when you're a typical mom

Hello there. My name is Keelie. Those who know me best call me Keel.

I am a believer.

I am a mom to two beautiful, spirited children.

I am a wife to an incredibly patient man.

I am also thrilled you're taking the next few minutes to spend some time with me!

However, I feel the need to caution you up front about 2 things that are fundamentally me.

First, I am not a writer. I have no writing background. I have a BA in Mathematics so some might say that, theoretically, writing and using the creative side of my brain is something I am not good at. Well, whether I am good at it or not, here I am. A mom who sees a need to share information with other moms. That's it. Pretty simple. My heart has been tugging at me for the last 3 years to share with others. I have started not one but two blogs similar to this before. But when it came time to publish, fear and doubt flooded my veins like one of those flat garden hoses. You know, the ones that lay flat for convenient storage but as soon as you turn on the water it inflates and sprays out of control if you don't have a firm hold on it. Yup, for most of my adult life I have let fear dictate how I lived my life. Not anymore my friend. But that is a narrative for another day.

Second thing you should probably know up front, my views about....hmmmm...well...most e v e r y t h i n g parenting and kind of life in general are contradictory to the social norms that most of us have come to know as "true". I put "true" in quotations because one of the first things I question when being confronted with a decision is, who's truth is it? Mine? My cousin's? My social media buddy's? My 80 year old great aunt's? A random blogger whom I just found while surfing on the internet?

The origin of the truth you are choosing to believe is just as important as the truth itself.

BUT WAIT! If you are like me, you look to the sacred words found in the Bible to help choose what is right and what is wrong. Of course Jesus will tell me whether I should enroll my children in public school or go the Montessori route. Momma, if you find the verse where he clarifies that, let me know. There are SO MANY circumstances in life that the Bible does not say "this is how it works". When this happens, it is up to us to us to discern our truth. And that's where water's get murky. "Our truth" is clouted by the infinite opinions of the world.

So if you haven't caught on by now, A Typical Motherhood is really a play on words. There is nothing typical about how I go through motherhood. I am probably over simplifying this for you but "A Typical" is meant to be ironic because how we parent is more accurately described as "Atypical". According to Dictionary.com some words synonymous with atypical are....unusual, uncommon, unconventional, even deviant or, my personal favorite, divergent (because who didn't love those books?? I have always been a sucker for a good romantic, dystopian fiction series).

Right now there are some of you thinking..."Keel you are my girl! Preach it!" *fist pump* If that's you, welcome to my small but growing tribe. However, there is also a good majority of you thinking..."Okay, I've had enough....next!" And if you are the latter, I challenge you. I challenge you to look at your truths. Who put them on your heart? Are you trying to appease someone by fitting into the box society has labeled "good" and "normal"? Who gets to decide what those things are anyway!? If no one ever challenged social norms do you know where we would be right now???? No seriously. Let's take a breath and think about this! Tonight, when you sit with your Acer computer on your lap from the comfort of you cozy 3 bedroom ranch on Maple Street, maybe you'll rethink challenging social norms. If not for Bill Gates and Paul Allen would you have that fancy device available at your finger tips?

"Paul Allen and I set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home. It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible." -Bill Gates

Gates wrote this in an email to Microsoft employees on the company's 40th anniversary. Clearly challenging the idea of what was considered to be normal benefited him. And I don't think we can completely comprehend the ripple affect their mindset had on the worlds of media and technology.

If you follow along with me I hope to challenge some of the conventional beliefs you may have about what it means to be a mom and how we, as women, are subconsciously trained to carry ourselves. My mission is to empower women to have the confidence follow the path the good Lord intended them to travel. Even when that path is cluttered by low hanging branches, murky swamp water and sneaky birdox bushes. If you didn't grow up in northern WI you may not know what these pesky little buggers are...so here's a visual. Let me tell you from experience they are the epitome of annoying. They stick to you in places you didn't even realize were exposed. When you finally notice they are stuck to you and you begin the process of removing them, they leave behind little remnants of themselves. As if you really wanted to remember these vexatious little shrubs. But more on that later. I believe it is my duty to contribute the truths that have grounded me through this beautiful yet turbulent adventure of navigating motherhood in the 21st century. And maybe, just maybe, we can travel together.

And as always...

Be empowered. Be centered. Be intentional.