Yoga Pants Joan

Right now I'm getting griped at for putting too many tortilla chips in Russell's bowl and at the same time Wyatt threw TWO handfuls of goldfish at my head. This won't be the last thing that is thrown at me today. And this surely won't be the last time that I have a child angry with me. This is happening as I rock Wyatt trying desperately to get him to nap. I. Am. Desperate. I want to fold laundry and clean the kitchen. I love rocking him though, he falls asleep to Paw Patrol and I get to play on Facebook and catch up on blogs.
 I read a blog this morning titled "10 Types of moms that suck". You can read it here if you want to. I get it. It's supposed to be funny. Parts of it were, but at the same time it made me cringe. Moms that suck? Ew. How rude. I'm sure I'm getting some eye rolls here and that's totally fine. My panties are in a wad because my gosh, can't we all just get along?! Can't we all just accept the fact that our creator made each one of us individually and we are unique and no two exactly alike?? My sweet friend Ashley has 4 kids as well, each one born not too long after each one of mine were born. We are VERY similar, yet so very different! She's homeschooling, I'm not. Big deal. Do we really HAVE to cut each other down for things like buying organic food and choosing not to breastfeeding, or driving through McDonalds and breastfeeding for too long??
Can we not just lift each other up instead? "Oh, hey Joan, I see you're wearing the same pair of yoga pants that you had on 2 days ago...kids must be givin ya hell, huh?  Drop 'em off at my house tomorrow and have a moment to yourself". Instead of calling up whatsherface and saying, "OMG, Joan is a hot mess. Yoga pants for 3 days in a row." Please. I've been Yoga Pants Joan before, defeated by my own family. I've also been the one calling Whatsherface and pretending like I haven't had a day where I can't even remember if my teeth got brushed and we ate lucky charms for dinner. And you know what, I always felt guilty afterwards. I'm ashamed. But hey, it was something to talk about so who cares, right? Joan cares! Joan doesn't need your judgments and back stabbing. Joan needs you to lift her up, recognize her needs and HELP HER. We are all moms and we are all different. Heavenly Father knew Joan before anyone else knew her and he gave her the same thing he gave you, and me, and every other mom. He gave us HIS children and has trusted us to bring them  back home to him. I'm sure I get judged all the time for having 4 kids, not to mention I had them in 5 years. That's a lot of kids! We must be insane. My sister in law has 7. I used to think she was nuts. Well, she is nuts, but not because she has 7 kids (lol, jk Ruth). Quit being pessimistic towards the mother that raises her family differently than you. She's doing her job the best she can, as I'm sure you are, too. So what if  she's fully dressed and looks great at drop-off and you're still in your pjs. Who cares? It makes you mad that she looks nice? That's not very fair, now is it? I could go on for hours, but that would make this a book and not a blog post. Now go watch this video, and thank your mother!

Who needs nice carpet anyways?

