You Know You're a Mom When....

 

 

My husband and I just bought a brand new washer and dryer set!! The first new ones we've ever bought.

With three small kids, I spend a lot of my life doing laundry... don't we all?? You know you're a mom when... getting a new washer and dryer is the highlight of your year. Okay maybe not year, but it's probably close (wink)
It got me to thinking, what else makes you realize that you're a mom?? With Mother's Day being tomorrow, I've come up with a list that I think is fitting. Feel free to add your own.


You know you're a mom when.....


Hearing the word Mom out of your baby's mouth for the first time produces smiles/tears

Hearing the word Mom out of your child's mouth for the umpteenth time that day produces hair loss/insanity

Talking about bodily functions at the dinner table is the norm

You don't go to the bathroom while out unless accompanied with a child

 

You laugh way more than you used to

The greatest fear you will ever know is when you think you're child is in danger
Side story... When Miss Boo was born, she wasn't breathing. My labor progressed rapidly when they broke my water. I went from 7 cm to 10 cm in three contractions. I then pushed her out in half a push. (no joke just ask my doctor) Because of how fast everything went, she went into shock. I held her for a second and then they took her from me. The next thing I knew, the nurse had pushed the panic button and literally 12 nurses came rushing into our room.
Talk about fear. They wouldn't tell me what was going on, and everyone avoided eye contact with me. My husband became my rock as he told me over and over that everything was going to be okay as I tried not to hyperventilate.
In the end, everything was fine. She just needed a little help from the nurses and a little extra kangaroo time with Mommy (Oh darn... :) )

When getting out by yourself, even if you're just going to the store, feels like a mini vacation

 

The majority of the food you eat that is supposed to be hot, is cold

You don't care about making a fool of yourself to get your child to laugh

You know a ton of cartoon show's songs by heart

You have heard any song from the movie Frozen enough to make your ears bleed

 

You feel over the moon when your child accomplishes something new.. and maybe a tiny bit sad that they're growing up so fast

You realize who your true friends are
Side thought... Not to sound negative, but it's the truth. When you have a family, time is VERY precious and you have to prioritize what is most important to you. It also becomes obvious who really wants to spend time with you because they will do their best to make time for you as well.

You become a master thrift shopper

 

You become an enforcer of the 5 second rule

 

You spend a lot of weekends in, snuggling and having family time

Spending some money on yourself is a rarity

You master the "tone"/finger snap/look to get your child to behave

You become more protective and dare I say feisty towards people who oppose your children/family

You know what nights children eat free at each restaurant

You have a zoo membership or are at least considering it

You have a "stash" in your vehicle for emergencies (and if you don't you should)
Side story... Recently my husband had an appointment that we thought was going to last about 20 minutes. We we're going on a date and dropping the munchkins off at my sisters afterwards, so to save time we all went.
HA. The 20 minute appointment turned into a hour and a half due to the amount of people in front of him. My kids like TV some, but the older they get the less they like it. Which in all reality is a good thing, but not when you're stuck in the car FOREVER!! I about lost my mind. When my husband came out, he found Bear playing with his tape measurer (who would have thought something so random would entertain him), and Mommy entertaining Bunkin and Miss Boo with Mr. Pull Up (my desperate version of a puppet) I vowed to always keep a stash of books, toys, coloring books, crayons etc. in the glove department of our van from now on.

You end up with spit up/poop/food/boogers/something on your clothes every time you're out in public

Christmas morning has never been more exciting for you

You go out on a date and still end up talking about your kids

Your floors have never been dirtier, and in all reality they should be at their cleanest

You end phone conversations with "I HAVE TO GO" on numerous occasions

You forget to reply to a text message and don't realize it until days later

 

You have sympathy for that Mom in the grocery store/church/restaurant with the loud unhappy kid because you've been there.

People stare at you when you "are there"
Side thought... at first it used to mortify me when people would stare at me when my kids acted up in public. It still does a little, but now I have a hard time not leveling them with a look. It's not easy having three kids this close together and odds are, someone is not going to be happy. If they understood, they wouldn't be looking! I guess it's another part of my Mama Bear coming out in me ;)
(You can pray for that for me lol)

The kids get bathed more often than you do

When your child is born and you gain even more respect for your own Mom

You realize that even though this is literally the hardest job in the world, you wouldn't trade it for anything.

