Category Archives: Diapers

The dirty side of motherhood.

Poetry tiara, and a little laundry inspiration.

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Congratulations to the winner of the poetry contest:  MaryAnn!  Her laundry limerick won almost 50% of the votes, and several people asked permission to hang it up in their laundry rooms.  🙂

It’s a blessing to do everyday,
To serve my family this way.
I have to repeat it
Until I believe it,
For laundry will not go away.

And for her masterpiece, MaryAnn wins this lovely crown and a spot of honor on my sidebar over there —–>

For your own inspiration, here are a few quotes I found about laundry:

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.  — Thomas S. Monson

“How in the world can I do everything I know I should be doing when I am barely managing the basic tasks of my day?” I wondered. By early evening I was exhausted, but I set aside discouraging thoughts during dinner, family home evening, and the boys’ bath and bedtime routine.

Finally, with the children in bed, I sat down to do what I had not had time for earlier. I picked up the May 2006 Ensign, which was open to a talk by President Henry B. Eyring titled “As a Child.” My eyes fell on a passage I had previously marked: “To keep the blessing of [changed natures] in our hearts will require determination, effort, and faith. King Benjamin taught at least some of what that will require. He said that to retain a remission of our sins from day to day we must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and help people spiritually and temporally” (Liahona and Ensign, May 2006, 17).

Immediately, I again felt that I wasn’t living the gospel fully. I wondered, “How can I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and help people spiritually and temporally when I can scarcely take care of my own family?”

That’s when I experienced an overwhelming feeling of divine approval. It was so clear, precise, and tangible that I knew I had to write it down so I wouldn’t forget. I could see my day replay in my mind—full of feeding the hungry, doing laundry to clothe the naked (I changed Caden’s outfit multiple times), gently caring for our sick baby, helping our five-year-old prepare a family home evening lesson on missionary work, and then discussing the power of example with my family—in other words, helping people spiritually and temporally.  — Carolynn Spencer

Try to think of the unexciting tasks not by themselves, but in terms of their larger significance. As she matches socks on laundry day, a woman might say to herself, “I’m overqualified for this job. My family scarcely even realizes this work goes on. It’s trivial.” But doing the laundry and cleaning the house leads to a greater end than simply clean socks and dusted furniture. Put small tasks into the framework of their larger goal. … Enjoying life is often more a matter of adopting the right perspective and so living that you experience peace at the center of your soul. Real excitement is knowing that, whatever your tasks, you have the Lord’s approval and love.  —Karen Davidson

Laundry Limericks

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It’s the Diapers and Divinity Spring Poetry Contest.  (Roaring applause heard from all six readers even though they’re really jealous because they wish this crown could be theirs.)

I loved all your poems.  Thanks to everyone who was adventurous enough to participate.  🙂

Vote for your favorite limerick about laundry.  Here are the finalists:

There once was a girl in a quandary,
For she had at least ten loads of laundry
To do in a day
But there just was no way
To finish without magic wand-ery

–Lara at Overstuffed

The piles are climbing the walls
The shirts, the pants and the overalls.
Oh, when will it end?
I think I need a friend-
Oh, help me it’s spilled to the halls.

– Jessica

It’s a blessing to do everyday,
To serve my family this way.
I have to repeat it
Until I believe it,
For laundry will not go away.

– MaryAnne

I’m the luckiest girl in creation,
there are no bounds to my giddy elation!
My husband once volunteered,
now it’s been seven years:
I’m on permanent laundry vacation!

– Becca at Come What May and Love It

The official ballot:

I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday.  (I know, it kind of puts the Oscars and Emmys and stuff to shame, but we’ll try not to rub it in.)

Small victories and normal failures: a few days in the life of a [super]mom

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(Let’s just admit up front that the word super has a completely different definition for every kind of mom.  In my case, it means getting 2 or more items done on my to-do list.  For those of you who didn’t know that such a feat propelled you to superhuman status, you’re welcome.)

