Hey there! It's been a hot second, hasn't it? 

While I was driving the other day, I took an honest look at what's been going on and where I am now. And I talk about small steps to be intentional with my time and making changes going forward. Come along on the journey with me...

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Audio Transcript:

Hey everyone! Welcome back. It's been a hot second, hasn't it ? Happy 2022! I hope this year has been treating you well, even though we're only a couple months in. Hopefully it's a lot better than the last two were. 

Last fall and into this year has just been so crazy busy for me. And just with all the things - and life and homeschool and husband's job and church activities and volunteering, all the things. And it's all been really good. And I love, I love everything that I do, but it's been full. And some things just had to press pause for a while. 

And then the start of this year, end of last, right around Christmas break, I was really hoping to have time to kind of reevaluate where I am, restart the podcast again, get myself all together and organized. You know, it was the proverbial someday that I was going to get it all together. And then we got COVID. Thankfully I had the good meds that work on hand so I could take them right away. And, I turned around within, I would say 24 hours, but that the fatigue did last, for a while. And even when I felt okay, I didn't feel like myself to be able to, you know, do all the things that needed to be done. So, just very humbling. 

I had a few other crazy experiences with my website and I ended up having to redesign and relaunch that on a different platform. So it's been a lot, but it's been good because it's forced me to kind of take a look at where I am and where I want to go with things,to get some clarity that I've been sort of definitely needing. Take a look over at my site. It's pretty similar to what it was, but a little different too. So have a peak - it's hotmesshomeschooler.com. Please comment and leave me any feedback. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

One of the things I really wanted to work on for this year was just getting consistent. I had kind of fallen off social media for a while just because of necessity with time. And, you know, my focus and intention was elsewhere. And then just, different things going on in the world, sometimes social media just feels not like a nice place to be, and it's not worth the aggravation. And as much as I try to be on there to share the light, and share God's love for you and wellness tips and, you know, make it a really positive place because ultimately I really do like it, sometimes that negativity does creep in and I have to take a step back.

So consistency with social media, consistency with I mean, even like all this stuff that I know I should be doing, like moving my body and walking and drinking water. Suddenly, like, it was really hard for me to stay hydrated. Normally I don't have an issue slugging back at least a hundred ounces a day, and I didn't know what was going on.

So, you know, it's like everything, it's a journey and sometimes you're high and sometimes you're low in the valley. And I just kind of found myself there - different projects around the house that I had been putting off, never having time to get to. It's like all those things.  I needed to come up with something for myself to discipline myself and help me just to get more consistent.

So thankfully I have been just trying to be more aware, aware with my water intake. Making sure I'm getting enough sleep. Like, oh my word, why do I stay up so late? Even though I'm tired, like there's nothing going on. So that's been a struggle too, and just remembering to do those basic things. Take my vitamins, drink my water, get enough sleep, move my body intentionally, not just you know, the movement that goes in the day. And I'm not doing super great. I got a food service like a food delivery where I get  the vegetables, almost like a farm share and it's been amazing. And then I am not cooking. So what is the point of all of it?  But I need to just get consistent. I know the things I need to do, which is probably your struggle too.

And you know, it's hard when you're looking at all these things, right. You know what you want to do. And especially in the new year, you want to kind of just have an overhaul and start fresh and become radically transformed into this new person. And, you know, that's just not realistic because most of the time we take on way too much. And then it's just overwhelming. We can't, we can't keep up with that. You know, it's not sustainable. So I decided one thing to do was to attack, you know, to tackle blah, sorry, was to start just in my mornings because I think how I start the day is so huge to like how the rest of the day goes for me.

And I've talked about so, so many of these things before, but you know, it's like, I need to hear them again too. And maybe you just need that reminder as well. So for me, I decided to focus on making sure I get up in the morning because what I need, I have found, is I need some quiet time. I need to be alone in a quiet house where I can focus my thoughts.

I homeschool. So that's a challenge. And even though my kids are older, they still seem to need me, especially when my attention is diverted somewhere else. And I have found at night, you know, since we do homeschool, we have the flexibility, they're up a little later with me. And so then they tend to stay up late as well, and then they can sleep in cause we have that luxury. So I don't really have alone time in the evening. So I've been trying to be very intentional about starting off the night before prepping the coffee pot. I mean, the coffee doesn't take that long, but even having that couple minutes extra in the morning to have that ready, taking the time to do it the night before, having my water bottles, and my vitamins laid out in one of those weekly things. I don't have to think about that every day. I can just pop open the case and take them and. 

