Think back to the days before you had children.  You actually felt intelligent, probably a little organized, right.  You put on clothes that did not have baby food on them.  You were neat, clean and pressed.  You looked pulled together.  You probably enjoyed a relative sense of privacy.  If an argument happened between you and your husband, it stayed there unless on of you discussed it with a friend.

Now fast forward through kids.  There was a video on Facebook a while back that our family loved and we have actually applied to our own family.  It is a group of moms organizing for their children's soccer game, bringing homemade treats, looking polished and neat, with gorgeous hair and well done makeup.  There is nothing realistic about this video until a mom who is all disheveled rushes into the film.  She is late, can't remember if she was to bring treats and whose turn it is to carpool.  Her clothes are wrinkled and unmatched and she is dragging a few kids with her.  She is the hot mess mom.  And that is Mini-Me.  We laughed hysterically when she tasted a spot of brown on her clothes to determine if it was chocolate or poop.  But really, that is what life goes to once you have kids.  You are rushing around trying to just get on the Merry Go Around.  On the rare occasion that you hop on, it speeds up and tosses you off. 

Once in a while, you dream of the idyllic life you used to have.  Uncomplicated and clean.  Organized and simple.  And the a fight erupts in the playroom and you are rattled back to reality.  And life moves on, your kids grow up, they may get married, and the true enjoyment happens when they have children of their own.  I always heard that time flies, but now I know it really does.  I discussed it with my brother the other day, and he informed me that statistically time goes faster.  When you are six months old you have doubled your life span of three months.  When you hit age one it has already quadrupled, and so on.  I can remember being so excited for Christmas as a child.  It took FOREVER for Santa to finally arrive.  that was 50+ years ago.  Now, I keep praying for someone to create an extra week in December just so I can take a short break during all the preparation.  I have to be honest.  I don't see that happening soon.  And each year, Christmas just comes faster.  Somehow, I manage to get it all done every year, but I am more out of breath each time, and I seem to rely on more and more help. 

So, as a young mother, when someone tells you to enjoy your little ones because it will be gone before you know it, stop and listen!  You get a second chance with your grandchildren, Thank God! Because I don't know of a mother who has listened yet!  Stay warm and have a blessed week!

I have always taken great pride in the individuality of my children.  I did not raise "Cookie Cutter" children.  You know, the ones that look, act and sound identical.  I think you have done a great job as a parent when you raise individual personalities.  Don't get me wrong, my kids all have a common thread, or several threads running through them and if push came to shove, they would stand up for each other.  They tell each other when they disagree, so don't think that there is not a limit to their loyalty.  But, in the end, they always love each other.

As they have become adults, some are married and some have children.  I now sit back with a glint in my eye as history begins repeating itself.  I remember all too well, coming home from helping at my husband's office one day.  It is not easy to find someone who can take on six young children.  This particular day, my mother-in-law agreed to help out and watch the kids.  She was in her 70's at the time.  I walked in the door to wonderful smells of a fully cooked dinner.  What a treat!

And then......my once beautiful children came to greet me.  The two oldest were a little sheepish, as if they knew a thunderstorm was on the horizon.  The baby, well, he was a baby and greets his mother like a baby.  Then, my two golden haired little girls grudgingly entered the room.  Mini-Me had chunks of hair missing and the Blonde no longer had bangs.  Well, she had some stubble where her bangs used to be.  And yes, I lost it!!!  Only to be told by Doc's mother that the girls told her they wanted to give their Barbies a haircut.  And she trusted them!  And she gave them scissors!  She did feel bad about it, and managed to tell me that she wasn't planning on telling me what happened until after dinner.  She wanted me to have a nice dinner first.  While that was very thoughtful, there was absolutely no way I was going to sit at the table and not notice my partially bald children!

History has begun to repeat itself.  Our little angel "Mommy" has a little girl who is..... a bit of a tornado.  She actually has been dubbed the Jonado.  Do you remember the poem, "There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.  When she was good, she was very, very good and when she was bad she was horrid."  That's her.  But she has the most beautiful angelic face and spunky spirit!

So, I got two pictures from "Mommy".  One was a large lock of curls and the other was of my granddaughter missing those curls.  Of course I called my daughter immediately to see how she was and to make sure that my granddaughter had survived.  I reminded her of her sisters and comforted her.  "It really doesn't look that bad.  You can cover it up.  She isn't bald.  She still has her bangs."  When we hung up, "Mommy" was laughing, but Jonado was probably going to be in time out for another five years.

