Sometimes My Mom Hat is Too Tight for My Awesomeness

Sometimes it’s hard to be a mom. I don’t mean the day-to-day ‘mom-ing’ like changing diapers, wiping bottoms, fixing meals, kissing boo-boos, and ignoring calming whiny kiddos. Although that stuff is definitely challenging.

What I’m talking about is how sometimes it’s really hard to take off the ‘me’ hat and put on the ‘mom’ hat. Like allowing Eden to wear brown socks with an outfit that should not be worn with brown socks. Like allowing Adaleine to continue wearing her socks with the heals up just because it doesn’t bother her and it’s not worth the fight to get her to wear them the right way. (It sounds like I'm obsessed with socks. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine, but I'm handling it.)

I was struck by this thought as the bugs and I were leaving Tarjay this evening. Landon’s birthday is tomorrow and it occurred to me that I hadn’t allowed the girls to have any say in his gifts. So off we went and each of the girls picked out a gift for him, along with a gift bag in which to present it.

I’ll let the pictures tell the next part of the story. : )

Here is Adaleine's gift for Landon.

Add in my gift for the old man. Are you seeing where I'm going here?

Even the gift from my sister for Landon went right along with my little color theme. And then...

BAM! Add Eden's bag to the mix. Kinda hurts your eyes, huh?

You see what happened there? Eden ruined my aesthetic. Yes, I am aware that that makes me sound like a bad mom. But it really rubbed me the wrong way that she chose that stinking red bag. I even went so far as to tell her she couldn’t choose that one and gave her the choice between two other ‘acceptable’ bags.

Then I got to thinking. Did it really matter what color the bag was? No. Would it make the day more memorable to have all matching gift bags? No. Was it worth it to fight with my four-year-old daughter in the gift wrap aisle at The House of Target just so all of the presents would coordinate? No. Son of a biscuit.

As lame as it sounds, I was still thinking about that dang bag as I was driving out of the parking lot. And it occurred to me that sometimes I just want things the way I want them. But as a mom, I can’t always do that. The thing that makes it hard is this: I was ‘me’ long before I was ‘Mom.’ And even though I’ve been ‘Mom’ for going on five years, sometimes it’s hard to exchange hats. If that makes sense.

The cursed bag. : )

I love my kids. I love that they each have their own little quirks and that I will learn more and more about them as they get older. And hopefully I’ll figure out a way to make my ‘mom’ hat fit better. Or at least make it a little more stylish. : )

There Are Pigs Flying Over a Frozen Lake of Fire...

Yes. It’s the end of the world. Life as we know it will never be the same. And here’s why—there is a teeny tiny little glimmer of hope that I might one day be an organized person. I have become completely obsessed with the organizing blog IHeart Organizing. Seriously obsessed. And I am actively trying to put some of her tips to good use in my little abode.



Feast your eyes on this: my junk drawer. Also home to a few lucky kitchen utensils, pens and markers, and other mostly random stuff. This is obviously the ‘before’ picture; if this were the ‘after’ picture the whole post would just make everyone reading it depressed. : )

Also slightly depressing is the countertop directly above this drawer. It is a definite dumping ground for all sorts of things like mail, Eden's school papers, coupons, etc. The thing that’s kind of funny is that I remember setting a stack of papers there on the day we moved in and thinking, “Maybe just dumping this stuff here isn’t such a good idea.” Ah, well. Live and learn. I’ll get to that counter soon.

Anywho, I took about ten minutes last week and emptied out the drawer. After I got all the crap stuff out of it I vacuumed it all out to give myself a clean canvas. I was this close to getting out some pretty wrapping paper to line the drawer with, but I stopped myself. We’re only going to be in this apartment for another month-and-a-half. I don’t want to waste the paper. (Me? Cheap? Why yes. Yes I am.)

After weeding out all the stuff that shouldn’t have been there to begin with and being a little more choosy about what I really need to save (Domino’s parmesan cheese packets anyone?) I started slowly putting things back in.

So here’s what I ended up with: rubber spatulas share space with my can opener and pizza cutter. Mr. Ice Cream Scoop resides nearby, along with my orange peeler, wine opener, and mixing utensils. The outlet plugs are right there in the kitchen so that it’s easy to grab them if I somehow lose one while vacuuming, and those little blue packets are for the kiddos to add to their little water bottles to ‘magically’ turn them into juice. Landon’s iPhone case sleeps in there when it isn’t on his phone, and batteries and playing cards camp there too.

I will be the first to admit that this still seems a little haphazard and random, but it’s a big improvement over where we were. Take a look at the ‘before’ picture again. Seriously. Gives you shivers, doesn’t it?

All that to say that I am trying to be more organized. I don’t have matching baskets and dividers and gorgeous labels for everything (although I’m working on that) but I think that I’m just tired of having stuff tossed everywhere. I may share my progress and I may not, but I will be working on it. : ) Let me know if you have any tips for me! I can use all the help I can get.

My Tough Princess

Yesterday was such a beautiful spring day, so the kiddos and I decided to spend a little bit of our Easter afternoon outside. The apartment that we live in has a really nice playground in the middle of the complex along with sand volleyball and basketball courts. So while Judah and I sat on the bench by the playground equipment, Eden and Adaleine played in the sand a little ways away.

Judah and I sitting on the bench watching the girls play

I was enjoying sitting with Judah and just watching the girls playing for a little bit when I saw Eden running over to me with something cupped in her hands. I immediately had flashes in my head of all the horrible things she might have found. Broken glass, rusty nails, used syringes, human fingers. Yes, I am overly paranoid. And it’s very possible that I’ve watched too many episodes of “The Closer.”

So here comes Miss Eden hollering that she has found something that’s part of nature. As she opened up her hands, I was expecting a dandelion (which they’ve been bringing me quite often lately) and what do I see??

A WORM! A wiggly little dirty worm!

My little ruffles and ribbons girl had a little worm in her hand. The little girl who has to go in and wash her hands every 15 minutes and loves wearing pretty dresses and sparkly princess outfits.

So I guess my little Eden isn’t quite as ‘precious’ as I thought she was. I guess she might be a little bit tougher.

I like to think that I’m fairly tough…maybe she got it from me? : ) I can only hope she hunts down any admirable qualities I might have and pours a little Miracle-Gro on them. She’s got a big future ahead. Many worms worlds to conquer : )