We're all in this together!

Remember that perception you had of motherhood....  the one you had before you had kids.
Cuddling, napping together, making fun crafts, baking, playing at the park... they look so good in my mind.

Moments of fun... sweet faces.

Patience and walking hand in hand.

It's easy to forget about those 'Other' mommy moments...  Because as I type, I have an *almost* 4 year-old begging me to make Jell-o for the 100th time this week, and then getting stuck between the couch and the wall (seriously, there is not enough room back there for a child, and I have no idea how she got back there!)  

Moments like these - 

Screaming while doing something fun!

Screaming while visiting family

BLESS YOU!

I hope that window was clean!

Nothing like a little nose picking while you are getting a family photo taken!

are easy to forget... unless you are like me and you take pictures of those moments!

Back to my point - motherhood is not really like I thought it was going to be.  I don't think many mothers could honestly say that it is.  

There are times, when things are going perfect, when I sit down and say to myself "I had an awesome day with my awesome kids!" 

There are also those days where I feel like I have just removed a child from behind the couch 20 times, I have cleaned up spilled milk 10 times, I have already fed them and where did that marker come from?, how come there is crayon all over the wall?, how did the photos fall off the wall on their own?, you want Jell-o again??  take your finger out of your nose, share your toys, if you need to pee, go to the toilet, get your hands out of the flour bin, yes, I can make Jell-o, paint?  you want to paint?  I just cleaned crayon off the wall and marker off the carpet and now you want me to take paint out?....  

You know those days... we all do.  And I think I just realized this the other day!

I know a lady, she is an amazing lady.  I constantly wonder how she has so much patience and think of what a good mother she is - she seems like she has it all together, all the time.  And she asked ME, what I was making for dinner, because she had no ideas.  No big deal, I know, but even those 'perfect' mothers need help sometimes.

I heard story of an other wonderful mother, who had a child who could read the clock and knew when time was bedtime.  7:30, on the dot, and the child would not go to bed any sooner.  So this mother would turn the clock forward on a bad day and get her kids to bed earlier so she could have some peace.

I heard that and thought "That is a fantastic idea!"

So when I visualize those moms who do everything, I visualize a clean house, dinner cooking and mommy playing with the kids, but I am pretty sure that is completely IMPOSSIBLE!!  

A clean house - maybe for a few minutes.  

Dinner cooking - absolutely.  

Mommy playing with the kids - heck yes!  

but all three at the same time - there is no way!

So rest assured mom's out there in the interweb - you are not alone.  As my daughter now beckons for more two-bite brownies, I must go.  My dishes are half done, at least one room in my house is clean, and I need to make more jell-o.

Grace at my House

A good friend of mine and I read a book together last year.  We called each other once a week, and talked about what we read and what was going on in our lives. The book was called 'Grace based Parenting' by Dr. Tim Kimmel.  I recommend this book to all parents, but especially Christian parents as it really speaks on the basis that we, as parents, need to be able to show the same grace as our Father shows us, to our children.

I made this as a reminder that God has given us his grace so I can make mistakes, and so can my kids.

Wordless Wednesday: my newest find

This is what I found by my computer this am - "Kids in the house"

Kids in the house

This is something new I thought of.

I will be adding a photo every once and a while, for people without kids to understand people with kids, and for people with kids to know they are not alone.

These photos will be called "Kids in the house"

This will showcase how you can tell that kids live in the house, besides the loud screaming, toys, piles of laundry and general chaos....

There is something on this mantle that just doesn't belong...

Yes, parents display ALL of their children's artwork, even if it does look like it came out of a Tim Burton film.

We only had a little snow, so we could only make little snowmen.  If you open a freezer at someones house and you see this, you know, there are kids in the house!

I am not sure how I would even explain this to my friends WITH kids.  Where did the dirt come from? I just don't know.  Why was it on the toilet seat when I was about to sit for my morning pee... I'm just not sure.  I can tell you one thing, seeing this lets you know one of 2 things, there is something in the house, and it may be kids, but it may also be pets.

A weekend with Valour

So my nana turned 80 last week.  We had a party.
The adventure was not at the party, but on the way to the party.
Let me start at the beginning, because that is clearly where every great adventure starts.

Last week we received coupons for McCafe...two lattes for the price of one was a deal we could not pass up, so we tried to exercise some self control, and ordered only a large.  Their large is exactly that...LARGE, I thought it was delicious, but for someone who doesn't drink a lot of caffeine beverages, that was a lot of coffee!

Approximately half way through the beverage I am having problems controlling my incessant jabbering...which was also when I reached the 'U' in the alphabet game.  During this time I found it necessary to say "YOU!!!!" or "you..."  or "YYYYYOOOOOOUUUUUU"  over and over and over again.  Yes, I distracted the driver.

Let me explain my husband's car rule.  "If you are in the passenger seat, you are the navigator.  Therefore it is your fault if any wrong turns, or missed turns happen while you are on duty."

We went to the airport.  No, we were not taking any flights to get to our destination, but somehow my fascination with the many different ways, and tones that I could say "You", left us headed to Terminal #1.

After finding our way back to the highway, and after I found the letter "U', and was able to move onto "V" (which I might add is half and as fun to say, and two times more annoying), we ventured off the highway to find a McDonalds, again.  And no, I did not get an other latte, I was beginning to feel like my heart was going to pound right through my chest and land in someone's happy meal.

I failed... I was hoping my job as navigator would be revoked, but more and more responsibility kept getting tossed my way, like "We just passed AN OTHER exit for a McDonalds."  and "How do I turn around and go the opposite direction on the highway when there is no overpass??"  Geez.

Well, I finally concurred the challenge to navigate us to a happy meal, big mac wielding restaurant.

We were able to sit and eat our nuggets in peace, and tried to make a quick exit since all of our detours were beginning to make us a wee bit late.

My daughter, the two year-old, loves to clean up after herself, and this is an obsession I encourage because, well, I'd rather not clean up after her!  So she took her little drink, finished it off, and proceeded to the garbage can and as my husband shuffled her along she started wailing, "My ring, my ring!!!"

A quick scan of the floor led my deductive reasoning to the garbage can.

Yet an other side note.  My husband learned the word "Valour" this weekend. The dictionary describes valour as; Courage in the face of danger.  My husband later described my actions that followed as such...

I run to the garbage can, my son follows behind (I think he was eager to be the hero in this story).  We open it up and look down....full garbage can...gross.

On lookers were looking on, we unlatched the receptacle  and removed the bin, in went the hands and head, and after several minutes of searching, I found the ring!! (and my son ripped it out of my hands and said "Look what I got")  I went to the washroom and scrubbed my hands and face.

True story.

Sometimes we have wade through a lot of garbage for the people we love.  And I would willingly do it again and again.