Encouragement

When you think of self care, what do you think about? Napping? Taking a walk? Going to Target all by yourself? A girls trip? Self care, like people, comes in all shapes and sizes. It varies person to person and as we get older, our version of self care changes. We have to adjust our own version of self care in order to make it fit into our lives. Self care is important ... EXTREMELY important. We moms / wives / friends / coworkers give and give until we are depleted. If you think you don't have a few minutes to take care of yourself, try to carve out a small amount of time. You have to adjust your version...

It happened after school, she hopped in the car and started talking as she buckled into her car seat ... This is our after school ritual: she talks, I listen, she talks. She talks about how much she loves her teacher, she talks about her A++ in math, she talks about how she was at the top of the behavior chart. But today she added, “Kody-with-a-K is so bad, Mom! He’s ALWAYS at the the bottom of the iceberg.” I took a deep breath, because a huge mantra in our house is “Be kind & show grace.” But was she showing Kody-with-a-K grace in this moment? Did she know anything about him other than his behaviors in class? I’ll answer for...

Two kids ago, I was faced with quite a conundrum. My husband had confessed to me his lifelong dream of joining the Navy, and after months of discussions and planning, he left for boot camp. Including school in California, he was gone for about six months when our boys were 3 and 2 years old. During that time, I dealt with the most trying situations our family had faced until that point without his assistance: my first trip to the emergency room as a mom, our house getting hit by lightning, and setting up a pack-and-play.  That last one almost broke me.  My mom was babysitting so I could go to my high school reunion. Before I left, she asked me...

When my husband and I started dating it was so exciting how different yet similar we were. He recharges by reading books, exploring, and drinking coffee, and I recharge by going out with him, with friends, or with family for a fun dinner or another get together. But our similarities come from our core values. The same things are important to us, and we have the same belief systems. While we have similar points of view on almost all our beliefs, our personalities balance each other out. He is an introvert, I'm and extrovert, and we have learned how to help each other have what we need to both recharge in our own ways. What was remarkable was when we...

  There is nothing that can drain us all like the daily grind can. Sometimes (most of the time) it can feel like Groundhog’s Day. Same routines, same people, different day. Sometimes it can feel like you are living in your car or that you are an Uber driver for your family. Everyone else looks as if they are relaxing the day away while you are going cross-eyed. What if I told you that you are not the only one who is busy? Newsflash: there are other busy people out there. It might feel like you are alone but reality is, you aren’t. Millions of women right now are probably just as busy as you are and like you, trying to...