WYSIWYG of Life

[ photo removed to avoid copyright infringement ]

In HTML code a WYSIWYG editor, or "What You See Is What You Get" is one where instead of typing out the code, you have a program that lets you click and drag elements to create a web page as it would be seen in a browser. Years ago I learned HTML code and I used to enjoy coding out pages, but lately I have used WYSIWYG editors more. It saves time but the code gets really messy because the WYSIWYG programs are not designed to clean up unnecessary coding from editing you might clean up if you were coding it directly. You don't see the messy code, but I know it's there. When talking to other web designers I mention reluctantly that I use WYSIWYG because it saves time, but I get embarrassed by how messy the coding is. I want to yell "Don't look at my source!!"

I was thinking about how as mothers we feel guilty whenever we take shortcuts or stash all our laundry in the bedroom when someone is dropping by on short notice. You know what I'm talking about! Today I encountered two articles on this topic. The first, called "Your Children Want YOU" is regarding how we get all these ideas of the kind of mom we want to be from seeing parenting magazines or the latest Pinterest fad. We feel like we are not enough when we see all of these overachieving housewives. Then another article called "I'm Never Inviting You to My House" is an older article but it talks about how we fix up our house for company and give them the impression that we keep the perfect house and it alienates them because they don't feel like they can measure up. I have fallen into both of these traps. Honestly, I have also not invited people over because I didn't think I could tidy up in time or just didn't have the energy to.

I don't want to do this any more. Yes, I use a WYSIWIG editor. Yes, I store my unfolded clean laundry in the bedroom when people come over. I settle for "good enough"on the housework on most days because that is what I can do. Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough but I know my priority is spending time with my daughter.

I hope we can all admit we take shortcuts and that is OK, but acknowledging that we do and not being ashamed that our house is "clean but not perfect". We live in our houses and don't hire a maid, but our children are happy and healthy.

Easter 2012

Working on Easter Eggs

Blueberry with her Easter Basket

Earth Day Resolution

We have been reducing paper waste at my house by using washcloths exclusively for cleaning up my daughter in the kitchen. I use a new one every time. She is two years old and makes lots of lovely messes, but she is also learning to be a good cleaner. For small messes I use the ones that are made for babies. I was given hundreds of them at my baby shower and they are finally finding a use. I also have some washcloths that I made out of leftover material from making receiving blankets and burp cloths. They were originally intended to be reusable wipes. I was very discouraged with my cloth diaper experience, but I don't want to digress. They were never used as diaper wipes, but we use them as washcloths.

For Earth Day this year I am going to work towards a paper-waste free kitchen. The flannel burp cloths from my daughter's infancy are very absorbent. They are made from cotton flannel and after a few washes they are the best thing to use for wet clean-up in place of paper towels. They are slightly larger than traditional cloth napkins and in a way it makes them better. I will make more of these for regular use in our kitchen.

I use this mediocre picture to show that they don't have to be pretty to be useful.

This post was inspired by Glad Rags.

Recovering

We are all recovering. Me from surgery, David from his seasonal job (between his regular job and that one he was working 60 hours per week) and all of us from the holidays. We took a small break from official preschool with Blueberry. Nonna and Daddy filled in a lot of the instruction while I was recovering.

Blueberry is getting really good at recognizing letters so we are now working on lower-case letters. She recognizes numbers and counts to 10 (sometimes skipping a number). She loves to do file folder games and we have been reading a lot. She got a lot of books for Christmas so we have been going through them all.

She has discovered she likes pancakes with "syrpup", also "waf waf" with "syrpup" are great! She got a Dora (the Explorer) shaped pillow for Christmas who has become our second daughter. Blueberry makes sure that Dora has her food and drink and blankie when it is time to sleep. She talks to her and for her. She nods her head for her and does the sign language for please with Dora's hand on Dora's chest. It is fun to watch her pretend with the Dora doll. She interacts with her more than any other doll or toy, though she really loves her baby dolls too.

I am facing a challenge with her academically. She seems to be pretty advanced with shape, letter and number recognition. I do not want to push her to learn how to read, nor do I know how to lead her into it so early, but I think she would really enjoy it and may be able to learn by her 3rd birthday. She is very interested in learning and reading so I don't want to hold her back either.

I was so excited that we were able to get a cabinet for her homeschool stuff with some of our Christmas money. I was able to organize everything to have on hand for her but also have a locking mechanism so she can't get into it unsupervised. It has freed up a lot of our office as well as reduced chaos. I can now see the floor!

I am excited about this year and all that we will accomplish together.

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2011

Giggles

We are going through names of body parts with Blueberry. I ask her where her elbow is, she sticks her arm out straight, looks at it and says "uh oh!" with furrowed brow. There is a pause, she bends her arm then she goes "heh, there it is!"

Homeschool: Preschool

These are some of the activities we did last week:

-- Reading: Abbie's Book of Shapes, Cookie's Book of Numbers, Muppet Nursery Rhymes ABCs, Curious George's First Words at the Zoo and First Words at the Farm.

-- Coloring with washable markers, Frog and bee pictures. We spelled her name many times.

-- Traced shapes. www.preschoolmath.info

-- Apple Color Matching File Folder Game

-- Shape Matching File Folder Game (made my own)

-- Colored Halloween Pumpkin and Cat pictures to decorate the front window.

-- We sang and danced to children's songs

-- Did patterns with Nonna with the chalk outside. Nonna makes patterns and Blueberry continues them.

-- Playing blocks with Daddy is becoming a daily routine. They talk about the letters and colors on the blocks.

-- Health: We incorporated fluoride-free toothpaste in the pre-bed routine. Blueberry loves brushing her teeth every night and yells "yay!" as we run down the hall to the bathroom when I say it is time to brush our teeth.

-- C is for Caterpillar with the numbers 1-9