The Mom Flow: Six Weeks In Portugal

Welcome to The Mom Flow, where I share things that are on my mind in the hopes of helping you connect to your Mom Flow. Thanks for being here! —Erin Sousa

I blinked and over a month has gone by since I’ve written to you. It was intentional, don’t worry. We have had a truly crazy two months. In this short time, we sold our home, bought a new one (I will share more on what this has all been like soon), and travelled to Portugal for a total of six weeks – we are 2.5 weeks into our trip as I type this. So, I just simply had no bandwidth for anything extra, and the moms in the room will totally get that. Protecting the Mom Flow at all costs, which is such a fricking practice to not getting to a point of burn out and not enjoying any part of it.

That said, yes, I do feel like I got to the point of feeling burnt out between the crazy stress of selling, buying, moving, work, mom life, packing for Portugal, throwing a huge full-day wedding shower/30th bday party for a friend, Lola getting sick, me getting sick, and somehow, getting on a plane to Portugal. My mental health took a really big dip before we left (PMS didn’t help I’m sure), and it’s been actually nice to recalibrate in a different place, even if I was realllly unsure how we would pull it off.

We have a family home in Portugal (it’s the home Roberto’s mom grew up in) and take an annual 6-week trip here every summer. Last summer, Lola was 2, and had her 3rd bday while here, and lemme tell you, she was a different girl last trip. Literally, can I use the word nightmare?! She was so out of sorts the entire 6 weeks, but we had our in-laws here to help. This time, it’s just us, but she is absolutely thriving and blossoming as a little Portuguesa. Her cousins (my sis + fam) are here with us for 2.5 weeks which lemme tell you, has been so magical for her. And for me. Seeing her with built in ‘sisters’ is like heart bursting (and also gives me all the feels about not being able to give her a sibling but that’s a chat for another time).

Now, the trip has been fantastic. Really. The way I look at it, I am simply working from a different location on a different time zone. That said, it’s been quite a lot to balance and I’m working on being adaptable. I started with a new client and have had two brand partnerships sign on, and another two inquiring. It’s been amazing and I’ve looked around lately and been so grateful for the fact that I’m living the life I’ve only dreamed of. I don’t know how, but I’m here.

I always like to be honest with you – I know online we see a lot of easy, perfect lives and we assume it’s us that is just having a rough go of it. What I’ve learned is that there are so many ebbs and flows in life, and especially big life changes, it’s really important to be kind to ourselves. I am practicing this advice on the daily. Over the last few days, I’ve been feeling super irritable and reactive (like suuuper snippy with my husband which is always a telltale sign for me) so hubs and sis/brother in law took the kids on an adventure and I took a day to just work, nap, and I did a little cleaning to a podcast. I also sometimes get a homesick feeling when I’m travelling which can come and go.

It’s not lost on me that these are the days and I often reflect that we are only this young and healthy once, and our kids are at such a sweet age. The other side of that is that they are very high needs at these ages (my nieces are 7 and 3, Lola is days away from 4) and travelling with kids means it’s all centered around what is best for them. Can I be honest? This isn’t always easy for me to put my needs aside most minutes of the day.

We are spending our days having big family breakfasts, going to the beach, the pool (luckily, hubs cousins on the property have a pool!), exploring, and a mix between taking turns to cook and eating out. Lots of ice cream breaks, sunscreen breaks, fresh oranges from our orchard and enjoying watching the girls blossom. Arguments and annoyances, um, yes, of course! But that’s the way it goes.

I pack light when I come, and buy skin products here, wearing barely any makeup, keeping the wardrobe easy breezy and kinda repetitive, but that’s how I thrive honestly.

We are also each giving each couple a night off for a date day/night – ours is coming this week and we will go to the beach until sundown, letting auntie and uncle put Lola down. Such a treat since we are here for 6 weeks without any childcare and my fam leaves in a few days.

Sharing lots of details on my Portugal IG highlight and I’ll check in with you again soon! Thanks so much for sticking with me here, even if I’ve been inconsistent and pop any questions in the comments so I can cover the topics you want to hear about around this trip!

There’s more! Keep reading this week’s edition of The Mom Flow by Erin Sousa, including an easy weeknight recipe for Mexican Green Chicken Rollups; subscribe for free to receive new posts and support her work, here!