Laughing And Crafting

Hey, y'all! What's shakin'? It's a very quiet morning here for us. Only RCC #5 is home with Caleb and I. Our other babies stayed the night with Nanna & Poppa and we aren't used to the calm and quiet. Maybe I should dump out the Lego box and spill some cereal so it'll feel more normal. Here's some good news for everyone! Drumroll, please! It's Free Cone Day at Dairy Queen! Y'all know we'll be there! 

Saturday night my best friend brought her four kiddos over and we had a kid swap. I got her 10-year-old twin boys, Hunter and Carter, and she took my 10-year-old girl, Rylie Cole. We let all the kids play for a while so LO and I could do a little laughing and a little crafting. Here's a little bit of what we managed to get done between refereeing 9 kids and laughing our tails off:

Every baseball momma needs a cute cap to keep the sun out of her eyes. Or maybe she didn't feel like washing her hair for the third day in a row. Who knows?! 

Now y'all check this video of two super cool moms out!

http://youtu.be/5Y4e2OHPhK0

Yeah, we're grool. On Sunday morning at church, I had a few people ask me where my crew was and why I was alone. It's a pretty funny situation when the preacher asks you where all your kids are you tell him you couldn't find them! We have forty acres and the kids play on every single bit of it. They LOVE all the rain and the mud we have gotten! Climbing trees, playing in the creek, hide and go seek, swimming in the pond, making forts. Ya know, REALLY playing. I think we need to invest in either a megaphone or some walkie talkies. Those boys were just having too much fun! Caleb decided to stay home and "babysit". If you know Caleb, that means he was out there having more fun than they were. He plays with the kids like he IS one of the kids. 

Well, with a house full of kids comes BIG messes and empty pantries. Time for me to get busy cleaning and making a grocery list. I hope y'all have a fabulous Monday! 

❤️ Jennifer

You Really Thought You Were The Only One?

Hi, y'all! I want to thank all of y'all for reading my blog. I truly appreciate it! I'm not blogging to get attention or 'likes'. I am blogging because life is a full time circus and I want to share it with y'all! I especially want to help other mommas! Being a mom is really (really!) freaking hard sometimes and hopefully you can gain some comfort and peace here. So, I just want to take a second and introduce myself to the new readers. I'm a stay-at-home mom to our five babies, Rylie Cole, 10yo girl, Rowdy, 8yo boy, Cash, 6yo boy, Remmi, 3yo girl & Roxie, 17mo girl. We call them the RCC Gang. We homeschool and I've been married to my high school sweetheart for 12 years. I try to find the humor in things, I am a jokester (please don't be offended), I love to craft, cook, bake and I LOVE EVERYTHING that goes along with having a big family. Especially the chaos! I hope you will come back and read again and share some of your life with me! 

Today's post is a follow up to the post from yesterday. I interviewed my bestie and gave her some pretty tough questions. But you know what? Being honest and real about the tough stuff is what I like. It's easy to put on the mask and pretend everything is perfect, but sometimes we need to share that we are sinking and our floaties are busted and we can't even swim! Hey, somebody toss me a raft or something!!!

Please feel free to share with someone who you think could use it or might enjoy reading it! I think it helps to know others are cuckoo too and you sho ain't by yourself! Welcome to the club! I hope y'all enjoy the post. 

1) What is your biggest mom failure?

The biggest mom failure I have ever had, well, there has been a whole series of them. Then a second edition. Then a whole bunch of mini series. Even a few repeats. I've made SO many parenting mistakes. Things I am embarrassed to admit. Things I'm SCARED to admit. But I want other mommas to know that WE ALL have those moments, but the one that hurt my momma heart the most and made me feel like a total loser who wasn't worthy to have children is probably the time I was out delivering Girl Scout cookies and let my ducks get out of row. Rylie and Rowdy were still in public school at the time, and I only had four kids. I had made it all the way to the barber shop. I got Cash out of the Tahoe and was inside chatting for a good while with my friends, Misty and Linda. They paid for their cookies and Cash and I were on our way to our next delivery. I was buckling him into his car seat when it hit me, where is my baby?! Oh my goodness, WHERE THE HELL IS MY BABY???!!! I tore out of the barber shop parking lot and drove as calmly and swiftly as I possibly could. I was bawling and my stomach was in knots. Of course I got behind a whole convoy of tractors heading to the hayfield and it felt like it took hours for me to get home. I flew into my driveway and jumped out of my car without even helping Cash unbuckle. I couldn't get the door to my house unlocked fast enough. I flung the door open and there she was, my baby, screaming her head off, sweating, and swinging away in her swing. Of course she was about to fall out because who actually buckles their kid in the swing? Oops, once again! I felt depressed for days! Like I didn't deserve children. Like I was a horrible mother. Afraid that one day I'd be that woman who forgot her kids in a hot car in the Texas summer. My heart was broken. Talk about Mom Of The Year. It took me a long time to live that one down. Sad thing is, that wasn't even the first (or last) time! ::sigh:: That's a whole 'nother story. 

