momma – Hot Mess Mom

{26} Life Lessons from Year {26}

This past year, or, half of a year has been such a year of learning. I have learned so much about myself, and what I want out of life. These are my favorite lessons from half of my 26th year.

1. Confidence has nothing to do with your body or your love of it. Confidence is knowing who you are, where you came from, where you are going, and what you have to offer the world…and then LOVING that.

2. You really can’t make everyone happy, all the time. In fact, the only person’s happiness you are responsible for is yours.

3. Be very careful how you are speaking to yourself. Those thoughts become your identity.

4. The less you expect of people, and of life, the happier you are.

5. Confident and happy people don’t tear other people down. They don’t need to.

6. Your thoughts are a very powerful thing. They determine your path in life. You have to make sure they are aligned with were you want to go in life.

7. Never…never never ever let a toddler run around without a diaper on…ever.

8. Prayer, coffee, exercise, and sleep are the best cures for anything.

9. It’s better to pound your feelings into the pavement, during a run, than it is to eat your feelings. You future self will thank you…so will your hips.

10.”You should never miss a good opportunity to shut up” I’m still working on that one! ha!

11. The arms of a child, wrapped around your neck, will make everything right in the world.

12. If you have children, your house will never really be clean.

13. Marriage after a baby is hard. Marriage after a baby is very important. The baby will grow up and have their own life. Your life is WITH your SPOUSE. Make sure you are contributing to it daily

14. “If you allow people to make more withdrawals than deposits in your life, you will be out of balance and in the negative. Know when to close the account” Ah so true!

15. “Comparison is the thief of joy”…it really is.

16. “Think about your blessings more than you think about your burdens” your outlook on life will be so much brighter!

17. If your life doesn’t end up the way you want it to, the only person to blame is yourself.

18. Bad things happen in life because Satan exists. Bad things don’t come from God. We need to stop blaming God when bad things happen.

19. Surround yourself with people who make you happy. Surround yourself with people who genuinely love you. They will only lift you higher.

20. Days that begin with runs are the BEST days!

21. You can’t control what people say about you, you CAN control how you react.

22. Being “right” is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

23. Slow and steady is the best way to begin a race. For reals.

24. You are so much stronger than you think.

25. Being a mom is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world. Hats off to all the single mommas out there…you rock! …and single dad’s too!

26. Be HAPPY. Be POSITIVE. GO for your dreams! Invest in yourself. Invest in others. LOVE LIFE!

– Court

Eating organic part 2

We are slowly switching everything to organic. EVERYTHING! I have become obsessive about it now. It is super addicting. I am finding myself reading EVERY SINGLE LABEL. Which turns a quick grocery trip to a 2 hour grocery trip. Who am I kidding? Grocery trips are never short but now, they are super long. I switched from Trader Joe’s to Sprout’s. It seems to have a bigger selection. Although, I do still LOVE Trader Joe’s! Sprout’s has organic and non-organic. Even their non-organic is less processed. I am in love with that store. Hubs and I must have spent a majority of our grocery trip browsing through their bulk bins of nuts and dried fruits. I wanted EVERYTHING. Sprout’s is a bit more expensive. We figured it’s about $30 more than our groceries would have been at Wal-Mart. We still had to stop at Wal-Mart for diapers, toothpaste, and drugs. I haven’t switched our toiletries or diapers to organic. I tried the organic diapers and they sucked and were WAY more expensive. He will survive with Pampers. I know what you organic freaks are thinking…I can make my toothpaste, deodorant…etc. I don’t have enough time in the day to do that. Even if I did,…eh, my time is worth more than that. That,…or I’m too lazy. But GO YOU! Way to make your own stuff 🙂 Seriously, that’s really cool.

I am switching things slowly. I am finishing everything that we have that is processed, and then when we need more, I am buying the new stuff organic. For instance, we were out of butter and olive oil yesterday so I bought new. We are still using processed flour, condiments, and a lot of other things. I am too cheap to throw everything out and buy everything organic. So, we are finishing everything we have and then buying organic when we need it. That keeps hubs from having a heart attack at the store :).

My parents came up last weekend and we introduced them to our new way of life. I also made them watch Food Inc (on Netflix! it is an eye-opening documentary on the food industry) I’m sure they had a blast. They did love our new grocery store! And…they were in LOVE with our organic tacos. OHMYGOSH! Did I mention how unbelievably amazing those tacos were?! AMAZING! Organic vs. Non-organic is like eating something when you have a cold versus eating that same food without a cold. The flavors are just so much more pronounced and alive!

