Motherhood

Do early birds really have a bigger edge on life than night owls? Follow my night owl vs. early bird journey to see!!

Night Owl vs. Early Bird (Part 1)

I have been a night owl my whole life.When I was a kid I would stay up late to read my latest novel. As adult it was cleaning or movies and now, currently, it’s the time when I blog. I wake up to the sound of my toddler crying for me to come get him out of bed. I have tried so many times to wake up early in my life. The only time when I was truly successful was when I was a young 21 yr old serving a mission for my church and it was REQUIRED that we wake up at 6:30 every morning to study. Because I tend to have an ‘obedient’ personality, I did it faithfully…for 18 months. You’d think that would have cured me of my late night addiction. Nope. The minute I returned home to normal life I immediately slipped back into my night owl routine.

Why is it so easy to be a night owl as a mom? Well, duh! The kids are in bed and I FINALLY have some time ALL TO MYSELF! IT’s hard to give that up by succumbing to an early bedtime! It’s when I get any left over cleaning done (if I’m in the mood, which I’m usually not!) or when I watch movies with my husband….but usually it’s spent on my favorite hobby…blogging.

night owl vs. early bird

Feeling like you have Guilty Mom Syndrome?

Guilty Mom Syndrome?

I think I have “Guilty Mom Syndrome”

Today was just not a good day. I will not bore you with all the details. If you are a mother, you already live them…every day! I’ve been lying here in my bed for several hours trying to come up with something profound to write today. Instead my mind was flooded with all the things I did ‘wrong’ today.

  • I neglected to put God first by saying my prayers and reading my scriptures
  • I yelled at my kids because they were acting horrible.
  • I broke my healthy diet and binged on Chik-fil-a followed by a trip to Target for a treat which ended up being several that are now hidden in the master bedroom shower. (don’t tell the kids!)
  • I didn’t exercise.
  • I’m hiding from my kids.
  • I can keep going…
  • Do I really need to say more??

Then I started to think of all the things I constantly feel guilt for as a mother. It is an ON-GOING NON STOP mental and emotional battle. From the minute my kids were born I have found more and more things to feel guilty of.

WHY?

I don’t know. I guess it’s because I absolutely love to torture myself everyday. So why not just feel guilty….

Mother: Guilty as Charged

Making home a heaven on earth is more of a Journey than a Destination!

5 Tips for Making Home a Heaven on Earth

If you step into my home on any given day, you will most likely not see perfectly clean floors and walls or even clean children half the time. My home is not a museum, it is a place of learning and growth! Sometimes that growth is not pretty! I dream of a perfectly organized, clean home with children who behave all of the time but evidently my children don’t dream that same dream:).

If there’s one thing that stands out from my childhood it is that regardless of all the fighting and chaos that went on in a family with 8 kids, I always felt loved and at peace in our home. My mom never gave up making our home feel a little bit like heaven even though us kids probably made her life feel a little more like hell.

making home a heaven on earth

Here are five things I have learned for making home a heaven on earth even when hell seems to be knocking at the door!

Making home a heaven on earth is more of a Journey than a Destination!

Tips to survive on a small budget? DONE!

9 Ways to Happily Survive on a Small Budget!

 7 Ways to Happily Survive on a Small Budget

 
Okay, in the past, I’ve learned a lot about …MONEY! I’ve had plenty of experiences  “falling behind” with things like medical bills or unplanned ’emergencies’ like fixing a portion of our roof that was damaged by the stinkin’ swamp cooler. It isn’t easy to get ‘caught up’ on a small budget and I’ve been tempted several times in my life to get a job outside of the home to help us get caught up faster. But then I think,
 
“What would that be like adding a part-time job to my already insane life with the kids?”