text: Summer bucket list: slip ‘n’ slide ✅ Do your kids get along better when you’re not there? I’m peeking at them through the window because they seem to play better and work things out when they’re alone. 🤷🏼‍♀️
  I’m having a bit of mommy burnout. When the days run together and I haven’t been alone or untouched or not talked to or in a quiet room for weeks. Marcello sensed my desperation and sent me to my parents’ empty house yesterday. (I’m thinking the card I got him for Father’s Day might not be enough because he’s a hero. 🤔) Now I am completely ALONE without cartoons or anyone telling me that they’re hungry or bored or tattling. I’m going to stare at a white wall for hours to accomplish some needed sensory depravation! 😂 I’ve been honest here about my struggles as a stay at home mom. Sometimes I get texts or messages asking if I’m ok. (Don’t worry, I am. And I still think it’s worth it.👍) It would be easier and less risky to plop down a quote or funny story, but this is hard and maybe it would help someone else who has a strong-willed kid or is going through their own episode of mommy burnout. Its hard to know if other moms go through times like this. But if you are, know it’s not just you! Me too. But we’ll make it through. My new mantra: The joy of the Lord will be my strength! 💪 He alone gives me true everlasting, dependable, soulful joy. When I’m too tired to read my Bible sometimes I listen to it on my phone. Or put hymns on Pandora. Just to get those words of truth moving through my house and spirit. I started a grateful journal and am still serious about my nightly prayers for each child! Let me know if I can pray for your family too! #HMchoosejoy
  I knew they were playing too quietly. One of them found a black marker. They say they are people of the jungle. And that they are wild. I didn’t need marker all over their bodies to tell me that though.
  Admire a cotton candy sunset. Smile at the light of the sun warming your skin. Treasure the laughter of children. Enjoy each bite of savory dinner that you have been given to eat. This earth is a shadow of what it was intended to be, but there are still shimmers from Heaven poking through. #HMchoosejoy ☀P.S. My beach tips and kids checklist is saved in my story highlights!