what a stay at home mom REALLY does all day.

What goes on behind these four walls is a mystery to the outside world. But, no longer. Have you ever wanted to know what a stay at home mom REALLY does all day long? Kick up those houseshoes, dear. I'm about to let you in on a few secrets:

* First of all, WHAT UP with this picture above. What one sees is a perfectly manicured woman in a tea length dress and pearls, cooking a Thanksgiving sized dinner on a random Tuesday afternoon in a spotless kitchen with no windows. If someone took a picture of me cooking dinner, it would be tossing slimy chicken breasts into a crock pot, smothering it with barbeque sauce, and hoping for the best. Meanwhile, a toddler naked from the waist down reporting an "accident", a crawling baby locating said "accident", and a five year old answering the door to a UPS guy delivering a package, completely in the nude (The five year old, not the UPS guy. Eww.)

*And where is her college t shirt and Old Navy jeans? I don't think she and I could be stay at home mom friends. Unless she gave me a generous slice of that three layer cake she just baked. Then I may reconsider...

* A mom gets up EARLY. Doesn't matter if you stay at home, work at home, or work outside of the home, you do NOT sleep in. And how early you wake depends on how old the kids are. If you have an infant, you basically never get up, because you never go to sleep.

* You plan what's for breakfast at midnight, what's for lunch at 8am, and start planning for supper around naptime. And all three of these meals you will eat standing up.

* When you are on the phone and you need to write something down, your closest items are a grocery store receipt and a red crayon that someone chewed on one end.

*Moms are resourceful. They can fashion an emergency band aid from some tape and an old baby sock, take the last of the juice and somehow divide it three ways equally, and make several meals from that crock pot chicken I mentioned before.

* It has been said that stay at home mothers "watch soap operas and eat bon-bons all day long". I'm not sure who coined this phrase, but I never watch daytime TV, and the only candy I even have time to eat is my "emergency stash" of Junior Mints hidden in the cabinets. And now that I have revealed their location to you, I have to find another hiding place. Snap.

* And also, bon-bons sound expensive. And that is not in our budget. Moving on...

* A stay at home mom knows just how to make it to two (or three) doctor's appointments, comfort the crying kids, pick up the dry cleaning, do the grocery shopping for the week (and find great deals!), reward the kids with slushies from Sonic during Happy Hour, and make it back home, all before naptime. And if she misses naptime, she knows an early bedtime is on the horizon. Score.

* Moms spend most of their time on their knees: nursing scrapes, tying shoes, cleaning spilled milk, and praying. As I have said before, nothing has driven me closer to the arms of God than being a mother. Prayer is essential for the day. For the hour. For the moment. 

* And even on the days when you are totally exhausted, miss your paycheck, and can barely remember what life was like before mom jeans, there is something that keeps you going every day. (Well, three little somethings...) Mom, you are doing a GREAT job, even on the days when you don't feel as if you are. For motherhood is a high calling. Let us not take our time for granted!

(Missed today's daily photo? Click here.)