Happy Mother's Day!! Enjoy your day, you deserve it :)

Bed Bugs and a Deteriorating Spine

I haven't wrote in a while and there's a reason for that. It's been a bad week.


Let me rephrase that. It's been one of the worst weeks I've ever had. Trust me, I've had a lot of them.


If I were to tell you everything that has happened in my life in the past two years, you would probably try to check me into a mental hospital. On really bad occasions, the thought has even crossed my mind.


But I'm not going to emotionally vomit on you  bore you with the story of my life (that sounds like a good name for a song... yes it's late. Hello my name is Lindsey and I'm corny)


I will however tell you about my week. It started off with me hurting my back. Bear was at a sleepover at Nana and Papa's house and when it came time for Bunkin to go to sleep in their room, he was terrified. He did not want to be by himself. So I layed/sat beside his bed until he fell asleep.


BIG MISTAKE
I could barely walk the next day.


That night we figured out why I had been getting bit ever since we moved into our town house clear back in October.
I thought I was crazy. I kept on waking up with bug bites on me. My husband and I share a bed (I know.. shocker right??) and he wasn't ever getting bitten. If you ask one of my brother-in-laws, he would tell you that I just have bugs. For some horribly odd reason, bugs love my blood. I am AWLAYS the one getting numerous bug bites whenever outside with a group of people. I must have the same blood type as my mom because she has the same problem.


Anyways, we had searched and searched and couldn't find any culprits for all of my annoying bites, until earlier this week when we found bed bugs. We didn't have them before we moved, so I'm assuming the tenant before us left us a lovely present....
So I started sleeping on the couch because I just couldn't fathom sleeping in the bed until the problem got taken care of. Which in turn made my back feel worse.


I finally went to the chiropractor on Thursday. By that point I was in excruciating pain and my entire left leg and foot was numb and tingling constantly. I was told that it was probably a slipped disc and to ice it and keep coming back for treatments.


When I went in Friday, the doctor sat me down to look over my X-Rays. It showed that the disc between my 3rd and 4th lumbar was in fact herniated and it was causing sciatica. The disc space between the two lumbars was only half the space it should be. He said that they would do their best to get it better.
I didn't think the news could get worse. It did. The disc between my 4th and 5th lumbar had completely deteriorated and my lumber's were actually touching. I was told that there was nothing that they could do for me, that the damage was already done.


I am 24 years old. They normally only see this in 50 to 60 year olds. To put it lightly, I was feeling rather devastated. Being healthy is important to me and to have someone say that part of your spine has already deteriorated is just mind blowing.


Why am I telling you all of this??
Two reasons really.

1. I can't just write fluff. I have a desire to write about REAL life. My life. I would be doing you and myself a great disservice if I decided to only write funny, frilly things.
2. I want to tell you what's going on in my life for prayer and to share what I'm clinging to. If there's one thing I've learned in my 24 years, it's that hardships develop character. What kind of character? That all depends on you.

I'm clinging to the fact that God is good and that he loves me. I don't always feel those things, but that's when I have to dig in even deeper and say


I know that God is good.
I know that God loves me.


Some days are hard. I've had days where I don't want to get out of bed. Days where I wonder what in the world God is doing. Days where I feel hopeless and alone. Days where I don't believe that things will ever get better. I've cried until my eyes were swollen shut. I've screamed at the top of my lungs at God. I've had to take antidepressants. I've had to get counseling.


And you know what?? It's okay. If you have ever done/needed those things, it's okay too.


Job went through way more than any of us, and God still found him blameless even though he questioned God and wanted to die. Why?? Because Job loved God and he knew that he knew that he knew that he knew that God loved him too. And he trusted God, no matter what.


So I don't know where you're at in life. Maybe everything is picnics and roses. But someday it may not be. I encourage you to dig deep into God. He is the only one who will never let you down. He never changes. You can trust in him.


Even though always trusting him can be hard, I know that's what I strive to do, and I pray that you will too.

Children Live Here

It's been a while. We've all had some bad colds around here so I've been busy concentrating on breathing, sleeping and surviving. Unfortunately writing has been low on the priority list.

