I had just had baby number five. My oldest was five. I was doing the best I could adjusting to having another baby in the house. After a few months I could see the beginnings of our “new normal”. We were all surviving and doing alright.

I realized at some point in all of our new crazy (because five kids five years apart is crazy, let’s just get that out there), that certain things were totally slipping. Things that I never let slip and slide by me before. I tried to be on top of things. After all, going out in public with all of them was always full of adventure. It probably left mom in tears at least a quarter of the time, and someone else in tears the other 3/4 of the time.

We’d be getting out of the car, and I’d realize that someones hair hadn’t been touched all day long – it was full on bed head, and there was nothing I could do now. We’d start unloading out of the car, and a shoe or a sock would be missing, or perhaps a coat was just not in the car at all and it was zero degrees.

As the years have passed, and I’ve had another baby, making 6 in 7 years. Even more slips by me now. I still can’t seem to get everyone to comb/brush their hair before they head off to school. I still can’t keep track of coats for everyone. However, mouths are fed, clothes get washed, the house gets picked up, and kids know they are loved.

It’s taken me a few years to realize that it’s okay to have to let things slide. It’s okay to let go of that perfectionism that I tend to have. It can also be REALLY, REALLY hard. As a mom of six, sometimes my perfectionism comes out in tears, frustration of not being able to keep up with my house, laundry, dishes, and homework. So, something has to go. Something has to slip and slide, and I HAVE to be okay with it.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from motherhood, is that sometimes you have to let go of perfectionism, and still be happy. You have to let go of things that matter to you, but don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. When you can do that, you will BE HAPPY. You will find your “new normal”, or your “new crazy”, and you will love it.

This year I want to find more joy, I want to see the happy and spread...