I forgot to go grocery shopping

This morning was bad. 

My husband and I were both in bad moods, we both yelled at the kids because of it, and there were half-hearted "I love you's" as he left for work. 

So what set off this cataclysmic morning?

I forgot to go grocery shopping. 

Isn't it funny how the smallest thing, like not having cereal in the house, can set a tone for the day?

Let me explain.

My husband asks only two things of me. 

Two...That's it. 

He asks for clean laundry and a full belly. 

Seriously, the house can be a wreck, the kids can be running wild (within reason), and the gas tank can be empty, but he's perfectly fine to go with the flow as long as these two needs are met. 

I, on the other hand, have many demands that change daily, and the poor man must keep up or there will be hell to pay. 

This morning, as I was posting a loving picture on Facebook of a coffee mug that he got me while he was gone over the weekend, a knot formed in my stomach as I remembered that I had forgotten to get cereal at the store yesterday. 

We had gone to walmart, so it should have jogged my memory, but we had decided to finally get the kids a trampoline (which my husband set up basically by himself, in the heat, just an hour after he got home, with no complaining), and I was so into the buying of the trampoline that I forgot. 

Plain and simple. 

So cut to this morning, I had to fess up that the only thing we had to eat or breakfast, was instant grits. 

Well, it didn't go over so well and thus today's tone was set. 

So, as I'm sitting here staring at this coffee mug that A) he went out of his way to get for me and B) he had remembered the mugs that I had specifically pointed out, I feel like an absolute jerk. 

Some people could look at this situation and feel sorry for me (I sure did at first) and think that I was right in this situation, but no, I was wrong. 

Here's the thing: I'm the CEO of Cook household management. It's my JOB to remember the cereal. It would be the same as Josh forgetting to go to work one day and then saying, "Oh, sorry, I forgot that was on my list of to-do's."

Do you see my point yet? 

I was sitting there expecting sympathy for me not doing my job. Right? 

How well would that fly in the outside world?

Yeah, it wouldn't. 

So here I am, feeling horrible because I wasn't organized enough to have a weekly menu planner and I didn't make use of my time wisely. I even have a Pinterest board specifically for these purposes, and I vow every week that if these women can do it, then so can I!

Then when it doesn't happen, it's a blow to my ego. 

Which brings me to my second point: how many of you out there would have known that we had a huge argument this morning had I not posted this blog post?

Probably no one. 

I mean, remember? I had just shared with the virtual world about how happy I was because my loving husband got me a pretty present. 

I know that I have friends on Instagram and Facebook that I sometime envy because their lives seems more out together than mine. 

But what are they not saying?

Probably the same things that I'm not saying. 

So sweet, friends, when you have a morning/afternoon/evening that resembles mine, please remember that it happens to all of us. 

Today, I'm going to the grocery store to get cereal (because I love knowing my husband's needs are met), and I'm reassuring myself that I am not alone in the daily mess of things (because I love meeting my own needs as well.) 

You are loved. Absolutely and forever loved. I love you, your spouse loves you, but most importantly, God loves you... Despite the mess and forgetfulness. 

So pull up your boot straps and march through the day with confidence!

Oh, and don't forget to get the cereal!

Recipe: Fake-It-Til-You-Make-It Chicken Parmesan

  I haven't been grocery shopping in, oh, about three weeks. I've picked up ingredients here and there, but as far as having cohesive and relevant ingredients in my pantry and fridge, well, I'm falling down on the job. So, when lunch time rolled around, I looked to see what exactly I had to work with. I had spaghetti noodles, sauce, grated Parmesan cheese, and ONE grilled chicken breast left.
Spaghetti is fine by itself if you're a child, or me, but like I've stated before, my husband needs meat for it to be a meal.

*scoffs* Men. How dare they need protein!

So I decided to get creative and try my hand at make a super quick version of chicken Parmesan where one chicken breast would stretch to feed a family of five. Here's what I came up with.

Fake-It-Til-You-Make-It Parmesan Chicken:

Sauce:
1 jar spaghetti sauce of your choice
1/2 C grated parmesan  cheese

Chicken breading:
1 C bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

And the rest:
1 C milk (I used almond milk and it worked just fine)
1 grilled chicken breast cubed
1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 C olive oil (for frying chicken)

First, combine your two sauce ingredients in a sauce pot and simmer as low as your burner will go.

Next, follow cooking instructions for your spaghetti noodles.