Monday was the day before all of the colds hit full force. I felt like God showed me something that was beautiful.
I had just finished rocking Miss Boo to sleep and laying her in her crib, when I noticed the boys' room on the way out of my room. No other way to put it, it was a mess. We/they had spent a lot of the morning playing in their room and I hadn't enforced the clean up rule when they were done.

The clean up rule is something that I always strive to do, but to be honest, life happens. Someone starts crying, someone needs changed, the phone rings, I realize it's 12:30 and we haven't eaten lunch yet... something along those lines. Sound familiar at all??
I can't neglect the needs of my small children to clean up a room first, and I don't think I should lol.

Anyways, it was a mess. I sighed. I always try to get Bear and Bunkin down for quiet time right after Miss Boo falls asleep, and a room full of toys everywhere is not the best way to get them to stay in their beds. :)

And that's when I heard a whisper. It was one word.

Beautiful

God caught me right in the middle of my complaining spirit and gave me a reality check.
What I saw was yet another mess to clean up.
What he saw was a beautiful reminder of three little children that he loves even more than I can understand. For a moment I felt his love for them, and for me, and it was indescribable.

It was like he was saying, "Quit freaking out over the constant messes. They're kids!! I created them that way!! Enjoy them!! Your kids and their messes will soon be gone and I just want you to embrace it!"

So I took them upstairs to their room and let them play for a few minutes before we cleaned up a little. I wanted to capture the moment. And looking at it, it is quiet beautiful.

After that, I decided to look around my home to see other indications that children live here. I wanted to test myself with what my normal response might be, and what I felt God's response would be. Here are the pictures I took.

                                            Finger prints all over the front door

What I saw: Awe man!! I hate cleaning windows. I think it is literally impossible to keep windows clean while having little kids. Why should I even clean them? They'll be dirty by the end of the day anyways (wink)

What God saw: The reminder that two little boys were standing on a stool waiting for their Daddy to come home. :)

 

Crayola Crayon on the back door

 

 

What I saw: Another window to clean!!! Ahhhh!!! Why did I buy them these for Easter???

 

What God saw: Two little boys who had a blast (their Mommy had fun too)



 

 

 

 

The shelf by the front door

 

 

What I saw: The self is over taken by my kids. An overflowing crate of children's library books and an overstuffed diaper bag.

What God saw: The shelf is over taken by her kids!! (wink) Keep on reading to them, it is SOO important.

 

 

 

Miss Boo asleep in my room

 

 

What I saw: No privacy!!! 9 months of stubbing toes, whispering prayers goodnight, and having to be quiet in general ;)

 

What God saw: Look at that precious baby sleeping. I created her in your womb, and I know every hair (or lack their of) on her head. 



 

 

What I found in my bed

 

 

What I saw: Ok, I honestly laughed at this one. You never know what you'll find.

 

What God saw: Hey, she's laughing. I got her on one!!!

 

 

 

What I found on my bathroom counter

 

 

What I saw: This stuff is amazing!! It actually works and helps me to relax .

 

What God saw: She deserves this. Being a Mommy is one of the toughest jobs I created.

 

 

 

What evidence of children do you see when you look around your home?? What does God see??





How To Get Multiple Kids Down For A Nap :)

Ahhh nap time... so coveted by mothers, and yet so hated by children.

I'm not going to lie, some days I wouldn't survive without it. I love my children dearly, but more than once a week I am counting down the hours until naptime. Ok... some weeks it's everyday ;)

One thing I have learned is that if you try hard enough, the stars may align and you can get multiple children of different ages asleep at the same time.
Is it an easy feat?? Definitely not.
If you're lucky and it happens will you be dancing to "Celebrate" by Pitbull in your head?? Yes, yes you will ;) ( Surprised I know that song?... I Zumba and I love it )

So here are my tried and tested tips and advice on how I do it. Every mother every where deserves a nap time!!

NEVER Call It Nap Time
By the time your child reaches age three, the word nap becomes utterly offensive to them. This is when the term quiet time will be your best friend. Reassuring your child that it is in fact quiet time and they only have to lay there and be quiet gives them a feeling of control. By age three, kids don't always need to nap, but they still need some down time. I've found that at least half of the time, Bear will fall asleep. If he doesn't, he's at least quiet for a while.

