by Tessa | Personal Development
Self Care For Depression Series Step 2: Body
Last week I wrote about my history with depression and the very simple way to begin a routine of self care for depression, even with little ones underfoot. (If you haven’t read it, go back to read Step 1.) Today I want to talk a bit about the next priority that I set for myself when I recognize that I am suffering from overwhelm or depression: physical self care.
I always begin with spiritual self care in an attempt to bring more peace into my heart and home but taking care of my body comes very closely after. In fact, many of my physical care habits are tied into or anchored by my spiritual care rhythms.
I mentioned that I start my morning with a coffee. I have a “high maintenance” coffee that actually contributes to my physical care. I skip breakfast so often so I started making a yummy protein filled latte instead of a regular coffee. I mix 2 tablespoons of beef gelatin into half a cup of while fat milk using my
Breville milk frother (one if the few kitchen gadgets I’m willing to give up precious counter space for!) and make a medium coffee. The frother was a Christmas present a couple years ago that gets used several time a day, including by my children who love steamers or matcha lattes, or hot chocolate. We are a milk loving family so hot milk beverages are pretty standard in our diets.
Anyway, while everything is frothing and brewing I down a glass of milk or water (usually milk, if we have enough) with my vitamins. I take a pretty standard combination of vitamins: omega 3, probiotics, vitamin c, vitamin d, magnesium, dessicated liver (I have struggled with iron levels my whole life so this one helps there), methyl folate and methyl b12. This is a combination that I have discovered works well for my general wellbeing and energy levels. It took me a long time to come to this particular combination with the help of my doctor, naturopath, and my own research and experimentation. I continue to tweak (for example, I discovered the liver and omega contributed hugely to my nausea during pregnancy so I dropped those for a time) and change doses depending on factors like the time of year.
I highly recommend talking to your doctor to see if antidepressants is something your should try if you’ve felt in a state of stress and overwhelm or depression for more than just a few months. If you find the right one, it can be a really great help to balance things and remind you what it’s like to feel “normal” again.
While the combination is working well, I also add a “heavy hitter” in the natural world for my depression: St John’s Wort. I have, in the past, taken pharmaceutical anti depressants and I highly recommend talking to your doctor to see if this is something your should try, if you’ve felt in a state of stress and overwhelm or depression for more than just a few months. If you find the right one, it can be a really great help to balance things and remind you what it’s like to feel “normal” again. At this point St John’s Wort has been my go to for depression. I often take a higher dose in the winter to help ward off seasonal affective disorder (Check out my 6 Tips for Beating Winter Blues to see how I deal with this) and either lower the dose or stop completely during the summer when I’m able to get more sunshine, fresh air, and exercise (in essence, going on walks around the farm with the kids or pulling weeds and watering the garden, when we have one).
In addition to regularly taking vitamins, I take care of my body by getting a lot of sleep. There are those that say we all get the same 24 hours every day to accomplish things but I disagree. Some people only need 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I am NOT some people. Between my natural issues as a lower energy person, my health struggles over the years, pregnancies, and the fact that I have had at least one night waking child for the last 11.5 years, I have learned that I need a higher than average amount of sleep.
I need about 9 hours of sleep every night.
I am usually in bed and ready to sleep by 10:00pm so I can be up around 6:00ish, before my kids start waking. Then I nap with the littlest in the afternoon for 30-60 minutes. At some phases in my life this has meant putting on a show and dozing on the couch and at some points (as my older children have gotten more responsible) this looks like tucking into my own bed upstairs for an hour or more. And then making sure I get to bed early if my nap time doesn’t rejuvenate me enough.
