That title got your attention didn't it? Good, keep reading.
We recently went to an event that had these amazing bubbles and wands. My son loved them. They were selling the solution and supplies but I thought surely we could recreate it at home. My son loves to experiment so I thought it would be right up his alley.
The next day we went and got supplies. There were several different recipes on Pinterest but most contained similar ingredients. We picked one and were ready to go. We mixed up the solution, made homemade wands (drills and other tools were involved). At one point I thought maybe we should have just shelled out the cash but my son was loving it so we continued.
After we waited the amount of time for the solution to "brew" we headed out and tested our bubbles. After a few adjustments, we had bubbles. Big, glorious bubbles....that popped as soon as they came out of the wand. We would get them nice and big but they weren't "unpoppable" like the ones at the event. By this time, it was 90 degrees and 100% humidity so we were done anyway. I've continued to research on how to make these bubbles better and I thought I had the perfect solution. Personal lubricant. What? Yes, that's right, lube. I should point out that I read about this secret ingredient, I didn't come up with it on my own.
Several of the recipes call for glycerin which is thick but pourable. I was thinking that the bubbles needed to be thicker and kept seeing these posts talking about a secret ingredient. After much searching and joining a website and then another email group, I found it! The secret ingredient was personal lubricant purchased from the dollar store.
Today I set out to make all my son's bubble blowing dreams come true. I headed to the local dollar store in search of personal lubricant. I was a little embarrassed about buying 2 tubes of this but I'm a confident, married woman....so I buried it in my cart with all my other items and headed to the check out. I know I've seen this item up by the checkout before and all I could find in the hygiene aisle was the "warm touch" stuff. I'm sure the ingredients were the same but continued to look for the regular. There wasn't anyone in line behind me, which I was very grateful for, so I piled everything on the belt but still felt like I should point out to the cashier that the lube wasn't for me personally. So as she gets to them I say "I'm using those to make homemade bubbles, do you know if you have the regular stuff?"
It went downhill from there.
The nice cashier, LaKendra, could have just said no. However, I'm guessing she wanted to provide superior customer satisfaction, so she asked her manager if they had any. Her manager was 3 aisles away. LaKendra did not leave her register. She yelled. Loudly. (Hence the all caps)
"DO YOU KNOW IF WE GOTS ANY PERSONAL LUBRICANT IN THE REGULAR? THIS LADY DOESN'T WANT THIS WARMIN' STUFF."
I yell "I'M MAKING BUBBLES FOR MY SON!" I can feel the heat in my face rising.
By this point there is now an elderly lady in line behind me. She's about 70 and thinks this is hilarious. I proceed to explain to her that the lube is FOR MY SON'S BUBBLES!! She just giggles and says, "It's okay honey, you don't have to explain your purchases."
The manager is now up at the register explaining that no they don't have the regular kind, only the warming stuff and is waving the box around like it's a lit sparkler on the 4th of July. I'm telling them that that is fine, I will get this stuff, let's all move on with life. The lady behind me continues to giggle.
At this point, I'm starting to laugh too because I'm thinking that it's going to make a great blog post. I turn to the lay behind me and say "This really is just to make bubbles." She then tries to hand me the flyswatter she's buying and says, "Well honey, you should really spice things up and get this too." I'm dying inside. She's thinking we are 50 Shades of Grey and my face is now 50 Shades of Red. I just laugh and say "no thanks, just getting bubble making supplies."
I manage to make it out of the store and tell LaKendra I will probably never be back. And now I'm thinking I can't even let my son help make the stupid bubbles because he's gonna want to know what personal lubricant is and why the bubbles make him feel all warm and tingly when they pop on his skin! After all this, the bubbles better be magnificent! And all future personal lubricant purchases will be made on Amazon.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Questions....
It's back to school time again and everyone is trying to get back on a schedule. I stay at home so it may be a little easier for me. In the summer we really don't have a schedule. Breakfast at 11:00 which also means it covers lunch and a late dinner, chores get done as needed and lots of housework slides because we are busy having fun. Now that school is in session, it's 8:15 AM and I've already done two loads of laundry, dusted, swept and vacuumed. I am much more productive on a schedule.
With the coming of a new school year, often comes changes. My kids are in the 4th and 8th grade this year so I'm used to the normal "stay at home mom" questions. I have a friend who's youngest just entered kindergarten and she stays at home. She asked how I handle the question of "so what do you do all day now that your kids are in school?" or worse "so are you getting a job now that all of your kids are in school?" Because being a mom isn't a real job right?
