The Crazy world of a pinterest mom

So most of us are uber familiar with the latest craze, pinterest, and all its glory. I cant say that I am totally not addicted to it, because the truth is I could spend hours searching the site. I mean you can find anything and everything, but one thing I have found overwhelmingly as of late, is a feeling of inadequacy. 

When my parents were raising me the only bar they wanted to surpass was the one their parents set, and maybe if they were competitive they would also want to make sure they were better than your friends parents... but honestly I am pretty sure thats where it ended. Dont get me wrong my parents were and are amazing and I never did without or felt like they didnt try, but they didnt have the world to compete with.....

As I am aimlessly searching pinterest I see all these wonderful things everyone does, makes, creates! I am both in awe and defeated. I feel like there is no way I can compare to all of that. What, with the cute lunches, the home decor, the fun activities and how to be the perfect mother. WOW I feel so lost! I feel like suddenly I am the worst mother in the world. I do get caught up doing the chores or cooking dinner, and I cant say that I always stop what I am doing to play with Jesse... in fact, more often than not he is entertaining himself. And I feel guilty! I feel like I am horrible and that I dont deserve such a wonderful child. Honestly this is how I have felt....

But then I remember that living in the crazy pinterest world we only SEE what people have done not how they got there, anyone can post that life is perfect and they are the prime example of the "leave it to beaver" mother and family, but the truth is I dont know that anymore than anyone else. I am real. I am me. I am stitched entirely of flaws forgiven by my savior. Every day I hug and love Jesse, I read with him, I talk to him, I cook for him, I play with him... and yet I still feel like it isnt enough... but I have to remind myself that as long as I listen, as long as I am there, and as long as he is happy I am doing my job. 

I guess my goal with this blog was to share my feelings about living in a pinterest world. It isnt easy and while I love it for all its glory I have to remind myself that I am one person and I cant be perfect. I will however try my hardest every single day to be the best mom I can be! <3 

RoMANce

Okay ladies.... I am not sure about you, but my husband is about as romantic as a candle that is burning out (no offense babe!)... so on those special days, birthday, holiday, ANNIVERSARY I try to think outside of the box and do something that will knock him off his feet! Some of you may be saying "that isnt your job, he should be doing that for you," and while I agree to some extent I have learned that it isnt about who does it, but rather that it is done! For valentines day I prepared a wonderful dinner for him, spread note cards throughout the house (50, for 50 reasons why I love him) with rose petals all over the floor, leading up to candles, a comfy bed with rose petals and his favorite movie picked out. Here are some pictures....

Now the only problem is I got so creative for valentines day that topping it will be hard... I mean when he walked in I even had our wedding song, God bless the broken road playing. BUT I think I have some great ideas for our anniversary! So since its our 3rd, I planned everything in 3's (it helps that 3 is my favorite number too!) :) I got 3 balloons... on each I will tie a different favorite memory.... 3 cards, in each I will write a different reason I adore him and what I look forward to! 3 different gift cards to his favorite stores, and then 2 garden kits+ an orange tree... Jess got him seed packets for his garden kit... and then I got him a bunch of different candy (like nerds, sugar babies, hot tamales) and I plan on putting a giant sticky note on each with a cheesy line like, You are MY hot tamale! :)
For a long time I was angry that he didnt plan things like this for me, but I realized that even me doing them for him brings me happiness... now that doesnt mean I wouldnt appreciate the thought and effort, but honestly, I doubt he will ever think that "out of the box." I think ultimately my reason for posting this is to give all the women out there some inspiration. Marriage isnt about who does more, or who does better... its about doing... period. If we want it to work we have to work. It takes thought, dedication and a willingness to think of new things and share your love in different ways. Some of you may think your husband wouldnt like things like this, but let me put it this way... who wouldnt want all the attention on them in a positive way? He may not be into some of the cheesy things, but trust me when I say a candlelight dinner for two with music playing is a sure-fire way to make him feel special! Plus if you do something that you will like and that makes you happy, he will sense your happiness and the fact that you are at ease and both of you will enjoy yourselves more! RoMANce isnt just for women, its for men too! :)

Adorable Lunches

I am not really sure how this whole blog thing works, I keep trying to come up with some catchy one-liner to grab your attention, but I figured, what the heck, might as well get started! At the request of someone near and dear to me I have started this blog, simply to post my mommy rants, "magical" ideas, and other random happenings. We all know how hectic nights can turn into stressful mornings, so you ask.... what about adorable lunches...

Moms, many of us work... we don't have the time to be with our kids and I know that I feel guilty about that a lot. One of the cute things we CAN do to show them we are thinking about them, is to send them off with some "envy-packing" lunches. My wonderful friend (Megan Fargason) set the bar for what is called Bento lunches, and all moms for that matter (thanks a lot Megan <---- enter hint of sarcasm, but genuine love here!) LOL. She posted pictures of the adorable lunches she made for her daughter. Well me, being a mom who wants to rise to the challenge, started experimenting. If you have yet to see a cute bento lunch, here is a great link to get some ideas swirling http://susanyuen.wordpress.com/page/2/. The first lunch I made was rather simple 

It was a turkey and cheese sandwich, cut into a circle, and the rest is made out of cheese as well (ears, whiskers, nose, eyes) The tricky part is carving all of those things, I used a straw to poke the cheese for the eyes, I simply cut the nose into that shape as well as the whiskers and ears, and as for the cheese for the mouse, I made squares and once again used the straw to poke holes. Bento lunches are all about creativity. If you can think it, you can do it! His next lunch.... well that was also easy, it was a bear! Again lots of circles, the ears, eyes, and nose are grapes.... attached by toothpicks... and then I put little cupcake liners in with chocolate graham crackers and sliced carrots. Super easy, super fun... and the best part is they love these lunches! The third lunch was my attempt at Mater... let me say, I did this once and will only do it once. It was not difficult, but I used so much "extra'' stuff that he wouldnt eat that it kind of wasnt worth it! Plus he loved this SO much that he wanted to save it! LOL...needless to say the teachers will  think you are AAAAAAmazing, the other kids all love them, and your child.... they feel extra special! There are tons of cute ways to make lunches special. You can write a note on a banana ...

you can tuck a card in their lunch, write on a napkin... even just cut out a heart, dinosaur... whatever cookie cutter you have WILL work! It doesnt need to be as in depth as some of these bentos... just taking the extra minute to do something special will mean the world to them! Remember like everything in life, it isn't about quantity, it is about quality. Regardless of if you are a "working" mother (I put this in quotations because that statement is kind of moronic since all mothers work!) or a stay at home mom... we are all busy, we all have too much on our plate, and we all want the best for our kids. These lunches may take you some extra time, some extra thinking, but if you exhaust your resources, get creative and just do it... your kids will thank you for it later. They are only small once, just think, in high school this would be SOOOOOO embarrassing (<---- keeping that in mind as a form of punishment) LOL. Dont let the hectic nights and stressful mornings take away from what matters most; the quality of your family life and time! <3