Let Your Youngest Determine When Nap Time Is
It's good to try to get your kids asleep around the same time every day, but if you have a baby, they are somewhat running the show :) If your baby is very young and sleeping all the time, get your older ones in quiet time first. Then nurse/give the baby a bottle till they fall asleep. Hopefully by that time your older ones will be asleep and you have your baby's whole next small nap to sleep.
If your baby is older and takes one to two longer naps a day, put him/her to sleep first. I rock Miss Boo while Bear and Bunkin are watching a show. Then after she's fast asleep in her crib I put the boys down. You won't have to worry about the baby taking a quick nap and you missing it like when they're little.

Where To Brush Their Teeth
If you brush your kid's teeth before naptime, make sure you brush them no where near the babies room. You're one melt down away from waking the baby up and having to start all over again. We have tooth brushes in both bathrooms just for this. If you have to, brush their teeth in the kitchen sink. Lol

Know Where All Lovies Are
DO NOT start the process of nap time without knowing where all of your kid's beloved sleeping items are. Bunkin is extremely attached to his monkey stuffed animal, Mr. Grouper (from Bubble Guppies) stuffed animal, and a taggie blanket. He will not go to sleep with out them. Bear likes to have his puppy dog stuffed animal, but it isn't as mandatory as Bunkin's. You don't want to get them all settled and realize that one of them is missing, sparking tears and possible waking up someone. Trust me, it's not fun.

Let Your Older Ones Look At Books
I used to let Bear play quietly in his room for quiet time when Bunkin was a baby. Now, Bear and Bunkin share a room and there is NO WAY that letting them play "quietly" ever works out. It always starts a fight. I make it mandatory that they have to stay in their beds.
Depending on how tired they are, I will let them look at books as long as they are laying down. This gets them laying still and concentrating on books which speeds up making them realize how sleepy they are. I give them the warning that if I hear them, the books will be taken away and they have to lay there or go to sleep. I feel it also promotes a love of reading, which I am very passionate about.
Here are some of their favorites right now.

 

 

 

Make Triple Sure Your Kids Are Asleep

While Bear and Bunkin are quieting down and hopefully falling asleep, I sneak into the room that Miss Boo shares with my husband and I, and read my Bible. I find it's a good time to read, pray and regroup after a busy morning. I never fall asleep until I'm sure that all three kids are asleep... but sometimes they are tricky. There have been a few times where I thought that the boys were asleep.... and they weren't.
One time I fell asleep and woke up sometime later to find the boys downstairs in our kitchen with a bag of grapes, a pan of rice crispy treats, a block of cheese and a bowl of boiled eggs. Let me tell ya, they were feasting!!! There was nothing left in the bag of grapes except a few twigs. Luckily they survived because I always cut the grapes in half for them, and those ones were whole. Thank you Jesus!! So next time you're feeling bad about yourself remember, Lindsey was asleep while her kids were eating everything but the kitchen sink... including whole grapes.... a HUGE choking hazard. lol

Enjoy Yourself
Last but most certainly not least, if you happen to get all of your children to sleep.... enjoy it!!! Do whatever makes you a better mom. For me it depends on the day. Some of my favorites include

• Sleeping!!!! Yay Mommy gets a much needed nap!!!
• Writing. I can't help myself. I love to write whether it be this blog or the next book I'm working on. (The kids are actually asleep for nap right now :) )
• Reading. Right now I've been hoarding most of my library's homeschooling books. They have been both teaching and inspiring me.
• Getting ideas for what I want Bear to learn next in our homeschool preschool.
• Catching up on my shows.... Dancing With the Stars, 19 Kids and Counting, Instant Mom, House Hunters International, Bride by Design... whatever suits my fancy that day.

I hope that this could be helpful for some of you. Being a Mom is TOUGH and time for yourself is a must. I'll leave you with a few funny quotes.

Our Journey Toward Minimalism

 

Something I have recently become passionate about is pursuing a minimalistic lifestyle. Some of you may be thinking.... "What in the world is she taking about?"
Minimalism is the fashion forward way to say living simply.