Sure these questions are innocently asked and people just assume that you will be going to work. But people, stop and think. Maybe you are just curious on how we spend our 8 hours of "alone" time but don't ask. If you told me what your career was, I wouldn't say "but really, what do you do for 8 hours".
I'm not bothered by these questions. I kinda laugh them off and jokingly say I'm just a lady of leisure. Really I don't feel like it's any one's business but that answer usually does the trick. Other times I do feel like I have to explain myself and justify why I stay home. I will say, "I stay at home BUT I do this, this and this..." And really, I'm not sure why I do that? I think as moms we just don't want to be judged.
Being a stay at home mom works for our family. I've been doing this gig for over 9 years now and it works for us. When my daughter was little, I paid an obscene amount of money for daycare to go to a job I hated. And if momma ain't happy, nobody's happy. That rang very true for us. When I got pregnant with my son, we knew changes had to be made. In one year, we went from two incomes down to one, we moved to a new town which doubled our mortgage, we (meaning me) learned the hard way about saving money and budgeting. We made sacrifices and it was worth it.
Being a stay at home means we live on less. Yes we are comfortable but it's because of the choices we make. We live in a small house with no basement. We drive used cars. I try and get bargains when possible and Dave Ramsay is part of our life. When our kids complain that they want bigger rooms or a basement, I tell them that we can have that but then I will need to get a job...9 times out of 10 they stop complaining. And eventually these kids are gonna move out and we won't need a bigger house then anyway.
So what do I do for 8 hours a day....anything I want! Most days fly by. Everything that you do on the evenings and on weekends, I do during the day. All the errands you have to run or have your husband run, I do during the day. Meal prep, cleaning, laundry, etc...all done. My husband never has to worry about "house" stuff. Chores are done, food is in the fridge and he always has clean clothes. He pretty much has it made. Also, I love helping people so if a friend needs something, they know they can call me.
All that being said, I have a pretty sweet deal too. He works hard so that we can have this arrangement. He provides for our family and continues to better himself so he can continue to provide for us. If I want to have a "lady of leisure" day or spend time with friends, that's fine too. This also works for us because I knew I would want to be involved with our kids' school. I spend a lot of time volunteering there as the PTC President. In fact, I've had students ask where my classroom is because they assume I'm a teacher. I want to be involved in the place where my kids spend 8 hours a day. I also do other volunteer work that is near and dear to us. I also decorate cakes. But again, I shouldn't have to list my "credentials" all the time. I really doubt anyone expects me to, it's something I feel like I need to do for some reason.
In all honesty, I don't know how working moms do it. I see so many of you doing everything I do PLUS working part time or full time. You are amazing!! I think the secret is finding out what works best for your family. Maybe it's staying home, maybe it's working part time, maybe it's having your husband be a stay at home dad?? Regardless of what that formula is, if it works for you, I won't ask any questions.
With the coming of a new school year, often comes changes. My kids are in the 4th and 8th grade this year so I'm used to the normal "stay at home mom" questions. I have a friend who's youngest just entered kindergarten and she stays at home. She asked how I handle the question of "so what do you do all day now that your kids are in school?" or worse "so are you getting a job now that all of your kids are in school?" Because being a mom isn't a real job right?
Sure these questions are innocently asked and people just assume that you will be going to work. But people, stop and think. Maybe you are just curious on how we spend our 8 hours of "alone" time but don't ask. If you told me what your career was, I wouldn't say "but really, what do you do for 8 hours".
I'm not bothered by these questions. I kinda laugh them off and jokingly say I'm just a lady of leisure. Really I don't feel like it's any one's business but that answer usually does the trick. Other times I do feel like I have to explain myself and justify why I stay home. I will say, "I stay at home BUT I do this, this and this..." And really, I'm not sure why I do that? I think as moms we just don't want to be judged.
Being a stay at home mom works for our family. I've been doing this gig for over 9 years now and it works for us. When my daughter was little, I paid an obscene amount of money for daycare to go to a job I hated. And if momma ain't happy, nobody's happy. That rang very true for us. When I got pregnant with my son, we knew changes had to be made. In one year, we went from two incomes down to one, we moved to a new town which doubled our mortgage, we (meaning me) learned the hard way about saving money and budgeting. We made sacrifices and it was worth it.
Being a stay at home means we live on less. Yes we are comfortable but it's because of the choices we make. We live in a small house with no basement. We drive used cars. I try and get bargains when possible and Dave Ramsay is part of our life. When our kids complain that they want bigger rooms or a basement, I tell them that we can have that but then I will need to get a job...9 times out of 10 they stop complaining. And eventually these kids are gonna move out and we won't need a bigger house then anyway.
