Creative Mountain Mama
Welcome to the Creative Mountain Mama podcast - for those that resonate with seeking a connection to the land, family, and a simpler way of life. We're talking about faith, motherhood, and slow country living. If you're up for real talk, genuine experiences, and finding inspiration in some of the most extraordinary places, this is for you!
Grab a metaphorical campfire seat and let's dig into the good stuff.
Creative Mountain Mama
Humor and Heart in Motherhood: Embracing the Chaos with Bethany Morris
You'll be hard-pressed to find a dull moment when supermom Bethany Morris stops by for a chat. With her authentic portrayal of the unpredictable nature of parenting four little ones under five, our latest episode is a heartwarming blend of laughter and life lessons. Bethany brings both humor and wisdom, offering a very relatable glimpse into motherhood that's bound to resonate whether you're a parent yourself or just enjoy a good family anecdote.
Dive into Bethany's journey, sparked by a viral life moment that's as endearing as it is life-changing. She opens up about the growth of her online presence, sharing the highs and lows. Her stories are not just entertaining; they're a testament to staying grounded in your values amidst the external noise, and she provides a roadmap for other moms navigating the complexities of motherhood in the digital age.
Our episode rounds off with her daily habits of finding pockets of peace in the daily life of being a mom. Bethany's candid talk on community, spirituality, and self-care is like a breath of fresh air, offering encouragement to those trying to find balance in the beautiful mess of raising kids. It's a reminder that, even in the chaos, there's grace to be found, and sometimes, a fellow mama's parenting style can be the inspiration you need to embrace each day with resilience and faith. Join us for an engaging session that's as inspiring as it is entertaining, reminding us all that the journey of motherhood is one best navigated with humor and heart.
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Stay tuned for more episodes exploring the connection between faith, motherhood, and slow country living.
Welcome everyone to another episode of the Creative Mountain Mama podcast. I am joined by Bethany Morris. She is a mama of four under five and everything she does is to encourage you on your motherhood journey. She keeps it super relatable and authentic on her page and I'm really excited to jump into it. Bethany, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I am excited too, because I'm sure you have a plethora of funny stories. Has anything funny happened lately?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I hate to say the word funny to follow that up, but it's funny. You said that because I mean not necessarily even motherhood, but like this morning I went and I'm working on a collaboration at a place called Ollie's and this happens to me. I don't know, there's just people like me, I think, where if it's going to happen, it's going to happen to me. And as I was walking in, suddenly my mouth became so dry. It was just like. As I was walking, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm thirsty. And I went inside to find the manager and I opened my mouth and the world's most disgusting sound came out as I was trying to talk. It wasn't even a word, it was just like, and the manager was looking at me like, can I help you? And I was like, I think, froggy from little rascals. I was like I'm in bad that day and I'm here to find some content. And so that happened and I shared that on Instagram this morning and I have just been laughing all day about it.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious. I had one where I. It was a little bit right. So we all had a mask, so I had to take off my mask to check in for my hair appointment. Oh God, Like something stuck in my throat during that moment and I had to leave the hair salon and it's like it's a new world it really was.
Speaker 2:I know there's always that person that's like are they okay? And everyone's like stay away from them.
Speaker 1:Everyone crosses the street and, yes, that's exactly right, so I know that you have just a great presence online. Can you tell me a little bit about your journey and how you started?
Speaker 2:Yes, so, gosh, it was just two years ago, almost to the date, that I shared a video of my husband, elliot's reaction to finding out we were pregnant, very unexpectedly, with our third baby, and I had like kind of posted, like I think, two videos on TikTok just willy-nilly, because before that social media for me was just, you know, fun. And then that video blew up and at the time I'd been praying about an opportunity to leave where I was at with my career and, you know, god just really aligned everything perfectly and opened a door for income through social media, which he knew I would then need, because we found out that that was not one baby, it was two babies. And it just worked out perfectly and I've always loved making videos and editing videos and just sharing parts of my story. So God just kind of weaved all of it together to give me an option to have a career in it and it's been amazing.
Speaker 1:Awesome and I know you told me All right. Two one Welcome everyone to another episode of the Creative Mountain Mama podcast. I am joined by Bethany Morris. She is a mama of four under five and everything she does is to encourage you on your motherhood journey. She keeps it super relatable and authentic on her page and I'm really excited to jump into Bethany. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I am excited too, because I'm sure you have a plethora of funny stories. Has anything funny happened lately?
