New Blog

Hello Readers!

I am combining my blog and will no longer be posting on this one. You can still continue following me on my journey by viewing my new blog located here:

http://mommaof4hobbits.wordpress.com/

I'm so glad that you have been following me despite not posting regularly. I do hope that you continue to follow me at my new location.

Be Blessed!!!

No full moon, not Friday the 13th, what's going on?

So Friday was a treat. Felt like pooh, hubby's car broke and spent all of Friday and Saturday messing around with that finally got it towed back. (Great towing company btw. If you live in the Albany, New York area or are visiting check out Capital District Towing and Transport. www.mytowguys.com Fantastic! They do what they say, when they say and have excellent customer service! Plug done.) Needless to say I got jack diddly squat done. So now I'm pulling an all nighter to get stuff done. Sadly my head is already killing me and I'm not even close to finishing my list of stuff to do. Yeah I know I'm blogging instead of working, sue me. It's quiet.

That's another thing. With the disaster the house is in and the poohiness I've been feeling like lately, due to my own stupidity and the weather, I can't get it done. Hurricane Sandy may have caused destruction on the North East's coast line but my lovies cause destruction in side this house. Not that I mind that much because they are happy, I just wish they would happily pick up their crap too.

Well then off I go to do some more housework... right after checking Facebook.

Peace my homies!

The Heart of a Child - Part 1

There are some days I just want to hang up my apron, clock out and go far, far away. But I don't because I love my kids. I want them to be happy, loved and well adjusted individuals. There are days like today that make me a very proud mum. It was shopping/errand day. Lately I've been scared out of my mind to take them anywhere considering their antics. But today I took all four grocery shopping by myself. OK that's a lie. I had a million stores to go to and only had to take them to the first store by myself.

They were so well behaved I almost couldn't believe it. They rode the cart around like a train which I indulged them because it made my life easier and wasn't hurting anyone. "Aaallll Aboooaaard." I'd call as we moved to the next aisle, they would scramble onto the cart to hold on for dear life. This was a wonderful because they giggled with joy and yelled "WOOT WOOT!" and "CHOO CHOO!", plus I knew I wasn't forgetting anyone. A.E. helped load and unload the shopping cart and L.E. helped bag groceries. They're three years old!!! Three year olds can do these things?

A few days ago I was feeling down in the dumps, depressed if you will. A.E. comes into the room like she always does first thing in the morning after Daddy has gone off to work, grabs my phone, starts Netflix and watches cartoons. I was sitting there watching her and she looks up at me and says, "What's wrong Mommy?" I tell her that I'm just a little sad today. I must of fallen back to sleep cause the next thing I know she is shoving an apple in my face while chomping on her's saying, "Here's an apple Mommy." I'm feeling down and my three year old brings me breakfast in bed. How sweet and amazing is this? She may be the strongest willed of them all, but her heart is bigger and covered in gold.

Our darling ladybug, L.D. is the most patient of the four. Her ability to be as patient as she is at such a young age is truly a gift that God has blessed her with. She is patient with her older siblings as they try to boss her around and is patient as a saint when I need to care for our her younger sister. I truly believe that this is how she shows her love for me. "You are my sunshine" is her favorite song ever since she was just weeks old and her favorite color is yellow. Coincidence? I think not. But when she hurts, oh it will surely rip your heart out of your chest. This little girl loves deep and hurts deep.

It's late so I will end for now with part 2 to come in the near future.

Cloth Diapering for the Posh Momma.

*YAAAAWWWNN. Well here we are 4:39 am and haven't slept all night. On top of it all promised my husband that he could sleep in tomorrow, well today now... So I guess I should grab another cup of coffee, but I can't because the dog is kenneled downstairs and if I go down now, she'll wake the kids. I don't know about you but waking four children under the age of four at 4:42 am sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

While I'm up I thought I would take this moment to share with you something that has been a wonderful godsend to this family. With the continual fluctuation of rising costs it can be difficult on a family of six... even one to be considered middle class, OK especially on the middle class. Practically living paycheck to paycheck, we don't qualify for any programs of any sort because we barely miss the income guidelines bybetween $50 to $100. So where can we cut cost. Well the kids need diapers can't cut that... or can we.

We certainly don't let our children stew in their pants to save on diapers. Giving them a diaper ration is not really what I'm talking about here. We decided to jump into the world of cloth diapering. Oddly enough quite a few people from the old school of cloth diapering think me to be nuts with all these kids and then taking the time out to wash poopie nappies too. Let me just tell you, if I realized how insanely easy these FuzziBunz diaper were I would of used them with the twins from day one.

The FuzziBunz One Size Elite cloth diaper. For more info click HERE.

These are such a great investment because you can use them from day one up until your munchkin is completely potty trained! I can say with certainty that it's very possible as I have done so with my kiddos. Between the snap enclosures and the the adjustable leg and waist elastics you are guaranteed  to find the perfect size for you little one.

The Truth About Motherhood

So incredibly often my friends call me "Supermom" or that I should receive a "Mother of the Year" award. This is a load of crap!

I am not a supermom nor do I deserve an award. I take Zoloft to manage my tendencies to snap and become a crazy woman. But I still yell at my kids on a regular basis, and yes sometimes I even swear in their general direction, because come on, with four kids there is no way I can pull off the Mrs. Cleaver act 24/7. I might be tempted to use a cleaver in my mothering act... but again the Zoloft, which acts like a mini blue psychotherapist, keeps me thinking straight without the need of being put into a straight jacket.

