Sweat Pant Mom

I live at 402 Cranberry Hill Drive on a quiet street, in a quaint neighborhood.
The suburbs were Moms look picture pretty and still bake homemade cookies, pet owners walk their dogs with plastic baggies, groomed yards, husbands work shirts always pressed, tidy homes, children are raised on Mozart and eat all daily fruits and vegetables required. Kids sell lemonade and chase the ice cream truck.

Twas the start of summer for my children this week. I am the kind of Mom that lives for summer, I look forward to fun, a little learning and a lot of play. Oh, did I have a cheery vision planned...

8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Family Pow Wow (family group discussion, song, prayer and spiritual insight)
9:00 Grooming and Rooms
10:00 Chores
11:00 Mom's summer school program
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Activity or outing (something like hiking, swimming, sports, music lessons)
4:00 Social time (kids play with friends)
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Family walk to the park
9:00 Kids bed time

The reality of this schedule did come together, but not in the organized way it looks on paper.

My day starts right away and I feel lucky if get a shower in, dressed with hair and make up done before noon. Finding 30min of workout time is precious if I can get it, those 20lbs of baby fat I need to shed may just have to wait!

Breakfast. With a new baby my morning schedule revolves around Preston, I use to get up at 7:00am and start breakfast- this has become a rare occasion. Now it's fend for yourself.
Family Pow Wows consist of the pre-teens Chandler and Alexis rivaling for the position of power, eye rolls, kids that can't keep their hands to their selves.
I feel certain I sound like the teacher on Charlie Brown "WaaWaaa WaWaaa Waaa Waa" when I speak.

Chore time seems to be when the wicked witch flies in and the nagging begins to get household chores completed in a timely manner and done right. By the end of chore time I feel ready for a nap. It's more work to get kids to work than to do all task thrice over myself.

Our family walks sometimes mean chasing our dog Cidra, who escapes out of the back yard at times for her own "field trips."

At times laundry sits in the dryer wrinkling for days until I remember it's there and forget ironing. I send my husbands dress shirts out to the cleaners. I sometimes leave dinner dishes over night to tend to my young baby instead. I get my kids to lessons and bed late and a few times we have even had dinner at 8:00.

Needless to say after this week I am reevaluating my parenting priorities and the vision of my perfect summer, bye bye. The sweat pant Mom's I never understood. I have now stepped foot into her world and have come to realize I just can't do it all. My pride, perfection, vanity and glamor has taken the back seat for the time being. It's more important to let the less important things go and to embrace more meaningful time and moments with my kids. The challenge will be finding that harmonious balance.

Over Whelmed Sweat Pant Mom-

PAR 4

  One week ago today we brought home our newest little addition to the family Preston Alexander Roberts. A bouncing baby boy born March 31, 2010 Time 9:46 Weight 7.7 Height 19" Location Sandy,Utah Alta View Hospital Our family has so very anxiously awaited the arrival of Preston, he was born one week early. I went into labor about 4:00am on Wed morning and waited out the contractions until a little after 6:00am, I was still trying to decide if I truly was in labor or if I was having "false labor." Called my Mom and put her on standby and not five minutes after I called her at 6:00am there was no doubt it was time to head to the hospital. I woke Stephen by asking him what he had planned for the day, still fuzzy in the head from being aroused from his slumber, he seemed inquisitive as to why I would be asking him this question at 6:10 in the morning and I told him "We are having our baby today!"

Off to the hospital we went- after wrangling our dog who thought she would head out early too. Snow was falling and blanketed our town, we live only minutes from the hospital. I could hear Stephen's calming voice telling me to "breathe" as contractions timed two minutes apart. We checked in and minutes before 7:00 Dr. Later was there. I was determined to be tough and do this birth natural, pain got the best of me and I was convinced that an hour more of hard labor pains was way to intense, Dr. Later told me I did have time to do the Epidural and so I contemplated for only about a moment and decided the idea of minimizing the pain seemed glorious.

The epidural set in and two hours later at 9:46am the beautiful birth of our son took place. I was focused on my husband and heard him say in a very surprised voice "Oh my gosh there's his head!"


I marveled as I heard my son's first cry, so strong and sure. Stephen cut the umbilical cord with only brief hesitation and next thing I knew this little boy who had been apart of our family in a non revealing way and such a part of me for the past 9 months was finally here. Fist thing I noticed was his dark hair and so much of it, he was so perfect- the closest thing to heaven I was holding in my arms.
Joy filled my mommy heart as Stephen, our children and loved ones shared in such a once in a life time moment.

We are proud parents adding Preston Alexander Roberts to our family. Relatives have loved calling him PAR 4(he's the 4th child between us), scratch PAR (he had a scratch on his belly when he came out). I can't help but wonder if Stephen gave our son the name he gave him due to his love for golf, the name suites him well.

Thank you God for this special miracle in our life!

Help Wanted: Mother

As I am drawing near the end of my pregnancy I reflect on the most important job in the whole wide world.






Real Life Support for Moms
Help Wanted: Mother



Here’s a sampling of the job postings that would be needed to cover all women do for the children—and significant other adult—in your household.


NANNY: Patient, loving woman who requires limited sleep and adult interaction needed to care for child(ren) up to 24/7/365. Other duties include all those listed following this ad, as well as many not described herewith.