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, I hate to say the word funny to follow that up, but it's funny. You said that because I mean not necessarily even motherhood, but like this morning I went and I'm working on a collaboration at a place called Ollie's and this happens to me. I don't know, there's just people like me, I think, where if it's going to happen, it's going to happen to me. And as I was walking in, suddenly my mouth became so dry. It was just like. As I was walking, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm thirsty, and I went inside to find the manager and I opened my mouth and the world's most disgusting sound came out as I was trying to talk. It wasn't even a word, it was just like, and the manager was looking at me like can I help you? And I was like, I think froggy from little rascals. I was like I'm Bethany and I'm here to find some content. So that happened and I shared that on Instagram this morning and I have just been laughing all day about it.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious. I had one where I it was a little bit right. So we all had a mask, so I had to take off my mask to check in for my hair appointment. Oh God, Like something stuck in my throat during that moment and I had to leave the hair salon so I could cough privately. It's a new world.
Speaker 2:It really was. I know there's always that person that's like are they okay? And everyone's like stay away from them.
Speaker 1:Everyone crosses the street and so, yes, that's exactly right. So I know that you have just a great presence online. Can you tell me a little bit about your journey and how you started?
Speaker 2:Yes, so, gosh, it was just two years ago, almost to the date, that I shared a video of my husband, elliot's reaction to finding out we were pregnant, very unexpectedly with our third baby, and I had kind of posted, like, I think, two videos on TikTok just willy-nilly, because before that social media for me was just fun. And then that video blew up and at the time I'd been praying about an opportunity to leave where I was at with my career and God just really aligned everything perfectly and opened a door for income through social media, which he knew I would then need, because we found out that that was not one baby, it was two babies and it just worked out perfectly and I've always loved making videos and editing videos and just sharing parts of my story. So God just kind of weaved all of it together to give me an option to have a career in it and it's been amazing, awesome.
Speaker 1:And I know you told me, you know I the most surprising part is the once you get a lot of influence, there's a lot of criticism. And you said I didn't know people would disagree with me. They never disagree before. So how do you overcome challenges and lean on your faith?
Speaker 2:This is one area of God is working on my heart and it's just to be totally transparent.
Speaker 2:It is something that before, like I said, I never expected it, so I probably haven't managed it in the godliest way.
Speaker 2:Not that I've been I've never been like a bully or mean to people, but I've always been someone who was like I'm going to stand up for myself and I think God is honestly teaching me like just to let it go, like it doesn't matter, it's not impacting my kids, it's not impacting my life, it's not hurting my family and really, when it comes down to it, you know, when we share parts of our story online, that's real, like that's a tangible, real part of our life, but there's other parts, like sharing an opinion or things like these other people, they're not in my life. That's not real, that's not impacting, and I was like I'll deal with that. You just keep doing what I've called you to do on here and you know kind of translates over outside of social media, just keeping my eyes fixed on what God's word says and not what the world says, and that's been a challenge, but I'm really I think God is softening my heart towards it lately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. And to have Grace through the journey and, you know, getting to include others on that journey as well. Is there any common misconceptions or common questions that you get?
Speaker 2:Um, gosh, I get. I feel like there's like different categories of questions like content creation, motherhood, twin life. I would I would say that a huge question I get asked is about like how do you make money on social media? And sometimes I want to be like I don't know. I'm with you because there's times like it's ebb and flow, I'm sure, like you understand, it's like it's just like any other like entrepreneur endeavor, and so I think that's probably a hot question.
Speaker 2:A lot of questions about like navigating motherhood and postpartum, because you know, I think just moms are some of the loneliest people in the world and you know, we've kind of been conditioned to think we're just supposed to know, and so I think a lot of questions I get asked I want people to know like I may not have the answer, but you are always welcome to ask. There is no such thing as a stupid question. Um, because we're all parenting differently, we're all different moms with different, you know, upbringings and different beliefs, and I just think that, um, I don't know, there's just no wrong questions, so maybe people feel comfortable. So I have a wide variety and I certainly am not someone who knows everything, but I love sharing my experience and hopefully answering some of those questions.
Speaker 1:There's a mama for you have been through it. Twins, right People. I'm sure feel like they can approach you with anything. Is there any one thing that you've done through all four babies? You know we buy this product or we. You know we always put them down this way. Can you share a couple of your best practices?
