As a mom to bow 4 cute children, I’m constantly reminding myself “one day at a time.”
It’s easy for me to look at the big picture and get EXTREMELY overwhelmed.
For example, I always have lots of laundry to fold now.
And yet, I’m realizing if I just stop and fold 6-8 items throughout the day…. That pile slowly gets put away.
Baby Kai (3 months old)
Some days I get thinking about how many dinners and lunches I need to make … but one day at a time I can get through each meal and it works out.
I’m currently in survival mode. My 3 month old is adorable but of course needs my constant care, my three year old toddler has many needs too, and also my six and eight year old need mamas help.
Taya, Brad, Cade and Makell
However, if I focus on one item at time… one task before the next … things work out.
I’m realizing the feeling of being “caught up” doesn’t always happen. Especially in this season of life for me, and that’s ok.
I was reading my friend’s post about her daughter moving away to college.
It hit me hard as she wrote that she had done all she could to prepare her daughter to grow up and move away, and yet, she herself hand’t prepared her heart for WHEN her daughter moved away!
Cue the tears!
It’s so true.
Mama’s work hard day in and day out to teach their children how to grow and develop in every way, so that one day the child can leave the nest and grow on their own independently.
However, mother’s can never quite grasp the reality of their children not being under their own roof.
It’s hard to process.
Especially since, for most mothers, they cared for their babies while in the womb.
Then of course, they took care of their child as a helpless and innocent little baby, then a toddler, then a child, then a teenager, and then suddenly….. they are grown and on their own.
No my children are not grown up yet (and I am grateful).
However, my oldest son just turned 8 years old and I can tell you that was the fastest 8 years of my life!
I have watched time and time again how fast children grow up.
And yet, as a mother it seems that children truly do grow up faster than ever.
So can we really ever prepare our hearts for when our child grows up and moves away?
I don’t think so.
Because our job as a parent is to love and protect that child.
With that love and protecting, a separation of any sort is extremely difficult.
It always will be.
However, it’s what we know to be best for the child as well.
And perhaps, with high hopes, when that child is grown and moved out, they will call us mama’s up, and they too will miss us.
It will never be the same, but there will be that hope, that the child will understand, that their mama will never stop loving them, never stop guiding them, never stop encouraging them….because a mother will always be a mother.
Near or far, that mother will continue to shower their child with love.
So my hope for those that are dealing with their kids growing up and leaving their home, my hope is that that mama will know she is loved. And more so, that mama did all she was supposed to do, to help that child reach a level of independence that must take place for that child to grow.
The love never ends, no matter the age or the distance, mama will still have that mama heart that will always care for her children.
Life has been great and challenging all in one. With a newborn, many of you know there isn’t a lot of sleep.
Overall, baby boy sleeps quite well just wakes up quite hungry at night but for the most part goes back to sleep.
All my kids are adjusting with me.
We are trying to keep all the kids busy and entertained while mom takes care of the new baby.
All the siblings LOVE to hold the baby and he sure gets lots of snuggles… which we all love.
We have kept the summer quite simple, which is nice.
And I’ve been so grateful for the endless support we’ve received between: meals, babysitting, baby items, gift cards and more. We have been humbled with the outpouring of love.
We are so grateful for this baby boy to join our family and we are soaking up all the newborn snuggles:)
As some of you may know, we are expecting our fourth child any day now.
In fact, if he doesn’t make his appearance this weekend, we will be getting induced on Monday morning so we can finally meet this sweet baby boy.
There is a lot of preparation and planning that goes into having a baby.
We have all the major items ready: bassinet, diapers, clothes, changing table, swaddles, pacifiers, lotions….you name it.
Something I realize my mind needs to prep for is the fact that my other babies, well, they really wont seem like babies anymore.
In fact, having a baby, makes your other children grow immensely.
My oldest son is almost 8 and he already has felt the pressure of me asking him for help a bit more.
My second child, my daughter who is 6 is so nurturing and excited and I know she will love a baby brother, however, there will be some stretching and growing as she sees much of her moms time being utilized by a newborn.
And my current youngest child, who is 3 1/2 years old…well, she won’t be the baby of the family anymore and that’s also a hard adjustment, for everyone.
And yet, I know all our hearts will grow ten-fold as we welcome this baby boy into our home.
No matter what your religious background is, you can’t deny the fact that babies bring a sacredness and beautiful spirit into homes.
Yes there will be sleepless nights, and our house may not be as clean for a bit.
However, it’s all worth it for this wonderful baby that we have hoped and prayed for.
Yes, there will be many adjustments and changes for this mama and my sweet husband as we take on four kids. But we couldn’t be more excited!
We feel so very blessed, and cant wait to meet him!
Hopefully next post, I will have a picture for you.
When I saw this quote I laughed because I could relate so well to it.
All of my children tend to wake up earlier than I would like….welcome to motherhood right?!
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Anyway, I can always tell by their footsteps who is coming into my room.
My oldest son is quite loud and quite quick, my middle daughter is light on her feet and very soft, and my youngest daughter sounds like thunder coming down the hall ha!
I love that their little footsteps represent their personalities so well.
I know I miss out on a lot of sleep with these cuties, however, I know one day I will miss the pitter patter of little feet sneaking into my bedroom, so I will try to soak it in while I can.
It’s hard to narrow down all that I have learned about parenting in my last 7 years.
My cute oldest son
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A few things that stand out:
-Kids are very forgiving as we learn to parent them.
-I may be in charge of helping my kids learn and grow, but I can NOT control everything they do…even if I want to. It’s hard to send your kids to school all day and know that all that happens to them is out of your hands, however, kids do learn the best this way, when they are solving problems on their own. We can’t bubble wrap our kids through life, even when we feel like we want to. And I will admit, I want to a lot. However, I constantly remind myself to put my faith in my children and their abilities.
(Below is a video discussing a few things I am learning as a parent.)
As I write this post, I write it to remind myself, that despite all the difficulties and stressors around us, God wants us to have joy in life!
I have always loved this quote by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
This quote reminds us that there is light and happiness to be found in EVERYTHING, even those things that are hard.
In 2019, I had my sweet baby girl 5 weeks early due to a heart complication called WPW. Baby girl was fragile and small, and was on medicine around the clock to keep her heart in check.
I was nervous and scared in having to care for this sweet baby girl with monitors and oxygen on her at all times.
Just 5 months later after my baby was born, the world shut down due to the pandemic of Covid 19. The same week of Covid, here in Salt Lake, we experienced a 5.7 earthquake!
Stress settled in, fear took over my heart.
And I had my husband who was constantly reminding me to have “faith over fear.” And even more, my little kids were there to remind me that there is joy to be found in all the hardships we were in.
(below a picture of my cute kids during 2020 ages 4, 2, 6 months.)
Despite the difficulties through the year of 2020, my kids enjoyed building forts, driving past the cattle farms, coloring pictures, FaceTiming family….the list goes on.
Yes, my sweet little toddlers and baby reminded me that we truly are created to have joy. It’s inevitable that we will suffer trials and hardships. And yet, our Heavenly Father does not want us to wallow in our struggles.
Heavenly Father is just like any parent and wants us to enjoy all the moments of life that we can.
I am so thankful for this constant reminder in life.
Even more, I am grateful for sweet children who remind me to smile, have fun, and to enjoy life.
