Tag: mommy blog

February Round up

The month might be shorter than most but it always feels jam packed! February meant the start of baseball practices for the boys, a trip to Tahoe (see our trip here), celebrating Valentines Day & my birthday at the end of the month. We had some pretty big rain storms at the beginning of the month which lead to lots of throwing our rainsuits on and jumping in puddles. Here’s a little glimpse into what we got into this month, recipes I loved this month, books I read, where we’re at on our 1K hours outside and my decluttering challenge! I also posted an essay on the phase of motherhood you can read it here: Legos in the Laundry

This month I joined a volunteer organization that bakes birthday kids for Foster kids who otherwise may not get a cake. I baked my first cake for the organization this month. It was a batman themed cake for a 15 year old. I have loved baking my boys cakes and the idea that there are kids out there that won’t be made to feel special or celebrated on their birthday, pulls at my heart. It really felt like the perfect fit as a way to give back to my community, spread joy & use skills I already have. I joined the bay area chapter face book group and I’m so impressed with all the amazing bakers. Also this brought up so many important conversations with my own kids. We talked about how fortunate we are and how we never know other peoples circumstances. Not to mention just broadening their horizons that there are kids who are only getting a cake because someone like myself is making it. Before we can even think about teaching our children gratitude we first have to teach them awareness and noticing. So exposing them to truths in age appropriate ways can foster gratitude! Here’s pic of the cake I did, I love the way it turned out and I loved the recipe the organization had in their resource center for black frosting that won’t stain teeth.

My Dark Knight cake!

Recipes I’ve been loving:

Protein cookie dough: I’m usually underwhelmed by high protein desserts because they never really taste as good as I’d like. but this cookie dough legit tastes like you’re eating cookie dough. I’ve been making it on repeat all month long. Just combine 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/2 vanilla protein powder (I’ve been using this one), 1/4 maple syrup, 3 tbsp melted coconut oil and 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips. I combine in a bowl until all mixed up and then spread out onto parchment paper. I usually place another parchment paper over it and flatten to desired thickness. Then chill in the fridge or freezer and cut into squares. This has been my go to snack when I’m craving something sweet.

kimchi fried rice – I made it with chicken but honestly you could put any protein in it. I’m making it again this week. 10/10 I used this recipe . I think next time I make it I’m gonna use shrimp.

Shrimp spring rolls. I’ve also been making these ahead of time for easy lunches. I bought a pack of rice paper wraps off amazon and have been trying different additions to my spring rolls. Right now I’m loving a mix of shrimp, mint, cilantro and bean sprouts with a spicy peanut sauce. It’s so crunchy and good.

Books I read this month:

The Great Alone – my favorite book this month. I love Kristen Hannah. I love her writing style and her stories are always so emotional.

Small Things Everywhere – This was our bookclub book. It was super short, a little strange. lol. By no means a bad book, but just hard to understand what would actually be important in the book since it was literally only 100 pages.

Jesus and John Wayne – This was a political non-fiction book about how the evangelicals and their impact in american politics. It was as dense as it sounds lol.

After I do – quick romance read. My second Taylor Jenkins Reid book of the year and this one didn’t disappoint!

Slow read of War & Peace – I’m still chugging along. This month I kinda fell behind and was having to read multiple chapters a sitting. In March my goal is to really try to stick to the one chapter a day plan!

podcast that I loved: Dr. Becky – how to not raise an asshole. – I love Dr. Becky her podcast and book is such a powerful resource for parents. And this podcast episode seriously knocked it out of the park with talking to our kids about gratitude and our ideas behind raising entitled children. I listened to this episode twice taking notes to pass on to my husband! 10/10.

As Far as:

Decluttering Challenge: I have a decluttering goal of purging 2025 items from our home this year. So in February I purged a little over 300 items total. This is definitely a hard challenge but it’s been fun to track.

1000 hours outside: in February we logged 51 hours outside, bringing our total to 122 hours for the year. Like I mentioned earlier in the post the weather was pretty dreary at the beginning of the month. And now we’re in full swing when it comes to baseball so I’m sure those hours will tick up as the weather continues to get better.

