Tag Archives: Family Goals

The time is NOW!!!(For Real) -July 2022 Update

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(This post contains some affiliate links, This is to help a kick back to the blog financially by simply shopping as you normally do. If you choose to support the blog by this way, thank you, your support is greatly appreciated!)

I know this is probably coming out later than expected for the July Update but honestly, it happens! We are getting very excited. My partner has just taken his parental only 3 months compared to the 9 with our first little one however it couldn’t be at a better time. I am so looking forward to the next few months to have a bit more time to “pretend” like I have a job. If you know what I mean by that!

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One thing I am looking forward to is really tackling getting my books finalized. That being said I have covers being created right now, I have one person doing all three since they are so similar due to them being a trilogy. I will explain more about them in the future obviously I would like it to be a surprise once they come out! I am so happy and yet so very nervous. There is such raw feelings and emotions in these books that I feel extremely exposed. Though I know I am not the only one who can relate to these. That is a huge step for me to see everything coming together in that regard.

I know you guys are probably super sick of hearing this but I am here to say it again for the 14th time. I am going to lose weight. I would say out of all my 2022 goals this is probably the hardest one to reach by far. I am really trying but I get so discouraged. I am sure a lot of you can agree reading blogs like this where I dont lose weight is probably hard. But I am totally taking advantage of the fact that my partner has parental and wanting to lose weight and get ahead of this next and final pregnancy when the time comes. And for the obvious reason that I want to be a healthier version of myself. This time I want to make it different. I want to look at myself and bring back habits when I was working and not able to eat the entire night on the couch. I am going to even be posting mini daily vlogs on my tiktok which you can follow here or at the username @StaySeeJ. I think this is a great way for em to be held accountable and to show you guys what it really is like being a picky eater. I know that I cannot be the only one here who eats this way and I want to show you all that life isn’t just about salads and you can do anything you want to do. This is why I mentioned here about this a little bit on the weekly blogs that for the summer every other week I will have a blog that is pre-written (as you know I do most of the times anyways) I really want to hammer down and show you guys that obviously my food habits are an issue but I can still lose weight or be better at not using toxic behaviors like binge eating nightly I can still have balance.

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As you know I will never limit myself when it comes to snacks and things however I will do things a bit differently in terms of eating. I dont count macros or micros or whatever ohs I always just counted calories. I am trying to think of healthier alternatives though like these reese bars . I also have a can of slim fast chocolate that I hope to put to good use. As I have said before the hardest part for me is when I at at night watching TV like I need to eat food. One big thing I did the other day was that I brushed my teeth early on. I was literally thinking why am I getting these chips. What is the reason? and the only thing I could think of was boredom so I got up brush my teeth and never ate anything else for the rest of the night. That’s progress to me.

Another thing I am so excited about is to be live more also too! Since May I have been doing fantastic in terms of streaming. I have been pretty good at keeping my schedule going. I have had some days off and I have had some shorter streams but knock on wood I have been doing great while trying to be regularly live again. Going live is something I enjoy doing and getting back into it and feeling as great as I do since before I had kids. I feel like I am finally putting it on the forefront again (Obviously with 2 kids I have a good enough reason to not be regular but as a parent we sometimes put ourselves last all of the time when we need to remember we also are important) Check out this blog here if you want to see how I put myself first in more depth. I also am excited to finally have a great background using these lights for my stream area. The two strings that I used fairy lights for one and the second set were round bulbs however not warm white like here the multi color version . The entire side and stream looks fantastic. I may even be preparing for a revamp/re brand here in the near future! Even with a mascot too! I will be streaming now 5 days a week temporarily by just adding Tuesday and Thursdays which I am very excited to be live then. I will be live in the day time and keeping the other 3 days (Monday/Friday evenings and Sunday Mornings) And streaming from about 12 noon Atlantic time (11am EST) and going till about 4pm Atlantic Time (3pm EST). It will be a great time and I am so looking forward to it!

Surreal Feeling of Parenting

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If you are not a parent I’m not entirely sure that you will know what this feels like. I don’t mean that in any way disrespectfully either. Just that for this particular blog, it really is only since becoming a parent that I have really noticed this.

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Since becoming a parent I have become such a sad sap it isn’t even funny. I swear that I am one of those people who now cries at any animated movie no matter how small the inconvenience is. I tear up and think about things and it makes me feel like trash only because I would poke fun at my mom who also would get sappy about things too. Before becoming a parent I would never feel this way or even admit to it but here we are.

