WOWIE, it’s like the universe really delivered for me today.

I said I wanted two hours to myself in the morning and, here I am, sitting at my table. Drinking coffee. Finished journaling. And now I’m back here blogging again.

This time, I did NOT get up at 3am. Ishaan woke up twice last night. 11:30pm and then again around 4:30am. The second time, I nursed him and then rolled out of bed and HERE WE ARE!

Mama gets some time to herself.

I get my second shot of the vaccine today so I’m bracing myself for some side effects. Luckily, we’re heading to Newport tomorrow so, if things don’t feel so great, we’ve got some built-in babysitters so I can rest.

A few days ago, I put out a call on Instagram for some easy recipes. And my sister-in-law said “COSTCO CHICKEN TACO KIT” and I immediately Insta-carted it. And that’s what we had for dinner last night.

I like meals that come together quick.

I wasn’t always this way.

In my “old life” (read: before motherhood life), I would wake up on Sundays, go to the Campbell Farmers Market, and then spend all day cutting vegetables and food prepping. Food prepping felt like a “must” because teaching left very little time to cook. But I did find the chopping up veggies to be really therapeutic. And, now?

Well, let’s just say any free time I have, I’m not interested in chopping up veggies.

So the chicken taco kit hit the spot. No chopping. Quick assembly. Boom, boom, boom.

Sheet pan meals are also quick. But now that it’s getting hot outside, I don’t want to turn on my oven.

Tonight we’ll have leftovers. And then starting tomorrow, we get my mama’s food for the next few days! I’m sure gonna miss that when we move to Chicago.

In other news, Ishaan is turning ONE in a couple weeks. That saying, “the days go slow and the years go fast” really makes sense to me. Now more than ever. I think back to some of the more challenging phases we went through (e.g. getting rid of that damn swaddle) and thought we’d never get through it. But here we are on the other side of it.

It’s always helpful to remind myself that even when things feel hard NOW, it won’t last forever.

Like sleep. I probably sound like a broken record at this point talking about his sleep.

But, yeah. It feels challenging that I’ve lost the ability and freedom to sleep through the night. (At this point, a 4-hour stretch of sleep is quite possibly the most luxurious thing ever).

But I’m reminding myself that this is temporary. It won’t last forever. In a year or two (or maybe even sooner), he’s not going to need my help to fall back asleep. He won’t need middle-of-the-night feedings. This phase will be in the past. And it’ll feel like a little blip in the grand scheme of things.

I’ll end on this.

In all the free time yesterday, I actually opened up my blog reader and caught up on some reading. I read this post on Cup of Jo about infertility and it made me tear up more than once.

Any time I read about the things women go through – mentally and physically and emotionally – over the course of their lifetime, I’m reminded over and over again that we are so strong.

The things we do to become mothers. The things we do AS mothers. The way our bodies somehow break and fall back together after birth. The way our bodies nourish little bodies and help them grow.

I can’t even imagine how we spent centuries thinking males were the greater sex when women are clearly stronger and more powerful and more resilient.

So, yeah.

Every day as a mama feels hard.

But if anyone can do it, a woman can.