Tag: motivation

The Last 90 Days

Categories life's essentials, motherhood, motivation, Uncategorized1 Comment on The Last 90 Days

Life lately can only be described as a transition period.  Transition to Autumn, transitioning to a new pre-school year, transitioning to life without naps for my oldest, and transitioning my mind set to want MORE! More joy, more intention, more patience, more love, and a more healthful way of living. Usually the beginning of a year is what ignites a motivation for change, but for the past two years I’ve looked to Rachel Hollis instead of the calendar! If you don’t know @msrachelhollis, you’ve gotta look her up! A lifestyle website, New York Times Bestselling book, and never ending motivation via the RISE and RISE Together Podcasts. Not to mention live events that help you reach for personal growth. I’ve followed her for a couple of years and I can just feel that now is the time I follow through to do the work.

|Photos from the RISE Conference in LA, April 2018|

The Last 90 Days is an idea that instead of letting yourself steadily decline and slip up in the way you’re living for the last few months of the year (cough. I see you holiday treats. cough.), you use it to kickstart the “new year mentality”.

What if you committed to living your last 90 days of this year as hard as you are committing to live the first 30 days of the new year? What if, instead of a downhill slide into 2019, you are ramping up?!” – Rachel Hollis

Rachel has created somewhat of a challenge you can sign up to be apart of to receive motivating emails and be apart of a community to keep you accountable. She challenges you to participate in the “Five to Thrive”.

  1. Get up one hour earlier (or carve out any hour that works in your day) and use that time for yourself
  2. Workout for at least 30 minutes each day
  3. Drink half of your body weight in ounces of water each day
  4. Give up one category of food you KNOW you shouldn’t be consuming
  5. Write down 10 things each day that you’re grateful for

Some things that I am looking forward to? Having an hour to myself to drink coffee, intentionally plan my day, and work on my blog. Enjoying exercise again. I used to love the feeling of a good workout. Getting back into it takes some push, but I know I’ll start to live for those endorphins again! Living my day looking for gratitude! If I know at the end of the day I’m going to write down what I’ve been grateful for, I’ll be looking for positivity throughout my day!

What doesn’t sound so exciting? Giving up a category of food. This. This is for some reason, the most difficult for me to have self control over. But just like Rachel so often says, once I decide on what I’m giving up – I have to keep that promise to myself! I am worth it. You are worth it. WE are worth it!

What is something you’ve thought about that you’re going to do at the New Year? What if you started now?! Think of what you can accomplish in 3 months! Join the challenge, it  starts in October. Follow along with me so we can support one another!

Here’s to the #last90days

Whitney

Life’s Essentials: Keeping a Routine

Categories house to home, motherhood, Uncategorized7 Comments on Life’s Essentials: Keeping a Routine

As a SAHM, its up to me to structure my day. As much as I love a list and filling my calender, I have to work really hard to not get in a rut. I find that I can let hours pass in the morning playing with the girls, attempting to do laundry or cleaning up the kitchen from the night before. By the time I’ve gotten us together enough to get out of the house, its time for lunch and naps! (for reals my life revolves around nap schedules right now!)

Now that our fall schedule is back in place, I’m trying to get myself into a routine to help our mornings run smoother and to help me feel successful at the end of the day! Whether you’re a CEO of a household or a CEO of a company – everyone wants to feel satisfied with their day, right?  Although the girls are just toddlers, we do have at least one out of the house class or activity everyday so that really helps motivate me to stick with some ground rules! These are some things that I know help our family be more calm and ready for the day and just help keep us all happy and organized!

Disclaimer: this is truly like one big pep talk to myself. By no means do I have it all figured out and this is just a way for me to organize my ideas for myself and feel accountable!

Preparation | “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin hit the nail on the head with that one. It is so simple, but it is the hardest thing for me to do. Procrastination has been the name of my game for years! Why would I pack our drinks/snacks/lunches the night before when I can do it in the morning when I’m rushing around with two kids at my feet?! Because. I want to feel ready for the day, and not frazzled first thing in the morning.