Another thing is that I find myself feeling an overwhelming sense of relief or even sense of serenity. I know that makes me also sound like a weirdo but it’s not. I mean sometimes I am sitting on the couch. One of my son’s is playing with his blocks in front of me. We have the TV on for background noise, and then we have my other son trying to bit his teether toys furiously like he means business. I just look around and I feel a sense of happiness that I dont think I can even describe because it doesn’t even feel real. I feel a sense of wow and wonder that this is actually my life. That this is something I could never have imagined how it felt until I was in the moment. I still can’t believe that after over 2 years, maybe 3 including pregnancy, that I have been a mom and my life has been changed.

*** If you are someone who is really enjoying the blogs and has the financial freedom to want to support this through tips, you are more than welcome to do so by clicking on this link to bring you to my personal Ko-Fi page. Never will you ever be pressured to support in this way however the option is there if you wish to do so! Your continued support regardless of financial or not is greatly appreciated.

Another thing that I know people talk about often is this, Time passes sooo fast with children. I know you know people with kids and have heard at some point, whether a parent or not, you may even have heard your own parents say it, is that “before you know it, they will be growing up like weeds”, “Or off to college soon with them in the blink of an eye” or something along those lines. THIS IS TOTALLY TRUE!! Which is mind blowing right. It really is.

When we had our first child, we knew time was passing fast. When you had to change clothes or even go up diaper sizes you would think to yourself holy moly, there is a lot of time that passed we are already changing up! Well, let me tell you this, when you have more than one kid, you will notice that that time is then going twice as fast as it was with just one child! Maybe I find this is because my second son is growing so quickly and at the time of reading it is 5 months old and next month we start baby foods. I feel like we just had him!


There are even times now when both of the boys are asleep when my spouse and I are laying on the couch and we have to look at each other and wonder, “Wow, we made them” as we look at their monitors form their rooms, which is still hard to grasp. Like we made two human beings. Two little pieces of both of us mixed together they are us. I always knew when I was younger that I would have kids one day. I knew that I would be a mom. It was just a feeling that I knew. And again, I want to state if anyone not a parent is reading this, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to have children! There is enough pressure for couples to have a family that I do not want to be someone who does that. There is people who want kids and others who do not and there is nothing wrong with that.

I also know a lot of parents feel this strange passing of time due to the amount of parents on my Facebook that when their child’s birthday comes around they comment about how they maybe turned around and they already have a 10 year old! which is again, mind blowing when it comes to things also too. it really is that when you decide to have kids that time has a new meaning. I feel like days in particular happen fast too. There is a lot of times when I turn around and feel like the day has flew by and my spouse is already home from work.

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Being a parent changes you. Or I should say, being a good parent changes you, we know there is a lot of bad ones out there which I would assume their lives don’t really change at all. Being a good parent makes you want to do better, be better, get better. I have been a parent for over 2 years, including pregnancy though I would say closer to 3. I know that I have been changed by my kids and remembering who I used to be and how I dont do some of the things I did before is tough. But there is still many many days when I sit around and think in awe how great my life is. How thankful I am to have 2 children and hopefully we plan for our 3rd and final one towards the end of the year. I am starting to think that this feeling doesn’t ever fade either, It hasn’t since my oldest was born! And it still feels like he was just a little baby and in the hospital and how excited and nervous and happy I was holding him! Even if not he is Mama’s big big baby now!

Hello June, I’m BACK!- June 2022 Update –

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Okay. First let me say I am sorry there was no update for May. I really thought about it and I just felt like I needed to skip a month. As you know I tend to write my blogs ahead of time. That is what I did here. And by the time I felt line writing the update we were closer to June than May and well, here we are!

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Blogging has been going okay. I have been pretty good aside from my self care Thursday which I will be starting back this week as I also took a break from that too. I need to also schedule tweets of popular blogs a bit more frequently on my twitter so that I keep getting my link out to people with new hashtags.  Also, call me crazy, but I am low key planning blogs for 2023 including some months where there will be nearly a blog every day with different subjects. I feel like 2023 may be a great year for me to really hammer down and try to get things happening in terms of content creation and making a living doing this.

Poetry is also starting back up. I can confidently say that I was very much into writing poems in April that come May I burned myself out. Thankfully I started to type things up already so I am a bit ahead and behind at the same time. June the goals are to finish writing all the poems for the 3 poetry books. And have all of them typed and put into Kindle in order to get prepped for publishing.  I feel like taking the step back was needed and I can keep following through. I need to make a to do list also for what I need to do to publish the books.

**If you like what you are reading through out these blogs, and are looking at ways to financially support the blog, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi link here. You will NEVER be pressured to contribute to towards put any type of money towards the blog however if the thought has crossed your mind, here is a great way to help a stay at home mom provide some financial relief for her family.

Weight loss is still a struggle (Surprising right?).. I went more into detail about that here in the Thursday Update if you want to read it here, instead of me repeating it here and if you are a dedicated reader it might get a little bit stale trying to read the same things over and over.

