And so I blog

I was reminded recently that I have a blog. I've been spending so much time popping in on Facebook that I nearly decided to write off blogging altogether! But, I'm giving it another whirl.

So, to catch you all up, well, we've had a visit from Mimi (my mom), since Janurary. And that's about it. Since then I've been STRIVING to get into a good daily and weekly routine, as I find much more accomplished when I stick to one--even loosely! But don't ask me how that's going this week... Or today. You might end up hearing about the things that are NOT glamorous as a Stay at Home Mother. Like yelling at your kids, or giving them--and yourself--a healthy dose of Fruit Snacks and peanut butter and jelly (because you feel bad about said yelling, or just don't care in that moment). This is okay for today though: I'm resolving to never buy fruit snacks again. Once they're gone, they're gone. They want fruit snacks? They can have dried fruit. It's not even for their sakes. It's for mine.

I've also come to realize that if I want to get my core daily items on my to do list done, I have to wake up at 5:30... perhaps even 5 AM. Nice. Exercising, getting dressed for the day, scripture reading, journaling, prayer, and waking up sufficiently to actually DO these things takes time, I'm discovering. How nice that I'm figuring this out at the ripe age of 27. Oh wait, soon to be 28... Oye! Maybe that's my goal: to establish a good morning routine by the time I'm 28. Now mind you, I'm probably going to start including naps into my midday routine as a result. I don't know how else I (or my "darling" children) will make it through the last few hours of the day without one.

Speaking of darling children:

The other day Kai came home with a pamphlet about wanting parents to volunteer by preparing a presentation about their jobs. And I would be happy to volunteer, but I don't know that that's exactly what they had in mind. Do you have to be on a payroll or have income to have a "job"? I submit that my job right now is multi-faceted. This isn't news to any of you reading this, but being a mom means wearing many hats.

How could I make an interesting presentation on nurturing, teaching, and caring for my children? Running a household smoothly, doing many of the tasks myself, or even more difficult--teaching my children how to do some of these tasks? Balancing the books? Gardening & Yard Work? Cooking, and HEALTHY cooking at that? Cleaning? Organization? Home repairs? Shopping around for the best prices on EVERYTHING? Nursing for sick children? Arranging for enriching activities for my children? Not to mention their spiritual needs and teaching them how to behave civilly? And of course, learning about how to do my job well and keep up to date on the latest parenting strategies...

All of this saves us oodles of money instead of hiring someone else to do all these things. Does that count as paying yourself? I submit that is totally counts. But then it's MY job and it's MY kids, so of course it seems important to me!

Any thoughts?

Oh, and Kai... So the other day in a moment of maternal euphoria, and knowing full well that we are NOT done having children, I said to Jasper, in front of the kids, "I have such beautiful, wonderful children! We should just quit instead of messing with a good thing!" I was just thinking about how wonderful I thought my kids were! That's it.

Well, apparently Kai, being the five year old that he is, misunderstood my meaning, and starts to cry. "What's wrong, honey?" I say in my sweet motherly voice. "Mom thinks we're STUPID," he says, all the while curled up in a little ball on the dining chair at the table. WHAT?!?!? Where did he pull THAT one from?!?!? Okay, after a long time thinking it over, I realize where I went wrong, but it was at least a teensy bit funny to watch the reaction to my little moment of joy. LOL! *Sigh* Funny kids.