Simple Home and Happiness

Holidays are hard. Whether you love them or hate them, they are coming. I love the holidays, I truly do, but even with my love for them, I find them exhausting. Winning the lottery is technically a good thing, but it can be destructive if you do not manage the stress of it. The holidays can be like that. All the food, all the family, all the traveling, all the invitations, all the baking, all the wrapping; all inherently good things, yet it can be stressful. I am a home body, but I also love people. These two things conflict for me during the holidays. I love being with my family and friends, but I also suffer when my schedule is out of sync. Naps and bedtime routines get up ended and the kids become overwhelmed and exhausted. I love my family, but even my favorite members start to rub raw when their proximity has been all up in my business without a break for several days on end. I think this year I am maybe even a little more aware of this. With a one year old and a two yea...

I listened to a Mom speak mean words to her child the other day. We were in a public setting and I heard her words clearly. Her frustration, her exhaustion, were on display. What she said doesn't really matter, it's the fact that she said it unguarded, without pretense, just ugly and real. Oh so real. I was raised to keep your ugly to yourself. Pretend everything is fine until it is fine. I am not condoning what that mother said, but I am not judging her either. I have no idea how hard her day had been up till then. I don't know what she was or is struggling with. I don't know her, therefore I will not judge her. I hope she realized later how harsh her words were. I hope she took the opportunity to show her child how important it is for adults to apologize as well as children. I hope that it was not her finest moment as a mom, but I refuse to judge her. It's not my place. My largest short coming as a mom is that I yell. I hate it. I am ashamed of it. It is s...