Meet Jamie C. Martin and Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood

By now, many of you have heard the buzz surrounding the release of author Jamie C. Martin’s book Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood.

Jamie provided me with a copy of this book to review and share with the Simple Kids audience, and I can tell you without hesitation that I highly recommend that you add Steady Days to your home library.

You probably already know Jamie from her blog Steady Mom.  If so, you’ll be familiar with the message she proclaims from the first pages of the book:

In any career, experience allows us to grow, improve, and learn.  But unlike other professions, many of us mothers have never had any training to prepare us for this new job filled with diapers, tantrums, and sleepless nights.  We need to equip ourselves with practical tools that allow us to give our personal best to our young children, helping us thrive in our strengths and overcome our weaknesses.  We aim for professionalism in every other area of our lives; why should our children get anything less?

It is with that thought in mind that Jamie lays the foundations for guiding mothers in reflecting on that which they desire to come to fruition in the way time is spent at home, and then outlines extremely accessible and practical steps to gently guide the reader in achieving that vision for home life.

As a mother whose family grew to include three children in less than three years, Jamie understands that mothers don’t have time to sit down and read enormous amounts of overwhelming information about how to run a home with intentional purpose.  With this in mind, she has broken the material in Steady Days down into forty short and manageable chapters.

The content of the book falls into four main categories – Getting Organized, Retaining Enthusiasm, Learning Together, and Making Memories. Each section provides the perfect blend of guiding philosophy and practical application.  At the end of each main section are some Questions and Answers wherein Jamie tackles some very real-life challenges that readers may encounter, such as

I  am divorced, working overtime, or in other difficult circumstances.  How can I possibly have enthusiasm?

What if I don’t enjoy reading with my children?

Life is very difficult right now in our family.  I find I’m apathetic toward remembering this time; I am just trying to survive it.

Jamie provides thoughtful direction for those with these concerns, understanding that we don’t get to parent in ideal circumstances all the time.

This book is packed with inspiring thoughts, visual examples, and loads of extra features. Based on the response to the articles at Simple Kids on daily routines and how to manage time at home, I know SK readers will appreciate the sample routines Jamie has suggested for a variety of life/family circumstances.

Again, I enthusiastically recommend Steady Days as an incredibly useful book for your home.

Jamie is providing a signed copy of Steady Days for one Simple Kids reader!  The giveaway will run from today  until the morning of Friday, January 29th when I will announce the winner.  To enter simply

1) leave a comment sharing one of your favorite aspects of being a mother/home manager/care provider.

2) You can gain an extra entry by mentioning this giveaway on Twitter.  A sample tweet might be

Enter to win a copy of Steady Days from @steadymom and @simplekids: http://bit.ly/4Om9jT

Make sure to leave a comment that you posted this on Twitter.

3) Post this review on your Facebook profile.  Make sure to leave a comment that you posted this on Facebook.

Tagged as: Jamie C. Martin, Steady Days, Steady Mom