Well, let's see here...
Jared went on a "business trip" (I use this term VERY loosely) to Georgia Friday morning. They stayed in a rented house and got to go to the Masters on Saturday! It was a business trip people, he had no choice. I honestly feel really bad for him  when he HAS to go on these types of "business trips". Working on a Saturday, no thanks. The nerve...but we did get to watch Frozen 3 times on Friday before returning it. Which leads me to my next question.
Do you want to build a SNNNOWMAN? I bet Jared laughed just now. I really loved the movie. So much that I downloaded the soundtrack on my way to my AdvoCare training on Saturday. I asked the kids nicely to just not tell daddy that mommy downloaded it. You know what? It wasn't even a full day before baby Jared ratted me out! AND he threw in how I said, "Don't tell daddy cause he'll be like 'you spent money on that!?' And be grumpy about it". He made that last part up himself. See if I trust him with anymore secrets! Every time Jared got frustrated last night I would sing that song, I even changed the words to "do to want to put your pants on" as I chased Wyatt down the hallway at bedtime. He did NOT want to put some pants on, and he did not enjoy my modified version.
  But back to my Friday. My sweet friend Lara has a dog that manages to escape the yard for a bit but always comes back. Honey escaped Thursday night and didn't make it back home. I kept feeling prompted to go look for the dog and we had to go return the movie anyways (plus I really wanted a bigmac) so I decided I would act on my feelings. We ate dinner in the car while we drove through a couple of neighborhoods in their area. Little Jared kept snapping at me that I wasn't going the right way and demanded to know why I was choosing certain streets to drive down, I suppose he has stellar directional skills for a 6 year old (eye roll). I told the kids how I had said a prayer that Heavenly Father would help us to know the right way to go so we could take Honey home to our friends.  Their job was to holler at me if they saw a dog that was Honey's color. I said another prayer and kept feeling like I should roll down my window and ask people that were outside if they had seen her. Friends, not a single ounce of me wanted to do this. But I did, and you know what!? After talking to 3 different complete strangers we turned the corner and there was HONEY!!! The couple that found her were taking her for a walk and they were so happy that I knew where she belonged. My kids are SO young and I don't always know that they understand us when we teach them about The Lord. They understood this one!! It was an amazing thing, Russell was grinning ear to ear telling me that Honey made his heart happy and that we made Heavenly Father happy. I'm grateful to have the Holy Spirit in my life and I'm grateful to recognize his promptings. I'm thankful that my kids got to help return a friend's sweet family pet and experience the joy of doing service for others.  It may have been a small victory but it was a victory none the less!
  Their Daddy made it home REALLY late Saturday night. I decided kn Sunday to put on my big girl panties and take all 4 kids to church instead of leaving Wyatt or Russell at home with Jared.  We made it through the opening song, sort of made it through prayer and about a verse into the next song before I had to take all 4 kids to the foyer. We sat on the couch for the rest of sacrament. I almost broke down and left but I didn't. Russell cried and threw fits for the next 45 minutes. I almost cried, but I didn't. I almost LOST MY MARBLES, but again, I didn't. I said a prayer for patience (I was teaching 6 3-4 year olds alone) and he FINALLY  quit making a scene. Then Wylee had an accident so I threw in the towel, lol. We went home a bit early. We got some awesome shirts and it only took 2 hours for Wyatt to find a green marker and scribble all over his  arms, hands, and new OFFICIAL Masters shirt that Jared brought him from the ACTUAL Masters. It took another hour and a half or so for Russell to ruin Jared and Wylee's Masters shirts with fingernail polish. He tried to paint his toe nails but ended up painting his toe nails, his toes, part of his shin, his hands, the carpet in Wylee's room and the kids shirts (which I still don't really understand). Somewere in that time a tube of Chapstick was apparently smashed into the carpet. In 5 different places.  I highly recommend cleaning with Goof Off. It gets the job done and by the time you're finished you've inhaled so many fumes that you couldn't care less about the mess in the first place :)  I'm only kidding.........

I'm in a glass case of emotion!!

April 10th, 2014- I can't even process my feelings right now. So here's how this is gonna go, I'm just gonna type. Let my fat little fingers fly. My brain is jumbled with feelings of excitement and nerves and I'm scared and anxious and happy and sad and you're gonna get a glimpse of how my soul processes feelings. I'll give you a hint, it's unorganizedv in there. Just ask Jared.
  Wyatt Lee Ricker, our last born child, our baby, the book end of our family....as of 7:36 this morning, he is two. TWO. On Jared's second birthday, Wylee was almost 8 months old. On Wylee's second birthday, Russell was 4 months old. On Russell's second birthday, Wyatt was 3 months old. I haven't been pregnant for 2 whole years!! That's a record.