Then, mix together all of your chicken breading together in a bowl using a fork, then set aside.
Pour your milk into a bowl.

Now you're all set to get your fingertips nice and gross!

Alrighty, now you cube your chicken breast. My chicken breast was already grilled, so the cooking time was cut in half. But, you can of course use raw cubes as well. (However, I like to cheat so I don't burn my breading.)

Heat your olive oil in your skillet on medium-high.

Dip your chicken cubes in your milk and then immediately roll them around in your breading. I set my finished ones on a plate so I can cook all of the chicken at the same time to prevent burning.

Place your chicken in your hot oil and kind of stir them gently every 30 seconds or so. Once all sides are nice and golden brown, take out of skillet and place on a plate.

PLEASE make sure it's a different plate than you used for the raw chicken!

Now you can combine your cooked noodles and sauce together. Spoon into an oven safe dish. place your breaded chicken cubes on top and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese.

Set under a broiler for about two minutes until the tops is a very light brown.

Then simply enjoy!

Happy cooking!
-Heather
 

Quick and Easy Meals

 As the kids get older, the homeschool lessons get more involved, and the husband's schedule gets all kinds of crazy, I find my typical meal planning and scheduling getting all kinds of messed up. I eventually find a new routine, but by golly does it takes awhile for a 'new normal' to get set in stone. 

Lately I've wanted to throw in the towel and resort to sandwiches and salads for every meal. 
Those are two of my favorite meals, so I'd be fine. My husband, however, would never be able to live off of light meals. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so I must oblige his primal menu, right?

To get myself back into the swing of things, I've been tying to find quick meals or meals that allow me to set it and forget it for a bit.

After speaking with some of you guys, I figured that these recipes would be worth a share.

First off we have Pioneer Woman's Eggs in Hash brown Nests:

Link to original recipe here.

 I've linked the original recipe under the picture.

Here' are a few things that I did differently because:
A) I'm cheap and make food stretch.
B) I'm busy and like to find the lazy-man way of doing things.
C) I wasn't fond of the hash brown flavor in the original recipe.

• I baked the potatoes in the microwave.
• I used a potholder to hold the potato when I grated my hash browns because I couldn't wait ten minutes for them to cool.
• Next time I'll season the heck out of the hash browns using salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
• Instead of using an individual egg per nest, I made a batch of scrambled egg mix and poured on top.(Eggs can get expensive!)

Here's my basic scrambled egg recipe:
5 large eggs
salt and pepper to your liking 
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder (a total guesstimation)
1 tbsp chopped green onions
1-2 tbsp sour cream
*optional* dash of hot sauce

Beat the fire out of the eggs using a fork until ingredients are blended well. Pour mixture on top of nests.
Then simply follow the rest of the recipe.


Next we have mini pancakes:

Recipe link

My friend, Jerian, introduced me to the joys of mini pancakes. They cook more quickly and kids can dip them in syrup or jam instead of dealing with the mess of tons of syrupy pancakes that have to be cut.

Recipe: 
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1 1/4 Cups milk (I used almond milk and used about 1/4 cup more than this to thin out that batter and it turned out just fine)
1 egg
3 tbsp butter, melted

Mix ingredients together and use a spoon to plop little circles of batter on the hot griddle. wait until you see bubbles in the batter on the top side of the pancake, then flip. Wait another minute or two and your pancakes should be done!

My kids eat theirs with a side of strawberry vanilla jam.


Finally, we have Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps:

Recipe link

• 10 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 lime juice, juiced
• 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• dash crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 (12 oz) cups cooked chicken 
• 1 (11 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1/2 green pepper, finely diced
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery
• 1/2 container grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro (2 tsp dried)
• 1 can Black Beans

In medium bowl whisk together mayonnaise, lime juice, taco seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and red pepper flakes.  Stir in remaining ingredients. Coat evenly.
Cover and refrigerate 25-30 minutes before serving.

We  served ours in with lettuce on a whole wheat tortilla wrap, but it's also yummy on a bed of lettuce for a salad or on sandwich bread.



I was going to post my quick stir-fry recipe, but it occurred to me that I've never measured out my recipe, so that post will come later.

I hope y'all have a happy Thursday, friends!

Happy eating!
-Heather

Thank God for Fridays

Hey, friends! This week has been a bit of a roller coaster, but it was nothing that we couldn't handle.

HOWEVER, I personally am thrilled that it's the weekend. Hello! I finally get to hit the yard and get it looking nice again. 