Looking forward – we are taking the boys to Monster Jam in March and have some fun things planned around Spring break including a glamping trip with friends and of course loads of baseball as well as some little projects I’m working on at our house.

xoxo

Legos in the Laundry

Legos in the laundry, that’s the new season of parenthood I’m in. We’ve somehow slipped out of monthly milestones, developmental leaps and counting each new word. We’ve entered a world of creativity, imagination and joy. A world that consists of small holes in my yard filled with plastic dinosaurs, lego creations that fall out when I open the dryer door, scribbled notes and detailed treasure maps taped to the walls of my house. Brotherly bike races, obstacle courses and tickle fights, overflowing boxes of “treasures”, nerf darts in every corner, mixed up potions, swords and masks and a dozen costumes in one day. Leaving the baby season and squarely being in the kid season feels like a big deal. I equate it to the feeling of turning 25. Where it suddenly feels old, but in reality you’re still quite young. This phase feels big and so much older, but in the same breath I recognize I still am needed for middle of the night tuck-ins, tying loose shoelaces, or getting something off the top shelf.

The heartbreakingly beautiful part about parenthood is that it really is all a phase. The sleepless nights, the spit up, the separation anxiety, the babbles, the step,step,stumble, the handprints all over your windows, the blowouts. It all fleeting, which inevitably means it’s bittersweet. The idea that tomorrow your kids are a tiny bit older, a tiny bit bigger. The days blend into weeks, weeks into months, and before you know it, it’s been two years since you changed a diaper. Suddenly the bottles are gone and replaced with cups your kids can fill themselves.

There are moments in the motherhood when you desperately want to freeze time. Those newborn cuddles & coo’s. The way that little hand slips into yours. The slobbery kisses. And moments you wish to rush through, phases where you are simply surviving. There’s no capacity for anything extra. Days where your best looks like simply keeping everyone fed and alive (yourself included). Society tells us don’t blink you’ll miss it, soak it up, cherish it all, enjoy every moment. That mentality puts an unattainable pressure on moms to feel like they have to love every stage, or else! The overt dismissal that parenting is the single most difficult balancing act on the planet. It takes from every part of you. You sacrifice your body, your time, your sleep. However the dichotomy of parenthood is: it can also absolutely be the biggest, hardest, most beautiful journey you embark on.

As I exit one phase and enter another I wonder: how do you hold on to something that is slipping through your fingers? At some point along the way I ditched the pressure to “love every moment because one day I’ll miss it”. And instead focus on being present, acknowledging where we are in that moment. The good and the bad. The parts that challenge me, the parts that make me question if I’m doing it right at all, as well as the parts that make my heart explode. Giving my kids my full attention, sitting on the floor with them, indulging and submersing myself in their world, taking my shoes off and playing chase in the grass. Reconnecting with my inner child. These help feel like I’m extending my memories somehow. Maybe one day the memories will be easier to access because I wasn’t distracted and instead I was truly there. When I’m older I hope the cool grass between my toes transports me to games of chase, picnics outside, backyard soccer matches. I hope the lone lego reminds of all the starships, rovers, cars and castles that were built. I hope a cup of chocolate milk reminds me of all loud dinners with messy faces and knock knock jokes. These are same dinners that I currently have a love hate relationship with. There are nights where the protesting of the homemade meal, the inevitable poop joke, the invasion of personal space are too much for 6pm. But I’m acutely aware that one day it’ll be my husband and I at an empty, quiet table again, so I soften. I join in on the jokes, I shoot my husband a knowing smile & we often exchange the phrase “this is what I thought it’d be like”.

Today if you read this and you are caught in a simply surviving phase remember, you are doing your best and that is good enough. Not every stage of motherhood fits nicely into social media squares. It’s okay to dislike the phase you’re in and take solace in knowing it’s literally that. A phase. A new one will greet, often at the crux of when you think you can’t take much more.

January Round up

January felt like the biggest breath of fresh air. At the end of the year I slowly went through and deleted social media off my phone & I started the year with just a facebook account that I purely use for the buy nothing group & book club communication. It felt so good to step back, not post anything and frankly not mindlessly consume so much. This is the first time in a decade that I haven’t posted consistently. As much as I loved the community I had on my insta I really want to focus on investing on the community right at my feet! In the past I’ve used this blog as an extension of my social media and I thought I’d keep it up but in a less frequent manner than my instagram. I thought I’d share what I’ve been up to this month, books I read, recipes I loved, and just other things I found myself getting into after taking a serious step back from social media.