  Wyatt makes the best faces, he always makes me laugh. Unless it's 3:30 in the morning and he has me in the living room watching Paw Patrol which will cause me to sleep through my alarms which will make me wake up in a panic and feel disoriented which will cause me to frantically shove Jared out the door and send him to the neighbors house without checking his backpack or making his lunch.  No one was late, I'll let it slide.
  2 years old, I'm happy. I'm healthier than ever (I think). We're eating pretty clean and it has really sunk in! Eating clean has REALLY made me feel great inside. Not being pregnant means my body is mine. I'm not saying being pregnant isn't healthy, but for me it wasn't. I used pregnancy as an excuse to eat like a pig. I don't regret that though. Totally worth it :) but now I'll have to be healthy and get in shape because my kids deserve a mom and dad that can keep up with them!
  Time is going by quickly and not fast enough all at the same time. Today is also Wylee's  Kindergarten Roundup! What?!?! Kindergarten?? Down to two kids at home during the day? I have mixed feelings on this subject. (Time is passing too quickly) Happy sad happy sad...changes every 5 minutes. But wait, Russell starts right after Wylee. Then before I know it, it'll be Wyatt's turn. I'll have the house to myself all day and maybe it'll stay clean for longer than 5 minutes!! Tubs of toys won't be dumped out for no reason at all. I won't have to listen to "I didn't make that mess" Everytime I say clean up. (Not. Fast. Enough.)
  I recently read a blog post about how sometimes parenting is a big F you. It's true. It's not always like that, but it is lots of times. It's what I was made to do though, big F you's and all. Parenting isn't really even all that rewarding right now. It's so hard and it's always the same craziness and chaos but things DO somehow change every single day. And just like child birth, I forget most of the bad stuff by the time I fall asleep.  That's why I have 4 kids. You forget.  I didn't end up with 4 kids cause I love birthday cake and parties. It's why I was born. My official calling in life. I want to soak up every single small medium and large F YOU that motherhood throws my way and I'm gonna find a way to forget it by bedtime (it usually vanishes sometime between my bluebell and Blacklist). Someday when my nest is empty and there are 100 dogs hangin in my living room with me I'm gonna look back and think, "I did that. I was tough and weak, I worried all the time but still let them figure most things out for themselves. I held them, I taught them, I laughed with them AND at them  (hey, nobody is perfect). I cleaned up poop and pee and puke and spit up and lots of spilled milk which is, in fact, worth crying over. I did the best that I could. They know of Heavenly Father's love for them and they know how to get back home. We taught them how to pray and when and why, and that's important stuff! I hope I did it right." Then I'll spend a few hours talking to my 100 dogs until Jared gets home from work. I'll probably dress them up in people clothes too.
  So Wyatt is two, Wylee gets her first official taste of Kindergarten, and I'm gonna enjoy it even though if you were to be a fly on the wall of my van in the pick up line at school RIGHT now you would hear a crying 2 year old, a tattling 5 year old and you'd be watching Russell clean up all the fries that he threw and the to go box that he shredded.
  Happy birthday Wyatt. We all love you so much and you are the perfect ending to our reign of newborns. Your favorite show is Paw Patrol, you don't want to drink anything but chocolate milk and you LOVE sleeping in bed with mommy and daddy. You like doing our workout videos with us and you adore your big sister. Ryder still calls you Baby even though he's only 2 weeks older than you, and I like that :) You'll have to get used to it cause Baby, you're always gonna be OUR baby!!! I'll spoil you and let you get away with lots of stuff that the others didn't because that's how it works :) we love you Wyatt Lee!!
 

The Festival of Lights

 My dad has a joke in our family about birthdays. He calls them "The Festival of Lights" because my mom is realllllly good at managing to get several celebrations out of one birthday, well everyone's except for my dad's. It's just a joke but it's kind of true, his birthday is July 2nd so the 4th of July (also his sister's birthday) always tends to overshadow Dad's festival of lights. Not to mention, 2 of my 4 babies were also born in July AND my brother's birthday is July 8th.
  He doesn't want much for his birthday, just a card (which he will open at your house and end up leaving there because it's JUST THAT SPECIAL TO HIM....same goes for Father's Day cards!) I know how important these cards are to him....because one year I forgot to buy him a card and it took YEARS to live it down (and counting).
  Dad, I want you to know that we may not celebrate your Festival of Lights like we do for mom, but I celebrate it several times a week.

