There really is a story about these!!

Do your children do there own laundry? Well I have taken a lot of criticism over it for the last few years, but YES I make my children do their laundry. They have each had their own laundry hamper in their rooms. When they are full (or in their case, way beyond overflowing!) they are supposed to hall them into the laudry room and wash their clothes. Until recently, this has been the law of the laundry in our house. With recent upgrades to the kids rooms (new beds, more stuff, etc.) there is just not room for them to have hampers in their rooms. Not to mention, I have grown really tired of the whites turning gray, clean clothes being thrown in the hamper because they are too lazy to pick them up off the floor, and three loads crammed into the washer! I decided to come up with a compromise. YES, I said a COMPROMISE! I realize that it is hard to negotiate with a 15, 13, and 7 year old but I came up with a solution that they seem to comply with. Three hampers, in the hallway. All they have to do is SEPARATE their clothes into three easy categories. White, Darks, and Towels.  If they will do this, I will wash them, even fold them (they still have to put them away). Easy right? Well either my children are all color blind (note: Logan really is, but this does not affect him being able to tell the difference between white and dark and towel!) or they have bad aim, or they just don't get it!! For the last week I have had to tell them about 3 million times which hamper is which. This weekend, my crafty scrapbooking brain kicked in and I decided to make tags for the hampers! Pretty cute ones I must say!  NOW ALL I HAVE TO DO IS GET THEM TO READ THE TAGS!

A Perfect Mother's Day

While most moms are catered to and pampered on Mother's Day (yeah right!!!) I had the opportunity to spend the weekend at a soccer tournament. The name of the tournament...I'll give you one guess. The "Annual Mother's Day Tournament" as it is ironically named, was held at the Enid Soccer Complex in Enid, Oklahoma. While I love watching my kids play sports - my first thought about the proposal to attend this tournament was REALLY!!!! A soccer tournament is not about mothers, it is all about the SOCCER PLAYERS! This is supposed to be MY DAY! But oh well, what are you going to do when the rest of the other parents say "Let's Do It!"

My whole family was in on the idea. My 15 year old who is a goalie for his high school team, my husband, my lovely 13 year old daughter (who later abandoned me to stay in Woodward with a friend) and my 7 year old soccer junkie for whom this tournament was all about! So off we went. We arrived in time to check in with the coach and play our first game at 11:00am on Saturday morning against the Jedi. How did it go? Well let's just say WOW! Wyatt (the soccer junkie) was the first to score on a free kick! My mom pride kicked in! We ended up beating the Jedi 12-0. The next team to feel our wrath (my pride is really going by this time) was the Red Stars. They fared a little better that the Jedi, they scored 2 goals on us - but we scored 8!!!!!!! Okay, so this isn't such a bad day after all! We went on to win our Sunday game against the Gators and played them in the championship game at 2:00pm on Sunday. The "Woodward Fire" soccer team (that would be the soccer junkie's team) came away with the championship in the first tournament they had ever entered.

As a bonus, I got to spend time with some other "Super Mom's". My mom came over for the games on Saturday, we got to visit with Troy's Grandma (and Grandpa) who live in Enid, and Troy's dad and mom came over for our Sunday games. Not to mention "Super Soccer Mom's" Dana, Marla, Tina, Tracey, Mandy and many others!

What a wonderful way to spend my Mother's Day! Why did I ever complain about it in the first place? When I thought about it, what had I been doing the last few years on Mother's Day? Well at least the last two years were at softball tournaments with my daughter, the year before that I think I was camping, and the year before that was at a soccer tournament with my oldest son. The common denominator here.....I was spending time with my kids. After all, they are the reason that I am a MOM! I wouldn't have it any other way. Spending time with my precious children doing what THEY LOVE is where I want to be. I am so thankful to be reminded of that this Mother's Day.