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 in Motherhood
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.
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.
None of it feels shiny! And it certainly isn’t perfect, but it IS beautiful. Life happens in the ordinary after all!
It’s sobering to know that before IV antibiotics were widely available, my daughter’s particular diagnosis had a blindness rate of 20% and with certain complications, a mortality rate >40%.
Ask your family what they love most and give yourself the gift of a beautiful Christmas season by doing just the few things they feel matter most.
If you feel like you are failing your child, I have a story for you.
And showing up to this mess and noise through exhaustion (and sometimes tears) is part of raising a beautiful family!!
Your kids need a mom who laughs and cries and yells and dances and forgives and prays and hugs and loves. And LIVES!!
It is perfectly okay to admit this change is hard on my momma heart. It’s okay that it feels necessary to grieve.
He’s practically grown. And yet, he’s the same boy I’ve always known.
This is the beautiful, bittersweet ache of motherhood—every day we hold on and we let go. And our hearts simply grow.
That little boy you always knew is right there…and somehow this beautiful new person is emerging too.
Sometimes I stare across the room at him when he doesn’t know I’m watching and think, ‘When exactly did he GROW UP?’
I’m giving myself the time and grace and space to wonder. I’m giving myself some time to just…BE. And I’m calling it my Grace Period.
That’s what I’m supposed to say, but it’s not what I’m thinking as you begin kindergarten.
Keeping track of the ordinary little details of this family is the greatest privilege of my life. And if the tiny details of childhood matter to them, then they matter so much to me because that’s how they feel secure and loved.
Today I feel sad. Maybe it’s because I took my youngest to kindergarten round-up and there are only a few more months until ALL my kids will be in school.
Maybe He always meant for me to do motherhood as an imperfect human attempting to raise other imperfect little humans in a world full of trials and tragedies.
