Dawson's 14th Birthday!

Today our firstborn turns 14! ...About 2 more years to psych myself out, thinking of him getting his driver's license😳 

Husband took the 2 oldest boys & they're headed out to see all the new gadgets & products for outdoor sports, at the Sportsman show today.

This boy lives & breathes the outdoors. His favorite things to do are traipsing through the woods, looking for any type of creature to bring home & care for. 

Hes happiest with a fishing pole in hand. It doesn't matter whether he's fishing from the boat or off a bank.

This was a trophy catch this summer. He was fishing for musky & saw this one floating by, that had swallowed another fish & it got stuck in it's mouth & killed itself. Dawson claimed it stank something fierce, but he wasn't going to pass up a photo of something "so cool" 

This was a Bass he caught at his Grandpa's pond. He fished for this one a long time...It's also part of his Birthday gift(Andy is getting it mounted for him)

I love his adventurous spirit, his love for the outdoors, & the soft spot in his heart for animals...

...Except for maybe the puppies, whom he loves to tease mercilessly.

Goober 😁

His birthday supper request is Stromboli, with only pepperoni & cheese, topped with coarse garlic salt & seasonings(he was very specific)

And a "cake" stacked high with glazed donuts.

Happy Birthday, Dawson!! We love you like crazy!

Motherhood

The 1st 4 posts I saw on Facebook this morning had to do with parenting. The highs, the lows, the WORK... 

Truthfully, those 1st 5-7 years feel a lot like boot camp. You teach, train & repeat until you think you might just lose your ever-loving mind. 

It is work, & it is hard...but it is so rewarding when you start to see that work pay off.

There are days when the house looks like Hurricane Harvey has blown through. Where you find 20 snack-size snickers wrappers beneath the sofa cushions while cleaning.

 Evenings where you walk into the bathroom, & find that a little Dachshund puppy has somehow managed to find it's way into the bathtub with 2 little boys(How did that get there?!) 😳

There are days when you simply get nothing done but feed, hold, kiss, & hug the little people.

Days where you feel like more of a referee, breaking up the latest brawl, than a Mom...

And then there are days when it clicks. All that teaching & training pays off-you get to reap the rewards. 

That something you've been teaching, finally makes sense & they GET IT.

The day you can make a job list & each child knows exactly how to do their specific jobs & the house gets cleaned in record time.

The day you can say, "go change out the laundry, please" & it gets done, just like you'd do it yourself... 

The day you see 2 or more kiddos snuggled up together, reading stories or watching a movie together(they DO love each-other), who knew?

When you catch an older sibling looking out for, or helping a younger sibling with something they're struggling with. Giving piggy-back rides, or coloring side by side...

All that, to say this...

Parenting is hard work. Period. It is also one of the most rewarding things you'll ever get a chance to do.

I don't claim to have all the answers. We have teenager, 1 yr. & counting, & another about to earn that title in a few months. We're entering a whole new stage of  uncharted territory.

Some days we'll get it right, & other days we will fail miserably...

Don't beat yourself up about it.

Some days we wonder, "What were we thinking" & other days we wonder how we'd ever survive without them...

It's time to wrap this up...there are cookies to bake, granola bars to make, & laundry to do. After all, well-fed kiddos seem to be the happiest kinds of kiddos.😋  Press on, young Mamas, it gets easier.