a new stay at home mom

Today, my county in Missouri begins a stay at home order. My family has been living that way already for a couple of weeks in preparation for these rules as the pandemic started reaching around the United States. And I am blessed to have a job that could send most of the employees home and I can do all of my work remotely. It is a massive shift for me to be at home so much -- I have worked a full time+ job since my son was six months old. Time is full now for sure! While it is profound and meaningful to be at home, dedicated more intensely and acutely to the protection of and provision for my family, community and world, let's all agree that it comes with another, exhausting emotional layer. I have family in Italy. Dear friends in New York, California, Illinois and so many places. Every day somewhere, someone is affected. Each of us connected wherever we are. 

We are all going through so much right now, individually and together as a world. In so many cases, Stay at home moms (SAHM) and dads are inundated with new routines, homeschooling set-ups, cooking/sleep schedules and remote working partners now that so, so many of us have been given the stay at home orders. It's overwhelming and it's a challenge.

I am thinking about what I can do from my home to reach out and extend my love, support and energy to us all. motherwork is about knowing, sharing and telling - our experiences, ideas, lessons learned and resources. I didn’t know what this “project” would become when I started it, I just knew that I needed to start it.

Just this month I found some footing with researching artists and projects and started building up relationships and opportunities to put together some community screenings of documentary films related to motherwork. Those events are on hold of course, but the reconnecting and reinvigorating of motherwork.org as a potential resource hub is still in the works. I have started updating the site and will be continuously adding to it, with posts, ideas, calls for entry and other ways for us to connect, create and share.

Please visit the Resources page and send any comments or information that you feel could be added. I’m spending quite a bit of time on Instagram these days: find me @mother.work.


Stay home, be well and love each other.
-Emily

p.s. If you have a sewing machine and skills, make some masks with this handy pattern from STATE the label
www.statethelabel.com/pages/masks