Encouragement

Forging Friendships In Your Forties Growing up, I had a ready-made friendship group. Most of my childhood friends lived in my neighborhood or nearby and we all went to school together starting with kindergarten all the way through high school. In those early years I never really had to build friendships. Due to our proximity, we just were.  In college, I had to work a little harder at making friends, but not by much. My dorm roommates were naturally my first college friends. Then, I would make connections with people that I had things in common with whether it was having the same major, being from the same city or having similar taste in clothing. Still, college was very much...

Mom Guilt: Will It Ever Go Away? Mom guilt is a common phenomenon experienced by many mothers, often characterized by feelings of inadequacy, doubt, and self-blame. Whether it's struggling to balance work and family responsibilities, feeling guilty about taking time for oneself or questioning parenting decisions, mom guilt can be overwhelming and distressing. Mom guilt can stem from various sources, including societal expectations, internalized pressure to be a perfect parent, and comparisons with other mothers. It often manifests as feelings of guilt for not meeting perceived standards of motherhood, whether it's related to spending enough quality time with children, providing the best possible care, or making the right choices for their development. I have been an educator for nearly 15 years,...

Take The Day Off Once upon a time, before I had my youngest, I hated taking time off. I can’t explain it. I would drive from Zachary to New Orleans and back again, just for work. Looking back, that was insane (for me because I don’t like to drive that much). Once, I had a tire completely blow out and still drove to work. I even did it when I was the only one getting up with a newborn, even pregnant with the absolute worst morning (all day) sickness.  Looking back, I wonder about all of the things I missed that I didn’t have to miss. My big boy went through so many milestones in nursery. Even though I was friendly...

Pulse Check Survey :: Where Are You On Meeting Your 2024 Goals? PULSE CHECK TIME! We are officially nearing completion of the first two months of the new year. Some decided to forego the new year’s goals and resolutions to lower self-inflicted pressures, which can certainly be beneficial for some life seasons. Others have risen to the challenge of defining ambitious objectives for the new year. For the moms who are determined to set goals, like myself, here’s a simple pulse-check to help identify if you are on track. At the beginning of this year, we learned how to set goals for 2024 and keep them. Helpful tips of creating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, also known as SMART goals,...

Unapologetically Weird Growing up family events put me in a perpetual state of anxiety. My cousins were not my friends. In fact, they barely spoke to me. It made me feel like such an outcast at the time. I remember dreading holidays and only got through them with either a book in my face or with the help of my I-Pod shuffle. I just never fit in. This didn’t follow me into school though, I found my own friend group pretty easily and was happy to spend time with people I related to. As I grow older though, the feeling of being ‘the outcast’ has made its way back into my life. It's not always easy to embrace our uniqueness, especially...