To All the Stay at Home Moms, I Salute You

Friday was Veteran's Day and in the spirit of being a Federal employee and honoring all of those who have served for us, I got the day off.  Now, before I get started, let me say that I am proud to be an American and I am proud of all of our service men and women, past and present, that have put their lives on the line for our freedom and the freedom of so many others.

But, back to my story....I don't know how you do it, all of the moms that have chosen to work as a full time mom (and I use that term with hesitation because I am a full time mom, I just don't stay home so please, give me a better phrase).  First of all, I woke up at the same time I do every day.  There is no sleeping in that's for sure.  Then I have this grandiose idea that I am going to get all of my errands run on Friday so I didn't have to do it all weekend.  We get dressed and get across town to Sam's Club for our first stop, only to find out that they don't open to regular members until 10 am - who knew this?  Not a problem, I thought, I will go to my next stop and come back.  Although I had planned on being home in time to make lunch at 11:30 and nap time by 12:15 to keep him on his normal schedule, that didn't happen.  What I thought would only take 5 minutes in Michael's took 45 (did I forget to mention that I had my two year old with me?)  We had to look at every Santa Claus, every light, every bow, and every Christmas Village house in the place.  And every time we saw a Santa Claus we had to say, "Ho, ho, ho to all and all good night." (Yes, I am teaching my child about the commercial side of Christmas, I can't help it, Santa is everywhere!).  We had to go back to Sam's (again, who doesn't open their doors before 10 am) and deal with traffic navigating through town (give me 695 any day of the week compared to around town traffic).  We finally get home and I make his favorite grill cheese, give him some milk and alas, nap time.  I sit down, prop my feet up, and then promptly said a bad word because I forgot to put the next load of laundry in.  So, while my little angel slept, I washed clothes, folded clothes, put clothes up, and emptied the dishwasher. 

Two hours later, my little angel woke up, I hurried to change his diaper, throw his jacket and shoes on and bolt out of the door for 2:30 doctor's appointment, only to remember halfway out of the neighborhood that I forgot juice and snack - oh dear.  I promised Little Bit that mommy would get him a surprise after the doctor and off we went.  Of course, I didn't tell him he was having blood taken and it was a big long needle that they jammed into his arm after cutting off his circulation and then they leave it in there to fill up tube after tube of the red stuff.  Whew, made it through that without hitting, scratching, or running away, and the baby did good too.  Off for ice cream - except I had my heart set on the new Sonic and after an hour of trying to locate it, I decided it might be best to just go home.

It was time for afternoon activity, so I got him some juice and some goldfish, and we started coloring and putting puzzles together.  I remembered that I left something upstairs, so, after making sure he was occupied with something that couldn't harm him (he was intently playing with an etch a sketch), I ran upstairs, grabbed the stuff, took a box to the recycling and went back downstairs and again, shouted a four letter word (it could have been more, that part of my day got all fuzzy) and just stared in disbelief.  My little angel had apparently decided he wanted to look like his daddy or his Uncle Josh and took a brown magic marker and went to work, drawing a beard on his face, scribble to look like (I'm guessing) chest hair on his chest, scribble on his legs and then he started on the couch.  Two different places on the couch and then the pretty, decorative pillows that go on the couch.  I could have died right there.  Finally, after an hour of scrubbing (I must send Resolve with Oxi Clean a thank you note) it was time to start dinner.  I've got chicken in the oven, apples for applesauce in the steamer, washing potatoes and snapping green beans then my husband calls.  he is supposed to pick up my step son at 5:30, it is 5:35 and he is calling to tell me that he is late and can I please go pick him up.  So off I go again, turning everything but the chicken off, flying out the door, pick my stepson up and fly home just in time to not burn the house down.

We eat, give baths, clean up and my sweet angels snuggle on the couch like nothing happened all day.  The boys go to bed, which is usually our time to be adults for a minute, to watch something other than Sprout on the TV, but I was exhausted.  So, on 11/11/11, on a day to remember, I went to bed at 8:30.  I couldn't take any more.

So, to all of you mother's out there that do this every day, I have one question....How do you do it and still look so put together?  My blood pressure was high just from trying to navigate through traffic, I was so mad at Sam's Club for throwing off my whole plan, I wanted dinner on the table at 6:15 and with the magic marker incident and the late husband that didn't happen and to top it all off, I never got my slushy from Sonic!

I honor you and I envy you!!!

When Love Counts the Most

On March 29th, I stood there, in front of God and all of our family and friends and said, "For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer."  Did I really mean that?  At the time, they are just words, you think.  There is no way I could get any poorer than I am now, you think.  "For better, for worse..." - well, you say that on what is the best day of your life.  You can't even think about worse.  It can't get worse.  You are marrying the man of your dreams, you're happy, on cloud nine....but then life happens.  And (almost) four years later, I look at my husband and realize how true those words are.  For better or for worse, I wouldn't be anywhere else!