HOUSEKEEPER: Responsibilities include cleaning and tidying a family home several times daily. Must be available nights, weekends and overtime, and be willing to clean and tidy the same areas over and over and over again.

CHAUFFEUR: Driver needed to transport child(ren) to all activities beyond the domicile, including but not limited to school, sports, medical appointments, therapies, entertainment venues. Applicant must be skilled in defensive driving tactics and able to operate a vehicle safely regardless of the behavior of her passengers. Having extra-long arms is useful in this position, but not essential.

CHEF: Passable cooking and meal preparation skills needed for short-order establishment serving three full meals and filling dozens of beverage and snack orders per day, for both sit-down and To Go diners. The chef is also responsible for procuring and restocking meal supplies, serving the meals, all dish washing as well as the full cleaning of both the kitchen and multiple dining areas.

DOCTOR/NURSE: Health and first aid provider needed for pediatric and adult patients in a home-based environment. Responsibilities include making diagnosis, providing medical transportation, emergency care, administering treatments, medications and overall patient assistance, particularly as relates to bodily functions.

DENTAL HYGIENIST: Assistance needed in daily pediatric dental cleaning, teething-related pain management and occasional teeth-pulling.

TEACHER/COACH: Instructor wanted for child(ren) age newborn to adult for lessons related to academics, athletics and overall life skills. Position involves both one-on-one instruction and classes of mixed-age pupils.

PSYCHOLOGIST: Compassionate, wise and tolerant person needed to listen to the problems and concerns of young and aged household members.

WARDROBE MANAGER: Fashion- and bargain-savvy individual needed to acquire, alter, organize and maintain clothing and footwear for all members of a household, for all seasons.

DRESSER: Individual wanted to ensure that appropriate clothing is worn by all household members. Wrestling skills are useful, but can be developed.

LAUNDRESS: Help needed to clean and maintain various wardrobe collections.

CONCIERGE: Resourceful, problem-solving, people-person needed to fulfill the various desires of household members, including but not limited to arranging entertainment activities, making dining and traveling reservations, procuring gifts and meeting other needs as expressed.

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY: Organized person sought to handle all correspondence and interaction between the household and the outside world. Position involves extensive filing and record-keeping.

ADVOCATE: Protector and supporter required to represent and/or speak for household members either unable or unwilling to do so for themselves.

ENTERTAINER: Positive, upbeat person sought to keep household members happy. Applicant must possess diverse talents and be able to work with a variety of audiences and in a variety of situations.

"ESCORT": Attractive, enthusiastic, service-oriented woman needed, immediately, for intimate adult encounters. Creativity and experience required. (Though not too much experience.)

I found this on the Dr. Laura website and thought what a humorous way to show how important being a Mother and the center of home is. I know there are times I minimize the vast importance of being "just a Mom." What more VIP job could ever be served, honored and respected than raising and focusing on kids who will one day be mingling in society as adults. Many times I have had to remember that there is a time and a season for everything in life. Life-long goals, dreams and ambitions can still be accomplished after children are raised and many accomplishments can be completed while child rearing, may just require a slower pace.

I am ever thankful to my husband, Stephen for the value and support he places on me in my role of motherhood. I in return feel amazed by his(above and beyond)hard work for his family and no longer complain or nag about his laboring, long, hard hours. Although not always perfect, I focus hard to make the rest of his day pleasant when he walks in the door from a hard days work looking like work has taken life from him. A welcome home kiss, hot meal and refreshment, sometimes a bubble bath for two once kids are in bed and from time to time a massage- A small token for all he does and time sacrificed in his role as provider of our family.

Looking forward to growing our family together and now in our sixth year of marriage, our family anxiously awaits the arrival of our little boy. It has been so wonderful to see how delighted Alexis, Chandler and Olivia are about this little one. As parents, there is no greater joy than the happiness our children bring. Truly life's greatest treasure is family-

Lemonade and Love

Through self-discovery and parenting as our children are slowly starting to transition into pre-teen, it has become such a prevalent reality how important choices are and to help children select in their own choices(with-in reason). My hypothesis is that self choices aid confidence in their own decision making abilities and builds children's belief of self.



I have been experimenting with trying to create choices and finding proper balance is a challenge.

Education? Church? Social expectation?
These are areas easy to inflict our own personal beliefs and insistently push, I understand this will definitely be a constant work in progress.

I found myself explaining to one of our children about making life whatever we choose to make it, we can choose to make life sweet or sour(bitter). As cliche as it may sound I did use the "lemonade" analogy. The moment seemed so right and I openly admit I have had to draw on this thought much my self the past few months.

A bushel of lemons showed up on our doorstep last year, I had no choice but to bring them in. I sliced them, squeezed,juiced all by hand. A little of that acidic juice caught a open cut in my soul and burned- Yes, I did complain and I sulked. Tried to take a break, but my ethic wouldn't let me until the job was done.

Once all the lemons where juiced and tossed I had a lovely stock. Thinking I was done I poured a cup to taste. Oooh, it did look good! Instantly I winced, my eyes squint shut and my lips pursed, so bitter and tart. I had been deceived by the sweet looking fruit. I don't keep much sugar on hand, used what I had and procrastinated my venture out for more. It took much more sugar than I accounted for, and still adding.

Life is amazing, thank you God for the growth I gain from lifes lemons. The choice is always mine whether to drink a sweet or bitter cup of lemonade.

PS: Sweet is better!