Happy Mother's Day!

Abbie and Leah sang in the Mother's Day program at church today and they did great! Leah was excited to go up to the front for the first time and Abbie knew most of the words to the songs, which is unusual. Porter slept through most of sacrament meeting so I actually got to listen to the talks which were great. We even made it to church early enough to get a good seat so I actually could hear the girls this year. This is a reenactment of one of the songs they sang today. What a great Mother's Day!

I have a secret...

I was watching Oprah the other day and it was all about moms and real-life motherhood and all the stuff that we don't talk about or admit that we do to make it through our day. They talked about how a lot of moms put up this front that everything is perfect and that it's not that hard to be a mom and that they can do and have everything; work full-time, be a mom full-time, and still have time for themselves and other interests and still get 8 hours of sleep. If you didn't see the show and don' t know what I'm talking about or want to read more about the secret lives of moms, go here: http://www.oprah.com/dated/oprahshow/oprahshow-20090311-secret-lives-moms

I really loved this show and how so many of the women were willing to admit that motherhood is harder than they thought it would be and how overwhelmed and alone they feel much of the time. It helped me to see that I'm not the only one taking shortcuts or doing things that I feel guilty about later and also that I'm just doing the best that I can at the time. It helps me to know that other moms are experiencing some of the same things as I am and that I'm not crazy for thinking this or that.

So I've been wondering, what are some of your dirty little secrets about motherhood? What things would you never confess to in person but do to make it through your day? Come on, I know you do something that you've never admitted before. It will help you feel better to get it off your chest and to be able to see that other moms do similar things and that you're not alone!

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It could be simple things like how much TV you really let your kids watch or what you really let them eat for dinner or more personal things like how often you get a shower and how much time you spend on the computer blogging and chatting on facebook when you should be reading to your kids or making them nutritious homemade meals. Make your comments anonymously and I'll promise not to reveal who you are, even though I don't know how to figure that out anyway. I'll give you a few examples from my life to get the ball rolling...

A lot of days, I don't even get dressed and ready for the day until about 5 minutes before I have to take Abbie to preschool. Her preschool starts at 12:30 in the afternoon!

Sometimes we don't even get around to eating breakfast until 10 or 11 am, on those days we just skip lunch and have an earlier dinner.

I've been known to leave a child in their crib for an extra hour after they wake up (as long as they aren't screaming bloody murder), just so I can get a little more shut-eye!

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We pretend it's like this all the time...

When it's usually more like this!

So enough about me, I want to hear from you, my mom friends. What are your true life motherhood confessions? Feel free to leave several comments, anonymously of course!

What did you do today?

I've gotten this question a few times lately from friends and family so I decided I'd give you a little summary of a typical day for us. It's probably similar to what many of you SAHM's experience. Try not to laugh too much...

8:07 am: Get woken up by Abbie saying "I'm hungry and I want to watch Dora." Get her dressed, give her a bag of cheerios and some milk, put on Dora, and decide whether to stay up or crawl back to bed. Stay up since I need to leave the house by 10:45 to get to a doctor appt so I start getting ready.

8:52 am: Put a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave for myself and then hear the phone ring. Finish phone call, hear Leah is awake so go to get her out of crib and discover she had thrown up overnight and it's everywhere! Strip her down, fill the tub, put her in the bath, and proceed to clean up the sheets, floor, crib, animals, dollys, etc. Throw a load of laundry in the washer, clean Leah up and get her dressed.

9:46 am: Remember my cold oatmeal that is in the microwave, heat it up again, and start getting breakfast for the kids, leery of giving Leah anything since she might throw up again. Remember I still haven't done my hair so try to finish that while kids are throwing food around and running around the house with half-eaten dripping gogurts.

10:34 am: On the hunt for socks, shoes, coats, diaper bag, library movies to return, etc. Kids keep running away while I try to do their hair. Oh yeah, my oatmeal. Stir in blueberries and eat cold. Oh crap, we're going to be late. "Girls, it's time to go, quit watching Dora, I don't know where your elephant is, why aren't your shoes on, you have to go potty?, get in the car, we're late!"

11:07 am: Finally arrive at doctor's office (15 min late) and realize we have no snacks or toys in diaper bag to keep Leah entertained but figure we won't be at the doctor long, he just needs to check Abbie's ears, should be in and out in 10 min.