  I celebrate your birthday every single time I lay on the floor and Wylee (see, her name is spelled LEE because that's YOUR middle name) runs over and lays on my back...all I'm missing is a coloring book or a newspaper.
  I celebrate YOU on the rare occasion that the kids and I pour ourselves some milk and have an Oreo Dunking Party.
  I celebrate you every time someone tells me that all my boys have that "Talley mark", especially Wyatt.
  And I celebrate you again when we make a batch of homemade popcorn, when I fold a load of laundry (because you taught me how to fold), and when I wrap a gift (because you taught me that, too). I also celebrate you when I pull a Snickers bar out of the freezer and think to myself how you call them Gigglers, and when I catch myself bouncing my leg while sitting at the dinner table.
  I celebrate you when Russell takes a giant breath right before he takes a big bite of food, because YOU DO THAT, TOO!
  Every time I'm coloring with one of the kids, I celebrate you, because you taught me how to color in the same direction so that it doesn't look so sloppy. They think I'm so very talented.
  You're celebrated in my memories anytime I see a Rockwall Baseball shirt, whether it's around town or when my kids wear them to bed. I still have a hard time accepting your retirement.
  I celebrate you when we make kool-aid because it makes me think of how you would pour kool-aid into water bottles and put them in the cooler to take to the Rangers game. And I still have the olive green shirt that you bought me at the game that just you and I went to.
  Your Festival of Lights continues every time I have an anxiety attack or get so nervous that I throw up.....because you passed that down to me whether you wanted to or not, lol. Every time I would sit in the alley way about to make my run I would puke a little, and that's ok, because I know you did the same  before your football games.
  When Russell asks me to lay down with him while he falls asleep I have a hard time saying no, because you used to do the same for me.
  When Wylee refuses to sleep under her comforter, I only SORT OF celebrate you.....because bed bugs just aren't funny.
  Wyatt and Wylee's bright blue eyes...constant reminders because they got them from YOU, their PaPa.
  Going to Sam Houston was my first pick, my only pick, I had no back up....because that's where my daddy went and that's where I wanted to go to.
  I even have a little Festival of Lights celebration in your honor when a Seinfeld rerun shows up on the guide. Sometimes I watch it, not cause I like the show, but because you like the show.

  I celebrate you a whole lot, everyday, you just don't know it. Now you do. I could name at least 50 more everyday things, but then I'd have nothing to write about in your coveted birthday cards. I love you and mom so much and I appreciate all of the memories that I have, I hope my kids think as highly of me someday as I think of you guys. Only 174.5 days until your birthday....but who's counting, right? ;)