We really underestimate the value of sleep in our society, and it is to our own detriment. Trust me when I say that “losing” a few evening hours won’t be the end of the world. Or that getting up before the children is necessary to get anything accomplished. To be honest with you, I just recently started getting up before the kids to begin writing again. I don’t, however, leave my bed. I know that my toddler will wake up within 5 minutes of me leaving him, or my 5yo bouncy and bubbly morning sunshine will decide that 6am is his new wakeup up time too. So, instead, my house begins waking up about 7:30 (actually, the 5yo has learned to look for the 7 on the clock and is often sitting (read: bouncing, jumping, giggling) on the couch when the 2yo and I come downstairs) and the kids know that my primary response to their chattering is a grunt until I get mind up and running for the day.
So I’ve covered my coffee routine, vitamins, and sleep. Now to talk about the most dreaded physical care tip: Exercise.
Brutal honesty: I have never really done this. The only form of exercise I can get excited about is swimming but the pool in town is a 20 minute drive and there is no child care so I can’t go swim laps every couple of days. Most of my exercise consists of carrying a baby or toddler around on my hip or back while I lug laundry baskets up the stairs or sweep the floors. In the summer I do regularly get outside to walk around the farm at a leisurely pace. I hibernate during the winter because I get cold very easily and I have a history of a bad back injury so I am afraid of slipping on ice.
We recently purchased a rowing machine
(this is the
rowing machine we purchased) and I have been attempting to get a few minutes in every day. It is gentle enough that a few minutes doesn’t aggravate my back and I believe it is actually strengthening my core as I am not struggling with pelvic and hip pain during this pregnancy like I did with the others. I started with 10 strokes, then worked up to 50, which only took about 1.5 minutes, and have built up to setting a time on my phone for 3.5 minutes. It’s not a lot but it is something I can currently commit to. I’ll add time as I’m able to, mentally and physically. Baby steps.
I usually row right before gathering my laundry and making my bed during our 9am “High 5” routine. The machine is in the office/storage room next to our bedroom so I have no excuse. I just pretend, for my own mind’s sake, that gathering laundry takes 3.5 minutes longer than it used to. It doesn’t feel like a big of a deal then and my mind doesn’t fight it as much.
I believe it was Ruth Soukup in her book Do It Scared who I first heard say that discipline is a limited resource. Use it for the big goals in your life so you can move forward. When I’m in a season of depression or overwhelm, the biggest goal in my life is to “right the boat,” so to speak. Or survive day to day. This means that I use the very limited amount of discipline and willpower I can muster to take care of my soul and body and mind by creating habits that no longer require discipline to push through.
Knowing that discipline is a limited resource, what is the simple, small, step that you can use your discipline for at this point in your life to take care of your body and physical health?
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by Tessa | Personal Development
Self Care Series Step 1: Spiritual
I have struggled with cycles of depression since I was a teenager. I spent some of that time feeling like I was in a deep, dark cave that I would never be able to navigate out of. I spent some of that time being medicated with pharmaceutical antidepressants. I have spent many of those years coping day-to-day but feeling like I was on the edge of that cave and making one wrong move would result in me getting lost again.
I was blessed enough to have a mother with similar issues which allowed me (and her) to recognize the signs in my life and name the disorder early on. After 25 years, I’ve learned some things that have lead to more and more time in the later years spent living a life where depression is hardly more than a nuisance. I have developed some warning signs that my husband and a couple close friends recognize and a depression lifestyle protocol that helps me avoid the deepest part of the cave and live a pretty fulfilling and joy-filled life.
I have been in charge of caring for my own home for 15 years now. I have also been a mother for over 11. This journey started out with having dishes and laundry for 2 people and now I find myself coming up on 7 people living in our home, with all except 1 being here nearly 24/7 (and even that one is in and out of the house all day).
Add to that the fact that I still need to take care of myself. Pregnancies are quite a roller coaster ride for a body and new babies and toddlers take a lot out of a Mama physically and emotionally. The older my children get, the more they need me to help them develop their own good habits, skill sets, and character traits. Add on top of that the stresses of running a full time commercial dairy farm in this day and age (granted my husband does the bulk of the physical labour but we still make decisions together and I do research and finances for the business). As a cherry on top, we homeschool and are therefore responsible for … everything.
