Hey Friends! It’s Friday and I’m happy to be host to yet another bloggy friend today for my weekly link-up #LetsBEEfriends.

Today’s guest is the first BEE Friend feature of the year and I’m excited to share with you that I have Julie from Balancing Mama hanging out with me today.

Julie is “wife to smarty-pants engineer Steve and mommy to spunky Amelia”.   She was recently the featured blogger via the SITS girls! Check out her SITS Day post for a bit more about her blog and why she is a BalancingMama. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her via Twitter.

Now, let’s get to know her!

So happy to be here as a guest today. I am Julie, aka BalancingMama. As any mom can relate, my life is a constant attempt to balance many things at any given time. I am mom to 3 ½ year old precocious Amelia, a wife to a sweet and hard-working husband, a part-time employee in an advertising agency, a Facebook addict, iPhone junkie, and blogger. My DVR is filled with Disney princess movies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and a few Christmas specials I was able to catch this season. Sometimes I am a shopper. Always, I am a friend to those who hold a piece of my heart.

I have learned a tremendous amount about myself, my life, and motherhood in general over the past few years. Here are a few mommy facts that caught me by surprise:
Other mothers can be your best friends. Or sadly, sometimes your worst enemies. I absolutely gravitate towards my mommy friends these days. 99% of my conversational topics are related to my child or my life as mom, and these friends “get it”. They understand why my house looks like a Toy-R-Us explosion. They don’t bat an eyelash if I have dishes on the sink and crumbs on the counter. They do not judge my at-home attire. In fact, they match me quite perfectly. However, I also see a lot of moms judging one another. Criticizing. Gossiping. Treating others with an “I do it better than you” attitude. This hurts my heart because I truly believe we should band together as a mighty mom force. All kids are different. It is okay for mothering to differ as well. We are all making our way through this busy and complicated world – in our own way.

Working from home is much harder than it sounds.  Every time I explain my part-time work-from-home schedule to a working person, they sigh. They wish they could have such a great deal. It all sounds so perfect… right? So I thought as well. But working from home? It is usually exasperating and always challenging. I rarely finish a task uninterrupted. I cannot take any important phone calls. I try my hardest to generate quality work for my boss and my clients as I sit, stand, sit, stand, assist, fix snack, search for toys, work a bit, turn on a show, sit, stand, sit, stand, etc. It is an exhausting day! At least at the office, my coworkers can take themselves to the bathroom. They even fix their own lunches!

Biceps, baby! Oh yes, many areas of my formerly small body have transformed into mush. The scale shows a number that I have never seen before. I could do without most of my new shape, but one new physical trait is not so bad: great arms. A child is a perfect gradually-increasing weight. We lift them in and out of the car, help them up and down the stairs, and on and off a chair. We play, cuddle, and wrestle. I have some serious biceps these days! And yeah… I kind of love them.

What surprises have YOU experienced throughout this amazing parenting journey?

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Thanks for reading!
1. Now feel free to link-up a post from your own blog. Grab the  code for my button and add it to your post.
2. Use the linky below. (No giveaways please)
3. Hop around and read as many or as little of the other posts as you like.  Be sure to leave them a little or a lot comment love. ♥
4. Oh and don’t forget to tweet the word that it’s Friday and time for #Let’s BEE Friends!  The linky will remain open all weekend.