I went to Women’s Conference last week, but rather than bore you with all the details of everything I learned (I mean right now.  Of course I will bore you with them later.), it suffices to say that I walked away with a strengthened testimony of God’s complete awareness of me, myself, and my needs, AND a greater desire to find more joy in my mission– to love the things God loves.

(THANK you to those of you who met up with me for lunch or dinner while I was there.  It makes me happy to surround myself with good friends leading good lives.  In a world where one can sometimes feel like she’s the lone whackadoodle fighting to do what’s right, there’s a lot of comfort in knowing and being surrounded by like-minded women.)

Maybe my posts would be more readable if they didn’t always have a seven-paragraph introduction/disclaimer/random-thought-dump.  Whatever, I’m sure you’ve figured out how to skim by now.

Anyway.  Guess what?  I started going back to the gym every morning at 6 a.m., and by every, I mean Monday through Friday, but it makes me sound very dedicated if I just say every.  This in and of itself is actually something I’m quite proud of because it helps me to start my day, as opposed to letting my day start me (like when I wake up to the sound of my children spilling oatmeal or other abominations).  I’m not sure, but I think it’s been a little over three weeks now, which almost means I can claim it as a real habit.  I don’t know what the rules are about that, but I feel like I’m close.  So this new gym things is cool, but that’s not what I really wanted to write about.  One thing I hate about the gym is their music video channel that’s always pumped into the gym via two televisions front and center of the exercise room.  It’s their own channel, and it feeds the audio that’s heard throughout the gym.  I’ll make the story short:  It seems like at least 50% of music videos are soft porn (some not-so-soft).  It used to bug me before my I’m-feeling-lazy-and-seasonally-depressed hiatus from the gym, but I noticed it again right away upon my return, so I decided to do something about it.  I complained before and they blew me off saying “it’s a corporate decision, not ours.”  I wrote a letter to the corporate office and explained my complaint in my normal kind and gentle way (like “I don’t see any indication in [your] corporate goal statement that in addition to fueling [your members’] bodies and minds, you’re also trying to collectively fuel their libido..”) and mailed it off.

WELL.  I got a phone call yesterday from the corporate office telling me that they were immediately removing the specific videos that I had mentioned, and that they are working on switching over the entire content to more appropriate material that better promotes their ideals of a healthy lifestyle.  Oh, and apparently they went through the 400 videos they were given from whatever company produces their TV streaming and requested to remove 25% of them– 100 videos!  I thanked them for their acknowledgment and response to my letter.  And then of course I called up one of my girlfriends and bragged about it.  How cool is that?!  I can’t help but think of Sister Elaine Dalton’s claim:

“I truly believe that one virtuous young woman or young man, led by the Spirit, can change the world, but in order to do so, we must return to virtue.”

I tell you this so that you sit at your computer completely flabbergasted by my overwhelming awesomeness realize how easy it is to make a difference.

“[A woman with a mother heart] knows that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily mothering is far more lasting, far more powerful, far more influential than any earthly position or institution invented by man.”  (Sister Beck)

Some of you may remember that about a year ago, I started working on a project called the Protecting Innocence Project. I just want to reassure those of you who contributed to the development of it with your research and writing that it IS still under construction and will be forthcoming, hopefully soon.  The content is completely done and I’m just waiting on some of the web development that I can’t do on my own.  I didn’t want you to think I’d let the whole thing fall through the cracks or make you feel like your contribution was a waste.  It WILL happen, I promise.

Well, darn-it, my post already got way too long.  I’ll just save my breath and make you a list of the rest of the victories and failures I was going to mention.  I’m sure you can figure out which is which.

  1. Cashed out our budget this month to MAKE ourselves not overspend.  Hard, but rewarding.  (Today in the grocery checkout line Clark almost asked for something, but stopped himself and said, “I  know, mom, we should buy what we need and not what we want.  If we buy what we want, we won’t have enough money left for the stuff we need.”
  2. I think I’ve already put about 4 pairs of wet or soiled size 4T underwear in the laundry today.  Probably 15 in the last 3 days.  Just when I thought I was done with diapers.
  3. Ants in our kitchen.  Where are they coming from?
  4. I was trying to save up money because preschool in the fall will probably be at least $100/month.  Happened to talk to a friend of a friend of a friend who helped me find a preschool run by the high school child development class that is $65/semester!  If I were my mother, I’d write a long, gushing paragraph about tender mercies.  Short testimony:  I love tithing.
  5. I love your limericks.  I’ll post up my favorites for voting later this week.

