Mornings are for Mothers

When I was a kid my Mom always got up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I remembered being baffled by this as a young child, and further still as a teenager. I even remember finding it particular odd as a young adult on her own in the world for the first time. “Who has time to wake up at 5 a.m.?” And as a stay at home mother she wasn’t getting up for some timed job, she had all ready been on the job all night; this would have been her opportunity to get some extra sleep, but still she got up at five every morning.

Now as I sit her writing this at 6 a.m. my whole life (so far) later, I begin to understand the reason for the early hours. It wasn’t a conscious decision and there have certainly been moments in my life as a mother that I ignored the early morning wake up call but somehow, sometime after the birth of my daughter I also found my internal clock shifting and my mind and body waking before my family was up and my wife/mother job started for the day. It’s such a peaceful time sitting quietly listening to the world waking up and the sounds of my family sleeping calm, relaxed and undisturbed as time moves forward around them. It’s magical, magical and just for “Me”.

In the evening after my daughter is asleep for the night, my husband is happily entertained by his latest gaming interest and all the house is pulled back together; after dinner and family life I find myself with a little bit of time to myself which I greatly appreciate, but at the end of the day when everyone’s needs have been met and all has been said and done there is very little of myself left for me. I’m tired both mentally and physically, the pains of pregnancy are gnawing at my body and creativity is something I vaguely remember from earlier in the day when I was crafting with my daughter or trying to reason my way out of another tantrum. It’s not really time for myself as much as time by myself while the weight of my whole day still wrests heavily on my shoulder.

But 6a.m….. That really is just for me. Being a natural morning person after getting out of bed and brushing my teeth I find myself feeling alert and refreshed, ready to take on a new day full of wonderful and positive possibilities. As I sit here alone the weight of life is light and my optimism for the future is sweet and heavy with promise. And it’s these moments as the sun peaks over the mountains, light trickling into the valley, as a new day is born that I find myself being able to truly recharge and center myself in a peaceful and calm way that could last me a lifetime if only I remembered to great it each day as it comes and give this gift to myself, for the peace that I gain from this hour of new day far exceeds the benefits of an extra hour in bed.

When do you get your “Me” time?

Also if you caught it this is in fact a picture of a sunset and you’re right. I couldn’t find one I’d taken in the morning and it was just to beautiful to leave out.

 

Thank you so much for reading and please feel free to comment and/or ask questions bellow.

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Bathing in Happiness

Sometimes… well a lot of the time in photography things just don’t quite come out the way you wanted them too, but if you’re lucky and your intentions are pure and the subject of your photos really makes you happy then even a photograph that’s not quite as sharp as you’d wanted can be  a beautiful piece of inspiration for your soul.

This set of bathing bird photos are my absolute favorites. I’d thought about photographing a bird in this bird bath for years, and when I finally got the chance it didn’t matter that the light was off or the bird was slightly out of focus, what mattered was that I was there and I got the shot, and every time I look at those little water droplets flying in the air my heart sings and I can’t help but smile. Which by my definition makes it a perfect picture.

This beautiful mosaic birdbath was created by Monica Schill over at Encased in Concrete! Be sure to check her out.

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When Enough Really Is All You Need

During the last few weeks my husband and I have been trying to unpack a spacious two bedroom duplex into a cozy (yet totally fantastic) one bedroom apartment. It’s a big job but after almost a whole month we’re really starting to make some headway.

When we first got married my husband was a Sailor in the U.S. Navy stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii. We lived in spacious, climate controlled base housing and had an incredibly disposable income. We’d go out to eat a few times a week and saw almost every movie that ran through the theater.

Then my dreams came true and we found out we were going to have a baby. Suddenly the military didn’t seem like the best choice for us. My Sailors first enlistment was almost up and I knew that with his second enlistment we wouldn’t be so lucky as to get to spend every day together like we had. He’d have to be on a ship and away for months and months at a time and most importantly he would be away during the birth of our daughter and that just wasn’t an option for us.

So we moved back to California and put all our things in storage and lived in my childhood bedroom at my parent’s house. It was wonderful to have so much help with SweetPea when she made her arrival, and the knowledge my mother shared with me during those first few months of my own motherhood were indispensable, but as months went by it became time to make our way back out into the world and stand together as self sufficient, independent adults.

