I am routine loving kind of person.

Our days tend to follow the same daily kind of structure:: wake up, quiet time, get Ayla up, have breakfast, take a morning walk, nap time, to-do list, etc. etc. etc….and it’s just what works for us. I thrive on routine and I like to plan what our days will look like, versus just flowing with the winds of whatever comes along. I’m learning to be a bit more flexible, which is a good thing…but generally we stick to our normal routine and I like that very much.

Our nighttime routine is probably my favorite part of our days together. I love coming to the end of a day and having dinner together and talking about the good things and funny things and challenging things that happened to us during the day. We eat and then clear the table and do the dishes, while Ayla plays at our feet and pulls silverware out of the dishwasher and clangs bowls all over the floor. Sometimes we take a walk around the neighborhood or play in the yard or sit on the floor to read books together before bath time, but that just depends on how late and long our dinner went. Ben is usually the one to give Ayla her bath, and it gives me time to finish up the lingering dishes, sweep the floors, and pick up toys (or scroll Instagram, if I’m being honest 😉 ). She plays in the tub for a while, and then gets out to dry off and get in cozy jammies for bed. Once she’s dressed, we all play and tussle on the bed for a few minutes…it’s maybe not the best idea right before bedtime, but it’s just what we do, hehe. It’s some of the best moments of my day!

After her bath, we then go sit on the couch in the living room and she drinks some milk before we carry her upstairs to her room. Ben and I take turns being the one to hold her in the rocking chair while we read her a book or two, sing a few worship songs, and then quote Psalm 23 together. She sits there with her blanket, sucking her thumb, and just taking it all in with such concentration. It seriously melts my heart every single night!

We kiss her good night and lay her in her crib, being sure to give her the corner of her blanket to hold in her left hand. She has to hold the corner, not any other part of the blanket. If she’s not super tired, she usually gets right back up once we lay her down and runs back and forth in her crib while we laugh at her and Ben bounces the mattress underneath her like a trampoline. Yeah like I said, we’re not the best at keeping a caaaaaaaaaalm bedtime routine, hehe. I wouldn’t have it any other way, to be honest. After a few minutes of this, we’ll lay her back down and give her another kiss and walk out of her room. Most nights she will settle right down to sleep, but sometimes we will hear her playing and jabbering for a while after we leave her to sleep.

What about you: are a routine kind of person? What are your bedtime routines? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Hey pretty mama!

Yes, you.

With the messy hair and sweatpants and make up free face.
The baby food stains on your shirt and the breakfast crumbs on your floor.
With the toddler clinging to your legs and the laundry piles in the corner.
The split ends and the unkept nails because you don’t have time to take care of yourself.
With the dreams in your heart and the questions in your soul.

You are lovely.
You are full of purpose.
You are doing an amazing job.

I met a new friend last weekend and in the middle of our conversation, she asked me what I did. Like most times when I get asked this question, I felt myself want to shrivel back in a small measure of almost-like-embarrassment…and I started in to tell her that, “Oh, I’m just a…” And then I caught myself…and changed my words. “I mean, I’m a mom…not JUST a mom.” She was a kind soul and immediately affirmed this sentiment, that being a mom is a high calling and full of the greatest purpose.

I’ve been mulling over this all week now. And I realize that I’ve let our culture and the expectations that it places on women to give me that sense of almost-like-embarrassment when someone asks me what I do and all that I have to say is that I’m a mother. WHAT IS THAT?! That makes me a little ticked off, to be honest here, people.

Where has our world taken us to even ever remotely feel that being a mother isn’t enough? Why do we all fight the feeling that we always need to do more and be more? I mean, I fight that feeling and I’m almost positive that you do too. How did we get to the place where the heart of mothering that GOD HIMSELF has placed within us just isn’t enough for our world? I see woman and friends all around me fighting those expectations, fighting a kind of guilt that their life just isn’t enough. I see our world that has devalued the heart of mothering and taken it outside of our homes and family and made us believe that our true value and contribution to society is out there. How could we come to believe that what we do in the every day as we love and serve and care for our children, homes, and families isn’t of value? That it isn’t enough?

I’m talking to myself here, dears. I mean, I love being a wife and a mother. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do with my life, and here I am, living in the middle of that dream. But yet I feel it. I feel that expectation from the world that I need to “do more” with my life. Like I need to run a business or write a book or start a movement or DO SOMETHING AMAZING.

And my heart breaks that I’ve somehow come to believe that what I do in my home and in the lives of the ones that I love just isn’t enough.

If you are a mom and run a business or work at an office or pull shifts at a hospital or whatever else, that’s amazing and I applaud you! And if you are a mom that stays at home and changes a million diapers and prepares a thousand meals and reads a hundred stories, that is also AMAZING and I applaud you! What you do in those small, mundane, endless moments really do matter…you are creating something amazing right there in your own home, sweet mamas.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:: I am a mother and it is enough.

What about you: do you feel that pull from the world to be more/do more than JUST be a mother? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts!