Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: April 2011 (Page 2 of 2)

When being a parent is hard

April 5, 2011 / / 7 Comments

Without going into too much detail or embarrassing my children (what? NOW you’re worried about embarrassing them?), we are going through a bit of a struggle with one of our kids right now. When there are five children, it seems they often ‘take turns’ being the difficult or worrisome child. Thankfully. There are only two of us parents, and we would go crazy if they were all going through difficulties at the same time. But one will coast along easily for a time, while another goes through something very hard and might need more of our attention and concern. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when they were ALL smoothly sailing at the same time. That might just put us parents out of a job.

Well, this child is……having a difficult time. And while I try to help correct this problem, I wonder if I’m being too hard. I often lose my temper because we’ve been over this a HUNDRED TIMES, and I don’t see why you keep doing this….this THING that is wrong. At times we’ve both been in tears, the child and me. Last week I couldn’t deal with it one. more. time. and pleaded with my husband to “take care of it” because I was so angry I didn’t know if I could control myself. Looking back, I’m angry at myself that I got so emotionally involved and lost my temper.

And I have NO idea how to make them stop. I don’t want to get angry, I don’t want to lose my temper, I don’t want to have to go through this SAME thing over and over and over again. Why can’t you just GET IT? At the same time, I want to just take them in my arms and say it’s ok, I’ll take care of it. Mommy will make it better and you won’t have to worry about it anymore if it’s too hard for you. But then how would the child ever learn? So, I correct and discipline and pray, and try to reinforce that I really do LOVE this child. I would do anything for this child–for all of these children, if it would guarantee them a happy life.

It is then that I catch a glimpse of how our Heavenly Father feels about each one of us. He must look at me and say, ‘Paige, you KNOW that’s not good for you. You KNOW that will not make you happy in the long run. We’ve been over this before, yet you still continue to make the wrong decisions.’ And I’m sure he cried. Yet he still loves me. He still wants what’s best for me. And for you.

I want to be more Christlike in my disciplining,
“Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.”

I’m trying.

Sisterchicks Book

April 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I just read Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes by Robin Jones Gunn.

I actually took it on the plane with me, since I always need some kind of distraction while flying (I do not enjoy flying), but it wasn’t as attention grabbing as I would have liked. I only read for about 30 minutes into the flight, then I put it away and watched the in-flight tv.

The story is about Summer, who gets a call one day from the dr’s office and informs her that her mamogram was “abnormal”. Instead of scheduling a biopsy appointment, she books a flight to Holland to go and see her pen pal of over 40 years, Noelle.

During their week together, the two friends meet for the first time, catch up on recent happenings with their families, and explore the Netherlands together. Since the setting is spring, when the tulips are out, I can say I definitely wanted to be there with them. The closest I came to Holland was Germany, where they have a lot of tulips themselves, but nothing like the vast tulip empire in Holland. I enjoyed hearing about the sites they visited and the adventures they had.

Unfortunately, I found the book a bit preachy, and a bit boring. There were no plot twists, not much action, and no suspense to keep me engaged. It took me a while to finish the book, and if I hadn’t been writing a review, I don’t know if I would have finished it at all.

Sorry I can’t give it a higher recommendation.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I was not compensated for my opinion.

How to do New York on the cheap

April 1, 2011 / / 3 Comments

We decided to keep track of our expenses in New York, just to see how much our “free trip” cost us, and Ryan whipped out a little program on his phone and REALLY kept track. Every souvenir, even snacks he wrote down. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t be so vigilant about the record keeping, but it was interesting to know how much we were really spending.

We already had the most expensive part covered. The prize included the airfare and the hotel, which was the MAJOR expense.

Date Category Description Amount
21-Mar Travel 2 bags checked $50.00
21-Mar Food Lunch at DFW $9.00
21-Mar Taxis Taxi from LaGuardia to Hotel $35.00
21-Mar Food Long Room NYC $36.47
21-Mar Food Walgreens (Snacks) $11.46
22-Mar Travel MetroCards (2) $58.00
22-Mar Food Lunch at the Met $22.50
22-Mar Clothing Hat $14.62
22-Mar Entertainment CityPass (2) $158.00
22-Mar Food Oatmeal $5.99
22-Mar Food Hi-Chew $3.46
23-Mar Taxis Taxi to Nate Burkus Show $7.00
23-Mar Food Lunch at Mangia Salad Bar $21.00
24-Mar Food Lunch at Ellis Island $22.32
24-Mar Souvenirs Souvenirs at Ellis Island $12.84
24-Mar Souvenirs Liberty Bear $13.07
24-Mar Souvenirs Souvenirs — Empire State Bldg. $27.40
24-Mar Food Baja Fresh $20.46
25-Mar Entertainment Hotel Internet $19.37
25-Mar Food Snacks at Central Park $12.00
25-Mar Tips Bag handling tips, etc. $7.00
25-Mar Taxis Taxi to JFK $60.00
25-Mar Food Dinner at JFK $24.41
26-Mar Travel Parking at SLC Airport $35.00

TOTAL: $686.37

If you break it down into categories, we spent
$85 on checking bags and parking (could have avoided that $50 if we were flying Delta or Jet Blue, or if we had not checked bags, and the parking fee if we had had someone drop us off and pick us up)
$102 on taxis (if we really wanted to be frugal, we could have taken public transit to and from the airport, but that just sounded like a huge pain)
$162.15 on meals. We went out to dinner with an associate of Ryan’s one night, and he picked up the tab. That was our most expensive dinner and we didn’t have to pay! The rest of the time, we didn’t really plan our meals, but when we were hungry, looked to see what was around. While not cheap, our lunches and dinners averaged about $25 each. Our hotel did not offer us free breakfast, but we made oatmeal in our room and that was good enough for breakfast.
$26.92 on snacks. We stopped in at Walgreens and got some snacks to drag along with us, and I also had packed some snacks from home, including a few bottles of diet coke in my checked luggage. Everything in NY is more expensive, so I should have let Ryan pick out snacks here at home, and we could have saved on the snacks. But sometimes, you are starving and just HAVE to buy a hot dog and some nuts in central park.
$158 on the New York Citypass. This is a real money saver! It included admission to ALL the attractions we went to, and we did them all. There were also a few extras that were included, like the audio tour at the Empire State Building, which was included with the city pass, and even though I would never have paid the extra cost, it was really a neat way to view the city and learn. And it saved us standing in a few lines to purchase tickets, so it was WELL worth the cost.
$67.93 on souvenirs. Yes, we are totally cheap. I would have liked to have gotten a really cute purse, but I didn’t end up doing that. The only thing I bought for myself was a hat, and it was kind of a necessity because it was cold and windy. We bought some stuff for the kids, and that was it.
$58.00 on two week long Metro cards. Even though we were only there 5 days, the week long metro cards were worth it. Otherwise we’d have to buy a ton of single use cards for $2.50 each, and that would have cost even more money.
$26.37 misc. This includes tips and internet. We used Ryan’s loaner smart phone for most of the time, but did splurge on one nights internet charges (almost $20 for internet each night is so steep, we tried to do without it)

We didn’t see any Broadway shows, which would have seriously upped our total. We instead attended tv show tapings, which was also really fun.

So, there you have it. Our grand total for 5 days in New York City was under $700! How’s that for cheap?

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