Things I Don't Do and Won't Feel Guilty About It!

Have you ever looked at another mother and thought to yourself "WOW! She can do it all! I wish my house was as clean as her's. I wish my garden was as pretty as her's. I wish we could afford to shop at the mall or I wish I was clever enough to shop at Goodwill and find all the great bargains. I wish I had patience to do crafts or cook with my kids. I wish I got up before the butt crack of dawn and exercised, had my quiet time, and now am on my 3rd pot of coffee."?

Well, STOP! Not every mother is the same! God created us to be different. I mean, really, how boring would it be to be the same and do the same and look the same. Oh man, that would get old real fast!

So, I stumbled upon a great blog that if you don't already follow her, you should. The blog is called The Diaper Diaries. Check it out. But there was a specific blog post that I stumbled upon that got me all excited. That post is called Top Ten Tuesdays-Top Ten Things I Don't Do. After reading this post I was ready to relief myself of any guilt I had of the things that I don't do.

So, below is my list of things I don't do. I only have 8, I haven't come up with 2 more, but maybe I will soon. Anyway, I encourage you to read the blog post mentioned above and make your own list of things you don't do. It's okay to not be the mom that seems to do it all. My mom was the mom that had it all together, so I thought, but I learned as I became a woman that even my mom had some things that just weren't all together. So, be encouraged that you are not the only mother that has those crazy days and tough spots to go through. We all have that in our life!

So, here is my list:

1. Garden: My mom is a gardener. I remember helping her when I was a little girl and most of the time I loved it. Now as an adult, I would love to have beautiful flowers for all who drive by to say “oooh and aaaah” over but really, I have three small children and if I can’t hardly get the dishes done then there is no way that flowers are going to be at the top of my list. 

2. Shopping at the mall:  I used to hate this when I was a child/teenager because my mom would drag me to goodwill all the time and I almost despised her because of it, not quite though. Nowadays, I don’t shop at goodwill on a regular basis, I generally go to Walmart and garage sales, but I do go to goodwill and find some great deals!

3. Dust: My mom was a stickler for dusting when I was growing up and I hated that! But her house was always amazingly looking great! After you have picked up the same room and the same toys hundreds of times, the dusting is not that big of an importance!

4. Anything before 8 am: I love my sleep! I only get up because I have kids. If I didn’t have children I would sleep and sleep and sleep and stuff my face in between! lol I would love to get up before the crack of dawn and exercise, have a quiet time, and get half the house chores done but again, I LOVE to sleep! My mother was great for this one, she was always up at like 5 am and by the time I rolled out of bed she was on her 3rd pot of coffee (okay not sure it was her 3rd pot of coffee but whatever!)

5. Exercise on a regular basis:  I would love to have a regular routine of exercising, my mother again was great with this one, but wow! My life changes so much from one minute to the next. Well, maybe having a schedule would help with that, but yeah know, I am just not there yet!

6. Cooking/Baking with my kids: That is a great Grandma activity! I do not have the patience to have my babies in my small kitchen with me always under my feet. I do my best to let them help with mac n cheese but I usually have the mentality that “I can do this quicker without you under my feet, so please stay out of my way”.

7. Crafts with my kids: Again another great Grandma activity. I love crafts! I love to scrapbook, umm, when I find time! But I hate cleaning up my own mess from the crafts, why do I want to clean up 10 times more of a mess. Now, don’t get me wrong, we color and draw and stuff like that. I am talking about crafts that have glitter and glue and messy things like that! However we are going to make cute little Gobble Gobble Plate Cards for Thanksgiving dinner and there are 7 materials on this list. Check it out here http://www.scholastic.com/parents and in the search bar put Gobble Gobble Place Card.

8. Make a monthly menu: My husband wants to do this and really so do I but it takes so much brain power to do it. I am sure that it would help us out tremendously but I just haven’t found a good system that works.

Now, I know it sounds like I don't want to be my mother, but that isn't true. When I grow up I wanna be just like my mom! I admire her so much! 

So, now, go make your list and feel liberated! 

As always, I pray this post finds you happy and healthy. God bless you and your family!

~Lil*Mama~

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Karate Kid

I remember when I was a little kid watching the Karate Kid movies. Now my children get the privileged to watch the newest addition to the Karate Kid movies.

The newest Karate Kid is staring none other than Will Smith's cute and adorable son, Jaden Smith. And none other than the world renown Jackie Chan. Watch the trailer here.

I wanted so badly to take my 6 year old son to see this movie in theater but we didn't have the money at the time. So as soon as I could I put it on my list at Netflix and then I waited patiently for it to arrive. When it finally did arrive I was so stoked! I knew my son would love this movie. I just had a feeling that it would be loved by all of us.

Every week we have at least one night as "Family Night" (sometimes 2 nights or as many as we can!). We set up a kids table in the living room and we (yes I know what you are going to think here) eat in front of the TV while we watch our family friendly movie.

This movie effected each and every family member. We kept it for 3 days and watched it 3 times and then sent it back to Netflix. I told my husband, "We need to buy that movie for Christmas" and he gladly agreed.

There are a few swear words in this movie but other then that, I think its great and I recommend it. If you have young children you may want to watch it first just to make sure that you are okay with some of the content, but really, its a great movie.

As always, I hope that this post finds you happy and healthy. May God bless you in a very special way today!

~Lil*Mama~

Does your past determine your credibility as a mother?

Recently I got into a discussion via facebook that landed me being judged by my past. Here is my past: I dropped out of high school when I was 16 or 17, can't remember exactly. I moved out when I was 17, moved back in when I was 18, moved back out before I was 18 1/2 and had a baby when I was 19. I was not married and I was into smoking pot. I was also an exotic dancer, before I was pregnant and afterwards. When my baby was 7 months old my boyfriend and I started using Meth. When my baby was 9 months old, CPS got involved, removed my son and gave temporary custody to my parents. I immediately started doing what I needed to do but I was still trying to hold on to the man that was my baby's father, all the mean while he was cheating on me. After I got pregnant again, only 6 months after my son was taken by CPS, I said "forget this! I don't want to lose another baby because I am trying to hold on to this jerk who is doing nothing but holding me back". So I left and went to my dad's house. he took me to a shelter and said "get your act together then you can come home". I had a choice. I could have went back to my old ways or I could turn and knock on the door that would save my life. I knocked on that door and sure enough, with a little hard work I got out of my crappy hole that I dug. Now 5 1/2 almost 6 years later, I have my son back, I have my daughter, I have another daughter, and I am married to the most amazing man in the whole entire world. I am clean, I have given my life to God, I work with the youth group, and I work with Teen MOPS.

Now, because of my past in an email I was told this: "If you had your child/children taken away by cps (it takes alot to have a child removed from the home and more than one istance) then you are no model mother (no offence just sayin) and should NOT be posting stuff like that. I don't care how long cps has not been involved because by far that is a horrible thing," 


Okay, so I am sure you are wondering what the "should not be posting stuff like that" is. I posted some links on facebook about a couple of mothers who allow their sons to dress in girl clothing. One mother wrote the blog My Son is Gay and the other mother wrote the book My Princess Boy. And you can probably guess the discussion that came from that! PHEW!

But I guess my question is.... Does my past really determine my credibility as a mother? I mean really, if I was still doing drugs and all my children were being taken care of by someone else because I was selfish like that, then yes, i can see where I would not be a model mother. But, because I have learned from my mistakes, doesn't that give me some credibility? I mean, am I completely exempt from having an opinion on mothering because of my past? My past is my past.

What are your thoughts?

~Lil*Mama~