Hi Substack.

It’s 12:34 a.m. I’m writing this on my phone, in bed, with my toddler’s foot on my back (at least it’s not my head, iykyk). My way of saying from here on out, take everything I say with a grain of salt. I don’t know what I’m doing.

So how did I get here, to Substack? Well, the irony is that I was looking for an outlet or identity other than being a mom. I like to write and thought this could be fun, “but what should I write about?” I thought about my hobbies and interests, specifically excluding motherhood since as I said, I was looking for a non-mom related outlet, and after five seconds came to the conclusion I need more hobbies and interests. Maybe you all can recommend hobbies and interests to me, that’s how community works right? Or at least that’s generally what I’m hoping to create with this community.

Anyways, after coming to the realization that I likely don’t have enough time to put in the research to write about true crime (first interest that came to mind, maybe we’ll have a true crime spotlight every now and again), and further realizing everything I know about pop culture (second interest) is from circa y2k, I thought “Well, what would *I* want to read about?” Mom things.

So, this is me, writing about mom things. Chronicling all things motherhood. Because I’ve decided I’m not going to be ashamed that being a mom is my entire personality right now. Someday it won’t be, but right now it is.

It’s now 1:04 a.m. and the toddler has rolled over to my husband’s side of the bed, my back is foot free (yasss), but the baby is a wild card and could be up any minute so I’m wrapping this up. Featuring three things that made my life easier today (technically yesterday, since it’s now 1:10 a.m., also coming to the realization that I’m a slow writer).

1. Bluey Book. My toddler hasn’t watched Bluey yet, but he has a Bingo stuffy and I thought this book would be a fun way to introduce the characters and stories to him. We were able to convince him to come read about Bingo without a fight before nap AND bedtime. Win.

2. This vacuum. An absolute unit. The backbone of this household. Plus my toddler likes to play with it, see photo for proof (bonus points if you can spot the dog water bowl on the console table, toddler life). Keeping a toddler busy and cleaning at the same time? Win. Although to be fully transparent, our old shark had a “lift away” feature that made vacuuming the stairs easier. This one does not, and I really hate lugging the full thing onto every step to vacuum them. So if you have stairs, get one with the lift away feature.

   

3. This book for me: The Let Them Theory. I’m not a huge self-help book person, but with motherhood has come the realization that I need a lot of help, I have a lot of room for improvement. This book has been a good place for me to start and I’ve been trying to use it in my parenting practices. My toddler wants to bring his babydoll to breakfast? Let him. I’ll wash it later. The baby isn’t going down for nap despite being at the end of her wake window? Fine. We’ll try again in a little bit. If you’re a Type A control freak, I highly recommend this book. I’m still a Type A control freak, but maybe slightly more go with the flow and slightly less disappointed when the flow isn’t going exactly how I planned it.

Let me know if you have any recommendations or things that made your life easier today. Like I said, I could use all the help I can get.