We seek pressure because we seek change.

Look, if working out and losing weight were easy things everyone who talks about doing it would be doing it. It’s just that simple.

But it’s not easy, it takes hard work, dedication and consistency. Not to mention a whole fucking LOT of patience. Like next level patience. We’re the microwave generation after all so we definitely want change to happen in 30 seconds or less. Sorry girl, if you’re doing this the right and sustainable way, that’s not happening. The transformation will come but it’s not coming as quickly as you want.

Not to be a buzzkill but it’s pressure over time that’s going to get you the change you seek. Coal doesn’t become a diamond without some pressure right?

We take the intuitive steps to get there which most likely means kicking those workouts up a notch.

After all you haven’t seen change doing what you’re doing. I just call it like I see it, if you were happy with how things were going and how they were progressing, you wouldn’t be feeling like you needed to kick things up a notch.

So pressure it is. 

Because you know intuitively that in order to get the change you’ve been desiring, the transformation you’ve been seeking, pressure is what you’re going to need to make it happen.

Seek out the pressure, do the harder thing, push yourself more and the change will come. I know it.

She Wants My Car

Sometimes the things that come out of my kiddo’s mouth astound me. There’s really no other way to put it. I don’t know how she comes up with this stuff. It makes me wonder who at school is talking like that or if she heard it on TV or even from me without me realizing it (because let’s be honest we’re all guilty of those moments).

Nonetheless, she surprises me. It’s not always crazy stuff either, sometimes it’s super sweet things like the big hugs and thank yous I get for washing her sheets and blankies, or the prayers she says at the end of her day. It’s such an insightful experience for me because I get to see how much she really is taking in from the world around her.

Apparently part of what she’s taking in right now is that she is a little kid who will one day become a big kid and becoming a big kid means she gets to drive my car. Or so I’ve been told. By her. Multiple times.

So I guess I need to realize that she won’t be my little one for forever, even though I should already realize that because she’s almost as tall as me and she’s only 4. And as she grows it does mean that she’ll be able to gain more independence and be able to have more responsibility, blah blah, adulting isn’t fun ALL the time (but she doesn’t know that yet).

At least now every time we’re in MY car and she tells me how much she loves Mommy’s car and how one day she’ll be driving Mommy’s car instead of Mommy (and in Mommy’s mind, I have a super nice Range to ensure that I still have a car when she takes mine), we also get to talk about how driving a car is a HUGE privilege. It’s not something that just happens, well at least not for me, and if it’s something she wants then she has to have responsibilities like a job.

Because cars cost money, lots of money, and there’s no way to pay for a car without a job, well I guess there are tons of ways to pay for a car without a job, but she doesn’t need to know that because that will NOT be the case for her.

The Power of Self Care

I know I’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately. I’m very well aware of that and I know I’m not alone in that sentiment. That’s how life goes though sometimes right? There’s literally not enough hours in the day to get all the things done on my To Do List. So I just keep plugging away, prioritizing what absolutely has to get done every day.

I know that when things get this busy, my kiddo definitely takes notice because she hears me saying more often than not that I am going to work while she plays. While I always have time to spend with my best little one, I know we're all adjusting to the new pace of these days.

But I didn't realize just how much things had changed until today. I got Gracie from school and we were off on our normal post-school routine, full of snacks and meltdowns (because sometimes that's how life goes), when Grace told me that she was my doctor and I needed to lay down.

So I'm thinking 'ok we're playing Doctor' but not for Grace. She proceeded to tell me that I was working too much and I needed to relax, but not to worry because she would take care of me. Since I'm totally ok with laying down in my super comfy bed, in the middle of the day nonetheless, I laid down and Grace took every blankie she owned and laid it on me. Then she told me to close my eyes and relax so I would feel better. 

You would think this was relaxing and maybe in an ideal world it would have been. But when the toddler is crawling all over you, stepping on your hair and your limbs to organize her blankies, it's maybe not so relaxing for some.

