“Just”

I never dreamed I would be a stay at home mom let alone a full time permanent caretaker for my child. 

I loved my job, I was good at my job. I spent time becoming educated for my job. 

Stay at home mom? Not for me.  

So when this precious baby girl started showing signs of needing extra help  around 6 months, I made the hard decision to not go back to teaching.  

I didn’t know for how long and assumed I would one day go back, maybe even get my special education credential at some point. 

Well little did I know, I would learn the most from staying home with this girl.  Taxi driver, Occupational therapist, physical therapist, feeding and speech therapist all rolled in to one, practically

over night. 

I won’t lie and say it was an easy transition.  For years I lost myself.  Who was I? Just a mom? A caregiver? 

Even being a wife seemed to come last most days. Showers felt like a luxury in those early years. 

10 years into this journey and I am

slowly renaming myself again. 

Finding communities and purpose once more. 

But I still have days and weeks where I feel like I am “just.”  During an extra busy week I started thinking of this and decided to document all I did in one day.  So this is for “just the moms” who feel like you aren’t doing enough.  

1. Get Audrey ready for school (dressed, fed, meds given, dropped off at school)
2. Come home and take the dog for a walk
3. Talk to parents from the school about issues we are trying to make better.
4. Order Audrey’s monthly supply of diapers
5. Took a workout class
6. Vacuumed my car and lots of dog hair 🤣
7. Picked up lunch and dropped it off for the paras in Audrey’s class (happy para professional week 🥰) 
8. More cleaning and grocery shopping… And it’s almost time to go pick up! 

This is all before 1pm as well and will continue to do a plethora more before bedtime. 

I don’t say any of this to get attention.  I know I am so privileged to be able to stay home and take such an active role in Audrey’s day to day life.  I’m thankful my husband has a good job with great benefits and that the state sees me as a caretaker or I wouldn’t be able to stay home. 

I say this as always to share in hopes that a mom out there sees this and realizes her worth, even on the hard days. Some days I’m more productive than others, learning to be okay with that is all part of my process.  But regardless if you do all the things or just get your child fed and off to school, you are enough. 

#CareTakerLife

#AudreyJo 

#StayAtHomeMom