11 years of marriage, 3 crazy kids and my oh my how times have changed. I remember back in the day when I would hurry to get my make-up on and wear just the right outfit for my hunka hunka burnin love. Heck even 5 years into it when I was preggo with monkey numero uno I wore 6 inch wedges to make my legs look thinner... (note to self: when you gain 50+ pounds during pregnancy wedges make you look more like a bale of hay on stilts than "slim" in any sense of the word) Now I consider it a victory if I actually get dressed during the day and doing my hair (which only takes 35 seconds total) and putting on make up only happens for "Special Occasions"... my poor hubby!



Last night I looked at myself... I hadn't showered in a couple of days (due to the fact that whenever I get in the shower my kids seriously try to kill each other or I don't know color with permanent marker on my favorite shoes) and I was wearing the same jammies I had been wearing and worked out in the morning before... it was definitely a low point. I turned to my husband and said "Sorry babe, I promise I'll start putting myself together more often I know I totally look like a hot mess." (minus the hot part), I expected him to say his obligatory "No babe you look great." but instead he said, "I know you've had a lot going on today." Waaa???? It was that moment that I decided I needed to stop being quite so comfortable with my sexy self and go brush my teeth.



Here are some red flags that you are in the same "Jammie Day EVERYDAY" rut...

1. If on the rare occasion when you get dressed in cut offs and a flip flops your kids ask why you're so dressed up... (this one is for you Kiley:))


2. If you have been wearing the same workout clothes for 2+ work out sessions... (even a cute yoga outfit has it's "re-wear" limits.)


3. If your husband would rather give you a high five when he gets home from work than a kiss.


4. If you come out of your room in the morning (bed head in full force) with your purse in your hands ready to pay bills online and your kids ask where you're going. (uhhhh because they're used to leaving the house with you looking like that!)


5. If you get caught in your jammies by the fedex guy almost every time he comes... at 3 pm!


6. If at any point your kids or husband ask you f you are actually going to leave the house like that.

   I am lucky enough to have a husband that I can drag to occasional chick flick without major complaint (Im sure there is some ulterior motive on his part...but we wont go there today)...When "The Help" came out in the theaters, I was totally stoked because I read the book and loved it.   Just a side note, that if you have not seen it, or read the book, you have got to because it is an amazing story!  It is set in the 60's and is about black maids that work for white families.  The maids were treated as second class citizens for sure, and had no real hope of anything ever changing, until a young writer comes along and gets them to tell their stories. The story is deep, powerful, and moving!  When we left the theater, we talked about how glad we were that times were not like that anymore....and then I got to wondering, are they really that different???





     It is so easy in life to limit ourselves to situations that we are comfortable in, and people we are comfortable with.  Its tempting to stay on the surface with people, to not open up to really knowing them and to make judgments based on appearances.  Straight up racism might be better now than it was then, we all may be more equal,  but are we really open to each other?  Are we passed being judgmental?  Do we listen to a respect each other?  I'm not fully convinced we are passed all of that.  





     I want to share just two things that are really on my heart with you...was that a gasp, because you think Im going to keep it short and sweet???  Well you are right....





     One thing this blogging, facebooking, social networking stuff has done is open me up to a whole bunch of people that I would have never crossed paths with.  I've learned that everyone has a story. It's easy to look at someone from the outside and think you know what their life is all about.  It's easy to be judgmental because of what they look like, the house they live in, and what you think their story might be...But it is amazing that when you really dive in, you find out what their stories are really all about.  Some lives are filled ease, some with struggles, but all with interest.  I am left wanting to know more about you all...more about your lives, your thoughts and who you really are.  I have met people that I would have walked passed in a grocery store, I have learned from people that I never would have dreamed had something to teach.  I have shared similar life stories with some, and been blown away by the roads some have walked.  Mostly what I have learned, is that you truly cant judge a book by it's cover (I know cliché, but true..) You are amazing and interesting to me.  You have given me a desire to know more of people and focus less on me. And I gotta be honest here for a minute and admit to liking the comfort of my "bubble".  The familiarity of close friends and the ease in keeping things to myself.  As selfish as it sounds, I don't love to put the time into new relationships when I barely have time for the ones I already have...did I just totally contradict myself???  I guess so, but what I'm saying is that I am learning.  And what I am learning is to put myself out there to get to know other's stories....I don't want to assume things about others anymore, I want to really know them...would you try it with me?  





