to the brave you are enough mom

This summer I wrote a post about why being a mom is enough.

The post, written in 22 minutes in my favorite Starbucks has been crazy. I've read it again. I've spoken about it. I've talked with friends about it.

It's about simply being enough.

It's about celebrating motherhood.

We live in a world that is constantly telling us that we need to do more, be more, achieve more, work more, rest more, balance more, look like more, accomplish more, create more, more, more, and more. It's like a never ending ladder - you think you get to the hypothetical top rung only to find out that there is a dozen and an infinity more things that you could be doing.

It's enough moms to be real.

It's enough moms to admit that there are days where you really don't have it together.

It's brave enough moms.

As my voice for mothers has become more cultivated and focused I've realized that sometimes we just need to know that we're normal. It's brave. It's brave to open your front door when your life isn't perfect and to invite someone it. It's brave to keep pulling up your bootstraps and to keep trying even when you don't know if you have energy to keep going. It's brave to call your friend and to tell her you're exhausted and just need someone to talk with.

Sometimes being enough means being okay with not having everything perfect and looking at that ladder of should have's and deciding that you're not going to keep looking at that as the definition of success.

Success is not in those things.

Success. You know what I'm going to write.

It comes in the moments in motherhood. In the brave moments. In the normal moments. In the loving your kids even though they're slightly driving you crazy moments. In the I can't do this anymore but you keep going moments. In the opening the door moments.

Those moments tucked in the minutes of each day. It comes in the times when the milk spills all over the bench and trickles onto the floor and drips everywhere and you're exasperated that it even spilled but you look at your four year old and you realize that you love him way more than the spilled milk.

Being enough means being your best - not the best from the hypothetical never ending ladder of should have's. Trying each day. Loving those kids. And being okay with your motherhood journey. Our journeys are all different, sweet mother. So those cool pins with awesome time out ideas, great ways to organize, cool dinners that the family will all love, crafts that you could be doing, picked up living rooms, and all of that? Well. They are ideas.

Ideas. Not expectations.

Motherhood? Expectation. Raise your kids. Love your kids. Teach your kids. Try. Be okay to cry. Be even more okay to laugh. Support your friends. Love your friends. Don't judge. Don't compare. Be you. You, the perfect mom for your kids, you.

You'll go to bed tired most nights. You'll go to bed with stuff on the counter, laundry to be folded, books to straighten, a to-do list that's not quite done, and kids who love you. Even if sometimes it feels like they don't.

Do you know what I believe?

A mother is enough.

A mother who works hard, loves her kids, doesn't always have it together but just keeps trying, real mom.

My words to you?

You are enough.

Onward brave mother.

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All photographs used by permission and credited to Hannah Nicole.
Images and original content are sole property of Rachel Martin and may not be used, copied or transmitted without prior written consent.