I was listening to a radio show the other day while picking children up from school and a commercial came on. It was for stay-at-home moms that want to work-at-home. The commercial started out with this comment… “For all you stay-at-home moms that want-to-work at home in your spare time…”  I laughed at the last part. When do I ever have spare time? With 3 of my five children in school, one of which is in half day kindergarten, 4 of the five in a sport, I find myself in my car more than in my home. When we are home it is filled with laundry, cleaning, cooking, homework doing, and then repeating all of the above especially the cleaning part. My children go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00, yes it is early but I need to pick up the front room and kitchen one more time before I crash, (which is usually about 9:00). I have always asked the question, how do working moms do it? How do they go to work all day and then come home and still have to keep house and tend to the children, and not go crazy? So I ask the question one more time, when do I ever have spare time? Well I suppose that would be at 5:30 in the morning before my hubby and kids are awake! Who really wants to get up early just to have a little “spare time” only to fill it now with a job? No thanks, I need my sleep to get up the next day and do it all again.

Yesterday my boys came in to the house asking for a tape measure. I politely asked what it was they needed it for and they explained that they were seeing how far they could jump. Seeming as though that was harmless, I directed them to the cabinet that housed the tape measurer. Upon further thought however, I decided that checking on them to see exactly what they were doing would be a great idea. I went outside only to see one of my boys at one end of the driveway yelling to the others if they were ready. I looked down to the other end to see that they had taken their skateboard ramp apart, put the two ramp parts together and were running up one side and jumping to the other. Each time they were successful they would move the ramps farther apart. Now my boys have done some crazy things in their lives but this took the cake for the “moment”. You see my driveway is not the smooth concrete, it is the pebbly black top. You know the kind that when you fall you pretty much scrape the soup out of yourself. Not to mention every time they landed on the opposite ramp it would slide too. Well of course being the great mom I am, I got out the video camera and recorded this momentous feet. Well actually I wanted to record the last moments of their lives that I would be sharing with them. I will say though they all did a great job and they all lived to tell the tale and then watch the amazing video over, and over again. Oh yeah and I failed to mention that the  boys while awaiting their turns would lay in between the ramps to be jumped over. I love having boys!!!!

So I have been hearing a lot about brainwashing these days and it has really got me thinking. I hear in the media that we as “Mormon’s” are brainwashing our children. But the question I have is, “Don’t we all?”. We teach our children what is right and what is wrong, those ideas of right and wrong come from our “beliefs”, be them religious or not.  I am a Mormon or rather a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have taught my children what I believe to be wrong or right. But most importantly as the best Dr. Seuss book ever written said, I “taught them how to think!” The truth is I have taught my children to think for themselves and think of others. I have them focus a lot on how a certain action makes them feel. If it makes you feel good, good job it must be a good thing. If it makes you feel bad, well you probably ought not to do it again.

Hello, I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Becky. I have been married for 12 years to the most handsome man in the world. Together he and I have 4 beautiful boys. I am actively involved in Cub Scouting as I think I will be for many years to come and the PTA. Actually at our school it is referred to as a Foundation, but truthfully they are almost the same. I love to scrapbook and make cards. I run every morning because I needed to lose my baby weight and for some unknown reason I have begun to love it. There is just something wonderful about being out there all by myself with no children. => Oh and last but certainly not least, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise nicknamed “the Mormons”.