Sunday Funday. In the not so far off past, I would dread The work week so badly that I wouldn’t even enjoy my Sundays. All of Sunday from the minute in wake up to the minutes I’d toss and turn trying to get in a decent night’s sleep before the alarm rang, I would be dreading what was the inevitable. Why? Honestly, ritual. Bad habits. Obsessive, negative thinking. Guess what? The weekend seems longer when you actually don’t dread or think about the day job. Monday will still be Monday whether you spend the day before actually savoring the Sunday, or wasting away the hours of thinking about Monday. Hope you all aren’t this bad, but for those of you who are, it’s definitely something I urge you to consider.
Costco $50 Cash Card Giveaway!
Good morning everyone! Today I am hosting a giveaway for a $50 Costco Cash Card!
I feel honored to have been a part of this Huggies campaign and really happy to have sampled such a great product. The Huggies® Snug & Dry Plus Diapers were probably the most secure and absorbent diapers I’ve ever tried on my son (and believe me, I’ve tried many different brands!) and it’s such a great deal to get these at $6 OFF right now at Costco! The Huggies Natural Care® Plus Wipes were also a wonderful product, especially since my son has sensitive skin. I’m very selective with the wipes I use. After all, they are used on the most sensitive areas! These did not disappoint. Right now, you can get them at Costco for $5 OFF.
On to the giveaway!
You do not need to buy Huggies diapers or wipes to be a part of this contest (although I highly recommend it if you have a little one!). Here’s what you need to do:
1. Leave a comment below saying what you buy at Costco.
2. Leave a comment on my Huggies post and then comment on this post “I commented on the Huggies post” below!
3. To receive more chances of winning, reblog any of my Huggies posts. Here is the first POST. Here is the second POST. Comment below with the reblogged link so I know you did it.
4. Receive more chances of winning by retweeting any of my @Huggies tweets. If you haven’t followed me on twitter, I’m @beenznrice, so get ready to RT me today!
The winner will be chosen at random. Good luck everyone!
Morning Solitude
This morning I was able to meditate and drink some matcha green tea. Surrounded by simple beauty and the leftovers of my kids playing back here during the summer, I was compelled to take pictures. Glad I did! I followed this by doing some yoga out here, as the sun was getting hot. Very intense. It’s like I could feel the Vitamin D and energy entering my body. Nice way to start the day!
Visual and Instant Online Food Diary
I’ve tried food diaries in the past, but it’s too easy to sneak a few treats here and there, as well as forget to write it down after you eat it. Plus, you can twist the truth about portions and exact measurements. By taking pictures of everything that I consume throughout the day, there’s no lying! Trying out a new concept. I bet it will keep me from eating randomness throughout the day! Follow me at http://instagram.com/insta.food.diary or @insta.food.diary
Happy Monday everyone!
Save $6 on Diapers and $5 on Baby Wipes with this Exclusive Offer Only at Costco!
Some of you may have read my previous post about Huggies® Snug & Dry Plus Diapers and Huggies Natural Care® Plus Wipes and what a great product it is. My son is still happy, clean and dry in his diapers! I wanat to share some great savings EXCLUSIVELY at your local Costco Warehouse. Get $6 off Huggies® Snug & Dry Plus Diapers and $5 off Huggies Natural Care® Plus Wipes!
To get this exclusive price, visit the Costco website HERE.
For more information, go to http://www.huggies.com/costco
Savings valid 8/7-31
Here’s my Rocky playing care free with his Huggies® Snug & Dry Plus Diapers! He’s an active boy and these diapers provide complete protection with their trusted Leak Lock® system. They’re extremely comfortable and cloth like, so he’s happy all day long! Huggies Natural Care® Wipes are a dream come true, especially for the bigger messes. They’re thicker than standard baby wipes and don’t have that questionable chemical odor that other wipes have. So far both my toddler and myself have been very happy with both diapers and wipes from Huggies®!
Toxic Kiddie Pools
It’s becoming harder and harder to be safe these days. So many things are made with toxic materials, ESPECIALLY things made for children. Here’s a great blog about the dangers of those little kiddie pools everyone buys when it gets hot. I admit, I almost bought one yesterday. I need to find one that is PVC and BPA free! Let me know if you guys know where I can get one for inexpensive!
“From BPA to phthalates, there’s no end to the unsettling headlines featuring toxic plastics these days. So it’s no surprise that as temperatures rise and summer dawns, parents have questions about the safety of the plastics used to make kiddie pools.” Read more at healthychild.org
The Importance of Beauty
I’ve forgotten about how truly important beauty is and what it means for my life. Of course, there are more urgent matters throughout the day, everyday. As a mom, making sure my kids are fed, that they are taken care of, that they are safe-these things are more important than the kinds of beauty I’ve put on the back burner for a while.
Having found myself around vain and superficial people at times, I’ve completely turned my back on anything related to it. I thought by doing so, I was doing the right thing and teaching my kids to not be those things. While I’ve been successful at making sure they are not vain, shallow, and spoiled humans, I may have taken it a bit too far. I’ve completely counted out the importance of beauty. What is life if you forget to add as much beauty to it as you can? There are many different kinds of beauty, that are more than skin deep, even the seemingly skin deep kind.
Working hard to create a food garden, there’s a big difference when it looks unkept and when it looks cleaned up. It looks much more whimsical back there when it’s cleaned up-it looks like something Tinkerbell would be proud of! I don’t do it to impress anyone, that’s missing the point. I’m sitting in my backyard garden, under my avocado tree and feeling the zen of BEAUTY. I created it, I spent time and energy laboring over it, not to just be functional, but to be beautiful.
