The little things that make me smile!

Let me start by saying, I love my job!  Really, seriously, I LOVE my job!

I've always wanted to be a mom, but I never, ever realized how challenging this occupation would be.  It is tiring, it is mundane, it is a 24/7 job with no time off, and it is physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing!  Absolutely, without a doubt, this is the hardest job I've ever had!

All 4 of my precious darlins' have a way of saying or doing something simple that pushes my buttons and completely rattles my patience.  Now, each one does it in a different way, but they all challenge me as a mom.  I won't mention any names (although you can probably figure it out) but we've got one who is an arguer, one who is a whiner, one who doesn't care at all if they sit in pee or poop (that should be an obvious one), and one who thinks rules don't apply to them.  And unfortunately for each of their "challenges" it takes repetition and consistency from us to slowly, slowly (and I mean slowly like a snail on crutches) break their habits and teach them appropriate behaviors.  And by the time we move out of one stage of challenges with a child, we are into a new stage of challenges with a whole different set of behaviors!  And just because there are 4 of them, doesn't mean that they will go through the same set of challenges at each age.  Nope!  They like to keep us on our toes and give us new challenges that we haven't face before.  I keep telling myself it's because they love me and want me to grow as a parent!

All that being said and done, I still love my job!  Why?  Well, for starters they're my kids!  You just love your kids no matter how crazy insane they make you!  But also, they do have their redeeming moments.  For every moment I want to scream and pull my hair out, there's another moment that I want to cry and hug them for hours with love!  They do lots of little things that make me so thankful to be their momma.

Here's some of the things lately that have made me smile!

* 'B', our little goof ball, used the sidewalk chalk to paint herself blue.  She would have covered her whole body, but I told her she couldn't go past her knees!

Such a funny kid!

* 'S', the crazy boy, loves saying "Yep!" all the time with the utmost enthusiasm.  Except sometimes it doesn't quite go with what he's answering.  We are in the middle of potty training (and PRAISE the Lord, I do actually see a light at the end of this hellish tunnel) and one day after almost 3 weeks of no accidents 'S' had 3 accidents, 2 of them almost back-to-back.  I said to him, "Goodness boy, when you fall off the wagon, you sure do fall hard!"  He replied proudly and happily, "YEP!"  So hard to be mad at him when he's so cute!

*'R', our chatter box, was in the middle of a long monologue one day telling me about the happenings at school.  I almost missed it, but in the middle of her 20 minute rant, she dropped an awesome complement.  She was describing in detail another student's "All About Me" poster and their presentation of the poster to the class.  R: "So my friend, 'C', was showing pictures of her family.  She said, 'Here's my mom, the greatest mom in the world, and here's my dad, and here's the most annoying brother," (all in a mock voice).  R:  "Well she's just wrong because I have the world's greatest mom!"  Then 'R' kept right on talking telling me more and more details of her day!  Gave me such a laugh!

* 'N', has started figuring out and chiming in to our sarcastic responses at home.  When someone says something sarcastic (which happens on an hourly basis around here), she responds by literally singing the word "Sarcastic" in a high pitch jingle type voice.  Just makes me smile!

* One night when 'B' was gone spending the night with a friend, 'R' let 'N' have a "sleep-over" in her bed.  Then the next night when 'B' was home, all 3 girls slept in 'R's queen size bed!  Love those sister bonds!

* Len caught this sweet scene one day:

* My greatest blessing and source of smiles each and every day, is my sweet husband!  Love, love, love sharing this adventure with him.  He keeps me laughing about life!  It doesn't happen very often but we recently had a date night.  We spent our time just walking around downtown Charleston, admiring the beautiful old homes, and eating wonderful southern foods!  So nice to have time away from my sweet darlins to just talk and hang out with my best friend!

I LOVE my job, and despite its challenges, I am so blessed!