Sweet Southern Belle

Before becoming a mom I prided myself in my neat and clean home. Even with a house pet my home was always ready for company with a quick vacuuming of the rugs. I don’t particularly like to clean but I LOVE to have things clean. For a while I had someone who I paid to-do major cleaning every two weeks and I could just keep up the everyday stuff. It was great. Life was in order. My house was tidy.

And even, for the first 10 months of Little Belle’s life I keep a pretty clean home. I had a cleaning schedule and did some major cleaning every day. It never pilled up and was most often very clean.

Now I’m lucky to keep the toys picked up, the clothes clean, the dishes put away and the floor sweep. My bathrooms don’t get deep cleaned as often as they should and lets don’t even mention dusting. I’m embarrassed to report I can’t even remember the last time my house was dusted. I try. I really do, but I always seem to fall behind. My current cleaning schedule is A) clean when it’s so filthy you can’t stand anymore B) clean furiously an hour before company is coming over.

It’s very hard to clean with a toddler because as soon as it’s put away it’s out again. And, just as soon as I start a major project she has a melt down and I have to stop in the middle. Honestly, I’m trying to come to terms with the mess. I keep reminding myself that Little Belle won’t be little forever and my house will be clean again. When it’s messy it drives me crazy but when it’s clean again I’m sure I’ll long for the days of a toddler mess. Life is just that way, isn’t it?

Since I’ve proven to be a slack blogger lately I thought I would write a quick update. We’ve all been busy bees in this household! I’m working part-time again, teaching a weight loss/fitness program at my church and helping with children’s choir. And, let me not forget my full time job, being a mom and homemaker!  Little Belle has started preschool two mornings a week and is having fun! My dear husband is good, working both day and night at the church.

Life is good!

I’ve grown a few vegetables this summer for the first time since I was a child and my family had a garden. I’ve grown eggplant, bell peppers and tomatoes. My tomato plants have done great! I’ve had tons of big red tomatoes and my dear husband and I have enjoyed them a lot. When I first started seeing tomatoes I noticed a few small black worms attached to the plants. My mama told me to mix dish detergent and water and spray the plants with the mixture. I did and no more bugs all summer until last week when I began to see ants. The little creatures were eating away at my tomatoes and the detergent mixture only seemed to entice the ants more. So, I went on a mission to find out how to get rid of the little pests. I didn’t want to use pesticides since having organic veggies is one of the main reasons I wanted to grow my own. I did a little research and discovered that ants don’t like cinnamon. I’ve placed cinnamon sticks at the roots of all the plants and sprinkled ground cinnamon over all the plants. Almost instantly the ants were gone. I will continue to sprinkle with cinnamon as needed because it appears little ants run away at the smell and/or taste of cinnamon.

Before putting Little Belle to bed tonight I read one of her favorite books, The Five Little Ducks. Quite honestly, this book has always bothered me. It’s a simple story about a mama and her five little ducklings who wander away. She starts with five, then only four come back, they leave again, then only three come back and this goes on until she’s left with no little ducklings. When none of the ducklings come back she goes to find them and eventually they all come home with their mama. The part that bothers me is that she doesn’t go looking for them until none of the little ducklings come back.

As an only child and a mama of only one child I don’t know a lot about loving multiple children but I think I’ve observed enough mamas to know that you do.  I think the mama duck should be disturbed when the first little duckling is missing. And, yes I know it makes the book flow and it is just story, but I want her to go find her first little ducking when he/she goes missing. So, from now on I will tell the story my way! Mama duck will go find each of her ducklings as they go missing because she loves them all sooo much!

I thought this was such a sweet story!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25945650/?GT1=43001

Do you have a chore you just hate? I do! It’s unloading the dishwasher! My mama made me start doing this when I was young. And, I’ve recently found out it was because she hated to-do it too! Now that I’m home more I cook (or at least prepare) two or three meals a day, six days a week. That’s a lot of dishes and a lot of times to unload. It’s a never ending chore and has to be done 1-2 times a day here. Watch out Little Belle, this will be your first chore too. Now, I am thankful I have a dishwasher because the one thing I hate more than unloading the dishwasher is hand washing dishes.  

I’ll admit that before I married my dear husband I didn’t care much about getting a deal. I bought what I wanted, when I wanted it. Whether it was on sale or not had nothing to- do with me making the purchase. Now, my dear husband is like that about some things but for the most part he loves a deal. When making major purchases (like appliances and vehicles) he prefers to get what you want/need the first time instead of having to upgrade later. However, we still wait for things to be on sale to buy. We’ve been married a little over six years now and he’s slowly converted me over to being a deal seeker too. Actually, I get so excited to get a deal and save money now that it’s almost like a high.

The risk involved with being a deal seeker is in buying stuff you don’t really need just because it’s on sale. I admit that I’m sometimes guilty of that but I try to keep myself in check. This week I’ve gotten some particularly great deals! I got a large box of diapers (126- size 4 diapers, to be exact) for $12.00. The regular retail price is $27.50. Pampers and Huggies are changing their boxes to be more eco-friendly so they have slashed their diapers in old boxes to get them off the shelves. The store had the boxes on sale for $14.00 and I had a $2.00 off coupon! I was so excited in the store I just kept telling the clerk what a great deal it was and how excited I was. I’m sure she just wanted me to hush!

