Now that I am officially a mom, I need to extra remind myself how important self care is. I am going to be honest here, working from home for the past 15 months and getting pregnant really put a damper on focusing on taking care of me. I mention self care a lot on this blog. You would think by now I would have it down pat.. wrong..

Basic things like getting changed out of my pajamas and washing my face regularly before bed weren't happening. I know it sounds like a dream to work in pjs everyday, but for me it made me less motivated.

Someone once said just putting on a pair of shoes can make the difference, which turns out is true, but I even failed to do that every day.

So back to self care. I need to get back to yoga and exercise in general. Winter is *hopefully* done and I have no excuse to not go outside. I can even take the baby on walks.

I need to find time to have alone time.. to journal... to meditate... to think... you know all the things we need to be sane.

I want to get back to the gym more consistently and get my body feeling good again. Lose the extra baby weight plus the weight I should of lost before getting pregnant. Thankfully we have a 24 hour gym so I can really go at anytime when R is home and after I've pumped and all that fun stuff.

I finally pulled out all  of my essential oils. I used a few through pregnancy but stayed on the cautious side when using more than just the lavender and peppermints of the oil world. I  have been gradually using some for different nursing ailments as well as diffusing to get my relaxation on when I have a minute or 2.

I have been trying to pause and remind myself to breathe and get a little meditation in. It has never been easy for me, and it certainly isn't coming easy with a newborn, but I do notice it is working.

The one thing I have never really been able to make consistent is journaling. I know it is supposed to be very helpful, but I just forget to do it. I want to document things these days though. I want to remember how I felt. What made me tick. What made me happy. Those types of things. I am going to attempt it again. See where it leads me.

What do you do for self care when life gets crazy? Share in the comments!

My last Friday of freedom (oh no!) and the first day of the second half of 2018!

Next week I will be going back to work after 8 glorious weeks of maternity leave. I mean I wasn't getting any sleep or traveling, but it was nice to only have one focus really. My little baby boy.

So not much happened this week as far as life stuff but I do have quite a few things I want to add to my 5 things on this first Friday of June.

First off, I feel like the first part of this year sailed by with very little motivation or accomplishment. I mean I did have a baby in April and that was one pretty big accomplishment, but as far as some of my goals and specifically this blog I didn't accomplish much. That's where my 5 things come in..

1. 100 Dreams Project


Today I am starting my 100 Dreams project with my first 10 dreams. This project will run for 10 weeks as I will write about 10 dreams a week until I reach 100. You can read more about the project and how you can participate on my Intro to The 100 Dream Project post.

1. Believe in myself.
2. Find internal peace (Master meditation).
3. Become my own boss and be successful.
4. Create a successful subscription box.
5. Raise my son to be a good honest man.
6. Make an income from my blog.
7. Own a pair of Tieks and not faint at the price
8. Go on 1 girls trip a year and not worry about a budget.
9. Hire a housekeeper to clean once a month.
10. Attend afternoon tea at a tea house in London.

2. I like lists, but I can't seem to use planners

Every year it seems I spend money on some form of nice planner and I never, ever use it. It collects dust. It's pretty to look at, but is completely empty inside. I have probably spent hundreds of dollars over the years on planners that I never use. Because today is the first day of the second half of the year, I figured I'd challenge myself to use the planner I purchased back in January. Turn over a new leaf so to say.

3. When your blog gets negative "press"

I logged into my blogging dashboard the other day and noticed quite a bit of traffic on an old post. Every so often that happens, but when I looked at the last entry points, it came from a Reddit thread. My first thought was "that can't be good".

As suspected it wasn't exactly the best reason to have a link posted on another page. Basically a post I wrote about events leading up to my wedding sparked some negative comments on the particular thread. It was a thread about disliking MLM companies, especially if they are promoting their businesses at a wedding. The post in question had nothing to do with an MLM that I sell. It did discuss items from an MLM but not me personally trying to promote anything.

