Living the family life

My sweet loves,   Each one of you were placed in my life at a precise moment. Each of you have taught me something different. All of you have taught me that love is the most important thing in our lives.   The truth is, I love you all differently but equally. You have taught me life lessons that I didn't know I needed. You have given me the greatest gift in your own way. Watching you grow is the most exciting, scary, irritating, amazing, heartbreaking, joyous thing in life.   As your mommy/bonus mom I am not ready for you to grow. I look at you and see that little one with the thirst to learn. I do, however, want to see you grow. I want to see the amazing person that I know you'll be. I am scared because I know that life is hard and cruel at times. There will be your your first bad grade, first heartbreak, first fight, first ended friendship, but there will also be your good report card, your first love, your first real friends, your first car. You see, as your mo...

  Stop what you're doing for a moment. Breathe. Don't think about anything. Take a deep breath. Tune out the world for just a moment. Do you feel the rise and fall as you breathe? Take a deep breath. Just breathe.   To the mom hiding in a room alone trying to not break down in front of your babies. You will make it. Your hard work isn't for nothing. It's OK to break down. You need it. You're not struggling alone, I promise. Being a mom is HARD. It is by far one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Do not feel guilty because you needed a moment to break down or breathe. Those babies in there depend on you and you need this time so you can regroup. You're doing the best you can and those babies love you. You're their world. You need to care for you so you can care for them. You've got this.   To the mom who is hiding to sneak a snack. Eat. You're constantly making sure those babies are fed and well nourished. How many meals have you skipped? Quit...

  If only. If only I knew then what I know now. Sound familiar? I bet it does. I bet that you have said it at least once or twice in your lifetime. Let's talk about that phrase for a minute.   When you look at a picture and you think " if only I knew then what I know now" what would you have done different? If that phrase were true, what would you have done different in your life at that time? I've thought about that phrase a lot lately. Do you know what? I'm glad I didn't know. I've had parts of my life that I wish I could rewrite or redo. There's parts of my life that I wish I could forget. Let's face the facts though, we cant but how much did you learn from that situation? I mean really. I learned a lot from those times in life and I can almost bet you did too.   You see, we turn to that phrase because we might have not liked the situation, we might have not liked what we were going through at the time, we might have not wanted to remember tha...

They say to marry someone like you, one you have much in common with, one whom likes some of the things you do. However, I've learned in life that in many cases opposites not only attract but balance each other out. My husband does just that. He and I grew up completely different. He did anything he wanted and caused all types of trouble, I grew up the good band kid that made good grades and stayed in school. I guess you could say it was obvious I was the first born in my family and he was the baby in his.   I am a typical mom. I worry A LOT, I discipline, I make sure they're fed, etc. My husband however, is the ball of fun, get into trouble with, "what irritating thing can I teach you now to drive mommy nuts later" type dad. To be completely honest, it might drive me INSANE but I am grateful for that.   When our 2yo fractured above her nose, it was daddy who took her to the ER. Where mommy would be a nervous mess, daddy made sure that she stayed awake like she nee...

  Have you ever felt so alone in a room full of people, feeling like if you were to scream that no one would hear you? Have you ever gotten so lost in your thoughts that you felt as if you were drowning and struggle to dig yourself out? Have you ever worried about many things at once and most of those worries had a 1 in a 100,000 chance of happening? Yeah, that's my axieties.   Everyone's anxiety battles are different. Everyone fights them differently. Mine don't make me feel like I don't want to get up, mine make me feel like I don't want to sleep. They will keep me up late worrying about why is my child coughing, what is that noise outside(I live in a major port city), will my children have good friends, will they have health issues like mine, will my husband and I get to see them grow and get married. These might sound like normal things to you but in my head they instantly become "worst case scenario." They build off other negative thoughts and soon I...

Yesterday, my 2 year old had an accident and her nose would not stop bleeding. She was screaming and crying and it was very difficult to console her. I was trying not to freak out, dealing with a 10 month old, trying to make sure that he didn't get in anything, and had a 3 year old that wanted to follow her sister around everywhere. I desperately tried to get my 3 year old to go play with my 10 month old and hopes that it will help keep both of them out of trouble.   The day is gone better than most, I had just finished cleaning the kids room and moved on to clean the kitchen. There was a movie on for the kids in the living room in the kids were playing just fine. All of a sudden I hear Railee's scream. I looked out the door expecting to see Railee fussing because she wasn't getting her way. That's usually the case, but not this time.   There my 2 year old stood shaking and bleeding from her nose. She was terrified and hurting. I immediately ran to her, snatched her u...