I’ve gotta celebrate my blog milestones! My 10th entry! Ten consistent nights of writing content for my new blog! So, how is it going? I’ve really been enjoying this process, and it has had some unexpected benefits, which I’ll address shortly, but can I just say, thank you for being here and taking the time to read this!
Hitting Goals and Milestones with This Blog
I started this blog with the ultimate goal of having an online journal that would serve as a creative outlet for me, in hopes that I don’t lose my mind in the chaos that is parenting my three lovely, but exhausting, children.
That being said, I did hold out some small modicum of hope that I might be able to reach others in a relatable, gracious, and irreverently funny way. I was only THREE published entries in, and the positive feedback came flowing in! Y’all are amazing!
Blog Milestones
So, how am I already seeing benefit from this blog? What blog milestones could I possibly already be celebrating? It’s like this:
- My mindfulness has increased! Trying to make sure that I’m able to stay grounded in crazy, even triggering, moments of parenthood, to be more present-minded, and to study what lesson I may be learning in a given situation that I can impart to you, my readership, has already seemed to bring more calm into my life than I could have expected.
- Glass-Half-Full Optimism! Even when that glass is half-full of poop. I know that I have a creative forum to share what hell my little brood is raining down on me today. It actually makes me a little more grateful when shots are fired. The miserable days can be the ones easiest to laugh at…
- Determination! I think, overall, my perspective is shifting. Not in a “woo-woo”, manifest-your-own-crappy-magic-from-the-universe kind of way, but in an ambitious and more driven direction. You get what you put in! “It would be nice…” takes a flying leap, and “I’m making this my goal, my job…” comes swooping in.
- And with that, comes Confidence! Even if this blog isn’t ultimately successful, I have already reached some of you, and as I mentioned, the feedback I’ve received has been so encouraging. To know that I can help validate your feelings and reality when you find yourselves elbow-deep in it just by relating with you…that is empowering! And I’M HERE FOR IT!
Knock On Wood
Nathan and I have had a fairly smooth run of it lately. KNOCK. ON. WOOD. Granted, this reprieve has come after months of prayer for some kind of mental (not psychotic!) break. Just a moment to come up for air. I’m also praying that we’re able to ride this smooth water for a bit, that it isn’t just a too short-lived calm before yet another chaotic storm.
But I will tell you something we have both noticed…
Over the course of the last week-ish, we’ve been the ones changing and adapting. Everything IS still hard, but it feels like a strength-infusion that has allowed us to take things more in stride, meet things head-on with more peace and gratitude in our hearts, and be more regulated than we likely would have been before.
I used to struggle with FOMO, and honestly, some “Mom-envy”, before having children. For a number of reasons, there were times I didn’t think kids were in the picture for me. Woof, if I knew then what I knew now…but that fear-of-missing-out and wishing I had what others had was all too real.
I looked around me this evening, and, in spite of Orson ripping the just-cleaned placemats off of the set table like an ornery cat, and one of the babies (we weren’t sure who at first) magically leaving puddles of water all around the house when we weren’t looking, and IN SPITE of Coen putting away cutting boards that still had food all over them after his weekly meal-prep…I realized something profound.
FOMO Be Gone
I’ve banished that FOMO! There is nothing in my life that I’m fearful of missing out on. Sure, I still have goals that I’m working toward and things that I haven’t yet achieved or attained. But I have everything that I could possibly ever want.
Even in this blog, in this 10th entry about my milestones, I realize that I am at least shooting my shot. Pursuing an opportunity even if it comes to nothing at the end of the day. I’m not missing out on a single thing. And that is so cool.