I Am

I am. 

I am a mother. I am a wife. I am a housekeeper. I am a business owner. I am Tess. I am a busy person. I am a loving person. I am a compassionate person. 

I do. 

I look after my son. I look after my husband. I look after our house. I manage our groceries, bills, appointments and general everyday life. I run our business, sew our label and endeavour to look after our customers to my bestability. 

I have. 

I have happiness. I have love. I have tiredness. I have anxiety. I have a wonderful Mum & sisters who are my rock. 

Some of you who visited in store last week saw that I had my little boy in there with me unwell. For those who don’t know, he has chronic eczema. Which at the moment is infected. Nothing life threatening or deadly. But a lot of work, time, research and love to manage and find an answer for him. 

This week my “I do” list swallowed me. Last week was a long exhausting week. Tuesday morning, coupled with tiredness, my anxiety crept in and I felt like I was drowning. Part of me wanted desperately to push it aside and soldier through. The other part of me knew that I wasn't capable of that. What I really needed was a good cry, a cup of tea and a chat with my Mum.

So that’s what I did. I took the day off and closed the shop to allow myself 24 hours to breathe and regroup. There may or may not have been cake also.

Mums/ladies/girls, please don’t ever feel ashamed for putting your hand up and admitting you’re not coping. It doesn’t mean you will never cope again. It doesn’t mean you won’t get up tomorrow and be that amazing multi-tasking woman once more. Allowing a day for myself to introvert and reset is one of the best things I can do for my mental health when life throws everything at me at once.

And to Mums of any child out there with a chronic or disabling health condition, I take my hat off to you. What Flynn goes through is nothing in comparison to other children, I can only imagine what it is like with more serious challenges.
You can’t take care of your family unless you take care of yourself. 

x x x