Welcome to Mama Has Her Mindful—What You’ll Find Here

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Hi there! I’m Chelsea, creator of Mama Has Her Mindful. It’s taken a year of hard work and planning (and 10 years of dreaming!) to get to where we are today!

I made this blog to provide busy, overwhelmed parents with resources to live more mindfully and tips to whole-heartedly find joy in life’s small moments.

And to hold myself accountable and ensure that I continue to practice mindfulness in my own life. To get a better idea of why I’m on a mission to be mindful, let’s travel back in time…

Where MHHM Began

While I’ve always loved to write, and have been an editor for over a decade, this dream started in a dark, quiet room, while a new mother rocked her newborn to sleep.

That new mother was me. Ten years ago. 

Soon after becoming a parent, I realized that I sucked at a lot. I needed (and wanted) to be better. To cook better. Budget better. Exercise more. Attend church regularly. Read every parenting book ever written. Volunteer for every cause that mattered to me. Like most new parents, I wanted to set the best example possible for this perfect little being.

The weight of the goals and aspirations ahead of me was intimidating. My mind was so full! How could I accomplish so much when I now had so little time? How could I do all this stuff without missing all the meaningful memories my kids make every day?

As I talked with other parents. I realized I wasn’t alone.

Whether we’re a stay-at-home parent, a working parent, or a work-from-home parent, we have so many shoes to fill, hats to wear, and roles to balance! For example, on any given day, I’m a:

Housekeeper
Caregiver
Professional
Taxi driver
Playmate
Builder
Healer
Volunteer
Therapist
Gardener
Coach
Lover
Teacher

And my favorite two: wife and mother.

Yours may differ from mine, but I’m sure the list is equally as long—if not longer!

I’m not sure about you, but it’s hard to stuff all the tasks and responsibilities for those roles into my day!

So it was in those quiet moments with my new baby, that I felt the need to start writing about how the heck us parents could do it all, while not letting our busy-ness steal those endearing, fleeting moments that truly matter in life.

I actually even thought of the title: Mama Has Her Mind Full… But it was Mind Full, not Mindful. I didn’t learn how to be mindful until much later.

The next five years kept me busy with a business at home, another baby—this time a daughter. And starting this blogging journey remained only a dream.

Enter Mindfulness

When I experienced my first miscarriage, my son was 5. My daughter was 2. My marriage was 10. 

The shock of not having control over my child’s safety pummeled me into a darkness I hadn’t known since traumas faced in elementary school. 

Deciding to try again, and then losing the second baby closed a curtain of gray over my world. I didn’t see colors anymore. Voices sounded like they came at me while my head was under water. 

In between the miscarriages, three friends unexpectedly died.

The anxiety came almost immediately. And the panic attacks followed. Some days it was a sumo wrestler who sat on my chest, making it hard to breathe. Other days it was an elephant. The tightness in my body felt like every muscle was being pulled up towards the sky. That feeling of not touching the ground made breathing even more difficult.

My son was 5. My daughter was 2. My marriage was 10. 

And I was missing it.

My body was there. But my mind was gone.

Seeing a therapist was necessary. And years later, I walked away with many new tools in my coping toolbelt. The most valuable being mindfulness. 

After loads of healing, I saw benefits to applying mindfulness to other areas of my life—beyond recovering from my traumas.

I became more mindful about the products we purchased, how we cared for the environment, the space we lived in, our budget, and how we took care of ourselves.

And it was in the mindful approach to our health that we discovered plant-based eating. 

Enter Our Plant-Based (and Now Vegan) Journey

We’d put our health on hold for more than a decade as we pursued other goals—careers, kids, homebuying, etc. And as we coped with my anxiety, depression and PTSD. And it had caught up with us. 

After tragically losing a couple of friends to health-related illnesses, we looked at our own diet and lifestyle. And were ashamed at what we found. 

Emotional eating. Lack of exercise. And straight-up laziness. 

We took the upcoming season of Lent as an opportunity to make a change. 

When a friend suggested switching to a plant-based diet, my first response was to laugh. 

“Um. No way.” I told my husband. “What about cookies? Cheese? Do you realize how hard this will be for our kids… for ME?”

His response changed the course of our lives forever:

“Chelsea,” he started. “If we do this together, as a team… We’ll succeed. I just know it. If we go all in on a plant-based diet, with the whole family, we can do it.”

How the heck do you say no to that logic??

So we invested some time researching, going to the doctor, getting labs done, etc. And by the end of it, I knew he was right. 

And I knew we had to make the shift as a family. Making separate meals for him and the kids in no way sounded appealing to me… (Remember when I mentioned my laziness earlier?)

So, we dedicated Lent 2019 to eating only plants. But in those 40 days, our mindful journey ran parallel to our plant-based one. 

We learned about the benefits of plant-based diets for our health and the environment. 

Aaaand then came the benefits for animals. 

We hadn’t intended to become vegan when we started. That seemed too radical of a shift. “Vegan” had a stigma around it. And I was worried telling people we were vegan would make others feel uncomfortable.

But once we learned our little family of 5 saved almost 40 animals a month by not eating meat, and what those animals’ lives looked like to be prepped for our consumption… switching to a vegan lifestyle came naturally. 

And caring about what others may think of us didn’t seem as important. (And thankfully, we’ve received overwhelming support from our family and friends!)

By the time Lent ended, we had no plans to quit our plant-based diet. Or our journey towards living a vegan lifestyle.

We aren’t perfect. And perfection isn’t our goal. We strive to do the best we can with the information we have. And to keep learning and growing.

A year ago, we were just your average, bacon-loving, cheese-eating, never-had-a-meal-without-meat-or-dairy family of 5. 

If we can make the switch to a plant-based diet, anyone can. And we hope sharing our story helps other families see how doable it really is.

Where We Are Now, and Where We Hope to Go in the Future

Looking back, I now know why Mama Has Her Mind Full never started. It was always meant to be “mindful” and I just didn’t know it yet.

Today, after years of dreaming and planning (and a third baby—another boy!), I’m thankful to finally launch MHHM. Here you’ll find posts about mindful living and our plant-based journey, but you’ll also see posts about community service, crafts for kids, and more. Because it’s all part of our mission to live more mindfully. 

For example, as of now, you can read about:

• How to use mindfulness to fall asleep peacefully
• Tips to practice mindfulness in your everyday life
• Ways to volunteer at your kid’s school and the benefits of doing so
• Recipes for Easy Vegan Family Dinners
• How we helped our kids switch to a vegan diet and supportive steps for parents
• And more!

As for the future, plan to see:

• More from our kids about their opinion on becoming vegan
• How we use mindfulness with our kids
• Info on our weight loss and labs during our plant-based journey
• Resources I use on my mission to be mindful
• Where to find reliable info for any newbie vegan family
• And so much more!

My wish is to help other families like ours cope with the frantic, high-stress lifestyles we’ve come to think as common. To find the courage to slow down time and enjoy the moment more often. To live with intention, compassion and inner peace. 

And in this uncertain and distressing time of our lives unlike any we’ve ever seen, I can’t think of a more timely point to launch this resource. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. I’d love for you to join me on my mission to be more mindful. Feel free to share your thoughts and leave a comment. Or better yet, join my email list below and get all the updates!

Your friend,
Chelsea