6 years and 3 kids later… Reflections on what it takes be a modern mother of several

 

Hi there! Do you remember me? Don’t worry, I won’t blame you if you don’t. I just discovered that my last post was almost a year ago, but life has been busy and I’m certain you’ve had plenty of good writers to keep you satisfied. You know what else? WordPress notified me that about a week ago was the 6 year anniversary of my blog. What was life even like 6 years ago?!? I didn’t have any children then and as it sits today, I have been the mother of three children 5 years and below for almost 10 weeks.

2013: The Year of Love and Strength

2013.

What a year.

It started out simple enough.  I was pregnant with our second child and life was pretty average.  Little did I know, I was about to take the ride of my life.

Living Thankfulness: An Abrupt Conclusion

I haven’t read their book, but do follow them on Twitter and they have great things to say 🙂

Back on November 30, 2013, I invited everyone to participate in a Living Thankfulness Link-Up.  I had just come off a great experience with 30 Days of Thanks on Facebook, and I wanted to keep the spirit of thankfulness rolling through the rest of the year.  I also wanted some action to come out of all of this thankfulness.  It is one thing to say you are thankful and another to truly BE thankful.  So my thankfulness challenge was born.  Wouldn’t you know it, I have done TERRIBLY with this.

Of Frozen Pipes and a Snowbound Family: A Living Thankfulness Check-In

I don’t know how many people are planning to participate in my Living Thankfulness Link-Up, but I thought I’d do a check-in to see how things are going.  I’ve been keeping a thankfulness journal this month, but today I am going to share my entry with you all.

We have been snowed in since Friday.  It is day 4 of being stuck and day 2 of no water.

You Are a Gift

Borrowed from andshelaughs.wordpress.com

For those of you who have been keeping up with the craziness of my life, you know that shit has been TOUGH.  Incredibly tough, but there has been so many people to help our little family survive.  I’ve spent a lot of time trying to keep our family together and functioning and have, naturally, neglected certain aspects of my life.  Namely, my own self-care and my relationship with my husband.  We all know that both of those aspects our lives are vitally important, but, just as true, we let them play second fiddle to our children and their needs far too often.  As life has been settling down, I have been better able to recognize areas of my life that are suffering and try to address them.  This is easier said than done.  However, I was inspired to write about this after hearing Blake Shelton’s song, “God Gave Me You.”

A Day in the Life of Mathair Fiona

 

So I ran across Kerry’s “A Day in the Life” link up over at Winding Road and thought it sounded like fun.  It is also such a great premise.  This blogging world brings us all together and we begin to form real relationships, but we really don’t know what the day-to-days are like for each of us.  Although most of us are writing from a parenting perspective, just how we live the parenting life is SO different from one another.  I don’t have the time right now to post for each day of the week, so I am going to do an abridged version that gives a general overview of what a day looks like in our household.  I just survived a morning of doctor’s appointments in preparation for the big hand surgery day, so I’m feeling like sharing with everyone what its like around here!

How Do I Survive This?

Borrowed from huffingtonpost.com

I am OVERWHELMED.  There is quite literally no other way to describe what I am feeling on a day-to-day basis.  It was one thing when I was trying to settle in to a new routine with our newborn and our two year-old, but now our family is coping with medical conditions in both boys.  Life is not simple for our family right now, but I am doing my best to keep it as simple and non-traumatic as possible.

How to say “I Love You” on Father’s Day

Thank you Dadgitated for your Mother’s Day post that gave me that idea to do this!  It is so true that I am at a loss for what to do to really celebrate the greatness that is my husband and son’s father.  Should I cook him a special meal?  Well, I do that every day.  I suppose I could do a load of laundry for him since I haven’t done that for many years now, but that just seems silly.  I could do one of his chores, like mowing the lawn, but since I’m going to be birthing yet another one of his children in less than two months, that seems ill-advised.  I always make sure he has thoughtful cards and we typically BBQ with his family, but how can I really make him feel special and appreciated?  Embarrass him on the internet, of course!!!

So you want a natural birth? Get in line!

Borrowed from abcnews.com

With all of this “taking it easy” that I need to do to stave off a complete meltdown in these final weeks of pregnancy (7 weeks for perfect timing, 5 weeks for my preference, and 9 weeks based off of past experience), I have had some time to reflect on my last birth experience.  Sharing your birth story seems to be all the rage in mommy blogs, forums, and other birth-related venues so I thought I would give it a try.  The moral of my story is that when people tell you that you can’t plan/expect anything in birth, you should listen.  It is great to have an idea and a plan (it’s good to feel you have control over certain aspects), but the reality is that you really never know what’s going to happen when it’s time for your little one to emerge from your nether regions.

Mommy Guilt? You Bet Your Ass.

Borrowed from glamomamas.com

For those of you who do not know that much about me, I have an extremely active 2 year-old boy and am due with number two in 59 days (August 9).  I am a stay-at-home mother and, sadly, am admitting to being a sufferer of “mommy guilt” and, as a result, may have cause my own meltdown at a birthday party for a 1 year-old.  Awesome.  I have always been a bit of an over-achiever, though I have mellowed-out over the years.  I am less of a perfectionist than I used to be and can tap into my coping “tool box” when I really need to (read: I have seen MANY therapists).  However, I do keep a TON to myself and my bitch-fests with my girlfriends seem to be few and far between.  This is a pretty good recipe for a meltdown, but I digress…