For All The Moms

                                    "Parenting is traumatic"

This is what I heard from a Focus on The Family parenting message Hunky Hubby and I listened to this week. I had never heard a better definition of being a parent before.

This is a hard job.
No doubt about it. 
I'm pretty sure that anyone who ever thought or said that stay at home moms have it easy, never tried it. 
No parent has it easy.

I have never been more frustrated, exhausted, stressed out, or felt like more of a failure at anything I've ever done than being a mom. 

I've also never been so happy.
I absolutely love being a mom.
It was the perfect job that I had been waiting for.
I have never felt more important, fulfilled, satisfied or loved as I do being a mom.

I look at the three boys that God has blessed me with and my heart swells, it gets a little hard to breathe, and tears pool in the corner of my eyes because it is just so amazing that I get to be their mom.
I love them so much.

It feels like "your heart walking around outside of your body"

It's that kind of amazing.

I am so thankful to have this hard, amazing, difficult, awesome, exhausting, wouldn't-trade-it-for-the-world, job.

Moms, in the midst of your traumatic experience of mothering, remember this: you are the perfect mom for your child. God gave that specific child to you and you to that child. You may not be perfect, but you are exactly the Momma that your baby needs.

So carry on Mom! 

And when the going gets tough, well, take a break. 
That's what Grandma is for! 

I hope you enjoyed this day in honor of you.  

Someone's Been Sitting In My Chair . . .

After sitting down at my desk today,  I immediately saw that someone had left a bit of evidence on my calendar.

At the end of the month it may not have been so noticable. However, at the beginning of the month, my calendar is a bit empty so I found this right away.

Isn't it precious? 

I think I'll frame it.

After all, in 2 days my baby is going to be 6!

It does leave me wondering though.

Is he tagging my desk?  Marking his territory because he's ready to take over?

Or is he scheduling an appointment for some Mommy time?

I choose to believe it's all about wanting time with me.

Well, he's got it, after all, it's been scheduled!

Ready, Set, Go!

It was a beautiful evening tonight so we went for a little bike ride down our road.
When you have 3 boys (well, 4 really when you count their dad) you can be guaranteed there will be a race involved.

Dad usually wins.  But as you could see, everyone enjoys the race.

Even Annie!

This is her happy face when she knows we are going for a bike ride or walk.

Wyat is an intense bike rider.  I love action shots! Even if they aren't in focus, they capture true emotion.

Since I was taking pictures while I was riding my bike I think they didn't turn out too badly. 

We enjoyed our evening, enjoyed the activity, enjoyed the outdoors (we even scared up a nice buck! at least a 6 maybe an 8 pointer), and we enjoyed each others company.

However, we won't be able to enjoy the evenings like this for much longer.  Fall is on it's way in.

I'd love to hear how your family likes to spend the summer evenings. Leave me a comment and let me know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

How do you keep 6 Kids Busy? Frozen T-Shirts

Spending the week at my sisters house can be quite the adventure.  We have 6 kids between the two of us, all under 10 years of age. 
Only one girl in the mix.
We have a lot of fun but over the years we've learned that it helps to have some constructive plans to keep the kids busy.  They all play really well together, most of the time, but if there is too much unscheduled play time, things can get a little hairy.
This year we tried to be a little smarter so we began what we like to call Mom Camp.
Basically, just some fun activities, crafts, or otherwise organized time.

One super hot, muggy evening, we decided it would be a perfect time for a frozen t-shirt contest.

That's right, I said frozen.

As in cold, hard, block of ice.

So here is what you do: (we got this idea out of the Family Fun magazine).
Get a t-shirt out and soak it in the sink. 
Wring it out really well.
Fold it up neatly or crumple in a ball.
Place on wax paper and place in the freezer.
Wait until it's frozen solid, a couple hours at least.
Pick a hot day to do this on.
Get out the frozen t-shirt and let the contest begin!

 The kids weren't told anything about the contest when we sent them outside.  We also sent them outside for at least 5 minutes so they would get good and hot in the muggy weather we were having that day.  We wanted them to be willing to participate in our contest.

It was so fun to watch them do this! Everyone was having a great time trying to pry their frozen shirt apart (well, almost everyone).

They were laughing and giggling, and trying really hard to be the winner. (We bribed them with a prize, which turned out to be fake.  Mean, I know, blame Hunky Hubby, it was his idea.)

In hindsight, we should have had each child go individually and timed how long it took them to put the shirts on.  That way we could have watched each individual more closely and seen all of their funny expressions as that cold shirt touched their warm skin.

I could have gotten more pictures that way too.

It was so much fun, and such a simple thing to do.

I think we'll have to put this on the list for next years Mom Camp.