     So I guess my two deep thoughts that hit me from the movie last night are, not to assume I know someone's story, or make judgements based on those assumptions and to really take time to get to know people.  We are amazingly different and can learn great things from each other...so will you all take a quick second and do me a favor???  Say Yes, then Ill tell you what it is ;)....





OK...in the comments below, tell us 4 things about your story.  Things that give us a little glimpse into who the real "you" is...Ill start (and Lindsay will join in...right?)





*I was born in 1972 (ouch), I have 2 siblings and my parents are still married.

*I grew up in the same valley that I still live in.

*I am a divorcé (a fact it took me several years to admit without cringing)

*and I have been through the trials of infertility and adoption...

There you go...thats me (aren't you just all kinds of intrigued!) ;)













  

     In my youth I couldn't have imagined the twists and turns, lumps, bumps, and seeds I would encounter through the years. In fact, I'm sure I never gave any thought to what I might be confronted with along my way. Its probably a good thing too, because if I had known some of the experiences I would walk through, I would have said, "No, thank you". But the older I get, the more I realize those experiences I would have refused are the very ones which produced the most growth, and ultimately the most beauty in my life.



     One unexpected experience was the birth of my son, Noah, who has Down Syndrome. Up to the time of Noah's birth, I had no experience or familiarity with Trisomy 21. This was a good thing for me, because I had no expectations or knowledge of worrisome details. I began to learn about Down Syndrome as I fell in love with my beautiful baby boy. I took things in stride without any anxiety about what might or might not happen in his life.....it didn't occur to me that I should have any concerns about what life might look like for him, me, or his siblings. We all accepted Noah just as he presented himself to us... and we continue to do so today. This was all good.



     However, as Noah began to get a little older, the reality of challenges presented by his disability became more apparent. Learning has been difficult for a variety of reasons. Good educational programs have been few and far between... this has been a true heartache for me. Self-care is an ongoing challenge, even though Noah has some skills in this area. And now, at 19 years of age, Noah is out of school and participating in a transition program... but its very unclear what we are transitioning to, or how well prepared he will be for life beyond school. This brief menu of issues are all things to which I would have said, "No, thank you".



        No parent would choose to have a child with a disability. And noone would fault a parent for admitting that they are struggling, and often wishing their child didn't have such challenges.... life is tough enough when all is well, even tougher to face when little things require supreme effort. But I have found my life to be enriched because of the efforts involved in raising Noah. I work in the field of Early Childhood Special Education because of Noah... I am able to positively impact parents of children with special needs because of Noah.... my other 7 children are compassionate and sensitive to others with challenges because of Noah... I have a great catalog of funny stories because of Noah.... I get a kick out of really quirky stuff because of Noah..... I am a better person because of Noah.



      I believe some of my most powerful growth has come as a result of raising Noah. And I am certain I would have said "No, thank you", if the challenges had been laid out before me. In fact, I know myself well enough to say I would not ever choose the more difficult path if given the choice. I am happy to report I have learned the value of struggle, hardship, and disappointment. I might not always smile the whole way, but I have learned to appreciate how the tough stuff paves the way for joy, growth, and beauty.



     Struggle can serve to bring out the best in us.... enlarge our hearts.... strengthen our spirits.... embolden our self-confidence. So when faced with something hard and you want to say, "No, thank you", just remember you might be getting an opportunity of a lifetime that you don't want to miss. Then smile to yourself.

Some of you may be thinking ... didn't you just write a post about mommy "something" with a picture of you pretending to pick your nose... well yes, yes I did... ish... The last post was about the "MOMMY FUNK" aka "mommy's had enough and she's going to go all Thelma and Louise on you if you don't sit down and stop trying to bludgeon your brother with a golf club". (or is that just how I get my mommy funk on??) Anyway "MOMMY BRAIN" is much different.. and I'm sure you've all experienced it. It's more like the "I can't finish a thought or form words, I just want to go veg in front of real house wives with a bag of cheetos and a drink straight up on the rocks" state of mind.



