The kind of mom who...

This post is sponsored by Basic Invite: makers of stationary, announcements, and flat-out adorable kids birthday invitations. 

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 Me, pre-kids: 

"Someday, I'm going to be the kind of mom who..."

...sews matching taffeta Christmas gowns for my daughters."
...makes wholesome, adorable lunches full of healthy options and those cute little heart-shaped toothpicks."
...teaches my kids Spanish, and guitar, and maybe even Spanish guitar."

*cut to: me, six years and three babies later...*

"Someday I'm going to be the kind of mom who...

...wears matching clean socks."
...sets out the right number of forks for each meal. (how many kids do we have again?!)"
...doesn't hide the 'good ice cream' under the frozen broccoli in attempt to avoid having to share."

Funny how things change, huh?

I used to think I was going to be all kinds of a mom...An organized mom, a patient mom, a crafty mom (and not in the devious sense), a mom who found her zen, a mom who doesn't yell things like "I'm not going to say it again, DON'T LICK ALEXA" (the Amazon assistant, not a real human. Though I'm not sure which is worse...)

Yeah, I had all kinds of lofty parenthood predictions for myself. Some were pure crazy (I've seen movies that lasted longer than my foray into cloth-diapering), most were well-intentioned (I did manage to sew matching holiday outfits...but may have cancelled out the adorable-ness when I invoked the fear of God to make the kids actually wear them), and a few of them ended up being not too far off.

On my success list? 

• I always thought I'd be the type of mother who saved (too many) of my kids special mementos and masterpieces. One glance around my basement will tell you that one came true. (I didn't exactly picture myself downing in the hoards of my own sentimentality, but that is slowly becoming a very likely possibility. But what a way to go!) 

• I dreamed I would be the kind of mother who adored reading books, and doing crafts, and playing board games with my kids. Yep, yep, yep, those are some of my favorite activities. (I mean, if we're being totally honest, those things rank below eating nachos and watching reality TV, but we're talking about parenting activities here...)

• And I knew I'd be the kind of mother who just loses all reason when it comes to my children's birthday celebrations. Uhhh...Accurate. (Exhibit A: #bowdenbdays)

It's- DUH- impossible to truly know what type of parent (or spouse, or boss...or anything) you're going to be until you ARE it, but that doesn't seem to stop us from imagining anyway, does it? Thankfully, I didn't make too many grandiose/embarrassingly naive statements in my younger days that I'm regretting now. I didn't have much of a clue on life as a mom, but I think I was at least wise enough to know that making a bunch of "I'll never..." proclamations was a bad idea. (it's not that I didn't think them...I just-mercifully-didn't always say them). 

But while I'm thankful I don't have an endless laundry list of expectations for myself to point back to (and lament on), I don't think having some lofty dreams of who we want to be is a bad thing. It's helpful to orient around a goal, and keep focused on living with intention. It doesn't all have to be huge stuff, or perfect stuff, it just has to be the stuff that matters to me.

Examples?

I still want to be the kind of mom who diligently documents all my kids milestones. So even though things may have gotten a little hazy around month #2 of kid #2, I'm slogging through old medical forms and consulting the growth curve details to fill in the gaps. My cutesy wooden growth chart is going to have to be carved retroactively, but it turns out I'm the kind of mom who truly believes in (/embodies) the spirit of "better late than never".

And I'm an awesome texer, emailer, DM'er, and Voxer, but really struggle with sending mail of the old-fashioned variety. I manage to send family postcards most Christmases, but thank you notes are a rarity (what's the word for a never-ity?) and party invites tend to be sent between GIF jokes on a group-thread. Classy. But I do love the formality of a real, printed missive and really want to be the kind of person who makes it a priority to connect with loved ones in non-virtual ways from time to time.
  

Enter: Basic Invite.
If "being the kind of person who sends more snail-mail" is on your list too, then you need to know about Basic Invite. They have it all: photo holiday cards, baby announcements, cute birthday invitations and about a zillion other offerings in between.

A little bit about what makes Basic Invite, basically awesome:

Nearly unlimited colors: For each element on your card, there are over 180 color options to select from fensuring you get everything exactly how you want it. And as the kind of person who stood in the ribbon aisle for nearly an hour debating the merits of “lemongrass” vs. “lime” for our wedding invitations, I can tell you this is PRETTY important).

Custom samples: You can order a printed sample of the invitation before placing your final order, so you can check the print and paper quality before you commit. Will I ever be the kind of person who has my act together in advance enough to take advantage of this route? Of course not...but that doesn't stop me from wanting to have the option anyway.

Address Capturing and Printing: Get this...they will address cards for you. Praise hands! Because we are all the kind of people who love getting mail, but hate the effort of actually sending it. No excuses when someone else does the hard part for you!

Pretty much, Basic Invite makes it easy to be the kind of party-throwing, thank you-sending, hob-knobbing, Holiday-rocking, person you always dreamed you would be.

And because we all want to be the kind of person who shops smart….here’s the deal hook up:

Right now Basic Invite is offering 15% off with coupon code: 15FF51. So head on over there, browse their selection of party invitations online and start making good on some of those "someday" promises. 

So if you need me, I'll be staying up too late:
...writing punny, sticker-laden lunchbox notes  
...buying alllllll the Halloween themed art supplies for surprise "crafternoons"
...printing some honest-to-goodness cards and actually sending them (!) to people I love

Because I'll apparently never be the kind of mom who manages to go to bed at a reasonable hour but I am the kind of mom who believes in making ordinary things as special as possible.
 

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What about you? What kind of mom did you think you would be? What are the someday wishes you're still holding out hope you'll become?

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