Mama Mondays: You've Got This!

Spit Honey is all about speaking kind words and doing kind things, but you know who has a really hard time doing this?? MOMS! I am a mom of two awesomely crazy kids (Derek, 6 and Charlee (girl), 3). It is so hard not to be consumed with the world's views of how we choose to do things. If we see a mom making their child's food from scratch, we then kick ourselves for not doing the same. If someone has the ability to take their kid to soccer practice every week, and you can't because you have to work, another kick is given. Oh, the thing that I kicked myself for, and occasionally still do, is not being able to breastfeed. Honestly, it still makes me sad that I did not get to experience that with my children. I was a pumping mom for a while, but the anxiety and stress I harbored with my son and because I was ill + stressed with my second, my body just shut down. I stopped producing milk. It is crazy that my daughter is three and I STILL carry this around! It is time to let this go! But how do we do that? When will we realize that we are not perfect and that is okay. When will we just give ourselves a break and tell ourselves we are doing the best we can? I honestly think it starts with taking time to count your blessings. Make a list of the thing(s) you are grateful for that happened that day, and when you are creating this list do it ALONE! This is your time - your moment of peace. It is so easy when things don't go as planned to tally up the failures, but we MUST recognize the wins. The tallies soon become weights on our back that we are constantly trying to hold up, which effects how we function and how our kids see us functioning. And honestly the failures are just bumps in the road that you have the ability to drive over the next time you face them. Our mama wins are so important because we need them to survive the lives that we lead, and our kids need to see that we may not get it right every time, but we can push through.