"I Suck At Being a Mother!"

These words came straight from a mother trying to do her best, yet feeling like she's failing at being a mother.  If only she knew how many mothers share her feelings. Motherhood is no joke. Stressful, challenging, exhausting, and sometimes frustrating. It helps to know you're not alone on the journey. It helps to know other mothers reach the point of breaking just like you do. When we wear the "I'm perfect" mask, we not only deceive others, but we're deceiving ourselves.

We all fall short, we all fall to pieces, but we all can fall on our knees and pray for strength to make it through another day in the Hood - Motherhood, that is!

Raising Mothers is about moms - real moms who aren't afraid to admit their less than perfect role as a mother and allow another mother to learn from her mistakes.

New moms, seasoned mothers, grandmothers, aunts, stepmothers, etc...if you've mothered a child, you're a mother!

Wine & Prozac

Turn off the t.v. & turn off the phone.

Call a truce with sleep & free time,

When you bring a baby home.

Be who you are & believe what you know,

But don't stop believing in magic,

To go with the mommy flow.

Soon they grow up.

They learn to rise above,

Teach 'em where it all came from.

Their looks and the love.

She has a good mommy.

You gave him a great life.

So have no regrets, that you

Didn't get it perfectly right.

What will be will be.

When it's all said and done..

What Prozac didn't fix,

The WINE got it done!

-Jackie

Waking the Dead - On a School Morning

It's 6:15 AM and my alarm goes off -not because I have to get ready for work but because my teenage daughters need to get up and ready for school.. I get up - walk to each of their rooms - turn their lights on and tell them to "Get up" - Sometimes I'll hear a grunt or two - or maybe an "okay".. Then I go back to bed to sleep rest my eyes... And every 15-20 minutes - I will holler to my lovely daughters - "GET UP NOW!!" I will hear lies through the walls - "Mom, I'm up" or "I'm dressed"... I know they are lying because I don't hear their IPods playing their awful music (Man, I just did sound like my mother - didn't I?) and I don't hear them walking around... I have Mommy ears and I do hear everything. Read More

The Giving Mother

The mother gives so much of herself but takes nothing for herself. She gives more time for her children and rarely takes any time for herself. She gives time that is past what any clock could ever hold. She is there making sure everyone else is happy. She is happy when she has accomplished her goal of making her family satisfied. The mother is not just a baby making machine, but yet, she can be called engine engine number nine because she goes to the depths of the world for her children. She goes to infinity and beyond! When she hear the roars of "I'm hungry" cascading through the house, she can make a meal out of anything. Although children may not appreciate her efforts at times, her goal is to set out to do what she has to do. She wants to cry at times, but there are the tears of her children that she needs to wipe first before she can let hers fall. Her laughter is so strong in order not to fall out from crying. she can be as sleezy with her man as she wants, while still being a lady. She may loose her eyesight, only after sitting up night after night from reading the same story to her child. She is the one who has to jump in the closet just to assure the young child that their is no monster in there. The mother gives so much more than just birth, she gives hope to her children, even when she does not believe it herself. She is the one who has to look at all those drawings and tell the children, "You did a good job, I love it." This is mother and she is here to stay.

Barbara, FL

Homemade Granola Bars

 Granola bars! They are such a great breakfast or snack. They can be a tiny bit tedious with all of the ingredients and chopping the nuts but they are definitely worth it. I love knowing all of the ingredients in the food we eat, though sometimes I'd rather not know and just enjoy it.

Click for recipe

Rich Life on Minimum Wage

Are you a couponer, or have you thought about couponing, but got put off because it seems like so much work? I don't use coupons usually, because locally our couponing system is terrible, and there only really are coupons for overpriced junk- there's no way to do serious couponing, let alone extreme couponing, but I've done a lot of research on the topic of couponing, and I'd say that for someone who doesn't coupon, I'm pretty knowledgeable on the subject... continue reading