Some of the parts of living simply has always come naturally to me.
I have never been one to want the new "thing". Whether it be the newest phone, TV, clothing item, or fad.
I also have never been one to enjoy spending my money.
When I got my first job, I started saving and saving for a senior trip that me and some of my friends at the time were going to go on together. After some time, my mom had to literally tell me that I should go and spend some of my money on some nice clothes or something.

So as you can see, living simply with my money is not something that I have a hard time doing. ;)

For some time, my husband and I practiced minimalism without even realizing it. We were living in our own 3 bedroom two bath house on just his income alone. Things were tight, but we went without most of the time, and we were okay with that.

But then something happened that challenged the way I viewed life in general. We ended up loosing our home.

Loosing your home is something that you never plan to do, and you always think that it could happen to someone else, and not to you. But I'm here to tell you, no one's immune to anything. My husband had to step down from one of his working positions causing us a loss of income, and even though we prayed and did everything in our power to stay on top of our mortgage, we ended up falling behind and inevitably losing our home.


We are currently living in a two bedroom two bath town house in a quiet town.

At this point you may be feeling sorry for me.

Don't.

For a while I felt sorry for myself. I felt as though we were failing our three children because we were no longer living the “American Dream.” They no longer had their own yard to play in, their own rooms, and Mommy and Daddy couldn't tell them that yes, this is our forever home.

In our society, the pressure to provide your children that type of lifestlye is HUGE!!

But God is good, and God is ALWAYS teaching me things.

What makes a house a home??
I can tell you first hand that it is not the square footage.
It is not big organized playrooms.
It is not a huge yard.

You can honestly make a home anywhere because what makes a house a home is the people in it. The love, laugher, cuddles, growing, learning, playing, tickle fights, sharing meals, and talking about God that you do and share with those people.

The Bible is very specific about material things. Nothing on this earth lasts forever, including what house we live in. But the memories that you make with your family will. The goldy impact that you have on your children wherever you "set up camp" lasts forever too.

I personally grew up in a church parsonage. Because of that, I probably won't be able to easily go and revisit it anytime that I want to.
But you know what I do have? All of the memories of the good times with my family and friends there. Watching old movies with my parents, playing euchre, sledding down the hill, My dad giving us Bible trivia during dinner, slumber parties with childhood friends, smelling my Mom cooking something AMAMZING in the kitchen... the list goes on and on.

Looking back, I feel incredibly blessed with my childhood, and it happened in a home that my parents didn't technically own either.
One of my favorite memories of me and my Dad happened sitting outside on our porch. I asked him if the fact that he didn't own his own home bothered him. He said, "Sometimes it does. But then I remember that nothing really "belongs" to us. Everything belongs to God anyways."

So as far as I'm concerned, the "American Dream" can take a hike!! While it does, I'll be making memories to cherish with my family in our home.
 

               Stay tuned for upcoming posts about minimalism

You Don't Have To Be A Pinterest Mom

 

It's been a while. Life has gotten away from me these last couple of weeks.
I've been busy weaning my nine month old daughter the last several days. There has been crankiness and tears.... from both of us. (wink)
I praise God for the nine months that I got to nourish my daughter and the special bond it created between us.

Something that has become a mild obsession of mine is Pinterest. I LOVE the information that I can find so easily with just typing in a few words. As a mom, that is key. Time is money (as the saying goes) but for me, time is sanity. The less amount of time that something takes me to do, the better.

With having three kids ages 3 and under, I am ALWAYS on the lookout for something fun to do with them. Something that will keep their attention span for more than 5 minutes and maybe even keep them busy on their own for a while. Those dirty dishes, clothes, toilets etc won't clean themselves!!

I was 8 months pregnant with Miss Boo and desperate for a new activity when I stumbled upon cloud dough.

It seemed like a God send at the time. It only took 2 ingredients, and I was thrilled to see that I had them on hand. I mixed it up with Bear and Bunkin at my heals, excited to see Mommy stirring a concoction of messiness in our laundry basket.

I put everything in our bathtub and watched as they had a BLAST!! I was feeling very pleased with myself. I was this laid back, relaxed mom who cared more about her boys having fun then the HUGE mess it was creating.

