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Parenting

Introducing the New Mom Podcast – Murky Motherhood

January 21, 2020 By Audrey Raetzloff Leave a Comment

Do you listen to podcasts? I’ve been a podcast junkie for a while now. It’s so fascinating to listen in, learn about new things, and laugh with my “friends” inside my phone. I love podcasts so much I decided to start my own mom podcast with my friend Jen from And Hattie Makes Three.

Motherhood Is Murky

Many of us enter into motherhood with expectations of how it’s going to be — then we bring the baby home. Reality hits! You think to yourself, “Holy crap, this is so much harder than I thought!”

We’re faced with all of these murky motherhood moments that leave us feeling like a crazy person, inept, or completely alone. Jen and I want you to know you’re not alone! Murky Motherhood isn’t your typical mom podcast. We’re two moms sipping on coffee, talking about the tough topics. Pull up a chair.

Meet the Co-Hosts

Jen from And Hattie Makes Three is mom to Hattie and fur baby Rosie. When she’s not blogging, podcasting, or momming, you’ll find her on Instagram sharing relatable life moments.

Audrey (that’s me!) is mom to Elise and Dax and dog grandma to Mini the miniature poodle. I’m a book lady with Usborne Books & More, triathlete, and lover of podcasts.

We believe in the power of being honest and sharing your story. Motherhood isn’t a cake walk for either one of us, and we often feel like we’re failing. Murky Motherhood is our little safe haven to talk about the hard things.

What’s a Mom Podcast?

We’re like the scrappy, honest, imperfect, full-of-heart mom podcast in your queue. We don’t shy away from the tough topics on Murky Motherhood. We navigate all of these murky waters together. Here are some of the topics we’ve tackled so far:

  • Anxiety
  • Saying No to Overfunctioning
  • No Spending Challenge
  • Mom Friends
  • Self-Care

Have a topic you’d like us to cover? Email us your episode topic idea.

Ready to Listen?

You can find Murky Motherhood on all the major platforms including:

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Google Podcasts

Podcast reviews really help new podcasts like us get discovered. We’d love a 5-star Apple Podcasts review (even if you don’t normally listen on Apple) if you like what you hear.

Filed Under: Parenting, Podcast, Slider Tagged With: mom podcast, murky motherhood, podcast

Motherhood Is: The Truth about Motherhood

August 10, 2019 By Audrey Raetzloff 1 Comment

Mother — it’s a title that I so desperately longed for, prayed for, cried over, and begged God to give me. While my journey to motherhood wasn’t particularly tragic or long in comparison to the journey of others, it felt long and hard to me while I was going through it. Each month that I didn’t end up pregnant, I wanted to punch everyone in the face who *was* pregnant. And if you had kids and you complained about them? Well, there was a special place in hell for you, my friend. (Can you imagine how fun I was to be around back then?)

Fast forward almost 8 years. I have a beautiful, strong-willed, smart, caring daughter and a rough-and-tumble, yet tender son. I love these two little humans with every fiber of my being, but WOW, the title of Mother is not what I thought it would be.

Motherhood is…a Blessing

We all head into motherhood thinking it can’t be as hard as everyone makes it out to be. They’re just kids after all. I prayed for this, remember? God BLESSED us. Yes, yes He did.

My enneagram 6 self so desperately wants to protect myself and anyone I love from pain and loss. I want to have all my ducks in a row, make the world a better place, be creative, kind, and caring. I was going to be that mom, you guys. I envisioned myself doing all kinds of fun crafts, baking muffins (healthy, but also delicious, of course), going on fun-little picnics, and listening intently when my child was talking to me. I am totally that mom….1.8% of the time.

Motherhood is…a Mixed Bag

Motherhood is complicated, isn’t it? It’s a mixed bag of emotions. One minute you’re staring at your child wondering how they got so big and trying to soak in every moment that it almost brings you to tears. Imagine a record scratch sound effect when the other sibling yells down, “MOM, THE DOG POOPED IN MY ROOM!”

You can’t wait for them to go to bed and stop touching you, talking to you, and needing you. But one day all-too-soon, they’ll be grown up and gone and you’ll miss these days. Right now, though, you’re exhausted. So very tired.

I’ve always been a very black and white person. It was either this or that. There was no gray. With the grace of God, and some shit that went down in the church I called home my entire life, God has opened my eyes little by little over the years and has shown me that there is a lot more gray that I ever wanted to acknowledge. So, when motherhood is amazing and also the worst thing in the world, my brain can’t comprehend it. It’s like an error screen pops up and is like, “umm, how can this be awesome and suck at the same time?” That just comes with the gig.

Motherhood is…Non-Stop

I’ve always been a working mom. Notice how I didn’t say a “work-outside-the-home mom” here? Yeah, it’s because deep down inside, I prided myself in my work. I knew stay-at-home moms had tough jobs, but it was like, “Yeah, but they don’t WORK like I do.”

This summer I had the opportunity to stay at home with my kids. I went into this summer with all of these amazing plans and dreams of how I was going to be present and kind and patient. We were going to have so much fun while being budget conscious and create the world’s best memories.

So, why did my kids spend 75% of everyday complaining and the other 25% of the day asking for snacks? HELLO, offspring, your MOM is here for you! Why are you not falling at my feet in adoration? This is now how this was supposed to be? This shit is hard!

