Quiet Gardens, Raging Seas
You hold my every moment, You calm my raging seasI Love my Mop
Ever heard that Veggietales silly song called “I love my lips”?
Well, I feel that way about my mop. Not like MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers), though I do love my MOPS group too. I’m actually and seriously talking about a mop…you know, that you clean with.
I’ve searched high and low for YEARS for a mop I could love. Sound dumb? Yup, it probably is. I just like things a certain way…and I can’t stand dipping my mop in dirty water over and over again, throwing the head away and trying to find a stupid replacement (and then when the dang thing doesn’t fit? ARGH!) only to find that the one I need has been discontinued and I have to buy a whole new mop!!!
So when I saw this mop in a magazine, I MAY have drooled…just a little. The mop is similar to the wet jet swiffer, but sooooo much better! Can I tell you why I love it? Of course I can, it’s my blog.
This mop has a refillable water container. You put your own water, your own cleaning solution in the tank, snap it on and voila! Whatever smell and whatever brand you like. You can make the water SUPER hot even. And the cleaning pad on it? It’s washable. Yup. In the washing machine. No kidding.
It has a great swivel head and the sprayer is in the smartest place! You can adjust whether you want to spray a large area (pull the handle towards you) or just one concentrated blast in one spot (push the handle towards the spot). Sigh.
I love my mop.
Wanna see some action shots? Of course you do.
WAPOW!
I shall call her Red Bud and I shall love her forever
KACHOW!
Extreme close up!
I know I’m a dork.
I also love that it only puts juuuuuust enough water on the floor to clean up without leaving a bunch left over. It dries so fast!
Now the microfiber head/pad is washable as I said…for up to 100 washes in the washing machine. No…I won’t be counting. But I think that’s “manufactorese” for “buy a new one when this one starts to look nasty”.
Every time I mop my floors, I sigh a little sigh and say “I love my mop”. And when I’m done? I wash that pad so that next time I want to mop, it is clean and fresh.
There is one thing I wish though…I wish that the handle were a scoochie-schooch longer. I’m a shortie (5’4 respectively) and I have to bend a little more than my prego-back appreciates.
Anyway, you should go buy this mop. It’s $20.00 and worth every single penny. Oh and should you say have a really icky mess to clean up, they do sell pads that you can dispose of if you don’t want to get your microfiber one all icky.
Don’t you think O-Cedar should pay me for this? Yup…I do too. Sadly, they didn’t. It’s still worth it. RUN! Go buy it! Now!
Ba-Lance
When I was growing up, we were never involved in any sports. I think it was a combination of finding the time when both parents are so busy, finding the money when raising kids costs so much and having the motivation to do it. But for whatever reason, I never did much with sports.
Ok, I played basketball in fifth grade because my best friend made me. Pssst….my best friends have always made me do the best things 
I remember really wanting to play violin too, but the school didn’t have rental instruments at that time and my parents couldn’t afford to buy me one. So sad.
Now-a-days, because you know I’m sooo old, it seems like it is a complete necessity for kids to play sports. I agree too. I think that involving kids in sports has so many benefits:
It teaches them good sportsmanship
It teaches teamwork
It teaches delegation
It teaches them how to lose with grace
It teaches them how to fail and then try, try again
It builds their muscles and agility
It provides an outlet for all.that.energy
But something that has been hard for my husband and I is figuring out the whole world of kids sports. The leagues and the fees, where the parks are and what kind of time committment each sport necessitates.
We are sticklers about our kids getting the right amount of sleep, especially during the school year. So anything that happens on a school night is not just an energy sucker for us as parents (as we race home, race to eat, race to get wherever it is we need to go and then race to get home and get cleaned up so we can race the kids to bed) it’s an energy sucker for the kids. Energy we think they need for school.
Then there’s the whole missing things like church. Oh my nellie do I have a soap box about THAT. Bottom line, we don’t want to teach our kids to put anything before God. God should come first SO THAT everything else falls into place. It isn’t a big deal to miss church Sunday morning. But it IS a big deal to communicate to your kids that something else in life gets put before your priority to Him.
Stepping down now.
Big C at T-ball late last summer...it was glorious fun!
Anyway, with CeCe on the way right as T-ball would be starting, we decided to pass on enrolling Coop in it until the fall/late summer t-ball starts. But I can’t help feeling this nagging thing that I’m putting Cooper at a disadvantage by not enrolling him in some sort of extracurricular activity. Even though I’m not super eager to run around like MORE of a chicken with my headcutoff.
I want to have a balanced approach to the world of sports with our kids. I want them to do it IF they want to, and I want them to get everything they can out of it. But does that mean I have to start when they’re 2? Is waiting until their 8 or even 10 so bad?
Big C's team lining up to say "good game" to the opposing team was one of my favorite parts!
There is sooo much out there for Cooper to do. But what I really desire is for him to revel in being a kid. I want him to soak up every inch of it. I want him to roll around in it like a pig in the mud. I don’t want him to have to think about anything else until he needs to. I want him to rest and I want him to play. So far, he seems to be achieving that!
If Cooper ever told us he really wanted to do a certain sport, we’d be all over it. But for now, as a 6-year-old kid, I figure there is plenty of time for all that. The balance is leaning towards the Less is More side right now. I am sure that this next year will change that as he hits 7 in full swing.
P.S. This is my disclaimer statement: if you have a bunch of kids and they are all in sports, don’t let this hurt your feelings. I’m talking about what works/is right for our family and our personalities. I may not have it all right, (in fact, I probably don’t) but for now it works!
