31 Days of Self-Care: Day 5

I am really enjoying the 31 Days of Self Care challenge. While I haven't posted to my blog about it everyday, I have consciously thought about ways to take care of myself everyday and have even made some progress toward achieving more balance in my life. 

First off, I've been reading. I love reading and miss having it as part of my daily ritual.  Along with the challenge, I have joined the Self Care Salon which is a combination reading group/accountability group. We are reading Cheryl Richardson's -Take Time for Your Life.  I am really enjoying the book. Today's call was great too. Lots of sharing, comparing notes and supportive conversation. 

I've also been giving my creative side some nurturing. In the last week I've done more scrapbooking pages than I have done in months!  It feels good and serves to remind me how much I cherish my children and all that they bring to my life!

Here are some of the layouts that I have done this past week.

 

 

 

It's been a good week.

This week I am going to focus on a couple of things:

1) Aligning my time with my priorities.  I work at home because I want to be close to my kids, available, responsive and involved. I have not been doing this well. We come through the door after school and I pretty much head back to the computer. This is not what I want and I feel guilty about it all the time. It is time to carve out that time and hold it sacred.

2) Boundaries. Along with aligning my time with my priorities, I need to set better boundaries about my work time.  It is not that I have any clients who particularly abuse my lack of boundaries it is just that I have trained them to expect me to be available almost 24/7.  I would like to set specific work hours and do a better job of adhering to them. I know my clients value me and will respect these boundaries.

Thanks for visiting! I'd love you to leave a comment!  I'm off to visit the blogs of other participants and read what strides they are making in their lives.

What are you going to do today to take care of yourself?

31 Days of Self Care

In my daily twitter and blog stalking I came across a wonderful blog and project that I quickly jumped into with both feet. The 31 Days of Self Care project. The idea being that we have to take care of ourselves in order to take care of others. To say that me, myself and I have completely fallen off my own priority list is an understatement. Between the kids, their activities and schoolwork and of course my Virtual Assistant business, I have become the lowest priority on the proverbial totem pole.

It's time for a change.

I was already thinking about it as the new year approached and I took stock of the previous year and the one ahead, my goals and objectives. I need to be on the priority list. My health, my weight, my stress level and my sanity all need to be something that I put on the "to do list" and get it done. It's easy to get things done for the kids, for Dave and my clients but I have not been on the list for a long time. The kids need me. Dave needs me. My clients need me. None of which will benefit if I am sick, overwhelmed or severely stressed out.

So today I say publicly that I will make the time to take care of myself. Each day I will do something just for me that is rejuvenating, invigorating, inspiring or energizing.

Since obviously I forget about myself far too often, I'm making a list of things I can do to take care of me:

1. Scrapbook - I have almost completely stopped doing my favorite hobby. For eight years it has been something that I enjoy doing, gives me a creative outlet and records my family's history. I want to get back to it.
2. Take Buddy for a walk.
3. Use the treadmill that I unearthed last weekend so I can get ready for the 3day Walk in Dallas in November.
4. Read. Take some time to read several times a week at least.
5. Get outside. Plant. Take care of the garden and yard.
6. Cooking and Baking.
7. Designing. I miss designing.
8. Photography. Grab the camera and get out and shoot photos.
   

During the 31 day project I am confident I'll find more ways to take care of myself.

And on that note, I'm off to do some reading for the first "Virtual Book Salon" for the 31 day project, finish a scrapbook page and perhaps even go to sleep intentionally.

Want to join me, find out more here.

Summer 2009

I am really looking forward to this Summer. Last year Dave was unemployed and looking for a job, I was working and starting my Virtual Assistance business. I felt like we lost a Summer with the kids and each other. This Summer, I'm determined for us all to have a wonderful Summer together. There are so many things I have let go this year, including:

• my weight and health
• scrapping and having a creative outlet
• photography
• spending quality time with my husband and family

No more regrets. No more feeling guilty. Moving forward only!

Last week I stumbled upon a great Mommy blogger site - The Motherload by Amy Clark. She has a "Notebook Chronicles" series and one of the things she did was make a fun summer list (click here to visit her blog). So, Saturday morning I sat everyone down and we made a list of fun things we want to do together this Summer. It was a family brainstorming session - all ideas were allowed. We came up with a huge list. I wrote it down on a large piece of construction paper, the kids colored it and we hung it up on the refrigerator. So now we have a goal - see how many of the things on our fun summer list we can do!

We started our Summer Adventures with a bang and knocked off 2 things from our list right away - Going swimming and going to the Missions game. Saturday afternoon I donned my new Land's End bathing suit and loaded up the kids and headed to our community pool. We took along a few of those dive sticks and some nerf like balls and had a blast throwing them to each other and going after them. We learned that Aidan is getting a little too big for Mommy to throw him as he hit his head on the bottom of the pool (yikes! we won't be doing that anymore!). Zoey was thrilled to run into a school mate at the pool. Our first swim of the year was a great success and one of the things the kids put on their weekend favorites list at dinner earlier.

