Alot .Of. Tola

Being a working mom, life does tend to be very unpredictable. But it also teaches you to think quickly on the spot to fight these things. Just like many working parents, I have been home with my kids for a few weeks now(It feels like 2 years honestly); being mom, teacher, chef, driver, and personal assistant while completing my job and take care of my self. It's been pretty challenging these last few weeks, but working from home with little children has pushed me to learn and implement a few tricks to help be present and assist my kids in the best way I can. Here are some ways I have been able to help the transition for both myself and my family.

Set expectations with the team you work with; help them to understand the reality of you working from home. