Being a mom is the best job in the world.  I can’t think of anything I would rather do than be a stay at home mom.  There is joy, love, tears (sad and happy), laughs, dance parties, stories, toys, crafts, hugs, kisses, “i love you”s, “you are the best mommy”s, pajamas, and so much more.  It is a blast!  As well as all the good there is a lot of hard: sickness, poop, diapers, laundry, grocery shopping with small children, fights, questioning, time outs, and so much more.  It can be draining.

This week I have a sick baby…again or should I say still?  I don’t know how many times my kids have already been sick this winter.  She is doing better today, but yesterday she literally fell asleep in my arms twice and in Matt’s once.  That hasn’t happened since she was like five months old.  In between her naps she cried all day and wanted held.  I CHARISHED those moments of holding her and rubbing her hair and back while rocking her.  It was so sweet.  As well as sweet…it was draining.

I felt zapped last night.  I think what makes this job so hard is it’s all emotional.  Yeah its got physical asspects…where you never get to sit and you eat lunch at the counter while making the kids lunch and in between stopping to change a diaper or throw a load of laundry in while everyone is happy.  Yes, you don’t get much sleep at times.  It is definitely a physical challenge, but to me the hardest part is the emotional.  There are high highs and low lows.  Plus, you are always questioning.  Do you go to the doctor?  Do you not?  My latest is all the million times a day I hear “mom, can you come here?”, “mom, can you get me ___?”, “mom, will you help me ___?” how do I respond?  I like to think I say “yes” most of the time, but I know I say “just a minute”, “after I finish this___”, “please be patient, in a little bit” quite a lot because my kids now say those phrases.  I don’t like it, but I don’t know what the balance is.  If you always stop folding a load of clothes, emptying the dishwasher, whatever it may be at the drop of a hat…than aren’t you fostering little demanding, dependent, spoiled kids? But if you don’t stop what you are doing for them, are you sending the message that “tasks” are more important than they are?  I just don’t know.  I always wonder if I am doing the right thing…and the answer is I just don’t know.

So, all this to say…my title is fuel.  We need it.  Having sick kids and crazy schedules can make it hard to have that community that we all need.  Being a stay at home mom can be lonely, so we all need to build into our selves and refuel our little souls to have energy to give our kids our all.  Crafting and running are two things I love to find a refuel in.  Let’s be honest…its been hard the last two months to stay in the running routine with it getting dark at 5:00 and being so cold…so its been mostly crafting.  Here are a few Christmas presents that I loved making…

 

1.  Pictures of my kids and each of my nieces (two diff sets of these) for their grandparents spelling out LOVE

2.  Ornaments!  Grandkids ones, first christmas ones, first christmas married ones…lots of sanding to make these cute babies 🙂

3.  My sister-in-law did the World Race last year where she went to 11 countries in 11 months…amazing story!  Well, this quilt I made her of fabrics she collected on her trip.

4.  I made Emily a shirt that I’m sure she will wear out all the time…or just when she wants to clean 🙂 as part of a leaving gift.

5.  My hubby helped me with this one.  It’s a good thing to have an editor around!  I watched all my home videos and caught the parts that we had footage with Emily and her family…and matt edited them all together for me.  It was like three hours of footage when we were done!

6.  A photo shoot of my kids and my niece, Natalie, in the pajamas that their BeBe made them.  She loved the picture we gave her which I can’t find now, but it was a tad better than this one 🙂

7.  Couldn’t have an opportunity to give gifts and not give some hair bows away!  This was Reagan’s Christmas bow.

8.  More ornaments!

9.  And the last one I have captured is a fabric ball I made for each of my nieces.

Life is so good.  As hard as it can be at times…it is so good.  So chin up (as Charlotte the Spider would say) stay at home moms…love those little ones and the ones you have around you, and we will be refueled by the one who has Conquered Love for us all!