I haven’t been around much lately. Life has been so crazy, that crazy isn’t even a strong enough word! Lunacy seems a little more accurate.

Ok, my life as a mom of 6, along with homeschooling all of them is a crazy life. I admit it. lol  So much more has been happening, though, to elevate life way beyond crazy.

It all started a couple of months ago. My oldest son was driving my car to work when he was rear ended at a red light. He was ok, except for whiplash. I did spend about 6 hours with him in the er, though. My car was damaged, but thanks to my husband, I could still drive it. He is an Auto Body Tech. The guy you take your car to to fix! So he checked it out, and fixed my tail light so I could still drive it while waiting to wade through all the insurance paperwork.

About a week and a half later, the other persons insurance company tells us they are totaling the car. We chose to buy it back from them, so had additional paperwork to do. We had to apply for a salvage title, then when that came back, apply for a rebuilt title before we could drive the car again. We found this out the hard way. I was out with the car while my husband went to the court house. He came and told me I couldn’t drive it anymore. Yikes! I did drive it home. Thankfully, it was only about 5 miles!

This is the part of the story that really starts the lunacy!

I have been driving my son to work every afternoon. So now that we were down to one car, I had so much more driving to do! Let me start by saying that my husband & son work in a different town than we live in. My husband works about 20 miles from home, and my son works about 23 miles away. Same direction as my husband, just 3 miles beyond his work. Due to traffic, it usually takes at least 30 minutes each way, sometimes more.

So I had to drive my husband to work in the morning. Drive my son to work in the afternoon. Drive to pick up my husband at work. Then one of us had to go pick up our son from work. Thankfully, my husband picked him up most days. There were several days, though, that I picked him up.

Are you catching that? I did 3 or 4 – 40+ mile round trips a day! That’s about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours in the car. Every day. It sure felt like I was living in my car! Throw in cooking, cleaning, laundry, and homeschooling my 17 year old. I barely had time to breath!

Then on Memorial Day, while still having only one car, I spent over 6 hours in the er with my sick mother. Then a few days later I had to spent 8 or so hours with my sick son in the er. Then a few days later, I spent about 9 or 10 hours in the er with my yet again sick mother.

In a 10 day period, I took people to the er 3 times! That’s not counting doctor visits I took them to, as well. While still being a one car family. Thankfully, everyone is on the mend now. Except for 2 follow up appointments scheduled right now, I hope to stay far away for doctors and hospitals!

I finally got my car back a couple of weeks ago! I was so happy. For 4 days. That’s when we were driving down the highway, at about 59 mph, and a deer ran into our car! It was at 11:20 in the morning! We didn’t see it until right before it ran into the car.

It was a good 4 days! lol I lost the use of my car for another 2-3 days while my husband had the windshield replaced, put a new drivers side mirror on, and pounded out some dents. Lots of dents. At this point, I do not even car what the car looks like. As long as I can drive it, I couldn’t care less if it is dented.

So now I finally have my car back for real, I only have to take my son to work in the afternoon. My husband usually picks him up at night. Oh, what shall I do with all that free time?!

I thought that once I got my car back life would calm down. I should have known better! Especially since I had events scheduled on my calendar.

On Saturday, June 20, I hosted a wedding shower for my 18 year old daughter and her fiancee. It was a great shower! It just involved a lot of planning and prep. I plan on sharing shower pics later this week.

I volunteered in the kitchen at my church for VBS last week. So I was there 3-4 hours a night Sunday thru Thursday. While packing for….

2 days ago, on the 1st, we helped our 21 year old daughter move to a big city a couple of hours from home for college. She has attended a local community college for 3 semesters, while living at home. Now she will be going to a big university to finish her degree. She wants to get a B.S. in Anthropology. She spent a couple of years after homeschool high school working, and deciding what she really wanted to do. And now she’s going for it! I am so proud of her!

Her moving means that I now have to deal with all the “stuff” she left behind! I’m not sure how she crammed so much stuff in her bedroom. She took 2 car loads of stuff to college with her. And the rest has exploded all over my house!

That is a few of the major things that have made my life so crazy lately. There were many, many smaller things adding to the lunacy, too!

I spent yesterday on the couch all day with a bad headache. I didn’t even go to church it was so bad. My step counter registered under a thousand steps for the entire day.  So, yeah, I barely moved.

I have a bit of a lingering headache today. But I am ready to get back at it!

Ready to get this house in order after the shower and moving upheaval.

Ready to get back to blogging!

*Edited to add the part about the deer. My husband just told me I left it out. How could I forget that part?!

Some moms have this whole mothering thing down, and don’t have trouble with this. Then some of us moms, like me, are still learning lessons. I slowly learned this lesson over the last few years. What am I talking about?

The Important Lesson I Finally Learned about Being a Mother

Ok, here it is. The important lesson I finally learned about being a mother.

It’s ok to make yourself and your health a priority.

Now, to you, that may not seem like an earth shattering observation. To me it is. I have always put my family first over myself. And I know there are many, many mothers out there just like me.

I in no way mean if you are taking care of yourself that you are not putting your family first.

Like I said above, some mothers have it all figured out. Then some of us are so busy taking care of the husband, the kids, the house, homeschooling, church ministry,etc. that we don’t pay any attention to ourselves.

Sound familiar? You try to serve healthy, nutritious meals to your family. Yet you are so busy at meal times and snack times making sure that the kids are eating what they should that you don’t pay attention to what you are eating. You make sure the kids have physical activities to participate in, yet you don’t make sure you have enough time to exercise.

There is a reason the flight attendants tell you that if the plane is crashing to out your own oxygen mask on first.

You can’t take care of anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself first!
It is important to make sure you get enough rest.
It is Important to make sure you are physically active.
It is important to make sure you eat the healthy meals you are serving, not just pick at something while you are cooking and cleaning up the kitchen.

So now after years of putting myself last, I am working hard at putting myself first. Making time for exercise, even if that means someone has to wait for something instead of me doing for them right away. My “baby” is 16, so the whole family is capable of waiting. If you have an infant, or toddlers, it’s different. You may have to exercise while they are sleeping instead. You will have to figure out what works for you.

It is of utmost importance for women to get enough rest, exercise, and to eat healthy. Our lives, and the lives of those we love depend on it.

We can’t take care of others if we don’t take care of ourselves first!

I wish I had learned and applied this lesson years ago!

I was eating dinner with my daughter the other night, and she just casually tells me a hair trick that I had never heard before.

1 Cool Hair Trick I Learned From My Daughter

She told me that she learned to put the conditioner on her hair before shampooing. Put on the conditioner, then shampoo as you usually do.

I tried it.

It worked brilliantly!

I have oily hair, but need conditioner on the ends. I’ve never been able to find a happy medium before. Even if I only put the conditioner on the ends, it always seemed to climb up my hair and make my even more oily. But now… The bottom of my hair is soft, but not weighted down like conditioners can do. Plus, no conditioner on top of my head to make my hair even more oily.

This trick is really going to work for me!