It was weird to me. Being mean to other people on the internet just because you assume something isn't exactly the best thing. I am not going to let it get to me or dwell on it, but it does amaze me how these things come to be. I guess all I can say is, "thanks for the traffic!".

4. Glossies Made Me Do It!


Last weekend I went through a large stack of magazines (glossies!) that were taking over my living room book shelf. Lauren from Shooting Stars Mag reached out and told me about a link up she co-hosts call Glossies Made Me Do It. Sounded like fun so why not?! I was reading all of the Real Simple magazines dated back to September.


I got up to February and what I did was take an article from January 2018 about not knowing what I want as a passion and used it to influence my 100 Dreams Project mentioned above. It basically encourages you to start doing things that make you happy. See where it takes you. For me it has been writing. Writing all of these dreams down is already inspiring me more and more every day.

5. Gratitude

Another week has come and gone and I am always reminded of all of the things I am grateful for. On Wednesday a good friend of mine pulled some oracle cards for me which lead to a Reiki session. All of the pulls were pointing to change and the ending of a cycle. My body has been under a lot of stress between being pregnant and not knowing what is going to happen once I go back to work.


Nicole from Reiki Panda was able to help my body relax and to remind me that I can only do one thing at a time. My mind was so full of chatter she described it as the snow on TV when cable is out. It is pretty accurate. I have so many thoughts going on at once, it's no wonder I don't know what I'm doing half the time.

I am so grateful for the time she spent with me to help me clear some things up. I feel more at ease today and I slept well even with an infant in the house. I would recommend her a million times over if you are seeking answers to your life.

If you are not familiar with Reiki it is "a healing technique based on the principle that the therapist can channel energy into the patient by means of touch, to activate the natural healing processes of the patient's body and restore physical and emotional well-being."

Distant Reiki can be done, which is what I had done. You do not have to be local to her for this to work. If you decide to get in touch, let her know I sent you! She's a dear friend and I always want to support the people I love.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Namaste.

Do you know what you want out of life? Do you struggle with finding a passion? I sure do. That is why I'm working on a 100 dreams project.

Each week I will write out 10 of my dreams and a little blurb on why it's a dream of mine. Doing this is really going to help me narrow down what it is I should be doing with my life because I'm in sort of a rut right now.

They will help me lay out goals to reach these dreams and find my passion.

Because this isn't an easy task, I am using some different categories to spark some thoughts. I recommend doing that as well if you are planning to follow along. Here are those categories:

• Physical
• Emotional
• Intellectual
• Spiritual
• Psychological
• Material
• Professional
• Financial
• Creative
• Legacy
• Character

Starting tomorrow, every Friday I will be looping in my 10 dreams with my Friday post. I am super excited to do this and I hope it will inspire some of you to do it too! I am also thinking about doing one week where I share dreams that have already come true. Maybe also some shared dreams that me and R share. This could really spark a lot of thought.

Happy dreaming!

Make sure you follow along!
Dreams 1-10
Dreams 11-20
Dreams 21-30
Dreams 31-40
Dreams 41-50
Dreams 51-60
Dreams 61-70
Dreams 71-80
Dreams 81-90
Dreams 91-100

I know it's not technically Monday, but yesterday was a holiday, so Tuesday is the new Monday? I mean technically it doesn't make a difference to me as I'm on maternity leave and every day is a weekend to me... sort of.

So even though I didn't have plans per say this weekend, it turned into a pretty busy couple of days.

On Saturday I cleaned the house. It desperately needed a vacuum and a mop. I swear having cats makes it seem like you never clean your house. Literally an hour after vacuuming there was litter everywhere again. We also went food shopping which was also pretty needed.

Sunday I got motivated enough to go through a large stack of magazines that has been taking over one of my book shelves. There were magazines dating back to 2016 still in plastic. I sorted them by name and then sorted them by month and year.