Streams have been fantastic also! I streamed over 30h in May. That was the most hours streamed in one month in easily over a year. It was so nice to actually follow a schedule and actually spend time doing something I enjoy. June will be a great month and with July, August, September I am looking forward to the increase of hours also too. I am also looking at revamping my discord server to be more “Me” focused. I have always made my server about community.  Starting the Society it was about everyone including me. I want this focus to change to be just me. It’s time that I invest in me as a content creator and not just everyone else. Of course I will still be trying to support everyone I can and there will be places to promote themselves and what not. But Id like to still change focus, clean up the server, etc.

I recently had my first ever in my entire life psychic reading by an amazing women Amanda. It was very enlightening and eye opening experience. There were some things spoken that I never post, talk, speak, even think that often about. We connected on twitter and have kept in touch. I ask her silly questions and am trying to keep myself going spiritually and grow. I cannot wait until I can do my next reading. It was a lot to process though due to the things mentioned but what an eye opening experience for me. If you too would be interested in a reading by all means check her out on Twitter, DMs are open (Dont be a creep!) And she even has an email in her bio too. Ill write a whole blog piece on my experience in the near future!! And hopefully more content on the spiritual journey I have just started also! I swear I am such a newbie I have no idea what I’m doing sometimes!

And lastly, Life! I think life is going pretty well. May was a bit of a smaller month in terms of content as I really never touched poetry, I failed a bit on weight loss, and I was a bit down in the aspects of things. That being said I am not going to beat myself up about it either because we are in a new month. What was interesting was my partner and I went out to our very first restaurant dinner though since before my oldest son was born. That is over two years! We went out for his birthday and my mom was watching the boys. It was a great experience and I was so thankful that we were able to spend quality time out. It was such a weird experience leaving them both home and not having one of them with us. I was so happy though because as much as we are home body’s and enjoy eating garlic fingers and donairs here, it really doesn’t beat the feeling of actually going out and actually sitting down in a place to eat. We need to do it more often, but not too often!

There you have it, Kind of a condensed update for the past 2 months since I was a major slacker and suck at this content creation sometimes. See you in July for the next update and I hope you enjoy the blogs lined up for the month too!

I have a baby on me so this blog update is late and scuffed – March 2022 Update

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Im slacking. Majorly. Normally this update is done or at least partially. Not this update. This update is literally being typed up as one kid is beside me having a meltdown between putting mega blocks together and the other is kicking and laughing at the other.

For lack of a better term. This month was straight up sh*t. If you have been following any of my socials you would see a little bit of it. But here is the timeline if how the month went. And yes, therr are some good things also!

First we started with an ice storm. This sucked. We lost power on a Friday about 2pm or so and never got it back til Sunday at about 12pm noon. On top of this there was freezing temperatures which sucked also. We had been able to stay at my parents with our sons because they had power and only had lost it a little bit on the Friday. Thankful they live close to us and we were able to actually stay there with our dog and the boys. Even if it was tough living in another home.

Once we had power again we had no heat. So we assumed that we had a frozen pipe somewhere. This was Sunday. We had brought the boys over but ended up back to my parents when the house was far too cold as we never had heaters either. So back to their house. Monday we got heaters from a neighbour, friend, rented some etc. We had them going nearly all day so at least it was warm enough for us to sleep back in our own beds. Well. The upstairs had heat after all once we turned the furnace on. However downstairs there was indeed a frozen pipe. Where was it you may ask? Where the old home owners had built a wall and we had NO IDEA there was even a rad there. Thankfully it was near our back door and there was nothing of value there so we never had any extra damage.

Fast forward two weeks. Everything going smoothly. The frozen ice storm nightmare is behind us. Well, did we not get a BUTT LOAD of rain? We did. And it sucked. I had out laundry in at about 1230pm. Once the kids were napping. Guillaume came home at about 4ish because I had asked him to flip the laundry. Well, we had water in our freakin basement! It did not seem like we had that much rain to cause a flood. Thankfully we had water that pooled in areas however it was nothing serious. However a major inconvenience none the less.

And here we are in March. Thankful that all the house errors are in the past. It makes it extremely hard when you move to a new home and still are learning so much about it! Especially where certain rads are!

So on to good stuff! My son will be 2 years old tomorrow! Normally I would write a blog about it but this year we are just excited to be home! It really is special to be here so my dad and son can celebrate their birthdays together. This is huge and we couldn’t be more happier. We will have a great supper at my moms and it will be a fun time I am sure. It is his first birthday we can actually soend with family due to covid too. It really is insane to think 2 years has past since we had a baby!

Another great thing for me is I am creating 3 poetry collections to publish. I recently had published an eBook with email sign up as a sampler for the collections that will be released. My hope is to keep growing my email list so that it becomes a great place for different aspects of my writing or content creations. I am so excited for this to happen and I would like it to be really successful also. I think this could be my passion.

