MamaBlogga

It’s official—moms are hard on themselves. Don’t believe me? Just ask Pew Research. 56% think mothers today are doing a worse job than their parents did.

So, in the face of all this discouragement, let me offer a little encouragement:

Five things moms do right

1. Give to their kids. One of the biggest sacrifices that all moms make is their time. Whether it’s nursing a baby all night, entertaining a toddler all day, or running kids from softball to soccer to saxophone lessons all afternoon, moms give up their personal time to help their kids grow and develop.
2. Make important choices for their kids. Everything from eating vegetables to going to bed at a decent hour, there are things that we do for our kids not because we particularly love doing those things (or fighting with our kids to get them to do them!), but because we know it’s best for them.
3. Let their kids make their own choices. We try to help our kids learn to be independent and decisive by letting them make their own choices—mostly on some of those things that aren’t quite so important, like what color to wear today.
4. Try. Some days it seems like I’m killing myself trying! Even if we fall short, I truly believe that if we have tried, something positive we’ve done for our children will make an impact on them.
5. Love their kids. Even if we’re not perfect parents, and even if it were true that we’re doing a worse job than our parents did, don’t accuse moms today of not loving their children.

What else do you think moms do right?

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I’ve been tagged by Salman Siddiqui of CompuWorld to share five reasons why I blog. I did this a month ago at work, but as I think about it, I guess there’s at least one reason that’s different for my personal blogging.

So, five reasons why I blog:

• I want to make a record of my life.
• I want to “suss out” motherhood. I know I can’t do this completely (probably ever), but blogging helps me to compose my thoughts, distill my feelings and try to bring more meaning to my life.
• I want to help myself and other mothers find fulfillment through motherhood. Big reason.
• I like connecting with others (especially mothers). Whether for interviews or just chatting on blog comments or e-mail, I’ve been surprised how many really nice people this blog has brought me into contact with! Totally wasn’t expecting that—strange, I probably should have…
• Obligatory Unusual Reason: I’m a total grammar/spelling/punctuation Nazi. It absolutely drives me crazy to see “it’s” when it should be “its.” If I blog, I get to make sure that that doesn’t happen (as often). (This is the only one I carried over from work.)

Since I already tagged five people in my post at work, I think I’ll just tag anyone who reads this. Feel free to respond in the comments (don’t forget the comments contest this week!) or respond on your own blog and leave a track- or pingback.

Since Lindsey asked, I thought I’d share my methodology for organizing closets. I did three in one week in March (and one was the craft closet/guest bed & bath linen closet, so you know it was stuffed!).

Before beginning: assess the damage. Figure out what organizing accessories you might need: hangers, bins, shoe shelves or hanging organizers (if so, approximately how many slots or linear inches will you need?). Find an activity for your children, if necessary (Hayden “helped” me—he’s really good at playing by himself).

Here’s my big secret: Pick a day and just do it. This might mean emptying the entire closet onto your bed or floor. That’s what I did. I took everything off the bar in my closet and sorted it into piles (still on hangers).

To make clothes look neater, hang them by garment length, sleeve length and/or color. My closet (above) is sorted by both garment and sleeve length. Ryan’s is sorted (kind of) by color and sleeve length.

Get rid of anything that doesn’t fit you (unless you’re pregnant and fairly sure you’ll be able to wear an outfit again by this time next year). Get rid of anything that doesn’t look good on you. Get rid of anything you don’t love. (This is why my Goodwill pile, right, is so big.)

To make the closet look even cleaner, consider hanging sweater and shoe organizers and overhead shelf space. A clear floor does wonders for making that small space look neater. I have a hanging shoe organizer and two boxes on the top shelf. I have one big plastic bin on the floor of my closet that I’m trying to get rid of. (And a guitar and a flute, but I’m keeping them.)

Don’t have any shelves? You can buy cheap plastic shelves (like in my guest closet above) or wall-mounted shelving units to hang above the bar in your closet or elsewhere. When I was shopping for organizing stuff for this project, I saw entire shelf organizing systems that featured adjustable-height, wall-mounted bars, shelves and drawers. Barring that, buy under-bed storage boxes and put everything under the bed.

Make sure that the organized state of your closet is something you can maintain. What is more frustrating than taking a lot of time to reorganize your whole closet than to have it last for only a couple days? As I’m learning all the time, to keep something clean, you have to pick up after yourself and put things back in their places.