So here we are. In a one bedroom place just big enough for the three of us. No more eating out and we rarely take in a movie. After leaving the Navy the job market was rough. We’d hoped and dreamed of making more money, or at least the same money, but those dreams fell short and made way for new dreams of making “enough” money to pay the bills and eat. But even with the budget cuts and the relocation there’s nothing sweeter that having your husband come home every day and be a part of raising your child.

So today as I shuffle through the boxes and try to find a bowl for my breakfast I consider it all and instead of sighing in frustration at the state of chaos, I smile to myself and think how lucky I am to have “enough” and how being with the ones I love is worth more than any job could pay.

And I tip my hat to those women who do it alone, because I don’t know if I could and I am so Grateful I don’t have to.

What have you had to sacrifice to be with your family?

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Blessings in Disguise: Screaming in the Grocery Store

The other day while in the grocery store my darling little SweetPea was experimenting with her voice and discovered how to scream. As I pushed my cart through the isles and she perfected her new found screech I realized that I was now “that parent” with “that kid” who wouldn’t stop screaming in the grocery store.

We were out shopping with my Mom and had a few more stops to go before we could head home; One of those stops being our neighborhood craft store. When we arrived my Mom and I split up, SweetPea and I heading off to the yarn section to pick out some festive fall colors for SweetPea’s new pumpkin hat I had planned on knitting her, and my Mom headed off to her own end of the store.

After a few moments SweetPea began so shriek loudly and I returned a smile to a silver haired woman who knowingly looked our way. Usually when my Mother and I are done shopping it takes a while to reconnect and make our way to the check out, but before I could even start to look for her she’d already found us having made her way across the store following the deafening sound of SweetPea’s playful cries.

Thanks to all that noise my little one was making we were able to shave moments off our trip and head on to our next destination.

Thanks so much for reading

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Blessings in Disguise: My Daughter Hates the Car Seat

After SweetPea was born when we were getting ready to leave the birthing center I strapped her into her car seat for the first time; She didn’t much seem to care and she slept the entire 2 hour drive home despite me poking her every 3minutes to make sure she was still breathing.

It went on like this for the first few months. Every time I put her in her car seat she would instantly fall asleep and not wake up until we reached out destination it was lovely.

But then one day on the way home she didn’t fall asleep instead she cried the whole way, and then it happened again, and again until I began to dread taking her anywhere that involved a lengthy car trip.

My first solution was to start leaving the house right around when she’d take her first nap of the day. I’d fill her full of breast milk, strap her into her car seat and hope that the 2 miles of bumpy dirt road would lull her to sleep; this worked almost every time, but once we made it into town and she woke up the rest of the stops were agony and the ride home was filled with the sound of sad screaming baby.

Last week my Hubby and I took SweetPea to visit his parents who live 3 hours from our home. I knew I could count on SweetPea to sleep for the first hour of the drive so I set up a playdate with a friend who lived in the first town we pass through, after crawling around on the floor and having lots of fun we headed out for the next leg of our journey and she was so exhausted she fell asleep almost immediately, and continued to sleep until we were about a half hour from our final destination. Now normally what I would do in this case is stop for a minute, check her diaper, fill her tummy and put her back in her car seat. Sometimes this works, but most of the time she starts getting upset before I even have her buckled in.

But this time when we pulled over we were at a beautiful beach park and I decided to try something new. We got out of the car and watched seagulls and waves crash for a while before changing her diaper and having a snack. When I put her back in her seat she was happy and made it the rest of the way with only a few unhappy outbursts.

Prior to SweetPea’s birth we would always drive from point A to point B only stopping when absolutely necessary, and always trying to make the best time possible, but with a 7 month old baby getting bored and restless in the backseat we very quickly learned that this was no longer possible.

So we went to the beach everyday of our trip, and didn’t stop there. Since finding out how helpful it is to stop and wear SweetPea out before continuing on our car journeys we’ve seen so much more cool stuff than we every had before. We saw Lions, Tigers and other wild cats at Great Cats World Park, we road in a gondola through the redwood trees at the Trees of Mystery, and we even stopped at a Medieval Festival on our way home the other day when previously we would have just passed it by, and thanks to our new found need to spend time out of the car we got to watch men in full armor jousting on horseback. As sight we would have other wised passed by.

Thank you for reading.

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