When Mommy Needs a "Mommy Moment"

Have you stopped today to tell yourself that you are amazing? I'm serious here! I once saw a comic strip depicting a "mom-bie" like a mom as a zombie. I think that and the picture of a mom as a super hero are the 2 most correct ways of describing moms everywhere!

Think about it for a moment...we moms do SO MUCH and so many things in just a day. My eldest the other day told me the same story about a game on his tablet over fifteen times in a matter of hours! He told the lady at the store, he told the guy at the gas station, he told his baby brother, he told his Great Grandmother on a Skype call and he even told the cat! My sweet husband, got to hear the story once. One time! While I heard it so many times that by the time we were eating dinner and he told his daddy it once, I was so frustrated that I blew up at him. My eldest just wanted to tell his story because he was excited and passionate and I blew right past it because I didn't want to hear it again. How shameful is that!? But what do you expect?

We as moms can't go to the bathroom by ourselves, or eat forbidden yummy foods without sharing. We have to multitask chores like dishes, laundry, making dinner and referring the kids. We do all this (and more sometimes!) while our husbands go potty for 45 minutes ALONE, read an enlightening article, watch hilarious videos, go to the gym, work on the car or on their new high score on a video game. Sure the husbands might work full time, stressful jobs so that we as stay-at-home moms can do just that: stay at home. I love being able to do just that! I really do appreciate that my husband works at a job that brings in enough money for me to get to stay home with my kids! However, his job ends once he's home and then he can relax. My job, as a mommy, is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! It is a never ending job!
No wonder I blew up at my eldest after I had heard the same story all day... but I wonder if I had left the room or mentally checked out during that story, would I have reacted the same way? One of my dear friends said this once to me: "when my husband is off of work at 5PM, so am I. He is off the clock and so am I." That's a wonderful thought and that works well for her but someone's solution isn't always your solution. This test of life is not a cheat-able one; it's a scientific theory kind of test. Tons and tons of trial and error! I wonder if I would have taken a "mommy moment" to clear my head, and breathe deeply to calm myself if I would have reacted better and with more love.
Kids are like the water that slowly wears down a rock. It takes a little bit with every current. My patience wears down bit by bit, my happiness bit by bit and my love seems to sink while the anger comes full force. How horrible! How horrible to think that's what my children might only be seeing: my impatience, my unhappiness and my anger.
I stay up late in the evenings because I love the silence of my house. I love getting the house back in order and everything ready for the next morning. I watch my romantic dramas and crocheting. That's my favorite "mommy moment". I used to get up before everyone too, eat breakfast in peace, and have a cup of tea, while it's hot to get me going. I'd be dressed and fully ready for the day by the time I needed to wake up the kids and then I could focus on them. Unfortunately, late nights and early mornings don't work together and no one likes or gets along with a grumpy, tired mom! When my boys get frustrated or upset about something, I tell them to "cool off" for a bit, take a break from whatever is making them feel that way and relax. Why am I not doing it myself?! I should be "practicing what I preach"! Why not say, "I need a mommy moment" and cool off?! I think I'm a bad mom that's a bit too uptight... but I know that I can get to that happy mom status I'm so desperately trying to achieve. Maybe more "mommy moments" can help get me to that goal and help me show more love and happiness for my amazing boys!!

Happy Mommy-ing!

How We Survive A Snow Day

We live where it doesn't snow too often but when it does, whether it's a little or a lot, the schools all close as a precaution. Even my husband is off from work. Every one is home! For a momma that has come to really appreciate nap time where I get a few hours of peace and quiet, I hate snow days. I'm not a snow person, I've fallen twice on iced sidewalks and when there's ice and snow.... I stay indoors! However, since we are all stuck in the house together, there are a few things I can do to make the day better:

1. Plenty of snacks! The most important thing we need to survive a snow day is food. Most people eat when they are bored, so it helps to have snacks in the house. My kids and myself snack on pretty much the same things all the time. It is my husband that gets bored eating the same stuff. So in order to keep the peace and make sure he doesn't Hulk out and start eating food I need for dinners this pay period, I stocked up on a variety of snacks for us all. Plus plenty of hot teat for me as I'm still getting over being sick.

2. Crock Pot Dinner! Cold days just seem to be the most fitting time to cook delicious dinners in the crock pot and that's doubly certain for snow days! Nothing better than smelling dinner cooking all day while your warm and comfy under a blanket.

3. Comfy clothes! I'm not going outside in this horrible weather so it's perfectly okay for me to stay in my pajamas all day! My mom got me these awesome Peter Pan ones for my birthday and they are superb for a cold day like today! I'm all comfy and warm under a blanket.

4. Snuggle Buddies! Any mom or pet owner will agree, there's nothing better than cuddling with your baby (human or animal). During nap time my favorite fur ball, Scat Cat, curled up with me while I watched Netflix.

5. Something good to watch! Movie marathon is what we normally do during snow days. Our favorites are the Toy Story and Cars trilogies. Put that together with everything else I have listed and we have the perfect snow day! A restful, warm, laid-back snow day.

Happy Mommy-ing! 

DIY Felt Toddler Busy Bag Crafts

"Busy Bags" are so hot right now! There are endless Pins on Pinterest and numerous videos on YouTube detailing how easy and cheap it is to make yourself some "Busy Bags". Every mom should have "Busy Bags" in her arsenal of mommy hacks. They're meant to keep your kids busy and most of the time, quiet. You use them anywhere: grocery store, doctor's office, Pharmacy, DMV, airplane, road trip, anywhere that you need your little one to be occupied these are supposed to work like a charm. When my mom visited after our youngest was born she brought an entire small suitcase filled with items to make about 15 different "Busy Bags" for my oldest. There are some he liked and some he didn't but we still use them to this day on and off. He can entertain himself with a car and a coloring book with color crayons now. He's pretty easy, it's our youngest that goes through everything super fast, nothing really holds his attention longer than 5 minutes. Our youngest will be 2 in about a week and a half and we are embarking on a 6 plus hour flight to California from Tennessee at the end of November of this year to go see family and go to Disneyland. I am flying with a 5 year old and a 2 year old all by myself... I think I have gone crazy! So I have been looking at videos and pins to find different ideas for what to take with us and decided to post a few blogs about the different "Busy Bags" I will be taking with me on the plane and use while we are there visiting family. 

Project #1: This felt project you take those weird crazy straws we all loved in the 90s, take some felt & cut up some squares or rectangles..whatever shape, fold over and make a little slit in the middle. That's it! They're supposed to thread the felt on the straws, that helps with dexterity and motor skills and it's supposed to keep them entertained for hours. My five-year-old wanted to do it; he wanted to match the colors with the colored straws.

Project #2: I took an ordinary $0.98 pill box, the felt I had already purchased and a dollar bag of colored pom poms. I cut some felt out per color of pom-pom, glued it on top of the pill box lid to cover up the days of the week and separated out the colored pom poms into their designated box. Simple for him to learn how to match colors and he loves running around with it. Of course he tried to eat the pom-poms at first! I had to tell him that they weren't food and after he figured that out he has so much fun! I dumped it out and he puts the colors in the boxes, I have to help him by putting one pom pom per color and then he follows.

Two great and inexpensive "Busy Bag" ideas! The straws were a dollar, the pencil pouches were a dollar each, the felt was $0.23 per sheet (I got 7 of them) and the pom-poms were $0.98... so for $6, because you have to factor in taxes, I have two "Busy Bags" complete! It took maybe 30 minutes to cut all the felt, glue and separate. There's also another one where you cut bigger pieces of felt and sew a button on some ribbon - it's called feed the snake that you just put the felt on the ribbon. I haven't found the right ribbon yet and don't know if I'll do that but it's a good idea. I think the straws might just be enough, for right now.

UPDATE: Before/After Busy Bag for Younger Kids

This was my original before after school busy bag type of bag for my youngest: 

 and here is the link for that post. I ultimately decided to get rid of the big open tote because I got the Tall Organizing Tote from Thirty One that zipped up.

I downsize a lot because in reality my son just wanted to watch cartoons, have something to drink, and have something to eat. I didn't need toys because I have a box of toys & books in the car. So this new bag just has: a book for me, a bundle of yarn for me to crochet a small project while waiting, a crocheting hook on the outside, a little notebook if my son wants to draw & a pen, a crocheting needle. I always have a drink for me and drink for both my kids and after-school snack for my oldest and I keep this bag packed up with most of time with a Gerber Grabber, fruit snacks, and goldfish or cookies in some sort of little bowl for my youngest to hold.

