Celeste Yvonne

The Ultimate Mom Challenge

  • Home
  • Family
    • Motherhood
    • Children
    • Sober Living
  • Shop with me
  • Most Popular
  • About Celeste
    • Guest Posts
    • Contact Me
      • Disclosure
      • Privacy
  • She’s a ‘Not Now’ Friend

  • I’m Tired of Being a Good Girl

    I’m Tired of Being a Good Girl
  • I Will Hold Your Hand

    I Will Hold Your Hand
  • The Less Satisfying Side of Motherhood

    The Less Satisfying Side of Motherhood
  • I’m Highly Sensitive and Parenting Overwhelms Me

    I’m Highly Sensitive and Parenting Overwhelms Me

She’s a ‘Not Now’ Friend

She’s a ‘not now’ friend. She’s in a different place, doing different things, and that’s ok. She’s dealing with differently struggles, life experiences, and life trajectories. She is not ahead of you or behind you, simply on a different road. She’s a ‘not now’ friend but not necessarily a ‘not ever’ friend. Life isn’t linear….

Read More »

I’m Tired of Being a Good Girl

I tried so hard to be a good girl. People would tell me if you don’t have something nice to say don’t say anything at all… so I didn’t say anything. I stayed quiet. I let people walk all over me. I had zero boundaries. When people would hurt me, I would turn the other…

Read More »

I Will Hold Your Hand

I will hold your hand, my child. I will advocate for you. I will fight for you. I will be your voice when you can’t speak for yourself. When you’re home I will help you prepare. I will teach you, guide you, and hold your hand. When you’re in places I cannot be, I will…

Read More »

The Less Satisfying Side of Motherhood

a woman with her son on a grass field

Some days motherhood is deeply satisfying. Most days it is not. Lately, if I can make it to school drop off without shedding a single tear or threatening to take away everyone’s screen time for eternity, it’s a good day. If I can get to bedtime without seriously considering running out the front door, it’s…

Read More »

I’m Highly Sensitive and Parenting Overwhelms Me

I’ve always known I was highly sensitive, but it never occurred to me how much it affected my parenting. Overestimation triggers me. Loud noises, constant yells for “mom!!!!”, and rooms in disarray make me feel on tilt. I like calm, quiet, and clean. Because it feels like control to me. Unfortunately, my family with two…

Read More »

Beautiful Girl

Beautiful girl, there’s something you need to know. People will try to contain you. To quiet you. To manage you. People will tell you what to do and who to be and how to act, to the detriment of your own good. You will be conditioned to hide your emotions, to carry the weight of…

Read More »

When You’re Ghosted by a Friend

light nature sky sunset

It recently occurred to me that I have not seen anything from a friend group text in a while. I figured everyone was probably busy with the summer, upcoming school year, and life. But then a darker thought struck. What if my friends ghosted me — and created a new group text without me? This…

Read More »

This is not my season for clean houses

This is not my season for clean houses. For organized shelves or fashionable furniture. This is not my season for fancy restaurants. Or recipes with more than five ingredients. Dinner parties or evenings out past 8 p.m. Because this is my season for child rearing. It’s booger (and butt) wiping, it’s chasing kids around the…

Read More »

Follow Me!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Join my community

Most Popular Posts

What You Need to Know about those 3-4 Glasses of Wine
Dismantling the Preconceived Notions I've Set for my Kids
Our Family Does Things Differently

