What is Motherhood 180?

Balance.  The act every mother struggles with.  I've been blessed to be a mother for seven years, but have struggled most of that time to find a balance between meeting the demands of everyday life staying at home raising our children, nurturing our marriage, and finding time to pursue my interests or to simply rest.  This has been a challenge for many years, but since having our fourth child it has become even more apparent.  Unfortunately, I feel that this struggle has adversely affected our home life.

Over the course of time, my ability to remain patient and calm has lessened.  The once fun and creative mom full of projects and ideas has been replaced with a tired and distracted one who can't seem to focus during the day.  Most days life seems to be disorganized and chaotic and for this Type A mom, it is hard to handle.  Ultimately, I'm often left feeling like I'm coming up short.  I'm tired of feeling frustrated and drained at day's end.  I want to sit down and be able to say, "Praise God.  Today was a good day" instead of "Dear God, please help me.  Today was rough."  It's time to make a change and improve everyday life both for myself and for my family.

I often feel like I've run the race, but never quite crossed the finish line.  Perhaps some of you can relate.  I believe I feel this way because I pull myself in too many directions to truly feel like I've given a solid effort in any area; I love to create lists and cross things off when they're complete.  It makes me feel productive, yet I have so many daily responsibilities that are ongoing or intangible they can't be crossed off of a list; or, I feel guilty because I wanted to do better in "x" area today and more than likely it just didn't happen.  Days are unpredictable they are centered around caring for four children seven and under.  There's illness, not enough sleep, temper tantrums, nap boycotts, school, appointments, activities, and on and on and on.  It's easy to feel like you're always running, but there's no clear destination in sight.

Several months ago I began to read encouraging, uplifting, "real" books by authors with strong faith and have begun to shift from beating myself up and worrying to praying on the days when I feel discouraged.  I feel motivated and understand I am not alone:  there is room for positive change.  Let's face it, there are always excuses, but it's time to put those aside and be proactive.  I am going to take the next 180 days and live life more intentionally.  I will purposefully focus on taking positive steps to enrich life for our family.  I AM going to do this.  And it starts today.

If you feel like you're swimming upstream, I hope you will consider taking a leap of faith and joining in on this journey.  One small change each day will yield big results in the end.  Soon our minds will be reprogrammed and healthy habits will develop.  We can do this with support, determination, and faith.  What do you say, there is never a better time than now!