I started a blog in 2007 to chronicle motherhood. My mother, who is ten times the mother I am, never kept a journal of the everyday happenings while raising a family of seven children. As I embarked upon parenthood, I constantly turned to her for advice, for insight, for validation, something to cling to as I fumbled along as a new mother.
“Did any of us do that?”, I would ask when Anna repeatedly removed her diaper, or climbed out of her crib, or screamed for hours straight every night as a newborn.
“How did you deal with this? Or that?”, I would query, knowing that if anyone had dealt with pretty much everything, it was my own dear mother.
But she couldn’t remember. The wisdom she had acquired over years of tending her flock, the inevitable byproduct of doing so with love and intention…mostly vanished from her memory. Every question I raised was met with a sheepish reply that she had forgotten the minutia of life with infants and toddlers and preschoolers, the life in which I was now entrenched.
I don’t say this to disparage my mom. She was a mom among moms. Ask anyone who knows her. It was because she was so phenomenal at her trade that I so desperately needed access to the wealth of knowledge she had amassed over the years. Without a written record, however, many of the details eluded her. Details that would have come in handy for me, not to mention many other inexperienced parents.
At that point I resolved to keep a journal. Although it’s safe to say that my experience as a mother of five will drastically differ from my mom’s, I can also surmise that some of those experiences will be valuable to someone. Somewhere.
So I’ve put myself out there. My joys, my blunders, my heartache. Ten years of it. It began as Green Eggs and Ham and has evolved into Susie of All Trades. Green Eggs and Ham fulfilled my initial goal to simply keep a record. Susie of All Trades continues that vision, but it also represents my attempt to share tried and true methods for the benefit of others.
While I was in the throes of early motherhood, living for bedtime and fumbling along during the hours that preceded it, I relied heavily on the experience of those around me personally as well as on that of strangers on the internet. I can’t help but express gratitude to my friends and to the wonderful parents who sacrifice their time to create content on the internet that has resonated with me in one way or another. The parenting articles, the art lessons, the chore charts, the family systems and traditions, the printables.
It’s now my turn to give back. I’m scouring my hard drive for all the successful resources I’ve drummed up over the years and I’m regurgitating it. Just in case it makes a difference to someone else.
