Mother’s Day was a little bit different this year wasn’t it? I think we will be saying that about every holiday for months to come, and that’s just the reality of it. Different doesn’t have to be bad. I’ve said that in blog posts before, but I completely stick by that mentality in the current situation we are in too.

We’ve been staying at home for 60 days as of today, and in all transparency, for most of those 60 days I’ve lived in survival mode instead of thriving mode. I was looking for an end that wasn’t coming, and I didn’t know how to find a new path. Over the weekend though, I had a really amazing social distancing coffee chat with a good friend (i.e. we sat 6 feet apart and drank coffee simultaneously), and it dawned on me that I can either continue to wallow in the situation or choose to rise above it. I need to choose to rise above it because as of now, this is our “normal”, and I want my kids to laugh and grow and flourish in whatever circumstances we are in. 

Last week as I was attempting a less than stellar “organization” of my kitchen office, I came across this poster from my moms group, MOPS. I’m not usually a motivational poster person, but this one struck me because it is so in tune with how we as moms are trying to live right now. We are trying to do A LOT, all at the same time, and with less help than before, but we are truly raising the bar for ourselves. The days we want to throw in the towel, we don’t, we keep pushing through because our kids need us. The days when we feel guilty because we raised our voices one too many times, we have a quick cry and try to be better tomorrow. The days when we think to ourselves “this is not the motherhood I imagined”, we realize that we are exactly the mom our kids need. 

I salute each and every mama out there because we are all redefining motherhood every day. We are constantly reinventing schedules, routines, activities, and learning. Raising our babies in a pandemic is giving us a new found strength to raise the bar for ourselves so that we emerge from this ready to take on the world. Don’t give up. It totally sucks to be playing cards that you didn’t want in a game that you didn’t even ask to join, but here we are. Together. Raising our babies. Raising our glasses to each other for being the BA mamas we need to be. 💪🏻💕