Pulling Hair & Planning Pinterest

This what my Pinterest project looked like...

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and this is what Pinterest's project looked like ...

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Epic fail for the Work Outside the Home Mom. Further evidence as to why I work outside the home. I can't even pour chalk paint into ice cube trays without pouring it all over. And, side note: I also turned the Kitchen Aid beaters on while they were covered in cookie dough and not in the bowl. That was a fun thirty minutes of wiping off dough from the ceiling.

I was home yesterday afternoon for a two-hour stretch to "babysit" my own kids while the man was at a meeting. I tried. I really did. We played blocks while I worked on my smartphone. We made ice cube sidewalk chalk. Read books. And after two hours I was ... wait for it ... prepare yourself ... SO BORED.

I was totally in love with playing with my kids--the relationship part of it. But Pinterest projects aren't me, and what ARE you supposed to do with blocks?

This might be one of the WOHM's worst confessions. That day-in-life of a WOHM when the idea of being at home during the middle of the day slump (as Sarah talked about on Monday), is scary. Ok. Let's admit, some WOHM's do it because life necessitates it but they want to be home--ache to be home. Others, like myself, do it because life necessitates but, I love my job. I love to be at work. I love the stimulation of a career. Is that horrible to admit? I feel so. It's that mom-guilt thing that wraps itself around my heart and squeezes when I look into my daughter's baby blues and get my Peter Pan "Muah!" (a kiss) before I leave for work.

But I've discovered a few things:

1. Mom-guilt is a wicked vice that ruins the good in life.
2. Though finances demand that I work, it's a blessing to ENJOY my work and I am thankful that God has given me one that doesn't sap my strength from me and steal the joy of playing with my kids when I return home.
3. It's ok to love my job. 
4. It's ok to love my kids.
5. It's ok to suck at Pinterest--because gosh darn it, my daughter is learning the skills of directing people, time management, and all the other directorly sort of things that I do on a daily basis.

We may not be the house of Pinterest projects and my daughter might not be at 2nd grade level cursive calligraphy, but we love here. We work together as a team so everything can run smoothly and we can have family time.

So if you're a WOHM, remember this...love them. Just love them. Forget the mom guilt, the comparison game, and the idea that your ice sidewalk chalk should be in beautiful multi-colored Popsicle sticks and just love. In the morning before you leave, in the afternoon when you call to say "hi", and in the evening when a thousand things at home rest on your plate but the most important priorities are the hooligans that just attacked you when you walked in the door.

That is love. That is home.

What Mom-guilt issue attacks you?