Time to Get Real

I read this blog today. Moms lie.  They lie about how clean their house is.  They lie about what their child can/can't do. They lie about all kinds of things to save face.  It's ridiculous. I hate lying.  I can't stand doing it, and I loathe being lied to.  Why has lying become so essential in our lives? It's time to get real.

I'm a stay-at-home mom. I love it. It's tough, don't get me wrong.  It's certainly not the hardest job in the world, but I feel like it's the most important.  When people ask me if I work, I tell them no. I lie.  Truth is, I do work.  I'm raising a child. I'm keeping the house. I'm doing laundry. I'm cooking. I'm being a wife.

A few months ago, Ryan and I got in a really big fight.  When he would come home, He would plop down on the couch, eat dinner and then promptly fall asleep. On the couch.  I fixed dinner, I took care of Hannah and I would be still trying to get things done around the house.  Ryan would also get upset when he wasn't getting any attention when I put Hannah to bed.  I WAS/AM TIRED!  I told Ryan that he leaves work everyday, he's off work.  He doesn't have to deal with work things once he leaves work.  I work 24/7.  I never get to "clock out". When Hannah wakes up, it's ME who has to go get her and figure out what's wrong. When laundry has to be done, it's ME who's in charge of getting clean clothes in the closet & dresser.  When we need groceries, it's ME who has to shlep out to the store.  He finally got it and pitches in a lot more, but that's not the point(Nor is this post about what Ryan does/does not do).  The point is, women, especially Moms(working or "not") have a lot going on. 

I'm very blessed to have a husband who doesn't expect to come home everyday to a spotless house, Hannah fed & happy, dinner on the table waiting, and me, waiting for him with a beer and slippers.  This is not the 50's and this isn't Pleasentville. Things are never perfect.  God bless those women who have houses where they need no warning for people to pop in and spotless children.  Please tell me where you find the time to get it all done. 

Please do not show up to my house unexpected.  Please let me straighten up & shut a few doors first.  I'll probably need to change out of my nightclothes, because I haven't had time to change yet and brush the teeth I haven't had time to brush yet.

When you're a stay-at-home Mom, there are things that are expected of you.  You're expected to have more time to get all kinds of errands done, you're expected to have an always clean house. You're expected to have a gorgeous cooked meal on the table every night. You're expected to That Mom. We're expected to be the Bree VanDeCamps of the world. That's not real life. What's real life is not having more time to run errands, because I'm not about to take my kid to the grocery store, post office, or wherever during her naptime or when she's been in a horrible mood all day. What's real life is that gorgeous cooked meal on the table every night, is actually fast food Ryan picked up on the way home.  What's real life is, that "spotless house" actually looks like this...

Master Bedroom...

Our den...

Our kitchen...

Our laundry room with clothes that need to be folded & put away and there's a load waiting in the dryer to be put in that hamper!



Hannah's room. The only room that actually stay clean..Notice H napping..




Master Bath



Everyone has those perfect, get-everything-done days.  There are (more often than not) days where I cook meals that we both love.  There are plenty of days where my house is clean.  There are plenty of days where I don't have any errands to run because I've done them all.

So there it is y'all. A mom's dirty little secret.  The house isn't spotless, we're probably ordering dinner tonight, and I've yet to shower today.And you know what?  I'm perfectly fine with that.  I'm not perfect and neither are you. I'm happy.  I've got a happy child. Ryan and I are happily married.  I've got a wonderful Heavenly Father who's taking me to Heaven.  Nothing else matters.


P.S. When Hannah naps, I take atleast an hour to myself. I watch Friends.  I don't do anything I don't WANT to do.  Sometimes that means folding clothes during commercials.  Sometimes that means showering.  Sometimes that means laying on the couch with some Ben & Jerry's. And you know what?  That's ok.

"Fireproof doesn't mean a fire will never come, but that when it does, you'll be able to withstand it"

If you have never seen the movie Fireproof, stop reading this right now and go watch it. If you're married, watch it with your spouse. (And I'll buy y'all some salt & pepper shakers afterwards.. ;) )

 http://fireproofmymarriage.com/

"Love is a shelter in a raging storm

Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for"
"Love is not a fight" by Warren Barfield

Lauren..The Handy "Man"

I want to preface this blog with this explaination for those of you who don't know me as well as others..I don't consider myself a particularly "handy" girl, but I'm certainly not helpless. In my family, when something(like chairs, a table, etc.) needs to be put together, I'm the one that gets called. I put together all the furniture for my cousin's nursery. I also put together my aunt's table and chairs plus countless other things. However, anything electrical I leave for Ryan.

For Christmas, Ryan bought "me" some chairs for our kitchen table. We've been using wooden fold out chairs. They're better than the metal ones and they actually look nice, but they're still, after all, folding chairs. When we got our table, the seating made to match it were benches and it's just wasn't a practical choice for us.  We decided to find some other seating that would look nice.  That was 3 years ago.  Anyway, I decided that that's what I wanted for Christmas and started looking online and in stores.  I found a set of 4 chairs on Overstock for $134 with no shipping.  By far the best deal I could find. I ordered them on the 28th and they were on my porch by 10 AM yesterday(30th)!  I got the 65lb box in the house and set it down. When I opened it up I immediately realized that this was not going to be a one person job between putting the chairs together and keeping Hannah happy, fed and occupied. My Mom came over and we got to work. An HOUR later, we had one chair finished. ONE. It was absolutely miserable. I won't bore you with a play-by-play, but 3 hours later, all four chairs were done and in their place at the table. At about the 2-hour mark, I was convincing myself that we didn't need the chairs and we'd just get by standing at the table.

