Hey Working Mom, Rock On!!!

I have seen multiple blog posts being shared on Facebook lately about the stay at home moms and I am here to cheer on the working mom!!! That working mom may work 5 hours a week or 40 plus hours a week, but she still has to be the chauffer, chef, bookkeeper, maid, house keeper, nurse, teacher.....the list goes on and on.

Every woman has a different purpose to why she works outside of the home. Some woman work for their family’s financial well being, or a single mom who has to provide for herself and her children. While other mothers choose to work because it would drive her crazy being home everyday or she works just because she loves what she does. There are also tons of other reasons why a woman works. Nonetheless, the working mom works at her job and still has to do all of what the stay at home mom does, not that I am saying the stay at home mom's job isn't important, all I am saying is let's give some credit and recognition to the working mom!!

There is alot of emotions that goes along with being a working mom. Society is hard on the working mom, making her feel like a "bad" mom for not staying home and providing one on one care for her children like in the olden days. The working mom is also feeling pulled in a million directions with the demand of work, but also caring for the demands of her children and spouse, and a house that needs to be cleaned, homework to be done, laundry to be washed, supper to be cooked the second she walks in the door after a long day at work. Or the morning she sends her semi sick kid with a low grade fever to daycare or school hoping the Motrin doesn't wear off as she doesn't have any more sick days, or has a really important meeting that day, but is feeling extremely guilty because she could not stay home with her sick child.

Day in and day out, I witness the craziness of the working mom's life. I not only experience this in my own life, but most importantly observe this in the mom's of my business. The working mom is what drives my business. I am a daycare provider. I care for children while their parents go to work. I, however, am very fortunate (in my opinion), I get the best of both worlds. I get to be a part of the workforce, but I also get to spend my days with my own children all while doing something I love. I provide childcare in a separate house from our own home; it helps divide my "work" and family life. And I am not writing this to get a pat on the back for being a working mom, I am writing this to give a shout out to my fellow working mom's who don't get enough credit for what they do!

I am going to wrap this up, as I am writing this during my break while the kids relax during naptime, and as the working mom is probably reading this on her break at work, or the few minutes she has at the end of the day as she is about falling asleep, or to the stay at home mom who is reading this while her children are yelling for her demanding her attention. I am not writing this to debate whether the working mom versus the stay at home mom has a harder or more important job, they both are doing what they feel is best for their own family, and are both doing awesome at what they do!!

But hey working mom, rock on!!!!
--Andrea

P.S. Yes, I am a college graduate with a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration. BUT I am not an English major or a writer by any means, so I am sure I have some run-on sentences and many more grammatical errors for all you Grammar Nazis that are reading this. However, I am just a typical mom who makes mistakes and is not perfect.

Our Entryway

I think Spring is beginning to be in our near future! This winter has been a cold one, and now here comes the mud. Speaking of mud, our entryway got a good cleaning this past weekend. We don't have a 'mudroom' per say, but our entryway is the catch all to our house. Unfortunately, it is the same room that we enter from the garage and the same room that our front door opens up to when our guests walk in. Having 5 people's shoes, coats, backpacks and everything else it can be a nightmare to keep clean.

I would LOVE to have a fancy dancy entryway/mudroom that had one of these babies in it!! With a cubbie for every person, it would make this momma happy!!

(link)

But for now we make due with what we have. I put a couple nails on the sides of an old antique cabinet to hang coats and snow pants up on, and in the inside of the cabinet it holds our shoes.

Last year about this time we freshened up the whole inside of the house with a new paint job. The walls going up the stairs were gross, and that is putting it nicely, they were dirty, disgusting!

Can't believe I showed that picture, but it was over 10 years of wear and tear, soooo they got this paint job! I walk out of our bedroom every morning to this view.

The walls look TONS better. Our entryway is in the basement and you walk up stairs to our main level. This is the view when you walk in and look up.

This is the view of when you look straight forward when you walk in our front door.

We have a bathroom, laundry room and our master bedroom down stairs. The door on the left is the bathroom and the laundry is straight ahead. This is what the front door looks like, coming from the laundry room.

Some people perhaps wouldn't like a basement bedroom, but we love it. It is a very large room and we have an awesome walk in closet. Our room also has a very large window so it doesn't feel like we are in a basement.

These photo's are looking down from upstairs.

These are photo's when just getting to the top of the stairs.

I showed you our living room shelves.

It is crazy how a little paint can completely give a space a face lift! Along with a pop of color, notice I have a brown, orange and blue wall all in the same room. It may not be everyone's style, but I love color and going all neutral would be way to boring for me to handle. Maybe someday, but for now I will enjoy my touches of neutral with my pops of color.

Until next time,
Andrea