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. 

     Anyone miss the big topic this last week...."the end of the world".  Just in case your FB friends were focused on joking about something else and you missed it,  it was predicted that the end was 5/20/11  at 6:00.  As we all know, it didn't happen. (Not to  lose anyone here but I must say that I do think that it will happen but no one knows when, and no one will know)...anyway...

     I don't really know much about the guy that came up with that prediction, and I didn't believe his theory personally but I do have to admit  to waking up that morning with a little different feeling heading into what could have been our last day here on this earth.  I was a bit happier to see my kids (at 6:00 AM), and I tried to smile at my husband even before my coffee took full affect.  You see, I woke up thinking "what if this is our last day here? What would I want this day to be like?  It's not the first time I have thought that, and I  know I'm not the first one to wonder those things.  We have all lost a loved one, or heard someone else predict a certain day as being the "end day", you may have even had a near death kind of situation yourself, and those events always prompt that kind of a question.   This time for some reason, it just really hit me.

      I am busy.  Too busy.  I am impatient.  I always have to get home to do something "really important" when my kids just want to go to the park.  I get tired.  Very tired.  I complain about things like dishes in the sink, a never ending pile of laundry, and shoes that seam to think their home is the living room floor.  I turn away from conversations, to do a really quick thing on the computer (I justify it as work!)  It's easy for  me to put my kids in front of the T.V. so I can get dinner made in peace (right).  I like to send them outside to play so mommy can "finally get things picked up".

     Well on may 20th, I thought, if I am leaving this planet today, I am not leaving behind a clean house for the person that moves in and takes it over when I'm gone.  So I spent the day simply being mom.  I sat and looked at things from Mr. destructo's perspective...ants really are amazing, and cars are kinda fun to race, he is hilarious...I listened to my  princess tell me amazing stories, and snuggle just for the love of it.  She looks at detail like no one I've ever known.  She is beautiful.  My husband is so handsome when he smiles.  He is strong and funny and smart, when I take the time to notice.  I miss my family when I am so busy trying to make our world perfect.  What I realized is that me not trying, is what makes our world "perfect".

Funny how a crazy man telling us that it is our last day here is what made me slow down and just be.  In reality, my world could end today, I have no way of knowing...so how do I want to spend it?  I've asked myself this before, but I want to live this question, because I don't know when my last day will be.

     In reality, I do have to get things done.  I do have to make dinner and do laundry, but do I have to obsess about these things, or can I just chill so my family can have a mom and wife that takes time for them?  This is what I want, to live so that I don't miss out on them and our life together.  And so this is how I will live today, like THEY are the most important thing in my world.  Because they are.



So today I'm wondering if last weeks prediction made anyone else out there think...Did you spend that day any different?? Or If today was your last day here, How do you want to spend it?  

Comment below...we want to know what you think.



And make sure to share us with your friends!  We all need each other on this crazy journey!

  



  











     My career as a hairdresser has changed from a pre-child 40+ hour a week crazy fest to a one day a week "vacation" from my really hard job as a stay at home mom.  Every once in a while, I get to do a special style for a client heading out for a big night, and for this, they end up at my home.  This particular client was in her mid 30's not married, and no children but would someday like it all.  Her hair took me about 30 min. and in that amount of time, she came to the conclusion that being at my home made her "hit the snooze button on her biological clock".  I think I know why...



     My 21/2 year old is proudly pottie trained, and I'm not ashamed to admit that nudity and bribery were my main tactics in accomplishing this.  I often wonder how every pottie moment has created a line at the pantry with everyone expecting a marshmallow and every poopie followed by the excitement of suckers for the whole house.  Really?  HE is the one doing all the work and somehow HIS reward has become an expectation for everyone???  I'm hoping that this will end by the time my kids are 15 and 18 because there is just something kind of weird about the thought of them both running in announcing what he just did in the bathroom at that age???  I don't know, just a thought.





     And what it is up with all the flippin whining???  Really, this one could be the one to totally send me over the edge!!!  All I want is one second in my day when I'm not hearing a voice so high it breaks glasses!  And the endless  begging for something they just cant have; really, this is a sanity killer!  Seriously, how many times will I have to say "I am not going to do anything when you are whining...use your big boy / girl voice"...you'd think they would get it after the 1000th time!  Sometimes I'd like to crawl into a corner, ( or better yet an sound proof closet) cover my ears and rock back and forth in the fetal position.  Will it ever end?



