Happy New Year, Maybe??

Depending on your culture, experience, or past there are many ways to mark the passing and beginnings of a year. January 1st, birthdays, and anniversaries are all marker with which we note the passing of time and the freshness of opportunities.

For a life that has been surrounded by academia one of the larger markers comes in the form of September and the academic calendar. As a seminary wife, living in a college town, and all my siblings (birth and marriage) in school this one can even trump New Year's Eve :)

After a summer of adjusting to parenthood in our sleepy little village, a place where it was actually quiet enough to hear the crickets chirp and the neighbours up with their own little one it's odd to see the streets flood with young faces as they learn to navigate the halls I once called home.

I was always a card carrying nerd (still am, my child is destined for the life of a nerd, mwahaha). I loved this time of year. The adventure of new classes, new subjects, new supplies. I eagerly poured over syllabii anticipating research projects and assigned text books, blissful in the deliciousness of academic rigour and a good cuppa. 

Maybe that's why, this year, I feel so lost.

It's hard to enter a time of eager, communal excitement and realize that instead of delving into new psych books and youth models that my research now revolves around diapers, teething, and when to introduce solids. It's world shifting when late nights are no longer due to hanging with friends, writing papers, or out with the hubby but instead wrapped around a dear little soul who cries his heart out for reasons unknown (still looking into the teething potential or late rallying colic). 

It's still odd that instead of hanging out after church or wandering to the coffee shop, a quick jaunt to the post office can require strategic planning which still may be outwitted by 24 ish inches of humanity.

What's a new mom to do?

As a student studying counselling and youth work my professors always stressed the necessity of self-care. Being the eager little perfectionist I tend to default too, this was a lesson I often glossed over in an effort to pour more into my assignments. Interestingly enough, it's motherhood that's showing me the importance of this oft overlooked skill.

As a mom, especially as a Christian mom, it's so important to spend time in community, spend time in prayer, and spend some time outside the identity of "peanut's mama" or "DH's wife" because, while these are both roles I love dearly, the person I am outside of that mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally need to be nourished and acknowledged too or else I cannot function as wife and mother.

Now the challenge is finding the time and the community .. .