Glad I'm no longer a "new mom"

I've been a mother now for six years, one month, three weeks and two days.  I am far from a seasoned mother, but thankfully far past the "new mother" phase. 

Someone shared this video on Facebook the other day, and I could not stop laughing.  It was so easy to identify with so many of the situations in this clip.  I'm sure at one point we have all been there!

(Apologizing in advance for the s-bomb in the title.  The video is clean.)

If you're wiping away tears of laughter, you are remembering some of the "good ole days" early in motherhood.  If you're wiping away tears of sadness, then this is your world right now.  Cheer up!  It does get better! :)

If You Give a Mom an Empty House....

Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop for this week....

"If You Give a Mom a BLANK....." (inspired by "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" books by Laura Numeroff.

If You Give a Mom an Empty House

If you give a Mom an empty house, she will jump for joy.

All of the jumping will remind her that she needs to exercise.

She will pull out her yoga mat and notice all the clutter in the closet.

The amount of clutter will cause her to have an overwhelming urge to reorganize the closet.

Buried underneath the contents of the closet, her tummy will rumble.

She will realize it is lunch time and head into the kitchen.

She will open all the cupboards and refrigerator and see there is no food.

She decides to write out a shopping list based on recipes she's found online, so she gets on the computer.

An hour later, she is caught up on blog reading, Facebook and Pinterest and still hasn't started her grocery list.

Deciding to go to the store another day, she decides to try to tackle the laundry.

In between loads, she remembers she needs to finish reading her book before this month's book club meeting.

So, she begins to read and falls asleep on the couch.

She is woken up to sounds of a van coming down the drive.

The sudden return of her husband and children cause her to run around in a panic straightening up the house.

While rushing around in a cleaning frenzy, she will realize there was too much on her to do list for one afternoon.

So, she will ask her husband if he could plan to take the kids out the next day too.

And chances are, if you give a Mom an empty house...

She'll find plenty of things to fill her time.

I need a writing prompt....

I'm trying, honestly. :) I think I'm doing a decent job. However, I've been drawing a blank about what to write about lately. Then I remembered that inspiration is just a click away.

I follow Mama Kat on Instagram. She has a great blog that I really enjoy reading. As a former English teacher turned stay at home mom (with a home daycare), she craved some sort of creative outlet.

Once a week she provides writing prompts for bloggers (me included) to use to help get the writing juices flowing. So, I'm jumping in and finally going to write one. On my blog. And not in my head.

My writing prompt choice this week:

Write a poem about a little boy in your life...

To My Baby Boy

Sweet son, growing fast.
Stopping time, my only wish.
You're changing daily.

I've always loved haiku, don't you? :)

blessed, three times

my hobby

A little more than a year ago, my husband gave me and iPhone as an early Christmas gift. After swearing I would never give into the hype, I was eating my words. My phone quickly filled with apps that I used daily, ok hourly. YouVersion, Words with Friends, Angry Birds, and other fun apps filled my time. In January 2011, I downloaded Instagram, and that is where my love of photography blossomed.

I would have never guessed that I would enjoy photography like am now. It pushes me to be creative in ways that my normal day to day life would have never presented. Taking pictures is more than just taking a snapshot of a pretty scene or a special time with the boys. It is finding the beauty in my everyday surroundings and capturing all the moments in my life. My iPhone became my only camera. I love iPhoneography very much. It is amazing what you can do with the camera and a handful of apps. Below is a collection of my favorite 16 shots of 2011. I have also created a tag on Instagram of all my favorite shots. They can be viewed here.

Midway through last year, I began wanting something more. Upgrading to a DSLR was the way to go. In October, I was blessed to receive a Canon T3i. Wow! I still feel I have so much to learn. I have been doing lots of reading and shooting pictures.

Just a few weeks ago, I began my first photography class.

I learned about this class on Instagram when a friend posted her homework. Looking into it, I discovered it was being taught by Little Fashion Diary. I was thrilled to be able to participate and really feel I am learning so much about photography, my camera's functions and how to use my editing software. Here are my pictures I've taken for my class so far.

Week One: An example of what we thought to be a "good" picture.

Week Two: Importance of learning color and balance in photography. This picture was picked (and five others) as a Class Standout! Yay!!

Week Three: Foreground, Background and Depth of Field as presented in a landscape photo.

I'm eager to continue in the class and soak up all the great information! I can only imagine where this hobby may lead!

Thursday Thanks

I've seen this done on a few blogs that I enjoy reading. It's something that I have wanted to do if I ever got my blog up and running. Maybe it's what I need to give me something weekly to come back and report. :)

Healthy boys

A working dishwasher

My iPhone

A hard-working (and cute) husband

Bedtime

With that being said, good night!

How does one get IN the saddle?

I would have asked how does one get back in the saddle, but seeing as I can hardly call my blog an active one, I decided to ask the original question.

It really isn't difficult. Really. Maybe it's not having enough time. It could have been that until Christmas we had no computer, and I had no idea if I could even blog from my iPhone. (Can you? I have no idea...) I'm sure it has something to do with having no idea where to begin.

It's been a new year for 26 days now, and I am just getting around to addressing my non-blog. What's funny is that I always have ideas for posts, but never follow through. So, here's to following through. *fingers crossed*