Doc came home, and I showed him the pictures.  We chuckled, and he also got on the phone to speak to his daughter.  His empathy turned into the sentence "You weren't supposed to be the one to get that kid."  They say the mother's curse works.  I think it missed the mark this time.  Have a blessed week!

Oh my!  I knew I hadn't posted anything for a while, but had no idea it had been so long.  Which brings me to the topic of the day.  When the kids got engaged last Christmas, they immediately looked at calendars for possible dates.  Of course we had to juggle work schedules, sports schedules and school schedules.  The quickly realized that a vacation time from school would work well and guess what!  New Years Eve in 2016 was to fall on a Saturday!  It seemed like such a great idea!!!! Until......

It really did sound good. What a great way to celebrate the New Year.  Christmas and all that hustle would be over.  Family would already be here for the holidays.  How perfect!

Or is it?!  It seemed perfect right up until Thanksgiving.  Then, it proverbially hit the fan!  First, you have the logistics of navigating a wedding party that included eleven bridesmaids, eleven groomsmen, two ring bearers and three flower girls.  You would think that handling small children would be difficult and it was, but just a little.  The little ones were all ages six and under.  The youngest was two and three quarters.  For the most part, the kids did their jobs well and may even have stolen the show.  In another recent wedding, Mommy had placed fruit snacks in the bottom of the flower girl basket as a reward for Jonado.  She obviously remembered that as there was a spot in the aisle where a basket of petals was simply dumped upside down.  The older girls were experienced flower girls and knew their jobs well.  The boys were,  well.... boys.  They didn't want to get dressed, they absolutely did not want pictures taken.  However, when it came to walking down the aisle, they were champs and stole the hearts of most of the women there.  They carried a sign out of church announcing the fact that they were still available and single which was a hit.

The grown ups?  Not always so well behaved.  It is almost impossible to get 22 adults to listen to you and take you seriously.  Especially when a lot of them know you as Pook's mom.  And a lot of them call you "mom" whether they are yours or not.  There was the usual suspect behavior and joke cracking and general lack of cooperation.  Exactly what you expect from a large group of 20-somethings.  It wasn't even worth trying to explain that we needed to start on time and why.

Of course, to these young adults, it is crucial that we squeeze in bachelor and bachelorette parties.  Let's see, how many weekends are there between Thanksgiving and New Year?  Not as many as you would think!  But those events did get squeezed in too.

Now let's see, do we have something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue?  Have we confirmed things with the caterer?  Are the flowers ready?  Oh my goodness, did we have the Bride's gown pressed?  How is everyone getting to the church?  What about music at the reception?  Did we get gifts for the attendants?  The list and details are seemingly endless.

Two major events right before the wedding itself are next.  Decorating the reception hall is first.  That was an all day event, compounded by the unfortunate situation of a conflict with a funeral dinner.  Not really something anyone can control.  Believe me, with weddings and other events, you learn quickly to adjust and be flexible!  The reception site was gorgeous by the time all was done. 

Did I mention that the Ohio State Buckeyes were playing their big game right in the middle of the wedding?!  We navigated that when Mommy got married at the same time and date of an Ohio State - Michigan game. Never thought I would have to navigate that again!!  We had a lot of Ohio State fans at the wedding and needed to make sure they could also follow their Buckeyes.  There were a lot of phones streaming the game that night!

Next in line is the Rehearsal and dinner.  Again, trying to get everyone to cooperate is a bit like herding cats.  However, mission accomplished and home we go for dinner.  I knew with a big family, our house could pull off a large gathering, but I was impressed with how well 60 people concealed themselves in my home.  Thank God for all of the extra hands helping, and especially for the Ninja running the household while we were at rehearsal!  The Blonde's boyfriend "Bear Man" was a tremendous help too.  Hard to believe he is still hanging out with this crazy bunch!

Nail appointments were had that day and my home transformed from a restaurant to a hair salon and picture studio the day of the wedding! 

Anyway, in spite of all the logistical waters to navigate, the most important event, the ceremony itself went off without a hitch.  Except for the strange man in the running suit that popped up behind the groomsmen and almost knocked over the Christmas tree as he tried to escape.  But It was beautiful.  The Bride was radiant and stunning.  The Groom was handsome.  There love for each other was clear.  The Groom did not kiss the Bride "strangely" as he threatened.  We did all giggle when he took her face in his hands to kiss her, not knowing what would happen!  They are a beautiful couple and we all pray that God will grant them Many, Many Years!