The Treat of the Trade

I took a Social Media Cleanse a few days ago. I logged off of Facebook and Instagram. And I cant even begin to tell you, that even though i only made it 48 hours, it was a great feeling to not be so controlled by my phone and refreshing news feed all day long. It gets stressful at times. Keeping up with everyone's dirty laundry, minute by minute status updates, check-ins...well you get the idea.  And the minions! OMG the minions!! (they didn't say all that stuff!)  I didn't "clean up" my friends list. So no one was cut from my life! :) But I paid more attention to what my husband and kids had to say. For the first time in a long time i can actually remember some of the jokes from a few stand up comedy shows the hubby and i watched while he was home.  I wasn't on my phone while having quality time with Josh and the kids. I noticed that when I did log back on, my mood changed. Not so much for the good either. I became irritable and just moody. I was...

  AHHHHH! Parenting. Parenting your own kids. Parenting step-kids. Parenting is hard ya'll! I don't care who you think you are, you don't have it figured out either. You might think you do, I mean your kids are still alive, as are mine but we seriously have no idea what we are doing. And I am pretty sure my parents had no clue what they were doing either. They turned out fine. I think anyway.   I am not my kids friend. I'm not a drill sergeant though either. Although they probably think I am Hitler's sister, I am not that bad! I parent first. Josh parents first. We struggle sometimes on if we are making the right decisions, like I am sure all parents do. So what if your kid gets mad at you and hates you and cusses you in their mind and talks horrible about you to their friends. Who cares! I mean SERIOUSLY?! WHO CARES?? They will one day move out on their own and maybe then .... just maybe....they will realize why you did the things you did. T...

(I copied this list from another blog I read....the ones that are all in bold I already do.) If I could do it all again, I’d: 1. Give myself permission to  not  be on call 24/7. By permission, I don’t mean disappearing, or for long, drawn-out periods. But I  do  mean handing over the reins of parenting more often, so I keep in touch with who I am in addition to being a parent. 2. Let the laundry pile up. Because, let’s be honest, nobody is going to fire me. 3. Enjoy a regular date night with my husband. Away from home if possible, but if we can’t, at least pretend we are. 4. Swing on the swings with the kids. Fun is more fun when your mother is having it too . 5. Make fewer to-do lists. Though I might feel as if I’m accomplishing something, I’m only writing down what I already know. 6. Sleep more, better, longer. 7. Worry less, better, shorter. 8. Be less grumpy about the state of my kids’ rooms. They’ll be empty far too soon. 9. Take ti...

On a previous post i talked about yelling. That is still going well. I am yelling less. And i am also less stressed. I ran across this quote and it got me to thinking about who i want the girls to be when they are older. What kind of example I am setting for them...etc. I also thought long and hard about the example their dad sets for how a man should treat a lady. I think we are good in that department. The girls have told me several times that they admire our relationship. We both have someone we can be ourselves with and laugh and learn together. We share the same interest and have different ones as well and that gives us something to talk about at the end of the day. The girls will hopefully have long lasting relationships in life and a happy marriage.  I think about the kind of woman Jaxon might end up with. Will she be similar to his mom or the complete opposite.  Your kids are watching and listening even if you don't think they are. They might n...

As a mom, we yell. We aren't always proud of it after the fact, but we do it because we feel it gets our point across. After the 4th time of being told, not ask, but told to do something our voice gets louder then the kids get pissy and now your moody and an argument might break out. Then everything will be ok until the next time. As a mom, we want to also keep the peace and be fair while teaching our kids not to be little brats and to be independent and learn to grow with things they are taught at home. But as soon as you are relaxed and taking a break from the norm, it seems things get chaotic.  I don't run a military boot camp per say, but i do run this house on organized chaos. Is that a thing? If not then I invented it. I have 3 kids i am raising and they are all different ages. They are all different kids. One may not need to be constantly told over and over to do something and the other 2 might. I treat them all different. But sometimes I yell. As moms we al...

i am. i really am a nice person. i was raised to be polite.  sometimes i am too nice and give the wrong people too many chances all to be let down again.  i give people the benefit of the doubt way more often than i should.  the world and mean people, that weren't raised to be polite, have hardened me. makes me trust less. makes me call people out on their BS right off the bat. therefore makes me look like the mean one. even though i had been nice to them many many times. i let them talk bad about me. take advantage of me too long. then, when i stand up for myself, i'm the bitch.  but have you ever asked yourself why? what was it that you said or did? what was it that you didn't say or didn't do? i also fight my own battles. i don't have my parents or siblings do it for me. i don't have my husband do it for me. i do it. i say words and decide who i want in my life. i do it all on my own. i am normally shy and quiet when i first meet y...

When I started losing my hair, of course I was certain it would grow back. It didn't. From April 2012 to November 2016 I never went out in public without a hat on. I think I wore a wig 3 different times and didn't like it.  So many times people would approach me asking what cancer I had. If I was in remission. They would look at me and treat me as if I was sick, contagious and/or dying. When I would tell them about Alopecia and how it was a sudden onset, they would either feel really sorry for me or act as if something was terribly wrong. I mean--its hair! Whats wrong with someone if they lost AND cant regrow hair, right? After giving up on Dr's, I decided to get a tattoo. On my head. Hats are hot and annoying. I live in a part of the country that is flat and 50mph winds are considered a light breeze. So imagine dealing with holding a hat on your head as you carry in groceries or hold your sons hand. It got highly annoying. So I wanted to do away with hats an...