My Naughty list decision...in case you were wondering

My verdict: The boys are on the naughty list and Wylee is naughty/nice. I LOVE all of the advice and words of encouragement that I was given. Not only did every one's comments help lead me to a solution that I was comfortable with, but they helped remind me that holiday over stimulation deserves a special place on the naughty list as well.
  I had several people suggest that they get a toy and then I make them return it. I can't do that. I can't hurt their sensitive little feelings. Then I'M the bad guy. I don't want there to be a bad guy at all. So maybe there are kids out there that that solution will work for, I just don't think that it will work with mine. The last thing I want is more anger and resentment. Although, I do so appreciate those that suggested it! It helped steer me in the right direction.
  I also had lots of comments telling me that I should give them toys from Santa and then take them to hospitals or to someone less fortunate and make them give the toys to those sweet children. Such a great idea, but it won't solve my problem. My problem is whether or not they have behaved well enough for Santa to visit THEM and put presents for THEM under the tree. No one has ever said to them, "if you're bad, Santa will still bring you what you want but you'll have to take it to someone that has less than you." I don't even want to get into the issue of why they have to take their stuff to other kids and why didn't Santa visit those kids as well....yikes.
  Some said to give them less but don't make it about their behavior....after the third comment of this nature I decided what I was going to do. My whole problem IS their behavior so I'm going to sugar coat the reason why Santa doesn't leave lots of toys and goodies. I'm sticking to my plan of giving them all warm clothes, one book, and one toy. Because, after all, I was once a kid that thrived on the magical feelings of SANTA visiting! Santa will leave them a note explaining why they got what they got and why they didn't get everything they wanted. He will encourage better behavior next year and make sure they know how much he loves them.
  They are soooo little, and they are growing faster than I can keep up with and I don't want to make them miss out on one single Christmas morning full of Santa magic. Who knows how long they will believe for? I don't. So Santa is coming....he's just changing things up some. Stockings will have undies and socks and maybe a snickers soldier. One of the comments suggested that I send them a personalized video from Santa. She is also dealing with some naughty brothers at her house so she gave it a shot. So far it has been working for her kids, so I did the same. The kids sat alone with me, one at a time, to watch their videos. Santa speaks to them by name and even has their picture. They were shocked. It's only been about 45 minutes but that video was special to them and they are trying. Santa told them that it isn't too late to make it on to the nice list before Christmas Eve....we shall wait and see. Thank you for the link Jessica! If you want to send a video, you can google Portable North Pole.
  Again, I'm so thankful for every one's help! I can't wait to see how attitudes change over the next 9 days. And if they don't, well we will just try a little harder next year. Say a little prayer that these three make it on the nice list in time!!

Naughty List Warning

  I'm struggling with Santa right now. My kids KNOW that we celebrate Christmas because it's Jesus' birthday. They also know that Santa is just a fun bonus. They know that if they were ever to be so bad that Santa skips our house that Christmas would still go on because it's not about Santa. My problem is that, for the first time, they really have been so bad for me that if I didn't love them so much, Santa would skip us. I don't want to see their disappointed little faces when they wake up and run downstairs.
  Most of you that know my kids are probably thinking that I'm exaggerating right now, except for Leslie...she knows better. My kids are usually great for other people. I know I did something right when it comes to how they behave for EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET. Jared only moved his pin twice in kindergarten and has so far only snipped an E once in first grade, I'm so proud of him! I guess the specifics really aren't what my post is about.....I'm not writing this so that I can throw my kids under the bus and have you all think poorly of them. It's just a season that we're in.
  My problem is this: do I teach them a hard lesson that I never had to learn or do I carry on as if they had been little angels? I purchased a really cute "Naughty List Warning" the other morning that I had planned on filling out for each child. In the middle of filling out Baby Jared's I started to feel bad about it. I don't know why....I think mainly because there is a line for "naughty behavior witnessed by..." and I put "Trigger the Elf" (that's our Elf on the Shelf's name). I felt bad for our fake stuffed elf on the shelf. Why should he be blamed if they get reindeer crap in their stockings even though Im pretty sure that's the main reason behind the Elf on the Shelf. Last year the concept was fun because the kids wanted to be really good for him. This year they just think his stunts are funny and who gives a hoot if he catches them being bad. So........what do I do? As of Tuesday my plan was to have Santa bring them all warm winter clothes and ONE toy from their list. That still seems ok to me. I don't want them to think that their actions can be threatened with Santa skipping our house but come Christmas morning Santa has spoiled them rotten anyways so what was the point of spewing the "SANTA IS WAAATTTCCCHHHHING YOOOOUUUU" line (while I'm literally on the verge of an emotional and mental breakdown).

  1) Do I risk hurting their feelings and give them all their naughty list warnings? (Trigger will be removed from the witness line)

  2) Does Santa stick to his one toy plan or just bring clothes?

  I would love your input, maybe advice from the more seasoned mothers out there that have dealt with the naughty child during the month of December issue.