It's our year of living intentionally at our house (we have gotten a late start though) and we're trying to make the most of the time we have. 

Here's a little how our yesterday went:

What we did:

I had an eye appointment early for CONTACTS! Woo hoo! I can't tell you how nice it is to not have my glasses sliding down my face constantly. I went to push my glasses up the other day like I usually do and I managed to stab myself in the eye.

I'm a genius. 

That evening, the kids and I went to Papaw's to teach them how hard work in the yard earns them Oreos. 

Unfortunately, too many Oreos kept Sofia up with a tummy ache last night. 

Be glad I don't have a picture of that...

Josh and Sofia worked on replacing our headlight in the car.

She didn't learn much other than how to be ridiculously cute....

While Josh was at the store getting the headlight parts, he surprised us by buying Frozen! We've watched it 3 times already. When we aren't watching it, we're singing the songs. 

Our poor Josh. 

What we ate:

While I was waiting for my eye appointment, I was researching and thinking of snack ideas for the kids that involve fruit (since it's about to  be pretty affordable) but I wanted it to be more than just fruit. 

I like to complicate things. 

I found some strawberries on sale and grabbed two boxes and some vanilla Greek yogurt. 

Snack #1:

Yogurt dipped strawberries

Yeah, it's basically what it says. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Dip strawberries in Greek yogurt a few times and lay on the cookie sheet. 

Let freeze about an hour. 

(I say an hour because I'm lazy and forget to check on things for a substantial amount of time sometimes. This was one of those times. They may be done sooner.)

When fully frozen, cut tops of strawberries off and cut in half. 

I stored mine in a freezer bag. 

Snack #2:

Strawberry frozen yogurt pops:

Take half a container of strawberries and 1 cup Greek yogurt and place in a blender. 

Liquify the fire out of it. 

Pour into ridiculously cute Popsicle molds and place in freezer. 

I didn't measure when I made these and ended up with a yummy smoothie afterwards. Kind of like a "good-job-at-making-these-fun-snacks-Mom" reward. 

Snack #3 

Peanut butter dipped banana slices:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

Take two bananas and slice each slice thick enough to stick a Popsicle stick in it. 

Melt 3/4 cup peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. 

Stick popsicle sticks into your banana slices and dip into the beanit butter until covered.

 Lay on cookie sheet for an hour or until frozen. 

Again, I stored these in a freezer bag. 

For lunch I made lemon chicken on a garlic butter/ Parmesan covered bed of noodles and garnished with cherry tomatoes and basil. 

I don't have a recipe for this because I threw it together and then decided to take a picture because I thought it was pretty. 

Oops

What we read:

Our lesson books for our first Sunday school class!

We teach our first class tomorrow. We're nervous, of course, because we don't know the youth well, and they don't know us. But we'll manage!

So, there's our Friday, friends!

Have an awesome weekend!

Friday Follow-Up

Hello, friends!
It looks as though we've made it through the week!
Give yourself a pat on the back.

I'm currently sitting here in my hogs shirt and ball shorts, sipping my coffee, trying to decide what this day has in store for me.

Luckily, I have my handy-dandy Homemaker Bible that I made handy, so I can consult it when I get lost in my head.

Well, "What is that Bible you speak of?", you ask?
It's not actually a bible, but it's my second go-to book when I need encouragement or direction. Just about every wife I've spoken with has some sort of back up system for their families in case they are sick or have to travel. My binder in particular has billing information, recipes for food and cleaning products, our daily schedule, our monthly schedule, etc... It's pret-ty handy if you ask me! I also organize our holiday schedules and lists in there as well. It's the one-stop-shop for all things for the Cook Household.

I'm thinking of selling the starter kit that includes cleaning recipes, our favorite recipes, as well as financial folders, and varied tabs. At least I will if there's interest!

So, I suppose I will need to get on with the picture taking to help you understand exactly what I mean.

The rest of my day will be filled with sloppy joes, cookie baking, and some Thanksgiving history lessons.

Sawyer has been completing all of his lessons by 11:30, so that has given us the rest of the day to freestyle our homeschooling schedule. By the way, I AM still working on that post. It's kind of emotional and I would like to write it without dragging his teacher through the mud.
That part is hard though. Anyways, I haven't forgotten!

My dear husband is currently sitting in the cold, dark woods waiting to kill a deer. We've talked about me going out with him at some point, but I really don't think I could shut up long enough for him. Maybe I cold just text him the whole time. Ha!