2) What is the worst thing your kids have ever done?

Hmm, well, most of the crazy, unbelievable kid stories I have involve poor widdle Cash. He's a rascal let me tell ya! Boys make for good stories! Our boys are Rowdy and Cash. We refer to them as "the raccoons" or Rowdy and Rowdier. Very fitting. Once I was on the phone with Nanny and I had to let her go because I heard shouting coming from the chimney. The kids were on the roof. Again. But I guess the worst thing my kids have ever done is when Cash (who was about 4 at the time) woke up in the middle of the night after "Santa had come". You know where this is going. He quietly got up and opened every single present there was. He dumped out every stocking. He took everything out from its package. He put everything together. I mean EVERYTHING! The girls' toys too. Caleb had even let the kids open a gift the night before and one required a tiny screwdriver that we didn't have, so they would have to wait to play with it. Guess what? It was put together! There were knives and tools scattered amongst the wrapping paper explosion in our living room. Who needs a screwdriver when you can get into the knife drawer? (And obviously I didn't have safety latches on my drawers. Another mom fail!) When we woke up, I was so floored by what I had seen and I lost it. I mean I was screaming and crying and cussing and ready to pack up the guilty party and take them to the orphanage. So, nobody got to actually open gifts (not counting Cash), but it was still great. Of course now it is one of our funniest memories and a story we will tell over and over again through the years. After the hurt and the anger, we laugh about it. I doubt Cash even remembers doing it, but I sure hope they don't remember Mom going psycho on Christmas morning...

3)What has been your hardest moment as a mom?

I'd have to say my hardest mom moment has been dealing with my kids growing up. I constantly feel like I am messing them up. Especially Rylie! I don't know how to raise big kids. I just know to do little kids. Kids who need help in the tub and need their shoes tied and need to be tucked into bed. I don't know how to deal with 'big kids' and questions about life and advice and ::cringe:: puberty. I need help! Or a maybe a prescription or two. I once read a quote that said "Kids are like pancakes, you mess up the first ones". I jokingly say it all the time, but it honestly scares me to death. I don't want to have a child some day tell me how terrible of a mother I was. I didn't have a storybook childhood with a mom and dad in the same house and I just want my kids to have the life I always wanted. I was raised by my grandparents and I am beyond thankful they took me in. I try my best to be the person I want my kids to be. I think most days I'm "that woman" who nobody would ever want to be. And, yes, I know I haven't even scratched the surface of parenting yet. I have a long road ahead. If you see me walking through town one day with one shoe on, half my hair gone and I'm mumbling to myself, you'll know my kids got the best of me. And if my kids ever write books on how horrible their childhood was, please don't believe all of it! 

4) What is the worst parenting advice you have ever been given? 

