Luxury of a Fake Stay at Home Mom

I would love to be a stay at home mom. I would love to be the one who is always volunteering at school, the one who is nominated to take the local kids to car pool, have an over the top organized house, dinner done on time every day, and the loads of laundry that tend to pile up not to ever be. The reality is I’m not and by the Grace of God we do pretty great as a little family with a working mom.

I never want my husband and kids to ever feel like they have missed the luxury of the stay at home mom so I have to do this life thing a little differently. I see myself as the wife and mother who just happens to have a job on the side. My pursuit of Christ comes first and then my little family. I wake up early, I mean 4:30 dark and early. But this early to rise business gives me a great opportunity to serve Christ and my family. I do laundry, make dinner or prepare it, make lunches, stuff backpacks, clean our home. I pretty much do as much as I can in those early morning hours  to make more time for us as a family at the backside of our day. I do our shopping on Thursday evenings so we waste no time on weekends running errands. Every evening after we have had dinner, family devotion and prayer I literally get everything together for morning. Kids clothes, jackets, my clothes, I exercise take a shower and do my hair, being prepared is truly my secret to pretending to be a stay at home mom! It works for us. When we all tend to pile into our home after a long day there is not a single one of us who wants to think about doing chores especially with homework, afterschool activities and church. We need a mom with a job on the side! I’m thankful that I am able to work for a honorable company who is encouraging about using our time off and flexible with me if I need to go I go. I am able to volunteer a few times at school during the school year, I serve in church and am able to enjoy my women’s small group and worship team all while being the fake stay at home mom I pretend to be in my head.

I wish I could say that I do it all and do it well but I have a ton of help. My husband does way more than he should. He is amazing and we work as a mighty little Army against the tornados of Lilly and Owen. He cooks, cleans, does laundry and runs carpool, and manages to make the school programs during the day that I have no choice but sometimes to miss. We also have the luxury of my mom and dad who have been nothing short of a miracle. They have watched the kids for us, driven them to school  and have been to countless activities that Gary and I just could not make. They have been detrimental to our lives and we can't thank them enough!  We also love our teachers for loving and educating our kiddos every day and of course our insane amazing children's pastors, I can't even talk about children's ministry with out happy weeping!  I can’t leave out Lilly and Owen, these two are amazing at being a big part of our little family and working in our home. They both have chores and we could not make our lives work with out them. Everything Gary and I do is for the blessings that are our sweet babies Lilly and Owen!

We are blessed, we have so many luxuries and I'm proud of the family we are. I'm not that perfect have it all together stay at home momma but I try to do everything I can not to let my family miss those moments of luxury! So until The Lord see it fit to make me that full time stay at home mom, I will continue to be blessed in this season of life being a fake one!