To the mama who feels like this is all just too much today...

Lean in close.

I have a secret.

It IS TOO MUCH!!

This is a real life picture of the kitchen/living area from our tiny house taken a few minutes ago.

Not unlike every other morning, we were woken up before the sun by our screaming and running extreme child as our threenager log rolled over my hair in our bed. This morning, however, I had a migraine headache that wouldn't quit.

So, I stumbled to the couch to recover and attempt to keep one eye on the kids as my husband left for work.

When I was fully concious, I had two wooden spoons, a jar of peanut butter, a container of vitamins, and some bamboo kibob skewers...all confiscated from my children while I lay in my fully nauseous recovery state of barely able to function.

Mamas, let's be real.

Whether you are navigating the harsh waters of raising teens and tweens, figuring out newborns and toddlerhood, or braving extreme parenting, it can all feel like too much sometimes.

We don't get sick days, our jobs are often gross and confusing, our 'customers' are never fully satisfied and tend to communicate with screaming or crying feelings that almost never make rational sense. We are rarely appreciated and many don't have adequate help or relief. If you are a special needs parent, it is an exhaustion that never stops because the needs are plenty and the time, money, resources, energy...all of it is few.

Today--for more reasons than exhausted parenting--I am just feeling lost.

Ever feel like that?

Our lives aren't ONLY motherhood. They are marriage, jobs, friends, finances, faith, feeding everyone, running businesses, health, death and disease, tragedies we don't understand, and the list keeps going.

Ever have a complete and total, "What in the actual hell am I even doing!?" moment?

Friends, you are in very fine company. I cannot tell you how many emails and messages from y'all, or texts from personal friends I get that say, "Yeah I'm over it today. I don't even know what to do."

I never say, "Suck it up. You'll be fine."

Oh heck no.

We say, "Yaaaasssss! Girl I am right there with you, in the laundry trenches, feeling like a total failure, unsure of how to continue and questioning whether I even want to, all while being terrified of the accidental glimpse I caught of my 4 day dry shampoo hair and No Shave November legs that I unintentionally started in September.

Mamas, whether we are working, staying at home, or working from home, we are all in this battle together; sisters in arms.

So, instead of being frustrated with the friend who is late to an event because her three year old insisted all the pants she'd laid out for him were "too cold", or gossiping to a co-worker about your sister who looked like such a hot mess when she brought over her kids for you to watch, we must stay united.

We owe it to each other and to the women who bravely survived motherhood before us, to encourage one another, exchange tips instead of eye rolls, and to welcome each other to our messy living rooms with a glass of wine (or coffee) in our yoga pants, and a judgement-free zone because momming IS too much sometimes.

When you are feeling beat down and broken, reach out to your tribe. If you notice a sister falling off the semi-put-together wagon, pull her back up with a latte and a hug. Be kind. Don't be Karen.

For more encouragement, check out The Mama On The Rocks.