Along with eating organic, I am having smoothies for breakfast and lunch. They have made such an improvement in the way I feel and my mood. I saw the idea of freezing fruit ahead of time for smoothies on Pinterest. This is an amazing idea! It saves time in the mornings (which is great with an impatient baby!) and it keeps your fruit from going bad. Last week, we bought five boxes of strawberries for $5.00. They were going bad in the refrigerator so I made little zip lock baggies of fruit/veggies for my smoothies and threw them in the freezer!

A few have asked about my smoothie recipe. I don’t really have an exact recipe. I found a basic guide of making smoothies on…yep! you guessed it! Pinterest. I use coconut water, sometimes I add Greek yogurt, flax-seed (I’m going to try chia seeds next week), 1 banana (it masks the veggies), two different fruits (whatever I am feeling that day), kale, spinach, broccoli, and sometimes cauliflower. I usually use our bullet but sometimes I mix a big one up in our blender and save half for lunch.

On top of the clean eating I have started Insanity…again. Hopefully, this time I will stick to it. Insanity + Running + Eating clean will surely = BEACH BODY!! The problem with our grocery store is that it has some amazing “healthy” junk we can’t say no to. I shared a blueberry muffin with my little man this morning..meaning I ate most of it. So, I’m going to need to go work those 300 calories off!

– Court

My journey to eating organic

You would think that I am a healthy eater. You would think that because I’m a runner. But the truth is I am not a healthy eater. I love all junk food. I started running because my metabolism has slowed down. I soon realized that if I wanted to continue to eat the same way I would have to exercise…a lot. So you could say that I ran so that I could eat. When really, you should eat so you can run (pun intended).

Since I started running I would count calories almost religiously. I would know exactly how much I had eaten and how much I would have to run to compensate. It worked. I could continue to eat crap and run without gaining any weight. But I constantly felt fatigued and just heavy. Then I had my baby boy. My whole world was turned upside down. I had to eat enough so that he would be getting what he needed. I had also taken a hiatus from running while I was pregnant because I had pregnancy induced hypertension. I have no idea if it was related to the crap I was eating but I am going to go ahead and assume so. After my little man was born, I tried returning to running but it wasn’t the same. I felt exhausted and I could barely get out a couple of miles. I know that lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and not taking care of myself led me to feeling that way. I had been looking at losing weight and food the wrong way. Calories…forget them. It’s not calories that are so important. What’s important is the food you are eating. The more nutrients you give your body…the better it runs, the less you get sick, the better you feel.

On top of that I am a super helicopter momma. I am a total freak about what my little man eats. So, he’s only getting organic /non-processed food. I started wondering one day why I fed him organic and I continued to eat crap. Then it dawned on me…he will learn to eat what his parents eat. We will teach him to eat junk. I knew then that I had to change. I have also wondered if there might be some correlation between the influx of cancer and processed food? I would LOVE to do that study. So…I had it in my mind that I needed to change the only problem would be….THE HUSBAND.

He and I are two peas in a pod. We love the same things. Wings, burgers, fries, pizza, Chinese, cookies, cake, ice-cream…and SODA ahh, how I LOVE soda. He was not going to be easy to get on board. I started by changing small things without telling him. I started, by just trying to make simple meals with simple ingredients. I read every label on every product I bought. If I couldn’t pronounce it…or better yet, if I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t buy it. I started avoiding anything that comes in a box, can, or is frozen. I stuck to veggies, fruit, meat, bread…the basic food groups….except Pepsi. I am still working on breaking my addiction to Pepsi.

That worked for awhile until I started finding that even “good food” is covered in pesticides and injected with hormones and antibiotics YUCK. Food is not created equal. There is a difference between organic and non-organic. It’s a huge difference. It means the difference between eating foods laden with chemicals vs. food free and clear of chemicals. There is also another difference…THE PRICE TAG!! Holy smokes batman! And…everything is processed. I didn’t know that “organic sugar” even existed! Oh but it does. It exists with a price tag of $4.99 vs. $2.00 processed sugar. There’s a difference in taste too. Organic sugar is SO MUCH BETTER!

I quickly learned that you don’t have to buy organic everything. There is something called “the dirty dozen” which are the fruits/veggies that contain the highest amount of pesticides. They are fruits like strawberries and grapes. Those are things that you need to buy organic. All the other fruits and veggies you can save money by not buying organic.

Since starting on this journey I can tell a HUGE difference in the way I feel. Try going organic…you won’t go back.

