Encouragement

Real talk. I’ve got an infant and a toddler. TV time for me is nonexistent unless you count all the Mickey Mouse Club and Paw Patrol that is on while I’m cooking, cleaning and running around like a madwoman taking care of our family. I do have a couple of guilty pleasure shows I love, though. When I do have time (read 9pm when I’m folding clothes), I will catch up on a couple of shows - KUWTK being one of them. I’ve watched Keeping Up since it premiered 10+years ago and I follow the Kardashian’s social media accounts. The whole family has put themselves out there – especially Kim K. We have watched her grow and evolve, make relationship mistakes...

Feeling anxious? Depressed? Overwhelmed? Stressed? Unfocused? Bored? I’ve got the cure - run. I know what you’re thinking. “Run? That’s hard! And I don’t like it! I can’t run very far or for very long. That just sounds miserable! That will make me feel worse! It's too hot. I don't have time...” Stop. Trust me. It works. I signed up for a half-marathon. I had always wanted to run one at some point in my life. So why not now? The minute I signed up and paid the money to do the run, there was no going back. My life changed drastically throughout my training. The good kind of change. The kind of change that happens within. An inward...

Dear Mama, Can we stop and appreciate you for a minute? You have done more than what was thought humanly possible. You have conquered the unthinkable. You have gone beyond the limits of yourself and who you thought you’d ever become. You are strong. You are valiant. You are a warrior. You are a mother. The amount of selfless care you’ve poured into your children and family is amazing. The amount of hard decisions you’ve had to make is insurmountable. The tasks, the chores, the duties, the endless acts of service you’ve done for the ones you love, because you love them, is beautiful. We all see you. And we all admire you. Nothing goes unnoticed. We watch you from...

I picked my son up from school the other day and asked him to usual, "How was school today?" He explained that they took a quiz in one of his classes to see if they had a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. He said that he has a growth mindset, which he was excited about. "What does that mean?" I asked.  He said, "It means that you think you can keep growing and learning and getting better at things." I looked it up and started reading more about the fixed vs. growth mindset. In the fixed mindset, there are things that people tell themselves about what they are and aren't good at. They believe that is the way that they are,...

I wasn't the first in my group of friends to have a baby. I was the second. I had someone to go just before me on that narrow road, clearing all of the branches and making a wider trail, footsteps just deep enough for me to see the way forward. But our feet aren't the same size. My little girl arrived a year and two days after my friend's baby. For me, this situation was prime for comparison and I went to town. I compared EVERYTHING. Pregnancy, birth, feeding, baby, sleep ... and here's a shocker: I didn't measure up. My friend went into labor.  I was induced. My friend had a vaginal birth. They cut me open. My friend breastfed immediately. Like a champ. For over...