July 2017 Goals

I completely fell off the face of the Earth in June and the firsts half of July, and I apologize for that! There are times where I feel like social media and blogging take over my life, and I obsess over making everything perfect. Also, with having a daughter who has special needs, I cannot have that in my life. Her well-being is the most important, and so is my mental health. I took a bit of a break to regroup and now I'm back! Since I didn't recap my goals from May, I'll go over those and then let you all know what I would like to accomplish in July. 

GOALS FROM MAY

- Reach 2,000 page views: That didn't happen, yet again. Since I took a decently long break, I wasn't promoting anything either on my social channels, so page views suffered greatly.  

- Have a family day: That sadly still has not happened! My husband works his butt off 50-60 hours a week, so when he has a day off and we have no appointments for Olivia, or any other plans, he just wants to stay home. We did end up going out for lunch one day in June to Olive Garden, and that was Olivia's first restaurant experience! She did well, and was talking up a storm (aka. screeching and giggling). She also enjoyed licking their breadsticks...

- Do a face mask once a week: Nope, didn't happen in May, but I have gotten better doing masks in June and July so far. I need to use up some of my stash before they go bad. 

- Organize Olivia's clothing: Yes and no. I had a good handle on it and it was all sorted out, then it got all disorganized again. I need to still put away all her 0-3 month clothes, and organize her 3-6 month clothes again, which is what she fits in currently (yes, she's still really small, but she was a preemie after all!).

GOALS FOR JULY

- Promote older blog posts on social media at least 3 times a week: Doing that usually helps drive more traffic to my blog, and gets more of my work out there. 

- Try to get more sleep: I know you're probably thinking, "you have a baby, sleep doesn't apply anymore." It actually does! Olivia sleeps decently well, only waking once occasionally. I don't feed her at night anymore, so she tends to just shuffle around and goes back to sleep on her own. However, since she wakes me up when she moves, I tend to stay awake for a while. I also have a bad habit of being on my phone for an hour or so when I get into bed, and that needs to stop. 

- Use up more beauty products: Ugh, I've been awful again with taking care of my skin and need to really get into a solid routine and use up products. I've been really slacking with using up products lately and have sad looking empties posts as a result. I'll be starting those again in August since I'll have a bunch of empty products to share!

- Write and post 6 blog posts: I'm not putting a weekly goal or anything since we're already about half way through the month already, but I would like to publish 6 posts during the rest of this month, and looking at my blogging schedule, I just may be able to do it!

That's it for July! I'm so sorry again for the absence. I'm sure all my fellow moms can relate to life getting tough and needing a break!

May 2017 Goals

I had some pretty lofty goals for April, and didn't quite make the mark. May is such a nice month to me weather wise, so I'm going to cut myself some slack and go with the flow this month. Lets recap how I did last month, and talk about what I'd like to do in May. 

Goals from April

- Reach 2,000 pageviews on the blog: Didn't happen! I came in at just under 1,400 for the month, and that's ok. I ended up exhausting myself and didn't promote posts like I should have

- Have some ME time: Yes! I did have a little me time and treated myself to a haircut! I hadn't had a haircut in about 2 years, and it was just time to chop it all off and start fresh. I did also manage to hand off Olivia to her dad a few times so I could shower in peace and not have to rush. 

- Continue writing 2 posts a week: Eh, not so much. I was doing so well from about the middle of March to middle of April. Like I mentioned above, I exhausted myself with taking care of Olivia, making sure the house got cleaned, getting her to doctors appointments, making dinner, etc. Life just got crazy and I fell into a bit of a funk. Luckily, I have some awesome friends who understand what I've been going through, so I feel better and am ready to continue growing my blog back up!

- Organize our house: It's getting there! I was doing really well and managed to donate quite a few trash bags of stuff, as well as throw away stuff we no longer needed or wanted. It seriously feels so good getting rid of junk! I always feel like my head clears and I can focus more when things are put in their right place. Of course, our house still isn't perfect (and probably never will be) and is taken over by baby stuff, but I've made some great progress. 

GOALS FOR MAY

- 2,000 blog pageviews. I'm going to keep this as a goal because it's really so attainable, as long as I put in the effort. 

- Have a family day. Since we brought Olivia home, I've been weird about being around germs and lots of people. We've slowly ventured out into the world, and I would like to go out as a family one day to either a park or flea market. Something with just the 3 of us.

- Do a face mask once a week. This one has been soooo hard! I'm still getting back into a skincare routine, and I've been slacking using face masks. I love how they make my skin feel, and I need to use up what I have in my stash. 

- Organize Olivia's clothing. Ok, this has been a feat since she's been born! We've been incredibly lucky to have people give us so much clothing to last through about her first year of life. She's still small and is about to go into 3 to 6 month clothes. I just have so much to go through and sort, and I'm still trying to figure a way to make it easy on myself when she transitions to the next size.  

These are my goals for the month. I am definitely going to cut myself some slack and if I don't hit something, I'm not going to worry. Taking care of Olivia is my #1 priority, and I'm not taking time away from her, as I'm sure most people would understand. 