I was a little worried how the kids would hold up after swimming and a lengthy bike riding session earlier in the day, but nonetheless we went to the Mission's game, dodged foul balls and a lightening storm and stayed long enough to see the fireworks. Eli fell asleep on my lap before the fireworks started and Zoey just barely made it. At the end of the night Zoey proclaimed it one of the best days of her life! Success! It was nice sitting on the bleachers with Aidan teaching him about baseball and watching the game. Dave took the boys to the grassy area so they could run off some excess energy which game me nice time with Zoey at the game too.

Tomorrow I am sure I will be paying for my activities today. One of the things on the kids list is a family bike ride. My first thought was "yay, this sounds like fun!" but then the realization that I hadn't been on a bike in almost 10 years set in. You've got to be kidding me was my next thought! Can you ride a bike easily after not riding one for so long?? Well it turns out you can! Although I have to say that I don't remember the bicycle seat being so darn uncomfortable. I would think with the extra padding the last 10 years has put on me I wouldn't even notice but no - my extra padded behind was no protection for the uncomfortable seat. Makes me think of that Cottonelle commercial where the little girl stuffs her pants with tp to cushion her on her ride.

Well that's enough for tonight. I have some "real work" to do for a couple clients before getting to bed. Fortunately it was a wonderfully refreshing weekend and I look forward to a productive week and fun filled days with my family ahead.

Night!

Happy Saturday!

It is a stunning Saturday morning here and I'm grateful to live in South Texas where in January I can plant pansies and snap dragons and go for a walk and shoot some pictures. I think I am going to load up my new camera bag and just walk around the park this morning and play with my new camera. Speaking of my new camera bag, I have to share this new bag! It is fabulous, well padded and beautiful. It's my new favorite thing. I got it from Jackie on Etsy. She came highly recommended. Check out her store here.


Also on today's agenda is catching up on a little work, doing some digi scrapping and putting a way a few things around the house and getting on the Wii fit for some exercise.

Tonight the big kids and Dave are headed to the Monster Jam with one of our friends and his boys. The Mom and I are going to get together and scrap. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful Saturday!

Humorous Moments

I’m a firm believer that if you take yourself or your life too seriously, you will be unhappy. Everyday in my life there are little moments that I have to choose how to react to. I chose laughter, giggling, smiling and sometimes shaking my head – or all of the above! Here are a couple of moments from yesterday:

Buddy, oh Buddy. Our loving and wonderful Golden Retriever just couldn’t help himself yesterday. He resisted as long as he could but finally he lost his will to resist the Rotisserie chicken! Dave and I had gotten distracted (imagine that with 3 kids 7 and under??) and hadn’t put all the dinner leftovers away. Simultaneously we heard and inquired about a strange noise. Sure enough, Dave goes in the kitchen and a leg and thigh had magically disappeared from the platter. I smiled and laughed with the image of our sweet dog paws up on the counter, head moving from one side to the other checking to see if he is being watched and then in a split second inhaling his prize. Surprisingly my husband took it very well. No screaming or cursing, as I expected. So tonight I’m cooking dinner again because there are no leftovers.

Uh oh! While waiting at the doctor’s office to have Eli’s ears checked, I hear my son say “uh oh Mommy, I had an accident.” Sure enough he was standing legs apart with both pants legs soaked. As I stood there for a second trying to assess what to do, I hear his name called. I don’t have a change of clothes with me and the doctor is now ready to see us. Well, what can you do? It’s a doctor’s office right? They aren’t afraid of nudity, right? So we go into the examining room and take off his wet pants and underwear and he becomes “naked bottom baby” at the doctor’s office. Of course the most fun was carrying him in the elevator, through the parking lot and into the car wrapped in my coat to cover his little naked bottom! I’m sure anyone who saw me thought I was the world’s worst Mom.

Life is good! There also incredibly sweet moments too. As he was laying in his bed waiting for me to come in to snuggle for a little bit, my naked bottom boy (no more) snuggled and said “now I can go to sleep Mommy because you are here.” Be still my heart!

What moments make you laugh?

My Little Place

First, thanks for stopping by and checking out my new little spot on the net. For some time I've wanted a place where I could write about everything! There are times I want to write about the funny things the kids do or my business or my scrapping or well whatever. I have a business blog and a scrapping blog but neither feels complete to me. So, here it is!

What's the title about? I wanted something catchy, a little sassy and something people would remember and it happened to be available! It fits I believe - I am busy and into everything but I "Ain't Misbehaving."

Thanks for reading my first post. I'd love you to say hello! Til next time....

Ya'll be good now!