One load a day | Laundry is a task that I really don’t mind doing, but it can definitely turn into a lofty chore if it let it! Our hamper, the girls’ hampers, sheets, towels…I know everyone has to wash their clothes but why does it feel like we have enough laundry to cover the entire neighborhood for the week?! I’ve found that spending an entire day in the laundry room isn’t fun for me or the kids. So putting in a load in the morning that I can switch over at some point in the day and be done with by nap time is an easy way to eliminate the dread of tackling Mt. Everest once or twice a week!

Set an alarm |  Sleep is a hot commodity around here.  With a 2.5 and a 1 year old in the house, I feel like I’ve been in a constant state of “mombie” for the past few years. We have finally gotten into a good bedtime routine with the girls so that we get an hour or two to ourselves before we go to bed, but I’m still waking up once or twice at night with the little sis.  Even so, having 30-60 minutes to myself before the crazies wake up is a great way to start the day! Hot coffee, I can get ready if I want, empty the dishwasher in peace, or just relax on my phone or computer to blog. Do I still snooze?  Yes. But ultimately I try to remember how good I feel once I’ve had some time to myself first thing.

Keep a clean sink | Do you know how long it takes to put one coffee cup, one plate, and a couple of utensils in the dishwasher? Like 45 seconds. Do you know how long it takes to put an entire day’s worth of dishes in the dishwasher plus clean up from dinner?! It feels like an hour! Throughout the day I find it really easy to just set things in the sink and move on to the next thing. But you know what the bummer is? My mom isn’t coming behind me to wash them all! I am the mom…what?! At the end of the day after dinner, its better for all of us and our bedtime routine if dinner clean up is just that and not from the entire day!

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It has a place | We have a few areas of the house that can easily be considered a drop zone. Did I grab the mail? Set it by the phone. Did I just come in from running errands? Drop everything on the island. Do I have clean laundry? Leave it on the laundry room counter. This may be my worst habit. The kitchen can tend to become the ‘catch all’ area and soon feels like a cluttered disaster that seems like I can’t keep clean. By having a place for everything, it eliminates the clutter. By taking just a few minutes to put things away in their proper place I don’t feel like I have to overhaul the entire house to get it clean. I was watching InstaStories and Kate from The Small Things Blog (k8_smallthings) mentioned that she keeps her house within 10 minutes of clean. So at any point – for example if some company were to say they’re coming – you could get your house picked up within 10 minutes. Such a good rule.

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(In a dream world my kitchen would look like this all the time. It was short lived!)

These are some things I strive for but still have to work on each day.  When I take the time to prepare for my day I feel like the days run smoother and I enjoy my time with the girls more. Do you have any go-to tips for feeling prepped and ready for your day? I’d love to know!

xoxo

Whitney

Head over to Confessions of Parenting to find all sorts of home and family posts that linked up for the first #WanderingWednesday!

Wandering Wednesday

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Just Push Publish

Categories motherhood, UncategorizedLeave a Comment on Just Push Publish

I am a planner and can tend to be a perfectionist. I’ve found that the biggest thing that comes from this combo is procrastination! Between the list making, drafting, preparing, and making sure everything is going to be just right, there’s never time to get anything accomplished. 


As a mom, I’ve found perfection does not exist. I have to ignore the fact that my kitchen isn’t hardly ever clean, the laundry hampers are never empty, the dinner isn’t always ready on time (or made at all…thank goodness for takeout!), and we aren’t always going to look put together. I’ve also learned as a mom that life passes anyway. The days go on whether the house is cleaned or not. The girls grow one day older each night whether they get a bath or not. So I must do the things. Have a play date – even when it looks like a school bus of toddlers already destroyed your house, meet with a friend – even when you should be doing laundry instead, let them take the photo – even if you didn’t do your hair that day, and go after your goals – even when you feel like you need more time to prepare. I have realized I need to just jump in, not dip my toes and chicken out. Should I make a plan – yes. But should I use my fear of something not being perfect hold me back from making progress – definitely no! Baby steps are still steps forward. And that’s what I’m taking! 


So here’s to opening up, connecting with others, and just pushing publish. Our lives aren’t perfect, but it’s the perfect life for us! 

Xoxo

Whitney