Okay.  I’m done now.

Time to come clean: Let’s talk about Internet addiction.

Posted in About Blogs, Diapers, Divinity by

The Lord knows that I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, so when He wants me to learn something, he hands it to me in small, digestible pieces . . .  EVERYwhere I turn for days and weeks, even months at a time.  (He’s really so patient while He waits for me to get it.)  I will give an inventory of his subtle messages just in the last 10 days or so.

  1. Elder Bradley Foster in General Conference:  ” . . . a distraction doesn’t have to be evil to be effective.”
  2. Sister Julie Beck:  “There is much distraction and not enough peace and joy. . . But with personal revelation, [a mother] can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently. . . . mothers can feel help from the Spirit even when tired, noisy children are clamoring for attention,  . . . Being in the right places allows us to receive guidance. It requires a conscious effort to diminish distractions, but having the Spirit of revelation makes it possible to prevail over opposition and persist in faith through difficult days and essential routine tasks.”
  3. Elder Robert D. Hales:  “Mother, Father, are you in there? Grandpa, Grandma, are you there? Being there means understanding the hearts of our youth and connecting with them. And connecting with them means not just conversing with them but doing things with them too. . . . I would hope that we would bear our testimonies so that our children will know where our hearts are and that we love them. The greatest love and the greatest teachings should be in our homes.”
  4. My house needs attention.  When I resurface from the office and look around at the messes, I know my time could have been better spent.
  5. A friend gave a wonderful talk at church about time management that really resonated with me.  (Hi, SP!)
  6. I remembered this post that I wrote almost seven months ago, (and it was a good one) but it’s a lesson I still have not completely learned.
  7. I stumbled upon this post.
  8. I caught myself having only half-attentive phone conversations because I was trying to read email at the same time.
  9. I want to start exercising regularly again, but I  feel like there’s not enough time in the day.  Why is that?  (pause for burning self-reflection)

Tell me I’m not the only one who sees some of myself in this cartoon.
I don’t even own all those gadgets, but still. At some level, there’s a sad truth in there.

I’m pretty good at monitoring my children’s screen time, but when I get online, it’s kind of a chain reaction of “tasks*” and before I know it, I’m not proud of how much time I spent.

*Any blog comments?  I need to check email and see if they wrote me back about that fireside assignment.  Oh, let me see if Matt transferred my budget into my account yet.  And . . . a quick look at Reader to see if any blog friends have posted anything new.  Ha ha.  Better comment on that.  Okay, that’s good.  Before I sign off, I’m just going to check Facebook really quick.  I don’t think I’ve updated my status for several days.  Oh look, one of my old young women is engaged.   Check out her fiancee’s page to see if he’s a loser.  And all his photos.  Hey, he’s friends with a girl I taught at EFY; I wonder what she’s up to these days.  . . .  Oops, forgot to do my status.  Type-ity type type:  “Avoiding laundry.”  Check email ONE more time.  I don’t think I ever read that attachment that Shantel sent me yet.  Whoa, newsflash: there was an earthquake in Utah?  Better check that out.  And I forgot I wanted to look at the menu for our date night restaurant so I know how much to budget for dinner . . . .

I think you get the idea.

So I’m going to be proactive about this little, ahem, problem.  I found this link, and it reviews the top ten internet controls software.  These are programs that control not only content, but also let you set daily and weekly time limits for individual users, including YOURSELF:

http://parental-time-control-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

It looked like this one was really good, but it doesn’t have a Mac version that I can see:  http://www.kidswatch.com/ I also found this one that has a Windows and Mac version:  http://www.netnanny.com/

And here’s a link for some free downloads for simple timers and filters.  (As with all free shareware, make sure you have a good anti-virus program in place, just in case.)

http://www.sofotex.com/download/Security/Parental_Control/

(A special note for my mother, mother-in-law, and any other concerned relatives:  Don’t worry.  I don’t spend all day on the Internet and I’m still feeding and bathing my children.  Really.  My life would just be a lot more efficient if I spent less time on the computer, so I’m working on it.)

