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Putting Family First
Tonight I enjoyed the first Sunday since October with the boys and Blake. You see, when Blake took his latest job to be a restaurant chef, the trade-off was that three nights during the week and all weekend he’d be working. To say it has been tough would be an understatement. But, the life as the wife of a chef is just that – it’s tough. Many times you take a back seat to a career that is long hours, fast-paced and high-stress. Nine years ago when we met, Blake worked in a kitchen, and so I knew what I signed up for when we started dating, when we got…
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My Appliqued Stockings
I had these stockings made last year by my mother-in-law, but that was pre-blog and now I get to share them! I love, love, love these stockings! I found them at Hobby Lobby, and then had my MIL appliqué the first letter of each of our names and embroider our names through them. I loved these so much that I bought an extra stocking and more fabric just in case our family needs five one day 😉
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What to do, what to do…
My son. Where do I begin. He is a charming, loving, intelligent, ball of fire… who happens to be manipulative, disobedient and slick. Oh, what a combination! Now I love my son to death, but I’m not one of those parents who thinks they have a perfect child. No, I’m the kind of parent who looks at the other parents who are forming judgements to themselves and agrees with them (audibly)… “yeah, he’s bad.” And I don’t say this because I’ve given up or I think it’s acceptable, I say this because I feel good in my skin when I am authentic. And I truly believe that my kid can…
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When something goes wrong, I call you.
The other night, as I was trying to get Brogan to bed, he kept calling me for various requests. As I tromped back up the stairs and into his room, aggravation all over my face, he said to me, “Mommy, when something goes wrong, I call you.” He gave me a hug and all of my frustration went away. I feel like I wrestle with the balance of wanting my boys to be independent, but also liking the fact that they need me. As moms, we feed hungry bellies, bandage skinned knees, wipe runny noses, grab what’s out of their reach and try to fulfill every other random request. We…
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Daddy Daycare
Blake has been working a ridiculous amount lately – like 4 weeks straight, no days off, some were 24-hour days where he slept under his desk. He’s a chef at a college and with a new dining hall and the new school year just started so to say things have been crazy for him at work would be an understatement. So today he had the day off. With so many options for things to do on his day off, what does he do? Volunteers to take the boys to Atlanta for the day so that I could have the day to myself. Bless this man. I spent my day at…
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How to Be a Happy Parent
Parenting is hard and it’s easy to find yourself stuck in a rut with all the damn dailies. But I believe that happiness is relative to your expectations. We all have this romanticized idea of what parenting will be like before we have kids… and then we have them and realize some if it’s not so glamorous. Managing your expectations and keeping perspective is key to finding all the joy that parenting has to offer. Juggling your children, your marriage, a job (perhaps), and the stresses from the outside world (strangers, other parents, the media, the “experts”) can be downright stressful. Hey, no pressure, you’re only doing the most important…
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Never Lead with Fries and Other Lessons from the Day
Every day as a parent is a day of learning – the subject is typically a surprise, but you can always count on a lesson. Today my boys taught me… 1.) Never lead with fries – No matter how good of an eater you’ve got, don’t lead with the fries. It will be hard to near impossible to get them to eat anything with any greater nutritional value once they’ve got a yummy, greasy, salty fry in those chompers. You want some chicken? [shakes his head no] You want some broccoli? [shakes his head no] You want a fry? Yeah! Well crap. 2.) Sometimes you have to break the rules…
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From the Mouth of My 3-year-old
It is true, kids say the darndest things. My 3-year-old continuously amazes me with his remarks. Especially when he says something which lets me know that he knows more than we give him credit for… or when he demonstrates a brazen act of talking back, but said with such innocence, that he has you questioning whether he was really just talking back. The answer to that question is almost always yes – he’s smart and he’s a charmer, so he’s already mastered the art of manipulation. So here are a couple of his one-liners from the last couple of days. I really need to keep a pen and paper more…
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We Speak Opposites in My House
This may be a shocker, but our three-year-old doesn’t like to do what we say. It’s not just that he doesn’t like what we have to say, or that he doesn’t want to do what we ask of him, the simple fact that it came out of our mouths makes it utterly unappealing. We’ve been observing this behavior pattern for a while. When it first started and was still “cute” we would mess with him and tell him not to do things that we really wanted to do. After a couple rounds of “don’t you play Joe Diffy!” to get him to sing and play his guitar in front of…
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The Secrets of Parenthood
I’m going to let my non-parent friends in on a couple of the secrets that we parents don’t want you to know until you join the club. I’m probably breaking some code of silence, but here goes. It’s ugly, it’s shameful, but it’s the truth about being a parent. 1.) We try to look like we’ve got it under control (even when we don’t) – Every parent has been there. Out in public with your little one when they totally freak out on you. There you are, in a sea full of criticizing eyes, knowing that your kid is winning this one. What does a parent do? Fake it. Act…
