Tired of being weighed down by mom-guilt?
Tired of being weighed down by mom-guilt?
There is no one-size-fits-all way to create a happy life. What makes life happy is different for everyone, so it makes sense that there’s no blueprint on how to get there. That’s why we can follow all the rules, check all the boxes we’re told we should, and still find ourselves unhappy and unfulfilled. As I started to questions the rules and how I thought things had to be in life, everything opened up for me. Let this happen for you too!
Little by little, so much of who I was and how I lived changed. I started to think I didn’t know who I was anymore – that I lost myself in motherhood.
Now 8 years and a couple more babies later, my life truly isn’t recognizable from the one I had pre-motherhood.
But I realize now that rather than losing myself, motherhood actually pushed me to find, and step into, the truest and best version of myself yet.
I remember the first time I truly felt free.
It came with the realization that I was living the life I had started visioning not more than 6 months ago. At that moment in time, I was incredibly aware that every aspect of my life then was created by my dreams, my decisions and my ability to follow my heart, even when my actions didn’t make sense to anyone around me.
I felt free because I was able to see and feel what it was like to be in my power, creating life on purpose – on my terms.
You might not know this part of my journey, but at one point I was a personal trainer. For like a hot minute. I quickly realized it wasn’t for me but I learned a lot in the process. One of my biggest lessons was learning that there are no mistakes in life and I will never regret taking a chance on something new. And neither should you!
When I asked my 7 year old what she wanted to do for my husband’s birthday, she told me she really wanted to make him a sports themed cake. We usually buy birthday cakes, but she’s been watching these kids baking shows and wanted to try it out for herself. So we went to Pinterest for some inspiration and she found the one she wanted. The cake she chose was next level – and my gut response was hell no! That’s way more complicated than I’ve ever done and will take a lot of time and energy. But I knew we could make this a great and fun learning experience for her. Turns out it was for me too! Through it all we had a lot of laughs, got a result that we were both really proud of, and learned a lot along the way. Read below for my biggest takeaways from baking this crazy cake with my kiddo – and a pic of the final product.
A few years ago, my oldest daughter learned about Elf on the Shelf from her preschool classroom and immediately asked when she was going to get one. I was not excited by the idea of adding to my holiday to-do list on a nightly basis and tried to resist it. But I’m a softy for the kid so I gave in and the next year she got an elf for the first time. It was challenging but, in the end, I kind of enjoyed it. Now we’re going into our 3rd year and have a second elf for our toddler. And not only am I not stressed at all about it, but I let the elves show up early this year to surprise the girls, even though it means more work for me, because I truly have fun with it. But I understand why so many moms hate the little things and I’m here to help. Want to know how to manage the extra responsibility in a way that makes it stress-free and maybe even fun? Read on for my curated tips and tricks – plus some of my favorite elf activities to date. And learn how this relates to how to enjoy your holidays – and your life – more than you have in the past.
You couldn’t wait to become a mom and had all these visions in your head about how magical the experience would be and the kind of mom you would be. Some days, hours, or minutes, you get that magic. Other days the kids won’t stop crying or fighting, the house is a mess, and you haven’t showered or eaten so you’re starting to feel pretty grumpy too. On top of that, you have an endless list of things to do, and you’re wondering where you went wrong. Where’s the dream momlife you were sold, and that you were expecting? Surely this isn’t it. Of course you knew there would be some challenges, but this…. This is some next level craziness!
Mama, I feel you – I’ve been there! And if I’m being honest, plenty of days I still am. But what if I told you that you can feel better about your momlife? That you can take some of the pressure off and relax into the craziness instead of going nuts trying to figure out how to fix yourself and your situation so you can feel the peace (and dare I say the fun!) that you desire as a mom? And to do so, it doesn’t require that you add to your to-do list or make some big, radical change to your life.
Regardless of your situation, here is the #1 shift you can make to stay sane as a mom, and be able to enjoy your situation a little bit more
One thing I’ve learned from my own experience and from coaching others is that change usually comes from hitting some kind of rock bottom in life.
The scary thing with parenting, is that too often those rock bottoms we hit the hardest come later in life. We tell ourselves we have plenty of time to change and often use our kids as excuses to not be who we want to be living the life we want to live. We say we’ll just wait till the kids are older, when we’ll have more time, and things will be easier.
Yesterday, in Rhode Island, our Governor announced the decision that we will continue distance learning for the remainder of the school year. This wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but many of us were still holding back some hope that our kids would be able to finish out the school year the way we originally expected them to. When she told us this, she made a really important point about it: Now the decision has been made, there’s no more uncertainty about it, and we can just move forward knowing that this is what’s going to happen.
It drives me crazy how many women are trying to ‘get fit’ and achieve a certain body weight or jean size, thinking that will make them happy. They often over-exercise or follow crazy diets trying to hit this goal and if they actually get there, they usually can’t maintain it.
I help moms to feel good and live a life they love! I’m a wife and mom of 3 girls – Mya, Ava and Lia. I’m also a former social worker, a life-long Rhode Islander, and a lover of pizza and tacos.
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