HOWDY, PARTNER!
ON YOUR LUSH-LESS DAYS, PARTNERS AND TEAMMATES MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
Hello there, Wednesday, Anna here.
Don’t tell the others, but I’m losing a little bit of my grasp on Luscious. I am dead tired, super distracted, and wanting to lay face down on the filthy TV room rug and wait until someone moves me or covers me with a blanket. Yes, our vacuum is broken. Also? I don’t even vacuum when it’s working. But it’s so dang hot and sweaty here in Maine, the land of No-One-Has-Air-Conditioning, that maybe instead of a blanket they could cover me with all the janky old ice packs that fall out of the freezer whenever I open it. That would solve two problems at once!
And yet, when I crack into my gratitude journal every morning (well, most mornings) I still find myself able to come up with entries: things that remind me that, even when I feel like I’m living amidst a global catastrophe (oh, wait, I am) and predators are lurking on the shoreline (in the ongoing tribulations of 2020, Maine experienced its first ever shark casualty!) things are still, by and large, stable. While the “endless unboxing of 2020” continues, I know I am safe, loved, sane (bwahahahaha!) and, perhaps most significantly, supported.
I know I’ve done plenty of bragging about how rad my Luscious Mother teammates are. Those ladies are on speed-dial and emergency text alert at all hours. But in parenting, it’s critical to have a personal network of on-the-ground, in person, mutual support that makes the carefully calibrated machines of our lives work.
The most successful partnership of my life is the one I have with my husband, Mike. We rely on each other’s strength and encouragement. We use humor and play to get us through the sticky times. We are aligned in how we want to raise our son and what kind of future we want to create for him and for ourselves. I trust him in a way I have never trusted anyone else. I see the best in him, and I know he sees the best in me. This is all a tremendous relief because there are more than a few times when each of us needs reminding of our own unique brand of greatness. We are a couple of Legos that click together nicely. (But it doesn’t “Lego hurt” when we step on each other.)
Does he leave his dresser drawers open and abandon wet band-aids on the edge of the tub? Yes. He does. But I’m also the lady who fails to get my sullied dishes into the dishwasher and sometimes pretends to be asleep on the couch at night so she doesn’t have to clean up the kitchen.
Mike is my co-captain, but we also have a ton of others on the team. My next-door neighbor and closest confidante, Julie, is always there to offer me support and insight. She has two older teens and used to be an elementary school teacher, and the fact that she has raised a boy from seed to a flybacious, fledgling 18 year-old allows for her to give blunt and humorous insight on the process. She tells it to me straight, talks me off my ledges of worry, and relies on me to do the same for her. Plus, we share our condiments and ingredients. Rarely are we both out of bread, milk, or ketchup, and when we are, we just pool our resources and order pizza. I love sitting in her kitchen and decompressing when parenting weighs heavily on me. She helps me find the humor in it all and encourages me to put down the “bad mom” stick I often beat myself with.
Also on my team is my mother-in-law, Barbara. That woman shows up. She lives about 40 minutes up the road, and whenever we need an extra hand, she is there for us. Sam is her only grandchild and she pours so much love into him he is positively brimming. They are close pals and love being together. Knowing he has that additional love and support fills me with joy.
Two other humans that make my heart thrum are Mike’s cousins (and Sam’s aunties) Barb and Margie. These mamas are endlessly reliable and always ready to receive Sam with open arms when our schedules are jam packed. Their kids, six between the two families all of whom are younger, give our only child a chance to experience what it’s like to run with a sibling pack and to appreciate a little bookish solitude when he comes home.
And I'm honestly just scratching the surface in calling out these four Luscious moms and one Luscious dad. In writing this, I realize not only what a great team I have, but how awesome I am for creating this team. Yeah. I said it. I’m a creator goddess up here in Maine. I found these people, love these people, made one of these people, and built a virtual commune of support—minus the compost toilets, hemp clothing or naked gardening. And while I am blessed beyond the boundaries of this earth, I also want to remind you that finding such support and love means actively building it in partnerhip with others. We weren’t put on this planet to slug it out alone. Humans are social creatures and the more we come together, the more things are possible and the more impactful and satisfying our successes. I’m not always going to feel Luscious. No one can ever be 100% Luscious all the time. But for all those Lush-less phases, having partners will keep your socks, spirit and sanity up.
Here’s to your partners, your parenting teammates, and yourself for bringing them into your sphere and making the magic happen. And if you haven’t wrangled your VIPs just yet, reach out and tell us what’s missing for you. One of our Luscious coaches can help you create what you need.
A blast of Lusciousness from our hearts to yours,
Anna (& Sarah)