Things I did instead of scroll:

  • I finished my 2023 photo album – which is a big undertaking, I still need to order it to get it printed. But it is completed which feels so good! Next up 2024!
  • I finished phase 2 of my 12 week workout program! This is a heavy lifting program and the workouts are long. But I’m proud I’ve stuck to it and I have loved tracking my weights and seeing my strength build!
  • We spent 71 hours outside in the month of January! I’m trying to do 1000 hours outside this year and for January that felt like I solid dent in the goal! I credit this to our new outdoor furniture / fire pit set up. It made it easy to curl up on our patio, listen to the rain fall and read or watch the boys play!
  • I hosted my BFF’s baby shower and we did such a fun craft of making candle holders with pressed flowers and modge podge! They turned out beautiful, I put a photo of them lit up at the beginning of this post. This would make a fun Valentine’s Day craft or gift. I’ll link the pressed flowers I used here and then we just got jars from the thrift store and modge podge from any craft store.
  • In the same vein as my photo album project, this month I started creating “home movies” with all the little videos I’ve accumulated in my google photos. I started when Will was born and have slowly been going through them and making larger movies. Google limits you to 50 clips but each movie ends up being about 15 minutes. I remember loving watching home videos as a child and it’s funny to think how this day and age we have SO many more photos and videos of everyday life than our parents ever did but we don’t watch or see them as much. So I’ve made it a goal to try to catch up on some home videos.
  • We survived an unspeakable Adenovirus stomach bug and a bad case of strep throat. Is it even winter if your kids aren’t on the carousel of endless viruses??? Solidarity to all the parents surviving sick season.
  • I did my first watercolor workbook exercise. For Christmas Chris got me two watercolor workbooks, not sure why I thought starting with the harder one was the right idea. But I started with the landscape workbook and completed my first one (see photo above). It was so challenging but I’m excited to keep working on it and see how I progress.
  • I kept track of my decluttering challenge (to purge 2025 items from my home this year). And the nerd in me is not only interested in keeping track but breaking down the categories of things I purge. So i keep a color coded chart and every 100 items I update the graph to see how the categories are working out! This month I purged about 200 items! And here’s how it broke down – with cosmetics / medicine cabinet and clothing being the top categories!

Books I read:

  • Parable of the Sower – This was a book club book and it was kinda wild. It was a dystopian book about the future, written in the 80’s about the year 2025. yikes. The setting is southern California, which happens to be on fire and in a severe drought… ummmmm it was a little to on the nose for the start of year. I won’t lie it was a super depressing book. but overall I think I’d give it 3.5 / 5
  • Electric Idol – This is the second book of the Dark Olympus series. I did not enjoy it nearly as much as Neon Gods which I read in December. I’ll probably still read the 3rd book in the series but this one gets a 2.5 / 5 for me.
  • One True Love – I read this book in two days. It was a super easy read. I’m giving this a 4/5. I liked the characters, I liked the story. It’s the idea of love and the different versions we experience in our lives.
  • War & Peace – I posted in my 25 in 2025 list that this year I’m doing a slow read of War & Peace which consists of reading a chapter a day. So I spent this month getting through the first 120 pages of this behemoth of a classic. So far I’m not disliking it! I’m also following along with the substack footnotes and tangents which puts out a short weekly summary podcast that helps you keep characters straight so that has made it a lot more enjoyable!
  • The Familiar – This one I did not finish. I stopped about 40% of the way through. It was a book my bookclub read of the summer and it was available right away on Libby so I just downloaded it. But it really wasn’t for me. I like the setting of old Spain, but I felt like the story just moved too slowly and wasn’t compelling enough to keep me interested. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy!
  • I’m also working really hard with Will to boost his reading and we’ve been doing a 100 day reading challenge where he reads to me for 15 minutes at a time (we’ll hopefully work goal up but we gotta meet people where they’re at!) So I’ve been reading lots of stories with him & it is really fun to watch him improve and build his confidence.