Another thing is working out and weight loss. I need to stop being a sad sack of garbage and making excuses and actually do something. I know that I can be the best I can be and lose weight. I make so many excuses and I need to stop. I want to lost 10lbs this month. I also have a max of 10 days to smoke weed too. And I also have 7 no workout days. Every other one I want to do more. I know I can lose weight as I have before. It is just a matter of actually doing it and making it happen. Which can be obviously challenging for me. But I really think March can be my month. I would like to lose some weight before my partner is on Parental leave and we do more walks and things too. I can do it.

As for streams, well with everything February is low key a bust so I really hope that I can bring back for March and April (I know getting ahead of myself!) Because while Guillaume is on parental I hope to pick up a few extra days a week of streams for the time he is off so about 3 months. Hopefully bring myself back to where I was before I had taken so much time off as well as the move and things too.

Overall I am glad that our hiccups were not bigger and we are in a financial position to be able to handle these things (not saying we want anymore!!) But it could have been worse if we we’re struggling in that way though. Things can always be worse and I try to look at that as we were frustrated!

January 2022 Update

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The past year there has been so many things happening. I honestly have a hard time to really run down things. I will say that I just had to go for it and if you notice that I missed anything I still feel like there was so much that I had to touch base on there has to be more. Let’s just jump in!

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Moving across provinces was such a welcomed change for our lives being back home and owning a nee house again. That being said we never did expect that we would be stuck without any of our belongings for over 4 weeks but there we were. The good news is that we were home and had our own place. Especially in today’s market for home buying which I wrote a whole blog post on here, we got incredibly lucky to have found a house to begin with. We are also very thankful that we will NOT be moving again. This is our forever home. And it couldn’t be anymore perfect!

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!

We had another BABY! And what a whirlwind it was. Ending in a c section which we never ever expected but that was just how it went. I tell you all about the birth story here. We are so content with having our 2nd child that it is so hard to believe we have had him nearly 6 weeks already. The time is yet again flying by as usual when you do have kids. It is so hard to believe how this birth ended and how many surprises it had like Felix becoming breech and not knowing until into active labour. Then making decisions and having to think fast. It really is crazy to think how much has happened. Here is hoping that when we have number three it goes a bit more like our first Vincent and no c section is required.

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Content creation in 2022 will also look a bit different. As my family grows and my priorities are changing I am trying to really hammer down on managing my time better and hopefully making some type of an actual stay at home wage. Even if it does not happen over night I would like to eventually make a fee hundred dollars per month to help pay for things while staying with my kids.

Streaming is dropping down to 2 days per week. Monday and Fridays will be my stream days. Mostly art will be streamed however if I have to feel the baby there will also probably be games like TeamFight Tactics, or plants vs zombies or just mouse games. I want to showcase more of my artwork and do two things at once since I want to grow a business also. If bonus gaming streams happen so be it but for not those will be the 2 days that I am live!

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My business of crafting and sewing also is starting you van find it in the following pages where I will periodically update when new items come up. I am so excited to start this I really hope folks like what I am offering too. I hope anyone from all walks of life will be able to find something that they like or want to have in their life.

You will also notice in blogs going forward that I will have a small paragraph for people if they wish to tip myself and support the blog financially. I was always scared to do this because I thought that I was not big enough as a blogger to do this. I am finally confident enough to be taking my shot. I will probably go back to a fee popular blogs and also put the paragraph into those blogs too. There is by no means any pressure to support financially and there is lots of other ways to support the blog for free like following, commenting, liking or sharing it with friends and family. Financial support option is just there in case someone would like to and are financially stable enough too. It will never be a requirement to read the blogs. There will however be some uncensored ones coming into the new year when topics pop up however there will never be a requirement to read the 3 days scheduled per week blogs.

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Blog Goals for 2022 will be simple. I would like to double everything. Double the amount of followers I have, views ai have, etc. So to start the year here are my numbers for 2021:

Followers = 278
Views = 2271
Likes: 582
Number of Blog Posts = 151

For me trying to double these numbers wont be easy but I have faith that if I stick to my schedule, write from the heart, and put time into it that it will finally start to see some reward in different ways also!

And finally, as I touched base on it before. I would like to have some financial freedom and income coming in. I will be getting some financial freedom since now they we have 2 kids the government gives double the money per month as a child benefit. However I would like to see it as more of an income across different places. Ideally if I am able to make anywhere from 50$ to $250 per month that would be very exciting. Again it is not something I expect over night to happen but with all of my different spots to earn income I really am hopefully by the end of 2022 I will have a somewhat steady and reliable income coming in.

There you have it. That is my year in reflection and some stuff I am hopeful for the future. Whether or not they happen time will tell. But I feel like if I am really able to put my mind to it that by the end of the year I will achieve some of my goals! Here is to a strong 2022 year for everyone!

