enough is enough

It may have been the two 32 ounce cokes i drank AFTER 7pm tonight.

It may have been the 2+ hours of The Bachelorette I watched in bed (AFTER midnight).

It may be the fact that I am motivated at 2am to clean the house.

Whatever the reason, it sparked a blog post (at 2:20am), so here I am. I should be sleeping. And I will highly regret my decision to blog instead of sleep in the wee 6am hours of the morning (yeah, in less than 4 hours). But still....here I am.

It's not perfect. You know...this house, this life.

The house has seen better days. Most of them were BEFORE the kids were around. But as I stress over the crumbs on the stove, the clutter in the medicine cabinets, the laundry piling up....I try to remind myself.

We have crumbs on the stove, because we have food to eat...and many in this world do not.

We have clutter in our medicine cabinets because we have access to medications that help make us better....and many in this world do not.

We have piles of laundry, needing to be washed because my husband and I are fortunate enough to have jobs tat provide the means to clothe ourselves and our children....and many in this world do not.

I think "perfect" is a word and lifestyle I often strive for day in and day out. I try to be the "perfect" mom, the "perfect" wife, the "perfect" daughter, the "perfect" employee....but never does it seem like it is enough.

And so many....so many, would be content with just being able to "be" or more so "provide" just enough for their families and children.

So today, and for as long as I can...I am saying "enough is enough"...and I'm gonna try to be okay with that.

Southpaw's Birthday Party at US Cellular Field

In our house, we are pretty big Chicago White Sox fans, so I wanted to make sure I shared this cool event with you .

Sunday June 3, 2012 marks Chicago White Sox mascot, Southpaw's birthday party celebration! The first 10,000 kids 13 and under will receive a Southpaw Mini Plush Pal. We are hoping to attend the game, maybe we will see you there?

I Hope You Dance

I never thought I'd be that typical mother. The one who cries at everything and wants nothing more than to kiss the sweet cheeks of my children at any given moment. The tough lady that I was before kids slowly drifted away, and has been replaced with a soft-hearted mama who can't imagine life any different than it is right now.

Jonah graduated preschool this week. I knows its cliche, but it seems like only yesterday I was dropping him off for the first time, crying as I took his "First Day of Preschool" picture outside of the school.

First Day of Preschool 2011-2012

To now....his LAST day of Preschool picture.....

Last Day of Preschool 2011-2012

Over the course of the school year Jonah has learned so much and grown tremendously. His social skills and confidence flourished. He now stands with pride and the word "shy" isn't even in his vocabulary any more. His educational skills are outstanding, he couldn't even write his name last fall. Now he is writing EVERYTHING, doing math problems and starting to read.

The wonderful teachers at his preschool played a slideshow at graduation of all of the pictures they had taken over the school year (and played the song 'I Hope You Dance" along with it.. I couldn't get over how as each picture came up, the kids would yell out that child's name and giggle. The fact that 18 kids can come together and create that kids of a bond together is amazing. They don't have any hate or ill-will toward one another ,they except each other for exactly how they are, and genuinely care for each other. If you can't tell, I've spent some extra time at the school now and again, and I have grown to care for these kids too. Jonah became great friends with so many of them, and is lucky enough to continue on to kindergarten with 2 of the kids from his class (our town has 5 elementary schools, so the whole class is spread all over when it comes to kindergarten.

It was an emotional day when he graduated, as I now know won't be the first, or the last emotional day when it comes to school and my kids.

How Awesome is YOUR Dad?

It's easy as a kid to see how awesome your dad is, so why not tell the world about it and try your chance at winning a pretty cool contest? Mixbook is hosting a "Dad's Got Talent" photo contest in honor of all the awesome dad's out there! With a $1500 Best Buy gift card as the grand prize (and MANY other smaller prizes) there is no reason not to tout your dad's greatest talent. Is he a Master behind the grill? Is he a closet breakdancer? Is he a pro at mowing the lawn? Whatever he does that makes him special, Mixbook wants to know about it. Go to the Dad's Got Talent page and submit your photos. Then tell everyone you know to come back and vote for your picture! It's as easy as that. Contest ends June 17, so get to it! Photo with the most votes wins! Good luck!

*I am a judge for the Mixbook Dad's Got Talent photo contest. I am not being compensated in any way to promote this contest. I support the contest because I support the brand on my own accord. Thank you*

redefine and reignite

I only have a few short minutes here to write so forgive me for being out of sorts, but as most of you know I have been fairly non-existent in the blogosphere for a while now. Lots of things have contributed to my absence and I am going to leave that all for another post at another time (very soon though, I promise). But here I am, jumping back on the virtual horse and ready to give it a go again. I was given an amazing opportunity from Coca-Cola** and because of this opportunity I have been blessed enough to meet some very successful and inspiring people with some very memorable viewpoints. I have felt nothing short of sheer joy at the sparks I am feeling inside and re-defining and re-igniting of my passion for blogging today here in Atlanta with the Coca-Cola people and 20-some of my newest bloggy friends. I have felt goosebumps more times today than I can count and even shed a few tears while sharing some life stories with the group this morning. I have pictures and messages to share with all of you and hopefully the whole reason I started blogging and working on the internet will quickly wash over me and I will be back here, full-time, and with a vengeance. So stay tuned for more details on "Conversations with Coca-Cola", and everything I am learning. I can't wait to share these experiences with you.

