Better

Recently someone invited me to join a book club. I was a little taken back by the invitation, I didn't really know what to say, and it embarrassed me a little but to admit that I have not read a single book since I had my daughter over a year ago. They seemed a little shocked by my confession, but it is what it is. I find some time to read, it's just that I mostly read articles on mothering or marriage or recipes, in the few minutes here and there when Noelle is contentedly playing with her toys on the floor, or for a few minutes when she is napping before I get dressed or make myself lunch or put dinner in the crock pot. Honestly, I don't know how mothers have time to read a book and hold on to a story line with only a few minutes here and there. It made me feel like I'm not doing such a good job being a multitasking mother because I can't do it. I know that was not the intent of my friend, but it made me want to do "better" for a little while. I put the word better in quotation marks because when I think back on that, I feel a bit silly, because thinking that I needed to be a "better" mother because I don't find time to read books (ones with more than 10 pages that is) or go to craft night or even fold and put away the laundry is silly. I am a good mother. So what if I haven't read a book in over a year, I've read every weekly article on my child's development since I found out I was pregnant, I don't usually find time to go to craft night because I like to be home to put my daughter to bed and spend the evening with my husband, I may currently have 4 baskets of clean laundry in my bedroom begging to be folded and put way, but you know what, that is not my priority right now, today I played with my daughter, I laid down on the floor next to her for 2 hours because she wanted me to. Yes I know that I need to fold the laundry, but it's not going to get done today, and that's ok, David and Noelle still love me, even if we have to fish through the laundry basket for a week or more before it gets put away. It's ok. I'm proud of the mothers that find time to read books and go to craft night and fold their laundry, they are good mothers, and so am I, even if I don't do those things. I do my best and I love my family and I can't do better than that.

Times Marches On

Remember how it's been over a year since I've written anything on here? Ha ha. Yeah, I have a beautiful baby girl, Noelle Hailey Richardson, who is just over a year old now... And she is the reason I haven't written, she likes to take up all of my time, in the best way. I love her guts! She's my bestie, she's perfect and I love being her mama. Being a mom is great, seriously, it's so amazing being able to watch  this beautiful human being that I created go from being able to do nothing on her own, to being able to walk and feed herself and understand what I say. It's incredible and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to do that. I love that I have a husband that will support me in staying home with our daughter and being a stay-at-home mom. I can't imagine having to leave her with someone else so that I can go to work, I know tons of moms do that, and it's fine, but it's not for me. I love that I get to stay home and take care of my best girl everyday.

Well, seeing as how it's been a million years since I've written anything I suppose a little catch up is necessary. We live in Lafayette, Indiana now. It's not as small as you probably think... Well at least it's bigger than I thought it was. It's a great place to live, we actually really love it here, minus the horrible winter we just had and the tornado thing, also the smell is pretty bad sometimes because of a local corn syrup factory, but like I said, we love it here. If you watch the show Parks & Rec, we basically live in Pawnee, the parks here are amazing, we have our very own Sweetums factory and the people, though a bit eccentric at times, are really great. David is in school at Purdue and rocking the socks off of his first year. We teach the 7 turning 8 year olds in Primary and we love it, I mean we literally have the best class in the entire Primary, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased... Although I may be a little biased. Noelle is amazing, although sick right now, she's been surprisingly happy and even tempered. We are looking forward to summer vacations and swimming as soon as the pool opens. We've been taking full advantage of the free zoo and have been several times a week since it opened. We love to visit all the new baby goats in the petting zoo.