Why I Decided Not to Work While Raising Children

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Before I begin, I want to make it clear that I do understand that in some families do not have the option to not work when it comes to raising a family. They may have debt or bills to pay or they may even just like the idea of working in general. There are various reasons why some families decide to have two working parents. There is no right or wrong way for this, this is simply my opinion and reasoning why my spouse and I decided not to send me back to work, just yet! There is no right or wrong way to raising children especially if you decide to go to work or you want to be a stay at home parent too.

Growing up my Mom was a stay at home mom. My dad used to lay floors when we were younger, and as we got older he took his long haul trucking course. Eventually my mom would start watching a few kids from people she knew, she watched a brother and a sister for many years and than another little boy after they had moved away. This was her way of making some extra money on the side. She also would do little crafts, hemming clothes for people, and knitting and crocheting various items to sell also through friends and family. Once we were old enough and teenagers she did start working in a vet hospital and we were left to fend for ourselves. Just kidding, we were just fine! If I could give an age I would say this was when we were in junior high. She was no longer needed to babysit the last little guy she had and she was given this opportunity to work she took it. Can you blame her? I would have too!

Growing up I liked the fact that my mom was home with us. It made things easier. We never stayed at school for lunches we came home. She had lunch ready and we walked back and forth. It was nice to know that a hot lunch was waiting there for us. If we were sick at school or something happened she was available and able to pick us up if needed too. It was really convenient especially since my dad had to go away during the week for both of the jobs that he did when we were growing up. Having a parent home was a good feeling and I want my kids to also feel that too.

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Another reason why we decided that I would not be going back to work is we would like to have 3 kids. To put 3 kids in daycare right now with the cost of everything is quite expensive. Due to my partner and his annual income I don’t believe we would be able to get a subsidy for child care. Not to mention, in my previous jobs that you can read about in this blog here, I worked with disabled adults in their homes. This was shift work and over nights and weekends. My spouse has a job where he could be away for weeks or even months and for me to work those kind of hours and paying any type of childcare would just not be practical. In order for me to do the 9-5 hours I would need to continuously work with a company for a very very long time and even still people don’t get those type of hours. Plus, my mom currently works in a hospital during the day time and my dad is only off 2 days per week. I cannot rely on them to watch my kids for me to work. And paying premium hours for someone else to watch them really doesn’t make sense not to mention finding someone to do it would be a feat on it’s own. If I was to get a smaller job for minimum wage I would also essentially be paying for childcare. The profit that I would be making in terms of paying for childcare and whatever is left just does not make any sense in the big picture.

Another primary reason why I am not working is that when my boyfriend and I decided to have children, we wanted to raise them. We did not want to have to rely on someone else or daycare to raise them. It is so simple to have children and go back to work and pick your children up at the end of the day. We wanted to be a constant in our children’s lives. Especially with their dad having to travel for his job also we did not want to have him away and then myself also gone. We wanted one of us to be home and able to teach and watch our kids grow. It just made complete sense to us to have it this way.

This being said, will I ever go back to work? I am hoping to have some sort of business started as a work from home type of deal. That way I can stay home and still have a small income to save money or help a little with bills too. If all else fails eventually when we are done having children and they are all in school I would look at maybe doing what my mom did with babysitting a child or two, or maybe even working mornings somewhere. There is going to be a time when I end up going back to work. As. Ice as it sometimes can be sitting home and relaxing with my little ones, I do miss having an income from working and some independence and a pay cheque. Even a few hundred a month could be huge for me in getting back to helping out. But, again, I am in by no means a rush to leave them and start working again!

Was this a hard decision that you had to make when deciding to go back to work or staying at home?

Have you thought about this decision before or after having children?

Let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear your experience also!

Getting Through The 1st Trimester

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Finding out that you are pregnant can be a very exciting time in anyone’s life! I know when we first found out we were pregnant with my first child, and now our second one we were excited! However I feel like my first pregnancy I was a bit lucky because I barely had any symptoms except for being tried. When I was tired I would just sleep But now having a toddler and being pregnant for the second time things are way more challenging. Here are my tips to help me get through the first trimester (With or without a toddler!).

