At home with …Julie Bowen & sons

Julie with her twins, Gustav and John

On Julie: Blaque Label jumpsuit

“I don’t drink enough water. I hate it. I have to force myself to swallow plain water like it’s a punishment. I like Fresca. And I like black coffee. I make myself drink green tea every day, but it’s medicine to me. Food is just a fuel source, and many days I may as well eat a cardboard capsule full of ‘food nutrients’ like Judy Jetson.”

Mama’s boys

“I am happy to have these little people who demand so much, even though it means that in some areas my quality of life (sleep, food, hair color) is diminished.”

Gus, John, and Oliver

“Being a mom is hard because I say no a hundred times a day.”

A wall of family photos in the hallway.

“Everything you can imagine is real.” -Pablo Picasso

Kids’ artwork and keepsakes on display.

“I’ve had the benefit of beautiful photography to make me look good in a picture while the reality is I am over forty, at times exhausted, and frequently fall asleep on the couch with a full face of makeup!”

“Every time I get ready for work or a work event, I have a team of professionals dressing, drying, glossing . . . That is work mode. It’s lovely. Home mode is chlorine-soaked hair and discovering that A&D diaper ointment is a passable moisturizer in a pinch.”

Zebra wallpaper by Scalamandre

Oliver

Julie’s shoe collection, mixed in with some of the kids’ art (can you spot the Screen Actor’s Guild Award?)

Manolos and Skittles

“Sometimes I think keeping my three boys alive means trading in my sense of humor for a drill sergeant’s vigilance.”

Oliver and John in the front entryway

Brother bonding time

A quiet moment with John

Mad Pax Spiketus Rex backpack

“Every now and again I sit down to a proper meal, but it’s disconcertingly rare. I eat cold waffles and tepid broccoli off my children’s plates.”

Baby spoons

A collection of rocks and pine cones in the backyard

The boys’ pet lizard

Step stools in the boys’ bathroom (similar style here)

Matching skull and crossbones bathrobes (similar styles here)

A collection of framed artwork

“They are pure joy and pure challenge all the time.”

“There is no balance. There is only the next crisis in front of me. When there is no crisis, I try to take a mental picture to file away and think, ‘This is good. This is what it’s all about. It will never be better than this moment.’ Then one of them stomps on my hand or bludgeons the other with a stick, and it’s back to crisis mode.”

“I love them so much it actually hurts to be so relentlessly bossy, but honestly, my kids try to kill each other every day. (Let’s start the car! Let’s do a flip on the sidewalk! Let’s throw hard, pointy objects at each other’s heads!).”

“Still, at least once a day, they break my heart with their ‘Mama, Mama, Mama!’ and hands gripping my legs and tears over skinned knees or someone not sharing.”

“I haven’t had a manicure on my own steam in over a year. I don’t care a bit. If I need one for work, I’ll get it, but otherwise, screw it. I have been known to paint only the one toenail peeking out of a peep-toe Louboutin before an event rather than spend an hour at a nail salon. It’s not perfect, it’s not classy, but I don’t care. I’m imperfect as hell.”