Let me know what goals you have for the month!

Review: Hip Baby Wrap Ring Sling

*Product provided for review. All opinions are mine. Post contains affiliate links*

I had the awesome chance to try out the Hip Baby Wrap Ring Sling in Sky. Ever since having Olivia, I wanted a good way to carry her around when out doing errands, or even things around the house. 

Here is a description of the sling from their website:

"Featuring a colorful print and a simple design, our wrap provides an elegant and traditional way to carry little ones. Promotes bonding and physical development as Baby grows. Our soft cotton construction are uniquely hand-woven to provide a bit of give so they mold perfectly to the body and create a very comfortable fit for Baby and Babywearer."

This sling is 100% cotton, machine washable, is also great for nursing on-the-go and for using as a nursing cover. It can be used for babies from 8 pounds, all the way up to 35 pounds. You can find them on their website here for $68, or also on Amazon here for $39.95 or $49.95 depending on the style. 

I adore this ring sling so much, and am tempted to get one in every color! I will say, there is a learning curve to figuring out how to use it properly and safely, so I recommend watching some YouTube videos on how to actually use one, if you've never tried a ring sling before. Now that I've used this a few times, I feel like I can safely carry Olivia around while grocery shopping, or doing some light housework. I even noticed that when she's fighting sleep, I put her in the sling and she's out in 5 minutes. Works like a charm! 

Hip Baby Wrap has so many different colors and styles to choose from! If you have a new baby, or an older one who likes to be held all the time, I highly recommend this sling. This would make an awesome baby shower gift as well for the mom who wants to babywear!

If you have kids, what do you think about this ring sling? Is it something you're interested in?

April 2017 Goals

I haven't done a monthly goals post since November, which I had failed miserably at achieving any. My life was put on the back burner as our daughter was in the NICU, and then going through open heart surgery. I want to get back into doing things for me and setting attainable goals for the month of April. 

- Reach 2,000 pageviews on the blog. In March I had just a little over 1,600 pageviews. That's not terrible, but my pageviews definitely took a hit during my time away with my daughter. This month I want to work hard on reaching more people and set a small goal of just 2,000. 

- Have some ME time! I'm my daughter's primary caregiver being a stay at home mom. My husband works crazy hours, typically putting in 50-60 hours in a week. While I totally love being able to stay home with my little girl, there are times where this mama just wants a little time to herself, whether it be to just hide away in the bedroom reading a book, or taking a shower and doing a face mask after. No matter what it is, I want to be sure I'm taking care of me as well. 

- Continue writing 2 posts a week. This was my goal when I started writing here again, and for April, I want to keep it up. Eventually, I'd like to work up to 3 posts, but for now, 2 will have to do. 

- Organize our house. I feel like this is a goal I have every month! Seriously, before Olivia was born, I was doing so well getting things organized and throwing stuff away or donating things we don't need. Then she decided she wanted to meet us 10 weeks early, and all that basically went to hell. It's not her fault by any means, we should've taken more time beforehand to really clean up and have things ready for when she came home. I'm slowly starting to make our house look much better, and we're only a few days into April so far!

What are some of your goals for this month? 

Life Lately

Hello? Is anyone there? *blows cobwebs off the computer* 

Hey guys! It sure has been quite a while! My last post was back in November and it was my goals for the month. It's fairly safe to say I did not accomplish pretty much anything I had set for myself. After my daughter Olivia was born 10 weeks early back in October, things have just been really crazy. 

But, she is now finally home! It's still so weird for me to say that, I thought the day would never come. A little backstory on Olivia these past 5 months...

She was born on October 17th, 2016 but was due on Christmas Eve. She has Down Syndrome and was also born with a heart defect called a Complete AV Canal. That is essentially a big, giant hole right in the center of her heart. With that hole being there, it was mixing the oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood together, making it really hard for her to breathe, so she was on oxygen support for her whole life. Since she was born premature, it made that complication worse. Until we got transferred to one of the best hospitals in the country to repair the defect. She had surgery on March 1st, and then came home on the 9th, with no oxygen or feeding tube! To say that my husband and I were ecstatic that she had done so well, and could come home without wires and tubes, was a massive understatement. 

It was getting to be so hard going back and forth to the hospital every single day, and once we were transferred for surgery, I lived at the hospital since it was quite far from our home. A good friend of mine set up a fund for us, which you can find here, to help us out with bills that were piling up, as well as getting anything we needed for Olivia still. Since I never did have a baby shower, we weren't able to get alot of what we needed. if you're able to give anything at all, it would mean the world to us. Even sharing the page on your social media is incredibly helpful as well!

Now, with all that being said, blogging should hopefully return to normal very soon. I'll still be talking about beauty, but I'll be adding in some lifestyle and baby posts, since my priorities have changed these last few months. I don't have a set schedule yet, but I'm hoping to be publishing at least 2 posts a week for now. I'm so glad to be writing again finally, and I missed all of you terribly!

Here is a recent picture of Olivia! Considering what a peanut she used to be, she looks giant here!

What would you all like to see here on the blog? I have some ideas floating around in my head, but I could always use more inspiration!