SLEEP! In the first trimester you are probably losing a lot of sleep. Not only that but suddenly your bladder seems to be super small and you are running to the bathroom nearly every 3 hours especially in the middle of the night even if you did not do that to begin with before. Thought I was really lucky that my partner was home often I was able to sleep when I felt like it because he would watch our son. However, if he was working late I would still try to nap when my toddler did. It can be hard though because some days I would be super tired and go to sleep and would have one of those days where my son nearly never slept his nap time. However a lot of times it works really well to be able to nap when he does. It may not seem like a lot but it really is a decent amount of time to be able to sleep and not over sleep. Though be warned that sometimes I tend to find myself more tired after this. But catching up on sleep is really important if you are able to sleep during the day. I will say, going into the second trimester there is some relief in terms of when you need to run to the bathroom from your sleepy slumber but in terms of the increased bathroom visits. They will still be a lot due to the fact your body is housing a baby! Try to also drink water early in the day (Something that I do not do) And limit it late at night so that you find yourself hopefully nearly empty when it comes to having to get up to relieve yourself!

Prepping for morning sickness or food aversions was something I did with my first pregnancy and now this one even though I did not think I needed it much. I had certain staples in my kitchen such as ginger ale, little sour candies that would help with morning sickness. I also had carnation instant breakfast’s as well. They really helped in the morning when I was not interested in eating breakfast a lot and still filled me up though to be able to function at some point. I still have been pretty lucky even with this pregnancy in terms of morning sickness. Even when I did have it it was mainly after supper and by that point my boyfriend was already home and was able to take the the lead when it came to putting my son to bed and getting him ready for his sleep. Having things like this was a huge help especially the ginger cookies which I would have a few snacks on in the mornings when my stomach was just a bit more upset though.

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Make it fun and have an app or two! When I was pregnant with my son I used two in particular, they were Ovia Pregnancy and then What to Expect. These are super fun to use because you are able to pick a subject to compare the size of your baby! When I was pregnant with my son I used the “fruits and Veggies” theme for both. Every week was a milestone and it would compare the growing baby inside to whatever fruit it was comparable to! This time around I have chosen to do one for 80’s and 90s nostalgic items, and then another one in the “Fun and Games” category. This is a great way to compare the size of your baby to things you know the size of already. With baby number three I assume knowing myself I would be picking a different category to compare the size of the baby to! Another thing that is huge when it comes to these apps is every day or so it will post little tips and tricks about what is happening with the growth of your baby. From things developing and changing. Sure you may have multiple children but still is exciting to see how things develop since you may not remember when things happen as they happen.

Regardless about what you try to do when it comes to surviving the first trimester, there is really multiple things you can do to make it through. Another positive thing to remember is that even if the first trimester is rough, chances are things will slowly level out towards the 2nd trimester. I have been lucky and have found that whatever symptoms I have been feeling does normally seem to disappear a bit. However on rare occasions there are people out there who have to deal with major symptoms in the second trimester also. However, there are also medical interventions that you are perhaps able to take for things such as morning sickness if you talk to your doctor about how you are feeling.

Lastly, remember that there is also so many reasons to sick it out because at the end of everything no matter how sick you get you will have your little bundle of joy to be thankful for! When you see your child you suddenly forget all of the heartaches and sickness you may have felt as it just melts away!

Is there anything that you did when you were feeling a bit wonky in the first trimester?
Do you follow any of the tips and tricks that were mentioned above too?

Let me know as I am sure a lot of other readers would love to read about it also!

What is the “Nesting” Phase Really Like in Pregnancy

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You might be new to pregnancy, or you might be someone who knows all about it. For me, I have only ever experiences “Nesting” once. while I am currently waiting to find out if I do the same things for the second time also. Since every pregnancy is different I will be curious to see if there is anything majorly different between the two of them!

What people think nesting is, is a period of time before a baby is born where you are doing the weirdest, and over the top things. Typically people claim this is the time you scrub everything so that it is in tip top shape for when the baby arrives. This includes when you are prepping the room, hospital bag, cleaning and washing cupboards and dishes and walls. You are making sure that everything that can be is ready for when the baby is born. You are probably making sure you have more than enough clothes and then you are washing them also so they are nice and fresh for the new baby too. A lot of people would consider nesting the period in which you get that little boost of energy for a small period of time before you give birth to your child. I would say I agree with this however I dont know if at the time I knew what I was doing was nesting or if I just took advantage of the new found energy!

What I thought about for nesting and what actually happened I think are two different things. I did not think I would really have a big nesting period when it came to having a baby. Looking back now I would say that my nesting period was about the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I started with trying to get everything in place for the baby’s room. Washing clothes, decorating everything also. We did the Harry Potter theme for my son and that was something I worked on a bit as things went but I really tied it all together when the time came. We also did really good on trying to get everything prepped and ordered in terms of tools and trinkets we needed too. Lotions, body washes, socks, diapers, wipes everything in between we would try to get ready. After that I wanted to focus on our basement. Since moving it the place was a mes and since my Uncle was off work we really tried to get it some what organized before Vincent was born. We went through boxes and labeled things and got things ready to be thrown away. Everyone knows when you have a child you have a lot of things that you acquire as the time passes and it is important to really make space for that or you can be overwhelmed.

