I got "Mom of the Year"!

I can't believe it. I did it. I didn't think I would win. But yay! (Total joke, but funny)

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Heartbreaking...

Today, Connor came home from preschool and was very excited to show me something. I was outside tending to my roses so he kept asking me to go inside. I finally went in and he reached under the pillows on the couch.

C: Mommy, I'm so excited. I have a gift for you!
M: a gift?
C: For Mother's Day!

Out he pulls a beautiful card he made for me with a gift bag attached to it. In the bag was a lovely key chain that said "MOM" that he decorated w/ puffy paint and a lovely ribbon. I was so surprised. It's such a lovely gift! (Ofcourse, I attached it to my keys right away.)

Later on that day, we were supposed to go to Bible Study but we were all too exhausted and the kids were just DONE. I didn't want to cook dinner so I took Connor with me to get some food. But before we got our food, I went to get gas and as I'm pumping the gas, I looked at the back of the key chain and noticed that his name was spelled wrong.

My mistake...I mentioned it to him, knowing that he personally didn't write it.

M: Oh no Connor, I think someone spelled your name wrong on the keychain ("Conner")

(C breaks down crying....covers his eyes with his hands and everything!)

C: I knew you weren't going to like your gift!
M: Oh Connor, I LOVE it. I know you didn't spell your name wrong. Someone else did.

(He continues to cry and is sobbing at this point...just BREAKS MY HEART...so I end up breaking down too)

M: I'm so sorry Connor. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I know YOU didn't spell your name wrong. I LOVE IT. I love everything you make for me. Really...

(At this point, I'm pleading with him telling him just how much I appreciate everything he does for me and I just love the gift...etc)

C: They were supposed to copy my name and they didn't do it right. Hmph.
M: That's OK, we can fix it if you want.
C: Ooooh, I have a good idea! We can just make a new one.

Anyway, I was sooooooooooooo sad to see that I hurt my son's feelings. Granted, he was tired as hell and he becomes really sensitive & emotional when he's overtired. But still, that just broke my heart. I really need to pay more attention to the things I say. I'm just so afraid I'm not raising my kids right. :( I forget that kids take everything literally and they take things to heart so easily (well as a matter of a fact, adults do too sometimes).

I just wanted to say I'm sorry Connor for "criticizing" your lovely gift. It's perfect the way it is. I love you!

I want to win!

I spent some time today reading some blogs and there's a lot of giveaways this week. I get extra entries for blogging about them so here goes!

1) I recently just found this blog SavingWithSteph and I've found some awesome deals here. She has a $20 Walgreens GC giveaway this week and I wanna win! Walgreens has some awesome deals when you pair up coupons with Easy Saver Rebates. Just last week, I got 3 rebates for $13 total and so I used the rebates for Midol and StrapPerfect.

2) On DealSeekingMom, there's currently a giveaway for a set of Wonder Bumpers. I wanna win this for my sister-in-law!

3) On PennyPinchingParent, they're having a RC John Deere XUV Gator giveaway and I'd love to win one for the kiddos.

Spring Cleaning Party

So I've been trying so hard to clean my house, one room at a time. The areas I clean stays clean for about an hour before it becomes a wreck again (I love my kids, but man oh man!). I went through a deep-clean stage of my spring cleaning 2 weeks ago and then we went away for a few days on a mini vaca and it was sooooooooooo nice to come to a nice, clean & organized home. Now I'm back to where I started and it's just so exhausting.

I've managed to clean 1-2 rooms a day and mind you, we only have less than 1200 sq ft of space. But with 2 kids running amuck, it feels like it's 3000 sq ft filled with crap! So, I'm joining SimpleMom's "Spring Cleaning Party" (SCP) next week and I'm hoping this will help me declutter my home. I've actually gotten pretty good about getting rid of a TON of stuff (I can be such a pack rat sometimes).

But since we're having a yard sale in a couple weeks, I want to get rid of as much stuff as possible. I'm already in the process of selling stuff on Craigslist so I'm feeling good about getting my spring cleaning started (ok, I must admit, I started in late Feb!). Plus I actually got the kids room AND the office organized (moved a huge oak bunk bed, bookcases, and a tall dresser all by myself and everything!) a couple weeks ago so that was a great jump start to all this.

The only downside about this SCP is that I had to buy a book. But it's only $7 and I consider it an investment. SimpleMom has been pretty right on with everything she's blogged about so I trust her methods will work (or else I'm gonna be slightly disappointed with having to spend that $7!).

So here's the schedule...
Here’s the Spring Cleaning Party schedule:

* Monday, May 4 - a clean sweep
* Tuesday, May 5 - the living room, part one
* Wednesday, May 6 - the living room, part two
* Thursday, May 7 - the kitchen, part one
* Friday, May 8 - the kitchen, part two
* Monday, May 11 - the bathrooms
* Tuesday, May 12 - the kids’ rooms, part one
* Wednesday, May 13 - the kids’ rooms, part two
* Thursday, May 14 - the master bedroom
* Friday, May 15 - the front entry

I am looking forward to getting started on Monday. I love lists and this just adds to my OCD need of list-making so I'm happy. I know, I'm weird like that...