So what do I do for 8 hours a day....anything I want! Most days fly by. Everything that you do on the evenings and on weekends, I do during the day. All the errands you have to run or have your husband run, I do during the day. Meal prep, cleaning, laundry, etc...all done. My husband never has to worry about "house" stuff. Chores are done, food is in the fridge and he always has clean clothes. He pretty much has it made. Also, I love helping people so if a friend needs something, they know they can call me.
All that being said, I have a pretty sweet deal too. He works hard so that we can have this arrangement. He provides for our family and continues to better himself so he can continue to provide for us. If I want to have a "lady of leisure" day or spend time with friends, that's fine too. This also works for us because I knew I would want to be involved with our kids' school. I spend a lot of time volunteering there as the PTC President. In fact, I've had students ask where my classroom is because they assume I'm a teacher. I want to be involved in the place where my kids spend 8 hours a day. I also do other volunteer work that is near and dear to us. I also decorate cakes. But again, I shouldn't have to list my "credentials" all the time. I really doubt anyone expects me to, it's something I feel like I need to do for some reason.
In all honesty, I don't know how working moms do it. I see so many of you doing everything I do PLUS working part time or full time. You are amazing!! I think the secret is finding out what works best for your family. Maybe it's staying home, maybe it's working part time, maybe it's having your husband be a stay at home dad?? Regardless of what that formula is, if it works for you, I won't ask any questions.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Sunday (NOT) Funday
This summer I have noticed several pictures posted on social media and captioned "Sunday Funday". These pictures usually show friends frolicking in pools, hanging out at cookouts, having a great time on a leisurely Sunday afternoon. I mean, come on, even the Bible says that Sunday should be a day of rest. Not so much when you are camping. Sundays are not Fun days. At. All.
This past weekend we headed to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Mammoth Cave, KY. We met all of my in-laws there to celebrate my niece's upcoming first birthday. We had checked out a few other campgrounds in the area and once we found out about a recent Meth lab explosion at one, we thought that Jellystone would be a safe bet for a little family vacay. Everyone else stayed in a cabin near us and we took out the ole family glamper and headed to Kentucky. (cue banjo music)
We knew as soon as we headed out that it would be a rainy weekend. Rowland's are camping you say? Then mother nature is gonna bring on the rain! I'm thinking that maybe we need to offer some kind of service to areas that are experiencing a drought. "Need rain - point us to the closest campground!" I was okay with the rain though because I knew we had the cabin as a fall back. It was going to be fine.
We drove 6 hours while it rained the entire time. Set up the camper in the rain. Dried out the areas that water got into (which were limited thankfully). We had time to kill so we headed to eat. We met a very nice, yet creepy, waitress and I started talking with a southern accent. It stopped raining, we were dry and full and we headed back to the campground y'all. It rained throughout the weekend but we were still able to have a lot of fun. There were lots of windows of no rain so the kids swam, had fun with cousins, etc.
Around 3:30 AM this happened:
That's my son sound asleep next to a bucket of water. You can't tell buy the bucket and towel are 1/2 full. See, it started leaking around 3:30 AM. I woke up and thought I'd peed the bed! The memory foam mattress is super absorbent which I guess is a good thing because it all ran to the low spot (my butt I guess) and soaked in there leaving my son and the rest of the bed dry. He slept through it all. Luckily, duct tape and caulk fixed the problem!
We also got fancy with our glamper this weekend and figured out how to attach the canopy and screen room. Plus we spread out the new outdoor rug. It was super fancy.
(Don't mind my hubby's butt! I meant to go back and take another picture and forgot. You're welcome)
The highlight of the glamper is the new lights we got. Bobby got pink flamingo lights at a garage sale and I got the white ones last week.
Now it's almost like a fancy resort....except for the wet towels hanging in there! Don't be jealous! This really helped though in all the rain!
So back to my reason of Sundays not being fun....
Now that I've camped 3 times, I am pretty much a professional. I noticed on Friday and Saturday, the campground was buzzing. People were out, setting up, having fun. You could smell foods cooking and fires going. Golf carts were tooling around, kids on bikes were cruising and everyone was out enjoying nature.
On Sunday, not so much. It's quiet. All you hear are men barking orders, crabby wives and trucks pulling out. You may hear a few kids crying, some complaining, car doors closing. For the most part, the fun is over. It's time to pack up and head home. The worst part of camping is dealing with the mess. Maybe in a bigger camper, where you can just close the doors and drive away, it's not so bad. In a pop up, tear down is a pain. Everything is wet. Every. Thing. That canopy and screen room we liked so much...gotta come down. Those lights...gotta come down. Thankfully, my husband is very meticulous in all of this and takes the time to fold it all and wind everything up and put it away. Me? I would have wadded it in a ball and left. That new rug? It's covered in mud but someones gotta fold it back up like a US map and get it in the carrier.
