Not a motivational quote in sight

So it’s 2017. And every time I peak back into the world to see what’s going on I am seeing motivational quotes and theme words to practice and focus on. I see clean working spaces, motivational quotes and intentions and pumped up people ready to take it all on.

Meanwhile I am being kicked in the head by my kid.

I can’t look at my inbox, last night I spent some time pushing vomit chunks down a sink hole (Maggie, a cold and a cough vomit), I am wondering where Christmas went and I am entirely not ready for it to be the new year yet. MY CHAKRAS AREN’T EVEN CLOSE TO BEING ALIGNED dammit. I’ve got like 2 days left of our holiday and family time and I feel more tired than when it all began.

Anyone else feeling like this?

We have been away for almost 2 weeks now and it’s been truly wonderful, but shit am I tired. 19 month olds and travel isn’t a really good combination. Turns out, they don’t like it. She’s been super clingy in between moments of happiness, then angry and on top of it all sick with a nasty cold. Don’t get me started on the big two and the post Christmas come down where expectations are SKY HIGH and overtiredness is rife. Rob and I have gotten to the point where we’re all like “just go for it. Hit each other and see who comes out on top” we’re that sick of telling them to stop fighting.

I keep waiting for inspiration to strike, to write some emo & inspiring post about how we can do this, we’ve got this but the whole thought of it just makes me feel tired and so the laptop remains unopened and I just seem to make another cup of coffee to get through.

I figure though that whatever is, is. Instead of pushing through regardless, I am going to stop and try to rest when I can. If something seems too hard and I would usually just grit my teeth, it’s OK if it’s too hard and I can say no. If the body isn’t perfect, it’s still ok let it all hang out and just be. Who cares!

Maybe my intention for the year is just that. Done is better than perfect. No is OK too. Although that seems a little lacklustre too though doesn’t it? Maybe no intention can be my intention?

I might just get home, get some washing on the line, get that baby back into a normal routine and see if I can find my chakras somewhere there in the fridge or the bottom of the dishwasher. And until then, I’ll be falling awkwardly into the new year with an escaped boob, an unwaxed bikini line and a Mum scream. Let’s just do it. Regardless.

How are you feeling about this new year ahead?
Pumped and focused and full of intention?
Or kicked in the tired head by a kid?

Comments

  1. Well probably a little like you. I will admit I was soo envious of your family holiday, as we only have our 3 kids and no real extended family. You visited beautiful places, the beach,the farm and I so want what you have. And then along comes this post. You are just like the rest of us, normal mum trying to keep everything calm, organised. Knowing what is ahead of you when you get back to the real world, whinging kids, house cleaning all that shit. If anyone can, you can do it.. You are such an inspiration, remember your NOTAFATMOLEFORCHRISTMAS, Keep going. You can change it to NOTAPISSEDOFFMOLEFOR2017, haha. It will be hard to go back but it won’t take long to settle back into your routine. Enjoy your last few days of hols and safe travels back home.

  2. Cut yourself some slack, Beth! You’ve got a 19 month old! You are way too hard on yourself. Stop trying to be perfect and have an instagram perfect life! Show us the feet in your face and the coffee. There, I’m being bossy, but I think you need it!!

  3. Definitely the best thing i’ve read this year.
    It might be a new year but i’m still f#$*ing exhausted, still feel under appreciated, definitely unfitter than i’ve been and not a cleased chakra to be seen.
    Thanks for keeping it real and helping peeps like me to feel less inadequate and unbalanced.

    Cheers kate

  4. OMG Beth Having this EXACT conversation with my sister this morning. So true. Agree with everything. It’s okay we modern women are such perfectionists. It’s exhausting! Happy 2017.

  5. I’m always so pumped for a fresh new year, intentions a plenty! But then I get home from holidays & life is exactly the same!! I’m just going with the flow. Somewhere along the way I’ll sort shit out & if not, well that’s ok too.

  6. Just blurring the first week of 2017 out and starting fresh from tomorrow. We had a wonderful end to 2016 with a family vay cay to the farm in Scone and of course didn’t want to come home. It wasnt until we were travelling back from your neck of the woods to Gippsland with one gastro filled child and another 2 fighting across car seats that reality of life set in. It wasn’t wonderful but we made it home for NYs and woke up to the next 48 hours of gastro across the 5 of us. Why isn’t it until your a parent that you seem to get this hiddeous bug? I honestly can not remember a time, pre kids, that I got it! Let’s pull it together and do this 2017! ?

    • Oh Kate you poor things! Every parent lives in constant fear and dread of this – it’s the actual worst! Hope things are a little brighter now…happy NY! x

  7. I think if we were coming to the end of a fortnight away with multiple stops and people at the end of the year we would all be exhausted too and I would be saying just what you’ve said (even though it would have also been wonderful too). Our kids fought and bitched and sniped for the first week or so after school finished until they’d rested up – and relative peace has since ensued. I find we all need that patch of low stimulation, low structure, low commitment time at the end of a long year to find our equilibrium again. Maybe once you head home for some quiet days in your own world and pleasing just yourself some inspiration might find you ?.