So, after I got the chairs finished, I fed Hannah and pulled out the programmable thermostat that Ryan got for Christmas.  We needed this desperately.  Ryan's always pretty tired when he gets home, so I thought I'd install it and surprise him.  I mean, after putting together the chairs, how hard could it really be? I get it installed without a problem at all. I was really impressed with myself. I got everything wired up and set up. When Ryan got home, and told and showed Ryan what I'd done, but asked him to open it back up and make sure I wired everything correctly. It had been 75 degrees in our house since I set it up so I figured I'd done something wrong. Apparently, I didn't tighten the wires down so it wasn't really doing anything for us.(I didn't know this was a necessary step) Ryan got everyting tightened and a got a pat on the back and a "Good job".  A few hours later, the house still wasn't getting cooled down.  I bumped the temp down a few degrees trying to jump start it and went to bed. Fast forward to me, laying miserably hot in bed at 3 AM. The heat woke me up. I got up and went step-by-step reprogramming the thermostat. Finally, an hour later the house was slowly cooling off and I know way more about our thermostat than I really need to. And still wide awake..at 4:45 AM


And so ends the tale of my day as a handy "man". A hat I hope I don't have to put back on for a while...

Ladies and their clothes

First, let me say that this post isnot directed at any one person, but, rather, a group of women.  Women who wear clothes that are too small for them.

I do not claim to be the most fashion forward girl on the planet, but I like to think that I know what looks good and what looks bad.  People come to me for fashion advice(which is the leg I'm using to stand on here).

Now, ladies, when you try to squeeze yourself into a size small shirt, when you actually wear a medium or large makes you look WAY bigger than you actually are.  The same goes for pants.  If you go up a size(or two) and wear the size that's meant for you, it will make you look smaller! Nobody sees the tag but you!!!

It's like they say about weight, don't pay attention to the number on the scale, pay attention to how you look and feel!!!  The same goes for your clothes(ALL OF YOUR CLOTHES), don't pay attention to the size, pay attention to how it looks on you and makes you feel.


That is all.

Which One Are You?

Does anyone watch Modern Family? I was watching this past Thursday's episode from our trusty DVR and there was a quote at the end that I wanted to share!

"There are dreamers and there are realists in this world, you think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not the opposite is true. See the dreamers need the realists to keep the dreamers from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists? Well without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground."

Teething and other random happenings

Hannah TWO teeth!  We're very excited about it, but the little girl that resides in my house currently, is NOT the little girl we all know and love.  Atleast not with me anyway.  I'm convinced that I am her least favorite person in the whole world and she only puts up with me because I feed her.  She wont even smile at me when I go get her out of her crib in the morning.  I'm a little sad about it. No, I take that back.  I'm VERY sad about it.  Teething Hannah doesn't seem to like any of the things she liked before.  Her bouncer keeps her busy for about 10 minutes, where before, she'd spend HOURS in it if we'd let her! Her swing does her no good. I'm ready to have MY little girl back!

Our doctor told me to start introduce Hannah to a sippy cup.  She's 6 months old.  She wont drink out of a bottle if it doesnt have a 'slow' nipple on it(not that we haven't tried countless times!)  Is this weird?

Have any of you seen the Account Now commercial? I tried to look it up on YouTube, but couldn't find the one I wanted to talk about.  In the commercial, there's a line that bothers me. "Before Account Now, payday was such a hassle."  Really? A hassle? If getting paid is too much of a hassle for you, send your paycheck this way, it wont be a hassle for me!

We FINALLY have a washing machine that works! We had to take our washer back to Lowes and they gave us a store credit that we used to buy a brand new washer.  While we were sitting in the Customer Service section of Lowes on #6, one of the women that works there asked me how old Hannah was.  I told her she was 6 months old. Her response: "WOW! SHE'S FAT!" Then she proceeds to come out from behind the counter and starts getting in Hannah's face and mashing on her cheeks. I was so astonished/appaled that I couldn't even say anything to her! I was literally frozen where I stood.  I know what my kid looks like.  She's not the smallest baby ever, but she's certainly not fat. Do people really think it's ok to call babies fat? And why on God's green Earth do people think it's ok to touch and get in the face of a baby THEY DON'T KNOW?! 

They just released the "Top 10 Baby Names of 2011".  Hannah is #19(I found an extended list here.) Am I the only mom who doesn't want to see my kid's name on a list like this?

We're Alive... I Promise!

Life in the Shumpert household has been crazy the past month and I haven't had much time to blog. Here's our updates!

Our washing machine is still out - kind of.  After a month of being broken, we finally got in "fixed".  I was overjoyed and didn't even wait for the repairman to be out of my driveway before I put a load of clothes in!  TWO days later, it quit again and it's a complete toss up now when I go to turn the thing on.  It's getting ridiculous. 

I'm having a cookie exchange on December 10th.  I'm REALLY excited about it and cannot wait to have everyone over!  (I'm also using the party as an excuse to be on Pintrest more!)  I'm sending the very cute invites out this week!

We had Hannah's 6-month pictures taken last week.  The sneak peek we've seen is awesome and I can't wait to see all of the pictures!!!  She turns 6 months old on November 26th.  I can't believe Ryan and I have been parents for almost half a year!!!

Can you all believe that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?  Where on Earth did the time go?  Have you all started Christmas shopping yet?

I want to get Hannah some toys for Christmas.  When we're in a store, I'll take her to the baby toy aisle and let her see and play with some of the toys to see if she likes them.  She NEVER does.  Are all babies like this or is my child just that picky about her toys?