Loving My Lumpy Mom Bod!

You see a lumpy mom body, right?

I see a body that has housed & nourished 5 beautiful children, I see a body that's 20 pounds lighter than it was at Christmas, I see improvement.

I'm totally the person who talks to herself. I think it goes along with being an only child. There were so many times I had just myself to talk to. It kind of became a habit. I am also the person who talks nice to herself. As I get older, I realize that's sort of a weird thing. I guess plenty of people look at themselves and say some not so nice things. I'm not into analyzing people, but I feel pretty special that I grew up in a house where my parents told me nice things. I try to do that for my children too. I'm also pretty sure that's where the entire positive self talk started. I was constantly hearing "you are really smart" " you are pretty" "you can be anything you want to be" etc...

So today - as I look in the mirror (I'm getting ready to go to a funeral by the way) I am saying:

Keep doing those planks - that belly is getting smaller!

Keep counting those calories - let that skinny girl out!

40 has never looked so good - you go girl!

and here you have a comparison from Christmas 2016 to today (February 7th 2017) - making forward progress and getting fit!!

I totally "get" that I'm not everybody's idea of a perfect 10, but I'm going to tell myself that those girls are air brushed anyway. And who wants to be on the cover of some dumb old magazine anyway? (unless it's like Parents Magazine and an article about normalizing breastfeeding)

Next time you see a not so perfect body, try to see what those who love her see. Her kids see safe arms, a comfortable lap, a nourishing bosom, a safe place to land, soft lips for kissing away pain, and her husband sees curvy hips for balancing babies, patient fingers for braiding hair, and a soft voice for singing a lullaby. It's not always about a tight ass or thighs that don't jiggle. Love and strength come in many different shapes and sizes.

Love yourself.

Love others.

Life is full of ugly things - be kind to yourself!

Love,
~Crystal

Crystal is a secretary and musician at her church, babywearing cloth diapering mama (aka crunchy mama), business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Publicist with Dream of Things Publishing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin with her husband, four young children (Carmen 9, Andre 8, Breccan 3, and Delphine 1), two dogs, two rabbits, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, and over 230 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal riding unicorns, taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books, baby carriers, cloth diapers, and all sorts of other stuff here, and at  WOW! Women on Writing.

 When she's not doing that, she's baking bread and cookies for her friends and neighbors. She says "the coffee is always hot and you're always welcome here!"