I literally have 5 or 6 different magazines that just show up at my house. I don't pay for any of them and they are in my name. This has been happening to my parents house for years. Magazines showing up in my name that I didn't order. I haven't lived there in almost 7 years and they still get magazines in my name. They have finally found me here in my new home as I have started receiving magazines last year.

I spend a good portion of Saturday going through and reading the Real Simple magazines cover to cover. I treated it as a self care item that kept me off my phone all day. I even took notes on things I wanted to remember and wrote down websites I wanted to visit.  It was a very soothing exercise for me.

On Sunday night I went to the gym for the first time since having Baby Bloob. It was a very surreal moment for me. It doesn't help that my gym got all new machines and things were all moved and not familiar to me. I had to look for things and that made going back a little harder. I took it easy as I have not been cleared yet from my doctor. I just did 30 minutes on the treadmill. The trip was mainly for stress relief and that was nice.



 After the gym I experimented with making Turmeric Lemonade. I wanted to try something new. I let it sit overnight and served the 2 glasses to R and I on Monday as we were cleaning up and putting up our deck canopy. It was very hot and the drink was very refreshing. I added some of my fresh mint to garnish. It was delish!



We had friends over for food and conversation on Monday afternoon and then it was clean up and relaxing until bed. Baby Bloob went down easy to bed and we got cleaned up and I read my magazines. Even though it was very busy in a sense, I found it all very relaxing too. We have a clean house. We got to visit with friends. And I have found something to pass my time that keeps me from living on my phone.

It's all a win.

How was your (three day) weekend?

Namaste.

I've got those Friday feels! This week has been long and it was only Wednesday when I realized it's Memorial Day weekend which means I go back to work in a week and a half. Booo! 8 weeks go fast when you're not sleeping and snuggling a little baby.

So a couple of things...

1. I feel like I need to start a new series called "Tales from the Midnight Feedings". There is always something happening when I'm up late. This week I was literally attacked by a spider! I was sitting in my rocker pumping when I looked over at the arm just as this black spider charged at me!

I literally jumped up, still attached to the breast pump trying to get away as I was being restrained by the pump. Good times. The spider then ran under the cushion. I kicked at it and it went running under the chair. Guys, I can't even!

This spring has been THE WORST for creepy crawlies in the house. I'm also dealing with ants. Why?! My kitchen is currently spotless amd they are still invading. God give me the strength not to burn my house down!


2. Next up, Baby Bloob turned 6 weeks old this week. He's eating like a 12 year old boy and I can't keep up! He is desperately trying to catch up because of being 5 weeks early, yet he is still in newborn clothes. We have finally graduated to size 1 diapers this week though. I call that a win.

3. I think Spring has finally showed up just in time for Summer. We are having pretty warm weather and lots of sunshine. We got our garden planted this week. It's small, but we are working with a hard situation. We don't have a water source outside, so we must haul buckets of water out to the field. We are praying for rain this Summer as last time we did the garden 2 years ago it was so dry nothing did well. *Rain Dance!*



4. I am working on a new series called 100 Dreams. Basically this is a list of 100 dreams I have broken up into 10 weeks. The reason for this is, it's really hard to actually come up with 100 dreams you have for yourself. I am doing this as a personal growth project. A friend of mine took a seminar on this and it's incredible what you learn about yourself and your strengths. Feel free to do this with me. I think it is going to be a great project!



5. Lastly, I think this is the first Memorial Day weekend that it is supposed to be really nice that I don't have any plans! Normally we are going to a BBQ or something and it rains. I am welcoming a calm holiday weekend being we need to catch up on some sleep and probably some housework.

What are you doing this weekend?

I want to also mention some gratitude before I end this. I am super grateful to have this blogging community to remind me to do me everyday. I am constantly struggling to not compare myself to what others are doing and that really makes blogging not fun. I want to thank everyone who has encouraged me to keep on going with what makes me happy. Love you all <3



Have a great weekend!

Namaste.