How is a Mama to keep going every day? Especially when the “enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1Peter 5:8b NIV) (Anyone else feel like depression is a prowling enemy?)
There are very few people who can do a complete lifestyle overhaul and succeed, especially if depression keeps rearing it’s ugly head.
The answer is taking baby steps to create good habits and, when depression does start to creep in, go to the beginning and start again.
After 25 years, I’ve learned some things that have lead to more and more time in the later years spent living a life where depression is hardly more than a nuisance. I have developed some warning signs that my husband and a couple close friends recognize and a depression lifestyle protocol that helps me avoid the deepest part of the cave and live a pretty fulfilling and joy-filled life.
My first priority is spiritual self care. This is often one of the first things that gets dropped, unfortunately. It seems so much easier on those exhausting mornings to grab my coffee and scroll through my email or Twitter feed. It is much easier on my brain to read tidbits rather than think full thoughts for myself. I tell myself that keeping track of the news and politics is important.
Is it though?
When life gets upside down and overwhelming, the last thing anyone needs is to connect more with the chaos in our world. So I put down my devices and grab an old fashioned paper notebook and my favorite pen and start small.
It often takes just a few minutes for me to write out what I call my Praise and Prayer: a very simple bullet point list of three items I’m thankful for and three items I want to lift up in prayer. I don’t really have any rules surrounding this other than the “praise” can’t be the exact same day after day. In more difficult seasons I am thankful for things like fresh air, showered kids, and money in the budget for take out. And I pray daily for strength and wisdom to walk through the day. I pray for character traits for my children (when I look back a few years it is amazing how far God has brought them…. and me!)
When I am back in the habit of P&P, I begin reading my Bible again. Whether it is just the verse of the day in YouVersion or whether I’m feeling ambitious and attacking a Bible in a Year plan (which always takes me more than a year to get through), I slowly add this to my habit list. After a while, I try to pick at least one verse to copy into my notebook. Victoria from Creative Homekeeper has some great encouragement for writing out the Bible and it inspired me several years ago and now I can attest to the benefits of it.
When things are going well in my life and I’m feeling energetic and my mind is clear, I even add in a bit of journaling and self reflection. This often takes on a strange combination of a written prayer interspersed with random thoughts and ideas. This is one of the few areas in my life that I don’t limit to a specific format.
While my children largely feed themselves breakfast as they wake up, I do often end up with a child or two… or sometime 3 to be honest, sitting in my lap. That can get very crowded! This is why I give myself a lot of time for interruptions.
I and my younger two (currently 5yo and 2yo) are usually downstairs around 7:30am and they are my busy, bouncy boys. There is often toast or cereal on the table that lose a few bites every time they race their Tonka dump trucks past the kitchen table. We don’t officially move onto the next part of our routine until about 9am. This gives my older two time to wake up on their own and have some quiet time in their bed or on the couch with me, watching with wonder as their younger brothers fill the house with sunshine and giggles. Sometimes my 8yo makes himself a cup of tea during this time. (He is convinced he should be allowed to drink a morning coffee already so tea is his compromise.)
Side note: I am always interested in how other people structure their day so I will be sure to share in the near future about our home rhythms and how I’m attempting to create good lifelong habits in my kids. It all starts with “baby shark do do do do…”
So that about sums up what is always my first go-to habit to re-develop when life gets off the rails. I have large gaps in my P&P notebook and, even today, I don’t do it every day. But I always feel like it centers my heart and mind when I restart this habit. Reconnecting to God and remembering that putting Him first and foremost in my day always puts everything else into perspective.
Do you have a routine for your spiritual self care or is that something that you’re still trying to figure out? Please share in the comments.
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by Tessa | Personal Development
I didn’t get my March Summary goals post up. The second half of March consisted or a round robin of a yucky cold virus. It hit each member of our family, even Baby Bear, and made for a not-so-fun few weeks. April has felt like a new start. A new season. A new day. Baby Bear is the first of my children who is not high need and he still has a really consistent routine. The biggest perk: I’m rested. I make sure to go to bed on time and we still deal with multiple night wakings but it’s amazing how a content and peace-filled family can show each other love during the day. If your family doesn’t enjoy each other’s company, there is no quick fix but I can say that slowing down and resting more will get you further in life that running around and hardly allowing yourselves to breath.
