How Was Your Week? I'd love to know...
Musings on holding down the fort when my spouse travels.
Let’s Exchange Stories…How Was Your Week?
One of the things I love about motherhood-friendship is being able to share our stories: what’s working, what’s joyful, what’s shitty, what’s happening. So, I encourage you to leave a comment at the end of the article for me and others to see because I’d like to know: How Was Your Week??…just checking in with me/us and sharing how you’re feeling or what’s happening at your house/office/planet this week as a mom/writer/professional/creative/human being/whatever. I can’t wait to read your responses and to reply. We are connected and when we support one another, I believe that we make each other’s lives richer, more resilient, and more colorful — we can inspire each other and fill each other up, like a hearty soup with chicken & vegetables (which I made this week, ICYWW) — we nourish each other. To all the Substack moms out there—you being in my life makes me feel nourished!! I’m so glad you’re here!
I Love How *Snow* Brings People Together…
Have you noticed how *snow* (those asterisks are meant to remind you of snowflakes, did it work?) brings people together? We live in the northeast (in the U.S.) and have had a bit of snow over the past two weeks. Not as much as other parts of the country, but enough snow that my kids and our neighbors have nearly stripped the grass off our front hill they have been sledding so much!
I’m happy to oblige their races in saucers, inner tubes and butts, because their endless laughter brings me immense joy and because I don’t give a hoot about my grass (unless it’s summer), and even then we are pretty laid back about that stuff. I am a woman who loves trees, feeding the birds, and letting part of my property become re-wilded (turned into a meadow and woods) and my husband is, too…
Anyway, don’t you love that feeling in the air when a storm is coming?? And you see people driving around with their plows (and driving more slowly — even though it hasn’t started snowing yet) and salt trucks go rumbling by with little pink salt crystals falling off the back of the truck at stop lights, and everyone is bustling around with metal shopping carts, and you can almost taste salt in the air while smelling cold snow on the way? In our neighborhood, when the snow started falling recently on a Saturday afternoon, many of the parents and kids stepped outside to chat and we caught up on the (long-past) holidays. We talked giddily about the impending storm and everybody complained like “what a pain the snow, shoveling is so hard, is yadda yadda yadda…” while our kids ran around with their tongues out and their faces pointed to the sky, trying to catch the first hysterical snowflakes blowing around. Then, once the snow started to stick, they sledded on our front lawn until about 7pm, for a total of almost 6 hours of non-stop sledding. It was divine.
I Cleaned Up Two Vomits, Two Dog Pees, & Countless Pee-Stained Bed-Sheets…There Goes Another ONE…
Have you ever had one of those weeks where seriously, like seriously, there is constant vomiting, pee and accidents happening that involve bodily fluids with your family/children/pets? Today was a microcosm Big-Bang event where it was just one person/animal after another. My devoted hubby was traveling for work, so I held down the fort for the past few days. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder, especially when I realize how much I have to clean up myself when he isn’t here. (Love you, babe).
The pinnacle of the Big Bang was when one of my kids threw up all over the floor at DSW Shoes while we were waiting to check out and I will just say: God Bless the staff working there, they were the sweetest people EVER—my kiddo literally could have set off a “flood warning” system there was so much coming out…but God Bless the good people of DSW…I will not be showing my face there for sometime, LOL.
I’ll spare you the rest of the incidents, but I will share a picture of my basement laundry room just to give you a sense of how things are going. Also, as I write this article—LITERALLY AS. I. WRITE. THIS. ARTICLE. I just heard one of our dogs barf again on the rug at my feet. LITERALLY.
And on a Gentler, less vomit-y Note…Here Are a Few Substack Articles I Loved Reading This Week (there were waaay more but I had to choose only a couple due to space/time constraints)…
I loved this quote from
about Instagram. I’ve been reading several articles about reasons to stay or leave Instagram, and how it can be pressure-filled when trying to build a brand on Insta. In her piece, she writes, “If Instagram becomes your job and your job becomes Instagram — and if you are working a job you don’t love anymore, you might make a hard (or an easy) decision and move on. That is one example. It has been interesting to read different perspectives.”- of “Life Considered” shares brilliant quotes and tidbits from authors and publications—her entries are like a collection of little glittering jewels and these words had be taking a deep breath and feeling all the feels… “Brianna Copeland, Circe Institute — “Although my days are full of caring for their needs, I will venture to say, the little years of toddlers and babies offer more pockets of hidden time than I dare to admit. For that reason, I must take every thought and effort captive to be formed into the woman I want my children to look to and learn from.”
of “Writer, Interrupted” evokes so many feelings and images through her writing here on Substack. She recently quoted Roethke here:In her article “Hope & I Ain’t Got It”
talks about the frustration of Canva, and I choose to highlight this because, as a creator, these seemingly “little things” like learning how to design logos and images on Canva and navigating the technology of our new world as writers can be discouraging at times. But I love how P asks for help and gets the divine intervention she needs. She writes: “When I’m done staring into the Canva oblivion and about to shut down whatever device I’m using, it is then that I say, ‘Lord, I need your help.’ I might or might not get it immediately, and sometimes I shut that thing down faster than you can blink. However, I always receive Divine Inspiration as requested.”
And now, an enthusiastic shout-out to the rest of The Mom Diaries community! Please follow each other and lift one another up! We got this!
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Disclaimer: the content on Substack’s “The Mom Diaries” of “Momffirmations” posted by Kay M. (@themomdiaries and https://substack.com/@themomdiaries) and on YouTube (@TheMomDiariesbyKayM) or any other medium or social media platform (the “information”) is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for clinical, medical, legal and professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Reliance on any information provided by Kay M. or The Mom Diaries or Momffirmations is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice of your licensed mental health professional, medical doctor, or other qualified health provider.
Thank you for the shout-out! My week has been okay. I’m still standing on the treadmill as I type this. My cholesterol and so forth are currently in the gutter. I’m still processing those lab results and trying just to move each day :).
Chilly and cold here in Michigan too! My boys had a snow day Friday and a day off today for MLK, so the house has been full of life. While I love it, I look forward to the quiet days working from home as well. I do like how the cold keeps us nestled in and forces us to slow down a little.