Enjoy the now. It’s beautiful and wonderful, but I know it’s hard and exhausting and draining. The future is also hard and exhausting and draining and beautiful and wonderful. I’m convinced that motherhood doesn’t ever really get easier. It just gets different. Just you wait…
As of tomorrow, I’ll officially have a 10-year-old on my hands. Instead of giving you an emotional tribute to 10 years of motherhood, I thought I’d do something fun, as well as practical. I’m sure there are thousands of posts out there about what you will really need for a new baby. But I want to talk about the 10 baby things I bought (or was given) as a brand-new mom that have stood the tests of time and two little boys. These are the must-haves of the must-haves:
I think all of us moms are reeling from the current world happenings due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Many moms used to sending their kids to school have been thrust into a homeschooling environment overnight. Even us homeschoolers are adjusting to a new normal that doesn’t include field-trips, co-ops, playdates, and trips to the local library. Even going to the park or playing with the neighbor kids seems too risky! While our local libraries are still offering online ordering and curbside pickup (hallelujah!), I’ve been thinking a lot about another avenue to practice social distancing while still getting your kids out of the house. May I introduce you to Little Free Library.
I am made in the image of God, and that is beautiful. Every person has within him or her the image of God. It is our role…our job as His creation to bear that image well and show that image to those around us. Order is part of God’s personality. When I lean in to those parts of myself that He created, I am demonstrating that part of Him in my life. Whether you are a “type A mama” or disorganized, beautiful mess, I pray that you feel God’s love upon your life and find ways to bear His beautiful image in your personality.
Homeschooling is loud and messy and cluttered and chaotic and overwhelming and frustrating and LOUD. But it’s also beautiful and rewarding and heartwarming and, dare I say, even peaceful sometimes. I still treasure my alone time, and I still seek out snippets to be away from my kids. That desperate need to escape my kids is just gone.
My counselor looked at me with a tilt of her sassy head and a half-smile and and said, “But girl, remember who you battle! You were riding high and Satan couldn’t have that. Satan hates the family, and he’s doing everything he can to destroy yours. He was gonna hit you hard and he sure did!”
The problem is that I was unprepared for all the extra things mothers do that I never really noticed. The longer I am a mother, the more that I grow in appreciation for my own mother. Because now I can see all the things that she did that I took for granted.
Every once in a blue moon, the boys’ play room needs a good cleaning. It’s the kind of things where kids need to not be present. Momma needs a chance to sort through juice box straw wrappers and annoying little toys that serve no purpose. She needs to throw broken car track pieces and partially-torn … [Read more…]
In my last post, Hormones & Fatigue: Part 1 – My Health & Weight History (and Update), I explained what I have gone through in the last ten years regarding my health, weight loss and weight gain, and understanding my hormonal cycle. This is one of the things I shared in that post: In this post, … [Read more…]
Structuring my life and health AROUND my hormonal cycle is the only way I succeed at anything. I think I will always struggle with fatigue, anxiety, depression, weight management, and digestive issues. This doesn’t mean there’s necessarily something “wrong” with me. It’s a combination of genetics and my overly-stressful life. Sometimes, playing the cards you’ve been dealt is better than trying to find new ones. Being the best me I can be within my health limitations has done more for me than trying to pathologize and fix my limitations ever did.