Intro

                       So I am fairly new to blogging, but I have this idea for the type of blog I want to do. I tried once before, it didn't come out the way I wanted it, so I am starting over. The most important thing about me is that I am a mom. I love being a mom. I have two kids. A boy, Sam, that is 13 and finishing up Jr. High this semester, and a girl, Hannah, who is 10 and in 5th grade. I don't plan to share much about them on this blog, because they are at the age where their privacy is important to them and I want to respect that.
                       I also run a child care business out of my home. I love kids and it is the perfect job for me. I like being able to take care of little ones and see them experience things for the first time. That is what I miss the most about my own kids being small. Plus I like to make their parents be able to go to work or school knowing that their child is in good hands. However, it is not the best paying occupation.
                      I have to be very creative to make sure ends meet and my kids, both my own and my little "clients", have experiences that will make them value life. I hope I don't sound arrogant when I say I am a good mom, but I am. People always tell me how well behaved my children are. Since they were infants I could take them any where and not have to worry about their behavior. I am also Girl Scout leader for my daughter troop, and helped run my son's Cub Scout troop for 5 years. I used to work at a school as a Kindergarten Instruction Assistant, but I got sick of the politics of it. I decided I could do more good on a smaller scale. So now I focus on making sure my clients are going to be prepared to enter the school system. While working at the school, I was always amazed that some children had never been handed a pencil and taught to write their name, or crayons to color, or how to count to 10. A lot of people are surprised to learn that children graduating form Kindergarten are expected to be able to count to 100, add and subtract single digit numbers, read basic sentences, identify all coins and shapes including cube, cylinder, rhombus, and parallelogram. I don't know many adult that can do that outside of my teacher friends.
                Anyway,  people often ask me how I do it? Be a good mom? Make sure the kids are well behaved, and keep up with homework, sport, band, etc? Be patient will a 4 year old tells you the longest story EVER, that has no point? And still smile at the end of the day and be happy with my life? Well, there are lots of things I have learned along the way that make it easier, and I want to share them here. To help other moms.