By the time I convinced them that they were done, I was totally exhausted. I gave them baths in our other bathtub and left the "little" mess for Daddy to clean up when he came home. I figured what more could he expect from his 8 months pregnant wife who also had a prolapsed uterus??? To be honest, the boys were lucky that they even got baths at all. :)

When Daddy did come home, he was a little surprised by the mess, but fully understanding why I didn't feel up to cleaning it myself. Well, he was until he tried to tackle it.
Since it had set for a while, the cloud dough had hardened into this horribly ridiculous goop that was all over our bathtub, laundry basket, toilet, bath toys, and floor. It took way more than a little elbow grease to clean it all up.

My husband is no dummy. You don't mess with an extremely miserable pregnant woman. This was his third baby after all. He kindly but firmly got his point across to me that in the future cloud dough would be an outside activity only. I agreed, although I haven't made it since.

In a way, this was my first Pinterest Fail. Yes my kids loved it, but I still haven't lived it down with the hubby ;)


My next Pinterest Fail happened more recently. I came across this wonderful crafty woman's blog and immediately saw something that I HAD to make for my boys.

A DIY Toy Car Wash made out of a diaper box. I definitely had plenty of those on hand and I just new how much fun they would have with it.
I stayed up til well past midnight the night before making this thing. It looked NOTHING like the one on the blog looked, but I figured, they're kids, they'll like it no matter what.

And they did like it.... for a half an hour. The flimsy thing broke on me. The thing I slaved over for an hour an a half had the gull to fall apart on me.

I'm really not a terrible mom who just takes pictures of her children crying. I was taking it in disbelief to send to my husband and poor Bunkin started crying. :( 

I came to a conclusion.
I am not a crafty mom. Oh I'd love to be, but I'm not.
I'd also love to have a perfectly clean house all the time.
I'd love to have little birdies and woodland creatures come and help me clean it.
I'd love to be upbeat and put together all the time.
I'd love to NEVER raise my voice to my kids.
I'd love to have a perfect marriage.
I'd love to take a shower every day (wink)
I'd love a lot of things.

But the truth of the matter is, I'm me. And that's all I can be.

I love simple, silly, imaginative play. It comes natural to me.
Here are some things that we have been up to lately in that category.

Fishing with tent poles for their toys. Bear had watched a Curious George where they had went fishing and he had become very interested in fishing. I was able to talk to him about the logistics and came up with this silly game for them to play.

Three little pigs role play. The story that was read when we went to the library (you can read more about that in "Library Story Time = Death") was "The Three Little Pigs". I found a box and had Bear and Bunkin use their tools to pretend build their houses. I was the big bad wolf and would knock their houses down, obviously until the very end. When Daddy came home, he wanted in on the fun. :)

Using a box as our TV.  I My kids watch Rugrats. It was one of my favorites growing up, and they really like it too! Do you remember the episode where they make a box into their pretend TV? Well we've seen it, and so out same a box again. Bear and Bunkin enjoyed hours or pretending to put on their own shows for everyone.

Using boxes as pretend towns. If you haven't noticed, I have a thing for boxes. You can dream up for it to be literally anything and everything. My sons love to dress up and one of their favorites is the Melissa and Doug cowboy costume. I can't say enough about how much I love their dress up products. They are VERY durable which is a must in this household. You can find this particular outfit here ----> http://www.melissaanddoug.com/cowboy-role-play-costume-set
Bear loves to dress up in this and catch Mommy and Bunkin. the "bad guys", by chasing us around and around the town.
By the way, if your in need of a box for play, I'll gladly sell you one ;)

A beans sensory tub. This is a hit for all three of my kids (I watch Miss Boo with hawk eyes) It's amazing how long this will keep them occupied. Just give them some dump trucks, bowls and measuring cups and they will stay busy with this for a good hour.


I think us as Mom's can start to feel very pressured by Pinterest. Yes there are millions of great ideas on there, but you have to remember to be yourself.
Figure out what comes naturally to you, and use that to your advantage when it comes to things you do with your kids. Trust me, your kids won't be disappointed if you play with them with a box or a tub of beans for an hour. They'll just be thrilled that their Mamma, the most amazing woman in the world to them, is playing with THEM!!!



What do you enjoy doing with your kids??