Happy {Belated} Mother's Day

Dear Mom,

You were are always there for me, supporting me, and guiding me.  I didn't always know it though.  In early elementary school I was teased because you wouldn't let me watch cartoons on Nickelodeon.  When I was 12, I remember being upset because you wouldn't let me go see that PG-13 movie.  Then I got to high school and a whole new world of injustice arose: how could you be so overprotective that you wouldn't let me drive or ride with my friends or go anywhere without calling you when I leave and when I get there?! 

I'm sure with every battle you said, "One day you'll thank me," or "One day you'll understand," and hoped that it'd turn out to be true.  And today I'm writing to tell you you were right.  I never understood why you said "no" to all those things, even as I watched the ones who used to be my friends get into trouble and drugs and bad relationships.  I didn't really understand until I had a daughter myself. 

I get it now.

I hope and pray that I'll be that kind of mom to her.  The kind of mom who is strong enough to tell her "no" even when she doesn't understand why.  The kind of mom who always always keeps the line of communication open so that no topic is off limits.  The kind of mom who is there for her no matter the time of day (or night). 

As much as I fought you and didn't understand why you had the rules and standards for me that you had, I always wanted to grow up to be you.  I hope now that I've been given that chance, I hope I can be even half the mom you are. 

I am so blessed to be able to call you Mom, and I love you so much.

Love always,
B

A Fresh Start

In my last post I alluded to the fact that I have been struggling with my identity recently.  For the past several years, since M joined the Navy, I have been quick to define myself as a Navy wife (and fiancee and girlfriend before that).  However, I have come to realize a few things about that:
1) I won't be a Navy wife forever, and
2) I am so much more than just a Navy wife.
In light of these things, and the fact that my writing encompasses much more than the military aspect of our lives, I thought a new name and a new look for this blog was in order.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause; I know my many readers will be deeply troubled by having to change the link they have bookmarked.  In all seriousness though, I love that blogger lets me change my site address, but I do wish there was a way to redirect from the old one.  I suppose I could have kept the old one and started this as a new one, but this way I could keep everything in one place.  All that to say, make a note of the new web address if by chance one of the 10 readers I have does keep my page bookmarked.

I really hope that I'll be able to be more diligent about blogging in the next couple of weeks.  My time-management skills have been seriously lacking in the past few months, and I'm working very diligently to get myself back on track.  I also have quite a few adventures in mommyhood to write about and maybe another post or two about our cloth diapering journey.  So stick around and catch up on a little bit of [our] life!