No More Perfect Moms Intro

Carson and I both have bronchitis.

I never got dressed today and I did leave the house today for a work meeting and doctor appointment. 

I encouraged Noah to watch TV today so I could rest, and I just couldn't do much playing!  

I'm falling behind around the house.  Grocery shopping needs done, floors need mopped, laundry needs done, you know all the fun stuff!

It's New Years Eve and I'm home with my boys in bed, lounging on the couch. 

I am so far from perfect today that I'm not even on the spectrum and it's okay!

This year isn't starting out how I would have chosen,  but it's a perfect time to share what I have been reading because this book is packed with stuff I have needed to hear.  

I am beyond blessed to get to be a part of the launch group for "No More Perfect Moms" by Jill Savage.

When I first heard about this book, I was so excited because our culture today strives so much for perfection and ironically enough that is the first chapter's title The Perfection Infection.  It was a good one too,  one of my favorite statements from it was this....

"We compare our messy insides---our struggles, our failures, our less than perfect lives--to other women's carefully cleaned-up, perfect-looking outsides."

I struggle so much with the comparison game and wrote about it not too long ago here.

" No More Perfect Moms" doesn't come out until February but there are a few things you can do right now.

1.  Sign up for Jill Savage's " No More Perfect Moms"  31-Day Email Challenge.  You don’t need to read the book to be part of the email challenge (the book doesn’t come out until a month later anyway!). It’s designed to help you start the year right.  Sign up today and encourage your mom friends to do so, too!  You can sign up here.

2.  Don't buy the book yet, but get ready to do so.  For moms who are interested in the No More Perfect Moms book, Hearts at Home and Moody Publishers are offering an incredible deal of over $100 in additional bonus resources if you wait to order/buy the book between Feb 4-9.  You can find more info on that as well as a sign up to be reminded when to pick up your copy of the book here!

3.  Visit " No More Perfect Moms" website.  This is where you can share stories, learn more about the book and view motherhood resources.  

4.  Let me know if you are interested in doing a book study on this book in February/ March.    I am about halfway through the book right now and it has spoken to me so much already and  I think it would be awesome to go through with other moms and take off our masks together!  

A pdf copy of this book was provided to me as part of of the launch group but all comments are my own.  

Where have I been?

I haven't been blogging much lately and here is why...

I have been relaxing!  Taking some naps, watching a little more TV, hanging out with family, reading and sometimes just doing nothing.

I'm always go, go, go, always have something to do and I got tired of it.

I wanted to de-stress and enjoy life for awhile and that included paying attention to where my time was going.  I have been working on some priority shifting which I'm still working on and forever will be but blogging was something I cut out for awhile.  November and December can be crazy months and I wanted to slow down, enjoy and make some memories instead of being stressed out about my to-do list 24/7.

 I have always wanted to be the Monday - Friday blogger, do fun link ups and really get into the blog world but boy can that suck a lot of time away from more important things and get you caught up with a lot of things that don't even matter!  I have missed  blogging and finding new fun blogs to read, but I'm still trying to figure out where this fun hobby of mine will fit or if it will at all.  Nevertheless, I will always blog randomly about my boys, well because those posts are for their yearly books I print out and are so much fun to go through but as far as other stuff not so sure yet.  As far as other posting, I want them to matter,  I want them to be real, and want to make a difference for someone and not be the typical social media that can drag us down ( ahem, Facebook, Pinterest, Bloggers- the organized ones, super creative ones like I will never be, super fit ones, and perfect mommy diaries), you guys can sure knock me down!

There is some exciting stuff  I will be sharing soon!  I am so excited  to be part of launch group for an upcoming book that you will be hearing lots about!  I'm excited about the book, I believe in in so much and their whole campaign along with it!

Carson at 16 months

Carson at 16 months you,

-have been sick poor baby, but hopefully are on the uphill climb now that we have you on meds and breathing treatments.  

-still are holding your weight around 24 lbs, wearing 18-24 months tops and smaller bottoms

-always look like you are sticking your chest out, I think it's your way of looking tough for your older brother

-have been talking up a storm and repeating all sorts of words that we say, the other day you copied Noah after he told you to stop it.  We are in real trouble when you really start talking on your own, this house is about to get louder

-climb on anything and everything and make messes everywhere you go.  I really do try to keep you out of trouble and from getting hurt but some days it's just nearly impossible!  You are soo soo stinking active!

-have 10 teeth

-still taking 2 naps but will probably be dropping one soon

-love snacks foods and don't like to much good food.  We have been struggling with the eating department majorly lately.  You throw what you don't want and keep getting rid of foods you will eat instead of adding them.  

-are still a major temper tantrum thrower and have started hitting (alot), I wonder where you have learned that from?

-love running around and wrestling, with everyone but Noah!  Loves play horsey rides and flying on our feet.  

-Still don't really like TV, you won't really watch anything for longer  than a flash.  However you will read books for awhile, You love them, I can't complain there.

-Still has the silliest little bunny tooth smile.  Still only have 2 teeth in the front with a big space.  It's not looking too promising there!  

Carson you are such a fun little boy and you get so playful sometimes, I love it!  I love playing peek a boo and chasing you and just hearing that cute giggle of yours! 

Love you buddy!

