Saturday night, we hosted a party at our house.

Kath and Howard were there, among all sorts of old and new friends and neighbors. And I'm sorry a lot of us don't live closer, or YOU would have been at our casa, too!!

I digress.

A few hours before the party, I start trying to figure out what I'm going to wear. In the back of my mind, I knew I had a shirt that was festive-ish, so I figured I would throw that on with some time to spare and be ready to get my holiday GROOVE on.

I put it on.

I realize that not a single one of my bras would work with this shirt. Not ONE.

It's approaching 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon in December, and I realize I'm going to have to go to the MALL.

SAY IT ISN'T SO!

The entire visit at the mall took less than twenty minutes - parking, shopping, buying all wrapped into one. I busted ass out of there, gave up my parking spot to a sweet old woman, and went home. I really and truly lucked out.

Fast forward to the party: While sitting there, relaying this story to a group of friends, one wife pops up and says, "Geez, HDW. Why did you go on Saturday? IT'S NOT LIKE YOU WORK".

And I left the table not long after that. I didn't know what to say, as it really and truly caught me off guard.

Don't work? The hell I DON'T work. What did I spend this last week doing? Busting my ass, taking care of a 33-month-old beast of a child who was intent on making a million messes. I was fighting with the drywall dude and running errands all over creation for him. I was making grocery store runs to have supplies on hand for this party. I was cleaning this house. I was wrapping presents. I was finishing the Christmas cards - all 150 of them!!

I was being busy being a full-time mom, full-time wife, full-time housecleaner, full-time caretaker.

I know it's an old argument. Some people really don't believe stay-at-home mom's do anything. But every working mother I've met that has BEEN the stay-at-home mom believe otherwise. At a dinner party last week, one woman said, "It is the hardest job I have ever had. I went back to work because I needed the break". My mom stayed at home with my brother and me. She kept the house clean, the ranch books up to date, had healthy dinners prepared. It's an honorable thing to do if you can. Some people can't. It's okay either way.

I didn't spend this week fucking around, eating bon-bon's and drinking champagne. I was busy with LIFE. Don't ever assume a mother or father who stays home 'does nothing' and has so much time to do whatever they want.

Sometimes, we, too, have to hit the mall on a Saturday afternoon during December.