posted by Stacey on Guest post, Just.Be.Enough.

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I am very excited to announce that I have been offered the opportunity to be a regular contributor on a website called Just.Be.Enough. Just the name of the site is inspiring because so many of us feel we aren’t enough. Ever.

Elena Sonnino founded Just.Be.Enough. in 2011 to give women a place of support. It is so easy to feel “less than” and Elena has created a space where we can celebrate who we are. You can find the full story behind the site here.

I have found over the years many reasons to feel like I am not enough as a mother. There are so many pressures and so many things to do wrong. What if I don’t discipline my children right? What if I’m too strict? What if I’m not strict enough? What if I don’t feed my children healthy enough food? What if I do and they hate it? What if I give them too many chores or not enough?

Feeling you are enough for your children when the world is telling you that you are doing it wrong can seem impossible. It is a journey that mothers undertake every day.

Elena asked each contributor to choose three words to focus on for the year. I must be honest, it was tough to come up with three, but after careful thought I found three words that seemed fitting for me.

My first word is Laugh; Laugh because sometimes that’s all that is left. When the baby draws on walls, or throws bananas at the cat it is easy to become frustrated and discouraged. But this year, I am going to commit to more laughter. If you read my blog, you’ll probably know that laughter is important to me. But I have a secret. Sometimes it takes sharing the frustrating moments with someone else for me to find it funny. I’m tired of cleaning crayon off of walls.

The second word I chose was balance; Balance because without it, we would be lopsided. Seriously. Balance within a family is so hard and I find myself to be out of balance on a fairly regular basis. My hope is that by focusing on this word, I will be able to find better ways to maintain balance for my family and myself.

My third word for the year is tenacity; Tenacity because I refuse to give up and life requires me to try again. And again. And again. I have gotten better over the years, but I have a tendency to give up when something seems too big or too challenging.

I am looking forward to a year filled with change and growth and without further ado, I would like to introduce the rest of the lovely ladies I am honored to share this journey with:

Elena at LiveDoGrow
Corinne at Seeds of Coriander
Lee at CoupleDumb
Alexa at No Holding Back
Kimberly at Rubber Chicken Madness
Kirsten at One Tough Mom
Robin at Farewell Stranger
Stephanie at My Write Side
Tracie at From Tracie
Missy at Literal Mom
Tricia at Raising humans
Kirsten at The Kir Corner
Angela at Tread Softly

Tags: Just.Be.Enough., large family mothering, motherhood