– Court

Motherhood is not for {you}

If you like to collect accomplishments, love checking off a neat to-do list, and live for words of affirmation motherhood may not be for you. There is no end of the year evaluation. There is no boss critiquing you and then praising you for all the things you do well. There are no goals waiting to be demolished. There is no clock- in time and sadly, no clock-out time. There are very few breaks, if any. There is no paid vacation time. HR does not exist and you are left to handle any problems you might have with your coworker (aka your child) to yourself. There is no continuing education that needs to be completed. No conferences or seminars. There are no sick days. There is no one to call when you need a “mental health day”. If you need and thrive on these things then motherhood may not be for you.

These are all things that I need. I am THAT personality. I collect accomplishments, demolish goals, I live for words of affirmation. I love challenges and I LOVE checking off a to do list. I love all of those things because they reinforce all of my strong suits. Motherhood forces me to confront all that I am not. It forces me to be humble and selfless. It forces me to have patience, to rearrange my plans or even cancel them. It forces me to give up my desires and needs and put someone else s above mine. It forces me to live in the moment and leave the rest to God. Motherhood is an endurance event which is an event that I have some experience in. However, this endurance event doesn’t have a finish line. Motherhood, in a sense, forces me to become a different person.

Life is interesting. Sometimes God places you in situations that you never saw coming. I went to school for six years. I loved school and then I had a job for two years, that most of the time, I adored. It was challenging, it was rewarding, it was something that I was good at. Exhausted or not, at the end of the day, I felt accomplished. This mommy thing…leaves me exhausted and often times, most times, without a sense of accomplishment. It leaves me unsure of myself. I am not positive that anything I do is the “right” thing to do. It sometimes leaves me jealous. At times, I am jealous of working moms, jealous of single girls, and jealous of couples without children. Most days I am jealous of my husband. He gets to go to work and have his own thing, is own life, then he comes home and gets to be daddy. He doesn’t worry about his little man being in a stranger’s arms because his wife is the one taking care of his little man. Men have it SO good.

He makes his “own” money. He has his “own” accomplishments. When people run into him they automatically ask him about work. When people run into me…there is that awkward silence because…I do nothing. I sit at home all day, watching TV, taking bubble baths, doing my hair and makeup, going tanning, laying by the pool, and spending hours at the gym. Occasionally, I might change a diaper here or there. At least that’s what I imagine they think I do all day. When we…or I should say he pays for dinner the other person automatically says thank you to him. That bothers me SO much. Because, we might not be able to pay for their dinner if we were paying for daycare. I am so jealous of him. But then…he is probably jealous of me. He is probably jealous that I get to stay home with my little every day. He is jealous that we have such a unique bond. He is jealous that I don’t have to worry about all of the stresses a job brings. And…make no mistake, I know how unbelievably blessed I am to be in a position where I can stay home with my little man.

I know, you are thinking, why not just go back to work? A legitimate question. I feel like this is a calling. A calling on my life. I am home with him because it is where I am supposed to be. It has to be a calling, I have been doing it for nine months. If it wasn’t my calling I would already be back at work. I am called to be his mother. I am called to be my husband’s wife. I am called to serve. I have peace with that. Even when I sometimes really wish I had a different calling.

I have said all of that to say this. If you have the calling to be a stay at home mom, know that others recognize your sacrifice. I know how you never get a moment to yourself. I know that you were a woman with hopes, dreams, and life plans before you had a child. I know that you have much more to offer the world than just being someone’s mom or someone’s wife. I know that you contribute just as much to your household as your husband does. I know that most of the time you get no recognition. I also know that the reason your child is meeting every milestone is because YOU played, taught, and nurtured your child. I know the reason your baby knows baby sign language, can say “mama” and “dada”, can drink out of a sippy cup, knows how to read, can count to 10, can throw a ball, is nice to others, and always says his prayers before bed…is because of YOU. I also know the reason your husband can be so successful at his job is because of you. I know you are the one picking out his wardrobe, having a healthy dinner for him every night…OK most nights. I know that you are the one challenging him to reach his goals and to set new ones, the one who makes his lunch, and makes sure he has shampoo and deodorant. You are the one washing his clothes and then covering him in prayer daily. I know that you are his biggest cheerleader.

When you are having one of “those” days, when you are becoming jealous of others, remember that motherhood is not for you. It is for your child. It’s not about you, it’s about your child. You are doing this for them and because of them. With or without recognition, know that your tears, time, and prayers are making a difference in your little’s world. And know…that there is no one else in this world that has the calling to be your little’s mom. That is a job that no one can fill.

*Working moms…I know that you do all of these things and go to work. I know that is so challenging. Please know that I admire and am sometimes envious of you. This blog applies to you as well. You are inspiring. You are a superwoman.

– Court

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: