“Never say never”. How cliché 😂. I’m there now, eating some of my own words for breakfast this morning as I debated what to wear and whether makeup was necessary. So I’ve listed my ‘nevers’ that I lost the battles on and the ‘nevers’ I’ll hold onto forever.

(P.S. In no way is this a judgement on anyone else. I know sometimes people read random articles/blogs and think “but I wear yoga pants and don’t shower! She’s judging me!” I’m not. I swear. I can’t see you (because I never leave the house) and I don’t care what you wear. I am personally extremely uncomfortable in yoga pants/pajamas and paralyzingly uncomfortable without a shower. I’m just trying to own my own feelings on myself.)

Things I said ‘never’ to at any point in my pre-parenting to parenting life😬

I’ll never:

• Let my kids wear character shirts – gave up in 2008, I mean, I just love Disney too much and so do the kids
• Crocs? Gave in to that in 2009. They’re just so easy for the kids
• Have bare toenails (no polish) – gave that up in 2011
• Let the kids dress themselves, no matter how sloppy and mismatched – goodbye control, 2016. At some point, it’s just not worth the battle and they have to learn to be their own people, even if that means going without a beautiful hairbow

The rest of the nevers I’ve lost the battle to are happening now, 2017…

• Dress down/wear workout clothes – well, this is new to me. I’m not exactly in yoga pants, but I’m stuck in an awful rut of the same 4 pairs of linen drawstring shorts and plain t-shirts (not regular t-shirts because those are the complete opposite of attractive on me, just all the wrong fits…but like the women’s plain, slightly fitted v neck shirts from Target and Old Navy). The last 2 years have been wardrobe altering going from specific work shirts then back to professional dress and now to this Libby mom uniform of t-shirts? I don’t even recognize myself
• Go without mascara – gasp! I don’t really wear any makeup except for mascara and I generally ❤️ It. I even got this awesome new mascara that makes my lashes look amazing, but it’s wickedly waterproof. It takes minutes to get off, like 4 minutes, which feels like an eternity when trying to remove eye makeup! I mean, I don’t go anywhere and I put it on at noon and take it off at 8 and it just seems unnecessary (what?!? Did I say that???)
• Cook every night – desperate times call for desperate measures
• Let my living room become overrun with toys because toys will ALWAYS stay in the kids’ rooms or play room – sigh. Now that I’m home ALL the time, the toys just do NOT stay where the belong. It’s that saying, “excuse our mess, but we live here”. I can’t watch B 100% of the time and if he’s in his room, I’m more uncomfortable, so his toys start creeping. Then the older kids creep more and more and more and more…then by the end of the morning, it’s like a toy store + craft store + office supply store blew up in my downstairs
• Totally plan my days around my kids naps – they’ll adjust. And, to be honest, my kids have adjusted to a life of travel and go, go, go. BUT…child, sweet child #4 is a sleeper. He likes a good solid 15 hours a day of sleep, probably because he is a whirlwind sandstorm maniac the rest of the day. And, he’s so hard to deal with normally, so when he doesn’t have every minute of that 15 hours of sleep, we feel it. And, it gives me time to deeply sigh and relax for a few. So…here I am, rushing home midday for the perfect nap, yelling and screaming and tickling him in the car to keep him awake (at least on weekdays 👌🏻😬)
• Start a parenting blog (bahahaha, I didn’t actually say this)

Things I will continue to strongly say ‘never’ to

I’ll never:

• Go without a shower. Ever. Heck, somedays I take two. And with showering comes blow-drying my hair. I am NOT HUMAN and can not act acceptably when my hair is not blow dryed.
• Own a mini-van – it’s just not happening.
• Not make my bed. Just my bed. The kids beds are another story.
• Be ok with the mess. I’ve tried not-caring, but I do care. It makes me anxious and angry, and I’m sure no matter how many times I’m going to say “screw it, I’m just going to leave it’,” I won’t ever be ok with it. And, I think that’s actually ok 👌🏻.