You are going to LOVE our Momsanity Sister, Mary Isom!  In case you're a perfectionist mom (can't we ALL relate?), here are 4 things about how things can be gloriously less perfect! 

Are there any other Mary Poppins fans out there?  When I was little, I pretended to be Mary Poppins.  I would even go out on our deck, stick out my finger, and sing, hoping a bird would land on my finger.  It never happened.  Mary Poppins was, as her tape measure said, “practically perfect in every way.”  For years I tried to measure up to that impossible standard myself.

After college and grad school I taught high school Spanish for three years before deciding that being a teacher and a perfectionist was a bad combination.  I was so stressed and unhappy, and most of my students didn’t seem to care near as much as I did.  In 2011 I left teaching and started working full-time as a technician for my optometrist – one of the best decisions I had ever made!  After my daughter, Haley, was born in 2014, I eventually went back to work very part-time.  Fast forward to this past September, and I gave birth to my son, Owen.  While my boss keeps telling me that my position is still available for me whenever I want it, I haven’t made any plans to return at this point.   That means that currently I am “just” a full-time mom and wife.   (Does anyone else hate that phrase as much as I do?)

Just as with teaching, I’ve found that being a mom and a perfectionist is another bad combination – and quite frankly and impossible combination!  So I’ve dropped the perfectionism.  While I still have those tendencies on occasion, I’ve learned that, with the exception of “perfect form” during workouts, there is a lot I can (and do) just let go…and it doesn’t matter.  (BTW -- I love that I wrote the first part of this last night and that the Momsanity email I got this morning – Day 4: the B Word – that I just read speaks directly to this!!)

My friend Whitney introduced me to the Momsanity Sisterhood in September 2014, and I am so grateful she did!  In some ways Momsanity has become a sort of lifeline for me.  Life changes drastically when you become a mother.  You all know that!  While I was pretty good about taking care of myself before my children came into the picture, I honestly hate to think what kind of mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical shape I might be in right now without Momsanity.  Coach Debbie and Coach Emily are extremely knowledgeable, entertaining, wise, inspiring, motivating, genuine….  Just look at a picture of them and you can see how beautiful and fit they are physically, but what’s even more impressive is the beauty of their spirits.

I realize this is getting kind of long, so I’m going to try to pinpoint a few of the things I love about Momsanity.

1 – Faith is first!  I love the constant reminders and encouragement to read and study scripture, to put God above all else, and to live a prayerful life.  I also love that Debbie and Emily pray before each workout.

2 – Community.  The Sisterhood is chock full of other ladies who GET just how hard being a mom can be!  “Mommin’ ain’t easy!”  Live there; have the tank top.  (P.S. If you don’t have one, you should get one.  So soft and comfy!!  I got a second one for Christmas.)  Whenever I need some prayer/encouragement/advice or just need an outlet where I can whine or laugh about something my kids are or aren’t doing, I know that my Momsanity sisters are there for me, and I can just post on the Facebook page.  I also love reading about and having the opportunity to encourage and pray for you all.

3 – Fitness.  The 10, 15, and 20- minute workouts are awesome!  I love that I can pull up the videos and work out at home, and I also really like the suggested weekly workout schedules.  Yes, there are still plenty of times when I come up with excuses for not working out or even dread the thought of working out, but I ALWAYS feel better after I do.  I continued to work out throughout this last pregnancy, and it didn’t take me too long to get back into it after Owen was born.  It’s a little more challenging right now with an infant and a toddler, but it certainly helps that the workouts are so short and yet still so effective!

4 – Nutrition.  The education and recipes from Momsanity are amazing.  I am far from perfect, but I have become a lot more conscious of what I feed myself and my family.

Ok, I could go on and on about how much I love Momsanity, but it’s getting late – almost 11:30pm! – and I’m determined to sleep in the new year.  Haha! 

May you all experience the fullness of God’s amazing grace and unconditional love throughout the year ahead.  Happy 2017!

More about me: I live in Clemmons, NC, with my wonderful husband, Scott, and two little ones: Haley (2 ½) and Owen (4 months).   I enjoy singing, playing the piano, dancing (especially tap dancing and swing dancing, which is how I met my husband), musical theatre (I was most recently in a local production of White Christmas, thanks to my husband’s willingness to be super-daddy during 6 weeks of rehearsals and performances.) bowling, walking with friends, cooking/baking (though I would like it even more if there weren’t dirty dishes to wash afterwards!), and making photo books for my children.  I do not like shopping, especially for clothes for myself, and many of you would probably laugh if you looked in my closet.  Most days I leave the makeup in the bag and am lucky if I make it out of the house with a shirt that doesn’t have spit-up stains on it.  My house is always messier than I would like to admit, and I don’t clean my bathrooms nearly enough.  Oftentimes instead of trying to cross something off my never-ending to-do list I opt for a walk or a workout instead.  I eat way more vegetables than I used to (and love them!), but am also prone to eat more sugar and carbs than I should.  I’m far from perfect, but I’m ok with that.  At this point, I’m just doing my best to be a decent mom and wife, keep my sanity, and enjoy these years that are already going way too fast!  I’m extremely thankful for all of the ways Momsanity encourages me to do that!