t.

Right now, she is all about Mamma. She wants my attention all of the time. Sometimes it is difficult to do or I am tired because it is the end of the day, but I always remind myself that she won’t always want to be with me all of the time and that I need to take advantage of these moments now. The best part of my day is when she and I go downstairs right before bed to read. She reads her books from school and then we talk about our day. It is special because it is just the two of us and I am focused soley on her. She is growing up so fast and says things that make me smile.

I am sure that more cards are to come and I will cherish everyone of them. My daughter loves me and that is something to be proud of.

Quality time…

I took the kids to Squirrel Lake park yesterday. I almost invited another family to go along with us, like I typically do, but decided that we should go alone. I love bringing others with us because it keeps the kids more entertained and it gives me someone to socialize with. However, when I have a friend with me I don’t usually play with the kids. I tend to talk to the other mom while the kids play near us. I decided that this trip needed to be used for quality time with the my kids.

I picked up Faith from school and we headed right over to the park. As usual, they were not interested in the playing on the playground equipment. Instead they wanted to go throw things in the water and go exploring in the woods. To “go exploring” means that the kids play down by the creek, dig in the sand, and eventually fall into the water. It was a warm day so I wasn’t too worried about them getting wet. It took about twenty minutes before Wilson slipped on the rocks and fall into the water. He got his pants and shoes wet but he didn’t seem to mind too much. We walked through the woods and along the water to see where “the water started”. I had a very nice time with the kids. It was fun to see them so excited. The four of us laughed a lot, threw giant rocks into the stream, and climbed on a fallen tree.

Lately I have felt as if I haven’t spent much quality time with the kids. I see them all the time, but I don’t always consider it “quality time”. Quality time is time that we spend together without the distraction of other people or screens. It is time that I am focused on them and the activity at hand. We spend a lot of time in the same house together, but we are not always playing together. Yesterday we spent many hours at the playground together enjoying each others’ company and doing something slightly different. It was a great day to be a mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my moms birthday (I won’t say how old). :). Of course, it was a typical Monday for her. The kids were there all day: four kids in the morning and more showed up as the day wore on. At the end of her day I showed up with a nice cream cake. The kids were very excited. The little ones helped out the candles on the cake….

Then we lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday to her. Here she is with most of the kids…

Mom works so hard helping all of us. She takes care of the kids, feeds them, hems our clothes, does our taxes, and lets us have all of her hard earned gardening goods. She is a woman to be admired and in awe of all of her special talents and abilities. Did I mention that she is also modest? :).

Thanks for all you do mom!

The Dressler Family

A Day in the Life…