Supermom........?

As I am sure all Mom's do, I feel this pressure to be supermom. We all know that woman, hair perfect all the time, so put together, so relaxed, kids so cutely dressed at all times, has the kids at the playground and when they go home, fresh cupcakes are waiting for them. After eating the cupcakes, they go play quietly in the other room while Mom makes a mouth watering dinner. Dad comes in, the kids run and hug him and they all sit down to a wonderful dinner, talking and laughing.......Right? Well, I hate to admit it but that is about as far from our life as you can get. Instead, I feel as if I constantly race this huge clock that ticks louder and louder the later it gets. At our house, Dad gets off first, goes and picks up the kids from school, brings them home, starts on homework and calls me. We figure out what we are going to make for dinner and he either cooks it or thaws out the meat for me to cook when I get home. We hurry through dinner, run up to take baths, read Kylie's books for school, fight them to get them both in bed at 8 and then collapse on the couch before we both start studying or doing whatever else we needed to get done that day before coming home to the whirlwind. Now, we even have a wrench thrown into our hectic routine and that is called Monday night dance class. So now, after dinner, we have to rush Kylie out the door to dance class and she doesn't even get home until almost 8 so we have just enough time to freshen her up and get her ready for bed. I am really glad that she is enjoying dance but I will admit, me and the other "dance" mom's don't have much in common (I know, go figure!). While, I do like my job and what I do, I really wish that I could leave at 4 instead of 5.......this would really make my nights easier, as I feel this pressure to cook and be home when my kids get home, somehow that is what I feel would make me supermom, though I know that is not true.

The crazy thing is Chad and I grew up in almost the scenario I opened with. We got home from school, did our homework and then went outside to the giant playground which was right across the street from our house. Dad got home at 5 everyday, and called us in for dinner. We ran in to dinner but unlike our taco's or spaghetti or crockpot, we had .......get this.....roast beef, real mashed potatoes, real gravy.....on a weekday!! That's weekend food at my house now! The other amazing thing is I don't remember nights going so fast. They seemed like we had so much time and it was so stress free. OK, so maybe a kid's perspective is entirely different and if it is, I would love to hear from either one of my parents ;).

I have talked to work about leaving at 4 but I don't think this will be able to happen. I am not going to push it too much as there are layoffs happening and I need my job if we want to be able to even enjoy taco's and spaghetti...LOL. BUT, the good news is, there are still small moments in our hectic evenings that I do feel like supermom. All it takes is an unexpected hug or kiss from one of the girls and occasionally, Kylie will say, You're the best mom ever.....and though I know I am the only one she knows....who am I to argue with that!!

Cereal Letdown

This morning I opened up a fresh box of Cheerios. At the very top of the box was a toy car wrapped in plastic sitting on top of the unopened bag of cereal. I find it tragic that the cereal manufacturer is robbing children of this memorable expereince. The whole fun of the "prize" in the cereal is the thrill of the chase. I remember my Mom always had the rule...."No digging through the cereal with your hands to find it". That prize would be buried on the bottom somewhere and we would have to keep eating and filling our bowl to get to it. Chad and I would eat more than one bowl not because we were hungry but because we wanted the prize....because in those days, there was no sharing the cereal prize, if you got to it first, it was yours. I can see us now, looking each other in the eye with our sly smiles reaching for the box to refill our bowl while the other one thought the themselves.....please don't get the prize, please don't get the prize. A huge sigh of relief when the prize didn't come. The next one would pick up the box and pour their cereal but would lean it real far in all different directions to see if they could get that prize to surface to the top somehow. There could only be one winner and that person was the luckiest kid in the world for that day as they blew the cereal dust off their prize and figured out what it was. I still remember the magic coin trick prize, I believe Chad beat me to that, it was so cool, you put a coin in and there was a secret slot on the bottom that the coin slid under as you said the magic words.......SIGH, the good old day!!

So, General Mills, Kellogg's and all the other cereal companies out there, Enough of this handing it to children on a silver platter, it is things like this that are making children soft and wimpy. Man up, bury that thing way down there and get rid of the sissy wrapping, a little cereal dust never hurt anyone!!

Snow Daze

Well, the south saw it's first snow storm this year.....if you can call it snow, it was really more of an ice storm. The big difference between here and Maryland is that it is now Monday and the last bit of precipitation happened mid day Saturday and I have yet to see a snow plow. The only melting has been compliments of the sun. Needless to say, schools were closed on Monday which meant I had to stay home. It honestly felt like I was playing hookie with my kids all day.

Unfortunately, it was one of those storms that was too icy and hard for the kids to play outside so Kylie was disappointed. Another one of those "No fair" moments in the tragic life of a 6 year old. She now wants to get her ears pierced again which is fine except for the drama that accompanies this desire. Everything is based around the fact that earrings make people pretty and she just wants to be pretty again.......I am really not ready for her as a teenager, please everyone start praying for me now, I will need all I can get! Though it would be nice if earrings were all people needed, right?

Now for the good news of the week!!! We booked our first ever cruise to the Bahamas!!! The Johannes' and the Jarrett's will be going on a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas in September! I am already thinking of what I am going to wear ;). We tried to talk the Basham unit into coming with us, but with sea sickness being a factor, we will try another type of vacation with them!

That is all for now! I need to post pictures of my jewelry I have made, and will do that soon!