Moms Investing in Literature, Family and friends...

::HAULT:: if you are a first time visitor, you should read my "I'm starting a blog...say wha?!" post in order to know and understand my blog philosophy ☺ you may proceed...

The heart and soul as to why I actually began this blog.

::insert somewhat sappy story here::

So, after having my second child (McKinley Jo - a girl, not what I was expecting, so different than my first, a boy - his name is Carter William. He's 2 - they have the same birthday. Somewhat on purpose. Oh, we have Presidents names picked out for our kids - adorable and clever, I know.) I entered into what I like to call, "the Milk Ages". Kinda like the "Dark Ages". But not. Meaning, I entered a time in my life where I was totally out of sorts. No one quite prepares you for a second child. I never found a good book to help me through that drastic change. My good friends were busy with their own children and my family was busy helping with my oldest. What about me? What about this new baby?

There was lot of support and books and generally great "warm, fuzzies" about having your (my) first child. Everyone is so excited for you, there are so many helping hands and generally everyone wants to support you in your new endeavor. Then the second (or third or fourth, I'm assuming) one comes, and people (myself included) assume you're good to go, you've already done this and you are just gonna do your thing. Meanwhile, you're freaking out (again) because God has this funny way of erasing a woman's memory - like pretty much entirely - of pregnancy, child birth and those first few, agonizing months of their life. Or it may be the sleep deprivation that erases your memory - none the less, regardless of it being the second (or third, or fourth) go around, you (I'm really speaking for myself here...) still don't know what the heck you are doing exactly. Except this time, there aren't as many visitors or helping hands or great gifts - they're all either busy with your oldest or their own. At least, that is what I encountered.

::Here begins controversial personal opinions and may be TMI (too much information) for some of you. You have been warned.::

"The Milk Ages" for me were full of just that - milk. I am an advocate of breastfeeding. I think it is the best possible way to bond with your baby and to nourish them for the first few month of their lives. I am a "first 6 months" person - and I would love, love, love to talk more about breastfeeding more with any of you if you'd like. But the reason I bring up breastfeeding is that, for me, the second time around, it was a very lonely experience. It automatically made me the person to primarily care for the baby - meaning someone else had to take care of my oldest during those feeding adventures.

To be absolutely honest - I am not a "I looked at my baby the moment he/she was born and knew I would throw myself in front of a truck for them" mom. It took me a little while to fall deeply, passionately in love with my children. I say this because, ::WARNING its about to get gross...:: here I was, a bleeding, hormonal, mess feeling like a ridiculous fatty who had to feed this baby every three hours in agonizing pain while someone else got to play with my fun, energetic, sweet two year old - who is so freaking cool because of all the work I put in by the way - and I MISSED him. Everyone else all around me was having the fun. I was having the bleeding nipples and no sleep. This did not bode well with me at all. I like having the fun. I like being the center of the fun. Where was my fun?!

Then, I returned to work. I returned to work about a month earlier than I did with my first. I returned to work amidst, arguably, the busiest time of my year. Now, I am an Ag teacher. If you do not know what that is, lets just say, I teach 115 8th-12th grade students of the business and production aspects of agriculture. You know, the industry that feeds you, keeps you alive. With that I am an FFA advisor. If I include planning time, I work an average of 55-60 hours any given week. It is nuts. I essentially have 117 children (you know, 2 of my own, 115 work kids) to care for and nurture. Crazy does not even begin to describe my profession. Google FFA, it is an amazing youth organization. It changed my life as a young adult.

Anywhoo, crazy busy at work, pumping any free minute I can, running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the little time I was home, and watching everyone else having my fun - suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. Like for reals. So, I created my own fun. It's called the Moms Investing in Literature, Friends and family club and if you put together the capitalized letters in the name of our club - it will tell you a lot about it 😳

We meet tomorrow morning - I can't wait ☺ I will let you know how it goes .... Here's how I invited the members through email....

Hello ladies! You are receiving this email because you are someone I truly value in my life! Keep reading....

So, after three weeks home and time to actually think and have intelligent conversation with some good friends, it has been decided that what some of us are missing in our lives (and by some of us, I really just mean me, so humor me here...) is a chance to have more rich conversation and meaningful "mom" time in our (again, I'm really just speaking for myself here, but maybe you are in my boat too...lol) lives.

