Why I Stay Home

Lunch!

 There are so many reasons why I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom; way too many to discuss them all at length. There are the obvious reasons like avoiding child care costs as well the general stress of leaving him in child care, spending as much time as I possibly can with my children, etc . Besides the obvious, one of my other reasons is time. Now don't get me wrong here, it's not that stay at home moms have this abundance of free time on their hands; especially when you have a baby who seemingly doesn't require a whole lot of sleep. I'm saying I wanted to have time to think. To think about my family and have the time to do little extra things to bring even more happiness to their lives. Time to think ahead so we can then take the time to make home made gifts or have extra quality time with friends and extended family.

This is not to say that I think working moms can't do these things. I just know myself and know that I personally could not have been the teacher or the mother that I truly wanted to be if I had to be both at the same time. When I taught I always had so many things running through my mind all the time.  Planning ideas, parents to call, conferences to prepare for, activities/lessons to plan/make, etc.  I found that I had SO much to remember in my professional life, that it made me very forgetful in my personal life.  The mom I always pictured myself being was always on top of things.  I know this is a lofty goal because I am only human but having too much on my plate would make it that much more difficult to strive for.

The event that sparked my motivation for this post was a phone call I recently made to my mom. I have 4 nephews and a niece (Ayden is the youngest of 6 grandchildren for my parents).  The youngest of the nephews and the niece will be celebrating their first birthdays in August and September so it was time to brainstorm some gift ideas for them. As I skim Pinterest, I always pin cute DIY gift ideas because that is the direction we want to start taking with the gifts we give. Not only do DIY projects typically fit into our budget a little better but in my opinion, they are also more meaningful. The gifts that I plan to make for their birthdays require some sewing and I don't sew. My mom, on the other hand does, so I asked if she'd help me make them and then they could be from both of us. We decided to get together next week and have a little sewing party (I'll also probably go ahead and make a third as a future present for Ayden while we're at it and just tuck it away until he's ready).

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My sister and her family are coming in to visit from NY because her youngest son (she has 3!!) is the August birthday boy and his birthday party is here in Kentucky on August 11th.  Since she will also be bringing her two older boys, and my middle sister's son will be around as well, I found a cute idea for the three older nephews too.

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 Fort kits!  I would have LOVED this as a kid so I hope they do too.  It's a pillow case filled with sheets, flashlights, and other fun fort related stuff.  Hopefully the kits will keep them busy while they are staying at my mom and dad's house and will help them have tons of fun together during their visit. There's nothing like playing with cousins when you are little!

After we finished our sewing party planning conversation, my mom told me how impressed she was that I was thinking so far ahead (a whole 2 weeks, haha!). In my family, we typically go the day of before a child's birthday party and pick up some random toy only for it to get forgotten or lost in the shuffle 15 minutes after it's opened. That always bothered me so much so I really wanted to start making a point to get ahead of the game. I've decided that when a month is coming to a close, I'll take a look at upcoming events for the next month and plan accordingly. This way I can not only save us some money, but also make more meaningful gifts. Hopefully I'll be able to share the finished products :).

Having a moment with Daddy at Whole Foods today

In Ayden news, we are probably enduring the roughest patch of sleep issues to date (if that's even possible). I had a moment of weakness and turned to Google and was actually comforted by the slew of message boards discussing the "6-7 month sleep regression". Apparently it's pretty common and most of the folks on there were saying that it left as quickly as it came. Here's hoping this is the case for us and that we can ride it out and get some more sleep soon! I'll write more about it at a later date but I have found that the effects of such little sleep are worse if I think about it or dwell on it too much. I am just focusing on making it through one night at a time, staying positive and holding onto the quote, "this too shall pass." Luckily Ayden doesn't seem as adversely affected by it and is a sweet, happy, playful baby by day.  Here are a few clips of him playing today:

We have a super busy day planned for tomorrow!

~Sarah