  What I would NOT LOVE is your advice on how to discipline my babies.  Everyone is so different when it comes to THAT subject, so I'd rather just steer clear of it :)

I'm not just a mom, you know...

Well, I'm not. I am, but I'm not. It would be safe to say that "it's complicated". I'm a stay at home mom that also sells Scentsy, AdvoCare, and co-owns an online boutique with her best friend. Interestingly enough, it's called Just Two Girls' Boutique. We decided on that name because back in January we did a fundraiser for an old classmate of ours. We had gotten to know his wife a little bit recently and when he was critically injured in a car accident I felt like I needed to help in some way. Our fundraiser turned into a huge event and as people were pulling us in all different directions to decide on this or take care of that I simply reminded people that we were "just two girls". We didn't know what we were doing, we didn't know what proper fundraising protocol was, we didn't know anything other than we wanted to help. We were, and still are, just two girls. And I am just one girl, a mom, with a little extra on my plate. Most days I get up and take the dogs outside, start little Jared's shower, go wake him up, get him in the bathroom and then I go downstairs to make his lunch and get him some breakfast. I make myself some Spark and I grab my iPad. My second alarm for the day goes off and I walk him to the end of our driveway and we wait for the bus...send him off and head back inside. Usually 2 of the others wake up right after I walk in, so we watch cartoons and wait for the 3rd to wake up. Then its breakfast and chocolate milk and I check a few emails, check my texts that Leslie sent me over night. She works late at night, sends me the orders that I need to work on and I work during the morning or day, whenever I can fit it in. I do a little Facebook stalking, change a diaper or two and go about the rest of my day. A lot of times I forget that I'm only one person. I can't do everything, and I don't HAVE to do everything. I don't have to sell AdvoCare or Scentsy, and I don't have to sew for money. But I do. I'm not the top in sales, not even close. It would be nice, but then again, lots of things would be nice. I should probably give something up, that or learn to cut myself some slack. It's not easy for me to just not do something because it would be easier to not do it. For example, grocery shopping. If I wanted to, I could ask Jared to watch the kids and just go by myself on Saturday mornings. But that would just be too easy now wouldn't it? If I did that then there goes 2 hours of our weekend time together, or I would be giving up the one morning that I don't wake up to an alarm. So instead I choose to endure the mental and emotional beating of taking Wylee, Russell, and Wyatt to Wal-Mart first thing on Monday mornings. 6 times out of 10 I end up crying at some point during our trip. Every SINGLE time as I am loading them into the car I tell them that they are NEVER EVER EVER GOING SHOPPING WITH MOMMY AGAIN! EEVVVEEERRRR!!!! Until the following Monday, and we repeat it all again. Every Monday I swear that I'm going to start grocery shopping in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn on Saturdays. That never happens though. It probably never will. Every day I follow the kids around asking them to 'pick this up' and to 'put that away'...most of the time they don't do it and after asking 10 times I do it myself because I CAN'T STAND for stuff to just be laying all over the place. I hate it. I hate it more than I hate grocery shopping with the kids. I hate my kitchen floor because even if I mopped it every day it would still look like a pack of elephants just muddied up their giant feet and trampled all over the place. I hate doing laundry. I hate doing dishes. I don't mind vacuuming except that our vacuum is broken right now so I've been trying to vacuum the house with a tiny bissel that we bought for the camper. So, yeah, that sucks. I hate clutter yet you will not find a single room in my house that is without it. This house is pure chaos, I just try to keep it nice and organized and tidy. Tidy chaos. I rush around the house when I know that Jared is about 30 minutes from being home. I put away everything that the kids wouldn't, and load the dishwasher with the things that are left in the sink. I do my best to have the house clean and smelling good when he walks through the door. I like to have dinner ready either when he gets home or shortly after. I'm so disappointed in myself on the days that the house is crazy, the sink is full, and dinner isn't even thawed out yet. Here's how things have been going lately... *The sink is usually full of dishes. *I'm STILL in