As a backup distraction I also have a .99 calculator that I bought at Walmart just in case he gets bored with a food, bored with a cartoons and all the other activities I have for him but most of the time he's happy eating and watching cartoons.

I also incorporated this hack from the Krazy Coupon Lady (here) about adding a few school supplies to keep/take in the car daily for those just in case moments and have them as back up like: a pencil, a pen, a pencil/crayon sharper, tissues, and a glue stick.

And that's it I grabbed my purse on one shoulder and a grab this on the other hand we go.

These are just some of the small projects I have made while waiting to pick up my oldest 

Making Time for "Mommy Time"

We all love our kids? It's safe to say that if we didn't love our kids, we would not do the things we do as moms: feed them, launder & put away their clothes, play with them, stay up late worrying about them, talk about them to other moms. I mean, is there really anything else to talk about? Kids are a HUGE part of our lives?! Kids are wonderful and being a mom is the single best thing I have ever done in my life and the one thing I would never change!

My two beautiful boys!

Look at these two boys of mine! Don't they look so sweet and loving?! Why would I ever want to be away from them? As I'm writing this my youngest is sitting at the dinner table with me, coloring with his dry erase marker on his little white board. Sounds cute right? He's colored on the table cloth (vinyl so no worries, plus being dry erase I hope it wipes up clean) as well as his bibs. My husband is trying to entertain our oldest by playing video games in the living room with him but by the amount of times I hear him say "no" I know that's not going well either. Now my youngest has screamed his head off, pointing to my phone because he knows I have kid games on it for him. At this point in the day, I'll allow it so I don't have to listen to him scream for the fifteenth time in the past hour!

My neighbor and best friend, May, was over earlier talking about her "Mommy Time". She said, "Mommy time is important. It sounds weird but I enjoy ironing his (cloth) diapers while my husband watches him in our room." Sounds like heaven! That got me thinking: this is a great idea! I mean, I do something similar to this when my husband is working late at night. It's the perfect time to eat those foods you hide (from EVERYONE!), watch that show you only want to watch alone (currently Younger which I love!) and crochet or fold laundry or sit on the couch doing nothing. It's my time that I look forward do every day and I'm so upset when it is interrupted. So is this my "Mommy Time"?

I always thought "Mommy Time" was when my husband took the kids to the store without me or I went out to get a pedicure with May and my other best friend Rae. But those don't happen often, I mean I don't get a new pedicure every weekend. I do enjoy my time with my girls, away from my family but is it selfish to look forward to that hour each night where I'm not needed and can do, eat and watch what I want by myself? No. It. Is. Not. 

I think we Moms need to take some time every day for just us. 😮 What did I just say?! We need to crave out time each day to take care of ourselves?!?! How are we suppose to do that? Even before we wake up our days are full of our kids, our spouses and their lives, and on top of everything - some moms work too! Not to mention the house work, the cooking, the house maintenance like grocery shopping and bill paying, actually finding time to get yourself somewhat decent looking with makeup and hair not in a ponytail, friend time, family time with both your family and family far away, AND we're suppose to eat right and exercise 3 times a week?! And now I'm saying to take an hour to relax by yourself? Half the time you can't even go to the bathroom by yourself!

Even the most together of moms get tired and stressed out and don't want to do a single thing more. We all have our snapping points, and that is okay! With our oldest starting school and my husband frequently on business trips, everything falls on me. So I need to find time, by myself, to focus on a happier me. If there is one thing I have learned from my 5 years as a mom, if I, myself, am not 100% feeling okay - the whole family suffers.

So moms, start taking the time to focus on you a little each day! It might be to fold laundry and watch a show on TV, read a chapter a night of a book, drink some tea (or wine lol) on the front porch and watch the stars come out. Whatever you decide, make sure it's just your time. No kids, and no spouses! Just you. Enjoying the peace and quiet till that baby screams at 2AM! And I promise you'll be thanking yourself later for taking that time to unwind and distress.