With the current economic situation that I’m sure all of you are feeling the crunch from, I thought I’d spread the word about a fantastic little summer gem that I found at Walmart…yes, I said Walmart! I know that right now you are having visions of elastic waist polyester pants with matching banded-bottom floral applique tops, but I’m telling you- they had a couple of really cute shirts in their “Juniors” department for $5 bucks!

So- just to prove that I am not ashamed to wear a shirt from Walmart, because it’s still super cute and comfortable, and for God’s sake only $5.00, I am showing you how cute it is! I also found some trendy wooden earrings, necklaces, a few other things that, to be honest, I was completely suprised to find there! Not that I intend to trade in my sassy Coach purse for a White Stag knock-off with big fake WS logos all over its’ vinyl shell, but I’ve certainly taken a step in the “I will sacrifice brand names for affordability and comfort (once in a while)” direction!

When you’re a mom, from the moment your kids wake you up, you can tell if it’s going to be one of those days…today is one of those days. I’m not the kind of mom that pretends her kids are perfect, life is perfect, husband is perfect, and life is a big ball of sunshine and puppy dogs, because it’s not. From the second I woke up, my kids were fighting and yelling at eachother, whining at me because they wanted scrambled eggs and I made them hard-boiled eggs, beating the crap out of eachother because one was moving the other’s marker on their Candyland game, and I just thought, “Did I make the right decision to be a stay-home mom?”

So, the rest of the morning, I tried to tune out my kids fighting with eachother, and thought about my life before I had kids: I used to be a Sales Manager for Nordstrom, I wore beautiful suits, expensive shoes, had a manicure every week, ate every meal out, had a lot of other single professional women friends- I was living the quintissential “Sex and the City” lifestyle. And I gave it all up to be a Mom. Most of the time, I feel like it was a worthwhile trade- I get to see my kids’ every milestone, I get to spend quality time with them every day, I get to teach them and instill good manners and characteristics, but is it bad to wonder what it would be like to have the best of both worlds?

I can’t imagine what my life would be like as a working mom, much like a working mom probably has a hard time imagining what my life is like. I do have a lot of friends that work, and a lot of friends who are also at home moms, and both have their plusses and minuses. Often there is a battle between the two types of moms- one thinks the other sits home and watches soaps and Oprah all day, and one thinks that the other has a lavish life of lunching with friends, working in a beautiful office amongst professional people. My viewpoint is that being a Mom is a hard-ass job no matter what kind of mom that you are!

Being a mom gets especially hard once your kids have their own opinions- for example, my daughter, who is five, will throw a knock-down, drag-out fight once in a while because I won’t let her wear her Cinderella halloween costume to the doctor’s office. Or my son, who is three, will have a complete meltdown and cry his eyes out for an hour, because I he wants to watch “Yo Gabba Gabba”, and I can’t put it on for him because I erased it off the Tivo so that I could make space to record the most recent episode of “Rock of Love Bus”.

I think that I sort of have the best of both worlds, because I am a stay-home mom and a working mom (that’s the glass is half-full version of my theory- the truth is that I pretty much just work my ass off all the time, almost around the clock). I stay home with my kids, I am the author of a blog for moms and women, and I’m a waitress in a restaurant, oh, and I occasionally moonlight as a bellydancer to top it all off!

So, today, as my kids drive me to the brink of insanity with their fighting and yelling, I just remember that I’m a mom- yes, it’s thankless, yes, it’s not glamorous, yes it makes me drink too much wine on occasion, but someday, in a land far away, when my kids are grown, I can look at them, and smile, and lovingly say, “Just wait until you have kids of your own…”

Often as mothers, we take care of everyone around us, but we put ourselves last. Maybe we don’t think there is enough time to do things for ourselves, maybe we feel guilty (lots of guilt is part of parenting), maybe we stopped giving a rat’s ass because at the end of the day- it’s just too exhausting to get all dolled up when you’re just going to get little kid handprints/yogurt/spaghetti/whatever other kind of kid-grime you can think of all over you.

In my own experience, I feel better after I try to do just a little something every day that’s just for me. Not things that I rationalize that are for me, but really for others, like making dinner for my family, or wearing lingerie for the Husband- stuff that’s just for me. For example, writing in a journal, or drinking wine (let’s face it, sometimes that’s for the Husband too), or going to a karaoke bar with some girlfriends. Little things, that if we just take the time for ourselves to do one little one a day, it will overall make us better mothers, and happier women.

If you need some ideas about little things that you can try once a day that will make you feel good, follow my lead:

*Get a manicure- if you can’t afford to, buy some $.99 nail polish in spring’s latest trendy color, lock yourself in your room, light a few candles, and voila!

*Wear red lipstick- I don’t kow why or how this works, all I know is that when I wear red lipstick- even just to the grocery store, I feel sexy, glamorous, and people smile at you like they know that you know how sassy you are. A good one that doesn’t smear all over your mouth, leaving pink stains on your upper lip that you haven’t given yourself time time to wax yet is L’oreal Endless Lipcolor in Crimson Joy.

*Take 10-20 minutes to do yoga, pilates, bellydancing, or any other kind of dancing. It will burn calories, send feel-good, stress relieving hormones through your body, plus it will make you feel graceful and sexy. Try Winsor Pilates, S Factor by Sheila Kelly, or any bellydancing DVD (my fave is the Ulitmate Bellydance Fitness Workout), and you will see what I mean!

*Create little rituals for yourself, for example, I light candles all the time! when I’m writing at my desk, I light a little candle on my desk, when getting ready for work, I light a candle in the bathroom, when making dinner, I light one in the kitchen. Or maybe you like wine? Another one of my favorite rituals! Buy yourself a special wine glass- just one or two. Not the 8 wine glasses for 10 bucks that you use when company comes over, a special one that’s just for you.

Enjoy carving out these little moments to yourself, for yourself. You are a goddess, you are worth it, and you deserve to be treated like the sexy classy lady that you are, by your own self as well as by others!