Mothering

The thing that causes me the most stress, but also brings me happiness.  Yesterday was one of those days that you just want to lock yourself in your room and stay in bed all day until it's over.  I woke up in a crappy mood already and then the kids don't understand and it's hard for me to separate the two.  I'm one of those people that when I'm upset about something or mad at someone, everybody gets my wrath. Unfortunately.  It definitely affects everyone else in the house and yesterday everyone was feeling what I was giving off.

Chad got me this book for Mother's day and I have read it like ten times and everything is highlighted.  I didn't plan to be a Witch By Linda Eyre.  I would recommend every mother get one! I love this book because she makes you feel normal and not bad for losing it sometimes.  I am reading it today and know that I need to apologize to the kids and Chad and forgive myself and move on. 

I also just got another book from the library.  It's called 10 Habits of Happy Mothers By Meg Meeker.  It has me thinking about how I mother and why I react the way I do to some things.  The ten habits are:

1. understand your value as a mother
2. maintain key friendships
3. value and practice faith
4. say no to competition
5. create a healthier relationship with money
6. make time for solitude
7. give and get love in healthy ways
8. find ways to live simply
9. let go of fear
10. hope is a decision

She talks about each habit and gives examples of them.  She then helps you do things to make the habit stick.  It was informative and eye opening.  I would highly recommend everyone read this one too.

I know everything is a process and small steps in the right direction are better than nothing, but I feel like I should perfect in one area of my life, specifically mothering.  It's my full time job, so I should be seeing progress, but to me my progress is like a snail. Inches at a time.  I know it's hard, but important and most of the time I feel blessed to be a mother and all the trials that go with it.  It's definitely a job that stretches you and I'm grateful for the opportunity and the challenge.

We are important, especially to our children.  Keep moving forward, know that you are doing the Lord's work, know that He is there helping and guiding you.  This is my favorite quote and always makes me get teary eyed.

"In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that.  When disappointments and discouragement strike- and they will- you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection.  They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham's seed."

Happy Mothering!

Instagram Update

Her are some pictures taken with my phone.  It is still all craziness here.  I thought it would slow down when school started, but Ellie and Hayden are on different schedules.  They do half day Kindergarden here and preschool is half day too.  Well, Hayden goes in the morning and Ellie goes in the afternoon. I have half an hour in between when Hayden gets picked up and Ellie needs to go to school.  Some days it's insane!

Evie is sitting up by herself and has six teeth.  She also crawls which is so cute.  She does the one armed army crawl. She is a very happy, easy going baby.  I'm very grateful for that with the rest of life going on. She is eight months and 20 pounds and is wearing 18 month clothes.  She is taking after Hayden right now.  The other two were big, but Hayden was in 2T clothes when he was one and size 6 diapers before he was potty trained at age two.  We'll see. 

Beckham is two and definitely keeping everyone on their toes.  If it's quiet for too long you know he got into something.  He is my fearless one and always jumping off of something and trying to fly. I'm surprised he hasn't broken any bones or gotten stitches yet.  He is happy and sweet most of the time and is talking a mile a minute these days.  He like to tell Ellie and Hayden what to do and be in charge. 

Chad is still loving work and is going back to school in January to get a degree in network administration.  We love our ward and the friends we have made.