It's in full swing...

School is in the second week, and it's already starting. The morning struggle.

Now, I'm getting it from the one I least expected it, my 5 year old. I realize why, but geez Louise!

She refuses to go to sleep at night, it takes better than an hour and a half for me to get her to sleep. She just refuses to lay still, she's like her oldest brother.

I've tried everything. Stories, baths, yelling, threathening, starting earlier, wearing her out; everything! Nothing works. She's killing me. She's so grumpy when she gets home from school because she's tired, it's driving me around the bend.

Then getting to bed so late, you'd think she'd sleep in. NOPE! She's up before the alarm even goes off. Then it's a fight to get ready for school. "No. I don't want to."

So not only is bed time a nightmare, the morning's are too.


Short of Benedryl, I'm at a loss. My patience is waning and between all the activities and extras, I'm exhausted!

Children are a blessing!

~Kim

Beauty is in...

the wax holder?

Ok ladies. Let's talk turkey...No one wants to talk about it but as we age we get hairs in places we don't necessarily want it...So I thought I'd try waxing my upper lip. I mean, I'm not Wolfman Jack hairy or anything, but I noticed a shadow that needed to be taken care of...My mom said "Use a cream." I thought "Cream is for pussies. I'm gonna wax, how bad can it be."

Well let me tell you, it's not the most pleasant experience in the world. My lip is still burning and I think I took some  skin off of my actual lip (because I used the bigger strip because I'm new and did see the smaller ones). Fortunately, they give you these handy little towelettes that get the leftover wax off your face (otherwise my kids might have been thrilled because my lips were waxed shut).

So, thinking that my lip wasn't so bad, I thought I'd give my pits a shot. What the hell right? Can't be any worse than shaving...Did you know how sensitive the skin is under your arms?

Neither did I.

Until today.

I bit my lip and gave the strip a tug and RiiiiiiiIIIIIIPPPPPpppp off it came, and like 3 whole hairs...Are you KIDDING me? THREE? So I give it another shot, pulling in another direction....6 hairs...My armpit is on fire and STILL hairy...SO...I will shave for the rest of my God given life...

Beauty doesn't HAVE to hurt.

~Kim

School days school days...

School is looming on the horizon. The summer was fun, but it is time to send em packin'.

Some parents are sending their kids off to college, while some (like me) are sending their littlest to kindergarten.

I have mixed emotions. I'm excited because I will have 6 hours a day of "mommy time" and can find new hobbies, rekindle old ones, or just take a nap. On the other hand, I'm apprehensive because my youngest is going to school for the first time. I have no more babies. My kids are all growing up.

I'm watching my oldest become more responsible, my middle one...well he hasn't changed a whole lot, and my little girl keeps getting bigger and bigger.

I'll be doing the happy dance after I get over the adjustment period of having no kids at home, but until then, I'll buy some stock in kleenex and drown my sorrows on the internet.

Blubbering is good for the soul.

~Kim

Project Runway...

is a television show. Just because you see something is in fashion doesn't mean you have the body type to wear it.

We're all built differently. There's no way to get around it.

Jeggings (I don't even know if I spelled that right and quite frankly I'm not a fashionista so I don't really care) are one of the many things not everyone can wear.

Know that your butt looks good covered in something NOT form fitting. Know that your thighs do NOT look good being hugged by lycra. Please please PLEASE don't let it all hang out. I don't want to see it and neither do any other people you don't know.

I mean I'm glad you're confident enough to feel good in those items, but keep it at home for your boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other.

Same goes for banana hammocks at the beach. Really? You REALLY need to wear your underwear to the beach? Your package isn't really all that impressive, I promise you.

This has been a public service announcement.

~Kim

The train keeps rolling...

as I find that more and more people I know suffer from some form of depression or another.

I battle with it on a daily basis. Now I understand that there are clinical forms of depression; parts of the brain that don't produce the right (insert big medical term that I really don't care about here). Those are treated with medications with success.

The depression I'm talking about here is different, I think. It's the stresses of daily life eating away at our sanity. Loss of motivation, loss of interest in all sorts of things, and limited sex drive (gasp). The problem with this type of depression (I'm sure there's another term for it out there somewhere and I'll see it on the Dr. Oz show after I finish this blog and still won't come back to correct it) is medication does nothing but mask the fact that we may be less than happy with where we are in life.

Since I basically run our household, because my husband is gone, I find myself overwhelmed most of the time. Three kids, one of which is special needs, bills, money, cleaning, cooking, and a whole host of other things that if I think of my chest will tighten, make my life busy. I'm not always busy in a physical way, but the mental energy it takes to operate a household is staggering.

So my house is a mess, sometimes my kids don't have a shower every single day, and sometimes they do get ice cream for breakfast. I'm tired, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed and I'm depressed.

I find myself up all night stressing out about how this and that or the other thing is going to happen. The biggest problem I have is I don't have anyone that I can really talk to about it. The one person you would think I would be able to talk about our household to only seems to make things worse with guilt, finger pointing, or flat out "it's your fault you're in this situation."

The other person I confide in sometimes lectures me on how I'm a bad wife, housekeeper, money manager, sub-par parent, and the like.

Yeah that's helpful. Sometimes I just need someone to listen. I don't need advice, I don't need lectures, I don't need guilt. I just need to unload once in a while so it's not so overwhelming to do the dishes after dinner.



I don't think it's too much to ask.

~Kim

There's no such thing as...

Bad kids, only bad parents. No really, I stand behind that statement.

Kids feed off of their parents. If they get positive direction and attention, you will see it in their behavior. Parents are the first example that children have in their lives. Parents get the opportunity to help form their kids' behaviors before they are influenced by outside sources.

Eventually, they're influenced by their friends, but if the parents give them a solid foundation and treat them as their children, not their buddy, they will choose friends with similar values that their parents have imparted on them.

Don't get me wrong, kids will make poor choices regardless of their upbringing. After all, they're kids. They don't ALWAYS know what a good choice is, but when they make a poor choice, the biggest factor in how they move on from that choice is how their parents handle the situation.

I.e. if a child does something wrong (and they will) if the parent lets it slide it becomes the norm, causing it, down the road, to be a problem to change the behavior.

I.e. if your child sees you dressing like you should live on a street corner (either because you're homeless or you're turning tricks) then they think it's ok and will try to emulate that. ("Do as I say not as I do" doesn't work)

Before you start chanting about me being "holier than thou," let me tell you, I am NOT the perfect parent. I make mistakes, my kids talk back, and they don't always do what I thought they should have. The way I deal with it has an effect on the outcome. Sometimes I'm right, and sometimes, not so much.

When it comes to kids: Parents, you reap what you sow.

~Kim