Ohmystinkinheck

Along with Blog365, I joined a flickr group called Daily Moments. I already blog and take photos daily, so it is a natural extension for me to join this group. I also like the concept of chosing one photo daily to submit to the group as sort of a photojournalistic diary of the year 2008.

Last night as I was shutting down the house I glanced at the line of plastic water bottles to the right of the sink. My initial thought was I needed to remind Kenny to do his chore in the morning (Kenny went to bed without separating the recycleables into the bins in the garage.), but then I realized it would make a great photo - something that truly reflects our daily life.

We buy a good deal of bottled water. We are constantly “on the go” and taking bottled water that can be securely closed works best for our family. It also keeps the kids from asking if we can stop and buy a drink - which, at no less than a $1.00 a drink, gets costly. Finally, it helps me gauge the amount of fluids the kids and I are getting.

About a year ago we started using a black Sharpie to mark the top of our bottles. It started because no one wanted to accidentally drink from Kenny’s water bottle or have Kenny drink from theirs; he’s known to leave floaties. You aren’t supposed to open a new water until you finish the water you’ve already opened - which remedies having a dozen half-filled water bottles in the fridge and distributed randomly around the house.

Growing up an only child I could not have known the importance of siblings not touching, using, eating or drinking my things. If I put something in the fridge or pantry, it would be there when I came back. If I put something down in my room, it’d stay there until I picked it up. No one drank from my drinks. No one used my things. There wasn’t a need to label anything.

My kids label everything; they are very protective of their snacks and drinks - and surprisingly enough, markers.

I’m curious, what are some things you might notice as a “Daily Moment” in your household? Something that you might miss if you weren’t purposely paying attention, like our labeled water bottles, but that define your family in a very subtle way on a daily basis.

Special thanks to SAJ!

Don’t you just love my knew OMSH illustration up top? Brenda whips these up for me and I’m never disappointed. I love this one though, because there is a bit of truth behind it. Mr. OMSH has a bit of the 12 year old in him and it usually comes out when I’m on a deadline. Still, it is one of the reasons I’m crazy about him; he forces me to live in the real world as much as I am in my online world.

26 Responses to “Daily Moments”

1. Jeana

   I love the new picture!

   Our kids have their own color of cups to drink from, for the same reasons as the labeled water bottles. Only it’s me who doesn’t want everyone drinking after each other. It’s a bit awkward when someone is over and offers to help with the drinks, and the kids are all, “That’s my cup!” They don’t mean to be rude, they just naturally assume that everyone has their own cups they drink from.

2. Jummy

   OH I do love the new OMSH illustration!

   Happy New Year, OMSH!

3. MMM

   I love the new illustration-looks like me and my hubby! tee hee!

4. familymclean

   I do love the new Mr and Mrs OMSH, SAJ rocks!!!
   And what a great idea with the water bottles!!

5. chocolatechic

   Everyone here has their own colored tupperware cup.

   Everyone has their own chair at the supper table and their own chair in the living room, and you had better NOT sit in anyone else’s place.

6. Angella

   We have colour-coded cups at our house :)

   Sweet new illo! SAJ really does rock :)

7. Jill - GlossyVeneer

   Love the new illustration, it’s great!

   When I was growing up we each had our own colored tupperware cup, like chocolatechic mentioned.

   My husband used to label all his food in college and sometimes he would pull out a Sharpie and start doing that after college, even when it was just the two of us. He’s since abandoned that habit, but it was a pretty automatic response for a while.

   Daily moments… what a good idea. Just taking the time to stop and notice little things around you, seems very therapeutic. Of course, you’ve got such a knack for seeing those things as evidence by your bottle photo.

8. Marcie

   The best investment I ever made was a Nalgene water bottle. I buy the big 2.5 gallon bottles of distilled (or the 5 gallon jugs from the local water filterer) and use the my water bottle as my ‘drinking bottle’. Not because tap water is bad for you (it’s not, in fact it’s probably better than distilled), or because I think recycling is important (I do, I just read somewhere that recycling plastics, glass and papers emits more pollutants into the air than not using so much to begin with), but because we just use too much plastic on a whole as humans. And water bottles is one of them.

   Go Naglene! You should check it out! Less to throw away and everyone gets their own so you don’t have to put up with the annoying floaters, which by the way make me want to percolate the way a dog does right before it yaks on the floor, hehe.