25 Easy Elf on the Shelf Ideas

Tis the season for the return of the our friend in the little pointy hat that is pure magic for kids and STRESS for parents. We’ve all had the moment where we shoot up in bed realizing we haven’t moved the elf. Last year I decided to make a list of ideas so I could refer to it and try to plan it out to minimize the stress. I didn’t follow a strict calendar but it was nice to have some pre-planned ideas. This year I decided I would share my list, because we are all in this together!! This year I’m also making note what materials are needed that way I can set them aside beforehand!

Day 1 “I’m back!” It’s a long month ahead so starting off easy – with a simple “I’m back” sign. You can make this however you want! I’m using a popsicle stick and a piece of cardboard.

Day 2: Apple Caterpillar – Materials: Apples (3-6), googly eyes, tooth picks, mini marshmallows

Day 3: Lego Christmas tree – Materials: various green legos, brown and yellow. small base

Day 4: Paper Towel Doodles – Materials: paper-towels, markers. This one is easy, the drawing doesn’t have to be intricate.

Day 5: Playing cards or games with superheroes, barbies, stuffies etc. – Materials: cards or game of choice and other “participants” I also like the duplo card holder here!

Day 6: Christmas countdown – Materials: paper & markers / crayons

Day 7: Letter to Santa – Materials: Paper & pencil or crayon. I’m printing out these templates! This website has lots of cute templates! https://mondaymandala.com/letter-to-santa-templates/

Day 8: Wrapped in “net” from Spidey – Materials: string, Spiderman

Day 9: Hershey’s Kiss Bowling. Materials: Hershey’s kisses, Foil ball

Day 10: Roast Marshmallow – Materials: Marshmallow, stick, fake candle

Day 11: Jenga fort – Materials: Jenga or other blocks

Day 12: Snowflakes / Paper chains – Materials: precut snowflakes – could also leave paper chain material

Day 13: Wrapped as a present – Materials: cardboard, wrapping paper, tape

Day 14: Toilet paper igloo – Materials: cotton bowls, toilet paper, led candle (optional)

Day 15: Lego climbing wall – Materials: various legos / hot glue or double sided tape

Day 16: Scrub a. dub – Materials: small washcloth, q tip

Day 17: Elf walks the dog – Materials: little dog (I used a duplo one) and pipe cleaner

Day 18: Found in fridge – Material – sharpie (draw faces on eggs)

Day 19: Elf Golf – Materials: candy cane, green felt, mini marshmallows

Day 20: Magnatile house – Materials: various magnatiles – could also use blocks or legos!

Day 22: Donut Snowmen – Mini powdered donuts, mini chocolate chips, pretzel sticks

Day 23: Star on the tree – Material: Yellow paper star

Day 24: Ball Pit – Materials: pom poms & bowl or container

Day 25: Whisk / Baking day – Materials: whisk and elf. If you plan to include your kids in holiday baking you can use this day as a way to let them in on baking. Or simply just having your elf be silly and stuck in the whisk.

Even More Ideas:

  • Christmas PJ Delivery – I usually let the elf take credit for bringing new Christmas PJ’s
  • Hot chocolate day – I get the little hot chocolate sticks that all you have to do is add warm milk and it makes it super easy
  • Delivering a holiday puzzle
  • Reading with or to stuffed animals / barbies etc
  • Decorating bananas as minions with a sharpie
  • If you’re going on a holiday adventure (looking at christmas lights, going on a holiday train, going to play in the snow etc) using the elf to announce what adventure you’re going on!

Sunday Somethings No. 7

Little Somethings:

