Mommy Island [correction: archipelago]
So, it's been an incredibly long time since I've written anything. Most of the time, I'm busy with regular stay-at-home-mommy to-do lists, a silly amount of craft attempts, and two toddlers. I've often used this as my excuse for not "making time" to write. Oh. so. often.
Oftentimes and very lately, I haven't written any blogs because I've briefly thought (and maybe even truly believed) that I had nothing to say, or at least, next to nothing interesting to say. Unless you want me to quote something from Daniel Tiger (or worse, Clifford), break out in a word-for-word verbatim of a Disney song (almost. any. Disney. song.), give you a total count of laundry loads I've mastered or the amount of sibling-fights I've broken up, there's really not much left of major "report" to my days. I'm in no way demeaning or belittling the huge responsibility, overall importance, and beautiful gift of God through motherhood. I am, however, acknowledging that while there's no fanfare to "report", there's much to be said.
Reporting is often done secondhand, whereas talking is firsthand. So let's just go there for a moment. Let's get real. Let's chat. (Who said we're supposed to be intriguing reporters anyway?)
Though I've often thought and believed there's next to nothing special about my day-to-day ordinariness of toddler-motherhood and stay-at-home-momism, I think the bigger, and perhaps more honest thing to acknowledge, is that I do have something to say. Actually, so much to say that many moms think - yet don't have words (or time!) (or courage!) to say. To say aloud, anyway.
Because of this, I've come up with this analogy, and I'm just going to go with it...
Being a stay-at-home mom is like living on an island. A remote island. A very, very remote island. (You get the idea.) Well, it's like living on a remote island. With a tribe. Your tribe. You have your ways of doing things. Your own routines. Your own "language" so to speak. Most days = your way. It's fun (sometimes), and it's warm, and you love it. (Except when you don't.) Yet... at the end of the day... you're still living on an island.
Wondering, does any of this matter?
Waiting, til nap time. bed time. quiet time. alone time. "me" time (<-- is that even a thing?). please-just-hug-and-love-and-share-with-your-sibling time. Asking yourself, is it the next-stage-of-life time yet? (You get the idea.)
Wishing, for a lot of things, really.
But, really, on some days, just out there staring at the edge of the water...
{Cue Moana's "How Far I'll Go."}
I tease.
But you get the idea.
Motherhood can be very isolating. Exhausting. Annoying. Overwhelming. Interrupting. (I was just interrupted twice while trying to type the word "interrupting". Oh, the irony!)
But why? Why is motherhood all of these things?
Because motherhood, by its very nature, grates against our human (sin) nature.
Motherhood is giving. loving. serving. Fruit-of-the-Spiriting.
All. the. time.
And it's not easy.
At all.
(More on this later. So, so, so much more on this later.)
To set the record straight, I love being a stay-at-home-mom. But just because you love something, doesn't make the workload necessarily easier. In fact, it's often the things (people) that we love the most that take the most work.
In motherhood, we have options on our reactions to all-that-is-motherhood. We can choose to acknowledge the difficulties via complaints and woe-is-me-ism. Keep in mind: if you do this long enough, nobody is going to bring their boat back around to your island. Because, well just because. We all get it. We do. And we all need encouragement in the "it-getting." So there's that.
Another option we have is to choose to ignore the difficulties with a fake-smile-it-up and make everyone think we're the best, most satisfied mom on the planet.. Again, you'll probably be living on that island by yourself for a long while. Also, when you give people directions to your place, make sure to mention your island is located near 'de Nile. #terriblemomjoke #you'rewelcome
Or the best thing we can do is this: we can be honest.
We can admit the difficulties, but chose not to complain about them. (There is a difference.)
We can replace the fake smile business for authenticity, so that others can relate. (Let's be real. No mom really wants to hide behind a mask all the time. Living on mommy island is difficult enough as it is.)
And most importantly, we can follow the directive given to us in I Thessalonians 5:18. "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you."
Because of this, I'm deciding to take some time on Thursdays and pick out a part of motherhood. And I'm going to take that part of motherhood & focus the blog on how we can I Thessalonians 5:18 the mess out of it. #ThessalonianThursdays #ThankfulThursdays
{By the way, mommy island is apparently already a thing. Like it's own blog thing. And it's own facebook thing. So it's like a really big thing. Which is kind of odd, because it's an island-metaphor-turned-continent-situation that's getting a little confusing to me now that I think about it....
