A handful of years ago, I was introduced to the idea of choosing a word for the year. This word was meant to set an intention for the way you walk through life for the next year. I haven’t done one in a few years, because everything in my life, and life for everyone, honestly, was just so up in the air. 2020 brought a pandemic + pregnancy, 2021 we were new parents and 2022 we were still relatively new parents and had our second child! So, I had the bar set pretty low for expectations of manifesting life goals much beyond our growing family and no real intentions were set other than survive. Haha.
2022 ended with a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I was obviously overjoyed that we completed our beautiful little family with the birth of our son, Liam. But I also experienced PPD following Liam’s birth. Our November baby meant that I started deeply feeling this during what’s typically my most favorite time of the year to be home – the holidays! And it was really hard on me to feel so deeply depressed for that and, even more, to not feel the immediate bond with Liam in the same way I had with Charleigh because I didn’t experience PPD after her birth.
Late in 2022/early 2023, I started journaling again and journaling with gratitude. Practicing positivity. Setting intentions. Making realistic goals and telling Matt about those goals in hope that he would be on board with my personal goals and help me achieve the travel goal of averaging one weekend trip per month. Then, I got inspired about a week into the year to make a realistic word choice for the year: content. I craved to be content with myself, content with this stage in life and content in the things I was able to do.
We started out the year with very few plans. Kicking of the year with a 2-month-old didn’t make me feel like planning, but just when I least expected it, we turned our whole lives around in so many different ways.
Firstly, I got help for my PPD, which I am so grateful for. I found contentment in motherhood because of this and I’m honestly really proud of myself for doing this as quickly as I did. I am so grateful that I was able to recoup a bond with Liam quickly because of this and protect my relationships, most of all with Charleigh and Matt, because of this as well. (If this is something you’re struggling with, or depression of any kind, I hope that you find the strength and courage to talk to your healthcare provider about the best care and practices for you.)
Secondly, we decided it was time to prioritize “us” time. When we get both kids down we do chores for a certain amount of time and then we prioritize spending quality time together. We try to get out for some dates at least once a month that we just get to be ourselves. Sometimes it’s dinner and drinks, sometimes it’s a day hike. We even managed to sneak in a long weekend in Mexico City this year and doing that made us feel so us again. We got to do the things we loved, when we wanted, just us, like we did when we first got together. It was just a great experience to reset and I honestly think we came back able to be even better parents because we made time for us.
We’ve been focusing a lot more on spending money on experiences over things. Sometimes, those experiences do mean we have to buy things, but they hold more than that temporary retail therapy high. We’ve been revamping our living space to make it the best use of space it can be and as cozy and homey as we can.
Also, we bought a camper. It sounds silly that this purchase would just instantly give me fulfillment, but has played a beautiful part in our lives this year. It allows us to spend more time out in nature, more quality family time away from distractions at home and more time on the road. I love that we’re giving our kids this gift. We’re teaching them so much from being in nature, from being adaptable and working together to set up our “home” everywhere we park it.
Lastly, I’ve been really inspired this year to homeschool/wildschool/worldschool our children. There are a few Instagram accounts that have offered up a lot of useful tips. I’ve been reading books on this and I’m feeling optimistic about it. I know I have a little time to potentially change my mind, but I love the idea of letting our beautiful kiddos learn in the ways that are best for them, have a hands-on education and hopefully get to a point that we can incorporate some travel into their curriculum too!
I don’t want this post to start to ramble, or to make it seem like our year has just been sunshine and rainbows. Remember, no one’s life is perfect. Having two young kids 2 and under 1 is a challenge and tries my patience daily. We have everyday woes and I still have a lot of times that I compare myself to others. But I’m also very proud of the growth I’ve made this year. I’m very proud of the help I’ve sought, of the wife, mother and friend I’ve been so far this year, the work I’ve done and more. I’m very happy to be living a life that I feel not only content with, but truly and deeply fulfilled by. Here’s to finishing out the year with the same feeling of inspiration and starting to meditate on my word for 2024.
I hope you’ve had a beautiful 2023 thus far and that you’ll have peace, contentment, growth and even fulfillment in the final quarter of the month. I’d love to hear about your victories, your trials and your growth as well; and thank you for the safe space to share about mine as well.
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