9. Manda

   I adore the new picture. It’s too cute. There are just three of us in our household, and all of our names begin with A. Luckily, we don’t have to initial water bottles yet. :)

10. BOSSY

    Bossy’s New Year’s Resolution: Drink more water. Helps to dilute all her gin.

11. bethany actually

    Hmm, daily moments that might pass by unnoticed…helping Annalie brush her teeth is one that jumped to mind, for some reason. I guess maybe because it’s not my favorite task, because at that time of night I am tired and want to just get it done, and of course Annalie usually wants to make a game out of it. I guess it’s like changing a baby’s diapers. You can either grump and rush your way through every diaper change (or tooth-brushing), or you can look at each one as a few minutes for you to focus on your kid. I need to work on that. :-)

12. jenn

    lovin the new pic above!!!
    my kids have their own cup, their own seat at dinner and get this.. every other day they switch sides of the car.. one day the oldest is behind the driver, the next he is behind the passenger.. it drive me insane for the longest but then I remembered me and my brothers use to fight over the same silly nonsense! heck my kids have their own towels and silverware! i found it was much easier to get their own than listen to them fight over something for fifteen minutes!

13. TheAngelForever

    Absolutely love the new SAJ illustration! As always I love how your photos capture your life.

    Now that I am home (was visiting the out-laws) I see the Etsy ads are up and running - YAY!

    Happy New Year Heather.

14. Mrs. Wilson

    LOVE the new OMSH illustration!

    hm … my daily moment would have to be my 1/4 cup. I use it every day. 3 times per day to be exact. I use it to make Liliana’s baby cereal. I’d be lost without it.

15. Mr. OMSH

    I actually, do NOT like the new illustration. It is demeaning, condescending, and it TOTALLY belittles my antics. OMSH knows full well that I would never throw paperclips at her…Stale bagels, maybe. Thawed pinkies, maybe. Dirty socks, maybe. But I would never subject office supplies to that treatment. Other than it’s non-applicability, I love it.

16. Mr. OMSH

    Oh, and Honey, I bet all your readers wanted to know about Kenny’s floaties in his drinks.

17. mamalang

    I love the new illustration…looks like something both my hubby and I would do!

    My baby boy leaves floaties too…I know he’ll outgrow it someday, and then I will be a little sad. We aren’t as creative apparently…we just put initials or some form of our name on the bottles.

18. Caron

    I’m in Marcie’s camp. I’m working hard to create as little trash as possible.

19. Jersey Girl

    We also label our water bottles with a black Sharpie, but your decorations are way cuter than ours!

    Like the new OMSH picture on top!

    Happy New Year!

20. Christina (in mo)

    Now you have me thinking, thanks alot! I miss things that used to happen around here. Well, I should say a person who used to happen around here. Our son lives in another state now, and it has been a little over a year since he has lived at home with his parents. That is the void I just realized I’m feeling. I have half empty nest syndrome. We still have one bean pod at home. She’s only just turned eight. So, I have some time. Thank God!

21. amy

    I can relate with the only child thing- I also joined blog 365- we are pals on ning still :) Am I crazy to do this everyday?

22. Oh My Stinkin Heck » Blog Archive » Indoctrination begins early in OMSHville.

    [...] 100% waste-free, footprint-free environmental lifetyle. I own plastic bowls, I currently drink from plastic water bottles, I bought gifts made in China for Christmas, and on occasion I bring home leftovers in *gasp* [...]

23. Arod in San Francisco

    Bottled water = global warming. Teach your children right. Honor the planet. Drink from the tap.

24. OMSH

    I have been thoroughly chastised and feel quite purged of my sins. Perhaps a filter is in the future, perhaps not.

    Amy - We are not insane … we just are addicted. All is well in blogland.

25. jill

    would a little color coded bin for each person be good for snacks?

    also, have you considered getting a pur filter for your cold water tap that will save you tons of money in bottled water and space in your recycle bin? then each person fills his/her own bottle back up and puts it back in the fridge. bottles can be reused depending on how gross you are (kids maybe more) a couple of weeks. you’ll know when to use different ones, as quite frankly the water will start to taste a bit like plastic. well good luck!

26. KYouell

    We use a Britta pitcher here. We started at our last place because the water tasted funny to us and now it’s habit. At this stage we only have baby cups and grown-up cups. When The Cupcake gets weaned we’ll have to come up with something. I don’t want to color-code though. It seems to left brained and I want to do something more right brained.

    Oh, and we use sport-top water bottles when we travel because The Biscuit insists on sharing and oh, the mess. I just heard about the pollution from the recycling process this past week. Made me want to bury my head.