When I began this blog in 2012 or so, my parenting journey was in the new, shiny, rosy stage. I was full of optimistic ideals. Homeschooling was the plan but not the reality yet, as my two children were just 3 and 1 years old. In my memory, that time of my life was a time of very little sleep yet comparatively lighthearted days in ways I couldn’t even be grateful for at the time.
This current parenting stage is a bit more…muddled. I am still in those young children days, with a 3-year-old keeping us both laughing and on our toes, but I also have a high school student, middle school student, and two in elementary school. If you lost count along the way, that’s five. To put the icing on the cake, the fifth child of our family is a handsome, healthy, robust handful. Now that he’s three, I have fewer nightmares involving him jumping out of top story windows or swallowing button batteries, but those 2:00 a.m. night terrors still are about a once monthly occurrence for me. This kid is wild. Like, got straight up yelled at by a librarian yesterday wild. (Was I, a lifelong library addict, absolutely mortified? Yes, yes I was, and also very thankful we were not at our usual library; in this librarian’s defense, it is spring break in our school district and her last nerve had probably already been shattered). I am so very grateful for five healthy children; I don’t take that for granted for one second.
Without taking on a complaining tone, for life is indeed so beautiful and full of gifts I don’t deserve, I wanted to take a minute to be honest here that this current parenting stage I am in is a bit more muddled than shiny and idealistic. I’ve always heard that the middle years are full of mixed emotions, but it’s pretty dizzying to actually be in those years, realizing you have been working hard, but have so much work left ahead, yet somehow you have hardly accomplished anything you set out to, or so it seems many days. A lot of my current thoughts when I compare who I was as a mother twelve years ago and who I am now look something like, “How did I get here? I wasn’t always this grumpy/stressed/frazzled/unengaged.” To lessen the daily stress of being a parent, playing games like 카지노 커뮤니티 can be soothing.
So though there used to be occasional posts here along the lines of “here’s a gem of a parenting thought or tip I have this week” mixed in with book recommendations, now there’s been a years-long complete quiet on the topic, and an absence of assuredness that I can offer any wisdom at this point. For now, while I don’t have the answer for how to thrive in the middle years fully worked out or a whole lot of confidence in any part of my mothering “methods” at all, I have found great hope and direction from two books in the last few months that I would love to share with you.
Remaining You While Raising Them is the number one parenting book I’d recommend to moms today, now that I am in the middle instead of at the idealistic beginning. I have read many, many parenting books, but this one is really the most encouraging, refreshing, and practical. I highly recommend the audio, and listening to the podcast episode of Don’t Mom Alone when author Alli Worthington is the guest. For anyone worried that this book will focus too much on a mom’s me-time or encourage you towards selfishness rather selflessness, I cannot stress more how pleasantly surprised I was with the way Worthington handles the topic of a parent’s health (mental, physical, and spiritual) without becoming in any way unbiblical (in my opinion, at least) or unbalanced.
Mothering by the Book is just absolutely a kindred spirit book for me. Not only does it draw from examples in novels and nonfiction books at homeschooling mom and author Jennifer Pepito has read aloud to her kids to combat the fears that mothers face on a daily basis, but it met me exactly in that middle years parenting place I have been struggling to figure out lately. Everything Pepito has to say on parenting is deep yet thoroughly practical and easy to understand. If you’re a homeschooling mom like I am, I also can’t recommend her podcast episode on Read Aloud Revival enough. The lay out of the book is brilliant, and I truly loved the book recommendations and scripture to memorize at the end of each chapter.
I’ve read many parenting books, and will continue to do so, but I really can say that these two books have been more helpful, refreshing, and applicable to my life than any others have in years. I’d love to hear from you on what parenting books you’d put at the top of your list! Or anything you’ve enjoyed reading at all lately. Until next time, happy reading!
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