if you give a mom a moment

i LOVE children's books. we have a couple hundred here in the house, and rubbermaids full of hundreds more in the garage for my classroom. one of my all time favorites is the series by laura joffe numeroff. they are illustrated by felicia bond, who many of you moms may recognize from "the big red barn." each book is based on the premise that if the main character asks for something, you will go through a series of events to get it for them, just to end up right back where you started. the illustrations are endearing, and i love the way it teaches sequence and logic. as you can see, that's where i got the idea for the title of my blog. let me run you through the process of if you give a mom a moment...

if you give a mom a moment, she's going to want something to do to fill that time.

so, you offer her an internet connection and a desktop. she'll surf the internet, and decide to check out the webpages for her children's schools.

when she sees the webpages, she'll notice a posting from the PTA looking for volunteers. she'll agree to do the school newsletter, the PTA bulletin board, and lead the efforts to repaint the playground equipment.

you'll take her to the school to examine the playground equipment. seeing the play field will remind her that she signed one son up for football, and the other for soccer. practices start tonight, and she remembers last year's cleats are too small. so you'll drive her to walmart to get some new ones.

as she enters walmart, she spots a display of goldfish crackers for sale. the goldfish crackers remind her that she has not prepared her lesson for church nursery on sunday. she begins to feel guilt, so you offer to buy her chocolate ice cream.

when you get to the ice cream shop, she'll spill a little chocolate ice cream on her shirt. the stain will remind her that she has no less than seven loads of laundry to be done at home. so you take her home to do her laundry.

while she's doing her laundry, she remembers how good the chocolate ice cream was, and wishes she had brought some home for dessert. thinking of dessert will remind her that she still has to think about making supper for everyone.

when she gets up to look in the refrigerator, she remembers the church service lady asked her to make supper for a new mom. you'll suggest spagetti goes a long way, and she'll begin to boil the noodles.

then her children come home from school. seeing the steam from the boiling noodles will remind her son that he has do do a science experiment involving dry ice. you tell her to tell her son to look up some information on the internet.

when she hears the computer kick on, it will remind her of surfing the net earlier. she'll remember all the things she's supposed to do,

and chances are, if she remembers all the things she's supposed to do,

she'll want a moment in which to do them all.