Winners of the Kemps Coupons!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my post about giving my kids dessert first!  Each person who commented was eligible to win one of five $5 coupon from Kemps Ice Cream.

#BesidesMyDiagnosis

This post contains referral links which means that if you purchase from one of my links, I will receive a small percentage of the sale.  

#BesidesMyDiagnosis is the brainchild of Vanessa from The Girl with Five Lads.  She created it to help those of us with chronic illnesses remember that there's more to us than our disease.  You can find more info on this project here.  You don't have to have a blog to join in-just tweet about yourself outside of your illness using the hashtag #besidesmydiagnosis.

You can see all of the #besidesmydiagnosis blog posts here and check out the hashtag here on Twitter.

1. #besidesmydiagnosis the three things about my appearance that I love in the mirror?

I love my eyes because they're brown just like my dad's.  I've always been a bit of a Daddy's girl :)  I may hate my thick, frizzy, curly, blonde hair somedays, but overall, I like it.  I also love the fact that I recently lost 30+ pounds of baby weight!  I may not be skinny, but I feel good when I look in the mirror. 

To the Doctor Who Stole My Hope

Dear Well-Meaning Doctor,

You saw me struggling to hold it together in your office that day.  Davy was 6 months old, and his many medical needs were taking their toll on me as I navigated my new life as a medical mama.  He hardly slept, cried almost constantly, turned blue and choked multiple times a day, and had a feeding tube.  I was exhausted, and the mom guilt from not being able to balance his needs with the needs of my other three children was wearing me down.

You saw all that, and you made it a point to look me in the eye and ask me how I was handling everything.  I saw the concern on your face, and I knew you cared.

What You Didn't See When You Called Me Weak

I heard you when you called me weak and a wimp.  I get it.  If I were in your shoes, I'd probably think I was a wimp too.

But since I'm not in your shoes and you're not in mine, I'm going to make a deal with you.

If you want to call me a wimp, you have my permission to do so, as long as you do a few things for me first.

How to Get Kids to Clean Their Rooms Without Complaining

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you probably heard about #ourfuncleaningday.  Quite a few people asked for more details on it so here you go!


I came up with the idea on Friday.  The kids' rooms were so messy that they were in danger of being listed as a national disaster, and I was planning to spend all day Saturday making sure they cleaned them.  I was prepared for a day of whining, crying, and procrastinating that would probably end with everyone super grouchy and barely a dent in the mess.

And then it hit me.  The best motivator for kids is to make things fun for them, right?  So why couldn't we make a fun day out of it?

The Life I Never Expected

This post contains referral links which means that if you purchase from one of my links, I will receive a small percentage of the sale.  

I've always had a deep respect and interest in special needs parents, but I never thought I would actually be one.  I've followed the stories of children who had to have feeding tubes, but I never thought I would one day be a tubie mama as well.  I've read countless books and blogs about people living with life-altering diseases, but I never thought several of my children and I would be diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a degenerative, incurable genetic disease.

But here I am, living a life I never expected.

What No One Told Me About Being a Parent

Guys, I'm going to level with you.  This is hard.  I had no idea that being a mom would be this hard.  Being a parent is an exhausting, demanding, often thankless job.

When I got pregnant with Katie, my oldest, I devoured every pregnancy book I could find and pored over stacks of books on parenting.  None of them even remotely prepared me for the reality of being a mom.  Sure, friends and family try to warn you what it's going to be like to have a baby, but until you are there, in the trenches, there's no way you can truly know. 

No one told me just how much poop, vomit, and other body fluids I would deal with as a parent, a lot of it with my bare hands and a few baby wipes.

Pledge of Allegiance Printable

Happy Fourth of July!!  I hope you all are able to spend some time relaxing with your families today.

To celebrate this day, here's a free Pledge of Allegiance printable.  Enjoy!

Right click and save to your computer to get the printable.

That Time I Let My Kids Have Dessert First - Kemps Ice Cream

  It was getting close to suppertime, and the kids were all starving after a full day of playing outside.  As I headed into the kitchen to start a pot of water for the pasta, I remembered something my mom had told me many times.

"Start with dessert so you don't get too full to have any."

Side note: my mom is the best.

So instead of pulling the family size box of elbow noodles out of the pantry, I reached for the ice cream cones.  I called all four kids into the kitchen and watched their eyes grow huge as I scooped Kemps ice cream into sugar cones and handed them out.  Katie chose Mint Cow Tracks, Nano and Anna went with Caramel Fudge Cow Tracks, and Davy got to try the Caramel Cow Tracks.