We've learned (now that we are pros) to get everything packed up and the camper ready to go and THEN take the showers. We shower and basically pull away. By the time I hit the showers, I AM SCARY! I'm crabby, hot, sweaty, muddy and tired from not sleeping the past two nights. We worked from about 8:45 until 10:30 packing everything up. Check out was at 11:00. We drove away at 10:58. We cut it close on this one. I thought I would take a selfie of my scary self before my shower just so you got the whole impact of how bad the situation gets. However, the selfie was so horrid, I had to take a picture of my reflection in the car just to filter it somewhat.
I think this should say "You won't like me when I'm camping" Things get ugly.
Also, on Sunday, I get to come home and work on this mess.
That's a ginormous bag of wet, stinky, dirty laundry and the other is a bag full of all the dirty bedding. Fun times. It's Tuesday and I just finished laundry.
So I guess the moral of the story is, while I'm getting used to this camping business, Sunday is definitely not a fun day. Maybe we need to stay until Monday?
This past weekend we headed to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Mammoth Cave, KY. We met all of my in-laws there to celebrate my niece's upcoming first birthday. We had checked out a few other campgrounds in the area and once we found out about a recent Meth lab explosion at one, we thought that Jellystone would be a safe bet for a little family vacay. Everyone else stayed in a cabin near us and we took out the ole family glamper and headed to Kentucky. (cue banjo music)
We knew as soon as we headed out that it would be a rainy weekend. Rowland's are camping you say? Then mother nature is gonna bring on the rain! I'm thinking that maybe we need to offer some kind of service to areas that are experiencing a drought. "Need rain - point us to the closest campground!" I was okay with the rain though because I knew we had the cabin as a fall back. It was going to be fine.
We drove 6 hours while it rained the entire time. Set up the camper in the rain. Dried out the areas that water got into (which were limited thankfully). We had time to kill so we headed to eat. We met a very nice, yet creepy, waitress and I started talking with a southern accent. It stopped raining, we were dry and full and we headed back to the campground y'all. It rained throughout the weekend but we were still able to have a lot of fun. There were lots of windows of no rain so the kids swam, had fun with cousins, etc.
Around 3:30 AM this happened:
We also got fancy with our glamper this weekend and figured out how to attach the canopy and screen room. Plus we spread out the new outdoor rug. It was super fancy.
(Don't mind my hubby's butt! I meant to go back and take another picture and forgot. You're welcome)
The highlight of the glamper is the new lights we got. Bobby got pink flamingo lights at a garage sale and I got the white ones last week.
So back to my reason of Sundays not being fun....
Now that I've camped 3 times, I am pretty much a professional. I noticed on Friday and Saturday, the campground was buzzing. People were out, setting up, having fun. You could smell foods cooking and fires going. Golf carts were tooling around, kids on bikes were cruising and everyone was out enjoying nature.
On Sunday, not so much. It's quiet. All you hear are men barking orders, crabby wives and trucks pulling out. You may hear a few kids crying, some complaining, car doors closing. For the most part, the fun is over. It's time to pack up and head home. The worst part of camping is dealing with the mess. Maybe in a bigger camper, where you can just close the doors and drive away, it's not so bad. In a pop up, tear down is a pain. Everything is wet. Every. Thing. That canopy and screen room we liked so much...gotta come down. Those lights...gotta come down. Thankfully, my husband is very meticulous in all of this and takes the time to fold it all and wind everything up and put it away. Me? I would have wadded it in a ball and left. That new rug? It's covered in mud but someones gotta fold it back up like a US map and get it in the carrier.
We've learned (now that we are pros) to get everything packed up and the camper ready to go and THEN take the showers. We shower and basically pull away. By the time I hit the showers, I AM SCARY! I'm crabby, hot, sweaty, muddy and tired from not sleeping the past two nights. We worked from about 8:45 until 10:30 packing everything up. Check out was at 11:00. We drove away at 10:58. We cut it close on this one. I thought I would take a selfie of my scary self before my shower just so you got the whole impact of how bad the situation gets. However, the selfie was so horrid, I had to take a picture of my reflection in the car just to filter it somewhat.
Also, on Sunday, I get to come home and work on this mess.
That's a ginormous bag of wet, stinky, dirty laundry and the other is a bag full of all the dirty bedding. Fun times. It's Tuesday and I just finished laundry.
So I guess the moral of the story is, while I'm getting used to this camping business, Sunday is definitely not a fun day. Maybe we need to stay until Monday?
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