Back in Business

Uppercase Living is a vinyl expression company that produces high quality inspirational, humorous, whimsical, and thoughtful expressions. UL also gives their customers the opportunity to create their own expressions using the MyDesign Suite tool.  

 

 

 

 

I've been an Uppercase Living demonstrator in the past but once we relocated I let it go for awhile. Now, I'm back and I'm SO excited about what they have going on now...please visit my page at RachelRenee.uppercaseliving.net to check it out.

 

My Take - Stay Home Versus Working Mom Debate

As many of you may know I've been both a Stay At Home Mom and a Working Mom. Throughout our journey as a family, it has just been best for us, for our sanity and functionality...that I stay home. Of course, being a stay home mother is not for everyone; neither is having five children under the age of ten. However, this is the life we chose and love (most of the time).

Throughout the years of me staying home I've been asked a ton of questions, some of them rather rude and sometimes I gave a rather rude response but most of the time the questions were honest and well meaning, as I try to be as well. People would ask: "When are you going to get a job?"
Some would ask `What do you do all day? `My response, well, I mother all day, I love my family all day, I tend to our home and business all day and yes, sometimes I shop all day. That last one really burns the buns of a stay-at-home hater. But it's true (mostly grocery).

One thing that has never crossed my mind was to ask a working mother similar questions. Maybe because I know better, I know how they do it all(or not). I know the struggle of the juggling act. I've been there, done that and one day will go back to that life, but not today. One thing that I've never ever done was judge, a working mother that is. I don't judge because deep down inside I still crave the career I will have one day. If I can admit that, then why can't so many stay home mom bashers admit their truths.

I'm just trying to be a better Me everyday. This reminds me of something my former Pastor would say..."Everyone of us is either in a storm, just come out of a storm or on the way into one", to that I'd like to add a saying from my Mom...sometimes you just gotta learn to 'dance in the rain'. Peace!! 

Valentines Day prep

The kids and I have been getting ready for Valentine's Day. Which is not only a big deal in our family but is also a pretty big deal at school. Every year we make Valentines for their classmates and teachers and a Valentine box for them to collect their love notes and tokens in. We used boxes of various sizes, construction paper, card stock, the Cricut Expressions2 machine, various knick knack pieces and a hot glue gun to create the Valentines boxes.

Our Kindergardener wanted a Monster box.

Our second grader wanted a puppy box. 

Here's her "Val-mation".

And our fourth grader wanted an Owl Valentine box. 

She even came up with some cute owl themed sayings for her Valentines, like "You're Owl-some" and "Owl be your Valentine". 

Now if I could shake this flu enough to finish them and the thousand other things on my to-do-list. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below. 

What's up Wednesday

I thought I'd bring the blog up to speed with what's been up with our family the last few weeks.

First, it's cold! Very cold. When it hasn't been cold, it's been snowing. This hasn't been a bunch of light snowing either, it's been snow-nado, blizzard conditions...snowing! This has been a winter for the weather record books because our temperatures in the MidWest have gone so low(40 below) that they have cancelled school several times; even some churches have cancelled Sunday services. 

Next, I've been working weekends which has been awesome since the kids are on hiatus from sports and activities during the winter. Now that their seasons are approaching it's going to take some serious juggling. I like to work, hence the fab five; and hubby likes the extra money. 

Of course these two situations (the subzero snow days and me working weekends) has lead to what I've coined as 'FamilyFratHouse'. Simply put, our place is a bit of a mess. To top it off BabyGirls "nose is melting" and when she catches a  cold she loves to cling to Momme. So today I'll be cleaning and rearranging and organizing in hopes that Spring will soon be upon us. Thanks for reading, take care.