Saturday Stamping 5/9

I love to scrapbook and make homemade cards. But lately I have been swamped with being a mother to my children and a wife to my husband. Do you ever feel like you are losing your identity? I talked with a couple of my dearest friends and they too have felt like this. I think we get so used to our lives before children, that when they come along, we have a hard time adjusting to our new lives after children. We almost become different people. We want to be carefree and easy-going like before, but now it's harder to stay that way. You try to carry on a conversation with a friend but you have a 24 lb baby wriggling in your arms, you are thinking to yourself "Does he want to get down?" So you put him down on the floor to play but he cries. You think "I know he doesn't want to eat, he just ate applesauce, cereal, Cheerios and drank 4 oz of milk, maybe he wants to take a nap"...it can go on like this for an hour. All the while, you are still trying to carry on that craved adult conversation with your friend and you're thinking to yourself "What did she just say?" so you nod in agreement, hoping that was enough to let her know you are sort of listening. Not to mention, while the baby is wriggling, your 3 year old has went to the potty and yelling for you to come and help her take care of some business!

Can you tell I have been "trapped" in the house for past 2 weeks??!?!

Sometimes you need to do something for yourself. Some might think this would be a selfish act, but being a mother is a selfless job and something you wanted to do if you got married (that's my opinion, of course, you might differ). As a mother, you need sanity in order to make it through the day. If it takes you locking yourself in the bathroom to read 1/2 a page in your favorite magazine (which I've done). Or leaving your kids with your husband to go to the grocery store just to get out of the house (guilty again). Or taking the kids outside to play to get some energy out so they can take a nice long nap (you might think this is not for mommy, but trust me, when you have those babies sleeping, a wave of relief washes over you and you feel like a new woman that can combat whatever may come your way, whether it be a MAC truck or a flying Cheerio. When those babies wake up, you're a better mommy able to soothe their whiny disposition or wipe that teary eye.) If you don't replenish your goodness to be a mommy, who will? I'll leave that for you to answer.

Now on to my new goal for myself. As I was saying, I used to love to scrapbook and make cards. But lately I haven't found the time to carve out of the day. I was thinking last night that I need to organize pictures so I can start making layout for Hunter's album. Poor baby, he only has 4 pages done and he'll be a year old next month. Haylei's album was kept up to date monthly for the most part. It wasn't until she was about 8 months old that it started to get away from me. So I have decided that I will sit down and try to create 1 layout for Hunter's album each week. Now, mind you, this is a goal. So I will be posting pictures of his album I have already completed. Then when we get my scrapbook stuff moved back in the house from the garage, then I might be able to work on my goal more effectively. I have all the pictures, and no need to try to come up with a layout design...I'll just get those from Splitcoaststampers.Doing a little something for yourself is not selfish in the least, it makes you a better and HAPPY mommy to your babies. I hope this inspires you to do a little something for yourself, whatever it may be.

Enjoy!