Overflowing On Empty

I love being a mom. Really. I do. It's the only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up. But let me tell you, this Mom thing is HARD! Being a mom is a lot of things.  It's wonderful, and amazing, and hard, and exciting (not always in a good way, but hey, it's still excitement!), and rewarding, and hard. Someone once told me motherhood was the best hard thing they'd ever done.  I didn't know what they meant then, but I do now. Someone asked me the other day what was so hard about it. I couldn't tell if they were genuinely curious, or if they were thinking , "It can't be that hard, how hard can it be?" I didn't really know how to answer them that day, but it got me thinking. What is it that makes being a mom so hard? It's messy. Constantly. Everywhere. And we're not talking just the run of the mill, someone left their shoes out, or a jacket lying on the floor, kind of messes. We're talking tornado aftermath, how in the world did t

As a fairly new mom, I struggle so often with feeling like a failure. There are so many days when being a mom looks nothing like I had imagined it would, or should, and it makes me feel like a terrible mother. (The fact that I got married, became mother to a teenager first, and then gave birth to a 4 weeks pre-term baby, all in the span of 12 months doesn't help, it just gives my mind more things to tell me I'm failing at! )  I know I am not alone in this struggle, but it can feel lonely. So lonely. You see, we tend to hide our failures, put our best front on, and do our best to appear on the outside like we have it all together. We don't. Hardly ever. Maybe really never. In fact, I would venture to guess that even the most seemingly put together mom you've ever met still feels like a failure far more days than she'd care to ever let on. The other day I found out a friend, who is a brand new mama, is struggling with fears and doubts about her ability to be a good m