And, today a friend called me to alert me of great 40-75% off sale at Dillard’s. She told me there were some dresses that “looked just like Little Belle”. It just so happened that I had just dropped Little Belle off at Mom’s Morning Out for a few hours and stopping by Dillard’s sounded much more fun than coming home to clean, since that’s what I had planned . I decided to run by there and chec out the sales. I bought myself a few things that I needed for very low prices and then I bought Little Belle a few dresses that were regularly priced at $55.00 for $8.00. Now, anyone that has seen Little Belle knows that I did not “need” to buy her these dresses since her GiGi buys her lots of clothes that keep her dressed like a princess, but I just couldn’t pass up the deal. The dresses are darling and I bought them in sizes that she can wear next year. I guess the dresses fall into the just buying them because they were on sale category but I suppose there are much worse things I could waste $24.00 on than dresses for Little Belle.

As I’ve said in many posts I’m really trying to make my lifestyle one that respects the beautiful earth we’ve been given. I’ve made lots of strides in the last 6 months or so but I’m still moving forward . My latest “green” endeavor is my clothes washing and drying. My washing machine went out and we had to purchase a new one so we decided to go with a energy efficient front loader. And, let me add that it’s awesome!!!!!!!!!!! The clothes have no excess water and they aren’t full of lint and hair like the old washer had a tendency to do. It also doesn’t have an agitator so no heavy clothes or towels get it off balance. And, best of all it should help conserve power which is good for the earth and our bank account.

The same week that the washer went out I noticed that my dryer wasn’t drying well. It was taking several times to get a load of clothes dry I thought it was just because the washer wasn’t spinning the clothes out. It turns out it was the dryer. Even with the new washer the clothes dryer is taking forever to dry a load of clothes. So we talked about and looked at a few new dryers and I suggested to my dear husband that we get a clothes line. I anticipated him shooting my idea down since the last time I mentioned this he just raised his eyebrows. Much to my surprise he agreed to give a try, at least temporarily! The one way to get my dear husband to agree to anything is to convince him it will save money. He loves to save money. I think even if we were millionaires he would save every penny he could. And, I should add that I’m very thankful for that trait since it’s kept us out of debt and allows me to stay at home with Little Belle!

It’s a bit more time consuming to hang them out but I really love the way the clothes smell after drying outside! And with this heat it isn’t taking but 10-15 mins to get a load dry. That’s much more efficient than even the best dryer! It’s also very nostalgic for me when Little Belle helps since I remember helping my mama hang clothes too. Little Belle’s been very sick and not enjoying much, but yesterday she had a blast handing me the clothes pins as I hung up the clothes.

When it comes to most things in life I’m a great Indian but I’m almost never a Chief. It’s just not my nature and I’m ok with that. I love to help and be apart of most groups but I don’t like being in charge. This week was my church’s Vacation Bible School and I taught the 3- year- old class. Many months ago when people began volunteering for various positions I told the director (who happened to be one of my best friends) that I would be happy to help with anything she needed. My only stipulation was that I didn’t want to teach a class or be in-charge of a project. I simply wanted to assist someone else. As the months passed I learned through several conversions with Monica that she still needed preschool teachers. After several reminders that I would be happy to be the assistant in any class I began to feel that maybe I should volunteer to teach a class. I finally told Monica that I was completely unqualified but would be willing to teach the 3- year- old class. I went on to tell her that I had never taught little ones. I was just sure that she would say, “oh no, I have a perfect spot for you to help somewhere else.” I was especially sure of this since her child would be in the class. Surely she wouldn’t want someone as ill prepared as me to teach her child?!?! Well, low and behold I was wrong. Monica said, “Great, I’ll put you down”.

After that I spent weeks fretting over just the right games to play and how to tell the bible stories in ways that they would understand. I also recruited the help of my mother for decorations and age appropriate activities since she taught little ones for many years.

I am happy to report that the week went very well and I enjoyed teaching the little ones a great deal. I’ll admit the being in-charge part (meaning…being responsible for everyone’s well being and planning) still isn’t my favorite but I loved getting to be with the 3-year-olds. They are so spongy. They just absorb everything you say. I was amazed each day that the little ones could tell me the main idea of the bible story we read the day before. This is such a fun age because everything you do is sooo cool! They were so excited with each new craft, song and story. And, at that age they still love to give hugs and kisses. My dear friend Queen Kelley’s little one, Butterfly, gave me several hugs and kisses each night. Moments like that are priceless!

God took me out of my comfort zone and with his help I was able to-do something that seemed overwhelming at first thought. And, like all things God is a part of, I was richly blessed by the experience.

Sorry for the delay in my posting. Life has been like a whirlwind here the past week. My church had a new pastor come for the weekend and we have Vacation Bible School every night this week. I’m teaching the 3 & 4 year olds and having fun! However, we aren’t getting home until at least 9:00 so we have to hurry to get Little Belle in bed. Then I’ve been crashing. Kudos to those of you who teach full time because I’m beat after a few hours with these little ones!  I hope to be back to regular posting soon!