Just Keep Breathing

We have all had those days. Bad days. Overwhelming days. Days where your kids wont stop pitching fits, the dog wont stop whining, you burnt supper (if you were even lucky enough to accomplish that daunting task), your husbands complaining because you “overspent” this month’s budget, there’s drama at work, your clothes don’t fit right, your roots are showing…you are a mess. You’re desperately counting down the minutes to bedtime, hoping you will have the energy to conquer bath time. You can’t remember if you have ate today and oh my goodness did you forget to feed the dog?! Maybe that is why they have been whining all day! Yea, those days. On days like that, there is one thing we’re certain of…that we are in fact alive and breathing (barely!) but we are. After we get the kids to bed, smooth things over with our husband, we make the BIG mistake of getting on Facebook or Pinterest to “unwind” but we somehow work ourselves into another state of feeling inadequate. My advice, let it go. You (we), are doing the best we can. Mom’s in today’s society have everything stacked against them. Somehow we are supposed to make cupcakes from scratch, have activity time with our children, never raise our voice, look like a supermodel, give our husband our undivided attention, and work a full time job. It’s hard but we have to remember that we’re all in this together. Instead of “competing” against one another, we should take this opportunity to embrace motherhood and all of its challenges with each other. We should lift each other up in our moments of weakness and let one another know, it’s ok if you raised your voice when you probably didn’t need to. We have all done, we all do it. I am so fortunate and blessed that God placed some special women in my life who lift me up in my times of struggle.

So, on the days when you feel like everything is falling apart and it just couldn’t be possible for one more thing to go wrong, keep breathing! Keep moving forward because you’re doing ok, Mom. You are doing your best. Bedtime will come (eventually) and peace and quiet will fill the house, your sanity will semi return and you will be ready to face the day tomorrow. Know that this will all end too fast yet will not end fast enough. One day our babies will have babies of their own and we will hear the despair in their voice when they call asking for a recipe. We will laugh to ourselves and tell them to breath. Motherhood is a beautiful thing. Embrace it.