10 Habits I am Getting Back To This Month

(most amazing robe, so cozy soft and warm, and it only gets softer after washing it!)

Simple as the post title, I am taking this year to getting back to what I know works for being the best version of myself. I owe it to myself (and you do too!) after this incredibly hard year to fill my cup, to keep my goals in eyesight and manifest/work on the life I want to have. So here goes 10 things that you can tweak and start this month! Let's go, let's do it together.

1. Getting back to my 5am wake up. We have been on a tough wave of more wakeup than usual in our house, storms, night terrors, bad dreams, maybe even growth spurts or developmental leaps that have had me waking up to one or the other kiddo. I know this all passes but I have been listening to my body and staying in bed a lot later but when I am before the kiddos, meditate, maybe workout and get ready before them it really allows me to be the best version of myself and not feel like I am behind all day.

2. Lemon Water to start my day. On an empty stomach, to help with getting my system going and help with digestion, but there are other great benefits.

3. Drinking half my body weight in ounces of water every day. I have been slacking on this!!! This not only helps with the waist size but it also gives me more energy and helps my skin a ton. I have always been a big advocate of water, especially for those of you expecting or nursing but this goes for anyone, hydration is KEY.

4. Infrared Sauna Blanket - every single day for a minimum 30 minutes. I got the Higher Dose sauna blanket from hubby for Christmas and this has helped me so much, I swear it helps level out my anxiety, helps with aches of early Rheumatoid Arthritis that I know I have, and whenever I am feeling run down I pop in there and then take a cold shower, GAME CHANGER. I will share a complete review later this month, I just want to use it a couple more weeks.

5. Drink my greens. I fell off the green juice wagon but recently jumped back on, now I am getting comfy with it... lol I love breaking my fast with a green juice and replacing either lunch or dinner with a green smoothie (will share my favorite soon). It just allows me to fit in green, digest food better and also helps with weight loss.

6. Counting my steps. I have an apple watch that I often forget to charge and then forget to put back on but I am going to get back to it because I love counting the steps! We take multiple walks and I am constantly moving up and down the stairs in the house but watching the number hold me accountable on days that I could move a bit more. I recommend counting your steps and getting at least 10k a day, doing some type of movement every day has really helped with my anxiety and dropping that pandemic 15.

7. Getting ready. I want to find the time to do my hair, quickly paint my nails, moisturize my skin and put on a little makeup. Not because I am seeing someone but because I want to do the things that make me happy, that make me feel like "Nati" and so when I glance in the mirror I see me, not a little dark shadow of myself. (I am not saying this has to be your thing but that you do the things you did prior to the pandemic for your appearance, a little plucking of the brow and painting of the nails goes a LONG way). And not apologizing or feeling guilty about wanting to look good!

8. Be more consistent on my growth here on my blog or other places. I have really been working on manifesting what my life will look like this year, and a lot is finding more time to write, I don't know if it's writing for a magazine (my dream!!!) or a book, but it will most definitely be here, so be prepared for more honest raw, pieces that we can all connect with.

9. Meal Plan. I talked about this in my post from the weekend and well this is exactly what I am planning to get back to. Just planning out the meals for the week, prepping as much as I can and taking away one thing off of my to do list that I can control.

10. And finally doing something for myself every day, like a hot epsom salt bath, a yummy afternoon latte while the girls play, a glass of wine and a show, indulge in reading something that is simply for me, even just a really delicious piece of chocolate, that I don't have to share... Whatever it may be it will be something for JUST ME, not my family or my blog or my inbox but ME.

I hope that this inspires you to change/add a couple things in your life that you know can help you create that life you are hoping for, because remember YOU DESERVE IT. Don't doubt it, don't let the noise cloud your judgement, and come along for this ride on making this the best year yet.

xoxo

Natalie

Valentine's Day & How We Approach It With Our Girls + Crafts

I can't find the red dresses from H&M but loved these heart dress//Pom pom sweaters are old.

Valentine's Day. I've always believed that other than my mama's birthday the 14th of February is a holiday created for consumers to spend and retail businesses to make money. But can we look at it differently? Well I sure have. I am a first generation Latina, and daughter of a single mama who worked her butt off to make life as good as possible for us. She made all holidays pretty special with very little money. And after having kids I realized you get an opportunity to bring a little magic for them, just like my mama did for us. I love creating a little special set up for them the morning of a holiday. But the last couple years I have also used the time to really talk to both girls about how we can make this less of a materialistic holiday, how we can take the day as an extra special day for those we love and care about.

A day for friendship, kindness and love. Not just for lovers and sparkly gifts, although the girls both love small gifts/surprises (definitely one of their love languages), it's also a day to spread kindness and happiness. Especially during these dark times.