So setting this stuff up the night before, that's number one, number two, start in the morning, right? Like to set the day. So starting the night before helps me start the next day off successfully because when I get up, you know, I can go make my coffee. I can run the dogs out. And then even though I'm sleepy, I can start. I wanted, you know, that quiet time. So I start my prayer routine. I have long realized that I am not a workout in the morning type of person, that is never going to be anything that makes me jump out of bed. I'm still working to figure out when what time of day I can fit it in. I think I would be an afternoon workout person, but usually that's the prime time for me of running around and doing things with the kids. So I'm still trying to work that part into my schedule, but I'm working on it and I'm trying to be aware of those times. I also want to get back to the sauna too. 

Anyhow, but going back to that, what I found is in the morning, yes, I can roll in sleepy to my prayer time. And what I've done is I really tried to make it a sensory experience for myself. I light a candle, a beeswax candle, because I love these wax. I sometimes even use incense in my prayer because it smells good, and the light is warm and beautiful. And it's just peaceful and calming. And I sip my warm coffee and I put on some essential oils to help, you know, center me and ground me.

And then I just spend my time with Jesus and my coffee. So it's lovely. And. You know I’m, getting in, I'm actually doing some reading. I've planned that in toward the end where I read either a chapter of a book or even 10 pages, or whatever I have time for to be able to, you know, start feeling like I've accomplished that.

So by the time, like that hour goes by, I've gotten in my prayer time. I've had some time for myself to read and do something for me. And sometimes I even have time to quick check notifications and stuff before I can have to jump into the day and start getting ready. And I can't even tell you what a blessing that has been for me because I feel like even if the rest of the day goes crappy, like that's already an accomplishment, you know? 

And then another thing that I've been doing is finding, even if, you know, sometimes when you only have 15 or 30 minutes, you think like, oh, I can't even start this task because it's going to take too long but I'm like so many things I find I put off because I don't have time. But then I'm like, you know what, even though I have 15 minutes, I'm going to do what I can. Obviously that doesn't work for huge projects, but it's funny how, you know, like for me watering the plants or, you know, taking out the trash or doing this, unloading the dishwasher, like they don't take as long as you think, but when you start listing everything it becomes this overwhelming to do list. And then you feel like you can't tackle it, but if you just say, okay, I've only five or 10 to 15 minutes, I'm going to just do what I can in that timeframe. Like that really helps too. My husband's been traveling a lot for his job and so a lot of times I'm single momming it. So I have to do all this stuff myself with the help of my children. You know, we have to be a team, but you know, a lot more falls on my shoulders because he's not there to help me physically, so those are the steps that I'm taking. 

I also got a, I've been wanting one of those watch trackers. I don't want it for a smartphone device or anything like that, but I really wanted to track my steps. It also tracks my water intake and my heart rate and my sleep. So, it's perfect because this is exactly what I just needed. Something, you know, a little more techie than a basic pedometer, but I don't need the fancy, like it's not connected to my phone, even though it can I leave it on airplane mode and sync it up once a day so I'm not getting all the Bluetooth and wireless and all that garbage into my body. But it's been really good at keeping me aware of where I am with my steps and my movement. And I've been, you know, encouraged to walk more -  I'm keeping track of my water. So that's really great. Cause again, even if the days that I'm not succeeding with my step goals or my water intake, or even my sleep for that matter, I am much more aware and it's not a guess for me.

So that's also been helpful. I'm typically not an electronic tracker or app tracker type person. I love paper and pen, my calendars, paper and pen. So, you know, but this, like I said, having this with me, I don't always have my calendar or always have a notebook or something to, to track. So this is perfect, cause it's right on my wrist and I can do it all from there. And then, like I said, I sync it up. So I have the record. 

I'm just really trying to take these small steps to be intentional. Again, I'm not perfect. I mean, most days I'm screwing it up and I'm not even going to talk about the nutrition piece right now. I'm just doing my best to eat more vegetables. But that is still a work in progress, especially like I said, as I single mom and we're doing all the things, a lot of times we're running. I'm with my kids a lot, but it's just making time for it all to happen. 

So I'm still on the journey. I'm still working through this. I will keep you posted if I find anything amazing, but I am loving the food delivery. I need to actually make things with the ingredients that I'm getting, and the watch, and the quiet time. And so it's been really great for me to help get me out of that like weird January funk and help me kind of take back control of my life.

I have a new program I'm going to be doing actually during Lent, it's called Reformed Online and it's a wellness program, faith-based and that Christ is at the center of it all. And it's just to help you be fully alive in your wellness. And so, oh my gosh! Like they couldn't have had a better thing for me! I'm so excited to participate in this. So. Obviously I’ll be keeping y'all posted on how that's going. I have no idea what to even expect, but it's very exciting. So I just am on this journey too, I don't know. What are you struggling with? What do you find to be helpful? What tools and tricks have worked for you?

I'd love to know. Please comment below. 

You can head over to hotmesshomeschooler.com and leave me a note. Follow me on the socials - on Instagram, Facebook. I'd love to hear what things are working for you in your life.