the glory of a stay-at-home mom

Before I was a stay-at-home mom/homemaker, I believed life, if I was at home full-time, would be so much more manageable and organized, the family well fed, the home more often clean than not, mail sorted, meals planned, laundry caught up, and life generally orderly. And then I became one.

Fueled by grandiose ideas and illusion, I've still spent a good deal of time trying to accomplish the aforesaid. Why, you may ask? That’s what I said!

The reality is, I've spent more time figuring out rather than implementing how and when to do grocery shopping for the week, how and when to get the laundry done, how to make the bed while my 11-month old opens drawers and pulls out underwear. And all the while the mail piles up for another day as my 4-year old clings to my leg with a low blood sugar meltdown begging for lunch because its been 5 hours since we last ate.

So…………

This is what I finally realized after four years of being a stay-at-home mom – IT DOESN’T MATTER. When my babies are grown I don’t want them to say, “Yeah, our mom was preoccupied and haggard, but boy she could take a mean pile of mail and sort the heck out of it.”

So I am making a conscious effort to lower my expectations of me, set realistic goals, and turn my gaze toward my kids.

I mean, who wants to be distracted from this?

Or would even think about missing a second of this?

So if you’ll excuse me for now, I’m going to go make a mess and I’m not even going to clean it up.

believe it

I can't believe I only posted 4 times in 2009. I can't believe that its been almost 1 year since my baby girl was born. I can't believe that my baby boy isn't a baby anymore. I can't believe my husband finished 6 long years of seminary. I can't believe its so foggy outside that I can barely see across the street from my house. I can't believe a couple of weeks ago we had record breaking cold and now the ever elusive "they" are talking about temperatures in the 60's. I can't believe I can still hear my daughter awake when she was supposed to fall asleep for nap about 30 minutes ago. I can't believe I haven't heard a peep out of my 4 year old who is supposed to be playing quietly in his room for "downtime." I can't believe I'm gonna have to go check on the noisy one who's supposed to be quiet and the quiet one who's supposed to be noisy. I can't believe it may take me another whole year to post something else. Here's to hoping there's more posting in 2010!