I’m still going. And going and going and going. Friends have asked how it is that I can have this sort of energy in the midst of everything. Right after claiming that I’m trying to be mindful, how can I also write about being busy and needing an on the go snack? Well, life happens, that’s how. One pal recently said I reminded her of Princess Poppy from Trolls. She then cheekily, musically chanted, “Get back up again!”
Having four boys born in five years, I field a lot of questions about little boy hair. How do we wash it? How do we style it? How do we deal with haircuts?
Our family is going through a difficult time right now. Hah. Understatement of the century! I’m not ready to talk about that just yet, though. I’ve buried myself in work as a welcome distraction. There’s zero logic in anything going on in our world, but there’s logic in my response to it. I need to provide stability for my family. I need to be strong for my boys. The irony is not lost on me. Women, stereotypically, are not the workaholics. Women, stereotypically, are not the logical ones. But then, nothing about our family really is stereotypical.
Chelsea talks a lot about family health and well-being from both an individual and a group perspective. Self care is a top priority, as well as being mindful of our kids growing older. She tries to grasp onto every second of these precious days as they slip by, while also carving out time for herself. Multitasking to the max. I think those are traditionally thought of as “motherly” characteristics: being cognizant of personal needs while simultaneously bemoaning the passage of time.
When I heard that our sponsor Safety 1st was coming out with the first (and only!) recycled stroller made in the USA with American and imported parts, I had to be a part of their campaign to get the word out. This thing is made up of potato bags, diaper tabs and recycled car seats. Safety 1st works out of their Zero Waste manufacturing facility in Columbus to recycle 20,000 car seats a year, saving 130,000 lbs of plastic from the landfill! As US-based family travelers, we love to give back to our country and protect this great earth any way we can. But would this “green” stroller prove to be road-worthy? Come along with us and see!
I’ve heard people say, “Before I had kids, I was the BEST parent on the planet.” It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? We all have the greatest intentions, and then life gets in the way. When I was pregnant with my first, I bought small-batch homemade lotion from a local boutique and stocked up on cloth diapers. Then kids came along, and we basically just tried to survive. Things got…cluttered. And confusing. I felt like I was drowning under the weight of it all and I just wanted to go back to a life that was simple.
What do you do when your wife is hurting? When she wants to say something but cannot find the words and doesn’t want to make a spectacle of how she truly feels and what emotionally eviscerates her? When she feels alone and cut off but desperately wants to reach out at the same time?
You do your best to do it for her.
There are a great many opportunities throughout life for a person to learn valuable lessons in which to build their character. Adversity and circumstance shed light on the truth of who we are. The worst mistake someone could make is to not gain any knowledge or advancement from the trials in our lives. It is how we grow. It is how we go from darkness to light.
I know what you’re thinking right now. “Woah, Chelsea, that is like a metric ton of toilet paper.” Indeed. People often ask how we juggle travel and home life with a big family. We’ve shared a ton of tips and tricks, but this is BY FAR the most important. The home stockpile.
I was the first of my friends to have kids. I’ve been blessed to develop an incredibly large and supportive group of fellow moms since then, but I’ll never forget those isolating initial weeks. It was me, a baby, and absolutely NO CLUE what I was doing. I ended up leaning on two women in particular during those early days of motherhood when I needed a gut check, a hand, or just an ear to listen when the little guy refused to sleep at 3am. Nate’s mom and grandma (Oma and Nana) were the original members of my mom tribe, and I try to find ways to thank them every year around Mother’s Day.