This Side of Invisible

One of the hardest things to do as a stay-at-homer (for me at least) is get out of bed everyday.  It's not that I am depressed this is by no means the case, but it's getting up to someone else's needs everyday.  You know how, when you have a job outside of the home, you get up leave the house and go to work.  That's not so when you are a stay-at-homer.  I know!  It's craziness!  Seriously though...  So those who work at least have a variance in schedule.  The weekly grind and then the joy of the weekend.  It's not that they have nothing to do on the weekends (I'm sure working mother's play catch up on the weekends as do we all), but they have something different to do.  As a stay-at-homer, everyday is basically (not technically) the same.  You wake up have a short time to yourself and then it's breakfast, getting everyone dressed, brushing teeth, morning clean up, rushing to get somewhere on time, diffusing fights and tantrums, etc.  You get the pict...

While these addresses may be more recent, the ideas and principles behind them and in them are the reasons why I make it through the most challenging, more difficult days.  From the last seven years of experience as a stay-at-home mother, I have learned a great truth:  All things worth having, worth fighting for, worth treasuring are also challenging and can often push us to the extreme of our abilities, patience, humility and faith. Daughters of God by M. Russell Ballard http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html Mothers Who Know by Julie B. Beck http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-27,oo.html I would also recommend: Your Greatest Challenge, Mother by Gordon B. Hinckley She Shall be Praised: Latter-day Prophets speak to women The Blessings and Responsibilities of Womanhood by Spencer W. Kimball *All the above can be found on lds.org

Ok, so I had this idea for a book.  A book about the struggles of a 21 century, feminist-ish woman dealing with life as a stay-at-home mom.  Yeah, so that woman is me.  And while someday, I may compile a book of episodes, for now we get a blog. Don't get me wrong, I love, adore, treasure my children and my husband and I strongly belief that as a woman of God I should be at home with my children especially while they are young.  And while I never doubt any of the above mentioned, I do still have struggles one a day-to-day basis (and have had since day one of stay-home-mommy-ship).   Ok, so I don't really qualify myself as a true feminist, mostly because I do believe that women should take pride and honor in raising their families.  However, I did grow up in a feminist culture.  Every woman in my family for a few generations have been "working women" (as if there is such a thing as a non-working woman, any and every woman has plenty of work to do).  My parents, like so ...