12:02 pm: Stumble out into the cold after a hour of semi-torture for Abbie, trying to get excess wax out of her ears before they can check for fluid. She was a trooper but had I known we were going to have to do that, I would have left Leah with a sitter. She was a handful in that little room to say the least! We go across the street to the library for some play/reading/reward time.

12:53 pm: Driving through the drive-thru of Wendy's getting chicken nuggets for the kids, while calling Jared to see if we can stop at work to say hi. He's with a patient so maybe another time, bummer. Take my time driving home so the kids can be done with their lunch by the time we get home. No prep, no clean up, awesome!

1:21 pm: Finally arrive home and after getting everyone inside without them jumping in the nearest snowbank, stripping them down of coats, shoes, hats, etc and unloading my arms of all the bags and books and movies we got at the library, go to put Leah down for a nap and realize she has no sheets or clean blankets. Go throw the items in the washer from this morning into the dryer and realize I have to wait an hour before she can go down since her favorite blankie is in there. Crap. "Hey kids, who wants to watch My Little Pony?"

2:34 pm: Get Leah down for a nap and finally convince Abbie that quiet time in her room is fun. Yes, you can have a snack, and no, you can't jump on the bed and bang on the door, that will wake up Leah. It's supposed to be quiet time, remember?

2:56 pm: Ahhh, a moment of silence. Check email, visit blogs, realize I haven't updated in a week, maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Hmmm, I really should work out since I'm trying to win a weight loss contest but I'm tired, I was up pretty late last night. Maybe I'll work out tonight after the kids are in bed while I watch Bachelor. Oh yeah, I need to fold some laundry, I'll do that real quick while I watch yesterday's Desperate Housewives, then take a nap. Sounds like a plan.

3:22 pm: Almost done folding laundry when my sister, who I haven't talked to in a few weeks, calls. I really should take this but I'm so tired. Okay, I'll just talk for a sec, then take a nap.

4:07 pm: Get off phone and realize a nap isn't going to happen now. Dang it. Okay, maybe I can get in a workout before Leah wakes up. Change clothes, turn on Desperate Housewives again, am just starting to get good and sweaty when Jared gets home early. Really need this time to myself so shoo him into the bedroom and go finish workout.

5:11 pm: Kids are up and I'm about to jump into the shower when Jared says he has a major toothache so I call the dentist and get him an appt for 7:00 pm. There goes hard tacos for dinner/FHE plans. Oh well, at least he got in tonight, if the pain is bad enough that he came home from work early, that's pretty bad.

6:30 pm: Jared leaves for the dentist and we start eating dinner. Leah and I are done in 10 minutes, Abbie takes an hour to eat half a hot dog, a few strawberries, and her vitamin. Typical dinner routine.

7:43 pm: With dinner cleaned up, we start making shaped sugar cookies from dough made the night before in preparation for FHE. Abbie has fun doing it but I'm fighting Leah the whole time to stay away from the flour, the sticky dough, etc. Why do I always think this is going to be fun?

8:02 pm: Jared gets home, tooth under crown is cracked, needs to see oral surgeon for extraction. Still in a lot of pain. Cookies are done but haven't made frosting and promised Abbie she could eat one before bed. Hurry and make frosting. Mix colors. Each kid decorates one cookie while fighting over colors. Both lick frosting off cookie. Now they are all sticky and hopped up on sugar. My 12+ hr shift isn't quite over yet.

9:13 pm: It's past the kids bedtime and I'm having a meltdown. I throws PJ's and diapers at the kids, not so nicely ask Jared to take over the bedtime routine of getting pj's on, reading a story, family prayer, brushing their teeth, and singing a song while I retreat to the kitchen to pretend to clean up while I de-stress for a minute. It's been a long day and I need some chocolate and a time-out.

9:48 pm: Kids are finally in bed, house is cleaned up, I can finally relax and watch "24" with my patient hubby. Watch Jack Bauer beat up a couple bad guys and think that I'm glad that I am where I am in life. It's hard work being a Mom, really hard, all day, every day, over and over the same thing, never ending, often unnoticed, work but I wouldn't rather be doing anything else. I can honestly say that I can't think of any career or job that I'd rather be doing every day. And I know someday I'll miss days like today.