The REAL me!

Is life always perfect for people the way that their blogs show? Do we have a "fairy tale" idea about what all these people's lives are that make us feel inferior or inadequate? Sometimes, I do!
Many times after I read a blog, I walk away from my computer with one of two thoughts. "I am glad I am not alone," or "Wow, I wish I had or could do what they..."

The ones that I enjoy the most are the ones that show me their realness! (Is that a word?) The ones that I read over and over are the ones that tell me their kids are wild, messy, and at times unruly and their house is not always clean, and laundry is piled to the ceiling! Not because I take joy in others struggles but because I struggle with daily life at times too and it is helpful knowing I am well, okay!

So to enlighten you, my blog readers I thought I might help you feel YOU are not alone!

Things I struggle with or have struggled with!:

-potty on the bathroom floor (lucky if it is confined to the toilet area!)
-piles of clean laundry, sometimes folded, sometimes not!
-piles of dirty laundry, ALL over the house not just in the laundry area!
-fingerprints on every window lower that 3 feet! And the tall ones, well not really sure what the gooey stuff is on those!
-old furniture
-stained carpet, although my kids are NEVER allowed to eat anywhere except the dining room! (Yeah, sometimes that does not work either!)
-toothpaste stuck to bathroom counters and walls! (still not sure how that happens!)
-unmade beds
-messy rooms
-school books not in their places
-incomplete school work
-unswept floors (they ARE assigned to a specific person, however!)

-mouthy teenagers and younger ones too!
-sticky fingers and faces
-hidden cups with rotted milk in them!
-the feeling of frustration
-guilt
-wanting to be lazy! (luckily that is not an option for me!)
-the desire to eat out instead of MAKING a healthy meal ( I think that may refer back to the lazyiness issue!)
-tired of budgets or not having enough money to even stay on a budget ( that creates the problem of the ability to being ABLE to eat out thus solving my laziness issue!)
-the desire to have a brand new car or at least one made after the turn of the century!
-wanting a bigger house
-wanting a bigger yard
-I wonder what I am doing that will damage my kids forever or if ANYTHING I am doing will NOT damage my kids forever!
-the struggle to spend time alone with God
-wanting a vacation with ONLY my husband and no kids! (brings back the guilt thing!)
-wonder how everyone else has it all together and how I am the only one that seems to ever feel this way!

Okay, believe it or not, this is not a post of complaining!

I really am content more than not!

I would NEVER change my job or life for ANYTHING!

I love what God has given me and I know that I am truly blessed!

But...

I am just the kind of person that likes and needs to know it is okay to not be perfect and that every one's life is not as uncomplicated as it appears to be.

I need to be reminded that blogs are only a minuscule of one's life!

Bits and pieces!

The truth is, that if we could follow these bloggers day in and day out, myself included, we would realize that we are all people who have struggles and we ALL live a real life!

The pictures, you know the ones, ironed clothes, combed hair, beautiful backgrounds, are great! They usually show our children in their best moments, I have blogged them myself many times!

But the ones I really like are the ones I see with children having temper tantrums, bed heads, messy faces and tornado hit looking living rooms for the back drop.

They make me smile and somehow bring comfort to a sometimes weary body and soul!!

Yes, my house is usually sometimes a mess and it never fails, it is always at its worst when somebody decides to "drop in". (Which I still say is God's way of keeping me humble! )

Yes, my kids stink sometimes and they HAVE woke up to me noticing their toenails looking like they have been drug through a tar pit after I decided to NOT give them a bath the night before because I was, well... lazy!

Sometimes their attitudes just plain stink and sometimes mine does too!

They have seen me at my best and at my worst! (And my worst isn't pretty!)

My husband and I rarely ever argue or fight now, BUT we do disagree and we have had to LEARN how to deal with that! (that wasn't always pretty either!)

I don't always get up at the crack of dawn to be with my Jesus and I DO feel guilty when I don't! I hope the times I yell and over discipline my kids do not scar them for life!

I sometimes wonder how these gifts from God could ever "Rise up and call ME blessed!".

I wonder if I spend enough time with THEM and not too much time thinking about ME.

I wonder if I am kind enough, gentle enough, faithful enough, and walking with God enough for them to genuinely see Him in me.

One thing I do know, it is hard being a Godly wife and mom!

I can't do it alone!

When I try, that is where my troubles begin!

So although I am a real person and have just openly admitted many of my faults and failures, I have a God who is bigger than me and who promises to help me when I fail and when my humaness is more than obvious!

He has given me these treasures and they truly are treasures!

I will not always be this "in their faces".

Someday, they will have their own families and my face will be wrinkled and maybe not even thought of much anymore and or least in the back of their minds!

And hopefully they will think of calling ME for wisdom and they WILL hopefully rise up and call me blessed!

But for now, I will lean on what I know to be true, I cannot do it alone and God never intends for me too!

You either!

"Trust and obey for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey!"

PS Some comments of your "realness" right about now would really help! Come on bloggers! Help me feel less exposed! :) Struggling with some guilt guys! Let us share in our faults!:) Remember I LOVE comments!

Have a REAL day!

An Annnouncement...

Okay, I have some work to do! The Duggers, you know the family on TLC that has 18 kids, just announced they are having their 19th child! My son informed me we only needed 8 more to tie them! The difference is they have at least 2 sets of twins. Me, not any, YET! They do say the more children you have, the greater the chance for multiples! I was a nanny for twins 17 years ago and always said it was prepartaion for my future! So if this were a contest, I got some work to do! But since it is not a contest, just people surrendering their lives to God and wanting to be obedient, I will enjoy my 11 beautiful babies and anticipate an announcement of my own in the next 12 months I would guess! We will see!

Congratulations Dugger family!