So for all sakes and purposes, I'll change my analogy to mommy archipelago because an archipelago is a "sea or stretch of water containing many islands" & as sisters in Christ, we may feel like we're living on mommy island, but in all reality, we're laboring together towards something much greater than ourselves and building our own little kingdoms.}
That, and I'm going to be homeschooling in the Fall, so I had to use a word like "archipelago" in a sentence - just to prove I was "homeschool mom material." (wink)
Oftentimes and very lately, I haven't written any blogs because I've briefly thought (and maybe even truly believed) that I had nothing to say, or at least, next to nothing interesting to say. Unless you want me to quote something from Daniel Tiger (or worse, Clifford), break out in a word-for-word verbatim of a Disney song (almost. any. Disney. song.), give you a total count of laundry loads I've mastered or the amount of sibling-fights I've broken up, there's really not much left of major "report" to my days. I'm in no way demeaning or belittling the huge responsibility, overall importance, and beautiful gift of God through motherhood. I am, however, acknowledging that while there's no fanfare to "report", there's much to be said.
Reporting is often done secondhand, whereas talking is firsthand. So let's just go there for a moment. Let's get real. Let's chat. (Who said we're supposed to be intriguing reporters anyway?)
Though I've often thought and believed there's next to nothing special about my day-to-day ordinariness of toddler-motherhood and stay-at-home-momism, I think the bigger, and perhaps more honest thing to acknowledge, is that I do have something to say. Actually, so much to say that many moms think - yet don't have words (or time!) (or courage!) to say. To say aloud, anyway.
Because of this, I've come up with this analogy, and I'm just going to go with it...
Being a stay-at-home mom is like living on an island. A remote island. A very, very remote island. (You get the idea.) Well, it's like living on a remote island. With a tribe. Your tribe. You have your ways of doing things. Your own routines. Your own "language" so to speak. Most days = your way. It's fun (sometimes), and it's warm, and you love it. (Except when you don't.) Yet... at the end of the day... you're still living on an island.
Wondering, does any of this matter?
Waiting, til nap time. bed time. quiet time. alone time. "me" time (<-- is that even a thing?). please-just-hug-and-love-and-share-with-your-sibling time. Asking yourself, is it the next-stage-of-life time yet? (You get the idea.)
Wishing, for a lot of things, really.
But, really, on some days, just out there staring at the edge of the water...
{Cue Moana's "How Far I'll Go."}
I tease.
But you get the idea.
Motherhood can be very isolating. Exhausting. Annoying. Overwhelming. Interrupting. (I was just interrupted twice while trying to type the word "interrupting". Oh, the irony!)
But why? Why is motherhood all of these things?
Because motherhood, by its very nature, grates against our human (sin) nature.
Motherhood is giving. loving. serving. Fruit-of-the-Spiriting.
All. the. time.
And it's not easy.
At all.
(More on this later. So, so, so much more on this later.)
To set the record straight, I love being a stay-at-home-mom. But just because you love something, doesn't make the workload necessarily easier. In fact, it's often the things (people) that we love the most that take the most work.
In motherhood, we have options on our reactions to all-that-is-motherhood. We can choose to acknowledge the difficulties via complaints and woe-is-me-ism. Keep in mind: if you do this long enough, nobody is going to bring their boat back around to your island. Because, well just because. We all get it. We do. And we all need encouragement in the "it-getting." So there's that.
Another option we have is to choose to ignore the difficulties with a fake-smile-it-up and make everyone think we're the best, most satisfied mom on the planet.. Again, you'll probably be living on that island by yourself for a long while. Also, when you give people directions to your place, make sure to mention your island is located near 'de Nile. #terriblemomjoke #you'rewelcome
Or the best thing we can do is this: we can be honest.
We can admit the difficulties, but chose not to complain about them. (There is a difference.)
We can replace the fake smile business for authenticity, so that others can relate. (Let's be real. No mom really wants to hide behind a mask all the time. Living on mommy island is difficult enough as it is.)
And most importantly, we can follow the directive given to us in I Thessalonians 5:18. "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you."
Because of this, I'm deciding to take some time on Thursdays and pick out a part of motherhood. And I'm going to take that part of motherhood & focus the blog on how we can I Thessalonians 5:18 the mess out of it. #ThessalonianThursdays #ThankfulThursdays
{By the way, mommy island is apparently already a thing. Like it's own blog thing. And it's own facebook thing. So it's like a really big thing. Which is kind of odd, because it's an island-metaphor-turned-continent-situation that's getting a little confusing to me now that I think about it....
So for all sakes and purposes, I'll change my analogy to mommy archipelago because an archipelago is a "sea or stretch of water containing many islands" & as sisters in Christ, we may feel like we're living on mommy island, but in all reality, we're laboring together towards something much greater than ourselves and building our own little kingdoms.}
That, and I'm going to be homeschooling in the Fall, so I had to use a word like "archipelago" in a sentence - just to prove I was "homeschool mom material." (wink)
I love living on this Mommy archipelago knowing you are just an island or two away. Mommying (homeschoolers like to make up words;) is hard, but when you know you aren't alone it makes it so much easier. Can't wait for #ThessalonianThursdays.
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