I’m lucky. I’m almost 45 years old. I’m a single mom with three young children who I adore. I spend most of my time being the best mom I can be for them. Reading parenting books, teaching kindness and respect. Modeling high integrity with my words and actions with them and other people. Staying positive and diplomatic when their emotions get hot. And 7 year old identical twin girls have some big emotions. And I feel lucky to hold space for them as I believe they deserve. In my opinion, all kids deserve to have their kid brain nurtured with age appropriate lessons and so much love and compassion.

Getting the right snacks that are healthy and always having their water cups full with the right color of straws. Looking them in the eye when we talk. Listening, problem solving, creating and snuggling them as much as possible. It keeps me busy in a way I can’t explain to a married mom with 3 kids.

But also, I have an amazing job that forces me to take care of me. Lucky is how I feel. I always knew I wanted to be a flight attendant AND a mom even when I flew for Northwest Airlines back in 1998.

Good news is that I have a strong intrinsic motivation to workout, practice yoga and a deep hunger to keep learning and playing. This was built long before I had kids and continues to thrive even as I mostly think of myself as Blaize, Pepper and Kai’s mama.

Longboard surfing is my newest hobby and it has my full attention. Learning to carry this 9 foot plus beast on top of my head to the beach with the wind and the Japanese tourists took me 3 months to learn. It’s still one of my proudest parts about learning to surf. Nobody talks about how hard it is to learn to balance and carry that big ass board on your head except for me.I love to call it like it is. So when the 20 somethings start to look at me kinda funny, I shut it down hard and fast and remind them that I could be your mom 😂 #truth

So I feel lucky that this mom bod can learn an intense sport like longboard surfing. Surfers make it look easy. I’m telling you loud and clear there is nothing easy about learning to surf in your 40’s post 3 babies.

After surfing a few times a month for about a year, I received the best compliment ever last weekend. A surf instructor (not mine) yelled, “your paddle looks good and strong!” Whaaaat?! Really? Paddling is something I’ve worked on and talked about constantly. Then like any good, honest human he also yelled “your problem is you’re looking back at the wave and it’s killing your momentum AND you’re in the wrong spot. Haha! I love the truth tellers.

Never a dull moment when you’re learning a new sport in your 40’s.

What’s on your learning list in 2020? Love to hear your big goals!