Self care – My Life is a Work in Progress

My weakness is I care too much

Anyone remember where that song lyric came from? I certainly did not until I hopped in the car last weekend as I was getting ready for my eldest daughter’s 6th birthday party. It’s from the Papa Roach song called Scars released in 2004 when I was 22. I thought – holy crap, yep, I care way too much about things! But I’m trying to let some things go and this post is all about self care and some things I’ve done to help me be a bit more balanced…

Yoga Yoga Yoga – Throughout the years I’ve done a lot of yoga at various studios and at home – hot yoga, power yoga, restorative yoga, prenatal yoga. There’s the cutest little studio right around the corner from me and when it first opened, I tried to go to a bunch of classes but I’m one of those people that if I missed a class, I’d fall off the wagon and not go for awhile…so I rectified that and now I mainly do free YouTube Yoga with Adrienne videos. My approach to this is that my husband takes the girls to school/daycare each morning. As soon as they leave, I put a video on – some days I only have 10 minutes, sometimes I do 20. But I like her variety.

2. Walk this way – I’m all about the song lyrics today! I walk a lot – with the girls, with the dog etc but I’m not talking about those walks (though getting outside anytime definitely helps). Awhile back I realized on walks I do with Tucker, I’m taking care of him, making sure he goes potty, gets his exercise and doesn’t eat poop (I know, gross). But am I really taking care of myself? I guess I am a little bit but not as much as if I did it alone. So, most nights after dinner and before bedtime routines start, I’ve taken to doing a loop around the neighborhood and just taken everything in. It’s really been nice to have that breather after dinner and before bedtime battles begin.

3. Reading – I love to read – always has. I have a great imagination and books just help it expand. However, I definitely haven’t read as much as I’d like to in the last few years so one of my resolutions this year was to read at least 5 books this year. It’s mid July and I’ve already read 8! I try and read during lunch time or before bed and that’s also really helped with sleep.

Of course, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’d love weekly massages, unlimited pool time and some uninterrupted Netflix days, but I am doing what I can, when I can. Most days I’m able to do at least 1 of the things I mentioned above.

What are some things that help you?

It’s been awhile…

More than 3 years since I wrote in this blog. Oops, sorry. I’d say life happened and that’s both true and untrue. Because while a lot of life has happened, I’ve struggled many a times with what I’m doing (or not doing) with MY life.

So here’s a very abbreviated version of what I’ve been up to for the last 3 years:

That baby in my belly I wrote about last time is now almost 3. It’s a girl so we now have two girls (and the then 2 year old is now almost 6!) and a crazy golden retriever.
During maternity leave – which was definitely not as peaceful as the first time with the fact that I was recovering from an unplanned c-section and also dealing with COVID closures of daycare, I got a new job where I work from home (yay!!)
I sort of lost myself, sort of found myself, lost myself again…it’s an ongoing thing.

That leads me back to this blog. Truthfully, I thought I had deleted it/cancelled my subscription and then realized I hadn’t (thanks to an automatic bill renewal email!). I thought, well let’s try this thing again. Maybe I’ll find something I’m looking for. Maybe some sort of passion will be reignited in me. Because frankly, I’ve been doing a lot of living for two little ones the past several years and not a lot of living for me. Which I know is typical of parents of babies and toddlers. They sort of lose themselves along the way. So I’m trying to find myself again. Or maybe, find the pieces of my old self I liked and pair it with stuff my new self that I like.

I hope you’ll follow along with me on this journey – and hopefully my next entry won’t be in 3 more years but I can’t make any promises – I am after all, a work in progress.