  • I finished The Silent Patient last week and it was 5 stars! Such a good read! It’s been my favorite book so far this year. Now I’m reading The Seven Year Slip which isn’t at all what i was expecting & I started The Island of Sea Women.
  • I celebrated my birthday, I went to lunch with my friend, then swam at the gym we joined and then was home for tacos and cupcakes and snuggled my guys, it was a great way to start 34!
  • I’m really excited to start swimming for exercise again. On my birthday I swam 30 laps and had completely forgotten just how difficult sustained swimming is, I’m pumped to add it into my workout routine this spring.
  • We built a leap year time capsule. We measured the boys, did their hand prints, printed out pictures of the kids and the animals. I asked the boys what some of their favorites were. I also included letters I wrote the boys to open in 4 years. I had the intention of this little time capsule being something fun to do with the boys, but I feel like it put me in such a weird headspace just thinking about how when we open it next leap year Will will be almost 10. His hand won’t be so little anymore. When you have littles 4 years is honestly SO long and SO much changes and I feel like the boys are just at the best ages right now and I want to remember how much fun they are and all their little quirky things they do and say. Anyway if you want to be emo, make a leap year time capsule with your kids. lol.
  • We started our spring garden which is something I’m so excited for! The boys were such a big help clearing out the garden beds. Last summer I grew a bunch of zinnias with my veggies and it was the best. This year I got so many flowers to plant!
  • The boys had their baseball opening day parade – the games got cancelled because of the rain, but they still did the parade and it was so sweet. The boys LOVE their uniforms. I can’t handle how cute they are. J had his first game and organized chaos is the only way to describe 3 years olds playing baseball.
  • Something I’ve been hyperfixated on making for breakfast everyday this week has been avocado toast. I just put avocado, red onion, red pepper flakes, salt flakes and a drizzle of honey and it is THE best.
  • Toby leaves this Sunday (the day I post this) for his boot camp. I’m already so sad but I know it’ll be worth it & he’ll come back a little gentleman! The boys and I are making a paper chain to count the days till he gets back.
  • Last month I tried out Nuuly which is a clothing rental service. I was feeling so bleh about all my clothes which made me feel so bleh in general. For me I had some clothes from before I had kids, some from each postpartum period and very little of it did I truly love or feel my best in. Last month I mostly ordered comfy sweaters and outwear since it was still so cold and rainy. But I’m excited to build my box for March / April & get some more spring outfits!
  • Something else new – I committed to an 84 day Ab-Rehab program. I have never really given my core the TLC it desperately needed after two babies. To be honest that kind of rebuilding work is, yawn, so boring. And doesn’t feel as satisfying as lifting weights or doing cardio. The reality is every workout is a core workout & I’ve hit a plateau when it comes to seeing the results I want & I’m hopeful this program will help me accelerate further! When I write this I’m only on day 3. But so far I’m very impressed with the program!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday Somethings No.3

Sunday Somethings

  • Something I made this week that was 10/10 was this Short rib recipe. It turned out delicious and I will absolutely be making it again. It was a little labor intensive but the longest portion of the recipe the short ribs cook in the oven for about 3 hours, so although it takes quite a bit of time, you aren’t cooking for 4+ hours! If you love short ribs and are intimidated about making them – try this recipe!
  • Some things I finished reading this week were: Wintering and True Love Expirement. These were both pretty quick reads. It wasn’t until the end of True Love that I realized there was definitely a prequel to that book, oops! Now I started a thriller that I got from the library. I haven’t read a thriller in awhile. I feel like I have to space them out otherwise I start getting nightmares!
  • This week Johnathan got a nasty cold & his asthma flared up. This was the first real cold that took him down this season. Last winter we were perpetually sick and constantly setting up his nebulizer or visiting the ER. It was rough. So I’m beyond grateful for his health and for being able to get an urgent care appt. so he could get steroids asap to help him get over it. I also had such a proud mom moment while we were there. He was such a champ despite at first being scared and crying about not wanting to go to the dr. But then he was so chatty with the staff, let them do all their things and literally laughed with the nurse swabbed his nose for allll the germs.
  • Between J being sick and my back still not 100% we leaned into rest. It’s not easy for me to prioritize rest or to kick myself out of my productivity spirals but there are times when it’s necessary. I’m hoping to get back to working out this week (fingers crossed).
  • Something I’m excited about is both the boys are starting baseball, I went to one of the team meetings this week and it got me so excited for spring and to watch the boys both try something new!
  • I’ve really been cherishing watching Will build lego creations and getting on the floor and building with him. He always amazes with me with what he’s building and just how creative he is. And it’s just the best and it’s one of those, knowing you’re living in a future memory moments. I know one day I’ll look back at how much he loved legos and all the “masterpieces” he would proudly show off (that’s what he calls his builds). So I’m trying to being super present and just enjoy those moments.
  • Finally Chris and I have been working on trying to maximize how functional our house is. And this weekend we built this shoe storage cabinet thing for our entry way and I’m SO happy with it! I was originally planning to DIY something, but I didn’t have a very clear vision and every time I tried I was getting frustrated so we opted for something simpler and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