Working from home can truly make personal beauty take a turn for the worst. One an average day, I don’t see any of my clients. I often don’t leave the house. I’m working from my computer and from my phone. No need to get out of my pajamas because I don’t get out of the car to drop off my older son to school. I’m barefoot 95% of my day. And makeup? On an average day, I don’t wear any. This may sound great, and for the most part, it can be. But on the flip side, to truly start not caring about personal beauty, or style, or anything but getting work done…that’s not what I meant to do. Beauty and personal style are still a part of who I am, and I have been neglecting it.
Instead of natural and relaxed, I’ve become sloppy and unkept. Along with this comes low self image issues and depression. It’s a vicious cycle if not caught early on. After that, diet and exercise become secondary. It’s a dangerous and miserable place to be. All this because I forgot the importance of beauty.
My home environment is my work environment and vice versa. This can be maddening. While I admit, I’m a naturally messy person, I realize that as I get older, I NEED a certain level of order and cleanliness in my environment to focus and do my best. I had not seen the beauty of my home as important as it needs to be. Other things are always so urgent. But when the environment is negatively affecting my work, my mental state, my sense of well being, and my family, something needs to change.
I steam cleaned most of the carpets the other day and stayed up late to clean the kitchen. You know what? It felt so nice to wake up the next morning in a clean, beautiful environment. I felt renewed!
So, from now on, among all the urgent and important things to be mindful of, I must also remember, the true importance of BEAUTY.
Throwback Thursday
Spending this #throwbackthursday #tbt looking at a photo album from my past that, seriously, seems like it was only a year or two ago, but it’s been over a decade! I stopped on one photo of myself and my now husband, Carlos, before we were married and before having my two boys. Alyssa was always in the picture. 🙂 It’s not the typical romantic couple “kissy” picture. He managed to plant a cartoon style SMOOCH on me before I had a chance to realize this was going to happen. I am a mixture of being thoroughly amused and being grossed out. But it’s very obvious that the couple in the picture is very much in love, happy and super silly (and maybe slightly obnoxious). As I look at this picture, I’m reminded of who I used to be. Don’t get me wrong, I have made some strides and grown in a lot of ways as I’ve grown up, but I’ve lost some of THIS along the way. It can really suck a lot of fun out of life when you grow up and start having a laundry list of responsibilities. It’s stressful when you have other people to worry about other than yourself and the person you’re in love with. I love my kids so much, but my anxious personality takes that love and turns it into worry and paranoia half the time. That’s something else I need to work on-a blog post for another time, perhaps. But, whatever happens in life, no matter how stressful, I cannot allow myself to change so much that I lose THIS. The words from Johnny to Ponyboy come to mind when I see my past self. “Stay Gold.” I’m going to try to.
Carlos and I circa 2002
Priorities, priorities, priorities!
Being a work at home mom, I tend to overwork myself, even when I know it’s unhealthy for myself. Many moms I know tend to put themselves at the bottom of the family totem pole, and I am guilty of that. VERY GUILTY. It’s only when mom gets sick or has a nervous breakdown does she truly realize that she is the nucleus of the family. Without her, things just don’t run as they should. But when she’s overworked, stressed, and has a terrible sense of self, how well can she run that family even when she’s getting by? Not very well. This is the lesson I learned this month.
My son got a cough, then my husband, then me. It was bad-it was more than a cough or a cold. This one led to some respiratory issues and it lasted about 3 weeks before showing any signs of going away. Previous to me getting the bug, I’d been overworking myself with my job, my freelance jobs, guilting myself over housework, guilting myself for not doing my best as a mom, feeling depressed and then feeling guilty about that, trying to fit in laundry and dishes, guilting myself for being unhealthy, dealing with the stress of a difficult teenage girl, a very difficult two year old going through the terrible twos, and an otherwise easy middle son who was feeling ignored and slipping at school. My job and getting more freelance work was something I felt was for myself, and necessary, as working from home hasn’t matched up my old income from working for a corporation yet. But, it was starting to become an escape, and not a healthy one. Finally my mind and body had had enough of my crap, and my immune system shut down. I got that virus and ended up having to go to Urgent Care. I couldn’t breathe or sleep for 3 nights. Truth be told though, I hadn’t been able to sleep right in a long time, and not just because of a nursing child. My mind was riddled with stress of all kinds. The pain in my chest started more mental and emotional than physical, but it was manifesting itself into the physical and grown into pain in my digestive area and then acid reflux. So when I got sick, I realized what I had done to myself.
So shifting my priorities now. Taking care of my health and making sure I eat right again. Being active again-starting a little slow because of the weight gain that all the cortisol from the stress had caused. Reconnecting with the kids-and they in turn have reciprocated my efforts and have been helping me with the housework more, without me having to nag half as much. I even reconnected with my daughter after having been disconnected for about 6 years now (that was a BIG one). Rocky even sleeps through the night! He even had his first 2 night sleepover at the grandparents’ house which was a miracle! I’m not going to say all my problems are solved but they never will all be solved will they? It’s all in how I handle it-and I know if I want to avoid another WORSE physical breakdown, I need to keep my chin up and remind myself why I’m staying at home in the first place. I could get more work done easier in an office, but the reason I decided to stay home and work from here is to be here for my family. And I have to remember that to be truly HERE for my family, I need to take care of myself, too.
I will post where you can pick one up as soon as I find out!
Naomivaldivia.com 