So it begins, school is just around the corner and I find that my schedule is going to be cut tight again! No more day trips because I will have to be home in time for soccer practice, girl scouts or getting my oldest from school. As I work to get my middle child into preschool, well that is another commitment I have, to get him to and from preschool should we actually find him a good one. I love being a Mom, I love that my children are so involved with various activities and I love that I am supportive and right there to cheer them on in any event that they partake in!

The problem is that no matter how much you love your children and no matter how much you love that you can stay home and work from the privacy of a home office there comes a day when you simply say “Mama needs a break”.  Seriously, how many days in a row can this Mama go with lack of sleep, lack of an appetite and feeling so plain exhausted that she falls asleep next to her four year old while singing him to sleep?! I mean that is not good, considering I work from home at night after my kids go to sleep, so if I pass out with AJ for an hour then I just lost an hour of work time I must make up on the back end. Another late night for Mama.

Working from home is awesome, starting a business one year and then finding it still going strong over a year later is even more awesome! The fact that you can wake up to your children and watch them grow before your eyes every day is priceless. Do not get me wrong, I cherish the life I live, I am lucky and I do enjoy every spaghetti wearing moment of it! At the same time, I do need a little break.

I keep telling Justin that I am totally going to take off one of these weekends he doesn’t work and just get away. I tell him we need to find someone to watch the boys overnight at our home or theirs so we can have one night of alone time to sleep in, to stay up late with no responsibilities, whatever it is we choose to do. To have one night a month without responsibilities for an overnight period would be amazing! Unfortunately there are few people who will babysit our sons and those people will or can not take them overnight for whatever reasons, the reasons are valid reasons!

It just sucks some days knowing that our family is simply us, Justin, me, the boys and Princess Ki. We are all we have and we are our own mini-support system, but reality is I wish there was a way to find a person who has kids of a similar age and we could switch weekends to take turns with sleep over babysitting. I am so a kid person, I would love to have a sleep over with a bunch of kids making beds in the living room watching cartoons on DVD all night long and sleeping in. Waking up to a mess of popcorn or chips everywhere in the house. I am that Mom, but when you are surrounded by children, specifically yours, all day and all night for so many years without sleep your body and mind scream for a day break or overnight break, something to help you focus and find that energy again.

I love my children dearly, they are the best little people in my world but it’s about time for some me time because Mama needs a break!

Oh my gosh, I have spent my whole life trying to please others and I have always kept my mouth shut to avoid confrontation. You know where that has gotten me? No where. Seriously, I watch as other people I know who aren’t living a very good life, who cause trouble every time they open their mouths and yet they still have people going out of their way to do things for them.

I am a giving person, an outgoing person, the first to help a friend in need if that situation arises. I am friendly, sometimes flirtatious without meaning to be, positive, and just a happy person who loves to give to those I can give to. Sometimes that giving and happy nature comes back and bites me in the ass though. It’s annoying honestly and after nearly 29 years of being that person I have had enough.

I now do not go out of my way to build a relationship with anyone who doesn’t care to build a relationship with me. If they don’t want to be a part of my life then why should I want to be a big part of theirs? I mean it’s a two way street. I certainly am guilty of not making the time, but when I become aware of the time that must be made to form a relationship with certain people those people are just plain too busy.

I flock to people who are supportive, positive and friendly. That’s not to say I want to surround myself with a bunch of people who will always agree with me, never debate and always smile. I want to be around supportive people for sure, but being supportive doesn’t mean you have to agree with all that I do in my life. Being supportive, in my opinion, means standing by my side to cheer me on when I make a decision.

Such was that when I chose to work from home, I can’t believe how many times some people around me, including some family members, were not supportive. They would tell me “go get a real job” or “get off that computer and make something of yourself”, I mean as if being a Mom and entrepreneur wasn’t enough. Do I have to flash them my schedule C to prove I pay taxes, that I’m not living on someone else’s dime? I should not have to prove to anyone the money I make, I should not have to prove to anyone that being a Mom is a job in itself.

I work my ass off daily as a business owner and the rates I charge are lower than normal, why? Well quite frankly I started my business to make extra money for my household, not to get rich quick. Although I am making more than I planned, what matters most to me in this world is the friendships I have formed with clients and other online bloggers. This virtual support system is what gets me through my good days, my bad days and my horrible days. I find it sad some times when I think about how much virtual support I get when my family isn’t that far away from me.  I just wish one day some of those people in my family who are so into themselves will wake up and find that they are missing out on a happy, positive, sweet family by choosing to not be supportive and to talk behind the back of a hard working Mom of three.

As I view the world around me I find myself wondering what ever happened to helping your neighbors? I mean, I am a work at home mother of three and I rarely get a break. The one person who will babysit my sons is my sister and boy am I thankful for her. My family isn’t very involved with my children, oh wait some of them would die to take Princess Ki anytime but my poor sons no one other than my father and sister has offered to take them. This is only my side of the family, Justin’s family would take their nephews or grandsons most anytime.

You see neighbors helping neighbors and families helping families is what makes the world go around. My children get to grow up with Mom and Dad being around them more than anyone else, except of course once they hit the school ages, which my oldest is in school now. The point being, whatever happened to people being compassionate, to the barter system, to people helping others in need instead of looking down upon them.