I don't want to ruffle any feathers here, and I sure wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, that's not what this is about, but even people who parent the same way and agree on most topics won't agree on everything when it comes to raising kids. For me, I'd have to say something I've been told to do, that I don't agree with is spanking your kid into learning something that they're not mature enough or developed enough to know. I am all for spankings when the time is right! But not when a kid is too young or doesn't understand. Sometimes kids try their best and it still isn't enough to please grown ups. Out of my 5 kids, 4 that are potty trained, only 2 didn't wet the bed. I'm not sure why some kids do and some kids don't. I guess it's a mystery, like who put the roll of toilet paper in the filled bath tub. We may never know. I guess what I'm saying is, I mean I don't agree with spanking your kids into not wetting the bed. I wet the bed FOREVER. I remember being a second grader and waking up so embarrassed and disappointed with myself and not knowing how I had peed the bed once again. I remember dreaming that I got up and went to the bathroom. I remember trying my best to hold it all night. I remember praying that I would wake up dry. I remember being scared to stay the night with people because I didn't want to pee in their beds and didn't want them to think I was gross. I remember hoping people didn't find out so that they wouldn't make fun of me. I remember wishing it was my younger brother who had the problem and not me. After all, he was little and I was "too big" for that "baby stuff". I remember spending the night with my mom and waking up in the middle of the night to a soaked bed and going to sleep in the dirty clothes basket because I was cold and wet and was too shy to wake my mom up for help. So, yeah, I have 100% sympathy for kids who wet the bed. Until you've lived it, you don't know it. Have I whipped my kids for peeing or pooping their pants when I KNOW they knew better? Yes. Have I had times where I KNOW my kids were just being stubborn and doing it intentionally? Yes. There is a difference. But do kids have accidents? Heck yes! We all want good kids and we all want to be good mommas. A kid that has a problem with wetting the bed isn't a sign of a failed mother, but a mother who whoops a child for something they can't even control is in fact a bully. Nobody wants to hurt their children or make them feel like failures. We are all doing our best and that's the important thing. 

5) What is something that you wish you could change? 

I wish I could go back and have a do over. Redo it all. I have messed up so bad before, y'all! I know most probably wouldn't want a do over, but I would. If I knew then what I know now, it'd be a whole lot easier. Some things I wouldn't want to have to relive, but I think I'd know how to handle them "the right way". I'd let more things go, let more things slide, not flip out over someone accidentally spilling a whole gallon of milk on the carpet. It'll clean up, right? It's not that big of a deal! I wouldn't have whipped my kids out of anger, I would have calmed down and thought about it. I wouldn't have yelled at them for making simple mistakes that kids make, I'd have hugged them and told them that everybody messes up and that it's ok. After all, home is their safe place and they are JUST KIDS. 

Mommas, we are all on this ride together. There's a whole crazy, sleep-deprived slew of us! We are all going insane. And none of us would have it any other way. We all have good days and bad. We all love what we do. We all want one more baby some day to add to the ridiculous amount of chaos we already have. Oh, wait, did I lose y'all on that one? Ok, maybe that's just me; well, we all pray we make it out alive! We all pray to Jesus for better days ahead! So, just pull up a seat and join the rest of us in our dirty yoga pants and let's just make it a party! Here's to motherhood! You're doing a fine job, Momma. 

❤️Love, Jennifer, a mom who most definitely doesn't have it all together

It's Ok, We Are Crazy Too.

Good morning, y'all! Let me go ahead and comment on the snow. It's beautiful! It's majestic! It's so serene! It's bull crap is what it is. This is Texas, son! Spring, suit up, Winter, you're on the bench. 

Yesterday I got to spend time with my bestie (!!!) and I gave her a little interview. Let me just say, y'all think I have my hands full?! Ha! This chick had twin monkeys! Like, I don't even think they were human at the time. I have NEVER saw "babies" do things those boys did. I didn't know a baby could hop out of a crib like a tiny Chuck Norris and disassemble things so quickly like a mini Macgyver. (I think she might have fed them too much spinach.) And then she had the baby girl, who was actually human, so she got lucky with that one. A few years later, she even had another! Is she insane? Absolutely! Is she extremely blessed? Blessed beyond words. 

(Yes, they are THAT tan, fit family that we all see at the beach. If I didn't love her so much, I'd probably hate her.) 

So now, she has the twin 10-year-old boys (who actually did turn out to be human), Hunter & Carter, an 8-year-old little girl, Bayli Belle, and a 3-year-old son, Tucker Tex. 

Let me just say, if you think you're sinking and going under, we have been there. We are STILL there. Then someone hands you another baby. It DOES get better! Then it gets worse. Then it gets even better than before! It's stressful and chaotic and tear-jerking and wonderful and hilarious and jaw-dropping all at the same time. THIS is motherhood and THIS IS "normal", "everyday" life. 

We came up with five questions and these are straight up her responses. Straight from the horses mouth. 

1) What is your biggest mom failure? 

