My First Mother's Day

Ah.  Mother's Day.  Spring is in the air, the sun is shining, birds are chirping, and children are flocking the card aisle in desperation for that last minute card since they forgot that today was the holiday you don't want to forget.  Seriously.  Have you ever not celebrated Mother's Day in some form or fashion?  It is the leading holiday for families to dine out.  Why?  Don't you dare make your mother cook on Mother's Day and PB&Js are out of the question!  So go out to eat.  Preferably some place fancy-ish.  Like Olive Garden.

I was pleased to officially celebrate my first Mother's Day as, not a child, but a mother.  So how exactly did my first Day of the Moms go?  Well, let's start at the best place to start anything...the beginning.

I woke up to my little Piggy crying and screaming around 7:30.  No matter what I did, nothing worked.  Fortunately, Hubby came to the rescue and scooped her up and went into the living room with her so I could continue to sleep.  At around 9:30, I was woken up to Hubby coming in with a slightly soggy Piggy from crying.  Of course, she was on the hungry side.  He sat her down with me and she went to eating.  An hour later, she was done eating and was wanting back into the living room.  She no longer wanted to cuddle while she ate (or pretended to eat).  Up we went into the living room.  There, I was met with Hubby holding a nice tall glass of sweet tea.  I sat on the couch and did absolutely nothing but cuddle with Piggy Baby and sip some tea.

It was my mother's birthday and I had just gotten done singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" to Piggy.  The thought came to me "Ooo!  It's Mom's birthday!  I can tell her 'happy birthday' through this song!"  Oh, what idea it seemed...at the time.  I sent her a text reading "Iiiiiiiiif you're 50 and you know it clap your hands!"  She responded in the expected way by "clapping".  Then without thinking, I continued with the song by saying "If you're 50 and you know it, then your face will surely show it, if you're 50 and you know it, clap your hands!"  I pressed send then realized the horrible thing that I had just done.  "If you're 50 and you know it...then your face will surely show it..."  It started to echo in my head "...then your face will surely show it...then your face will surely show it...then your face will surely show it..."  I hadn't thought that song all the way through.  I probably should have.  I immediately sent another text reading "...I would like to apologize...I didn't think that song all the way through..."  Soon after sending the apology text, my step dad texted me saying "She can't breathe, she's laughing so hard!"  I had redeemed myself.

After the redemption, I realized that I was hungry.  I scavenged the cabinets in search for some nourishment only to come up empty handed.  I sat back down onto the couch and started to think.  I was thinking about food.  I can't resist the stuff and it didn't help any that I was watching a TV show that suddenly decided that it would be a good idea to focus on food right now.  I turned and looked at Hubby and threw out the well known hint of a woman "I'm hungry."  He looked at me and asked "What do you want to eat?"  "I don't know.  I'm just hungry."  Poor Hubby has yet to catch on that by saying "I'm hungry", I'm actually saying "I don't feel like cooking or thinking about what to eat.  You cook something and figure out what we're going to eat."  He just said "Well, order some pizza."  *Sigh*  Still needs some basic training, but I was hungry and not in the mood to say "But you're supposed to do it!"  I ordered me some awesome stuffed crust Hawaiian pizza and him a stuffed crust super supreme.  We waited and finally got the pizza.  We were content.

A few hours after getting some yummies in my tummy, I Skyped my mom and talked to a few aunts and uncles and they wished me a happy Mother's Day as well as getting to see my little Piggy.  My step dad shoved banana nut muffins in my face since I couldn't eat any because they were there and I was here.  My brother added some comic relief by drawing a pair of eyes on his hand and randomly having his hand take a bite of banana nut muffin.  He wasn't even the one I was talking too.  All I saw was his knuckles creeping into the picture, then a pair of drawn on eyes, then the top of a muffin, then "Awmn!"  His hand ate the muffin.

That is pretty much all that I did on the all sacred Mother's Day.  I know, it's not a lot.  I'm actually happy that it wasn't a big shebang.  We're also going to go out to eat, but just not on Mother's Day.  One, we didn't have the money to go out to eat (too many days at the end of our pay check) and two...like I said before, Mother's Day is the number one dine out holiday.  Number one dine out day equals busy, busy, busy.  But on Friday, we're going to go to an all you can eat sushi bar!  Me gusta sushi!

So how did your Mother's Day go?

DIY Drain Cleaner

Have you ever done the dishes and noticed your drains are a little on the slow side?  Or that there is this nasty smell emanating from them?  Especially if you have a garbage disposal?  Well, I've had to deal with this smell all too often.  It smells like something crawled into your sink and died.  It's the worst.  You can use some of that expensive drain cleaner, but oh the chemicals!  Not to mention that if you aren't careful, those chemicals can corrode your pipes.  No body wants to deal with leaky pipes.  But why use that stuff then there's a less expensive and way safer alternative?

I present to you, yet another use of baking soda and vinegar!  Only this time, add some lemon juice!  Take a quarter cup of baking soda per drain and sprinkle in and around the drain.  Take a quarter cup of vinegar and pour in and around the drain too.  Let the stuff sit for about ten or fifteen minutes.  Pour about four cups of boiling water down the drain to flush everything out.  Repeat until you are satisfied (I normally do this twice).  Once you're happy, take two tablespoons of lemon juice and pour down the drain (gives a nice lemon-y smell...mmm...lemons).

If you have a garbage disposal, just pour the lemon juice into some ice cube trays and put into the freezer.  Once frozen, you can plop a few cubes down the "drain monster" and turn it on until there's no more cubes.  This helps to give that nice lemon-y smell and  cleans the blades!

Easy Toilet Cleaner

When it comes to cleaning a toilet, I feel dread building up in me.  The thought of the seat is possibly covered in pee and...whatever else...makes me cringe.  I don't want to touch the thing.  You can't make me!  I refuse!  The only thing that gets me to cleaning one of the nastiest places in the bathroom is that the next time I use it, I'll be sitting on an nice, fresh, clean seat.  That is enough to get me to clean.  The only problem is that just about any good toilet cleaner has bleach and I can't stand the smell of bleach.  This posses a problem.  I want a sparkling clean toilet but without the smell of bleach.  What ever shall I do?

Vinegar and baking soda.  That's it!  Sprinkle in one part baking soda to two parts vinegar into the bowl, leave it for an hour or so, scrub away, and done!  For the outside, use the same ratio but mix it in a bowl and use a rag.  I find that doing some scrubbing with just the baking soda helps to scrub away some harder...stains.

Now that you have a secret to clean toilets without the noxious smell, you too can enjoy a pearly white porcelain thrown