Just in case you need a list... here are some (but not all) of the red flag indicators that you might be suffering from the all too common "MOMMY BRAIN"

1. You call someone and as soon as they pick up you a) forget who you are calling b) you space why you are calling in the first place or c) both a and b are true.


2. While driving a friend's son home that has lived by you for 6 years you end up almost on the other side of town before you remember that you forgot where you were going... (did you wonder what took us so long yesterday Em?)


3. You call one of your children by every other name including the dog's name before you can remember who you're talking to... for example, "Darn it, Sawyer, Thatcher, Sawyer, Finley... CREW!!! It's not OK to poop on the trampoline!"(again maybe that's just my house??)


4. When it's 2:15 and you wonder why you have so much free time, only to get a call from the bus driver that still has your child because you forgot to meet them at the bus stop. (don't worry Abber's I won't forget Matty today:)


5. You can't find your phone, the remote or monkey #3's pacifier until dinner when you are taking the chicken out of the freezer to thaw... 


6. You commit to, oh I don't know, your local "dancing with the stars" fundraiser even though your only claim to fame is writing about how much poop you have to deal with on a daily basis and your only dance experience comes after several glasses of wine at weddings... aye aye aye... seriously the girls in chile laughed at me for six months because they had never met anyone who actually could move their hips LESS than I could!! 


7. You don't notice that your kids left the slider open until you get home 3 hours later... causing you to have to chase not 1... not 2 ... but t3 large grey squirrels out of your house in one day.        

(Just a side note... I hate squirrels! A friend just told me she heard Sarah Jessica Parker calls them "rats in fancy clothes"... I need that stitched on a pillow! I should explain that squirrel #3 wasn't discovered until 11:30 last night and took us an hour to get out of our bedroom. It was full on Grizwald family pandemonium! At one point it got around a barrier we made out of a close hamper and a dresser drawer and it came straight at me... of course I screamed, almost peed and fell backwards into our tv shelf... I now bare the battle scars of an encounter with a Coker Butte squirrel. I HATE SQUIRRELS! -Rant Complete-)



Ok obviously these red flags might be specific to my days... but if you experience anything like it, you might in fact suffer from the dreaded mommy brain! Share your red flags here... help spread awareness about this scary disease! :):)

    Mr. Destructo is now a three year old and for the sake of my sanity, I'm hoping this means that he has left the "terrible two's" far behind.  (please don't burst my happy thought with the truth, thank you) I have to admit to noticing an increase in his "independence", meaning he yells a lot "I can do it BY MYSELF"!!!  One thing this relates to in particular is his wanting to pick out his own clothes.  Funny part about this is that my 6 year old princess still shows no signs of wanting to dress herself unless it is related to the comfort. In other words, if it pinches, hangs too low, rides up, scratches, digs or pulls, it's not going to be worn, ever.  Anyway...Mr. Destructo has decided that the best outfit to wear is a pair of "scratchy pants" and some kind of sports jersey. My job has now become trying to figure out how to keep one of the three jerseys that he has, clean.  This wouldn't be a terribly hard task if he didn't rotate through all of them most days.   This is how it works...we get him dressed in the morning;  OK who am I kidding, he gets dressed at some point during the day, usually after he is done running around naked (or if he is going to hang with his buddies, then he has to try to dress like them...) and then usually every hour or so, he makes a trip into his closet and pulls down 11 things until he finds the new "scratchy pants" and jersey he is going to wear.  I'm sure your all just dying to know what "scratchy pants" are...it's really any kind of sweat pant that feels slick and soft...aparently they even make great jammies...I guess  I should like his decision to sleep in them too, since this does eliminate a pair of jammie pants.???

       Color has no bearing on his choices for the day, and neither does what he has worn most recently; I know this should not matter to me either, but to be honest, I am a little worried about what the other mommies of preschoolers will be thinking this year.  I can picture it now, they will be dropping off their perfectly primped and put together little jean wearing angels and here will march in my oh so handsome but randomly dresses man.  I guess I can only hope he does not decide to wear his "just like Justin Beiber" clothes (thats another story for another day)  OK, I'll just tell  you a little bit about that...my kids love two of his songs, and so with each one, he has to go get the outfit that most closely resembles Justins.  This means a leather jacket for "Never say Never", and a military style shirt and a dog tag for "Baby"...nuff said.

