Busy Momma

I’m a report junky. Reports give me great information in a short format so I can read it in one sitting and get work done still.

With blogging being a big passion I am constantly on the look out for information about blogging. Alice has opened up a new coaching just for bloggers called Blogging Bootcamp and has released a few free products as promotions. If you can’t afford her coaching, you can afford to take the great info and use it to promote your blog to it’s fullest.

The first report is about establishing your expertise.
* Why being seen as an expert is a good thing
* How just about anyone can be an expert in something
* How to leverage that expertise to build their business

Download the report and find out more information on the Blogging Bootcamp. There are very limited spaces available in the coaching and the sign up closes on March 7th. So don’t procrastinate or the class will close.

I’ve so totally felt this before.  I was much younger when I was home with the kids of course, so my self-confidence was not at the all time high that it is now.  lol  But I just had to be this supermom.  I had to get everything right and the kids needed to look act right and be above average in their learning.

Good grief!  WTF?  Who needs that.  lol  I’m so over that.  If I get to stay at home I do not feel the need for the house to be spotless.  I’d love it to be, but that would require OTHER’S in the house picking up their crap.  So it’s not my fault it’s not.  And my kids are perfect whether they read above or below their grade level.  Since they excel at their own things, it just may not be the “norm” at what they excel at.

So Mom’s, enjoy this Jelly Mom installment!

Stay-at-home Mom Guilt
©Lisa Barker

Stay-at-home moms are under a lot of pressure these days.  Being at home is slotted as such a no-brainer that many women are committing themselves to home-schooling, sewing their own clothes and feeding the homeless to make their time at home valuable…which makes the rest of us seem even more lazy.

So stop it!

Have you seen the commercial with the mother whose preschooler can already read at the second grade level?  Talk about a guilt trip, especially if you are a stay-at-home mom.  Like, what am I doing all day if my kid can’t write a thesis paper before he enters kindergarten?

And what about the commercial where the mom and her kid (age four) are playing a hand held game side by side on the sofa?  She’s speaking in a normal tone.  He’s listening.  They’re having fun and, worst of all, they’re BONDING.

If it were me on the sofa with my son at that age there would be screaming and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  “No, you can’t play!!  I’m going to WIN!!!  I’M winning!!!” he would scream.

Of course, since I am a stay-at-home mom that doesn’t participate in playgroups, doesn’t home-school and doesn’t send her children to pre-school, the reason my child doesn’t behave like the one in the commercial is because he isn’t ‘socialized.’

When did behaving like a normal toddler become a sign of a lack of socialization?

Commercials on television with mom singing how she loves to play with her kid and have a wonderful day really make me doubt my competence as a mother.  How many times have I wanted to do something fun with my kids only to end up being the parent because of the way they behave?

You get them loaded up in the car, drive three blocks and you’ve already warned two of them five times to stop the bickering, whining, teasing and shouting.  By block six you slam on the brakes, flip a u-turn and drive back home, plans cancelled.  I’d love to be their friend, but they need a parent.

Have you seen the babies-only station on satellite television?  Talk about pressure!  My babies are straight-A students now, but back then they would have been labeled total idiots for just lying there and drooling.

How on earth would I have worked ‘educational-interactive-baby-television-time’ into their busy schedule of spitting up, pooping their pants, crying, sleeping, spitting up and pooping their pants?

When my kids got a mom-at-home they didn’t get a nanny/tutor/personal trainer, they got a mom-at-home—somebody they can count on to be there even now when they get home from high school.  And that was the whole point in the first place.

LISA BARKER of Greenfield is a syndicated humor columnist and mom of five. Her latest book is “Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane … Doesn’t Mean You Are A Bad Parent!” See www.JellyMom.com for more information.

They are hit and miss aren’t they?  I did go to the doctors office and they couldn’t fit me in for an actual appointment until Monday (it’s wed.) so I chose to go to the walk in clinic.  I got there at 2:30 because I figured that would be after the lunch time rush and before people got off work.  Not for me of course.  I sat in the waiting room for 2 hours.  Thankfully I had stuff to work on in the car so I literally did not notice that it was really that long.

Liked the doc I met with and will probably see if I can schedule my regular check up with him in the regular office.  Of course he said I have almost completely recovered from any infection I had.  Always the case when I do go in.  He said he’d prescribe me something for it if I wanted, but he didn’t think it was necessary.  I don’t remember to take drugs when I do have to take them, let alone when I’m already on the mend.  No thanks.  lol  My lungs were also ok which was my main worry.  My inhaler prescription has been out for over a year so I did need that.  He also gave me coupons for free inhaler and a big discount on refills and enough samples for my allergies to last me 2 weeks.  AWESOME!

