Mindful Parenting
This.
Because I can’t say it better, and because it embodies what I have been working on for a year and will continue to work on as long as I am a parent.
Because I lost it a week ago and yelled at my kids, for no other reason than I was too hungry and hormonal and tired and not at all able to breathe out the frustrations that had mounted. Because that outburst made all three cry, so hard that it took Alan and me a long time to calm them down. Because I spent two days afterward feeling horribly guilty that I had lost it, and they had not deserved to be yelled at (I suppose it’s not often that anyone deserves to be yelled at…).
Because I get up every day and aim for the Middle Way. I have spent far too much of my life aiming for perfection, and to steal from Mercutio, ’twill not serve.
Because we are human. Because we need clarity to let our lights shine brightest. Because we need to love ourselves in all our flawed beauty in order to best love anyone else.
Maple Leaf Kitchen 
You probably only have two minutes for reading… but, you might find either (or both) The Middle Place which is non-fiction by Kelly Corrigan and/or Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker good for thinking or escape respectively. Sometimes, a good book helps to put into perspective that which is, well, less than ideal 😉 It is hard work to mama, hardest job ever. Rewarding too, but sometimes I am amazed that I thought teaching was hard 😉 What was I thinking? I could send those children home and sleep!
You have a beautiful family and I am blessed to have you in my life.
Beautiful…just beautiful.
For someone who is raising – with her husband and best friend, Alan – 3 adorable children, who puts her children and her husband before herself, who makes amazing meals for her family, who strives to be the best Mom, wife, and person she can be, we think you’re pretty amazing!! Love ya!
“Good Enough” parenting was the model my parents always followed. 🙂