Super Mom

I was chatting with a mom yesterday and it really made me think of some things. We were talking about kids and home and guilt. Guilt? Yeah no, not me!!! If you are a mom almost every single one of you know what that word GUILT does to you. I bet most of you could give me a list of things you feel guilty about right off the top of your head - from the way you parented 1 child, versus the way you parent the youngest, things you have said, done, you name it, we moms have this great relationship with guilt.

Oh, and to top it all off we HAVE to have it all together. I mean, of course every one else around us does.

I never bought into "looking perfect". If you think I do then you need a reality check. I'm not - nowhere near it!!! Really wish you could see my house right now!! Oh wait, no, I really don't. I really try hard to keep it real. Maybe I don't always look perfect and awesome but that's ok. There are enough perfect and awesome people out there. Sometimes I need to know there's a mom out there who struggles just like I do. It can be hard to find them sometimes. When it is it makes life even more daunting.

So here's the deal, I don't have it all together. Every day I choose what's going to get left undone, well, I don't think "Well, today I'm not going to get the dishes done." But I know that realistically speaking I am not going to get the dishes done, the bedroom and bathroom cleaned, that stack of ironing, coupons, blogging, kids loved, living room cleaned, kitchen cleaned, dishes done, and breakfast, lunch, AND a gourmet dinner on the table. Oh yes, can't forget my phone calls - Ki needs that dentist appointment still, 2 months later and I need to verify a cleaning job for tomorrow since, well, apparently that mom doesn't have it all together - how dare she - and may forget.

Here's the reality, we can't get it all done. Wait, well, we can, but at the expense of what? I personally feel that in the course of a day kids come first. If dinner isn't on time but you invested in the life of a child that desperately just needed mommy, that's ok. The house might be a disaster but those appointments were made even though you DID have to lock yourself in the bathroom for a place quiet enough to make them.

All you can do is take one day at a time and if you believe in God's grace, take it and hold on for dear life. Sometimes that's all you got.

I do have good news for you. Someday your house will be all together. Dinner will be on the table on time, the bathroom mirror will sparkle at the same time and the bedroom looks like a catalog page. AND you will look all put together, well rested when you sit down to eat that well balanced gourmet dinner. Um, someday when the kids are grown. So stop, take the guilt, and don't buy in to it. Your kids will never know that the first 5 years of their life each was raised just a little differently UNLESS YOU TELL THEM. They don't need to know until they are moms, just trying to do it all and not feel guilty. Then they'll get it.

Just be a mom, a wife, a lawyer, house cleaner, dr., be whatever job you are and leave the guilt at the door. We don't have time for it. Our bodies don't have time for it, and our houses most definitely don't have time for it.

Now go pull something out of the freezer to make for dinner. Take a few minutes to throw it all in the crock pot and you have one less thing to worry about.

Dinner ideas for the guilty mom:

**Spaghetti with meat sauce - box of pasta, jar of sauce, and browned beef or
sausage add a fresh veggie (doesn't even have to be cooked since you keep the
maximum nutrients) Future tip - when you have time cook up burger, sausage ahead
and freeze it proportioned. Grab a bag and dump it, frozen, into the crock pot
with sauce.)

**Roast with root veggies - throw a pork, whole chicken or beef roast in the crock
pot with a chopped onion, little flour, salt, pepper (plus I use chili powder,
diced garlic/garlic powder, parsley fresh or dry, red pepper flakes, rosemary for
chicken, you name it) cubed up potatoes, carrots and or celery

**Tuna noodle casserole - add some frozen peas or broccoli and you have your
protein, starch AND veggie all in one

**Throw chicken and potato packets on the grill (potato packets - 1" cubed potatoes
slices of onion, a dab of butter, salt and pepper folded up in a foil packet


Most of all, just have a blessed day being you. Leave the cape in a drawer.