tough...

This last week has been tough in the parenting department.

Tough to the point where I was saying to myself, "What were my kids' birth parents thinking choosing me to parent them...I am a terrible, awful mother!" 

Seriously! 

I realized that their behavior was in direct correlation with my behavior and I was almost at a breaking point. 

I have been stressed about a few things out of my control and we have been over-scheduled and I have been tired (most likely due to anemia since I haven't been consistent in taking my iron). And it was making me crabby and impatient and a just plain old mean mommy.

 After venting to my husband last night about all my stresses and my inability to be a good mommy, I felt much better today. And we had the first good, actually great, day in about a week. 

How my mommy heart needed today.

And to top it off, these photos were captured tonight of me with my littles!

Ah! I love these two!

for my children...

Mac looking at the Christus at the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor Center ~ April 2009

With it being Mother's Day today, I thought it appropriate to share this list that Hubs and I have been compiling for awhile. It is our own guidelines in how we hope to raise our children. These are all things that we have talked about over the years as we watched others raise their children. This list is by no means complete, I am sure that I will always come up with more. And no doubt I will probably fail at a majority of these, but I need the reminder. So my plan is to type this list up in a beautiful way to frame it and put it some where that will allow me to be reminded often.

• Be an example
• Teach with love
• Teach respect, do not demand it
• Create memories
• Speak kindly
• Love unconditionally
• Be happy, and not negative
• Set reasonable expectations
• Always make time for them
• Build strong relationships
• Learn from natural and applicable consequences
• Do not let my own pride get in the way of loving my children
• Never just say "no". Always give a legit reason for saying no.
• Teach them that they are Children of God
• Teach them to be like our Savior
• Use positive praise when ever possible
• Help build their self esteem and never put them down
• Make them feel that it is ok to come to us when they are in trouble or have questions
• Continually teach them the Gospel
• Prepare them to have their own eternal family someday