Sick seaons are incredibly tough seasons. Especially if you have several children. Short, but tough. There is little else you can do other than take care of sick children because their need for mom escalates. So the house is left undone and meals are simple or take out. We become confined to the house to keep our germs to ourselves and rest to get well. It's certainly my least favorite thing about the fall and winter seasons.

But, to be the one my children reach their hands out to for a comforting touch, to be the one who rubs the back of my sick child to comfort them in a most uncomfortable state, that is a privilege.

She held her firstborn baby on her hip and looked down at my oversized belly. When I told her I was expecting our fourth baby she couldn't believe it. "Wow, so you got this whole mom thing down!…Right?" I could feel my belly tighten with a Braxton Hicks as I began to laugh and try not to wet myself. I might have scared her a little with my response. "No, the more children I have, the more I realize how much I don't have this mom thing down." She laughed nervously and changed the subject. I went to the bathroom. 

Usually I only look at the pictures, but this time I’m reading the whole June 2015 National Geographic article about the little girls, in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, who are chosen to be worshiped as goddesses. 

A six-year-old girl is asked what she’ll do if she’s chosen to be a kumari, or living goddess.

There is No Shortcut to Parenting

If there was a shortcut to parenting, I thought I would have found it by now. I haven't . . . not even close. But that doesn't mean I haven't tried. And it doesn't mean I haven't failed. Still we all keep looking and hoping, don't we?

We're now about half way through the summer (nooo!!!!), and it's usually about this time that we're feeling the full effects of all that the heat and summer weather can bring. Which is why I wanted to share with you all my must have summer beauty essentials. All the products I think you guys need to have, and all the products I make sure I have, as we head into the remaining summer months!