Aside from these two major things I cant really think of a whole lot that we really did before the baby came in terms of nesting. I think I did this stuff also around 35 weeks so that I was ready and able to spring into action if something happened. I wouldn’t say I really did anything outside of the box in terms of cleaning. Our home was not really bad in terms of clean. However maybe if we were stuck waiting and were over due with the pregnancy I would have done a lot more in terms of trying to get the action moving!

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Now, I am pregnant for a second time! Currently at the time of writing this I am about 18 weeks, still a long way to go! And by the time this is released and you are able to read it I will be in the middle of a move across provinces in Canada! I think if I was to predict the future I will be doing things to be able to prep for the baby by getting their room ready, we are not trying to do anything too serious or big until we know the gender. I have a few ideas on how to do the room however other than that we are just waiting to see. Another thing would be if we are having another boy I will have to re-wash some of the things that we used for my son and prepping those to get ready for the newest addition! I would like to think at the time we will be doing things to get the house up to our standards by painting, organizing and things like that. Nesting for this pregnancy also might be a lot of prepping my son for the arrival for his new sibling! Being an only child and suddenly having to share his parents might be an adjustment for him. Especially with Covid and not really socializing with people much either. Another reason why it might be a bit different is that we will be close to my family and the opportunity for them to help us might also make nesting a bit easier or look different than with our first since we were basically here alone.

There really is no right or wrong way to nest. Maybe you wont even find yourself nesting at all! For me I didn’t really think about it at the time that I was nesting until it actually was done and over with and even a few friends pointed it out! Whenever you do, if you do notice you have this little burst of energy I would for sure use this moment to the full potential for things you might have put off til closer to the birth! I know that is what I will be doing, and Ill be updating you all on if or when I notice my second pregnancy nesting and what I have done if anything differently than my first!

Did you know when you were in the nesting period?
Did your spouse notice that this was what was happening to you as it was happening?
What kind of things did you do when you were nesting?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe we had somethings in common!


Why Having a “Date Night” is Important

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Before my son was born, my boyfriend and I would go out for the occasional date nights, here and there of course. We did the normal pre-covid dating and pre-kid date nights like going to dinner and a movie, exploring different parts of the city, grabbing ice cream or going for walks in the parks. Since covid happened obviously that had drastically changed as well as the fact that we had a newborn at the time too. And family were not exactly close even if we wanted to.

When having a child, if you do have one already or are thinking about it, it really can change a relationship. Completely. I even talk about it so much in this particular post here. And no, not everything is pretty and nice when you have a baby now entering a relationship either.

My boyfriend and I are both gamers. We like to game. Sometimes we even game on different times and that is okay also too. During covid especially, and not being able to leave the house, things can be challenging to keep it simple. Sometimes we are in the same space for so long we get on one another nerves, sometimes we are in the best moods, and other times we just want to spend time together. The problem we were having was with different gaming times and taking care of our little baby, we were finding ourselves arguing about date nights. Sure, we never were able to go out in the non-conventional way, we were stuck inside. But that didnt make it any less important to me and to him to want to spend time together with one another. Eventually we decided on having an official date night!

In the beginning we had to play around with different days during the week to see what fit for us. It can be any day that you choose but for us we choose Saturdays. This was a weekend and a day he would not be working or the following day. Doing it through the week was challenging because he works and it can be tiring to stay up especially when I also had to get up with the baby the next day and take care of him all day, being tired does not help that situation either! Saturdays just eventually worked out for us in the end.

Now what do we do? Sometimes nothing. Sometimes we watch movies, binge a TV series that we are enjoying, sometimes we sit out on the deck and listen to music with the lights around just taking in the outdoors. Once we move it will be a much welcomed time for us to sit by the fire outside once we build a fire pit of course and if there is no fire ban also too! This is our time to really just spend time together. Sometimes I will get special candies or treats to make it a big event, Sometimes I will pick up chips or candy that are new and neither of us have tried because I think it will be a good idea for us to experiment together. Just silly little things. Sometimes we even put on a mindless show we don’t really have to focus on and we both sit on our phones showing one another meme’s or funny posts. Just different things that we like to do and together.

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Date night is important to us especially while having a baby and during covid because at the end of the day we are always putting our son first. We take care of him, we play with him, feed him, we bathe him. Everything is about him. Not to say it would every change and now with a second and hopefully in a few years a third along the way, our children will always be first for us. However, it is very important in a relationship to remember why we are their. That is, we both care and adore one another (Even if I can be a bit rough around the edges with attitude!) and it is important to us to remember that. We want to be able to just relax for a few hours and just do “us” for a little while. Mind you, once we are home and what not we may do a few occasional actual going out dates where we go out of the house to a movie or dinner. Since we will have my parents or sister who would be able to babysit though we obviously do not want to take advantage of that! It still will be nice to occasionally go out to restaurants that we frequented enough to know what our favorite meals and desserts at them is! From going to a place for their white chocolate brownie, or a spot with the best fries and chicken fingers around! There really is any possibility to different things that we could do for a date night and we cannot wait to just be back home again either.

