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Why do we feel the need to justify every single thing that we do? I wear many hats that people judge- mom, wife, and entrepreneur being my biggest roles. People will always have opinions on how you should be living. For example, when I had Sophie, I felt great pressure to breast feed her. I thought it was the only way she would grow a healthy body and mind. I was told it creates the necessary bond between a mom and baby. I was told the chemicals in formula are harmful to babies. I saw silent judgement on the eyes of moms who were breastfeeding while I was bottle feeding my baby. After lots of pain, time, tears and money I decided it wasn’t worth feeling like a failure. Sophie is now two with the body and mind of an awesome little girl. How I fed her is so tiny in comparison to everything that has occurred in her life.

Just last week I noticed myself thinking I was a bad wife. I was at a friend’s house for a playdate and she was frantically picking up all of the kid’s toys because her husband was due to be home. She’d mentioned she feels like he thinks she doesn’t do anything all day if they kid’s toys are in site. This made me think of our house when my husband gets home. Sophie and I are usually on the couch with a pile of books, play-doh art on the table, and puzzles that she just remembered she had. At first I thought- she’s right, it does look like I haven’t done anything all day. On my drive home I thought more about our family and the fact that I only have three hours alone to play with Sophie before the hustle and bustle of dinner and bedtime come. I do think it’s important for her to clean up her toys so we now do a quick sweep with her to put away all toys before bedtime stories. We have her do this now to show her that there’s a time that it’s ok to have toys around and play but we need to be responsible for our own messes. I think it’s more important for her to learn how to put away her own toys than it is for me to feel like a good wife because the house is clean when my husband gets home. As I’ve said before, ‘do you‘ and eat cake. It’s the only way you will truly be happy.

Eat cake.

Cheers to New Beginnings

Start somewhere. The first of a new year, although just a date in a calendar, is a great reminder that life has beginnings and endings throughout. I’m learning to end things that are toxic to my happiness. I encourage you to think about the various areas of your life that make you happiest as well as give you that pit in your stomach. Don’t push aside those bad feelings, but instead, face them and figure out why they’re controlling your emotions in a negative way. It might be a specific person that you’ve realized makes you feel obligated to continue their friendship or a house chore that is draining you and can easily be swapped with your partner’s chore. I noticed myself getting really burnt out on cooking and cleaning the kitchen, to the point we were ordering out because I didn’t want to clean the mess. I simply asked my husband to take turns cleaning the kitchen with me and we’ve eaten at home much more. That’s obviously a very simple issue to solve but yours might be too. Put your glass up and cheers to new beginnings in 2016. Your happiness is solely dependent on you.

There are so many amazing people in this world. All of them are different and unique. I’ve recently been learning to appreciate the greatness in people rather than mimic or strive to their potential. I’ve been pushing myself to be someone else with the blog. Someone that other people are asking me to be. I’ve not been successful being this other person and it hasn’t made me any happier. I’m now devoting myself to be the best ‘me.’ The best creator, mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend that I can be right now in my life. It’s not possible to give 100% of yourself to every person, but you can just do you to your best ability.