September highlights

Back to school, new beginnings, Autumn treasures, my daughter's birthday and Substack posts I've loved lately

If you are new here, welcome! I’m so happy to have you here as part of this lovely, supportive community of mums. I’m Jenna, a mum of 3, a Coach for Mums and I live by the sea in South Wales.

Here on The Motherhood Connection, I love writing about:

• ways to ease your overwhelm and cultivate self-compassion as a mum

• tips on how to take imperfect action and live a life that feels good to you

• the small moments of family life that bring me joy

• honest reflections on motherhood

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I don’t know about you, but September seemed to go by so fast - I find the weeks always do once the kids are back in school. In this post, I’m sharing my highlights from September with you which includes; new beginnings, Autumn treasures, my daughter’s birthday and Substack posts I’ve loved lately.

I really enjoy writing these posts and reminding myself what we actually did in that month, and remembering the moments of joy amongst busy family life. I’d love to hear what your September highlights were too - join me in the comments!

New beginnings

I’m writing this post in a quiet house instead of in my usual snatched moments amongst the chaos, because my youngest started morning nursery two weeks ago, so for the first time in 3 and a half years, I have 2 and a half hours to myself every weekday morning!

It feels really strange to have child free time as I’m so used to my youngest being with me all of the time.

It felt especially strange walking back to the car after the school run on his first day at nursery - usually I’d drop off my eldest two, then I’d walk back to the car holding his hand and we’d go somewhere together. It felt too quiet being on my own!

Saying that, I’m definitely starting to embrace my solo mornings - I treated myself to a trip to my favourite coffee shop to take my mind off him starting nursery - two hot chocolates later and a bit of journalling, I felt better!

Back to school

My daughter and my middle son were so happy to be back at school at the start of September - they missed their friends so much and getting back into a routine has felt good for all of us - especially when the summer felt pretty intense.

My daughter is now in Year 6 and my middle son is in Year 4. I can’t quite believe my daughter is in her last year of primary school and she’ll be heading to secondary school in less than a year!

She’s started to walk part of the way to school with her friends now, so this is the start of her getting more independent and wanting to be away from me more and more. Much like my youngest starting nursery, these new transitions take a while to get used to don’t they.

Mornings together

When my eldest two went back to school and before my youngest started nursery, we had some lovely mornings out together. We popped down to the seafront (and I got out of breath pushing the buggy up the huge hill), we went looking for squirrels in the park - (didn’t find any but found loads of acorns - I think I read somewhere that it’s a bumper year for acorns?) and he loves going out on his balance bike too.

He’s also hit the age where when it’s time to leave somewhere, he’s not happy - often a flat out refusal to leave, so there’s been a few public meltdowns where I’m either carrying him when he’s screaming or he’s screaming in the buggy.

My tactic is head down and power on home, but god in the moment it feels stressful!!

Autumn treasures

I’ve been enjoying noticing the different colours of the leaves, conkers, acorns and sycamore seeds on the floor on our walks out and about, and pointing them out to my youngest.

I feel like when I do this and say it out loud, it helps me notice the seasons more. Then, when we go out again and my youngest notices these seasonal treasures himself, it makes me smile.

Lately, I’ve been noticing the autumn sun and shadows at teatime as the sun is setting too. I love how Katie Lloyd describes the Autumn sun as honeyed in her latest post here:

“The light has changed again. Brought in with the winds and the changing clouds, the days have softened, become honeyed by the worn and spent sun. Squeezed together more by the darkening bookends of dawn and dusk, the days are painted in richer, warmer colours, and cast with longer shadows.”

My daughter turned 11!

It’s was my daughter’s 11th birthday on Monday, which of course she was super excited about for weeks before! Excitement reached fever pitch on the morning of her birthday when the kids were up at 4:30am, way too early!!

My youngest made himself in charge of the presents, my daughter was lucky she got a look in opening her own presents as he was wanting to open them all with her. She did want to wear a birthday tiara and sash to school on Monday but I talked her out of it, I said a badge would do!

Substack posts I’ve enjoyed in September

There’s been so many Substack posts I’ve loved in September, here are just a few:

• Amy Briggs’ post on how her negative self image has changed in motherhood in her post The Legacy of Female Self Depreciation. I really related to Amy’s words - I definitely did not want to pass on the kind of critical body image and obsession that I grew up with, to my kids.

• I always love a book recommendation post, and Elizabeth Morris gives 5 novels to set you alight when the domestic sphere makes you feel scratchy for more, in her post Books for Restless Women

• Emma Barnett’s post on finding the secret to creating amazing work and these words:

“Your most successful work doesn’t have to be your best. But it can keep the wolf from the door while you keep searching and making something that never existed before you made it. As long as you keep doing the thing, again and again, something will come.”

• Kathryn Vercillo’s post When your hands teach your mind to stay still, where she explores why crochet feels so grounding to her:

“The beauty of this particular type of grounding was that it didn’t require me to stop thinking or force myself into some artificially calm state. My mind could still wander, could still process whatever it needed to process, but my body was engaged in something soothing and rhythmic that provided a foundation of safety underneath whatever mental activity was happening.”

• Melinda Wenner Moyer’s post on how can we stay in the moment with our kids and how we can integrate mindfulness into our busy lives as mums.

• Violet Carol & Danusia Malina-Derben’s powerful collaborative post on ‘Women Who Roar, reminded me of all the times I’ve made myself heard and taken up space for my kids and myself, especially when it’s felt hard. I loved this quote:

“To roar is to refuse erasure, whether through laughter, through rage, through persistence, through love.”

Thank you so much for reading! I’d love to hear from you in the comments:

• How was September for you?

• What were your highlights?

• Did you have any new starts or transitions in September?

• Which Substack posts have you enjoyed reading lately?

Ways to work with me this October

Hi, I’m Jenna, I’m a Coach for Mums and I’m also a mum of 3 – my kids are 11, 8 & 3.

I love to support exhausted mums with young kids to turn their overwhelm and anger into calm and compassion.

If you’re looking to set feel-good goals, take small (totally do-able) steps, that create long-lasting change then just think of me as your personal cheerleader who is going to support you in making those changes!

I’ll boost your confidence by reminding you of your strengths, of all the times when you’ve done hard things before and how amazing you already are - let’s get started and make incredible things happen for you!!

I’ll show you how you can work out what’s important to you now in your current season of motherhood, how you can make positive changes in your life in line with these priorities, in a totally do-able way as a busy mum.

I’ve got space for 2 mums to work with me in my Rediscover YOU 12 week one to one coaching experience, and also space for 2 mums to work with me to create their very own 12 week Bespoke Self Care Plan.

You can find all the details for both of these here or book a 30 min chat with me to find out more:

You might also like some of my most recent posts/podcast episodes:

• Summer highlights and starting again

• Capturing summer moments of joy and including myself in summer plans

• 3 ways to ease the mental load for mums (podcast episode)

• Motherhood and Creativity Interview Archive

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