Confession of the Month

To my dear husband,
I know you hate it when I forget to fill up and add the Downey Ball to the washing machine. When I remember that I forgot, I throw the empty ball in just in case you check.
Love Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaartha

The Mother's First Encyclopedia to Stains

I do my laundry on Thursdays. I take that back. I START my laundry on Thursdays. And by Sunday I have most of those clothes in their assigned rooms. Sometimes, by Monday, they are actually in the drawers and closets in which they belong. For some reasons never previously specified… I HATE LAUNDRY! In the first 25 years of my life I never once needed a stain remover and it took me under two hours to get all my laundry done (when my mommy wasn’t doing it for me anymore). When my first son was born, stain remover became a staple in the home and laundry was completed in under two days. Now, as a full time mom in charge of the household laundry for four residents, I have become accustomed to my own technique of getting the grueling task done…

If You Can't Say Anything Nice...

After our recent week in Chicago I realized that online reviews aren’t always the most reliable sources. The hotel we stayed at was a decent place to stay but the maintenance of the rooms proved to be slightly neglected in our experience. With two children in tow we had to move rooms in the first ten minutes because my husband couldn’t access the Internet that he had requested for business. Luckily we hadn’t yet unpacked...

Tools of the Trade: Travelling Food Processor

Do you ever wish you had brought something along with you and tell yourself numerous times that you'll be sure to add it to your purse, car, diaper bag when you get home, for next time? Well, if you're anything like me, by the time you get home you've forgotten that thought and the next time you get out, you find yourself looking for the item again. So scratch that idea of packing a million little things you'll need later. Now, enter the MacGyver in all of us (and if you don't know who MacGyver is, then you must be young enough to know what Google is). Back to MacGyver...

So Who Is Martha Fish?

Ever since I started my blog I have had moms asking who Martha Fish is. Others who know my personality and writing knew right away that it was me and not a whole other person. My mother did not realize right away and simply figured I found someone who loved to babble on as much as I do on paper Martha Fish is the name I came up with one day as I was writing an article for the old newsletter. After having the name come to mind, I didn’t actually use it in writing until two years later. I guess you could say that Martha Fish is an alter ego of sorts. She’s not the opposite of myself but rather a more focused version. Martha is my mirror image. It’s how I get myself to step outside and look back in. The reason for this is that, if I am not Martha Fish, I tend to be myself . And as myself, I cannot “just write”. If I were to start writing and then get up for a cup of coffee, I would then veer off toward the laundry room and start to fold clothes. Keep in mind I never made it to the kitchen for that cup of coffee. After folding laundry I would then proceed to let the dog out and while waiting for him to do his business, I would remember that my plants need water and I would walk over to the kitchen sink and pull out the watering can. At that moment the dog would bark and I would abandon the watering can to let him in. Upon letting the dog in I would realize that my five year old has decorated the glass on our backdoor with fingerprints and blowfish prints. I would then look everywhere for a bottle of glass cleaner that does not currently exist in the house because I forgot to buy it during the last two grocery trips. You can pretty much realize that I would never make it back to the computer to complete my thoughts.

So I choose to write as Martha. She’s calm and collected. She’s not afraid to write what she really thinks about motherhood and, most importantly, she gets the writing done. Martha never would have needed a cup of coffee in the first place. Martha writes as I stand watch on the kids - arms folded, eyes wide open and knees slightly bent so I don’t pass out. That’s how I escape the day for a good 15 minutes at a time, but I can’t do it without her. And once she’s done writing, I get back to myself and write glass cleaner on my grocery list.

Do you have an alter ego in you? Share it with other moms! Click on “Post a comment" below and tell us about it. (All postings are screened for appropriate content).

Poliwog #2 - Created by Chryss Gon

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Test Kitchen

My husband’s uncle recently hooked me up with a giant stack of Rachel Ray magazines. I’ve never been a coupon clipper or recipe collector because I’m scatterbrained enough. The last thing I need is little pieces of paper to organize. So, unless the recipe is used more than five times, I usually leave it in the book in which it originates. In my first day of going through the magazines...