SAHM

Being a stay at home mom has it's perks. Lounge wear, no make-up, no straight iron, flexible lunch hours, and being your own boss..and the boss of the little people for that matter. You would think that my house would be spotless and all the chores would be done, but somehow, my time is eaten up as if I'm at a 9-5.
I get up and have my hot tea and whatever breakfast I can find. Usually a pop-tart. By the time I get sat down to eat, Simon needs me, so I get cold tea. Gus needs to do crafts, we dance, learn some things and it's lunch. I may throw some laundry in, and it may overflow and flood my kitchen. You don't know what my day will bring. I always get the beds made and the dishes washed, keep the fire going and the children happy. You just can't stop a toddler tornado.
I haven't given up....which used to be a joke to me...SAHM's give up and throw their hair up-or cut it off, and wear sweatsuits. But seriously, why do I want to have my hair laying on my shoulder on my nice sweater to get puked on? It's going to happen. There will be spit-up in my day. Every day. When I do get out of the house, I put on nice clothes, maybe even a pair of jeans (WHOA) and as soon as I step back in the door, lounge wear...just in time to soak up the spit-up! I do refuse to cut my hair off though. First off, I don't have the face shape for short hair. Trust me. Second, it would enhance the grey.
What bothers me most is that people don't seem to take you seriously as a SAHM. They ask what you do and you tell them and you immediately read what they're thinking. Oh, you're lazy. Well, lemme tell ya- there are days that I'd love to be sitting at a desk where you couldn't even see the wood or half of my floor because of the workload. I'd put my nose to the computer and power through that instead of cleaning crayon off the wall and puke out of my hair, happily! Work would be a vacation compared to most of my days! I could sit here and throw movies in and watch my soaps, sure, but I do take this job seriously, and I want to be good at it. Where's that online training class for mom's? Is there a dial in code I don't know about?
As Simon gets older and the weather gets better, I'll change into shorts and venture outside. Maybe a bedazzled tank top. Possibilities for the summer are endless!

Can I get a corner?

Dusty Robinson, the self proclaimed bedroom vortex. Not what you're thinking. Grow up people.

I'll start with an important piece of information. A previous post highlighted how Dusty is constantly hot. A balmy 200 degrees on the coldest of days. However, he MUST have at least a sheet on him at night because, and I quote, "I feel like I'll float away." Now most of you know my husband, and if anyone was going to "float", he would be the least likely to do so. I freeze at night. Every night. I freeze. I have a sheet, a down blanket, and a comforter on the bed. I like to be under all 3 of these.

There is a trend however, that keeps me from being under all 3 or even 1. I get all snuggled in and Dusty is usually still watching TV or reading. Once he decides to settle in, the vortex begins. Inch by inch, my covers start getting sucked in until I'm stuck with just a sheet and blanket. Hours later I get up to feed Simon and I'm down to a sheet. I get up to use the bathroom-sheet is half gone. Now I would try to get these back, but I don't have the strength in the middle of the night, so I put on sweatpants. Get up to feed Simon again and grab a hoodie on my way back to bed.

How does this happen? Where do these covers go? They show up the next morning, just 3 miles down the road. A bedroom vortex. Who knew?

