Heavenly Protection

On April 2, 2012 at 8:29 PM Amina Celeste Gahagan was born. Her name means Heavenly protection, safety and refuge.

We are so in love.....

 Sleepy smiles make my day.

The three sisters!

We found out we were pregnant last year during a very high pressure, stressful, and emotional season in our lives. (Hence the lack of posts too.) Having a constant awareness of a life forming inside of me was my accountability to not internalize stress, take on more than I could handle, and enjoy the process. Her little life protected me from damaging my health because of my martyr tendencies. Her birth was wonderful and even at 1 month old, I find that my obligation to her (simply love, nursing and regular newborn care) is keeping my life "manageable" in what could be another crazy season.

Thank you, God for this heavenly gift of protection.

MMs: How to Feel Miserable as a Mom...

I saw a very clever rePOST on Facebook entitled "How to Feel Miserable as an Artist" and wanted to pass it on to every artist that I know!  Then as I thought for a second, I realized how true and SURPRISINGLY similar a quick list for mothers would be.  Here's my mother version, barely edited into mother specific terms:

How to Feel Miserable as a Mother
1. Constantly compare yourself to other mothers
2. Talk to your family/friends about what you do and expect them to always cheer you on.
3. Base the success of your entire parenting on one season of your child's life
4. Stick with what you know
5. Undervalue your intuition
6. Let money dictate the quality of your children's lives
7. Bow to societal pressures
8. Only do work that your family will appreciate
9. Do whatever your children ask
10. Set unattainable/overwhelming goals. To be accomplished by tomorrow.

Thank you, whoever wrote the artist list! You get all the credit for this mommy list too.