Date night’s do not need to be expensive. Like I mentioned, sometimes we just watch TV shows we have been binging and get fully into it together. Other times we order food when my son is asleep, and others times we sit outside enjoying the peace and quiet. Things do not need to be expensive. If you find yourself slipping out of your relationship, even before a baby or after, ask yourself, are we really spending time together as a couple? Do we need to get back to basics? Sometimes doing a simple gesture of picking up your spouses favorite treat and surprising them is just the thing you need to be able to get back to how you truly feel. Life can be busy with and without children and sometimes you just have to get back to what happened before life took over!

What do you do for date night (If you have one already!)?

Do you do anything special or the same every week?

Let me know in the comments below, Maybe I can adapt to some of the ones you do for my own date nights!

3 Things I Would I Tell My Younger Self

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Looking back at when I was a teenager in particular, I can say that I was legit a rotten kid. I was combative with my parents, I tend to have been rude more often than not and I felt like they were out to get me. Not that I am 30, have a son and another child due towards the end of 2021, it really has given me some perspective that I didn’t think I would have if you had asked me as a teenager. Here are 3 things that I wish I could tell my younger self.

Number 1 : Your parents are not the enemy. Growing up I would say my parents were leaning more towards strict. We, meaning my siblings and I grew up in the era without cell phones til we could pay for them, and to follow the street lights. In high school we we not allowed out past 10-11pm depending if there was things we were doing and we had to check in regularly if possible too. Even though we were secretive with things as most teens are, we still had a pretty good means of communication though. I felt like my parents were the people who would do things just so I wasn’t having any fun when looking back now it really wasn’t. I know my sister mentioned this before and she agrees. There is a reason why we had to be in specific times, why is this you might ask? Because there really is nothing out here after 1030pm that is for teenagers. Not only that but a lot of times when I would hear my friends who had parents who really did not care what they did and were out all hours of the night, they often were the ones who would be getting in trouble with multiple people and in multiple places. So I guess by them being more strict than some of my friends at the time they really were doing us a favor.

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Number 2: Do better in school! I know this probably comes as no surprise but for me it was something I put on the back burner and really did not focus on. I was too busy smoking cigarettes and hanging out with the stoners.. maybe partaking in that as well, to be bothered with good grades. The funny part in all this was I never missed more than 4 classes. I always was there so that I could get exempt from exams we were allowed to miss. I wish I could tell myself to focus more on grades both in high school and collage because it may have helped a lot more when trying to apply. I went to community collage and while nothing is wrong with that, looking back I wish I had some sort of honors in school. I was just scrapping the bottom of the barrel to get by that I never really thought grades were that big of a deal. I wish I had even applied for scholarships or put some effort to maybe help myself financially by achieving good grades or even by just applying for things. I know that I failed chemistry and advanced math in my first year but I think if I had not of gotten lost in the mix of weed and wanting to look cool than maybe at the end of the day I would have been able to go to a university easier instead of collage.

Number 3: It does get better. I know this may seem like it never will but it does get better. When I was in high school everyone liked me. I could be everyone friend. I was however, never close with people. Coming right out of high school and into collage I was in an abusive relationship. It felt never ending and it felt like I was essentially trapped there for all of eternity. I wasn’t Fast forward to now, I am a 30+ year old women, with a solid relationship of almost 11 years, one son and another baby on the way. Things DO get better. The friends i made in high school who I was really close with which is not a lot, we still talk semi regularly. However a lot of people I am close with are from collage or even just friends from before high school and things. Even friends that I made from work are still around. You do not need to jump through hoops in order to feel secure. At the end of the day being popular in high school or collage does nothing for you as far as a career goes. It might help with social skills but other than that it wont get you good grades, or promotions, or job interviews. You get those on your own. And even if you are the bullied kid or you are feeling like you are lost without a specific clique to belong to, that wont matter when you are 20, or when you are 25, or when you are 30. You will find your people or they will find you and when you find them you just know.

Those would be the three things that I would tell my younger self. Im sure the longer I sit here the more things I would be able to write about what I would say. Not to mention if I was to write this in another 10 or so years I would assume that there would be more or different points that I would want to tell myself also. Everyone I am sure has something that they would tell their teenage selves. Even if it was just to let them know that everything is going to be okay!

Do you have similar things that you would want to tell your younger self?
Is there anything that you did as a teenager that was risky and are surprised that you are still kicking now?
Is your life in the spot where you expected it to be after all these years?

Let me know in the comments below!