  8. Ahhh Beth. Love you telling it like it is. Have been pretty low since new year. No holidays planned and the stretch of school holidays out in front. Oldest son wanting to know ‘what are we tomorrow?’. The answer to that I’d like to be ‘nothing. Amuse yourself!’ Not that simple though. I definitely need a good pick up. Thanks for the reminder that I’m not alone. Xxxxx

  9. Great post and I think lots of us are feeling this way. I’m still wondering where Christmas went and trying to pack away all the stuff we accumulated from it. I’m watching all these people record their wonderful hi day activities taking with a ‘photo a
    day’ type thing and I’m just trying to get through the daily tasks of keep the kids fed and watered and the house reasonable. It’s feeling like Groundhog Day with no end in sight.

  10. Haha Beth I’m sure many of us can relate ☺️ Most off all the memories of this family holiday is priceless !! Te pic of Maggies little foot in your face tomorrow it will be bigger, never the same size again !! That pic of you jumping in the water both fists pumped ? the smile Daisy’s face is just irreplaceable ☺️ Love your posts and utmost honesty. You truely represent and ground us women who do work !! and wifey and mother ?

  11. Love it! Thank you Beth for summing up how I’m feeling at the beginning of this New Year, escaped boob and all. I think we put to much pressure on ourselves to usher in the new year as a ‘new you’. If we can just be, and enjoy those little moments that make us all human. You’re a legend xx

  12. Yep, feeling exhausted too. On the whole it’s been a lovely Christmas, catching up with family and friends, and I should be feeling really grateful but am just feeling wiped out instead.

    I’m thinking next year of having Christmas at home, followed by a few quiet days to recuperate, tidy etc before taking off for the beach. This year we were still at work on Fri 23rd, followed by the mother of all car packs to take off at dawn the next morning for the family gathering. I think we just bit off too much…

    AND thanks for the honesty in your posts. It’s nice to see someone on social media not glorify every aspect of their lives and not be constantly trying to sell me something. Let’s make 2017 the year of keeping it real..

    I hope you get some rest and feel better soon.

  13. The Christmas/NY period has been a fog of being unwell for me. Intentions be damned.

    You’re doing okay.

    No is okay. Can’t is okay. Later is okay.

    The biggest load of BS is this idea we have that others have it together more than we do and that somehow that is what matters. Who frickin’ cares?!

    2017 has arrived, intentions set or not!

  14. How do I feel? I feel like I’ve been kicked in the head by a political party. I’ve canceled all my news feeds on Facebook, deleting every email with a certain politician’s name in the subject line, and plan on ignoring the national news for the next four (and possibly 8) years. I feel bereft that inroads the US has made in the last century toward acceptance of individual differences and protection of the environment have been sent down the tubes overnight. I may be past the fighting siblings and colds every month stage, but I feel a sense of decimation that every social issue I hold near and dear has been dealt such a blow. Not a happy camper these days. I can’t find my chakras either.

    My plan is to come to your country for February, hug my grandbaby, and otherwise bury my head in the sand. Maybe I’ll take up yoga. I hope there is some clean air to breathe by the time she has her children.

  15. And that is my kind of motivational blog for 2017 – especially the escaped boob and unwaxed bikini line! It’s January and i feel bombarded by ‘get your life in order messages’ when really all i am focusing on is feeding the kids something, clean undies and washing the kids once a week until school goes back. Baby Mac don’t go changing! lx

  16. Yes! We have two days left of what has been a three week Christmas holiday with a 5.5yo, almost 3yo and 5 month old. I am SO over it and exhausted. It has been amazing but do tiring, the kids are feral, I’m fat, the baby is waking more at night and as we live overseas We will go home to a week of Jetlag. I think that’s just the reality of life with small children. Plus as much as I love them I’m quite used to the older two being at school and preschool a couple of days and having SOME peace rather than all the togetherness.

    Anyway just to let you know the post resonated and you’re not alone. Enjoy the return to routine!

  17. The fighting! Yes! It’s doing my head in! Is this normal?! Can you please blog about this for us “new” Mums?! My almost 5 year old and 2.5 year old normally get along so well and the past week they have been yelling, snatching, pushing..:I don’t know where my angels have gone! Is this the “post-Christmas come down” that you’re talking about?? My husband is a school teacher so it’s not as if they suddenly have no attention after all the fun of Christmas. They have 2 parents every day but their behaviour is worse!! Is it the lack of structure in the holidays? The 4 year old desperate to start school and have some space from her little sister who used to be cute but is. Or a bit annoying as she gets older and asserts herself?? Advice please!! Thanks for your honest posts! Happy new year! Ha!

  18. Oh Beth… 19 month olds… definitely NOT fun on holidays, there is no such thing as an actual Holiday with toddlers is there (that is what you have with your friends when you leave the kids behind)…. I feel for you DARLS!!!! There is light at then end of that long toddler tunnel… let me know when you see it. xx

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