Thus, an idea was born. Lets start a book club!! Woo hoo!! (I wish I cold add sound effects here!!! Maybe my exclamations will help you imagine my excitement more!!!) ok, I know that sounds incredibly dorky, and you're probably thinking "a book club, when in the hell am I going to have time to read a book?!" or even "spend more time with these crazy ladies? Why would I even consider that?" If you are thinking the first thing, I have an answer, if its the second thing, you suck and I don't want you in my book club any more >:( (He he...)

So, here's what I am thinking - I do not, repeat DO NOT, want this to be some stressful thing that you are freaking about about planning, or getting your book read or whatever. That is the cardinal rule of this book club (the unveiling of the name of this book club will be coming soon in this email...get pumped!!!! (No, not a boob pump ladies...) more exclamations!!!!!) therefore, the thought is that everyone picks a book they are interested in reading. It can be WHATEVER YOU LIKE - funny, romantic, helpful, pretty, cooking, whatever. I do think we should stay around the 400 page mark (like a range of 300-500 pages for my rule followers/details people here ::cough:: AMELIA MORAN ::cough:: so yes, that book that is 502 or 297 pages I think would still be acceptable) xoxo

The whole point of this group is to...

1) get out of the house WITHOUT CHILDREN (unless we deem a play date acceptable - which I think would be great occasionally!! Exclamations!!). On this rule I deem it necessary to say that no jeans or exceptionally styled hair is allowed. You will receive one too dressy outfit/hair warning, and then you will be kicked out if you are a repeat offender ;) or I will punch you and that will be that. In bouncing this idea around with Amy, we think that a standing 9:00am Saturday morning time would be perfect to meet and talk about what we've read over coffee/breakfast at a place of your choosing. I think meeting once a month is totally doable and will hopefully become something we all look forward to doing :) I would think that 2 hours is a good amount of time, giving you a chance to maybe run some errands and head home in time for lunch (and naps - woo hoo!!!)

2) expand our interests and knowledge - there's a lot of cool, fun, good stuff out there that we may not even know about. Obviously, we are all very different people and going to pick different things, which is kind of the point - step outside our comfort zone, shake it up a little!! (More exclamations!!!!)

3) require ourselves to have some "me" time. This is where I would like to explain why you, YOU have been chosen to receive a ticket into this group. Because, you are a mom, or going to be a mom, or pretty much are already a mom to some pretty amazing children. Children that are obviously so amazing because YOU give them A LOT of your awesomeness. Like probably 75% of your awesomeness, meaning you only have 25% of your own awesomeness left for yourself because enough are GIVING IT AWAY. These figures do not even account for the amount of awesome that your husband sucks out of you!!! (Meaningful exclamations!!!!) ;) sometimes it's nice to just do something to better yourself. That actually increases the amount of awesome you have to give, meaning everyone around you will become more awesome by you being apart of this group. These books are a reason for us to chisel out some precious time for ourselves and our club can be about more than just what we read, but about supporting each other in our new lives we are embarking on as moms (and moms of moms, and almost moms, and might as well be moms) :)

So what do you think?!?! I'm really hoping that you are in :) I value your friendship, experience, opinions and general pleasant company and would really like to see more of you. Not to mention I would love for all of you to get to know each other - you don't realize how awesome you guys are!

Here's how it will play out if you decide to join....

I would like the first official meeting of the (I'm going to introduce the name of the club now......

M oms
I nvesting in
L iterature
F amily and friends
Club

If you have not yet understood why this play on words is so funny, please google Urban Dictionary and type in "MILF". You will be in for a treat :) Aka the "M" club when we have to be semi appropriate (shout out to Amelia for the hilarious name!!) more exclamations!!!!!!!!! He he :)

....to be this Saturday at Barnes and Noble at 9:00 am for coffee and to choose our books for our months. From there we can set the real schedule with our real books :)

This is your one time invite to be a member of the MILFs. I sincerely hope you do - reply all to this email if you're in :)


Funny, right?! I think I will end up with some good blog material from it at the very least 😉

(I'm trying to think of a cool way to end my posts. Any ideas?) 👍