But I relished that moment. Not just because I got to close my eyes for 5 minutes but because my kiddo showed me just how observant she was in our lives as well as how compassionate she's becoming. She also reminded me that even when I'm on a roll of productivity, I still need to remember the power of taking care of myself because when I feel rejuvenated, I can give my best to everyone and everything around me.

Remember It's a Season

Parenting is NO joke. Even if you think you're ready for it, there's no way to truly prepare yourself for being a parent and really no way to accurately describe it to someone who isn't a parent. One thing can be said for sure though: the highs are high and the lows can be low and sometimes the highs and lows can occur in the same day (or maybe even the same hour).

Recently we've been having those tough days. Those days where you're checking the clock to see how much closer it is to bedtime because everyone, including me, needed sleep. Those are the days where I take more deep breaths and close my eyes, and pray for patience constantly. 

On this day nothing in particular went wrong, but my kiddo was just having a tough day so for her, nothing was going right. We had a tough day. This was one of those days where instead of working out during naptime, I chose to take a quiet moment to myself, read my devotional and meditate. It was exactly what I needed.

The afternoon was not any better, and that was no surprise so when bedtime finally came, I was SPENT. All I could do was hug my kiddo because that's what she needed and as I was hugging her, I began to ask her what made her so upset ALL DAY LONG. I know she's not old enough yet to really articulate those kinds of emotions, but I needed to say it for me.

So here I am telling my little girl that I wish she could tell me what was bothering her because I wanted to help her feel better since she was obviously upset and I said "Because Baby Girl you really pushed every single one of Mommy's buttons today".

I wasn't expecting a response. At all really, I was just expecting her to stay quiet but no, not my kiddo. She replied to me by saying "Yea I did Mama."

Just like that I remembered that life is not so serious and sometimes it's ok to have bad days and laugh about them when it's all over.

Grace and the Burpee

I was just wiped. We all have those days. Where the work seems unending, you feel like you’re moving at a million miles a minute and before you know it, the day is over. This was one of those days. I don’t even remember all that I accomplished, but I remember feeling like as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, I hit the ground running.

Of course these are the days when Grace decides to not nap, or have a tough day because things aren’t going the way she thinks they should be going, and it just culminates into a rough afternoon. I know you feel that sometimes mamas. Like everything is piling up, there’s no break, and you’re literally counting down the minutes until bedtime because holy moly, you’re just EXHAUSTED. I felt like I had blurry tunnel vision.

Finally the day was winding down. For us, that means a little downtime at the end of the day for Grace where she can watch a TV show before she gets ready for bed. Usually it’s Mickey. That’s the golden ticket right now. I could sing you the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song along with hand gestures and dancing, but alas, I digress…

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse also means snuggle time. Honestly it’s one of my favorite parts of my day. Because I don’t have a kid who normally snuggles, she’s just too busy playing. I get it, that’s the season we’re in right now. Her business is playing, that’s how she’s figuring out her life.

So I take advantage of snuggle time when we watch Mickey. We get a blankie, she normally has a puppy on her lap and we talk about Mickey as we watch it. Side note, I don’t want this to change as she gets older, I just want it to be us commenting on a more adult television show.

Here I am getting the blankie of her choosing, making sure we’re ready to snuggle, I call Grace over, she walks to the couch and says “Hold on Mommy, I have to workout”. She then proceeds to do a SINGLE BURPEE and then sits down. I mean she went for it. Full burpee with the push up from her toes and then just sat down. Like ok workout done, I’m ready for my Mickey. Frankly I was so astonished and impressed by her form, I asked “Grace can you do that again so Mommy can take a video?” and in true Gracie fashion she tells me “No Mommy, my workout is done.”

I can’t even be mad about it. She listened to her body, did what her body needed and now is getting some well deserved snuggle time before ending her day. 

Grace post burpee looked way more composed than I ever could post burpee.