With Easter quickly approaching, we have been receiving numerous invitations to attend different Easter Egg hunts. I have also been receiving messages asking what I am putting in my kids Easter baskets. Our family does not participate in Halloween, and my children know that Santa is just a character. Yes, at the ages of 2 and 4. And the Easter Bunny doesn’t visit my kids either.
Having a toddler around the house can be a lot of fun, and boy are they cute, but toddler-hood brings with it a special brand of sleep challenges. You may have had an excellent sleeping baby, but when they hit 18 months or 2 year things changed. They became extraordinarily skillful at finding ways to NOT get the rest they need. It can be very difficult to find the right way to address these challenges. You don’t want to encourage them. It’s important to ensure that they don’t become overtired (which causes even more sleep problems). Here I will discuss some of the most challenging toddler sleep issues and give you the best tips for handling them.
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway
As I write, I sit here and bleed. I bleed from my heart, my body, and my mind. Miscarriage is something that no one talks about; a forbidden topic. No one talks about all the questions, the pain, and the unforgivable grief clothed in tears. There is a cone of silence and pure isolation that no one can remove. But now, because I am writing this, you know that it is all over, and you know that my life has changed… forever.
Last night I came across a Twitter thread that had me crying laughing. Literally. Like to the point that I woke up the baby. It started with a tweet proposing a business idea. “A cleaning service staffed entirely by writers on deadline”. For those of you in the writing field, you know how it is. You get writer’s block and immediately jump to cleaning (or something else that relaxes you and clears your mind). So, I’m reading through the thread when I come across a comment that says, “Procrastibaking is the best baking.” And in that moment, I knew that I was a procrastibaker.Today, instead of finishing my newsletter (I promise it will actually get sent out this week y’all), I baked blueberry banana bread. It has completely fulfilled my day.
Call it naivety or call it ignorance, but I had no idea that toddler anxiety was a thing! Now, I knew that kids naturally develop phobias and fears, but anxiety? When I think back to when I really noticed that I was anxious person, it wasn’t super apparent until I had real worries (i.e. bills, safety of my children, job security, etc). But who am I to decide what a real worry is? Who am I to say that my kids don’t have anything to worry about just because they are young.
When my husband and I first met, I had just gotten out of a toxic relationship of 3 years. I wasn’t looking for anything serious, and neither was he, but it was almost as if the universe had called us together. We both had a bit of baggage and trust issues, and yet we were still drawn to each other. Our sweet Kane was a huge surprise. We were scared because we hadn’t been together long, but we were committed to each other; committed to our baby. There were fights and bad times, but through it all we loved each other.
Yesterday I received notification that I have been nominated for the 2018 Liebster Award! My nomination comes from a fellow blogger that I have come to love, Pamela Diji of http://www.itisreal.net! She is a lifestyle blogger and mama to two precious girls. She shares all of their exciting adventures and experiences of life in China!
The Liebster Award is an award given to bloggers BY OTHER BLOGGERS! The word “liebster” is a German word meaning “dearest, valued, or beloved”. It is meant to help bloggers connect and support each other!
After my week of down time due to surgery recovery, I have no idea what to do with myself! Throw in Daylight Savings Time ending, and I am ALL discombobulated! This post was originally intended to be sent in this week’s newsletter, but I’m slacking (BIG TIME) so here it is:
Last week I was catching up on all the sleep that I have lost since becoming a mommy. I had all the time in the world to blog (and everything that comes with it), binge watch Pretty Little Liars, sleep, and plan/pretend to be organized.
Since having surgery on Monday, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to prep for this week’s segment of “According to Lana“. Usually we have a week full of activities and discussions that I can break down for y’all. However, this week consisted of a whole lot of Netflix, napping, and snacking! We talked about it and figured y’all wouldn’t be too enthusiastic to read about how many hours we laid in bed or how many rice cakes we managed to scarf down. SO. Lana made the decision to talk about her new favorites on Netflix!
****These reviews are 100% from Lana—keep in mind she’s 4*****
Piggy-backing off of my post from yesterday, God gave me some revelation through prayer and some spiritual authority He has placed in my life.
As I mentioned before, I have been dealing with the same stone for almost one year. May 3, 2017 was my first hospital visit with this particular stone. On May 4, I went to church and a man laid hands on me and prayed. I wasn’t in pain at the time, so I wasn’t sure if anything had come of it or not.