I am making sure that we do some special for family, friends and neighbors. Like little heart Valentine's that we will drop in our neighbors mail boxes (we did this for Christmas and it was a big hit!), we are printing the cute pics above for some family and mailing out some other cards to some special people in our lives, a sweet something goes a really long way but most of all taking the time to make them, think of others, thinking of ways to surprise someone or how they will feel when they get it really instills something in these little humans.

So bust out the paint, glitter and get creative or you can get some of these kits that we have been enjoying.

Flower Kit.

Heart Threading Kit.

Craft bucket.

Card kit.

Craft set.

I also love this craft set and have gifted to so many kiddos. I also have this post on Valentine's Day crafts from last year but honestly I love just putting out supplies on our dining room table and letting the girls get creative.

I'll be uploading some really cute things that I'll be surprising the girls with, our favorite books and some cute wardrobe for VDay over the weekend! But here are some ideas linked here and follow me on LikeToKnowIt for more!

xoxo

Natalie

Talking To Kids About Hard Things

Well hello there my loves. I was going to just skip over this post since it took me a while to process and get it together butI realized we all need to have this right here. A place to come back to. So here it is, so many hard things happening in our lives, in the country and in the world. And actually these hard things happen all the time not just during a pandemic so lets have some tricks up our sleeves.

I will preface this conversation with this:

EVERY SINGLE FAMILY IS DIFFERENT. You must consider all things best for your little humans. What is best for their personalities and ages etc. So use this post as I intended it, a place to learn from, lean on and support other mamas having to approach all of these difficult conversations.

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Now that I have said this, as a mixed family we don't have the privilege to skip a lot of these conversations. We don't watch the news with the girls, it's just too much negative that we aren't able to preview/control but we do talk about the things going on around the world in age appropriate words/ways.

The first time I realized that we had to start talking more about things going on and things that had happened was in Zoe's first week of school when her Kindergarten teacher talked about September 11th and the twin towers. Goodness gracious I was not ready.

The school is a couple blocks from where the twin towers had come down and in remembrance of the day they talked all about it. About how the community came together, how it effected so many lives. She came home with so many questions about it all and this mama heart was not ready. My favorite phrase when these hard questions come up, has been, "that is a big big questions, with big feelings attached to it, I need you to give me some time to think about how to answer it, is that ok with you?". It validates the importance of their questions but gives me a second to gather my thoughts.

The following week they had the first of many soft lockdowns at the school, in which they prepared the school for an intruder. Can I tell you the feeling in my gut as we rode the elevator, where my (then) 4.5 year old talked about how scary it was to hide in a cubby and hold her hand over her mouth to be as quiet as possible? How she explained that her hands shook for the rest of the day waiting for it to be a "real one instead of pretend". No, I actually cannot explain that feeling because it's something I had never experienced before, a feeling that I cannot use words to explain. But I can tell you that that night I talked to my husband, and a few mom friends on how to approach talking to her about bad things happening and how we prepare for them.

We talked about how to approach past tragedies, and also how to reassure her that I work on keeping her safe and what she should know if I am not there to keep her safe. (And just in case you needed it this is your reminder that you do NOT have to do this alone! Just like any other type of parenting struggle you can pull in help, support and lean on professionals to talk about any of these hard things. We sometimes have this idea, that if we ask for help or support that we aren't good enough but that is far from the case!)

After reading The Danish Way of Parenting I am reassured that In order for our children to be strong, capable, and confident adult we have to treat them like that as children. And now fast forward to last Spring, George Floyd's death and how one child in her classroom told them all the details in which he was killed by a police officer and that black people should be scared of police. How the punch in the gut knocked the air out of me. How I again felt so unprepared and sad, just really sad that she was not scared for her dad.

And then again most recently with the attack on the Capitol, how she felt hearing that a place that represents the USA was attacked and most of all the fear that she explained was still there for her. She had the same question every time, "how can this happen, how if there are people keeping us all safe, do bad people get in, or take over planes, or hurt other people, how can that happen is we are being kept safe". I told her that as a grown up, I often have the same question. And that we would talk more about it.

All that to share that if you have felt speechless, overwhelmed, and mainly heartbroken with the truth behind these hard conversations you are not alone. Here are some links the moms in my network shared and I found helpful. I'll continue to add to this list as I come across more information.

How to Talk to Kids About Hard Subjects

Talking to Kids About Violence

Addressing Grief

Helping Kids Cope With Grief

Talking To Kids About Difficult World events

Don't Protect Kids From Their Emotions

Sesame Street, How to Talk To Kids About Hard Things

Talking To Kids About Tragedies And Other Events

As always, thank you for being here. And please, if you think of anyone that may enjoy this post or my content in general it is always helpful for me if you share and have them subscribe (so they don't miss a post).

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xoxo

Natalie