Our book club was lucky enough to receive advanced reader copies of Kristina’s book Hold on, But Don’t Hold Still to read and discuss before it launched. The really cool part is that she surprised our book club meeting (she faked bad cell reception and busted through the doors) and signed actual copies we kept and it was such an amazing night!!
I had known of her from her funny and uplifting viral videos and this book looked as if it would be the same.
It totally was not, now don’t take that the wrong way either. It was just not what I was expecting. I expected a nice light, easy and fun read. Nothing serious or heavy, but somehow she managed to tell real life stories that hit home on so many levels.
She gives advice without being preachy or self-helpy as she retells her past.
Going through more than you would imagine she would as an outsider looking in. This is typical for us all, on the outside we all look well put together, and like we have never had a hardship in our life.. but that is so far from the truth.
I really took away some good insights from her book about navigating parenting, which is something we ALL struggle with and are not always so vocal about (and sometimes we cant be as vocal as we want out of respect for our kids privacy).
She hits on struggles with being a single parent, blending a family, struggling with the aftermath of living through an actual war, guilt, parenting challenges, depression, negative self talk and so much more.
My Favorite Quotes Were:
- “We are hard on ourselves because we hate falling short of our own expectations. We hate that we struggle with this parenting thing that we hadn’t predicted before we had kids. That’s why we feel the guilt. Because it feels like we are failing. Our expectations were unrealistic in the first place! We aren’t failing, we are learning!”
- “This should be your mantra ‘this too shall ass, its not personal, I’m a badass, at least one brand of ice cream is on sale right now, I don’t need my kids to be my biggest fans at all times.’”
- “Challenging kids doesn’t equal bad parenting. Even incredible parents end up with kids who are asses.”
- “But I am doing the best that I can, and the stuff I don’t know, I’m choosing to learn.” “I’m giving myself more grace than judgement.” “Please choose to give yourself more credit than criticism and more grace than judgement.”
- “I can break without being broken forever.”
- “Keep showing up. Because as one chapter ends you can look back and see it as a meaningful and enlightened step that has contributed to my life journey.”
You don’t know how the current chapter will end, its a work in progress. So keep showing up!
I really loved this book, and would totally recommend it to any mom, married, or divorced or single woman!
Check it out where you buy your books and share it with your girlfriends!
chaoswithmycoffee.com 