     Why, Why Why Why Why Why...your already sick of it hu?  I know that I am not the first mom to hear a 100 why's, even before breakfast...and I also I'm not the first one to have to admit to saying those stupid words we swore we would never say (before we had kids) "Because I said so!".  Yep I've started saying em!  I think I gasped when I heard them come out of my mouth the first time, but at some point, there simply are no more answers!  "Mom, why is that worm on the cement; because the rain pushed him there...why didn't he go back to the dirt; because it was a long ways away...why is he not moving; because he is dead...why is he dead; because the water is gone...why is the water gone; because it dried up...why did the water dry up; because it sunny...why is it sunny; because God thought we needed sun...why did God think we needed sun; BECAUSE I SAID SO!" why, why, why!  This was a real conversation my friends, and after 30 of these conversations...ya, you get why I have resorted to because I said so!!!





Speaking of whining...We have to beg you all one more time...we are up for a chance to win $25,000 with The Green Awards that would allow us to do amazing things with our Earth Monkey line!!!  But we need all of your votes!!!  You can vote daily (you only have to log in once) and if we could get you all to do us this favor, we will never ask for anything again!  (um ya right!)  Thanks for your support!!!!

Earth Monkeys.com

How about this...We will give a bib to one person that is, or becomes a google follower, votes for us at the Green Awards, then comments below and tell us you did it and give us a "snooze button" story.  I think you can all do that, we know your smart!!

     I heard a statistic some time back that mini vans are the automobile most involved in accidents.  Not the kid in the red sports car, or the mercedes driven by a business man talking on his phone...but a "mom" in a mini van.  The part I like about this statistic, is that I will NEVER, I repeat NEVER be a mom caught dead in one of those...unless of course I die

while riding with Lindsay in hers as she races around texting and making the kids lunch while driving!!! (oh and thats not far from the truth!!) And just a side note; to everyone out there already planning what you are going to write in the comment box below about the benefits of a mini van...save your keyboard, I can't be convinced.  I already know the doors close on their own...I don't care!  ;) A friend of mine said it best...If you want to have any ounce of sex appeal left, you can never drive a mini van!!!  Although I personally am not very concerned with "sex appeal" anymore (except to my man at home) I would like to have a little dignity in tact at the end of the day.   Even if that does mean bruises on my forehead from trying to cram my kids into the side door of my super cool Subaru suv!!!  (um ya) anyway...This post is not about mini vans, but it's about the fact that when I look in my rear view mirror, all I see are two heads.  Albeit the two most adorable heads in the universe, that hardly justifies the fact that I can't see out of  my rear window.  As I was speeding down the freeway today, "knee driving",  I unwrapped and handed each one of my kids their favorite "rice bars" and wondered if maybe, just maybe, I was working on broadening the category of "the car involved in the most accidents" to be "any car driven by a mother"!

     In my defense, I'm a pretty good knee driver!  I suppose that holding the steering wheel in the 2 and 10 o'clock positions might be the smarter way to go, but really?   I would then get to spend the entire drive explaining how far away we are from food, or water, or gum or blankets or things that they have dropped on the floor and can't possibly be lived without for 5 minutes!! And I begin to wonder what might be more dangerous... me loosing my grip with the steering wheel, or me loosing my entire grip on sanity???  For goodness sakes people...I am already listening to kids music and kids books on cd (Linz says this makes me the "nice mom") so I'm already half way to crazy land as it is! (these cd's are NOT made for mothers!!!)   Oh and speaking of that...dancing, clapping, head nodding and fist pumps, might be best saved for home as well.  I said their music is not made for moms, but I left out the part that as much as I hate it, I too get sucked into "clap, clap, clap your hands...."!  My kids think I'm totally awesome that I dance and drive!  And you with teenagers, know how important it is that I suck every ounce of admiration out of my kids now, because soon enough they will see me for the dork that I am and treat me as such!!