So, that's all the rambling I have currently.
What are your plans to kick-off the weekend?
 Have a happy Friday, folks!

Sentence fragments, homeschool, and arguments. Oh my!

First of all, I need to express that this is the first time in months that I'm composing a long body of work that ISN'T an essay.

You know what? 

It feels GOOD. 

Rules are out the window. 

Fragment. 

Fragment. 

Dumb words.

Comma, splice. 

Mwahaha! Take that, English language. Take my abuse!

Okay, reel it in, Heather. 

I promised a post that explained where I've been. 

I've been immersed in college. 

Day in, day out. 

I hate it. 

Absolutely hate it. 

Let me start out with how I got here. 

I was in a stay-at-home mom rut this summer. I was longing for a career and I was absolutely sure that's the direction that God was leading me in. 

No, I didn't pray about it, and no, I didn't put much thought into how it would effect my family life. 

I was planning on waiting until spring to begin classes. I wanted to make sure that this was indeed where I was being led. However, after deciding that it was me procrastinating rather than being cautious, I decided to head up to the college and sign up for classes the Friday before college started. 

My advisor signed me up for Art appreciation, English comp 1, and algebra I, II, and III for the fall semester. 

I explained to him that I really, really struggled with algebra and I only wanted to take algebra I and II, but he said the college prefers students to take the three block. I trusted him even though every fiber of my being was screaming, "Stop!"

Some day I will learn to put my foot down and say no when my gut tells me to. 

I ended up dropping algebra III. That's okay. 

I have no fewer than four homework assignments in my English class weekly. One of those assignments averages 100 questions most weeks. That's on top of the class work and essays.  

I've had to skip my art class (the only class I actually like and want to go to) so I can stay caught up in my other two classes. This has cost me attendance points which has hurt my grade. 

With all this being said, I have decided to change degrees, therefore, none of the classes I'm currently taking count toward my degree. 

So... Yeah. 

I'm still taking my classes seriously and putting my whole heart into them. I feel that it's being respectful to the instructors and education is never wasted. 

I watched a video today about a Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out about women deserving education. 

How can I not appreciate being able to earn a degree after watching that?!

So, no matter how much my heart doesn't want to be at school right now, I have been provided with an opportunity to better myself. 

By golly, I'm going to stick it out. 

But here's what is really getting me to a place of wanting to quit. 

I miss my family and I have mom guilt. 

One of the reasons I decided to go ahead and start school now is because Sawyer started kindergarten this year. I figured I would have more time. 

About two weeks into school, we realized that our school system wouldn't be able to provide him with enough challenges and quite frankly, his teacher acted like a few choice words towards him at our parent teacher conference. 

We decided that was the final straw and as soon as he was officially enrolled in an online public school, we yanked him out of that school in the middle of the school day. (This whole story is another post in itself.)

Okay, back on topic. 

We obviously decided to homeschool. Well, that's a task in itself. 

Here is where Josh and I are right now:

I'm homeschooling my son and going to college full time. 

Josh is homeschooling our son and going to college plus working full time. 

We are trying to sort through chores, who fills the gas tanks, who pays the bills, who grocery shops, and who gets to sleep that night. 

Yes, this is where I'm struggling. 

My family needs me. 

All of me. 

Right now. 

And I need them. 

All of them. 

Right now. 

My heart and my calling right now is homemaking and my family. 

I was told by a good friend the other night that one can't deny a calling. 

When you deny a calling, none of the other life pieces for together. 

Yes, friends, this is what's happening. 

Our family life is chaos, and at times, feels like it's hit a wall at 70 mph. 

Josh and I are exhausted. 

We're literally exhausted. 

We're exhausted mentally. 

We're exhausted in our parenting. 

We're exhausted in our marriage. 

The hard thing is: Me going back to school is what has caused this. 

It was the catalyst in a cataclysmic landslide of our family. 

It. Just. Worked. Better. The. Other. Way. 

There is absolutely no denying it. 

For my new readers: 

I'm about to be honest about my marriage. Awhile ago I asked Josh if there was anything he would like me to keep off of my blog. 

His response was, "Who am I to stop something great. Write what's in your heart." 

How awesome is that?

Snaps to Josh.

(Yes, I just referenced Legally Blonde.)

Anyways, The stress reached a peak this week. 

This week is midterms and there were a lot of deadlines. 