Join the Sober Mom Squad

theultimatemomchallenge

Celeste Yvonne
God certainly has a dark sense of humor #sobermom God certainly has a dark sense of humor #sobermom #grayareadrinking #wedorecover #theultimatemomchallenge
My relationship with alcohol was complicated. I My relationship with alcohol was complicated. 
I wanted it, even when it made me miserable.
I relied on it, even though I couldn’t trust it and I certainly couldn’t trust myself with it.
I expected it to provide me with good feelings, positive experiences, and happy memories. When in fact my best memories were and are the clear headed ones. The sober ones. The present ones.
And yet, I still wanted it.
I realized I could keep playing this game where I tried to find the middle ground between “just enough” to take off the edge and too much where everything got fuzzy or black.
Or I could realize it was never me consuming alcohol in the first place. Alcohol was always consuming me.
Some days I had control, other days not at all. 
The day I quit drinking was the day I took my life back. 
And despite still wanting to drink sometimes, and in fact BECAUSE I occasionally feel triggered to drink... I know I’ve made the right choice. 
The only one who gets to have that much control over my life is me. 
***
Art by @this_mama_doodles
#sobermom #soberlife #grayareadrinking
There’s a scene in the first episode of the seco There’s a scene in the first episode of the second season of Single Drunk Female, where the main character Samantha is hiding in the closet with her sponsor after her birthday party has gone to hell. Together they are bemoaning the inability to control anything but themselves when the sponsor tells her it’s time to go back to the party because they can’t stay in the closet forever. 
“Why not?” Samantha says begrudgingly. “None of the bad stuff is in here.”
Samantha’s sponsor wisely replies “None of the good stuff is either.“
I loved the first season of Single Drunk Female as we watch Samantha on her first day of learning what it means to be in recovery. With each episode, she walks us through a day in the life of early sobriety, ripe with fears, self-doubt, and self sabotage always peeking from behind the corner.  
The series explores addiction, recovery, and meetings with a softness you don’t see anywhere else. These feel like real people having real human experiences and we watch these characters play out without the judgment or villainy that characters in addiction are so often designed to carry on TV or in movies.
The humor is thought out, and I can’t tell you how beautiful it is to watch a show where addiction and recovery are the norm, and anyone who is not feels more of an outlier. Epsode 3 is devoted to Samantha eager and anxious about dating a “Normie” (normal drinker in recovery speak). An experience I think anyone who’s ever had to learn how to date sober can relate to. But equally humorous to turn the tables where so often it’s people having to learn how to tiptoe around a person in addiction. 
One of my favorite relationships on the show is the relationship between Samantha and her mother, played by the perfectly cast Ally Sheedy. The various scenes where Samantha is trying to educate her mom around addiction and recovery are uncomfortable, yet hilarious, and a conversation most families dealing with addiction experience in some way, shape or form.
This TV series is a blessing and a gift and I hope everyone watches it. #hulu #singledrunkfemale
Parenting is a constant weighing of what is worth Parenting is a constant weighing of what is worth your energy and what isn’t. And sometimes I don’t have enough energy to GAF when maybe I should 🤷‍♀️ #parenting #motherhoodunplugged #momlife
This is an excerpt from my most recent Substack po This is an excerpt from my most recent Substack post. You can find the full essay — along with every essay I’ve ever written on sobriety — using the link in my bio. #sobermom #soberliving #sobercurious #wedorecover
If anyone needs me, I’ll be listening to Midnigh If anyone needs me, I’ll be listening to Midnights on repeat… Again. #taylorswift
Did you know I write new posts about sober living Did you know I write new posts about sober living every week on Substack? It is free to sign up. Link in bio and I hope to see you over there. #soberliving #sobercurious #grayareadrinking
Oh my soul, my heart sinks thinking about the pare Oh my soul, my heart sinks thinking about the parents who dropped their 9 year olds at school this morning. The loved ones who kissed their partners on the checks for what would seemingly be an ordinary Monday.
How many more people must die before we accept that this is UNACCEPTABLE?
Image via Warrior Women on Facebook
I haven’t done an intro in a long time and it oc I haven’t done an intro in a long time and it occurred to me that some of you are following me and I have no idea who I even am. I’m Celeste, I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband and two boys.
I am over five years sober, and so proud of where this sober journey has taken me. I quit drinking cold turkey with zero clue, resources or a plan. I only knew one thing: I could either keep drinking the way I was drinking or I could be the parent I wanted to be. I could not do both.
I have a book coming out in the fall about why mothers are inclined to turn to alcohol and how to find a better way. The book is called It’s Not About the Wine: The Loaded Truth BehindMommy Wine Culture and it’s available for preorder anywhere books are sold (link to preorder in my bio). 
When I’m not writing or hosting @sobermomsquad meetings, I am running or at Orangetheory. I’ve run four marathons and I just signed up for my fifth, the Marine Corps marathon this fall.
On this page, I talk about sobriety, parenting, mental health, and the mental load of motherhood. 
I am a lifelong learner. I’m constantly reading or taking a class. I rotate books between parenting, self-help, quit lit, and fiction. I just read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and I absolutely loved it. If you have book recommendations, I would love to hear them.
I am so truly grateful you are here because it is you that makes it such a great place and experience. 
Now, it’s your turn! Would love to hear more about you, where do you live and what brings you here?
When I was newly sober, I resisted telling anyone When I was newly sober, I resisted telling anyone about my choice for fear of judgment or stigma. I worried people would see me a certain way, and come to conclusions about me without even giving me a chance. And my fears weren’t entirely unwarranted. I think it’s easy to box people out when they don’t drink, or don’t eat meat, or even follow a specific religious practice. Suddenly an otherwise relatable person becomes unrelatable, and not in a “let’s get curious” way but more of a “they are different… walk away” response.
That woman in Orangetheory wasn’t much different to who I was five years ago. Fearful of people who are different. Ignorant to the why, and how people can live life without the elusive carrot of our next drink lingering in front of us, the infinite loop of just one more. It’s not my job or anyone’s to convince her she is wrong, or shutting out an entire population of people who may have more in common with her than she might think. But it is my job to remind anyone on the receiving end of pressure to drink, ignorance, or feeling shaded for their decisions to abstain to stay the course. That opinions like these are background noise in the larger landscape of things that really matter. Our health, living at the Philly life, leading by example for the next generation, and staying present.
#soberaf #sobercurious #alcoholfree
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Where You’ve Seen Me

This Naked Mind - Take the course

Copyright © 2025 · And What a Mom · Designed by Beyond Blog Design· Built on Genesis Framework