Speaker 2:So for me, gosh, this is hard because I really feel like we are such. I'm not a minimalist by any means, like I want to preface with that, but my mom really was like when I had my first, my son he was my firstborn she was like you just don't need a lot for babies. And I was like whatever mom, like this is what they say online, this is what the app say, like we've got to go to target, like tomorrow, and I guess what I've done is just taken this approach of like we can always run up to the store and get it, but we don't need to have it on hand. So for all of my babies I'm not kidding when I say we would have been fine and probably only use you know, we had diapers and wipes. We had I bought like what I would say, special outfits that would wear for, like pictures or, like you know, going to church, but outside of that we just had the bare necessities and there's nothing. And this is why I make a terrible influencer, because I'm often like you don't need much, like you really don't.
Speaker 2:But one thing I would say we love, because all of my babies we breastfed for a bit and then formula fed and we consistently use the Dr Brown bottles, the anti colic ones. Does it make an impact on colic? I'll never know because quite honestly I think it's just colic is just that season. And then what was the other thing? We bought each of our babies a couple of like the bamboo, like the really nice pajamas, and because they last so long and really we used my son and daughters through all of our babies like we passed those, those down and they lasted forever. I'm normally a cheapskate but when it came to that I was like quality over quantity. Highly recommend.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like you know you've kept those on hand. You're prepared for the next one. Are you guys going to continue or are you guys happy with the bird you have?
Speaker 2:I think that I am for sure done. I say I think I know I am done. I think that like, of course there's a part of me like that aches as they're getting older. But I'm like, I just feel very complete and, quite honestly, just like you know how it is when you have like the first few months after baby. The newborn phase, in my opinion, for myself was always the most challenging, and I think it's most challenging as you have more kids, because newborns require so much. And when we have the twins you know I had a one in three year old it was so hard to manage my time and be like am I giving enough to everyone? Because I certainly don't feel like it. So the thought of having another one, even if I was like mentally I'm strong, like I'm game, while everyone's so little, I can't even let my mind go there. So I would say like 99%, sure, we're done, Unless everyone's like in school, like five or six years down the road, who knows, I mean I'm 29. So I don't know, I'll see.
Speaker 1:Here at 29,. You had your four already. Is there any advice that you'd give a mama that's trying to decide if she wants to stay at home with her babies or go back to work?
Speaker 2:This always gets touchy, I feel, because there's no wrong answer. And here was my mindset. I always said like, after I had my son, I was a teacher and I could not imagine ever like just going back full time and plus the cost of daycare where I live and making as much as I was making as a teacher. I was like, well, I could doordash in the evenings and make that much. So I found an online job as a special education teacher and it gave me a really flexible schedule.
Speaker 2:I just think it's such a personal decision for me I like to work. I always will like to work, even if it's after my kids go to bed, until you know midnight. I just have that mindset. I love doing it and having something outside of being at home with my kids all day. Not that that's not the best purpose in calling ever, but mentally I think there's just God makes everyone different, like we have different gifts and talents, and that's just something he's given me. So for me, I said, as far as finances, it was never an option just to be a stay at home mom, not just to be, because that's a whole job in itself. But for me I always was. I've always had to find a way of providing income and you know I prayed when I had my son and said, god for all of my babies, I just want to be home the first year. If that's a possibility like, please provide.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure you've had your seasons of trials, seasons of, you know, fun times, season of tiny shoes and the cute things. Do you have a word for a mama in the newborn phase just starting out?
Speaker 2:So I think that everyone's different. Because, like my sister would take a million newborns and like board them in her house because she just loves the newborn season, I will never say like, oh, I hate it, like, oh, there's awful. It was very mentally taxing. I think it is for everyone, but some people are maybe more sensitive to it, and that was me.
Speaker 2:So if you're one of those moms, I would just encourage you and let you know that it does not last forever and you do not have people always say like soak it up. You don't have to soak it up. Take pictures and try to enjoy what you can, but it is okay if you don't want to soak up the. You know 3 am feeding. When you're like crying and you're wondering like when will this get better? That's hard to soak up. So it always made me feel about them.
Speaker 2:People are like you're gonna miss it. Soak it up. I was like I will miss, like this season of, like we're starting our family, like we have this new addition. I love this tiny baby and I'm learning about this baby and I'm bonding with this baby, but I'm never going to look back, I promise you, when I'm 80 and say like if I could go back in time to any point in my life. I'm gonna go back to that 3 am when I was miserable, crying on the floor and just mentally knocked out. But like those are seasons I won't miss, so it's okay to just be in between, like I'm not gonna fast forward. This season Can't really soak it up. I'm gonna take what I can and breathe out the rest. Just honestly, breathing Sounds crazy. I am not like a yoga girlie at all. Like I breathe sometimes when I'm getting angry or I'm like, oh my, like anxious. You just breathe it out.
