Don’t Mind Me, Just Drowning in Life Over Here

Any other moms feel as though they are drowning in life? Like…ALL THE TIME?! 

Heaps of laundry. Mountains, actually. Ones that never disappear. All I seem to do is laundry. My kids even play games of making trails through the piles. Totally normal. 

Oh, and meal prep. I swear, I just cleaned the kitchen from lunch, and now it’s time for dinner?! HOW is this even possible?! Thank God for dust pans because 50% of every meal ends up on the floor. Again, totally normal. 

BTW: Never brag about being caught up on laundry or meals. Give it 5 minutes. 

Toddler tantrums. Over everything. “I know you’re upset, sweetheart, but no, you cannot draw on the car with a screwdriver.” 

Clutter. EV-ER-Y-WHERE. Toys, clothes, books, food, my sanity. Have you seen it?

Cleaning unnecessary messes. All. Day. Long. Coffee grinds on the pantry floor. Paint in the carpet. Shredded toilet paper in the bathtub. Once folded laundry thrown down the stairs. Our scooters in the neighbor’s yard. Any other moms just want to curl up in a ball and give up some days?  

Snack interruption. “Mommy, I eat snack.” Are you kidding?! You JUST ate lunch.

My to-do list has never been longer. Every time I cross something off, I seem to add 3 more to the bottom. 

Husband? Oh wait, that’s right. I forgot what adult conversation is. Someday, we will find a few minutes for “us time” again. I hope. 

Somehow I wake up at 7:00 am, and rarely go to bed before midnight. What happens in between, I really don’t know. All I do know, is that I’m exhausted. 

Life is busy. I keep telling myself it will calm down soon, but it’s all just constant. Everyone says to enjoy this time, because it’s goes by too fast.

For the first time in 5 years, I can finally say that I honestly get it. The days are long (sooooo long), but the years are shorter. We have one more year with our daughter before she starts the big K-word, and my boys will start consecutively behind her. I never understood why moms said they got all teary-eyed for the day they sent their first one off to Kindergarten. With everything we’ve been drowning in for 4 years, I’ve secretly been longing for this moment. Now that the day is quickly approaching, the thought of dropping her off terrifies me, and I know I’ll long for these days of “drowning in toddler-isms” to return. 

So instead of worrying another day about the piles of laundry and the mess in the kitchen and the toys on the stairs and the to-do list a mile long and the meltdowns over silly shenanigans, I’m going to soak myself in this mess of life with littles. One day I will blink and that date night we so longed for will be here, where the hubby and I will sit on the back patio and miss the mess of toys under the deck and tiny footprints of mud trailing through the house. 

That will also be the day that we start worrying about curfews and praying that our kids make good life decisions. 

From what I hear, the drowning never ends. And I’m ok with that. 


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Erin Hughes
Born & raised on a cattle farm just west of Salina, Erin has grown to love the city life that Wichita has to offer. She & her husband, Nathan, are raising their family on the east side: Blakely (Dec 2013), Rowen (Apr 2015), & Lincoln (Jun 2017). Erin formerly taught elementary for 6 years. When the chaos of 2 under 2 happened so quickly (oops!), she decided to leave teaching for now, and work-from-home as the premier photographer of Erin Kata Photography. When the calendar allows breaks from the multitude of children's activities, photo sessions, editing & teaching workshops, you will more than likely find Erin & the fam somewhere outdoors: dancing in the rain, playing in sunshine, and even tromping through the snow!