So I’m a new woman with my inhaler.  Ahhh, I can now breath in all my favorite allergens more easily.  LOLOLOL

This is one of those weeks. It doesn’t help that I’ve been having allergy problems for the last 10 days and am just so tired. But one thing after another. You know, the little things you can deal fine with when you are healthy, but when you aren’t feeling 100% they just end up piling up on you? lol Luckily I was surfing my favorite blogs and Ami Chan is having the same thing. She posted 3 things to be thankful for this week and I am going to follow in her footsteps. So here goes, they may be small, but they are still thank you’s.

1. Hubby made an awesome dinner last night and we got to use our snazzy pestle and mortar when he made it. lol We are cheesy aren’t we?

2. Tomorrow is payday!!! Can’t wait to go grocery shopping.

3. I got to see my in-laws on Sunday and it was awesome. I hadn’t paid attention that it had been Christmas since we’d seen them. No wonder why I missed them so much! Oh and I got my bday cash from them as well.

Going through my favorite blogs and Ami Chan had the best blog post I’ve seen in a long while. It’s 20 Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity. The things on the list are silly and definitely right up my alley. Hopefully I can do most of them when the kids are around and embarrass the heck out of them.

I didn’t make the dr. appointment yesterday because I was feeling so much better.  But today I am oh so much worse.  It’s totally in my chest and now I am a little worried it turned into bronchitis.  The biggest reason I’m worried is because I’m around a person that is not very healthy and I will stay away from her if it is bronchitis.  If she gets it, then it could turn into something very serious for her and I just wouldn’t be able to live with that guilt.

I don’t have a regular doctor though.  I do have my gyno, but that is not a regular check up.  lol  So now I get to go find a doctor and hope I can trust them when I’m actually sick.  Why do I do that to myself?  I really need to get a regular doctor.  I’m making the appointment at the natural health clinic and hopefully I will like them.  I’m not a fan of prescriptions, so my hope is that I can get better health care at this clinic than a typical office.

Of course right now my hope is they can get me in sometime soon.  I don’t want to get even worse before I get some antibiotics.

Well I’ve talked about the “friends” myspace affair that broke up her marriage.  our kids are super good friends and this is posing a really big problem.  It’s not fair to the kids that I can’t trust her enough to have my kids.  Prior to this if they wanted to spend the week with each other, it would be sure, when can I drop you off.  lol  But now there is just this barrier, that I know I have good reason for, that has me not knowing what to do.

Daughters friend is having a slumber party tonight at her Mom’s house so everyone can see where she lives and just cause she hasn’t had one since this all happened.  Of course the immediate answer was no.  I’ve told her that she can’t stay down there.  But then we talked and I guess this boyfriend is never there since he lives in the Minnesota, not exactly dropping by here unannounced.  But yet that is still my worry.  He knows where she lives, he knows she has kids and he would know that she is having a slumber party tonight.  Perfect time for some creepy myspace dude to go bezerk right?  UGH, talk me down.  lol  The what-if’s can drive you nuts.

So hubby and I decided that as long as the boyfriend is going to be there and there will be a group of girls, then we are going to be ok with it.  I still hate it out of principal, but it’s really not fair to the girls.

My daughter looked like she wanted to argue about all of it, of course, cause she wanted to go.  But I just told her why I am so worried about it.  That would she have a friend of hers watch our puppies if her friend had lied about everything for 6-9 months?  She said no and you could tell she got it then.  Cause I told her she was much more important than a puppy so she needs to understand that it’s going to take a while for her to build our trust back up.  I’m very happy that we’ve raised our kids so well.  We can talk to them about things such as this and they really do get it.  I’m not saying we don’t have the major irrational hormone blow ups that are bound to only get worse, but there is a good conversation that flows when needed.

Ugh, hubby didn’t feel good today.  I know the tummy flu is going around and I’m really hoping this is not what he had today.  He’s feeling much better, but I think he ate something bad when he went out with the guys last night.  He really didn’t eat anything weird is the odd thing.  And he wasn’t hammered when he got dropped off so it wasn’t the brown bottle flu.  But he had a bad tummy ache all day and night and he’s never sick.

I woke up to my allergies being horrible.  My throat is scratchy and I have the worst post-nasal drip.  It’s making me nausous.  Usually this would make me not eat, but I’m just working through it and eating anyway.  lmao  K, maybe I should go with the no eat thing.  I could lose another 5 pounds out of the deal.

I took some meds and they are obviously keeping me awake.  I don’t have any appointments until 5:30 tomorrow so I can stay up and sleep in tomorrow.  I am looking forward to it.  Although it is 12:30.  lol  I have a ton of blogging to catch up on though.  And I have to go post my online training site special to some more forums.  I haven’t hit it hard enough with that and I could easily make enough money to only work the hours I am working right now if I got this site off and running!