Foto Friday- our newest fur ball

My kids bought a little albino fur ball bunny with their money this week and I just had to make you smile! She is the cutest little thing! Have a great weekend!

While I was away...

I decided to make a quick kitchen run while my boys were playing quietly in the living room. Everything seemed to be going fine while I was away.

Then I entered the living room and saw this...

















...and then this!












Wonder what happened? :)

Priceless!

What is it like being in a large family?

-sleeping past dawn? NO WAY! You're lucky if you make it UNTIL dawn!
-getting as much breakfast as you can possibly eat? No, not unless some of the others don't eat all of theirs!
-getting anything short of a homemade meal? Not often!
-get away without taking an afternoon nap or quiet time, nope!
-having juice, pop, kool-aide, or anything else but water or occasionally milk to drink? Don't think so! -sitting down to a quiet table for meal time? Are you kidding?! Way to much to talk about!
-brand new clothes? Yes, if a tag from Goodwill or a pulling them out of a grocery bag because somebody set it on your porch means they are new. Does the phrase, "New to you," come to mind?
-own room? Not! And if you did have your own, who would pray those scary dreams away or hide under the covers during storms with you?!
- own bed? Yes, IF you decide you want to be that lonely and not WANT to have a little sibling crawl into bed with you!
-playing by yourself? Who would want to do that anyway?:)
-looking for help with your school work? Take your pick! Lots of people have been there, done that!
-watch TV? IF you can find something on the 3 channels we get and who has time anyway?
-feeling left out and alone? NO POSSIBLE way!
-bored? Better not say you are, mom WILL find something for you to do!
-have to answer dumb questions from other people about how your life is because you are from such a large family? Constantly!
-good at communicating with ALL ages? Of course! You HAVE to learn how otherwise you will get ate alive!

-life is always perfect? Hardly, but the joy of sharing your life with many others day in and day out is simply put...PRICELESS!

Army bound?

Every once in awhile, I feel like there is a chance MAYBE the little things I am trying to teach my children is getting through. Responsibility, independence, and some evidence of order. Well, yesterday I was yelling, I mean gently calling to my child, to get downstairs. He had been up there quite awhile and to my experience, a four year old that is out of view and quiet is usually NEVER a good thing! No answer. So I decided to get my energetic, okay, lazy self up and check on him. And there right before my eyes, my angelic, never in trouble, adorable little boy was...are you ready for this, sitting on his floor with his clothes all in a row, FOLDING them and putting them in his drawer. Now don't get me wrong, this is something I have been teaching him to do for at least 2 years now, but usually with my direction. Nope, not this time! He looked at me with those big electric blues and said to me as I stepped into the doorway, "Mommy, I dust could not ake it aaannnyyymore! My cothes ere evywhere!!" AAAHHHH music to my ears! I will admit, I'm not sure what he meant because a couple hours ago I had just helped him put them away in his drawer but who am I to stop a neatness gene in him! It may be the only child I have that has it! I better enhance it and appreciate it while I can! (This is also the child who makes his bed every morning AND must get dressed the minute he wakes up!) Either he's going to be in the army someday, or he is just getting in practice to be a really good husband! This is what I call a "camel moment". Those days when you wonder if anything is getting through and then one moment something happens, such as my 4 year olds desire to be organized for a minute. I use these times to get me through the times when I want to throw my hands in the air and scream, (I mean quietly whisper), "who are these children and why are they calling me MOM!"

Today, I will gladly acknowledge he is mine! Tomorrow, we will wait and see!:)

 

 

 

Not "my child" Monday

These are some things that I have endured that teach me humbleness and to laugh. Although sometimes not right away!:) Clink on the box above to see more "Not Me's"!

It was not my children who ALL got the stomach flu this past week! No, not all 10 kids were regurgitating everywhere! My oldest daughter DID NOT sit on the couch moaning that she did not feel good and I did not tell her she better go up to the porcelain throne in case she "might" throw up! It was not her that decided she would be okay and she WAS NOT sitting 12 inches away from me and NOT the porcelain throne when she decided to lose her dinner not all over her lap and not all over the couch and no way was the entire family in the same room and they would have never had to witness the whole thing! They did not immediately cover their noses and did not all gasp at the same time yelling ewwwwww it stinks! I did not have to clean it all up! That would have been way to gross and I would not have been gagging myself when I was not scrubbing and scrubbing the upholstery! Febreeze surely WOULD have worked! No, not with the stomach flu, I guess! Surely I cleaned it up while happily singing, "This is The Day The Lord Has Made." I was not angry while I was doing it, that would be a BAD mother!

It was not my 18 month old child who came to me with slobber running down his chin while he was chewing on something. I did not pull that something out of his mouth only to find a piece of old, been chewed many times, and with dog hair alllll over it, piece of gum! And he did not cry because he wanted it back in his mouth! My kids would know their chewed gum goes in the garbage, right?! Or DID they put it in the garbage and my 18 month old get it out of there! Things that make ya go HMMMM! I would certainly have my eye on that little guy and know every move he makes!

My 6 year old did not pull the fire alarm while we were eating at a restaurant! I did not pick a quiet place in the corner to escape the stares so I could nurse the baby in a half private area. The ENTIRE restaurant did not totally turn their heads in synchronized rhythm to the shrieking sound over in the "private" corner while I had JUST started to lift my shirt up to nurse. It was not one of those alarms that you have to turn off with a key and we did not have to wait for the manager to walk ALLLL the way from the front to the secluded corner in the back to turn it off! My brother did not stand up and yell across the restaurant, "Shows over, false alarm! Everyone is okay!" We did not leave a half hour later and the whole restaurant did not turn their heads to watch us leave!

Can you come up with anything your kids did that maybe embarrassed you? You are not alone!

Foto Friday

Glad my week ended up better than it began! Have a great weekend!