#DEArtMom – Life as a Mom after the Pandemic

Greetings everyone and welcome to #DEArtMom!
If this is not your first time here, welcome back! I always appreciate anyone who supports my blog posts and business services so thank you for coming back for another post. If you are new here, this is the motherhood and parenting blog segment for Delux Designs (DE), LLC where we discuss everything pertaining to parenting, family and that sort of thing along with highlighting key moments of my journey as a new mom. This blog segment was started during the Coronavirus Pandemic that we now refer to as Covid to give me a way to connect with other moms who were confined to their homes during this tough time period.

Photo provided by Heath Productions

Well, we are now in the month of July 2025, about 5 years roughly after the start of that crazy and tragically deadly virus spread across the world, and I am now in a completely different position as a new mom as well. It is sort of hard to believe we are so many years after that time period. It’s even harder to believe I am now a mom to a 5 year old rising Kindergartener. Like they say, time moves so fast when you are raising children and this statement is so true.

With time moving fast, this includes some fast moving changes when it comes to me and my daughter’s well being. As you all may already know, I am a single mom so all responsibilities are now falling on me. This is unfortunate but it is reality. I am not the first to be placed in this position and I will more than likely not be the last, again unfortunately. This was a devastating reality that I had to get used very, very quickly too overall through time as I NEVER envisioned my first pregnancy and childbirth to go in this route at all but it is where we are now and I am embracing it. First step was to get my mind right on what needed to be done and what I could do away with. My responsibilities hit harder because there is no fallback plan or course of action. I have to make decisions for us and roll with those decisions.

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The first decision that I made was that I would take my time and get into shape not only for my own health but to keep up with my kid. I have a pandemic kid that has a ton of energy and often wants me to participate in all physical activities she takes part in so I made the decision to enroll into a gym and to start eating better overall. Has this been a easy decision? No. Have results come fast for me? No. But a little progress is better than no progress. To help I created my own Facebook Group called Fit Girlies✨ where I aim to allow a space where we can all come together and talk about all things pertaining to fitness, healthy eating, and just overall a healthier well being. Feel free to join, I don’t mind. But from this change, however, it changed my mindset. I became more focused than ever and began to move towards my second decision of moving to another state.

Photo provided by @K_DougDE

This decision was not a light one. I kept wondering what happens when I can not show up for my daughter? Who do I call? Who do I rely on? What kept me stuck in that one spot was worrying about who I could rely on when things went wrong when I should not have been worrying about this at all the entire time. What happens if car break downs happen? What happens if we run out of food? And so many other just excuses. I kept giving myself so many excuses instead of just jumping. To be honest I had the opportunity to move to where I am now a year after I gave birth but talked myself out of it due to my fears of failing. We all have these type of fears, especially us parents. We want to be the best that we can be for our children that sometimes opportunities will present themselves to us and we just push them away …. but not this time for me. I don’t know what it was but I just looked at myself in the mirror of my room in my mother’s house and just felt disappointed in myself one day. Other factors played a part in our move but this was the main factor. The disappointment in myself became too much for me to handle. I wanted more. I wanted my daughter to have more. So I went after more and obtained it successfully.

Photo provided by @K_DougDE

Since then when have been settling into our new space an enjoying life in a not so new area but exploring different activities we did not have access to until we moved to the area that we are in now and I am forever thankful for that overall. As I sit here and type this blog post out, I am just grateful that I never gave up. I never gave into intrusive thoughts, and I never stopped moving forward. Through heavy tears, gossip, and pain, I kept pushing forward positively. Even with missed opportunities during the pandemic, I have made up for all of them since then plus more. This is not the finish line for us though. So many other great things are planned and beginning to start. I can’t wait to see where we are a year from now.