     You know when kids wear batman costumes in public?  I kinda like that because you know for sure that the mom absultly did NOT go to the closet that moring and say "here honey, why don't you be batman today"???  The problem with my dudes clothing choices is that you would look and wonder what "what in the h#%$& was mom thinking when she picked out red and black sweats to go with a green and yellow baseball jersey"???

     Lucky for me, he is so deliciously yummy, with eyes that could stop a runaway train (AKA a raging mother)...and so, I will continue to let him dress himself; as a future football player, or an up and coming rock star because he loves it....hey, at least the tu-tu's are gone!

 Make sure to share your clothing stories under the comments below!  We loooove to laugh at you relate to you!

Mindy from Pretty in Paint made this little doozie!

I saw this idea of a blessings board on another blog somewhere and I knew I had to do it. Usually sweet flowery things make me want to throw up a little in my mouth, but this little crafty poo is a sweet kick in the teeth.  So... I am writing a blessing on  post-its and sticking them to a board in my room ... so every time I want to have a pity party or complain... wham... it can kick me in the teeth and say, "Hey selfish, annoying, whiny lady... look at all of the amazing things you have in your life." Today I posted 7 to the board and here they are:

1. {Sibling Rivalry...} I guess I'll I just need to repeat costco, costco, costco... over and over in my head  so I'm not tempted to pull a Thelma & Louise during what seems to be NEVER-ENDING-FIGHTING! (costco)


2. {School Clothes...} My amazing big sister took all three boys shopping today and got them shoes and pants and shirts and socks... who does that?? My big sister!! That's who!:) I love you Abbers!


3. {Great Friends...} I swear I have the best friends ever... they love me for me and put up with my non-stop verbal vomit... they are some pretty darn amazing women (and some guys too:)) and I am so beyond blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people!


4. {COFFEE!!!} Seriously... this needs no explanation!


5. {God's Amazing Grace...} woops maybe I should have put this first... I was a little caught up in my costco moment... But He is so good... all of the time...


6. {The right words, when I need them} My hubby just has a way with words... this is what he texted me the other night while I pulled a mini Thelma & Louise at Costco (well I guess it was just a Thelma because Louise was at the coast) ... "You are beautiful... this is the life we GET to live." reminding me that we are so incredibly blessed to be parents to these special boys... even on the rough days. 


7. {An Amazing Family...} How amazing is it to have a HUGE and by HUGE I mean GINOURMOUS group of relatives that we would actual choose as friends even if we weren't related. We have the best family and don't take any of them for granted for even one second. 

      I got to go on a little "vaca" with my kids this last week...I thought about writing a post on how vacations are so not fun for moms, but I don't want you all to think that I am a total loser mom who cant handle the heat.  So instead I came up with this brilliant idea to make this a post that you, yes you, have to participate in.  I know, cool hu?  This idea came when I was thinking about this hilarious magnet (that I wish I would have got for Linz) that said "there is no such thing as fun for the whole family".  I about peed my pants laughing as I thought about the 15 hours that I had spent watching my kids swim in the hotel pool wishing I was doing something else on this vacation.  So the rules today are, I am going to post a few funny things I found, and it is up to you to add your own under the comments.  Put down a "magnet saying", something on your fridge right now, or just something that makes you laugh every time you think about it!  You are only going to get full pleasure out of this though (that sounds kinda nasty) if you take a peak at what everyone else has said...so here we go some things I think we can all relate to!

