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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to “lower your expectations.” It’s a phrase I hear thrown around a lot in mothering circles, kinda a tongue-in-cheek deal. It’s on the front of parenting greeting cards. It’s laughed about in conjunction with “wine-o-clock.” It’s ruefully admitted to in private. But I actually think it’s super important for sanity. When I blurt out that I’ve lowered my expectations, it means I have decided what I will spend my precious few minutes of “free time” doing. I am no longer expecting that all my spare moments when no child needs me and no dinner is cooking tending, fixing, cleaning, organizing our life. Because the needs are never ending and the list on infinite loop. I will clean…
READ MOREI’ve had my fair share of health stuff in my adult life. Pregnancies that rendered me limited in functioning with hyperemesis, post-partum periods when I had ongoing undetected issues, hospitalizations, physical therapy, etc. But I’ve faced a new kind of challenge in the last year, and even in the last month. Almost a year ago I saw a doctor for facial tingling and numbness, and saw more doctors and had more tests, and more tests, and just so many blood tests, tests that gave me a spinal headache and an emergency blood patch, and eventual tingling in other parts of my body, and more doctors, and not many answers beyond “auto-immune something.” I’ve explored lots of dietary changes, the rest & hydrate protocol, and just…
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I met Bonnie in 2014. My lil baby was on my chest (now he’s well, five). I was at the inaugural Edel Gathering that Jen Fulwiler and Hallie Lord put on because my mom really thought I should go meet all these bloggers I had been following. Bonnie was one of them. And when I met her, she was just as down to earth, friendly, and funny as she seems online. So as my awe turned to affection, our relationship went from “you’re so cool and I love your blog” to “you’re so cool and I love our sisterhood.” We both started collaborating with Blessed is She when Jenna Guizar founded it and slowly, over time, I really got to know Bonnie. She has come…
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It’s back-to-school time and I reflect on a number of posts I’ve written about school. In 2012 when I parsed through options for schooling. In 2013, when I shared thoughts about discipline for prek kids and a few activities to do with them. In 2014, when I said what I don’t worry about for prek homeschool and feeling powerless as a parent. In 2015, when I shared my wannabe homeschool books. In 2016, when I confessed that we’re homeschool drop outs! In 2018, when I briefly touched on two kids in school. Now here we are in 2019, two kids going to school, a third doing kinder homeschooled a la his siblings with a little nature school a few mornings a week, and the fourth hanging…
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throw back nearly 3 years to this sweetie at a few weeks old! ((When I redid my site, this post got lost so sorry for the repeat!)) I rolled over and kinda closed my bathrobe around a breastmilk stained nightgown. I rolled again and gently slid off the bed so I wouldn’t awaken our snoozy sleepy new bundle of love. At four weeks old, he was smack dab in the middle of our king-sized bed with my husband on one side, and a wall of nursing pillows on the other so I could shuffle to the bathroom. We had missed the extended family brunch that morning. I texted an apology from the end of the bed and then dove back in. With our first two, each…
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I’m finding, and maybe you are too, that as things slowly start to close, I want to clutch them ever more tightly. So this coming of August, this welcoming of the big Minnesota heat waves before the autumn really begins, this time makes me nostalgic for the summer that already was, and the one that I’m still living right now! It’s a little ridiculous but that’s where I am. It was a summer of slowness, relaxed afternoons and quiet evenings, mid-day flurries at the pool & tennis courts, lots of chipotle & Mac & Cheese for dinner. Not at the same time, mind you. It was a summer of me not feeling 100% and adjusting life accordingly. #notpregnant #autoimmuneissues Our sweet summer sitter goes…
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