Lately I find myself seeing that if you don’t have money then you can’t get much done in this world. Although, I am a firm believer that if you keep your positive thoughts, your head held high and give to others in anyway you can that karma will feed you back in the long haul. I have been one who has benefited from karma, being kind, outgoing and giving to others in ways that I can has always proved to be wonderful for me.

It’s like everyone is so busy in their own lives, too busy trying to make a living, too busy trying to pay the bills that they don’t take the time to see that there are people in this world who are living paycheck to paycheck barely making it but are happy in love about life. It’s those people who are hard working, positive thinking and compassionate  that deserve a break in life. Those that sit back and take but never give back shouldn’t get a dime worth of my time or anyone else’s. It’s all about giving and receiving, it’s all about bartering and it’s all about human compassion.

What I would do if I were making enough money to pay for my family and a huge house with a huge yard and a huge car is that I would downsize to a home that fits my needs versus my bank account. Once my extra money being spent unwisely was freed up I would give back to my community, mainly the children, because they are our future and it breaks my heart to see parents no longer being parents. Most pass their kids off or worse, allow them to walk the streets of town to fend for themselves. Is this what we want for our future? I say not.

Since when did our world become so shallow that you have to have a big bank account to do a thing in this world? I mean really … isn’t our country built on those that worked their butts off and earned everything they had? I wish some days that I could find those people who still firmly believe in the barter system or the neighbor helping neighbor situations because then I know I would have some dear friends, life long friends, that I would be proud to call my friends!

I am not sure what has happened to me all of a sudden I am more outspoken and more sarcastic but wow do I love it! I never used to be so outspoken when times came that something I wanted to say would possibly cause a confrontation, it’s not that I am a coward, it’s that I simply try to avoid confrontation every time I can.

Take a trip to Walmart, it always drives me crazy all too often I see a freaking adult cutting me off or my kids off. It pisses me off more when they cut my kid off, hello people children deserve a bit of manners too! So me, being the more outspoken person I am, often says “excuse you … it’s pretty bad when my children have better manners than you do”. I get a look or a nose in the air or just someone who plain ignores what I said. I mean even my kids know to say excuse me if we have to pass in front of someone looking at something in the aisle, I like to think I am raising them right and by teaching manners well that’s a good start!

Next take the freaking cashier at a grocery store who hits the stop button on that rolling belt you put groceries on. I get it, they don’t want to squish the customers food that’s right there, well dude cashier when the freaking persons groceries have all been bagged and there is another customer behind them in line trying to fill that belt thing can’t you hit the on button?! With this example, I actually said out loud in a mildly low voice “how freaking hard is it to hit the on button so I can get my groceries up”.  Of course the old due cashier didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me. I was about ready to lean over and hit that darn button on my own!

Of course these types of situations are not worth me getting all angry over and being a total jerk but sometimes you just plain have to say something and that is where I come in. I am usually good at saying stuff that needs to be said in a way that doesn’t offend the other person, or should offend them, but gets the point across that they have their head up their butt and are being oblivious to the fact that there are other people around who are shopping or trying to check out.

What type of things happen when you are out grocery shopping that make you go bonkers?

I can’t believe how many people in this world over analyze things, are you serious?! I mean really, isn’t there more important things in this world to do than to analyze every last breathing word spoken or written? I know from being a blogger that words can come out the wrong way, that a blog post can be taken personally even if the post is not meant to harm another person emotionally.

I very rarely will write blog posts bashing another persons character, however, I may vent in a blog post about a situation that happened or a thought that crossed my mind. I am a firm believer that you can not spend your life analyzing every waking moment of the world that surrounds you. The reason being? You will not be able to fully enjoy life if you live in an analyze this type world.

Analyzing is like living with a lot of “what ifs” and what ifs can destroy your mind, body and spirit.  I leave this blog post with one thought …. Have you been over analyzing life, if yes, take a moment to rethink why it is you spend so much of your energy on worrying about other people’s comments, statements, or opinions?

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Oh my gosh, my kids LOVE ketchup but it is partially my fault as I am a huge fan of using ketchup in extreme amounts on just about everything too. My kids love ketchup with their chicken alfredo, instead of the alfredo sauce, ketchup on eggs, ketchup on pork chops and the list can go on and on.

Ketchup and kids was not a huge deal up until about a week ago when my youngest who will be 2 in August decided that he could use this wonderfully red product as finger paint. Yes Baby K insists on painting his brothers face, cheek and his sisters arm and clothing with red ketchup.

I have wondered what methods I can use to deter him from using ketchup in this not so great way. Maybe put him in the time out corner when he does it, raise my voice at him, explain it’s not okay or better yet J has told me that I should simply take ketchup away from him until he starts to use it right. Meaning he won’t have ketchup for any of his favorite foods and will watch as his sister & brother use it in full amounts.

I love the idea of taking the ketchup away from him altogether, however, this almost 2 year old boy watching his siblings use ketchup may lead to more issues than just a little bit of ketchup on various parts of bodies … he may have a total melt down which may lead to his plate being thrown, food tossed at us, and so much more.

As I work towards figuring out a resolution to ketchup and kids I write on here to see what ideas you have to help me fix the ketchup and kids dilemma! Any tips, advice, what you would do comments are encouraged!