Sunday Somethings no. 2

Sunday Somethings

  • I made this Parmesan and Italian Sausage soup this week & it was SO good. I ended up using half sausage half ground turkey to curb some of the fat content but it was delicious and I’m definitely making it again this week!
  • I’m almost done reading Wintering which has been on my list to read for so long. January just feels like the best time to read it. This is one of my favorite quotes, May writes “Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through... that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible” I love how the book is all about celebrating and leaning into times of rest and how when we allow ourselves to recognizes hard, dark, withdrawn times that’s when growth and transformation and wisdom occurs.
  • I’ve also been working on my January declutter challenge of filling boxes – I have 4 to drop off at the Goodwill this week, which feels so good. I love the feeling of clearing space and letting things go!
  • Something I’m grateful for this week is generous friends that totally saved us on our annual snow trip. After we had not one, but two Airbnb FAILS!! I booked a place back in December that had good reviews. When we got there we quickly realized the heater was not working at all and it was a chilly 42 degrees in the house. Then I went to check the hot tub only to look and see it was empty except for broken glass. I bundled the kids up and let them play in the backyard in the snow while we game planned. We realize that after I had booked this house someone had left a review with the exact same complaints from 2 weeks ago! So nothing ever got fixed. We ended up booking another house that said we could check in at 6pm. So we pile the kids in the car, reload our car and then aren’t able to get into our new airbnb because the owners live in France and it was 2 or 3 am their time. It was a nightmare!! Thankfully we had some friends who let us use their cabin that was only another 15 minutes away and it was a LIFESAVER!
  • I’m also grateful for Chris and my ability to not let a frustrating situation ruin our trip and still be able to work together as a team to figure it all out! We always tell the boys not to panic almost everything is “figure-out-able”
  • Something I loved this weekend was where we took the boys sledding. We went to Granlibakken and watching the boys fly down that hill and not be scared was so much fun!! And I was so impressed with their ability to keep trekking back up the big hill. If you’re local and looking for a place to take your kids sledding I 10/10 recommend. They sell 90 min tickets and that is MORE than enough.

Hope everyone had a great week!

September Recipe Roundup

This summer I tried a ton of new recipes & last month I really focused on meal planning & fueling my body whole foods. For me that means less things out of boxes and instead focusing on adding color and ingredients I can pronounce! I’m sharing the recipes that I loved for anyone who finds themselves in a recipe rut and needs some inspiration this month.

Thai Chicken Lettuce Cups – These are a favorite for lunchtime! Since we avoid soy I paired this with my “psuedo soy” sauce (see the recipe further down!)

Tater Tot Casserole – Now this one doesn’t land at the top of “healthiest” dinners but this is any easy one to prep ahead of time and just pop in the oven!

Zuppa Toscana – It’s officially soup szn! This wasn’t a new recipe I discovered last month but it’s a tried and true recipe that I’ve made every fall for the past few years! I love to add parsley to this recipe and skip the bacon!

Cobb Salad with Carrot Kimchi Dressing – I have been making this salad in jars and they’re the perfect prepped lunch! I love adding shredded chicken to this recipe as well!

Sweet n Sour Pork Skewers with Pineapple – The whole family loved this one. I’ll definitely be making this one again while it’s still grilling season!

Psuedo “Soy” Sauce

Maple Pecan Granola (GF)

“Banana Bread” Chia Pudding

May Round Up

Hello! I’m back!! Right after William’s birthday in the end of April I decided I wanted to take a few days off of social media & it felt SO good that it actually evolved into me taking the entire month of May off. For the past three years I’ve shown up nearly day, so it felt incredible to unplug and allow myself the freedom of leaving my phone in a completely different room, and just being. So for my May round up I thought I’d share what we got into this past month, what helped me take a huge step back from social media, where I plan to go from here!