I have a few, but I'll roll with this one:

  One time, my husband, 3 kids (at the time), and I, had gone over to my sisters house. The twins were 3 and Bayli belle was 2. My sister ran outside as we were getting out of the car, and hurried us inside to come watch the epic "Kanye vs Taylor swift" speech. We watched it, insulted Kanye for a good 20-30 minutes, and shot the breeze before my niece politely asked "where BayBelle?" We shew'ed her off, saying she was around somewhere, but then I got that sinking feeling of not remembering unbuckling her and getting her out of the car. I asked my husband, he said he didn't either, so we all ran outside and there she was.. Tear streaked face, Still buckled in her car seat, right between her brothers' (who could unbuckle themselves) carseats.   Thank GOD it was a cool March night so she was safe. But after that, I've been able to sympathize with the retard parents who "forgot their kids in the car" on an ACTUAL accident. Yes, I forgot my 2 year old in the car. :( 

2) What is the worst thing your kids have ever done?

   I agreed to letting our kids get BB guns when my husband and I agreed they could handle the responsibility.once they got them, I named every rule I could think of.."don't shoot towards a person, a house, any building, any of the dogs, horses, cows, cars, bikes, toys, atv's, farm equipment, hay bales (don't need cows and horses eating metal and colic-ing). Don't shoot close enough to a tree or target for it to ricochet, make sure no one is going to run across your aimed gun, before you shoot.."  You know, the 999 basic rules. Drilled that Jazz in their heads. Nagged them to death about the rules every time they asked to take them outside. 

Out of 3 kids with BB guns, they followed the rules fairly decent and got punished when they broke them. But when it was brought to my attention that my kids had apparently gotten good with those BB guns, and they had brought proof to school.. Yes, my 8 yr old twin boys, and my 7 year old girl had EACH brought a dead bird...in their backpacks.. To school...    I was mortified. When we got home, my eyes were opened to their target practice. There were over 40 dead birds littered throughout my front yard. Apparently, I had not made enough rules. And I'm waiting for psychologists to come put them all up in a mental institution for the criminally insane. 

3) What has been your hardest mom moment?

As far as mentally/physically demanding hard? I was broken into motherhood with a set of twin boys. Their ninja raccoon butts climbed and got into EVERYTHING. 8 months later, I found out I was pregnant with ANOTHER baby (a girl). I had 3 kids under 1&1/2. I have so many stories of frustration. But one day, in particular, stands out.. 

 I woke up to giggles in the dark, got out of bed, walked towards the noise, and flipped on the lights to the kitchen to see that my twin boys, at 1&1/2yrs old, climbed out of their cribs, and opened the fridge. They had every single thing out and on the floor. We're talking butter, eggs, syrup, milk, juice, left overs, lunch meat, hot sauce, jelly, coffee creamer.. NOTHING WAS IN ITS CONTAINER. They squeezed, scooped, busted, and dumped it all out. It was 4am.

 After that, we had a normal day, and I was giving all 3 kids a bath before bed time. I got the twin boys out of the bath, finished Bayli Belle (she was a little baby), dried her off, walked into the living room, saw 2 separate puddles of pee and 1 puddle of puke on the floor. Put the baby down on the couch (in the corner where I thought she'd be safe) in a panic, ran over to one of the twins who was sucking on a Clorox Wipe, grabbed it from him, only to realize there were about 20 wipes spread out over the room, knotted up in the corners like they had been sucked on, ran him to the potty to throw up some more, ran into the kitchen to get some water, saw the other twin had picked up a wipe on the floor and started sucking on it also, REALLY??! WHO SEES A WIPE AND THINKS "MMM TASTY"???, shoved the water into Carter's hands as I ran into the living room to grab Hunters 'meal' and the other 19 wipes laying around, made them both drink the water while I dialed poison control, was told "it's okay. Calm down. It's good that they threw up. Whatever you do, don't make them drink water.", slapped the water out of Carter's hands, made it spill everywhere, heard a boom followed by a small baby cry, ran in there to grab my baby that I let fall off the couch, accidentally hung up on poison control, and broke down into sobs. Hunter came over to me while I sobbed on the floor, wrapped his arms around me, which made carter come running over to hug me too. Then, I kid you not, Hunter stared me dead in the face, said "me sorry momma. No cry."...and peed on my hip. 

   All of the kids were completely fine, but I was put on depression pills after that day. Lol, jk! But really, I felt like I wasn't cut out for the job God had given me at 22 years old. 