Goal updates:
Faith:
Read the Bible in one year: I got very far behind in March but am almost caught up. Doubling up the reading on some days and getting back into the habit of listening daily. I’m currently in 1 Kings for OT and making my way through the Book of John for my NT readings.
In depth book study: Oh, right. I was supposed to be reading Ephesians…. I’m going to be caught up soon on my yearly plan so I’ll stick this back into the rotation.
Focused Daily prayer time: I’ve been more sporadically praying for people and events as I think of them instead of taking a specific time each day. Trying to think of when I could add this in. Last month I mentioned a prayer prompter. Still haven’t made it. Putting it on my To Do list right now though… Scheduled for my Sunday afternoon planning session.
Wife:
Monthly “out” date with Adam: No dates. We did errands together without the bigger boys. But they took too long and we didn’t actually sit down to focus on each other. I just mentioned this fact to my husband and C has already figured out he’s going to call a friend to watch him and his brother. I’m glad that even my son sees the value in it… friend texted and May’s date is scheduled.
Shared interest “doing something” time: He totally out paced me in the game that we were playing and I have been left in the dust. This month’s “doing something” involves a garden and a plan for yard work. I want it done and he actually enjoy most yard work.
Kiss Adam daily: So simple and yet, with all the sickness we had in March, we completely got out of the habit. I didn’t review my goals at the end of March either so we really have some work to make this a priority again.
Mother:
Play: Can I just say that my kids are awesome? They truly are fun to be with and, even though I don’t usually get down on the floor with them to push cars around, I love spending time with them. With the weather having (finally) warmed up, we have been taking a lot of walks and doing story time outside and we have been making good use of the swingset. Baby Bear isn’t to sure about swinging but he sure does love participating with the big boys.
Their faith: We did pretty good with out daily family Bible readings for a while but then slacked again. I’m trying to figure out how to make this a firmer habit. Do you have any suggestions? Perhaps a visual chart by our dinner table that we can add stickers to each day we read. Kids love stickers!
Homemaker:
Cleaning: I feel like I’m getting the hang of this whole housekeeping-with-3-kids thing. Baby Bear is about 5.5 months so that’s quicker than I adjusted with the first two. My house certainly isn’t perfect but I’m also not overwhelmed anymore. It’s like a breath of fresh air to not feel like I’m always running behind.
Food: Freezer cooking? Baking? Yogurt? What’s that? I have been making kombucha so that’s a benefit to out health. I also have my tomatoes, peppers, and broccoli started and we will plant the rest of the garden in a couple of weeks.
Project: March’s project was to plan my garden and I still need to do that. April’s project was to clean my bay window so I could start my seeds and put them there. May’s project is to plant everything that can be planted in May. I didn’t plant a lot of things on time last year so my harvest was rather pitiful. This year will be different!
Hobbies/Blog/Personal:
Reading: Two non-fiction books in April were The Essential Oiler’s Handbook. I have used essential oils for the last few years but we had a real breakthrough with Biscuit and his emotional issues during sleep (perhaps I’ll write about that in more detail one day) so I started doing a ton of research. I read about 6 ebooks on essential oils and that was the best. Another one I really liked was The Aromatherapy Bible: The Definitive Guide to Using Essential Oils. It is not a Christian book and there are a few things that I don’t agree with in it but it has great tips for recipes and how to use oils. My favorite part of the book is the section that is dedicated to an overview of a ton of different oils. 
