Hey there! I’m Mikala—a family doctor, wife, mother of 5, well-being advocate, and author of the books Ordinary on Purpose and Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife. Each month my writing reaches millions of women, but I am thrilled to be connecting with YOU. I’m truly grateful to have you here!
All tagged #lifehappensintheordinary
I wish I could say I’m the perfect mother. But…I’m not. Not even close. Day after day I mess up in a million ways, and I'm still the right mom for the job.
Our main job as parents is to help our children navigate life. REAL LIFE. And that means talking to them about the hard stuff.
First, I’d recommend a deep breath. And...maybe another. Then simply repeat a phrase like this one, “Oh, I know honey. Ugh. There’s always something to do, right? I sure do appreciate your help around here.”
As I’ve grown older and my deepest relationships remain, I realize what the girl next door brings to a friendship, especially during these transitional years of midlife.
Somewhere along the way…we stopped trying to change one another. We stopped keeping track and stopped keeping score and decided to be on the same team.
It might look a little different now, but your boy will always need you in so many ways!
Motherhood is exhausting and scary and filled to the brim with beautiful, heart-stopping, tear-jerking, breathtaking moments. And you get to feel every single emotion!
This is a book for any woman who has reached midlife and wondered, Is this . . . it? I thought it would get easier. I thought I would have more figured out by now. I always thought life would be more beautiful than this.
We need an un-doing of the rules, of the stories we’ve been told, of the world’s ridiculous expectations, and of the lies we’ve accumulated into overflowing garbage heaps in our minds. We can start with my new book: Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife. I can’t wait to share it with you!
It's okay to switch off the news, turn down the radio, delete a few apps from your phone. It's okay to come up for air.
OF COURSE, you always intend to exercise and make something healthy-ish for dinner and switch the laundry and respond to those work emails and clean up the kitchen counters and make time for self-care and basically be a productive and functioning person. But then, all too often, life gets in the way.
Yesterday a friend of mine posted a rant on social media. I felt EXACTLY the opposite. Have you been there? Here’s what we can do…
These days, hugs are few and far between. Usually given with a limp arm. Or the ‘lean in’ with no arms at all. It’s lonely, sometimes. But we have to remember…we’re not alone.
It’s easy to overstuff—our dryers and our lives. And that’s what causes burnout!
I can’t believe this is my life. It’s messy and hard and ordinary and mostly unplanned. And so ridiculously beautiful.
This is my third time watching a boy of mine slip into the whipping, swirling vortex of adolescence. And I know. I know they return—taller, leaner, deep-voiced, even more hilarious and fun, wiser, witty, a little more grown, and still absolutely amazing. But the letting go is hard.
I think we’re missing out on the fabulous beauty midlife has to offer while trying to cover our age spots and blemishes with creams or smooth our crow’s feet with medicated patches or inject away our forehead wrinkles. Let’s embrace the years!
No one told me just how amazing it is to watch this little person you met at his very first breath GROW UP—even way up over your own head—and I want you to know. Raising teens is hard, but it is so good, too! I promise.