And that’s it.  I’m just admitting my own willpower might not be enough to keep me constantly focused on the things that matter most, so I’m going to use tools and rules and accountability and such to help me.  And friends like you, who I’m betting will get this and will offer great advice.  So thanks.

Another installment of “Dear Wise Readers”

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Dear wise readers,
This is a post where I temporarily stop pretending that I have all the answers to all the questions in the universe, and I direct some of the more important ones to you, because even General Conference didn’t answer all of my questions (and I was so sure one of the apostles might have tips on muffin pans).  Let’s start there, shall we?

  1. I hate my muffin pans.  The “no-stick” stuff isn’t, and the pans get rusted where it scrapes off, and they’re impossible to clean and keep clean.  Does anyone have a recommendation for muffin pans that they love?  I would prefer for them to be dishwasher safe, but maybe there’s no such thing.
  2. I’m having a little bit of a blog identity crisis.  My entire blog (including the title) is built on the premise that I’ve been changing diapers every day since 2003, and now that’s . . . well, it’s not true anymore.  (Knock on wood.)  All of my children are now potty trained, and only the youngest wears pull-ups at nighttime.  This new development makes me want to sing the Hallelujah chorus to strangers on the street, but as far as blogging goes, it kind of makes me feel like a fraud.  I’ve thought about changing the name of the blog, but that doesn’t seem right because the whole point is the juxtaposition of our daily, menial tasks with our greater, divine mission of motherhood.  What do you think?  (Anyone who suggests that I should fix this problem by having another baby is hereby banned from my blog.  Banned! You hear me?)
  3. Right now I’m feeling a deep love-hate relationship with Cadbury.  That’s not really a question, but I needed to get it off my hips chest.
  4. Do you feel as much joy as I do that Spring is actually in the air?  There’s something so exhilarating about sunshine and warmth after a long cold winter.  (This excitement is counterbalanced by a lovely reminder that soon my body will have to wear a swimsuit.  Probably in public.  Refer to #3.)
  5. All joking aside, I’m anticipating that I will soon experience something I like to call “post-Conference depression.”  It’s the point where a few weeks after General Conference, you realize that you are still the same, lazy person you were before you got all pumped up and energized by the talks.  Anyone who reads my blog knows I love General Conference.  I love it.  I feel like it’s half pep rally/half spiritual boot camp— a veritable showering of truth, encouragement, reproach, exhortation, and Spirit.  I feel brought down and lifted high at the same time.  My heart and my mind have a continual dialogue at Conference, and where they come together in harmony, they leave goals and hopes and iron-clad intentions.  And then a few weeks later, I feel much like the man who asked President Uctdorf for some advice:

I wrote back to him and lovingly suggested a few specific things he could do that would align his life more closely with the teachings of the restored gospel. To my surprise, I heard back from him only a week later. The essence of his letter was this: “I tried what you suggested. It didn’t work. What else have you got?”

Wisely, he entitled this particular section of his talk “The Path of Patience,” and he then explained:

“Brothers and sisters, we have to stay with it. We don’t acquire eternal life in a sprint—this is a race of endurance. We have to apply and reapply the divine gospel principles. Day after day we need to make them part of our normal life.“

So that’s my question:  How do you do that?  How do you take the long list of great things you want to do and actually PUT them in your daily life?  I recognize the reality that Sis. Beck alluded to in this Saturday’s talk: (paraphrased) “There is not time to do all the things your heart desires to do,” and her counsel to seek the direction of the Spirit to identify your priorities (SUCH great advice!), but even then, I need some tips to transition me from the “decided” stage to the “doing” stage.  Come on wise readers, lay it on me.

p.s.  I’m back from Spring Break now, and hope to drop in on more of your blogs soon, where I’ve been obviously (or serendipitously) absent.  🙂