I love the blog Coffee & Crumbs. It was established right after Jimmie was born and I have been reading it ever since then. It has helped me cope with the bad days, enjoy the good days, and accept my feelings about motherhood. I have cried, smiled, and laughed, while reading this wonderful blog.
Now you can cry, smile, and laugh while reading the blog’s new book, a collection of essays, The Magic of Motherhood by Ashlee Gadd. Some of the essays I previously read on the blog, but most of them were new to me. I enjoyed reading one essay at a time, thinking about it, and then reading another. The pictures and quotes on several of the pages are beautiful and inspiring. This is a must read for new moms, soon-to-be moms, and moms who have been in the midst of motherhood for a long time. It’s full of all the stuff we want to say to each other but feel like we can’t because then we will be judged. This is a judgement free zone kind of book.
One quote that really hit home is:
‘I guess I just feel like motherhood is a lot of wishing away hard seasons and then realizing they’re gone forever. It’s tying to claw back through time because you didn’t realize what you were actually wishing away.’ Pg. 19
And I also love this one:
You are more than your worst day.
You are more than your biggest mistake.
I promise, this will not define you. Pg. 109
The Magic of Motherhood opens up with my favorite post from the Coffee & Crumbs blog: A Letter to My Pre-mom Self. The first time I read this essay I ugly cried for a good while. I remember reading it because my son was just past three months old. Those first three months were HARD. Looking back, I can’t even remember a lot because I was in a fog that I never thought would go away. But it did. Eventually the fog did clear. Motherhood is so hard. Motherhood is so beautiful.
The Magic of Motherhood is filled with love and struggle: Love for adoption, the struggle of infertility, love and struggles of marriage, the struggle of the hard days, and the love for the ‘easy’ days. Sure you can buy all the baby books at the store (been there), but you won’t find this kind of clarity in those books. The Magic of Motherhood reaffirms the fact that it really does take a village and we are all in this together.
Head on over to the official book page for more information and buying options.
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Sunshine and Reading 