He's down

My poor sweet Gustus has his first broken bone:( I knew this day was coming, but I still wasn't prepared.
Last Thursday he tried for "infinity and beyond" and beyond was a little closer than he thought. I was sitting in the floor right beside him and heard the horrible crack and saw his face change to instant pain. I figured there were brains on the carpet. I immediately scooped him up and held him as tight as I could and told him how sorry I was and cried right along with him. I got the "pig-a-medic" Which is an ice pack in the shape of a pig and applied it to the side of his head that hit the ground. He just complained of a headache and I gave him Tylenol right away. Never once did he say that his shoulder hurt.
Friday he started favoring his right hand and would hold his left close to his side. I decided it was time to go to the Dr. So I got him in the shower and he started doing push-ups and telling me he was just fine. I figured if I took him to the Dr., I would be the over-reacting Mom...mountain...mole hill...ya know.
Saturday we went to Asheville and met Jeremy & Abbey at Chuck-e-cheese. He rode all the rides, played skee ball, whacked the sharks. (it's not moles anymore??) He would do some things with it, but was obviously tender over his shoulder.
Sunday, it snowed. He and Dusty went out and played, built a snowman, made snow angels, went sledding, and he ate a good 2 lbs of snow. Then Sunday night, I just couldn't live with myself if I didn't take him to check for sure. My main thought was...one day, he's gonna break something and they'll x-ray him and find this old unreported break and snatch him up and into foster care.
Monday morning, 8 o clock, called the Dr........closed for inclement weather! WHAT? Called the hospital to have the Dr. on call paged. Waited on hold for 11 mins, hung up, dialed again, finally got an operator. "They're not open?????" "No mam, the message says closed due to weather" "Great! Who's the Dr" "I take him to Hendersonville Pediatrics" "Which Dr. do you need paged?" "The one on call???" "Yeah I know that mam, which one is your Dr.?" " I DON'T CARE WHO IT IS!! You can call anyone that will help me" "I'll have to see who's on call and page them.(this was kinda my point earlier) What's wrong?" "I think my son broke his collarbone" "Ok, I'll have someone call" CLICK. Waited 30 mins, called back. "Yeah, for whatever reason they are still not open and we don't know why, but we're trying to reach someone" CLICK! Waited 30 more mins and the operator called me back to let me know that the Dr. on call recommends that we wait until 10 when the office opens, or of course the standard "if this is a life threatening emergency, hang up and dial 911" Yeah, I got that, thanks for assuming my mental incapability of saving my child's life. Anyway, called the Dr. at 10 and they said it was the Hendersonville office and I needed to call Brevard. So I checked my phone, uh, no mam, I dialed the Brevard #. "UGH, Let me call them and tell them to turn their phones on" CLICK.
CAN'T ANYONE SAY GOODBYE ANYMORE????? Are you in a customer service field of work demonstrating poor customer service to an obviously scared mother of a broken child?? DANG!
So I call back. Oh...sure...let me leave another message, why not. I got up, got us ready, packed, car started and scrapped. Finally the Dr's office called back. "Did you leave this message last night or this morning?" "This morning" "So does he need to be seen" Slow deep breaths, I tell myself. "Yes mam" "What does he need to be seen for" Obviously didn't listen to the message.
Got in immediately and got the confirmation I dreaded immediately. Yup, it's broken. Send you for an x-ray for our records. 5 minutes, 1 sling, and a life savings account later, we were on the road home.
He's more frustrated with the sling than the broken bone. He's already trying to make deals with me. "I'll be a really good boy and you can take this off" "Pretty please"

I love snow

I know most people get all crazy when it snows. They're thinking of losing power, no hot water, how are we gonna get to....wherever it is that they NEED to go. Not me. I'm thinking, hot chocolate, hot tea, pancakes, fire, playtime in the snow with Gus, extra time with Dusty, snowcream, movies, not having to go anywhere, and memories being made:)
I love to wake up to snow. I looked outside when Simon got up to eat for the 2nd time and could hardly wait to tell Dusty. I did wait until 6 though so he wouldn't be too grumpy. I started making plans in my head of all the things we can do today. Gus doesn't have a snowsuit yet, so I started thinking of layers. I'll put on sweatpants and pair of his too big jeans...I'll put plastic baggies on his feet in between his sock layers and then his biggest shoes...4 shirts & his biggest coat....a hat..scarf...mittens-where are those mittens. So I just got on up and started my day.
Now I'm sitting here waiting on him to wake up so that I can show him the snow! Am I too excited maybe? I know I'm excited for Christmas. Not for the same reasons I used to be. I don't care if I get an empty box, as long as Gus is happy. Simon- not so much this year. I'm not even sure if he would care to eat wrapping paper. We went to toys r us yesterday and watched as Gus ran from toy to toy. "Hey, look at this guys" "Check this out guys" "I want this" So Dusty started making a pile of toys that he obviously loved with all of his heart. At the end, I took Gus and Simon back out to the car because Daddy had to show Santa the things that Gus wanted for Christmas. We had a little trouble getting him out of the store at first because he thought Dusty was going to call Santa for Gus being bad....which I may or may not have threatened my son with from time to time??? It works, don't judge me. So then Dusty stood in the endless line and came out with about 1/3 of the things he had fallen for. But he forgot the one thing that I really wanted and had to go back in:)
So anyway, here I sit watching Simon in the swing, the fire roar, Dusty playing some football game (cause it's the off season and we still need football to breathe) drinking my hot tea and waiting for Gus to wake up and see the snow. Maybe I'll make a really loud noise?

Cold Wars

I love to be warm. I do not like to be sweltering hot, but I like to be warm. A lot of my childhood was spent at my grandparents house where there was almost always a fire. My grandfather made what our family called "candle melter's." The name came from the fact that the candles on the mantle would actually melt.

I take showers that turn my skin red and keep the door closed so that when I get out, I'm still warm. I like to sit as close to the fire as possible. I would like to sleep on top of a heating pad under an electric blanket. I like to drink hot tea, even in the middle of the day. I love sweaters. I like to sit over the heat vent at church.

On any given day, Dusty Robinson is a balmy 104 degrees. Why? I don't know. He's hot. All the time. So he keeps a fan on at night. Even when it's 21 degrees outside. He doesn't like to build fires because it's too hot. And to turn the heat on in our room would be out of the question. He wears shorts year round. He would leave the AC on year round 24/7.

Both of the boys are hot boxes too. Simon already sweats and I didn't think babies even had sweat glands. So what else is there to do, but walk around in sweatpants, sweatshirts, and a hat, with socks on my feet.