My fiction selection was The Swiss Courier by Tricia Goyer. The kindle version is cheaper than I could have driven to the library and back. I have read another couple of books by Tricia and read her blog regularly and just love her writing. This book was no exception. It was a WW II book and I haven’t been able to read a WW II book for a number of years because I found that they affected me too much. I took a chance on this book, however, and I’m so glad I did. Fantastic story that left me on the edge of my seat and had me applauding by the end of it. I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Writing: I have been pretty consistently writing daily. Not always something for my blog but I journal and have even done something that I hadn’t done for probably 15 years: I wrote a song. Or rather, a part of a song. It isn’t quite complete. It has been great to get back at the piano and have the mental capacity and the joy in my heart to be able to write music again.
Website: March’s goal of making a disclosure page is going to be completed in May. I want to give a little more information on how and why I decided to monetize my blog and how those kinds of things affect my writing and how they affect you, as a reader.
Blog: My regular readers will know that March was a tough month for posting but I’m getting things organized again and I am enjoying posting regularly again. The thing with a blog is that it’s never just writing. If all I had to do was write, I could post daily. The truth is, as any blogger will tell you, the photos and links and formatting and marketing all take up more time than the actual writing does. I put a lot of time, effort, and heart into my final project so if a post really resonates with you, please share it!
Planning Session: I missed a few of these due to sick kids and Sunday’s spent away from home. I had to do some very quick and sporadic planning on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings and the hurried planning showed. I really love my planning session because it helps me organize my thoughts on all the areas of my life. I can accomplish so much more when I have a game plan.
Quiet time: I love warmer weather. I skip out of the house a bit when my husband comes in to make lunch. I get to take a walk alone or, occasionally, with a sleeping baby on my back. The boys play outside a lot so all the noise is out there. I can put Baby Bear in his little chair on the deck and he sleeps or watches his brothers and I can relax. Feeling much more refreshed with the amount of quiet I’ve been experiencing.
Health: Drinking water: It is much easier to keep my fluids up when the weather is nice. A cool glass of water on a hot day is perfect. I would say that I’ve got this “drinking water daily” habit in the bag. Eating fruit: Fruit and summer go hand-in-hand. And my boys have started asking for fruit at snack time so I prepare their snack and make an extra plate for myself at the same time. Strengthening my back: My back injury was over 3 years ago now and it still gives me grief. It makes me a little sad to think it but, at the same time, it has improved drastically. I am starting to find a routine of essential oils, back stretching exercises and remembering to massage daily (my chiropractor recommended the Professional Body Massager 
and I love it). My back still pops out daily and gets tired easily but it doesn’t usually hurt. I’m so glad that pain is minimized! Reviewing goals regularly helps keep you headed in the right direction.
Do you have a regular time to review your goals? If you have written a blog post on your goals, we would love to have you link up and share your goals with us. You could grab the button and put it on your post to help spread the word that we are writing these posts. Or leave a comment with a summary of how your life plan for 2014 is coming along.
*This post may contain affiliate links. If you follow the link and choose to make a purchase, I may receive a small referral commission, at no extra cost to you.*
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by Tessa | Motherhood, Personal Development
I’m an introvert. I crave quiet and solitude. Just over a year ago, I discovered that introversion is okay and I really started to embrace the introversion instead of attempting to be extroverted. In retrospect, it was silly to think that I had to be someone I’m not and act in a way that wasn’t true to myself. But I’ve figured it out now and it has hugely benefited my life and family. Guess what? My whole family is introverts! My husband and Biscuit are much less so than C and myself but they still need their quiet recharge time. Even Baby Bear is easily overwhelmed with too many people and is upset easily by disruptions to his peace. For having 3 young sons, my house is typically unusually quiet.
So here’s the big question: how do I fit in my own quiet recharge time when I have a husband, 6 year old, 3 year old and 5 month old around all the time? Not to mention several good friends that I love to catch up with and church and social media. And then there’s my mind. It never seems to stop talking to me!
I laid the baby in his little chair/bassinet and hid in the laundry room. No chocolate, no good book to read, no phone. Just me. Sitting on the floor. Eyes closed so I couldn’t see the laundry in front of me. Forcing my mind to be clear. The peace lasted about 2 minutes before Biscuit got worried because he couldn’t find me. Quick prayer for strength and for my little one’s worried heart.