Wonderful Memory

Last night Matthew suggested we take our boys out to see some Christmas lights, we have already been and I didn't feel like getting the boys ready to leave anywhere but I agreed and said the boys would go without shoes and coats and I wasn't getting dressed either.  We hopped in the car and headed to town, made a few stops and then went to the park to drive through the light display.  I'm so glad that I said yes and that we went because I will probably never forget the fun our boys had and the laughs we all shared.  We got each one out of their seats, Carson sat on Matthew's lap and Noah sat on mine.  Carson immediately grabbed the steering wheel and started moving it from side to side just laughing at himself and Noah joined telling us that Carson was "crazy".  They whoa'd at all the lights, Noah talked about the things he saw and my favorite is when he says baby Jesus, just so stinking cute to hear from a young boy and Carson got so excited about steering he started shaking his head front to back, hit his head on the steering wheel hitting the horn.  Then we all really lost it and he tried to do it a few more times.  It sounds so silly as I write, but I wish I had it on tape.  Such a sweet short memory, and so much fun I had with our little boys.  I'm so blessed to have my little family this Christmas season and get to make memories like these!  Love so many things about this time of year!

Elf on the shelf

This year we decided to hop on the bandwagon and do an Elf on the Shelf.  I'm sure Noah will understand a lot more in a year or two but decided to do it anyway.  Saturday we got out the book after his nap and read him the story.  He listened to the story really well and we got to the end and asked him what he wanted to name him again since he didn't answer during the book and he said choo-choo.  The only reason why he picked choo-choo was because on the last page, there was a choo-choo!  I tried asking him about every other name I could think of but we still came back to it. Someday he will probably ask me why we let him but it makes sense because he does love his trains now anyway.  He kept telling us also that he wanted a train like the one in the picture the same colors and everything.  After we finished reading the book we set him up on a shelf in our living room for the night.  I don't believe he liked the idea of the elf watching him, in fact he even told us he didn't like it.  After he was up there he didn't really seem to even think about it or care.

Then yesterday we put him flying in our fans in the living room and he laughed when he saw him up there and imitated to me what he was doing.  I didn't really say anything about him all day.

This morning was the picture above, Choo-Choo is hanging out in one of the stockings and took an ornament off our wreath and Noah was really laughing at him this morning.  I used the Elf different today each time he has done something good I have been telling him to go tell the Elf what he did and he gets all excited to do so.  He told me this morning "Elf going to tell santa, I a good boy, mommy"  Positive reinforcement really works well for him!  He loves thinking he made someone happy!

We will keep doing it this year and see how the rest of the month goes.  Thanks to Pinterest we have plenty of idea of things to do with our elf, Choo-Choo.

Outsmarted

For those of you that think Noah is a quiet, look from the sidelines type of kid, you are correct if he's around a bunch of people.  At home quite the opposite, not to mention ornery.

Today he wanted to throw a bunch of his trains downstairs, well he got a few done and I let him know as  I saw him run to get another one that if he threw anymore he was going to his room for a time out.  He took the last train, held it through the railing, and just looked at me.   I reminded him again what the consequences would be and after standing there with it dangling between the spindles, shaking for a little bit he takes it out, gives it to Carson and then, yep you guessed it said "Carson do this"  as he motioned to throw it down the stairs.  I just stood there in shock.  One of those moments I just don't know how to respond or what to say. All  I could think was it he can outsmart me at almost 3, I'm doomed when he's older!  He is just too smart for his own good sometimes!

Less is more

This year I breaking out of my normal Christmas mold.

How many of you send out Christmas cards?
Look for the perfect coordinating wrapping paper, ribbons and bows?
Love to have all the presents wrapped and under the tree for weeks before Christmas?
Or just do certain things at Christmas because you feel you HAVE to?

Well I love and usually do all 3 of those but this year have decided not to.

I have recently read Jill Savage's book " Living with less so your family has more" and just read half of it for the second time this week.  It has really made me think a lot and makes me want to get rid of half of our stuff and live a lot more simple than we do.  ( the book Seven made me want to do the same thing, I think its time I read that one again as well.)  More on the book later, but I have decided to focus on what really matters this season.  Spend more intentional time with my family and less money and less stressing about the things that really don't matter.  For many of you those items above may not stress you out and I envy you for that ( I clearly have other issues to work on as well, haha) but I always find something to stress about so I'm focusing on keeping more things that I REALLY don't have to do off the to-do list that's  I feel is never ending.

 I love having a theme or color scheme for my wrapping paper and all the ribbons and bows,  but I found myself spending way too much time  trying to find the perfect stuff that matched our tree and realized it was stressing me out and stupid so I bought character themed paper for the boys and a few random rolls of other paper for everything else and called it a day! Then with Christmas cards I kept thinking of what poses we should do and what outfits we would all wear and realized we could save the money and the time and just not do them!  Do I feel like I'm slacking in a way, yeah I do, but it doesn't matter, my boys aren't going to remember how fun it was taking pictures for our annual Christmas card or how cute the card mom picked out in 2012 was.  However they will remember the time we spent with them watching Christmas movies, looking at lights, reading Christmas stories , and other actitivities that will make lasting memories.

My goal this year is to slow down, relax and just enjoy this season with our boys.  Noah is at such a fun age and I want to start creating traditions and memories for him that he looks forward too and not remember his mom being a grouchy, stressed out mess each Christmas season.