Most days are hard. Most days are long. Most days the overwhelm of all these roles weighs down on me. But other days- unexpected joy. It’s not just my journey after all. It’s their’s too. It’s ours. And so there’s laundry and labs and quizzes. There’s dinner waiting to be cooked and work deadlines.

But then there’s an impromptu pumpkin pie baked together. There’s a tent pitched in the backyard, there’s smiles and surprised screams and then I take a breath a little less suppressed by stress and anxiety. An almost sunset and pizza on blanket. A messy kitchen I know won’t go anywhere if I wait till for the dishes. There’s a 1000 piece puzzle we’ll probably never finish. But the joy of a project with no end goal- no pressure- and a moment of unexpected joy.

*This post is part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to view the next post in this series "Unexpected Joy".