4) What is the worst parenting advice you have been given?

  Let your kids drink with you when they're teenagers. They're gonna do it behind your back, might as well let them do it in front of you so you can control it. 

   Um, I'm sorry, did you just say "control" it? So I should relinquish control over rules, 'cause they're going to break them anyways, on top of that, CONDONE illegal and immoral activities.. All so I can "control" it by participating and watching it go down? Naw, fool. Not in my house. NAT up in hurr!!! 

5) Is there anything that you wish you could change? 

  Well, first I want to clarify that I wouldn't change anything because changing certain things or times would change up everything I have today. And I couldn't be more blessed or find more beauty in exactly what I have at this very moment. 

   But I do wish I could go back and open my eyes a little better. Council my younger self and get me to see that it's all gonna be okay. I wish I would have relaxed more, taken a seat, and enjoyed the hell i unleashed onto this world.. Aka, the twins 😉 jk again!  I really do wish I could go back and make myself enjoy them a little more, though. With their little sister coming along at only 1&1/2, I look back and feel guilty. Like I rushed them growing up. They didn't get to be babies for very long at all..

Someday, us mommas will wake up to a clean, quiet, empty home and wonder how it all went so fast. We need to cherish these moments and embrace the mayhem that is our life. Motherhood is a blessing denied to many. Be thankful and joyful for what you have! I know I am! Enjoy your day and, mostly, enjoy those babies. 

❤️ Jennifer

A Muddy Life And Momma Time

Good drizzly morning to all! Raise your hand if you're over the wet weather? ::raises both hands:: 

Can we get some sunshine a up in here?! My Suburban's black carpet is pretty much brown from all the mud. I stopped by to see my dad and swore to him my car doesn't normally look like that. Hopefully he believed me. I even dreamt Caleb told me to go pick out a new car. Can you tell I really hate for my car to be filthy? It's awful to not have cement to park on. One day. Hopefully one day soon. Lol! The house is a LITTLE easier to keep demuddified (I think I made that word up). I have the kids (ahem, the boys) strip down at the back door and they have a special "muddy basket" that we put the muddy clothes in. Is it normal to have so many mud-caked clothes that you have a designated laundry hamper for it? 

Just a regular day after playing. Want to ask me again how well the homemade laundry detergent works? Have you made yours yet? You need to!

Today my best friend, Laura, is coming over!!! I'm super excited about that. Sometimes as mommas it's hard to schedule time with our friends. We are always planning sleepovers and get togethers for the kids, all the while moms like to hang with their friends too! I'm not one to feel that if I don't get a day away from the kids I'm going to lose it, I'm quite accustomed to the chaos, but I do miss adult conversation. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all the fun conversations about Legos and American Girl dolls, but Momma needs to be able to laugh about life with her friends once in a while! It's good for us!

My bestest friend, LO. The one who reminds me to tone my crazy down before people start to notice. 

Something that Laura and I do to be able to spend time together, even when life is crazy busy, is to hang out on Wednesday evenings before church. Even though we don't go to the same church together anymore, we still go to bible study together. We hold each other accountable and make sure we stay tuned in. After she picks her crew up from school (she has 4), they come straight to my house and we get the fun started. We let the kids run around like wild Indians while we sit around and cackle like hens. We laugh about EVERYTHING and I LOVE it. Yep, you guessed it, and the kids get muddy. 

Last time Caleb had to go get them from the back forty. They couldn't hear two mommas yelling for their kids to come in?! Now we know to call them in WAY in advance so they'll have time to clean up before its time to leave for bible study. 

"Y'all get all that mud stomped off before you go into church!" 

I challenge you to pick up the phone and call or text your friends and make your own momma friend time! Don't put it off, do it today! You know they'd love to see you and we could all use the laughter. Plan to meet up one morning at the coffee shop and chat a while, have lunch together, meet and walk a few laps around the park before grocery shopping, get pedicures together, take a stroll through the downtown shoppes before its time to pick kids up from school or just meet up with all the kids and eat McDonald's for supper. Just roll with the punches and make it happen! Happy moms are better moms! Remember that. 

So what will you be doing today? After schooling the RCC Gang and doing some muddy laundry, I'll working on my laugh lines and belly laughing with LO. Sounds like a pretty good day to me! 

Happy hump day!

❤️Jenn