Partied like a rockstar.  Umm, yes, embarrassed myself.  But thankfully I believe most of the sober people left before I got really bad.  lol  Everyone that stayed the whole night was just as drunk as I was.  So they won’t remember!  Some friends stopped by at the end of the night so we didn’t have to pay for cab rides home.  SWEET!  They taxi’d all our drunk butts home.  What are friends for huh?  Boy do we owe them now.  I’m sure they’ll be calling us next weekend to pick them up.  lol  They better call us when they need a ride!  That was so nice of them.

So I was dancing on the stage with the battling piano’s.  Umm, no there was no dancing at this place.  I just decided there should be.  lol  If I hear music when I’m drunk, I must dance.  Happens no matter where I am.  Home, friends house, the bar, it’s all the same.  Saves me from many hangovers.  If I’m dancing I can’t be drinking.  Then I need water because I’m sweating.  Oh and I’m burning off the calories.

Lordy I did a lot of shots.  Let’s start this story off right.  Hubby took me out to lunch and I had my first drink on Friday at 11:45am.  lololol  By the time we got to the piano bar at 7ish I’d had 3 beers and 3 1/2 sparks (energy alcohol drinks).  I was super happy, but not drunk.  Order my first drink and power through that.  Our friend orders me a double, but I decide to move over to the other table of our group to mingle there and am met with two shots of patron and a cherry bomb.  MMM, like the cherry bomb.  I like anything that has a rockstar with it.  lol  Power them down and those are the last shots I remember doing.  lol  I wasn’t blacked out drunk, I was totally coherent, I just don’t remember taking any more shots.  Course I did and my friends lost count of them.  UMM, hello, friends take care of my stupid butt.  Anyone?  counting my shots?  looking out for me?  Oh, I must mean the one’s that are buying me all the shots?  Yes, those would be the one’s.

Oh no, they are loving the entertainment, why would they cut me off.  Hell no we didn’t want to get you off stage, we loved it.  Again, super friends huh?  lol  I told them payback is a serious bitch and she’s got nothing on what I’ll do to them now.

My friend said I’m in charge of her next bday party.  Her husband is already figuring out all the crappy friends they want me to meet because I am so much more fun and can drink them under the table.  NO GUYS, REALLY!  There was seriously someone looking out for me.  Cause usually I’d be sick for two days after a party like that.  I can’t take a chance of getting a hangover.  I’m not sure how I missed getting one this time.  I’m a terrible drinker, I get sick at the drop of a hat.  Hmm, maybe the pattern here is it was almost all shots? 

Alright, you could probably talk me into it next weekend, but I think we should party at someone’s house so I only have my good friends to embarrass myself in front of.  lol  Plus it’s cheaper.  Holy cow we spent some serious money there.  They had to have loved us.  Oh and a guy that hubby works with showed up.  Course all of B shift was invited, but we didn’t get ahold of everyone before hand.  So he bought all the boys shots to celebrate getting off probation.  They had no idea what it was shots of.  Hubby is working with him right now, so ugh, wonder what other stories are coming out.  lol

I was by far, not the drunkest there so I guess that’s good?  Oh and I’m all bruised to hell.  I was wearing sandals with no traction.  I fell a zillion times and I NEVER fall when I’m drinking.  That’s the part I’m most embarrassed about.  Jeesh, I fell in the parking lot and tore myself up.  I remember that fall cause it hurt.  Next time I need to think ahead on the shoes.  DUH!

Our master bathroom get’s cold.  We have central heating, but it’s just darn cold in there all the time.  I would love to add some other heating in there for before I get in the shower or so I could take a bath without the fear of getting frostbite when I get out.

While researching different ways to add heaters, cause how do I know what I want.  I came across vent free gas logs. Vent free? I love that idea. I have unusable space in my master bath and how cool would it be to fire up one of these, light my candles, pour a glass of wine and just veg out looking at the log? OH MAN, and they are affordable too. Of course that makes a big difference to me. lol

My parents on the other hand have a very cold house. They only have a gas fireplace as heat. For all the years I lived there we only had a woodstove as heat. Needless to say, we had some quick showers growing up. They are going to remodel the bathroom finally and are talking about putting in a wall heater. Something you can turn on and go back in within a few minutes and have it nice and toasty.

Or maybe a patio heater is more your style? Anything to do with heating is on this site. I love the patio heaters. Up here in Washington the Summer’s aren’t as hot. So of course that means our nights can get down into the 60’s quick quickly. But we love to sit outside and enjoy the lazy Summer nights. This will make it so we can stay out longer with friends or just the 4 of us playing poker. lol