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233: Little Jolt of Joy: Embracing the Journey of Parenting · JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain

• 0:00
  Today, I'm going to do a little jolt of joy.
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  I haven't done one of these in a while, so if you're new here,
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  it's just a moment where I want to share some thoughts that don't necessarily
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  have anything to do with planning or decluttering or organizing for ADHD brains.
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  It's just something on my mind or in my heart.
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  And today it's me reminiscing because we are closing a chapter of our life.
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  And because life is such a great adventure, if you're only busy striving for
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  those mile markers or the destination, you're going to miss the whole point.
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  And that is this journey.
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  We could measure life in numbers. I've been married 31 years to my high school sweetheart.
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  After five years of dating and five years of marriage, we had four kids in seven years.
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  And this involved nine consecutive years of diaper changes, sketchy sleep at
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  best, huge leaps of growth in their size and independence and skills.
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  But we closed that chapter on baby and toddler and child what feels like long ago.
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  We are one year and a month away from
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  ending teen years in this house and the reason I'm having this reminiscent moment
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  is because our youngest will be graduating on Monday and that represents this
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  closing of a chapter on two decades of K-12 education in our family.
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  Our oldest is now about to turn 25, and it's just, it's been a huge part of our journey.
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  The fun and joys of those elementary school years, followed by that sort of angsty middle school.
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  Section of life followed by all of the involvement and preparations and those
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  high school years of trying to decide what's what's next in life.
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  It's just there have been so many bus rides and school supplies and getting
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  to know at least 200 teachers across six different schools because we moved
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  states during this time frame.
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  We lived in three different houses.
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  We've read countless books, and they've done endless numbers of reports and
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  calculated untold numbers of math problems.
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  Three different languages were learned during that time, all probably poorly.
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  This is not to even speak of all the extracurriculars outside of school,
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  the sports teams, which involved baseball and soccer and wrestling and lacrosse
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  and track and field and basketball and football,
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  sprinkling of clubs, summer jobs, youth events, learning how to drive,
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  learning how to ride bikes, making friends, losing friends, having crushes, breaking hearts,
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  navigating phone use and social media and curfews and all the various Halloween
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  costumes and Christmas stockings and elaborate egg hunts.
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  And I did the math, 9,360 packed lunches. or take a few sick days.
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  I could add life in numbers and reduce it down to those stats,
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  but life isn't quantitative.
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  It's not the way to measure.
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  Life is qualitative. It's the moments that you try to remember.
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  There's moments you work to freeze in your brain because Because phrasing a
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  moment in your mind is so much better than losing it into the storage of the
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  10,000 photos on your phone.
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  It's embracing a conversation while you're driving somewhere.
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  It's a late night tear over stress of school.
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  It's those eyes searching for you until they lock into you from a sideline or a bleacher.
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  It's cuddles, it's hugs, whether they're initiated or forced or just asked for.
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  It's those dinners around the table every single chance you can make them happen.
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  It's vacations, big ones or small ones.
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  It's those new shared experiences that are bonding like nothing else.
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  So if you're in the thick of the hard seasons of parenting, this too shall pass,
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  and it passes really quickly.
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  There are wonderful moments in every single phase, and the constant pace of
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  life will keep dragging you forward into the next phase and the next phase before
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  you're even realizing it.
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  So capture those moments. Stretch out those times when you're feeling really present.
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  It's hard sometimes in this world of distractions to realize you're in a really
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  special moment in your life. but try to cling to those.
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  Hug as many times as you can all the time. You're going to miss those as much as anything else.
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  I appreciate you letting me indulge here a little bit, but I don't give parenting advice.
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  This isn't a parenting podcast, but if there's one thing I'm grateful that we
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  have done as these chapters are closing in our life,
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  it's that we've tried very, very hard to live by the rule of not to prepare the road for your child,
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  but to prepare your child for the road.
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  And that doesn't mean that you've taught them everything they're ever going to need to know.
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  It's not that you've addressed and planned for these lessons that you think
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  they're going to have to have across a checklist.
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  It's that you've given them enough confidence to realize that they are going to stumble.
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  They are going to fall down. They have the ability to pick themselves back up
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  and do it again and do it scared and start over and shift directions and that
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  the road is never flawless for any of us,
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  but that you have their back when they need you,
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  but that they're so, so capable when they can't have access to you.
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  That's preparing them for the road.
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  There is a sadness in closing of a chapter, but there's excitement because we're
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  about to start a new one. I haven't read ahead.
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  I don't know what this next empty nest phase is going to be like exactly.
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  I know there's more of a transition in between than I think people ever let on.
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  It's not a light switch. They're still home for the summer.
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  They'll be home for other summers, they're all not each individually out in
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  life completely. So it's nice that there's a little runway to this new phase.
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  But I just want to say whatever piece of this journey you're in,
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  whatever part you're experiencing now, whatever phase of life you're in,
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  embrace the journey and continue to choose the joy.