 I have to be firm. I cannot budge… And then my 2 yr old daughter wanders out of bed wearing her patent leather shoes. For the third time, I remove them, hide them under the bed, and tuck her in. But this time I take a picture because it’s just too cute and I know I will want to remember this moment forever…



I have to be consistent. I cannot give in… They need to sleep in their own beds. But then the little shadow darkens my doorway at night and a little voice says, “Can I sweep with you, Mama. I hab bad dweam.” And even though I’ve been sleep deprived for five years, I pull the little shadow into bed with me to snuggle and squeeze her tight. I will remember this moment forever…



I am tired. Dinner is almost burnt… She’s 5 years old and she’s been afraid of everything since she was born. But even though I’m tired of the whining, and I already did it once before, when she appears in her bathing suit and goulashes and asks me one more time to make sure there are no bugs outside, I go. I go because I remember what it’s like to have irrational fears and I was never so smart to think to just put on my “goulashes”. There’s no way I could forget this moment…



 I clean. I teach. Over and over… I’ve reminded her several times to use her fork when she eats, and yet here she is facedown in a bowl of rice. When I reprimand her, she lifts her head from her food, covered in rice from her eyebrows to her ears, and says, “Sawy mama…” And I realize that a fork is not the best way for a 2yr old to eat rice and that she was actually using her little brain. I smile with pride, wishing I had a camera to capture this moment forever…



     I am a parent... I need them to listen… They’ve interrupted Daddy and I too many times. We need to talk. And then one of them starts crying because she wants a family marching band… and suddenly a hero appears. Even though they should listen, and even though our conversation is important, the hero sees something else; an opportunity he doesn’t want to miss. Daddy hurries for his guitar and begins to march through the kitchen as the two little ones fall into line. And I smile because I cannot remember what we were talking about that was so “important”. And I take a picture. This moment MUST be remembered forever…



I’ve worked a twelve- hour day and it’s not over yet… I’m trying to get through the bedtime quickly because I’m already yawning. I am firm and only read one story, like I said I would. No more, no less. One song. One prayer… And then they ask if they can pray. Their sweet little heads bowed, their tiny hands folded beneathclosed eyes, and I realize that the kingdom of heaven is present right before me. That everything I am working for is already happening. And I pray to God that this moment lasts forever…



     Nothing else matters. How lovely are those piles of laundry scattered all over my house. How lovely are the paint stains and crayon marks on my granite countertops. How lovely are those fingerprints that decorate my “clean” windows. How lovely are those voices that call to me for the hundredth time from their room even though they are supposed to be sleeping, “Mama! We need you!”







Katie... married her college sweetheart, and together they continue in youth ministry. They are finally living their dreams of he being a youth pastor and and her, a worship leader; however, the best part of her life is being a wife to her man and a mommy to her daughters. She can honestly say with all certainty that the melody of her life is that of God's unfathomable love and never-changing faithfulness.

I can remember the exact location and moment when Lindsay shouted across the street, in the midst of our kid chaos, the idea that started it all.  Born out of necessity (aka seriously grubby toddlers) she said "we need a bib that folds up that we can keep on our keychains!"  Don't tell her, but I thought at the time, great idea "I'm sure someone will do it someday!"

There we were, slightly smarter, wiser, driven and slightly more exhausted with 5 kids total!  But we forged on!  Every day, our dreams (and gallons of coffee)  propelled us to work hard, pray hard, and dream big, no, dream huge!!!



Remember when you were a new parent you "knew it all"??  You had goals, direction, plans and you knew exactly what your child would be doing 10 years from now?  Then crazy enough, and much to your dismay, Jr. doesn't act, do, or follow any of your "perfect plans"?  Well, Earth Monkeys is that child.  We've had moments when we pretty much knew where we were going to be in 10 years, and we had a clear path to get there.  We had our dreams written out, our goals defined, and the hutzpah (love that word!)  to make it all come together!  Funny how dreams change!  Somedays we are amazed at what these two simple, busy, completely slightly crazy moms have accomplished with out even a real college degree between us.. and somedays we feel buried in what we still need to do!  The one thing that never waivers though, is the love we have for the connection we have made with all of you.  YOU make us feel sane, YOU make us feel like we will survive this thing called mother hood, and YOU remind us that we are not alone.  We never dreamed that we could become this passionate about wanting to see other women succeed, to grow and to come together!  We want to see your dreams come true, just like we want our dreams to come true with Earth Monkeys.   We adore getting to "hang" with all of you, we soak it all in and love it all!   Anyway, We are talking about dreams here...