Every morning for the last two weeks I have woken up and have been sick to my stomach because of stress. I've averaged about three hours of sleep nightly. Yes, I understand this is typical for college students. However, when you're nearing thirty and have three kids and a husband, all nighters are not that easy. 

Josh and I have bickered, blamed each other over the dumbest things, and have just been avoiding each other. 

Case-in-point of how gnarly it got:

I'm the kind of fighter in my marriage where I need to fix the fight immediately.  I always have been that way. Loose ends drive me crazy and I can't stand anyone being upset with me. 

The other morning, Josh and I got into over something. I can't even remember what now. 

I was tired of crying in front of him so I went to take a shower so I could cry in private. At some point in the shower, my hurt turned to anger. This NEVER happens to me. I always assume I'm to blame, so I tend to apologize incessantly. 

However, something in me snapped. 

When I walked out of the bathroom, Josh apologized quickly. 

I started to walk away (unheard of between us), but then I turned around and said, "I am angry right now. I don't want to fix this right now. I have every right to be mad. We'll revisit this after the kids go to bed. Okay?"

I could have literally scraped Josh's jaw off the floor. 

I never feel justified in my feelings. I'm never in control of the argument. And I certainly never walk away with things unresolved. 

It felt GOOD.

However, this is an example of the extremes that me going back to school has caused  our marriage to go to. 

Not everything that has come out of this experience is bad though. 

I've had to learn to do things alone. I've learned that it's okay for me justify my feelings. I've learned that I'm important to my family. Most of all, I've learned that I'm not as dumb as people have told me in the past. I feel like my grades aren't good enough, but they certainly aren't bad at all. 

We'll see how the rest of the semester plays out. 

Thank you, friends, for sticking through this time with me. 

You are all such a blessing! 

Snaps to y'all. 

Homemade Swiffer Wet Jet Cloth

Today I have hit a wall. An ick wall to be exact. I was pushing through full steam until lunch time when I just went downhill quickly. 

Fortunately, I start my day at about 5 in the morning, so a large chunk of my work was already finished. 

Unfortunately, part of that work came to fruition because my Swiffer cloth I made 2 years ago bit the dust this morning. It was simply worked to death. 

A few years ago I decided to find a frugal way to replace the never ending purchases of wet Swiffer cloths. I was going through them at a ridiculous rate. 

So here's what I came up with:

It's not perfect stitching by any means, but I don't think my Swiffer minds. 

I really, really stink at tutorials, so just bear with me. 

Materials:

Velcro strips (enough to cut into four 2 inch pieces) 

Durable washcloth

Sewing machine/or needle

Thread

The first thing you need to do is find a high quality, durable washcloth. 

Fold it in half and sew along all the edges. It should look like this:

Once you have that done, you get yourself some Velcro. Walmart sells long strips. 

Cut into four 2 inch long strips. 

(I forgot to get a picture of this. I told you I'm not good at this.)

Make sure you're using the soft side of the Velcro. 

Pin each piece in the corner of your washcloth. 

Yay! Look at how awesome you are. So nifty, you. 

Sew each piece on making sure you see the edges so they don't pull off. 

Once you have all 4 sewn on, you're ready to attach the cloth to your Swiffer and get to cleaning!

Congratulations. You are now a frugal goddess.  

Good on you.

Don't forget to like my page on Facebook!

The Ten Commandments of Irritation

Would you like to know what the best cure for a nagging wife/mom/sister is?

DO WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO.

Most of the time I absolutely LOVE being a stay-at-home mom. I work really hard to make my family's life flow easily, to make a nice, clean home for them to live in, to decorate the house to create a peaceful environment, blah blah blah. But how peaceful is it going to be when I'm nagging all the time?

Not peaceful at all.

When it was just Josh and Sawyer here with me, I didn't mind cleaning up messes and organizing. I loved cooking and doing the laundry. Heck, I used to wash curtains just to have something to do! Fast forward a year-and-a-half later, Sawyer is older and makes much larger messes, Sofia is older and making messes, and Isaiah is a teenage boy... need I say more? I do need to say he doesn't really make messes and he cleans his own laundry and room. You'll see his list in a few.

Hold on, let me go get my bowl of Kix with chocolate chips... This is gonna be a bumpy ride.

There are Ten solid rules that no matter how hard I try, they feel they must live by. So here are our Ten Commandments.