You need coffee to survive this craziness, but coffee makes you poop, but if you go poop, somebody is going to hit somebody and a Hunger Games-esque fight will ensue. You can’t win.

Needless to say, I ate a lot of humble pie this summer.

Motherhood is…Important Work

I find the physical and mental part of motherhood exhausting, but then you add in the emotional and spiritual and by the end of the day, you just want to crawl into the bed and zone out on Instagram for an hour. While you scroll, you think to yourself, “Am I being too hard on them? Am I not being hard enough? Am I stimulating their minds adequately? Am I raising good humans? Should I let my kid say butthole? Is organic food really that much better? And if it is, how do I fit that into the budget?”

When you think about it, we are raising the next congressmen, leaders, doctors, teachers, lawyers, and most importantly bakers and chefs — the ones who will give us the food. That’s also a lot of pressure, right? I want to raise one of the aforementioned things and not the US’s most prominent female prison gang leader.

Motherhood is such important work. So why does the pay suck, the vacation time non-existent, the working conditions poor, and the hours long AF? How the heck is anybody supposed to be good at this important job when you have to hold in a poo for 7 hours?

You’re Doing Great, Mama

If you’re still reading this, and you’ve nodded your head along with me a few times, I see you. I get it. Motherhood is almost never how we pictured it in our heads. Everyone warned us and told us, but you can’t hear it until you’re there. Motherhood is exhausting, wonderful, amazing, hard, lonely, frustrating, and tireless, but it’s a gift. Next time you feel like you’re not exactly nailing it, just remember, you’re doing the best you can. And that’s all we can ask of anyone.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Parenting, Slider Tagged With: honest motherhood, motherhood, parenting

A Trip to O’Day Park in O’Fallon Missouri

June 5, 2019 By Audrey Raetzloff Leave a Comment

Summertime is here which means I need things to do with these children so they don’t kill each other. #realtalk I had heard about the awesome new park in O’Fallon, MO called O’Day Park and couldn’t wait to check it out. (O’Fallon, Missouri is in St. Charles County, about 35 miles west of St. Louis for those of you who aren’t local.)

The day we went, it was about 90 degrees already…in May. My son insisted on wearing fleece pants. Lesson #1 of motherhood: pick your battles. I also forgot sunscreen and we are as pale as ghosts so we couldn’t stay too long for fear of looking like lobster thermidor.

Getting to O’Day Park

If you’re looking for things to do in St. Louis with kids, I highly recommend O’Day Park in O’Fallon! To get there, type in 1000 O’Day Park Drive, O’Fallon, 63368 into your GPS. It’s going to lead you to what feels like the middle of nowhere, but I promise it’s there.

ODay Park OFallon Missouri(3)

The Adventure Park area at O’Day Park is gorgeous! Its unique playground setup encourages kids to climb, run, jump, and play in a natural-feeling setting. There’s a water feature with a little “river” area for the kids to enjoy, a huge rock climbing wall, a ropes course for climbing, several different types of swings, and so much more! Instead of mulch, most of the area is covered with green astro-turf which looks good now, but I wonder how it’ll look after a couple of years of play.

Park Layout

Right as you walk up, there’s a playground area designed for younger kids. There are ropes and bridges for them to climb over as well as one of those cool slides with all of the metal bars that turn when you go down them (like a conveyor belt kind of thing). From this picture, you can see how close the parking lot is to the playground. Score!

ODay Park OFallon Missouri

The restrooms are to the left of the parking lot and really close. We didn’t use the bathrooms, but since this park is so new, I’m sure they’re clean. If I remember correctly, they had a water fountain and a place to fill up a water bottle, too.

If you walk further into the park, you’ll see the rock stair waterfall leading into the stream and splash area. Water shoes would be ideal for this area. I told them to wear tennis shoes because I knew there was a lot of climbing, but I should have had them wear their Natives.

ODay Park OFallon Missouri(4)

From here, there’s a great big rock wall, a rope swing, a ropes course, and a really cool swing for two, more climbing things, more swings, a walking path, and a couple gazebos for shade.

ODay Park OFallon Missouri

Do you see the walkway above the rock climbing wall? Well, that walkway leads to an entrance to the ropes course. You can climb up from the bottom or down from the top. No thanks, Tom Hanks.

ODay Park OFallon Missouri
Above you can see the fleece pants pushed up. #whateverkid This swing below was so cool! It was like a see saw and swing combined. Dax FREAKED out when he was on it because he went too high and felt like he was going to fall! We waited in that sun for probably 10 minutes for our turn so he was going to go, damn it!

ODay Park OFallon Missouri

Tips for Your Visit

  1. Bring water — it’s HOT in the sun.
  2. Wear water shoes and maybe even a swimsuit.
  3. Plan on going either in the morning or late afternoon. It’s in DIRECT sunlight during the day.
  4. There is a QT close by if you wanted to stop for slurpies afterwards, I’m just saying.

If you end up visiting O’Day park, I’d love if you’d tag me on Instagram @readitandreapwithme!

Looking for other things to do in St. Louis?

Have you checked out Play Street Museum at the Streets of St. Charles? Read my review!

Filed Under: Parenting, Slider, St. Louis Tagged With: o'day park, o'fallon, parenting, st. louis, things to do

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