And the other big way I can help you: you can do it! I promise! If you can’t seem to be able to do it all at once, then even 15 minutes a day will make a difference. Really—if I had done it that way, it still would have taken less than two weeks.

Do you have any closet or other organizing tips? Leave a comment and be entered to win!

For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit Rocks in My Dryer, one of the 30 most Popular Parenting Blogs!

Warning: this picture is a little scary.

Ahh!! A huge giant mouth!! Ahh!!!

Okay, seriously, this is to show that Hayden has chipped a tooth. (The one on the upper right/his upper left: inside bottom corner.) He’s only had that tooth for 5 months. At least it’s just a little chip. (It looks bigger when it’s in focus…)

Not sure how that happened. He likes to fall off stairs, chairs and couches… Don’t know.

[tags]wordless wednesday[/tags]

Since last week I covered motherly chores that I like and don’t like (and since we’re in serious need of more Hayden pictures here!), here’s six chores that Hayden likes.

Six chores Hayden hates
Diapers. We have something in common!
Getting dressed. He does like it, however, when I let him walk around naked (diaper-clad) in the middle of getting dressed. Lately he’s started standing up, giving me a sly smile, waving bye bye and heading for the door.
Post-meal face washing. ‘Nuff said.
Vacuuming. Actually, he really likes me to hold him while I vacuum, but he can’t decide whether he’s thrilled or terrified.
Following Mom around while she does chores. What about me, Mom? Can I help? Can I have your duster/vacuum/broom/hands/attention/every waking moment?
Errands, although he does like his new big boy car seat:

Half a dozen chores Hayden loves

Sweeping.	Dishes.
Dusting.	Bathing.
Watering the lawn. See how he’s standing in the sprinkler path and has water all over him?	Laundry. Sorry, no pictures of him pulling the clean clothes out of the basket or getting caught in his hamper. Okay, okay, scroll down to the third picture in this post to see Hayden trapped in hamper.

My house should probably be a lot cleaner than it is with a little boy so obsessed with instruments of torture tidiness.

Yesterday, I cleaned my desk (hurray; I’m still in shock). My little tip of the week: how to get rid of 6 months’ worth of junk mail in 20 minutes. (Oh, you read the title? Sorry.)

First, I know you’re wondering, Why did you have 6 months’ worth of junk mail in the first place? Truth be told, it’s been at least that long since I’ve cleaned off my desk. Sad.

My desk is where we keep the ‘to be shredded’ pile. We don’t throw away junk mail with the slightest hint of ‘private info,’ including our ZIP code (another story. I’ll tell you that one someday. It’s funny.). We have a compulsive need to shred it lest someone find out we live here and steal our identities. That and we’re on the lam. (Not really; please don’t call the cops!)

We also shred the mail for half a dozen people that don’t live here anymore. Anyone know how to get people to stop mailing credit card offers, etc. to people who haven’t lived here in probably 10 years?

Anyway, it’s really easy to streamline the shredding process.

1. Take all your envelopes. (You have all your junk mail in one place, right?)
2. Grab a letter opener and slice each envelope open. Don’t stop, just slice.
3. Once all the envelopes are opened, take out only the sheets that have your name on them. For most of them, that’s only the sheet closest to the plastic window. However, a couple (US Airways MasterCard, for one) also have your name and address printed on a second sheet. Do NOT extract the terms of the credit card, return envelope (though it is very fun to mail old tires with them), stickers, fliers, etc.
4. Unfold each sheet as you pull it out (so it’s not too thick for your shredder, unless, of course, you’re using a wood chipper), giving it a little lengthwise tug to keep it open. As you go, remove any cardboard or plastic “this is not a real credit cards.” (I save those for Hayden.) Also try to remove the gummies that hold on the cards; these aren’t good for the shredder (or wood chipper).
5. Turn on your shredder and feed the ready sheets into it. I like to do this continuously so that obnoxious noise doesn’t last very long. I was amazed that it only took about 5 minutes to shred a big ol’ stack of papers (my shredder has a whopping 5 sheet capacity!).
6. Throw away envelopes and nonsensitive information.

It probably takes longer to read or write this than it does to get rid of all that mail. And I’m not just throwing out the “six months” number because it sounds good; these offers were actually dated to expire last October and November.

I also recommend opting out of credit card mailings in the US by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT.

UPDATE: Why you should always shred, not tear up, credit card offers.

Honking at people who are weaving in traffic—even if they aren’t passing me—also works for me.

For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit Rocks in My Dryer, one of the 30 most Popular Parenting Blogs!