1. Thou shall fill up any open space on shelves, coffee tables, dressers, desks, etc...

This is a pet-peeve to the max for me. It's something we've struggled with since day one of our marriage. But here's the thing, I've realized it's not just Josh. It's the kids too!
"Hey, look at this beautiful shelf with home decor and color coded books! It's the perfect place to dump all of my crap!" I grew up in house with lots of extra stuff, so clutter drives me crazy! I don't even know what to do with half of Josh's stuff. He has (last I counted) 8 pocket knives. What do I do with those? Not to mention the screwdriver, watches, packs of gum, trash, receipts, and other crap. It's too much! There's a place for all of those things! And the kids.... Apparently toys don't belong in their rooms in the toy boxes that are available. Nope, they go on the coffee table.

2. Thou shall throw all laundry anywhere but the hampers.

I have to admit, I do it too, but I'm also the one who cleans up the messes. I know, "lead by example", but I have to lead by example so much, I figure I should get some slack with laundry.
I find laundry under the couch, in bathroom floors, under beds, once I even found clothes in the freezer. (I'm guessing Sofia did that.) If a hamper is not available, make a pile where the hamper usually sits.

3. Thou shall half-ass all homework and chores.
I understand hating homework and chores as a teen. Hell, I still do. However, they are necessary  evils. If I ask you "Did you do your homework?" what I mean is, "Did you do all of your homework, to the best of your ability, don't lie to me." Also, chores.... If you know I'm going to check, wouldn't you do it right the first time? Or at least not lie about doing it? YOU KNOW I'M GOING TO CHECK! You're going to get caught! I don't understand it.

4. Thou shall proceed to flip out at Heather if something gets lost.
Here's the thing... If YOU lost it, I can't guarantee I'll find it. I'm not in charge of your phone, toy, homework, etc.... I already have enough to do besides find your stuff.

5.Thou shall hover over the cook in anticipation of food.

Back off... I'll let you know when dinner's done. I always have, I always will. Company in the kitchen is welcome, but do not get within 3 feet of me. ( Unless it's for a hug or kiss. I never get tired of those.)

6. Thou shall yell at the person who wakes you up in the morning.
I don't want to wake anyone up in the morning unless I have to. I would rather let everyone sleep while I drink my coffee and blog or watch my shows. I'm doing my family a favor by making sure they get to their respective places on time. I cringe when I flip the boys light on because Sawyer yells almost every morning and Isaiah gives me the go-to-hell look. I would rather throw a pillow at Josh and run, then leave the house for an hour so he can wake up. I have NEVER met a person who hates mornings so much. I try and wake everyone up in the nicest, calmest way possible, but when I'm telling you for the third time to get up, I lose my patience. So, can you guys just make it easier on me, please? After all, the only thing I'm asking you to do is wake up.

7.Thou shall get annoyed when a bill is forgotten...
...or when anything is forgotten for that matter. I have a lot going on in my head, I can't remember everything, and yes, that unfortunately includes important things sometimes. I understand people getting frustrated in that situation, but getting annoyed isn't going to make it better. A simple, "I understand, you have a lot on your plate. Would you like me to do it?" Or, "Mom, it's okay, we can take care of it." would help the situation so much! Most likely, I'll turn your offer down out of pride, but then I won't feel like I need to  get defensive.

8. Thou shall only focus on the things that aren't done.

Laundry? I hate folding it. However, silver lining? It gets washed! There's so much that I get done in one day, but it's easy to not see what did get done and focus on what didn't. Josh is super awesome when he understands that I've done a project instead of cleaning. I was productive on something different that day. Good job! Mix it up! The kids however, are a different story. "Mom! You didn't wash my footie pajamas!" Sawyer completely ignores the other 10 pair of pajamas he has clean. "Mom! You didn't find my show and tell toy!" "Son, that's your responsibility."

9. Thou shall get annoyed when errands must be run.

I hate doing them, too. But they have to be done, sometimes by myself, sometimes with Josh, sometimes with the kids. Being huffy about it, puts me in a bad mood when I already was dreading it as much as you were.

10. Thou shall get into everything that does not belong to you. 
Today I have gotten onto people for getting into my:
Paperwork
Phone
Candles
Food
Bedroom
Paint (Sofia drank it. After an ER visit and a cute picture of her covered in blue paint, she's a-okay.)
and Scissors

I have few things that I get to myself.  If I tell you not to touch it, that's because it's MINE. A mom has to put up boundaries. Mine were crossed today and I'm still grumpy about it.

So  there are our Ten Commandments... What are some of yours?

-Heather