I sit in my rocking chair while waiting for my baby to fall back to sleep at 5am (after enjoying his smiles and coos for a bit) and read my daily Bible passages on my phone. When he is asleep, I stop rocking, put down my phone, and just sit.
I buckle all the kids in to the vehicle, shut the doors, and wait a minute before I jump in the vehicle to head to town.
Small moments. That’s all that I can manage in this season of my life. Moments of more than simply silence. Moments when I don’t have little people touching me. Moments that I owe to no one except myself. A few minutes sprinkled throughout my week that give me enough to continue forward. One day those little people will not depend on me so heavily. In fact, they are less dependent on me every month. Baby Bear’s gummy smiles and sweet, milky breath are enough to make me delirious with joy. It won’t last. He will grow. They all will. Then I will get my hours of silence and solitude at a time and will know that I have earned it. I won’t need to miss the babies because I made sure to thoroughly enjoy them through all their stages.
Are you an introvert? Do you have someone in your life who is an introvert? Perhaps you can find some information and encouragement here:
How to be Friends with an Introvert
15 Resolutions for a Homeschool Introvert Mom (these ideas are great for anyone, not just homeschoolers)
Linked up at: Time Warp Wife, Growing Home Blog
*This post may contain affiliate links. If you follow the link and choose to make a purchase, I may receive a small referral commission, at no extra cost to you.*
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by Tessa | Personal Development
Two months into my Life Plan: 2014. It has been a cold winter and the months seems to be dragging on. I’m looking forward to spring when I won’t have to be battling the winter blues on a daily basis. My littlest man is three months old already and I spend much of my day holding him while he sleeps or playing with him while trying to get him to giggle. Such a precious sound! I’ve also been enjoying a lot of story time with my older two boys who have learned that, if they come sit by the rocking chair, I’m usually willing to read. I also have a skill when it comes to stories: I don’t mind reading the same book 10 times in a row. Most of the time anyway.
Goal updates:
Faith:
Read the Bible in one year: Mostly doing alright. I have missed a day or two but have been able to catch up by doing double reading the next day. I’m currently reading Numbers and Mark.
In depth book study: I have been taking my weekly “catch-up day” in my Bible reading plan to read Ephesians. I’ve read it in NIV a couple of times and, in March, I plan to read it in The Message translation.
Focused Daily prayer time: In January I had my prayer time in the morning. In February, however, Baby Bear shifted his schedule on me and is now sleeping until 5:30am and goes for a nap at 7:30am. This leaves me enough time for my Bible reading but not my prayer time. So I have been taking my prayer time around 9pm before I head to bed instead. I still need to make a prayer prompter to have more focus for this.
Wife:
Monthly “out” date with Adam: Oh my. We totally forgot to do this. We have been taking most Thursday evenings to focus on doing something together but I’ve added “plan out date” to my Sunday afternoon planning session.
Shared interest “doing something” time: We have really been enjoying playing an online card game called Hearthstone. He told me I would like it and I told him it was stupid. Turns out that he was right. I love that it involves some thinking and strategy. I also love that it is a video game that I actually can stand a chance at winning. Sort of. His card decks are all still better than mine because he plays much more but, once in a while, I get some really good cards and get to whomp him.
Kiss Adam daily: If I don’t remember this then he does. So this happens most of the time. It may sound kind of silly that this needs to be a habit we create but it is so easy for us to get caught up in the day-to-day routine and completely forget to show each other love in this simple way.
Mother:
Play: The last couple of weeks my boys have been playing so well with each other that they rarely ask me to play. There have even been times that I’ve grabbed a book and asked them if they wanted a story (they always say yes). So I haven’t been playing a lot with my older boys. I’ve been playing a ton with Baby Bear though. I need to take some of my own advice and make a stronger effort to simply enjoy my children.
