Making a House a Home

I've been so busy this week. It made me think of the phrase, "stay at home mom" and how silly that sounds. If you are a "stay at home mom" someone has inevitably asked you the dreaded question... "so, what do you do at home all day?" This question always makes me laugh. Sometimes I have no idea what I did all day but I know that I am REALLY tired at the end of the day. I always love when they come out with the studies about how much a stay at home mom would make if it were a paying job. I think the last time they did one it was around $150,000. "That's it?" Just kidding, but seriously motherhood is not for the faint of heart. There are no paid holidays, no vacations, no sick days, not even a weekend off. How many jobs do you know where you have to go in at 6:00am and don't get home until 9:00pm and sometimes they call you a couple times in the middle of the night to ask for food? There is no paycheck at the end of the week, no bonuses, no raises or promotions. However I would not change anything if I could. Moms get paid with smiles and giggles, our bonuses are hugs and kisses and as far as raises and promotions we get to watch our children grow and learn every day. Who needs sleep if you have all that? The missed monetary gain is nothing compared to how rich we are with God's many, many blessings. Anyway that is what I've been reflecting on the last couple of days. Motherhood is the most rewarding job I've ever had.

I'm not usually one for making lists but I've had so much on my mind lately I felt the need to make myself a "to do" list.

I still haven't gotten a lot of it done but I keep adding stuff too. Joanna has been eating so much lately I've been struggling to get anything done. Ricky went hunting last weekend and I was just nursing her all weekend. She is seriously growing like a weed though. I had gotten that bunny costume for her in 3-6 months and I had to go exchange it for a 6-9 month one because it was too small. I kinda weighed her and she is 15 lbs!

She's growing out of her bouncy seat too!

I made four loaves of banana bread the other day.

before...

After.

Yummy. I froze two and put the other two in the bread drawer.

Ricky and I are planning another mini vacation soon so I've been trying to prepare for that now. Today I went and shoveled all the grass clippings off Ricky's truck then went and got the oil changed, had it washed, gassed it up and vacuumed it out. I also was able to vacuum my car too.

The other day I had to get Dominic off the school bus and we came back to our house and he and Chase played for about an hour until Patty got home from work. She told me something very interesting. Apparently there was a bank robbery in our little town yesterday! A man walked into the bank with a mask and gun and got away with money but the police chased after him and eventually caught up to him. It makes me a little nervous though especially because I had been walking on the road around the time that it happened. At least they caught the guy though. It's weird that these things are happening in our little town though. Whenever I go on a walk now I take pepper spray.

Ricky's mom is doing really well. She can't drive for a month or lift anything over 10 lbs but she says she feels really good. I am so happy that she it doing so well. Thank you to everyone who prayed. I think that's all I'm going to say for now. I've done a lot this week but its just a bunch of that boring mom stuff ;)