Earth Monkeys as a company has grown, and we thank every customer that supports us, and every mom that uses our products and tells your friends about us!  This last year has been a year of growth as a company, but more importantly, growth personally!  We are in the production stages of our next 3 products and the new direction that we are taking EM feels like a 180 degree turn.  But we are stoked, we are excited to give other moms a chance to jump on board this crazy ride with us...but that is all we can say (for now anyway).  It's a dream, a big hurkin scary dream...we can't wait to tell you what is next for us, but if we told you everything, then you wouldn't have anything to lose sleep over!  (bwahahahah).

My dream as a child was to travel the world, possibly join the Peace Corp, and ultimately write for National Geographic. It definitely wasn’t to chase kids around all day, changing diapers, doing dishes, cleaning up dog vomit and then the laundry…how the hell is there so much laundry in this house? I wear the same jeans three days in a row, hey don’t judge, they fit the best after day two, I would go four, but with my kids, there could be any number of things stuck to them, so even three days is pushing it, anyhow where was I?



Oh yeah, okay so my dream…right, I always wanted to be a mom, I just didn’t realize how much work it is to be a parent! I kinda thought that being a parent would be easy and fun. I thought that babies were so precious and slept “like babies” (who ever thought of that saying, obviously never had children). I thought it would be like the commercials, or the movies. Oh cute baby, magically turns into cute toddler, yes there are terrible twos, but everyone laughs about those, and then they become little kids who you can explore with and have fun with and play board games with, then the teenage years, coming of age, high school football games, first loves, chasing boyfriends out of bedroom windows, then college, then weddings, then magically I would be old and have my whole family, four children, my wonderful husband, the great grandparents all sitting around the Thanksgiving table, smiling in awe as I (who am in this vision, amazingly beautiful BTW) bring out an enormous turkey and set it down on our lavishly long table.





The reality is kinda depressing, so I won’t go into it too much. Wait that can’t be right? It isn’t depressing it’s just… work. None of it is easy. Being woken up every two hours by a newborn is enough to make even the strongest men and women cry. Potty training a toddler, or trying not to KILL everyone who gives you parenting advice, that you NEVER ask for - is work. Just the day to day, waking, diaper, breakfast, cleaning hands, faces, tables, feet (really how did you get that on your foot??), play time, monitoring while trying to get any amount of housework done, trying to be successful as something other than a mother (yeah good luck), ending fights, cleaning spills, more diapers, more meals, more laundry, putting on a smile when the husband gets home… it goes on and on, and only a parent can truly understand. Only someone who has been in those dark moments in the middle of the night, while a colicky baby screams for hours and hours and there is nothing you can do to stop it will understand what I mean by… how did I get here?



Maybe it’s just that no one really sees the efforts of a parent until those efforts are not there. Think about it, who are the families on the news? Who make the headlines? It’s always when something goes wrong. For the rest of the parents out there, there is no pat on the back, no one really says, “hey you’re doing a really good job.” It’s only when we aren’t doing our jobs that people notice. Think about it, when you see a child misbehaving in a store, or a child who desperately needs a bath…do we ever really pay attention when the mom with the clean, cute well behaved kids, comes through the door?



It reminds me of a story I heard once, it was about this little town and the one water source in the town was a stream. At the source of the water was a man who maintained the stream, he cleaned it, made sure there were no impurities, he took care of it for everyone. However, one year a new mayor was elected and he decided that paying this man to maintain the stream was ridiculous. So he cut the job, because really how hard is it for a stream to stay clean? Well within a few months people began getting sick, the water became cloudy, it smelled and was undrinkable, no one really understood what had happened, except the one man who once was the keeper of the stream. He was unappreciated, no one knew what he did, when his job was on the line, people criticized him for how much he had been paid for “doing nothing.” And now they all paid the price for not understanding and not valuing his work.





So no, this wasn’t my dream. Are you kidding, I just mowed all the weeds around our house for the last 2 hours, to get a BREAK! But this is my job, raising kids, taking care of the house, instilling values, making sure the clothes are clean and that everyone is eating enough vegetables. Yup that’s my job. It’s not glamorous (I just had a talk with my five year old about where we put our boogers). But it’s my job.