  • This month we crossed the 300 hour mark on our goal of 1000 hours outside for the year! We’re definitely behind pace but I’m having fun tracking and it’s a great motivation to get outside even when the weather has been less than ideal! The boys are itching for real summer heat to hit and want to play on the splash pad anytime it’s 70 degrees or higher!
  • We redid our garden beds and finally planted our spring garden! Chris did an amazing job building them, the kids loved playing and moving all the dirt & I’m thrilled to have a garden again! This year I’m doing a combination of growing foods we love to eat (tomatoes, cucumbers, snap peas) and a mix of flowers! I also love the new layout! The old set up from the previous owners was cramped and hard to move around & this area now feels so nice!
  • Halfway through the month the boys got the dreaded hand foot mouth virus. They bounced back quickly but I got it and it actually turned into a bit of a health scare for me. While I was on the mend with the sorest throat I’ve ever experienced I had to make a trip to the ER. Which as an ER nurse is literally my last resort… The virus irritated my heart sending me into a fast abnormal heart rhythm. I ended up getting a cardiologist, wearing a cardiac monitor for two weeks (i’m still wearing it as I write this post). We’re still in the process of doing some due diligence to make sure this is truly virus related and not something more nefarious but phew I didn’t see that coming for this month. Also, J came to the ER with me and every time anyone entered the room he would proudly announce “not for me today!” – tell me you’ve been in and out of ER’s constantly for asthma without telling me.
  • Will started going to jujitsu. The last time he was in a jujitsu gym he was barely 18 months old, the first photo! So this is so special for him! It’s cuteness overload watching him do all the little moves and rolls!
  • I read four very different books this month. The Psychology of Money, Maybe You Should Talk To Someone and To Raise a Boy, and Night Wherever We Go. The Psychology of Money was not at all what I was expecting. I thought it would be more practical advice instead it ended up being very theoretical and far less useful than I hoped. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone was great! It’s about a therapist who is going through her own ish and decides to talk to someone! An easy read with some great insights! To Raise a Boy – a must read for boy moms. How to raise boys to be thoughtful, caring, kind, how to break stereotypes, how and why to have hard conversations. The author dives deep into sexual assault, talking to your boys about pornography, and how to raise a boy in a crazy world like today! This was a tough read but SO impactful. Finally, Night Wherever We Go was a gripping book about slaves in Texas. It is written from many different points of view. This was one I grabbed from the library and knew nothing about, but I really enjoyed it!
  • I finally got around to hiking in Briones! I took my bestie & my junie girl and we did 4 miles. Juno was SO happy to be out on a trail and we caught the last of the wildflowers!
  • In May I hit 600 days of meditation. My meditation journey started as a 30 day challenge but it’s something I’ve kept up. I’ve missed days here and there, but creating space between my thoughts, quieting my mind, slowing down and turning inward as been so impactful. It’s funny because I had plans to write a blog post about 500 days of mediation and insights that I have gained since starting this personal practice. But as anyone who meditates regularly knows, the more I practice the more I become aware that my journey at times feels like it’s only just beginning. So 500 days came and went without me feeling some deep transformation or inspiration to write, but this month celebrating nearly 2 years of meditation feels really good! And I did have an amazing moment this month where Will asked me if he could start meditating with me. He will sometimes see me in the mornings or afternoons, sitting still, breathing deep and he understands I’m meditating. So we’ve started incorporating some kids meditation into his daily quiet time. It’s been so special to lay in bed with him and do a meditation together. He loves going on my app and picking a kids one.
  • Finally, the app I used to digital detox: ScreenZen! I seriously love this. You can set up what apps you want to limit, how many times you want to allow it to be opened per day. But what I love about it is when you go to open whatever app, it has you pause (you choose the number of seconds before the app opens) it asks you “is this important” and then has you wait… I’d say nine times out of ten I just click don’t open because it’s not important I’m not getting online to do anything, I’m just killing time or bored. If you’ve struggled to digital detox and maybe you’re not an all or nothing type of person and don’t want to just completely delete your apps this is a great option. This works much better for me than cutting it out completely, extreme restriction typically leads to the pendulum swinging the other direction and ends in these binging and restricting cycles.

