My real life

My friend Em and I were talking a couple weeks ago how when you look at people's blogs, it's easy to think their life is so perfect. What you usually see is the best pictures, all the fun trips and activities they've been doing, and all the wonderful things they say about their friends and family. So Em recently had a blog entitled "Keeping it Real"; I thought it was perfect. Although I love my life, it is far from perfect. Most of my days consist of:

1) Dealing with Emily waking up several times in the night, then coming into our bed and kicking us all night. That's not even to mention the past week spent in the hospital or dealing with her whininess (although her throat really does hurt after getting her tonsils out.)

2) Being in my pajamas half the day, hoping to squeeze a shower in somewhere.

3) Dealing with the constant arguments between Emily and Bri -- fighting over which DVD to watch, which tricycle to ride, what to have for lunch, fighting over the same toy which neither has cared about the last 3 months, and then dealing with Bri after she pushes Emily.

4) Struggling with them actually getting dressed and brushing their hair (optional on most days since Bri puts up such a fuss that it hurts). Before I had kids, I always saw those kids with dirty clothes and messy hair and thought, I'll never be that mom! Then I became one and suddenly those things didn't seem that important. Or you'd like things to be a certain way but don't have the patience or energy to deal with them!

5) If I do make it out of the house for a trip to Target or Aldi, dealing with the girls wanting to walk instead of ride in the cart (Emily is fine with this, Bri is not, therefore I usually have to make both of them ride in the cart.) Then to keep them occupied we usually bring snacks, and on most trips Bri spills them through the bottom of the cart. Not to mention where do you actually put the groceries with 2 kids in the shopping cart?

6) Trying to keep the house halfway clean amidst a St. Bernard shedding like crazy.

7) Working on the never-ending pile of laundry. As soon as you think you're actually caught up, you look in the closet and there's already 2 more baskets full. Or there's 3 baskets full of clean, folded clothes (thanks mom!) that still are not put away in drawers. It's like, none of these things take that long to do, but you just can't do everything!

8) Trying to stay caught up with my "log business" -- all the emails, phone calls, typing, scanning, faxing, and more emails.

9) All the other household duties that we try to squeeze in amidst taking care of kids. Moms, I'm sure you can relate.

10) Now if I'm so short on time, what am I doing writing this? :)

Ok, here was my attempt at "keeping it real." Now, I have to show you a few of the pictures our friend Scott took a few weeks ago. He did an amazing job.