I am a writer, but first and foremost I am a mom, whether that works with my deadlines or not (usually not). I try to be a good wife, a good friend, a good daughter, a good member of society, a good pet owner…uhg so many responsibilities…but I have to remember that no matter what, right now, being a parent is my number one job. If I don’t do that then everything around me will fall apart too. I am responsible for the outcome of two little girls. Will they be successful adults, will they want to be smart and become contributing members of society? That is my job, and no one around me may understand the value of it, but I have to remember the value, because as soon as I forget, I can guarantee that all those people who didn’t see “what the big deal was” will be complaining about how my horrible parenting is! And then I’ll be blamed for the community falling apart. Okay so they might not be saying that, but it sure does feel like it when someone criticizes how you parent - doesn’t it.



We are all “the keeper of the stream.” It’s true, my kids…your kids…are the water, the lifeline, the future - of our communities. Raising them well, is something to be proud of. So no matter how much those long, never ending nights last, no matter how many diapers, or how many loads of laundry, I’ll try to remember that I’m making a difference. No one may ever say “thank you” for all of my hard work, in fact they probably won’t, and that’s why it’s even more important that I know I’m making a difference.



You are too by the way...has anyone told you today that you’re making a difference in the future of our society? Has anyone told you that you have a purpose? No?





Well you are. So thank you for changing the diapers, and cleaning the sink. Thank you for reading to your kids, thank you for kissing them goodnight…thank you for doing the hardest job you’ll ever love, wait that’s the Peace Corp – and I hear they let you sleep in the Peace Corp… SEE being a parent is even harder, and one day if you don’t already, you will love it.







Shauna... is a stay at home mom of two girls, she's the author of the "Waypoint" book series, and her personal blog"Breathe, Smile, Pray...Repeat." Her girls keep her on her toes, and have been the inspiration for many blog posts, here and on BSPR. She's just an ordinary mom trying to master the most natural job in the world.

Check out Shauna' sites:

www.waypointbookseries.com

www.breathesmileprayrepeat.blogspot.com

I have been wanting to read this book called "Hell is Other Parents" for a while now. It sounds hilarious and honestly I think sometimes we can all relate to this statement to some extent! Unfortunately, it isn't available in an audio book format yet and I don't really read read for fear that if I concentrate too hard on anything for too long my children will shank each other with a broken duplo or flush a full box of tampons down the toilet. It did get me thinking though, while people can be super annoying, sometimes I bet there are other examples in parenthood that more accurately describe HELL...



So here is my list of what "parenting hell" really is...

1. Waking up to my 2 year old puking in my face (yes it went in my mouth) at 2 am... and then having to cut my nose ring out a few days later because the vomit had so enflamed my piercing that my nose was swollen up to my forehead... ahhh good times!


2. Almost sitting on a tree frog that's resting on my toilet seat in the middle of the night... I still throw up a little bit when I relive that one! 


3. Being 30 minutes late for an appointment and realizing that my child has pooped up his back and down his legs as I put him in the car ... AND... not having one single other pair of undies for him to put on because I haven't done laundry in three days... sure hope re-diapering doesn't scar children!


4. Sitting down for a nice Easter dinner with our closest friends and family and having my sensory child puke in his plate at the table... I think we can add Christmas and Thanksgiving to the list too!


5. Having my little guy come snug me in the middle of the night only to wake up in the puddle that he left on my side of the bed because apparently kids don't EVER EVER EVER crawl in bed on daddy's side!


6. Seeing the look of utter shock and disappointment on my little one's face when that $%^&#* tooth fairy forgot to come!! Dumb Broad!


7. Trying a new church for the very first time and as I hand my little one over he pukes all over me, himself and the floor...THEN... turning around to see my hubby booking it down the hall for fear of throwing up himself... always fun to deal with puke and strangers!


8. Having to admit that it was my child that just pulled down his pants and peed in the middle of the water park... and possibly on your child's leg. Sorry about that!


9. Not being able to stop my oldest from saying horrible things he observes about others like asking a guy we were standing in line next to why his teeth were green... seriously how do you recover from that??