Motherhood is hard. It is by far the hardest job on this planet and I will challenge that to the death. Why? Well if you are a mother, you already know why. If you're not then just imagine a job where you have to be constantly organized, three steps ahead of everything else going on, extremely efficient, fun and do it all with a smile on your face. If you do any of those things less than 100% all of the time then you will be fired. Well not really fired but it will literally take you a week to catch up from not preforming at 100% for an hour. And if that isn't enough, you must do all of this with, no vacation time, sick time or fifteen and thirty minute breaks.

If you do take a vacation then your cabinets are all rearranged when you come back, or you take the kids with you. That's not a vacation when Motherhood is your only job. If you take sick time, your husband generally lets the kids function in a non-organized manner and is not three steps ahead, in just one day, you become 21 days behind. If you take a fifteen, or God forbid thirty minute break, you can certainly rest assure that you will be behind for one or two days. Of course someone with adult children or no children will gladly tell you that you must take time for yourself. Seriously who are they kidding? In order to take anytime for myself I would have to stay up until the sun is about to get up, sleep for two hours and then start all over again. So we come full circle of preforming at 100% except this time, exhausted.

If you see a mother yelling at her child, full of profanities or not, smoking or drinking, just remember she is doing what she has to, to not kill her child(ren) and to not loose her sanity. Social protocol be damned! Motherhood isn't always full of fun and cuddles, but in the end if you don't end up in jail because you snapped and shot a police officer in the eye with your breast milk, then you're doing good and your children will only remember the good and fun times, mostly. And this should be enough.

So maybe I am "Supermom" or even do deserve an award. But I think every mother deserves this title or award. I know some of you may think well there are some mothers that are just horrible and don't care about their kids. Yes this is true, but then are they actual mothers? Alas, that is a subject for another time. Well since I've taken the time out to write this blog while I'm already behind, I've probably just lost another week. Off to pump some breast milk and make dinner.

With Love, Peace & Respect. Be Blessed,

Mumsie

PUT YOUR STUFF AWAY!!!!!

So this isn't an original idea. Not by far. But I remember long ago when there were no kids toys, extra towels to be washed or a bath schedule in place I found this ingenious idea of how to keep your family organized. I loved it and I vowed that I would implament as soon as we started a family. Well three going on four years of having this crazy zoo of a family and I have done one thing to make it happen

The ingenious idea... Color Coding. Every family member gets a color therefore making every member completely responsible for their own crap. In our family IF and when I ever get around to doing it, this will be our family's color code:

Dad - Black
Mom - Teal
Ana - Red
Liam - Blue
Lily - Yellow
Carolyn - Purple

Now that the hard part is done I get to go shopping... at somepoint... Maybe that's the hard part... So to organize properly you get each of the following items for each person in their color:

Hairbrush
Towels
Bins (centeral located to put their junk in through out the day.)
Bed Sheets
Laundry Baskets
Jackets
Underwear

That's all I've got.... but I'm sure there is more that can be organized in this manner. What do you think of this idea? Would you use it? What else would you color code?

Well once Carolyn gets here and we get the house unpacked and finally fully moved in... maybe I'll get around to doing this. Is it against some cosmic law to make a mid-year resolution?

With Love, Peace & Respect. Be blessed,
Mumsie

"Are you going to abort your pregnancy?"

Ok, yes. We did get a surprise of an expected pregnancy. To some this was an open door for them to ask the question, "Are you going to abort the pregnancy?" When, "no" was the answer some were flabbergasted that I would put my other children through such a "strenuous situation" of introducing yet another child into the family just shy of a year. Others rejoiced that we wouldn't do this to the life that was currently growing inside of my uterus.

My husband and I do NOT believe in abortion. At one point in my life I may have believed that it wasn't the right decision for me but may be for others. Now I believe that it should only be ok under very extreme circumstances such as rape by a family member that results in a pregnancy, please know, this is only my opinion. Most likely the child will be miscarried anyway. For those who need proof, it has been scientifically proven that our female bodies will miscarry a pregnancy when there are large amounts of major genetic defects within the fetus.

I know that most people will not agree with me and that is ok. I truly believe that once conceived the child is meant to be unless God, or nature as some believe, take the reigns and make it other wise. I have attached a link to an article called, "Losing Ground on Women's Rights: In 2011, Sex Ed, Contraception, Abortion Rights All Under Seige". There are two things about this article, first it makes me believe the writer of the article, Elizabeth Nash, is in fact bias and an emotional thinker. Secondly I must consider her points validity considering she did not spell the word siege correctly, which is in her title. If this isn't a rush, or fluff piece and truly important then why was she not carful in portraying herself as knowledgeable and someone that is worth listening to?

The reason I say "trying to make" is because after Ms. Nash's valiant effort at stirring up your emotions in the title she did little to solidify your emotions as a proper response to this subject. Her articles intention should of explain to you how these new political actions are forcing women's rights to loose ground but she only tells you what the government is doing pertaining to these rights. She never actually explains the true importance of these political actions and she does nothing more to get you emotional invested.

I also noticed that Nash included very little in her article pertaining to abstinence education and STDs. I'm wondering if the crusaders for women's rights do not even see abstinence as a choice. There is only one way of making sure that a woman never has to make a decision between birth or abortion,  abstaining from sexual intercourse all together. I can not understand why women right's activist never mention abstinence or adoption as choices women have. If you are abstinent then you wouldn't have to be educated in STDs or go through the tough decision of whether or not to abort the pregnancy. There are people who go to school for a very long time that can speak to you about how reproduction works and the facts about STDs. They are called doctors.

From the beginning parents need to raise their children with the idea of abstinence in mind. Granted things do happen, I am human, I get it and I've made choices in my past where I chose to disregard abstinence. It is my hope my daughters will never consider abortion a choice that they have. It is my hope that I can raise them well to know that they have the right to say no.

With Love, Peace & Respect. Be blessed,
Mumsie