Taking it one day at a time since 1996. Why 1996 and not, say, 1967 (the year I was born) or 1985 (the year I graduated High School and started dating Chris) or 1993 (Chris and I got married)?

1996 was the year Ryan was born. And since this was always intended to be a Mommyblog, I picked the year I became a Mom to be the starting point at which I began taking life one day at a time. In that span of almost 12 years though, it’s taken on even more meaning than that.

It’s been a long time since I had a day here at home where I thought wow, things are really going smoothly in my life. Is that even possible? Is it possible to reach a state of being where all of the little details that make up living one’s life are working together in perfect harmony? The last time I can remember my life being like that was before Ryan was born, those three years where Chris and I were married and working and focused just on each other. We had a biweekly budget that kept all of our bills paid on time, we grocery shopped once a week together. We spent weekends picking out movies to see and window shopping at the mall hand in hand. I can’t say it was totally perfect all the time, but day-to-day, life ran pretty smoothly.

And now? Yeah. Now I make payment arrangements and cajole customer service reps into letting me spread those late payments out so the utilities stay on. I run to the grocery store at least twice a week and sometimes more, because I don’t have a big enough refrigerator or pantry or HOUSE to hold all the cereal, milk, bread, lunch meat, granola bars, tortilla chips, juice boxes, and ingredients for dinners that this family of mine can consume in any given week. Chris and I haven’t seen a movie together in months because it requires a babysitter miracle to find someone who can watch all three of the kids. And you all know what happens when we try to go out to eat or just walk around the mall. Our last “restaurant” meal was at Steak n Shake and fortunately it wasn’t busy because Kaitlyn spent all of about three minutes in the highchair before the screeching started.

I make choices every day as both a parent/grownup and as a blogger that have long-term consequences. I do what feels right at any given moment, and sometimes it turns out to have been a good decision and sometimes it feels like the wrong decision. There are days where I feel like man, I have just really messed up as a blogger, I don’t pay enough attention to what other bloggers are doing, it’s all about me me ME and no wonder I don’t….and then I stop myself. I think about what I DO have, not what I don’t have, and I remind myself that my life is pretty damn good despite what I think my little problems are. I remind myself that I’m raising three terrific kids who try hard in school and take care of each other and are going to grow up to be great adults.

I remind myself that at least my town HAS restaurants and a mall and grocery stores, that it didn’t get wiped out by hurricanes or tornadoes or mudslides. I remind myself that for three years I’ve been publishing my thoughts and opinions on the Internet and people READ what I have to say, which is pretty amazing when you think how many blogs there are. I remind myself that it’s okay to say no to new offers so I can get caught up on the old ones, that the Internet doors won’t close if I do. I remind myself that every day I have two choices- to do my best or to make excuses.

After all, at least I have “days” to take one at a time. Bigger picture and all. My point in writing this post is to let you all know that I’m just doing the best I can every day, and I know that some days you might come here and think what the heck is she writing about THAT for, and I know that this “Mommyblog” has become much less of a Mommyblog and much more of a product and website review posts blog, but no matter what I’m posting, I’m always thinking about why I started this blog in the first place. I make those choices every day, sometimes on a minute to minute basis, and I choose what I think is best. For my blog, for my kids, for my husband, for me.

I try. God knows, I try every day, to do the best job I can. Most days I feel like I did a crappy job, but there’s always the next day. And that’s the beauty of the taking it one day at a time philosophy, there’s always the next day. I can’t think of a clever way to end this. So here’s a photo, and thank you for reading this post. Leave a comment

(this photo would almost be frameable if there wasn’t a box of trash bags right next to my head)