Sometimes things are not as planned but oh so perfect in the end.

Mom guilt is a sneaky little devil. It attempts to crawl in at the most random times and insert itself into places it does not belong and we moms lack the brilliance to disregard it from time to time.

Last night was almost one of those times. Actually it was a bit of one of those times.

Yesterday we had an amazing opportunity to spend some time with our friend Bob who lives in Nicaragua. He was flying into Seattle last night and it was the only time we would have to see him while he was here. So what do the two oldest Jagers do...we decide to make an evening out of it...drive to Seattle see a good friend and enjoy an evening. Well the evening was meant to start about 4 hours before it did...and I thought we would be home at a decent time, but thats not how it worked out. Poor Bob's plane was delayed not once but twice at two separate airports and we were already in Seattle so we decided to wait anyway. By 10:30 he was in Seattle and we went to get a somewhat second dinner and enjoy some conversation and base touching with a friend that we don't get to see - ever. I am so glad we made the effort and double glad he was excited about seeing us after about 18 hours of travel:)

What i was missing from being at home was sort of silly. My kids have summer birthdays which means they don't have birthdays that fall during the school year. So being that they have fabulous teachers they always have their parties sometime around now in their classes. I thought I would be home last night to spend my normal inordinate and unnecessary amount of time making them their typical custom cupcakes but since we didn't get home until 2am that just wasn't going to happen. My mom said just go to Safeway buy some cupcakes in the section they call the bakery:) Brian said thats so smart pop them on your own tray no one will ever know the difference. Here's the deal...Jessica Jager doesn't do the bakery at the grocery, and it has nothing to do with anyone else its just my gig. I feel called to spend the time on my kids in this way and I laid a huge slab of mom guilt on myself when I realized I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the tradition. Life goes on is what I should have said, I should have bought the darn cupcakes and moved on. Well this morning I had to pick my kids up from my moms and get them to school by 8:30 and have their treats to school by 10. Cupcakes were so not going to happen in that amount of time. God knew I needed a reality check and he sent it to me in the form of my sister who is a fresh new mom. I was talking to her on the way to get the kids and she asked what time the cupcakes needed to be at school she laughed at me with my reply and said so not going to happen. Then she went on to say,"Here's what you are going to do...go pick up doughnuts, its practically breakfast time those kids don't need all that sugar in the morning." Pause two reasons I loved this, first off she's a genius, and second those doughnuts have just as much sugar if not more than the cupcakes:)

So what did I do, I went to the bakery and bought maple bars for Elliot's class and sprinkle doughnuts for Grace's. Showed up at school read a book to Grace's class passed out doughnuts, walked across the hall to Elliot's class passed out doughnuts sang Happy Birthday and God Bless You Today....and guess what my kids were blessed(ultimate goal), they thought I was rad and I wasn't stressed at all. Win, WIn, Win, Winning:) My wise MIL told me once that Mom guilt is for the birds and you know what she is so right. With a bit of reformulating the brain and regrouping your thoughts and listening to others advice you could skip over all that stuff and move on like the rockstar you are! MOMS UNITE:)





I CAN'T BELIEVE WE WILL HAVE A 7 AND 9 YEAR OLD IN OUR HOUSE SOON!!!!

Yesterday Was A No Good, Rotten, Very Bad Day

Disclaimer - For those of you we spent time with yesterday please do not take offense the post only pertains to the three Jagers involved

I woke up being very excited about our day yesterday. First I must say expectations are horrible, when will I learn? Anywho..... we had a play date set up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile for the morning. Followed by haircuts and ending with what I thought would be a nice family dinner at home. Now I will tell you how it really went.

It started with crabby kids that I should have kept home, but we went out anyway and started off having a wonderful playdate. This led into children not remembering their manners and altogether forgetting what it means to be kind. After a nice lunch we wrapped up our playdate and moved on. In the car we I gently reminded them about the way we treat others and sustained a consequence of losing the wii for the rest of the day. I thought this would do it, I thought we would learn from this exercise, but no there was more to come. Next we went for a haircut with my sister. My kids generally do well with this (notice the world generally). This ended with one of children making my sister cry because that child decided to yell that they didn't like their haircut, and then proceeded to melt into a puddle in the chair. How embarrassing I wanted to slide under a rock, however I scooted the two "angels" out of the salon and into the car. In the car I gave them their second complete lecture of the day on kindness and the famous rules, behavior and expectations speech. The child called their auntie and apologized. The Auntie graciously forgave the child and told the child that next time they would have a consultation about what the child was expecting for a cut (bless you Emily I love you). It was only about 2:45 and I was already loosing my mind. My sister-in-law had offered a massage and I knew that the option of bringing my children at this point was out of the question and I was loosing hope quickly. But what happened next was nothing short of a miracle.....my husband walked through the door a couple of hours early and suggested I take the rest of the evening for myself (did I mention how much I love this man).

Why am I sharing this truly humiliating day with you? It all boils down to my prayer time before falling asleep. I was thanking God for my children and then praying for the next day and that it would be smoother when the next series of thoughts came into my head. God reminded me about His Grace and His Love. He reminded me that I myself have No Good, Rotten, Very Bad Days. Days that I wake up grouchy and totally fail at my job as a mom/wife but also at my job of being a child of God. Then I started to think about how God feels on these days. I am sure he wants to smack me up side the head but instead he offers me His Love, His Forgiveness and His Grace. Instead he gives me a chance at a do over. He wipes my slate clean and allows me to go on. In all of this I need to remember that my kids are going to have bad days as well and there will not always be a strong reason for it other than they are just having bad days. It is my job to teach them about Grace by offering it to them.

I learn so much form my job as MOM. I learn so much from it I can't imagine what I would be missing if I wasn't one. Sure I might be a bit saner at times but I would be a whole lot emptier in a lot of ways.

And by the way we had an absolutely fabulous day today and not because my children were perfect angels, although they were very good. But because I went into my day with a different outlook and realizing I am not much different than those two. I am a child of God just as they are which means I am broken, imperfect and a work in progress as well.