Their faith: Hanging my head in shame right now. I can’t remember the last time we read the Bible at dinner. We’ve read from their Jesus Storybook Bible
but not the The Narrated Bible
. We rearranged our office/dining room a few weeks ago and, as I sit here typing this out, I have noticed that the Bible got moved onto the piano. Going to put it back on the dinner table as soon as I get up for bed.
Homemaker:
Cleaning: I have been mostly focusing on completing my Monday tasks, which mostly consists of laundry. I have been really good at washing everything but folding and tidying usually takes me the whole week. This week has been great though. Monday: Laundry. Tuesday: Baking. Wednesday: Bathroom. Thursday: Office. Four in a row! I hold Baby Bear during most of his naps so I make good use of my ring sling to get my spurts of housework done.
Food: I did not do any freezer cooking last month. I also did not make yogurt or bread. I’ll try again this month I guess!
Project: February’s goal of digital organization was mostly a success. I have most of my email inboxes cleared out and my digital calendar has been very helpful to me. I am mostly using the method described in Paperless Home Organization
. I don’t use my to do list app a lot though. Partially because it doesn’t sync well between my devices and partially because I just don’t have that many to dos. March’s project is to plan my square foot garden.
Hobbies/Blog/Personal:
Reading: My two non-fiction books for the month were You Can’t Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded)
by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias (highly recommend if you have a strong willed child) and Your Retreat: A guide to giving yourself a personal planning day, a free ebook by Erin Odom from The Humbled Homemaker (great book but it didn’t really apply as I already had my plans in place. I’m keeping it in mind for my end of year planning session though). My fiction choice was a novel called The Language of Sparrows
by Rachel Phifer (a truly beautiful book about surviving hard times and opening yourself up to being who you were made to be. This book really spoke to me!)
Writing: My daily writing habit is still sitting at about 2-3 times per week. I think I need to revise my strategy a bit on how/when I am writing. Schedule a specific time is tough with our loose family rhythm but I think that I should find a natural lull in our days. A moment when my kids don’t really need me and, instead of reading, take 30 minutes to write instead. Perhaps after lunch when Baby Bear takes his nap and before snack time.
Website: I updated my header in February but I believe I’m going to change it again as I don’t really like it (if you have any suggestions, I’m totally open to hearing them!). My tweak for March will be to add a specific disclosure page. I’ve started doing a few affiliate links and want to explain my referral and affiliate policy in a little more detail to you.
Blog: Continue guest posting at TOTS Family and consistently post once per week. My TOTS post last month was about breastfeeding as a third time mom and I posted each Monday with an extra post thrown in for Valentine’s Day about Free and Simple Ways to Show Love. I typically write and schedule my posts a couple days before they are published. It would be great to get a bit further ahead with scheduling but, for now, this method seems to be working.
Planning Session: I take an hour on Sunday afternoon to sit on my bed, with the door shut, with my laptop, smartphone, and tablet. (Yes, I’m a gadget person!) I plan meals, activities with the kids (playdough, painting, special coloring sheets), housework, office work, and blogging activities. It has been helping a lot but my mind is rather fuzzy lately and I have been working hard on beating the winter blues. I hope and pray that the sunshine and warmer days will come soon so I can get rid of the cloud that hangs over me lately.
Quiet time: I still haven’t made quiet time part of my daily routine. And it shows. I’m going to refocus and keep working on this one.
Health: Drinking water: I have been drinking more tea with the cold weather so my fluids are definitely up. Eating fruit: smoothies help and I have been buying a wider variety of fruit so I don’t get bored with eating just apples and oranges. Strengthening my back: I need to go to the chiropractor and still need to find exercises to strengthen my back so it stops popping out of place.
Reviewing goals regularly helps keep you headed in the right direction. Do you have a regular time to review your goals? If you have written a blog post on your goals, we would love to have you link up and share your goals with us. You could grab the button and put it on your post to help spread the word that we are writing these posts. Or leave a comment with a summary of how your life plan for 2014 is coming along.
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