About two years ago, I brought this blog back to life after a, well, too long unscheduled hiatus. My first post back in 2018 was about how I came to be a stay-at-home mom. Back then, I was certain I wouldn’t stay a stay-at-home mom forever, that I wouldn’t be doing anything other than documenting my journey into becoming a working mom. I was quite insistent that being at home was not going to last. But life happened and life made changes without consulting me and now I find I’m exactly where I had never wanted to be. But, perhaps, I’m actually exactly where I’m supposed to be. Didn’t Want…
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Some of My Favorite Moments as a Mom
I’ve now been blogging consistently for 2 years. Two years ago I decided one of the things I would be writing about was motherhood. I never intended on actually sharing too much about my kids as I’m really serious about protecting their privacy, but, once in a while, I can’t help but document a small slice of their childhoods. Two years ago, my son was 3 and my daughter was about 8 months old. That means there’s actually quite a bit of their young childhoods that have been documented in some way. here While I don’t really talk about them much, I do talk a lot about how I’m raising…
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Sending My Child Back to School Makes Me Sad
This post is publishing today, which must mean my sweet little boy has gone back to Kindergarten after 3 weeks off for the winter holidays. I know many parents count down to this day, and there’s even a Christmas song that mentions parents looking forward to their kids going back to school. But I’m not one of them. Before my son started Kindergarten, I was looking at my calendar, thinking he would be off for the winter holidays for 2 weeks, which is what I had grown up with. I remember thinking 2 weeks wasn’t a long time. They would go by in the blink of an eye. I was…
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The Bloggers I Love: Moms Edition
Over the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing some of the bloggers I adore. First I talked about the absolutely beautiful and authentic souls I’ve had the great honor to “meet” here. Then I shared some writers/authors and book reviewers I enjoy every chance I get. Now it’s time for me to share some of the mothers I enjoy reading. Unfortunately, this was a bit harder to do as mom bloggers have a tendency to vanish from the blogging world, so, even though I enjoy a number that have come and gone and come and gone again, I’ll just be sharing the ones who post more often. I Didn’t Want…
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Finding Magic in Motherhood, Part 10: School and Pregnancy
I had about a week between the ultrasound and the start of my Spring semester, a week to finally let the thought I was pregnant settle in. Of course, that came with a whole host of other fears. I still wasn’t past the first trimester, so there was still a good chance I would lose this baby, too. But my more pressing issue was having to sit in classrooms for most of the day twice a week while battling nausea and keeping my symptoms under wraps. I was lucky. The first trimester was kind to me. It was almost as though the universe decided I’d gone through enough with my…
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And a New Phase of Worry as a Parent Has Begun
Parents understand worry very well. Not only is the world a scary place, but babies and young children are just so fragile. I remember worrying about my kids when they were both newborns. SIDS terrified me and, since both were born early, both were slightly more likely to succumb to it. When my oldest learned to roll over just before he turned 6 months, he loved sleeping on his face. I spent a very sleepless week worrying about him. I slept with the monitor glued to my ear. I got up every 10 minutes to check on him. All night. Every night. Then the kids started to crawl and walk…
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The Damaging Effect a “Perfect Mother” Can Have on a Daughter
A perfect mother is a woman who can cook, clean, care for her kids, love her husband, and get involved with the community with a seemingly unlimited amount of energy, good will, and a boundless grace. Not only does she dress well, but her kids are dressed well and are always on their best behavior in public. Her marriage is the stuff of dreams. She bakes and volunteers at her children’s school(s). Maybe she works, and maybe she doesn’t, but, whatever she does, she does it all with a smile and timeless grace. I mean, in some ways, maybe it’s appealing. I don’t know about you, but it just sounds…
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Finding Magic in Motherhood, Part 6: The Story of a Lamp
When I first envisioned my road to motherhood, it was full of sparkles and glows. I thought of my body changing, had even said goodbye to my pre-baby body in preparation for the coming changes. I expected morning sickness, aches, exhaustion, and a growing belly that I couldn’t wait to show off. I didn’t expect the dark days, the days painted black with night even while bright sunlight cornered me. I didn’t expect to have the magic of my motherhood journey sucked out of my life. The week after our miscarriage was easily the hardest 7 days of my life. Women I knew, who already had a child, were both…
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Finding Magic in Motherhood Part 5: The Miscarriage
In all the plans my husband and I formulated, we never even considered miscarriage. We knew it existed, but didn’t know much beyond that. There wasn’t a history of miscarriage in my family that we knew of. My mom had never miscarried. There was no reason for me to think it would happen to me. I didn’t know it just happens, and there’s no telling who will miscarry and when. The Early Excitement Our plan worked flawlessly. We used ovulation tests, waited the two weeks, and then tested on a chosen day. We got a faint pink line, but a line was a line. No matter how faint, it meant…
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Mom Message: To the Schools
I never intended to write anything like this here now that I’ve changed my blog up to supporting stories, but sometimes I need this to be my platform. My oldest child started Kindergarten at the end of last month. It’s been a big month of changes, from having to get up earlier to having to go to school earlier to having to eat lunch with peers instead of mom and sister to missing out on his much loved quiet time. It’s been a big adjustment for me, too. I’m used to having my babies with me almost all the time. I’m used to being the one to be there for…