May felt super long and mostly it felt so nice to just focus on the beautiful life right in front of me, instead of worrying about creating content. I do enjoy sharing on social & making connections. I have made some great internet friends so I don’t necessarily see myself completely deleting or removing myself from it entirely. I think this was a great break, and an opportunity to really be intentional about what I’m doing on my phone. One of my goals this year was to significantly cut down on my screen time and have better phone hygiene around my boys. The only way to teach them about technology and boundaries and realizing that life happens when you look up is to do that yourself. You can say it till you’re blue in the face, but if you’re constantly mhmming them that is what they will notice and remember more than any lecture. Also the older my guys get the less I feel compelled to share about them, as they enter into their own I want them to choose how and when they want their internet presence to be. Of course I’ll probably still share little things here and there like this blog for instance. I’ll be keeping screen zen on my phone for now. I love how it still makes me question why I’m really getting onto my phone and I think it’s great to break that habitual checking and refreshing.

I’m curious if you’ve done a digital detox and how it impacted your life!?

5 Tips to Read More

Like most people, I loved reading when I was younger. But fell out of the habit once nursing school, night shifts, and newborn life took over. Over the last two years I really stepped back into reading and made a serious effort to recreate a habit that I had loved so much. I decided to put down my phone and picked up books instead. In 2021 I pushed myself to read 10 books, which may not sound like a lot but it was more than I had read in many years. It felt so good to remember what it felt like to get lost in other worlds, having to stay up late to find out how a book ends! Those 10 books completely re-energized me to prioritize reading into a sustainable habit again. Last year I pushed myself to double my reading goal ended up finishing the year reading 21 books! Today I thought I’d share some tips for fitting more reading into your life, even if you’re like me and live a busy toddler mom life.

  1. Stop reading books you don’t enjoy – if you don’t like a book. put.it.down. don’t force yourself to read books you don’t enjoy! life is too short. I used to force myself to keep reading out of principle, but the reality is you’ll actually read slower and less books if you’re forcing yourself to trudge through stuff you don’t like.
  2. Utilize apps to get free e books. I use a kindle and before I would go back and forth on if i wanted to spend the money on a kindle book, especially as I was getting back into reading and honestly didn’t know what books I enjoyed anymore… Then I found the libby app. Which basically lets you rent ebooks from library. The app is completely free all you need is a library card number, which you can easily get online! This set me free from the mental gymnastics I was doing about actually spending money on e books and allowed me to download books without the pressure of having to feel like it was “worth the money”. This is how I read 99% of my books is through the libby app! You’re able to rent a book for 21 days but pro tip if it’s taking you longer DON’T close out of the book on your kindle. If you leave it up you can keep reading beyond 21 days.
  3. Know you’ll be interrupted – Life with two littles means interruptions, but I still read around them. While they’re playing outside or in their rooms, or when they’re watching a show. I’ll be reading. But I know I’ll get interrupted. When we’re outside I’ll play with them and then tell them “mommys gonna read her book know while you guys play”, and of course there are still interruptions but the more I do it the more they become used to it. My almost 5 year old asked me the other day all about my book, we talked about how words make sentences and how books tell stories and it was such a great conversation for my guy who is on the cusp of reading himself. The key for reading around your kids is don’t wait for *perfect* conditions. Doing this has helped me read so.much.more! Plus the example this sets is so powerful.
  4. Keep a running to-read list: I use the notes app on my phone and have a note dedicated to books I want to read. Whenever I’m at work and someone suggest a book or I’m on IG and someone talks about a book they love I add it to my list. So when I finish one I always have something else on my list to read. I also keep books on hold on the libby app!
  5. Take a book to bed: A few years ago I started charging my phone across the room from my bed. Mostly so I would ensure I would actually get up when my alarm was going off. But instead of taking my phone to bed scrolling until I was falling asleep I now go to bed with my kindle. Some nights I only manage to read a few pages before my eyes close. Other nights I will literally read for HOURS. This has drastically changed how much I read. And is such a better way to fall asleep. We spend a lot of time looking at our phones, being pulled by dings and pings. But reading really forces you to focus which will ultimately lead to better sleep!

What I’m reading currently: Lessons in Chemistry