**Coca-Cola paid for all hotel & travel expenses for me to attend the 3rd annual "Conversations with Coca-Cola" in Atlanta, Georgia. All views/thoughts expressed on my blog, as always, are my own and brought to you with complete honesty.**

************Toydozer************ Less Cleaning. More Playing. ~GIVEAWAY~

I would never say that there was a time that cleaning up was easy, but I can say that there was a time when it wasn't as tedious as it is now. The kids toys used to be bigger in size, easier to maintain, and less in quantity, but now....as the kids get bigger the toys get smaller. If you are a Mom, you know what I mean.

We are in the age of Squinkies, Legos, and everything comes with lots and lots of oh-so-little pieces, like barbie shoes, or board game pieces. And if I don't keep up on the "the clean" all day long, we have a major mess at the end of the day, along with a major amount of stress (from me).

This new, simple invention, The Toydozer has made clean-up just a little bit easier, and for that, I am thankful.

Not only does it scoop up small toys with ease, I have used it to clean off the craft table when the kids are done making their projects. Little bits of paper, glitter, and embellishments get collected up and tossed in the trash. Much easier than lugging the garbage can to the table.

And since the two main components (the "scoop" and the "gatherer") of the Toydozer can be velcro'd together when not in use makes it easy to store and find when needed.

BUY IT!

Use the code BLOGGER20 for 20% off at Toydozer.com (FREE SHIPPING TOO!)

WIN IT!

Toydozer and 2 Moms Media want to give away a Toydozer to one lucky Mommy Instincts reader! Go to the Toydozer website and come back here and tell me what color you'd choose if you won! Be sure I can contact you when you win by leaving an email address!

WANT EXTRA ENTRIES?

~ Follow "Mommy Instincts" via Google Friend Connect (on right hand side bar)

~ "Like" Mommy Instincts on Facebook

~ "Like" Toydozer on Facebook

~ Follow Mommy Instincts on Twitter

~ Follow Toydozer on Twitter

~ Tweet this!! Send out this tweet, letting other know about this giveaway. Be sure to leave the link to your tweet along with your comment. This can be done once a day!

"#Win a #Toydozer to help clean up life's messes from @Toydozer at @MommyInstincts! ends 5/4 {ARV $19} http://tinyurl.com/toydozer - #giveaway"

Fine print:

~There is a total of 18 entries available per person for this particular contest. Please be sure to leave a comment for EACH entry and be sure to complete the MANDATORY entry first.
~Contest is open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike, but you MUST make sure there is a way for me to contact you easily available. If I can't contact you, then you can't win!
~Contest ends Sunday May 4, 2012  at 11:59pm.

~Winner will be emailed and given 48 hours from initial congratulatory email to respond. If winner does not respond within that time a frame and new winner can be chosen and original winner forfeits prize

.~Winner must be USA or Canada  only.

~This post is part of a Toydozer blogger outreach campaign. Participating bloggers have been provided with a complimentary Toydozer to review and have been compensated for their time.  

~In respect of full disclosure, regardless of compensation or products provided, you can rest assured you will always get an honest review from Mommy Instincts. All thoughts and words are my own.

I try

It kinda seems like every single moment, hour, day....is just flying by in the blink of an eye. There is always so much to do every day that I feel like I am barely keeping up most of the time. I feel like I am running a marathon, and I'm in last place. Like all of the other runners finished hours ago, and I am just hitting the halfway point.

I try my best to not compare, and most of the time, I am pretty good at it. I'm not worried about how other mom's do it....I am more concerned about how "I" am going to do it.

Things like kindergarten round-up, preschool field trips, working a full-time job, keeping house, paying bills, making appointments, taking phone calls. I feel like I suck at pretty much all of it. Oh, did I mention....throw a sick kid into the mix, and then....I have hit the bottom.

Only place to go is up right?

I am my own worst critic, as I assume most mom's are. Always feeling like we could do it better, or at least differently. And if we did, maybe we'd see a better outcome? Who knows. That's the thing. I'll never know, and it's one of my biggest struggles. Wondering if I could have done something different or worse off, "what if". I live my world with "what if's".

I've tried to do things to change this. And it's all the same, I try....I fail. I try again....I fail again.

I guess I just hope that when I have this all figured out, I will be in the midst of the "I try" part.