pjs when Jared gets home. *The kids are STILL in pjs when Jared gets home. *You can find a diaper that didn't make it to the trash in at least 3 out of the 4 bedrooms, with a few more throughout the house. *You can find a sippy cup with yesterday's milk in it under at least one of the couches. *I let the kids accidentally break something because I wasn't paying close enough attention. *Guess what Babe? We're having cereal and milk for dinner again...but not a lot of milk, because we're almost out and I need enough to put Wyatt to bed with. *That load of laundry that's in the dryer...it sat in the washer for 2 days and I rinsed it 4 separate times but it still smells a little bit like crap. But, hey, I dug that BoxTop out of the trash that you threw away! After all, its worth like 15 cents. *Don't worry about that dirty diaper smell in the playroom, the dogs found one of the diapers that didn't make it to the trash can so they shredded it in there. I cleaned it up though. Remind me if I get pink eye, it was probably from that. This week, however, I am on day 4 of wearing REAL clothes and Make-up and my hair looks pretty decent! Monday morning we decided to go have lunch with Jared in Paris, he asked what made us decide to do that and I said, "Well, we all had real clothes on..." We laughed. And I died a little inside. We all had real clothes on. A Gold Star kind of moment if there ever was one. I try to keep it pretty real on Facebook. I don't make my life out to be some giant rainbows and unicorn fest over here. It's not. I make jokes about the fact that Wyatt is butt naked outside waiving to the cars that pass and Russell is elbow deep in potting soil. Jared and Wylee are fighting over something, or everything, and I'm about to pull my own hair out. MOST of it is pretty funny if you can just let yourself laugh about it instead of cry. Should Wyatt be naked outside? No. Before I take him in to diaper him I'm gonna watch him run 5 steps and then stop to make sure everything is still there, and then run 5 more steps and check again...cause its funny. I don't want people to think that my house runs like a well oiled machine and that if you drop by unannounced I will be wearing my best pearls (if I had any), the kids would be treating each other kindly while they play in the playroom and there will be a freshly baked, homemade, apple pie cooling in the kitchen window. Most of the time when Jared walks through the door I don't run and give him a kiss on the cheek with my heel kicked up. I'm usually borderline mental by the time he gets home. He would argue that borderline is being nice. I survived another day though! There's a plus. I have so much to do, so many mouths to cook for, so many headbands that need sewing or hats that need embellishing. I have orders to place and people waiting for me to bring their stuff to them. I have piles of clothes to wash and fold and beds to make and dishes to clean or to put away. Each room holds a different mess, just WAITING for me to tend to them. I have too much going on. I can admit that. What I can't get past is the fact that there are plenty of people who have way more going on and they still manage to do it all. There is no room for slacking, no matter what. Why should I be any different from those people? I have some AMAZING nieces and nephews, but you know what? I ALWAYS forget to send birthday cards and I never call. I hate myself for that, and I try to change it and I slack again. Sometimes (a lot of the time) I don't answer phone calls because there is so much going on at that moment that I just can't add a conversation to my plate. Text me. I can usually handle a text message. I have over 300 unopened emails because I can't check them fast enough. I have unopened Facebook messages because I was too busy to read them and now they have been pushed so far down the line that I don't even know where they are and I don't have time to sit and scroll through them all. I don't listen to my voice mails. Ever. I have some sitting on my phone that have been there since February. What was the point of this blog post? Maybe I'm afraid that people give me too much credit sometimes... they need to know that I'm just a whack job of a mother with some whack job children that are lucky they are cute and a total whack job of a husband. Or MAYBE my fingers typed this so that I would read over it and see that I usually have stuff under control. Lately, I've been tired. Trying to do too many different things will do that to a person. I can figure out a balance...I can. My kids and husband deserve the best, and even though I'm just one person I CAN figure out how to do it all and do it all with a SMILE on my face (and my best pearls on). First, I need some pearls...