Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of the Mommy Shorts Monday Series sponsored by Allstate- but all thoughts, opinions, and banana chunks are my own.
Friends, my morning routine is straight glam.
(She says while wiping a piece of banana from her forehead.)
And I swear to all that is ironed or organic- if one more person asks me if I’m wearing workout yoga pants or staying in the house yoga pants I’ll angrily chase them down the street. (I am dressed for it, after all.)
Our mornings ’round here are anything but pretty. It’s kind of like an intricate bout of double dutch jumping rope; if you can substitute “jump rope” with “diapers” and are cool with the occasional colliding and careening to the floor. (While we’re on the subject, why is that part of the floor so wet?) Food rarely stays put on the table. No one can find their left shoe. And, prior to 8am, I’m fairly certain my kids believe the lower half of my face is attached to a coffee mug.
My point is that, no matter how I try, I’ll never have a magazine-ready start to my day. No sipping a latte while perching on my linen chaise, benignly beaming at my braided and pinafored offspring as they chant their French lessons. No sparkling floor reflecting the dappling sunlight that illuminates our lack of clutter, lack of paper piles, and lack of mascara clumps. (Hahahaha, I’m totally joking. I do not wear mascara in the morning, even in my fantasies.)
Ilana Wiles- she of Mommy Shorts fame- started a Monday Morning Series to document (and prove!) the beauty that honest-to-goodness is there each and every day…even if it takes an outsider to see it. Along with photographer Raquel Bianca, they showcased New York-area mothers and their unexpected moments of loveliness earrrrly in the morning. Read the post that started it off here!
And now they’re taking it on the road. Thanks to Allstate, Mommy Shorts and Raquel Bianca are looking for twelve mamas nationwide to feature in their Monday Morning Series- starting with the first three here in Chicago! (Seriously, check out the post for full details on how to enter.)
Sure, you may be thinking, I’m totally gonna let people in to see the trainwreck that is my Monday morning. I know. That was my first thought, too. But then, in the midst of writing and scrubbing and breakfasting the girls (yes, it’s an active verb), I looked down to see this little guy smiling up at me. Just patiently waiting for a moment of eye contact, as per his usual morning routine.
I mean, talk about protecting what matters most! It made me take a step back (mentally, because I don’t have a heck of a lot of room to maneuver, what with these piles and all) and see what else is beautiful in this chaos:
My daughters playing house with chess figurines- clad in three items of pajama separates between the two.
A paper scrap with a ripped heart outline- for the note I always include in my husband’s lunch.
And yeah, plenty of dappling sunlight- illuminating the sticky, scuffed floors in the home we scrimped to buy.
I hope you guys head on over for a chance to be featured. I’d love to see the (sticky, scuffed) beauty in your mornings. Between Allstate, Mommy Shorts, and all the parents keepin’ on keepin on, we’re all in good hands.
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This post is part of the ” Mommy Shorts Monday Mornings” series sponsored by Allstate. Every family has a special morning routine, and as we continue documenting different mothers across the country, it’s clear there is beauty in all of our mornings. As the nation’s largest publicly held insurance company, Allstate is dedicated not only to protecting what matters most—but to guiding families to live the Good Life, every day.
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