     So to all of you mothers out there driving while handing back bottles and pacifiers, wiping snot, fixing meals, refereeing fights, dancing, yelling, picking up toys or simply staring at your angels in the rear view mirror...(the obvious thing to say here would be "stop it before you kill us all") do your best to survive...with your sanity, and your life!!!

Click here to check out Earth Monkey store!!

Without putting yourself in danger of having your license revoked...we want you to comment below about some of the not so admirable things you do while driving...And don't forget to pass us on!!!  Thanks!!!

(and just another side note...I am fully aware of the importance of driving safely and paying full attention to the road...this is just a little exaggerated fun...but no too far from reality!!!)

     There is a scene in one of my favorite movies, Christmas Vacation, that makes me cringe every time I see it.  Cousin Eddy arrives at Clarks house with his family in their "tenement on wheels" and as grandpa bends down to give the son a little kiss, Eddy says something to the effect of "you might not want to do that, he's got a little lip fungus that they aint identified yet"...



     I had the joy of experiencing my first zit at the age of 19.  Now those of you that struggled through high school with a face full of them are probably thinking "lucky!!!"  But for me, it has taken 20 years, a truckload of antibiotics, bathtubs of benzoil peroxide,  washes, scrubs, lotions, ointments, homeopathic remedies and special diets, it's finally gone.  Basically I got to experience my 2 weddings, my 2 children's births, beauty school, 2 careers, my 21st., 25th, 30th and 35th birthdays, covered in zits!  Fun...The great part is, they are gone, the bad part is, now I'm fighting the wrinkle battle!  So not fair!!!  At this point in my life, my bathroom cabinet  resembles that of a 65 year old wrinkled, puberty struck, "cousin Eddies son", freckled freak of nature.   I have RetinA for the acne (yes that is what FINALLY got rid of it!), Tri-luma to fade the freckles (sounds much better than "age spots!"), arnica cream for the aching arthritis in my knuckles, and this is the shudder part...an anti-fungal used on jock itch and athletes foot!  There I said it!  I had to use something men used on their johnsons, peepers, man parts, unmentionables, to cure the area just above my lip.  (cringe!) If I ever pictured living a scene in Christmas Vacation, it would be the part with the swimming pool, NOT the lip fungus scenario!   It now takes me longer to get ready for bed than it does to get ready in the morning!  (a point which my husband just LOVES...especially the night guard, sexy!! Riiiiiight)  When each section of your face requires a different "magic potion, it takes a while! The irony is that I am crazy about what our family eats and puts on our skin.  We are basically limited to a bare minimum soap, an organic shampoo and plain coconut oil on our bodies...but when it comes to trying to get my face to resemble that of a human, I'll pretty much resort to whatever chemical is necessary...I admit to peals, micro-dermabrasions, botox (hey don't judge, this stuff takes off 10 years!), and fillers...yep, I have these hollow lines under my eyes, and darn it, I just like it when they are gone.   There, now you all know my secrets!   And one other thing..thank goodness for editing (and Maria Alexandra Photography) because according to a lot of my photos, my face looks as smooth as my little guys butt!"



     Funny what a little vanity does...Ya I'm not afraid to admit to being just a little bit vain...We are bombarded by skinny, plastic looking 16 year olds on tv and magazines selling us "old girls" living in the real world, foundation that makes us look 13.6 years younger, and eye creams that will for sure make us look like we actually have slept for more than 3 hours in a row, and cream to rub on our butts to that will make them look like my 5 year olds!  But the reality?  That type of magic doesn't really exist!  We can fill our drawers with 15 different creams and still scare ourselves when we look in the mirror in the morning!  We will  have lines when we smile, (I'm ok with a lot from that!) furrows when we yell at our kids (not that I ever do that! right...) and no amount of sunscreen with ward off those pesky age spots freckles.  But I guess at the end of the day, It's all good.  I want to do the best I can, (and rid myself of fungus..gag) and the rest is controlled by gravity and time.  So once again, I have no real lesson of the day, just a little funny so you can laugh at me and feel better about yourself!



     I want to know what is in your bathroom drawer...make me feel better now...

and remember to share us with your friends! Us moms need each other!!