24 Hours

Stay at home moms have pretty big jobs. They clean, cook, chauffeur, teach, and spend all of their time, every single day, caring for others. I know in my life that there are days when I can't find time to shower because of all the other things that need to be done first. I keep hearing people say that being a mom is the hardest job you'll ever love. It's true, I absolutely love being at home with my cuties all day. Yet at times, being with them all day is the absolute hardest thing I've ever done. The littles are demanding, hungry, highly active, and attention seeking. They need to be fed at least 3 times a day, clothed, bathed, played with, and the list goes on. Then there's the real hard stuff. Lately dinner time is the worst. I work so hard to make a delicious meal and literally have to fight my kids to eat it. Some nights they barely touch their food and I don't have the energy to do anything else about it, so they go to bed hungry. This wouldn't be so bad, especially since it doesn't really affect our bedtime routine, but it makes them wake up earlier. A couple weeks ago it was bedtime. I'd get the kids ready, brush teeth, read stories, sing songs, then leave them to sleep. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes to hear laughing and playing. Once I found them on top of their 6 foot tall dresser. Another time Ivan had moved his bed into the middle of the room and the kids were jumping from one bed to the next. Charlotte is easily the instigator. She jumps right up out of bed and grabs books off the shelf and takes them to read with Ivan in his bed. This wouldn't be a problem if they left the light off. Charlotte can't reach it, so I know it's Ivan every time. Once Ivan turns on the light, kiss sleep goodbye. They've gotten a lot better, especially since Michael came home. Not only do stay at home moms, well, any moms, have all the daytime stuff to do, they also have the nights. Michael is working nights, so the nights he works I never sleep well. There's something about the possibility of my kids waking up that keeps me from getting the full night's deep sleep that I so need. And my kids have been having nightmares, making it so I'm up with them 2 or more times a night. Ugh. I needed a break.

Michael, being the awesome husband that he is, agreed to let me do a mothers retreat. Laura, my wonderful sister in law, first brought about the idea of a mothers retreat. It's where mom leaves for a night, gets some good rest and relief, and has time to prepare for returning to her family. 

Living space, window with a view of the temple, and to the right is a kitchen area with sink, microwave, fridge, cabinets, table and chairs. 

I wanted to stay at a hotel, the Marriott. I got to stay in the executive suite, holy freaking crap it was incredible! I got a bread bowl pasta from Dominoes, a haircut, and did some thrift shopping. It was so nice to go out by myself and not have a deadline of when to be home. After settling in to the hotel, I did some things I wanted to do. I let myself be my own person and not have to take care of anybody else. I took a bath in a giant bathtub, I watched NCIS, I blogged, and I had a mountain dew without anybody else trying to get it away from me. I ate my dinner without anyone touching me, without getting up and helping anybody else, without arguing with anyone to eat your dinner. I was a person again! Then, after feeling like I had fully served myself with food, entertainment, and shopping, I got to work. 

A view of my beautiful bed for the night. King size really is the best. There's also a sitting area on the left and the balcony is accessible. I'm pretty sure I used all of the pillows on the bed (9 of them) except for the round one in the middle. I didn't get a picture of it, but the bathroom was pretty incredible too. It's divided into 2 rooms, the toilet and sink room then the sink, bathtub, and shower room. 

I am having a baby soon. Yay! I am really really excited to have another baby. I'm honestly excited for labor and delivery. I'm excited for a newborn. I'm the most excited to not be pregnant anymore. What else is there to prepare for that I'm not already looking forward to? Oh yea, I've got 2 other kids at home! So I wanted to help them be as excited for a baby brother as I am. I made workbooks for Ivan and Charlotte. I found this incredible idea on Pinterest, of course, and tailored it to my kids. They will work on name recognition, matching, numbers, shapes, colors, and holding a pencil. I also made some busy bag activities to use as nursing time games. I got so much stuff done. It's incredible what time all to myself, totally uninterrupted can do to my productivity. 

Just maybe the best part of my retreat. Breadbowl pasta, mountain dew, and football. 

I actually started missing my kids! Laura says that an important part of a mothers retreat is teaching your kids that mom leaves and mom comes back. I think it helped Michael a lot too. It's been a long time since he was alone with the kids for that amount of time. Come to think of it, and I think that's the first time he's been with them for that long by himself! Crazy. I got a full night's rest, a delicious giant breakfast, a shower without tiny people peeking in on me, and I accomplished all that I wanted to. It was so incredible to feel like a person again. And after going back home, I'm going to help establish myself as a person with my family as well. All too often I get lost in the busy-ness that is motherhood and forget to put myself first. It's like with the oxygen masks on airplanes, you have to secure your mask first before helping others. I need to make sure I'm taken care of before I can fully mother my children in the way they need me most. All it took for me to find myself again was 24 hours all to myself. I will be doing this again.