Where are you going?

This is the question I was asked last night by my husband as I went storming out the door.

Do you ever have those times when you, as a mother, just have to get yourself out of a situation as fast as you can before something is either said or done that you know you will eventually regret?

That was me last night.  UGH!  Sometimes a mom can just lose it.  I about blew a gasket.  I don't know about you, but I can only take so much of a 3 year old whining, every.single.word.of.every.single.day.  Whining because I didn't make her pony tail high enough or "swooshy" enough.  Or she told me that she wanted 1 pony tail and then mid way through changed her mind to pig tails, but didn't let me know that.  Or that her sock hurts her foot or she wanted to wear "hoopy hoop" earrings today.  I know it's tough being a 3 year in this crazy world, but REALLY????

Then there's my rotten little Vivian.  I thought that my baby who wants to constantly be held by me if I'm in the house would eventually grow out of this.  Well, she turned 1 and that didn't happen yet.  So adding on to the 3 year old whining, I have a 1 year old following me around screaming crying because I won't pick her up.  Aye aye aye....

When I finally can make her happy by finding a toy that she would like to play with, Lila comes around and...you guessed it...that was the toy she wanted to play with, that has been thrown into a corner in her room since she got for Christmas.  The kid didn't even know she had the toy until now.  So Vivian then gets something to eat, usually a CLIF bar because that's what she gets out of the cabinet and brings to me.  Lila wants milk.  Ok....she gets milk.  But she wanted chocolate milk this time.  I forgot my crystal ball in the other room honey....sorry!

If you're a mom, you know this is pretty standard.  This happens DAILY and daily I can usually deal, but every once in a while a mom wants to just lay in bed or sit on the couch or get on the computer and not have to deal with such drama.  Every once in a while, a mom wants someone to take care of her, to appreciate the things that she does when all this drama come on.  Every once in a while a mom needs a break.  Mom's don't get days off or weekends.  We may get hours off, but rarely days.  I don't know about you, but even when I get my days off of work, I feel guilty still taking my kids to daycare.  I feel like if I'm not at work, then I should be with them.

I think this is when we need to stop and realize, that we need to cut ourselves some slack and take the breaks that we need.  Spend the day alone doing what you want to do.  Shopping, meditating, exercising, sleeping, laying on the couch and catching up on The Young and the Restless and NOT FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT.

I challenge all mom's to do something for themselves at some point in the next week.  We all need it!!

XOXO

Lindsey

The Life of a Mom

There are moments in your life when you feel like you've officially become a mom.  I'm not talking about the actual birthing of a baby, of course that makes you a mom.  I'm talking about when you're changing your infant's poopy diaper (and having to change her clothes because it was a huge blowout) and your 3 year old pukes all over you, or when you're trying to give your kids a bath and your baby poops in the bath (EVERY SINGLE TIME) so you're trying to get both kids clean without the poop touching anything because the last thing you want to do is take the kids out, drain the bath tub, clean it, and refill just to "finish the bath".  Those are the things that put you in the Mom Club.

I know we all could share stories that could keep ours ears perked for days.  These are the joys of motherhood!

Last week I, in my opinion, just officially enter the Mom Club.  We got a van!  I can't tell you how excited I am about this.  I have been wanting a minivan for about a year.  Pretty much ever since we put Vivian's car seat in the car with Lila's, just about a week before she was born.  If you ever want to drastically decrease the amount of space you have in your car, just put two car seats in.  Seriously, where did all this room go?  It's ridiculous.  So now, I'm rockin' the minivan...and completely excited about it!  As I told Neil, "we'll have so much more room for activities", to quote the movie Step Brothers.  :)

When I was pregnant with Lila, I was part of a birth month forum on The Bump.  There were several girls on this forum that I got very close to over the course of a pregnancy and first few months of being a mother.  Some of us eventually connected on Facebook where over 4 year later, we are still good friends.  Some of us have met in person (which always makes the others jealous) and some of us continue to grow closer through the internet.  This is something I never thought I would do, but can't imagine my life without these ladies.  About a year ago, I found out that one of the ladies only lives a little under 2 hours away from me.  I couldn't believe it.  Since then we've wanted to meet up, but never had the opportunity to do so.  She's an amazing photographer and I've been dying to have her take pictures of my girls.  This week we finally got to meet up.  She took pics for Vivian's 1 year birthday and our girls (we both have 2) got to play with each other.  They had so much fun.  I'm blessed to share some of the sneak peeks with everyone.  If you live in Southern Illinois or Central Illinois, you should totally look her up.  She's the bomb dot com.  Go to her website and check out her work!  You'll be happy you did.  http://www.juliepottorff.com/

Now it's just fitting to talk about Viv's first birthday.  She celebrated with a Peppa Pig party.  She loves Peppa Pig!  We got to celebrate with lots of family and friends and couldn't be more blessed to have those we love come to party with us!  Thanks to everyone.

The most recent thing I've had that has made me a "Silver Member" of the Mom Club.  As I was getting my hair done, my ever-so-sweet stylist informed me that she found a gray!  LOL  This is the second gray that has been spotted in my head.  Thus the reason I've deemed myself a "Silver Member".  Oh the joys!  Looks like I'm going to be needing a lot more Serenity and Balance in my life.  Oh doTERRA please help me keep my sanity!