Saying No To New Year Resolutions

Choosing reflection over hustle in the time of new year resolutions

Mama, Don’t You Want To Look Pretty?

Hello and welcome,

Sometimes I have so much I want to share with you that I feel cluttered. So forgive my full to the brim newsletter this week; I prefer to share a lot once a week than microdose you with email after email.

We had a mostly restful holiday despite losing my voice, getting a sinus infection, unexpectedly having our parents’ dog pass Christmas Eve, and feeling the weighty pressures of end of year marketing in the nonprofit world. (Do you guys want to hear more about this sort of work? Let me know in the comments please.)

We kept our gift giving small and were blessed much.

The best gift was a lot of time with my husband after this rushed year of work travel. We went to the hotel we stayed at after we were married and walked on the Puget Sound beach. We stayed up late talking for hours on what life once was and what we dream of it becoming together. Sometimes it only takes 20 hours together to find renewed peace.

I have been reading “The Hobbit” this past month to my daughter. What once was a bedtime story has become an anytime story (seen above I am reading to her in the car 5 minutes before school begins). It was a blessing for my sister to buy us the illustrated version as well to keep as an heirloom.

When I imagined parenthood, long before it was associated with the hardships, I once imagined this sort of joyful reading of old classics. Some of my favorite memories were my mother reading “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” to me or later of me reading to my mother and brother “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” as a teenager trying to connect with her family.

I’m also reflecting on this recent conversation with Eliza. It seems important I document it here for myself to see during those hard moments I feel.

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My three-year-old daughter asked me why I didn’t put on makeup when we were leaving the house.

“Mama, you don’t want to look pretty??”

This would have crushed me in a different time, but I calmly followed up with, “I am pretty. I don’t wear makeup to be pretty.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m already pretty. I wear makeup for fun sometimes.”

“Am I pretty?” (Now I’m crushed, but calm.)

“Absolutely. Is God good?”

She nodded her head “yes”.

“God is good and he creates all things beautiful. You and I are beautiful no matter what.”

Eliza accepted this and moved on. I think she accepted it because I accept it, truthfully.

I know confidently that God is good and doesn’t make mistakes. He makes all things beautiful. I am so grateful I am building this mindset while I teach Eliza about her own identity in this world. I just wish I had embraced myself with more kindness in the past 32 years.

I have hard moments where I can’t stand the cholesterol deposit marks beneath my tired eyes, but I feel different about myself as her mother than when I’m looking at my face as just me. I do know this: I never looked at my own mother and thought she was anything but beautiful.

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Winter Workbook For The Tired Mother

We are in the days before 2025, where everyone feels that time has gone lopsided and schedules are looser or obsolete.

In this season, I invite you to ignore the upcoming messages of New Year Resolutions and endless goal-setting methods. Put down the high expectations and endless feelings of needing to produce something.

As an alternative, Motherhood Minute is focusing on rest from January to March.

Please join me as a paid member if you are looking for:

• More gentle reflections and less to-do lists

• Slower living instead of hurried calendars

• Learning from the natural seasons despite the culture of hustle

  This ebook includes: journaling prompts for each month, a personal essay, monthly energy map, plenty of journaling space

This winter, let’s rest and reflect together. Because I need it. I’m sure you need it too?

If 2024 taught me anything, it’s that my plate is full and it’s made of paper, not porcelain. In 2025, I am removing items from my metaphorical plate with joy.

I am investing the time and energy I have into my family. My creative pursuits are things I want to do, not just things an audience might want to do (no offense but I feel like if you’re here we have aligned interests.)

So if you’re trying to live the “slow lived life” but your reality is full time speed ahead by the very nature of your job (parenting or otherwise), then you’ve come to the right place.

Upcoming:: The Winter Reflections for the Tired Mother Workbook is available January 1, 2025 for all monthly or annual members. The FREE January workshop will be the week of Jan 20th (time to be determined on my work schedule).

If you want to take advantage of my $5/month pricing scale before the new year, they will be raising to $7/month January 1.

In Case You Missed It

Free Workshop For The Tired Mother This Winter

The Art Of Not Doing Things

When God Gave Us Cars