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:
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.
We return home wet, muddy, and hungry. I’m still just as lost as to what to do to help him. I’m discouraged, yet somehow a little bit refreshed from our adventure walk. I hope and pray that he is too.
“So do you have to go back to work after this?” Her words pulled me out of the comatose state that only a tired mom getting her haircut for the first time in four months can understand. I hadn’t planned on getting my hair cut today. Rather, I expected to spend all morning at a … [Read more…]
As an introvert, there have been a few real “game-changers” in how I cope in a special-needs household when both my husband and son are extroverts. This is one post in a series of posts I am writing for introverts. You can view all of the posts on the landing page here. Probably my biggest … [Read more…]
I have decided to write a blog series about introverts, introversion, and help for those in introvert/extrovert relationships. I’ve touched on the issue many times, but my post “Honest Confessions of an Introverted Wife” – published nearly three years ago – continues to receive a high amount of daily traffic and frequent comments. This fact … [Read more…]
Dear YMCA: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” I jest, but only a little. But I feel impressed to tell you “my YMCA story,” because it’s a good one. It was September 26, 2014. I had once again been woken up at o-dark-insanity by a child who was less than two … [Read more…]
Dear weary mom, can I let you in on a little secret? Sometimes I feel this way about motherhood too. Like maybe I’m just not “wired right” to be a mother. I mean, biologically speaking, I have the appropriate, ahem, equipment for motherhood. But in other ways, I feel like my kids would be suited … [Read more…]