Speaker 1:You keep reminding me of something I heard. If you're wondering if you should have one more, it's not asking yourself if you know we can have one more. It's really just evaluating the mom that you are in this moment. Are you showing up to your kids, are you breathing through those hard moments, are you praying through the difficulty and that, whether or not you decide to have one more kid from that little piece of advice, that little tidbit, but it just helps you feel okay overall. You know I am really trying, I'm really doing this. I am doing this with four under five and it's more about just kind of the grace that that little tidbit of advice gives each mama. I know you talk about your sister a lot. Are there other people that inspire you on your journey?
Speaker 2:I feel like I am very blessed to have a lot of friends who had babies around the same time. I did, honestly, my neighbor. It was such a God thing. So she and I did not know each other when I moved in and she's about five or six years older than I am, but her husband and his family my family actually grew up with and went to high school with. The connection was so weird, but she is truly such an inspiration to me and she's right next door and I just know God planted us next to each other for a reason.
Speaker 2:We've walked through so many similar seasons. Our kids are about the same age, like within one or two years. She has a little boy and a little girl about the same age as my older two and I don't know what it is exactly, but she's just so. She's like that calm mom that everyone looks at. They're like.
Speaker 2:I want to respond like that Like, and I think when you put yourself around people like that, it helps you to react that way to your own kids.
Speaker 2:Like I was saying, if I had never seen her like when her son was doing something when he was three, and she was like oh, like, let's go talk to this side, like not to embarrass him and talking calmly, and I was like, oh, I would lose my mind when I see someone do that.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh my gosh, that's what I want to do for my kids. Because look at the relationship and I truly feel like when you become a mom because I've been guilty of it, I used to be so social, love to do things with people you become a mom and it's like I should be an island. I don't want to leave the house, like I don't want to risk my child embarrassing me in public or in front of other kids, and that's not how it's designed to be. And there have been times, even with my closest friends that are moms, that I grit my teeth and I'm like, yes, I'll go to the play because I know I need to. I've never left and said, man, I'm really like mad that I did that. I should never do that again. I always leave feeling inspired and encouraged and like, okay, I'm going to take some of the things they did and try to be that in my own walk as a mom.
Speaker 1:So good Seeing the ladies in our life. I have a neighbor too. She's a practicing therapist but the way she talks to her little kids it's like the PBS kids teachers, but in human form, and you're like, wow, I wish I could talk to my kids, like, yes, I think that's why we lean on each other in kind of this internet era right. I was always feeling indebted to the ladies that went on mommy blogs and and did share and did say you know, these are hard moments and we're living through them together and I think that's what you're doing and I always felt gratitude to those people. Thank you for taking that extra moment to share and sit down and edit and, you know, do what you do, because it is lonely when you're, especially in that newborn stage, and you feel like you can't go outside, let alone to a play date, which I know which gets better in time. Are there any Grace saving daily routines that you turn to every day as your cornerstone?
Speaker 2:So outside of the obvious, like reading my Bible and devotional which truly like, can be a battle when you become a mom, because before kids you have this quiet time and it's like then you have kids and you know one baby and it's like, okay, I can still, you know, get to that. Then they get older and there's not maybe a nap time and you just can't count on it. I have learned that I am much more productive when I set aside that time to spend with God, even for myself. It's quiet, like even going to church. This on silly I told my husband I was like we're going every week because that's free childcare for an hour Feels like a date almost sometimes, like you go and you sit down and it's quiet. But every single day I set aside that time and it might even be in my car the 15 minutes before I'm getting my kids from school. I might purpose to leave a little bit early.
Speaker 2:It doesn't have to look like what it used to and that's what I really struggled with at first. I wanted my morning time with my hot coffee and like my Bible and my journal. It doesn't look like that now. It really doesn't. It looks messy In my opinion, but to God, it's not messy when you're spending time with him. You know he doesn't care how you get there, he just wants you there. And that's something that the past year has really stretched and grown me in, because my answer was like can't get to it, it's too hard, we're just not going to do it. We'll fit it in when we can, and it was just never meant to look that way. When you prioritize it in the mess, there's just something special about it.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you helping on our conversation Absolutely.
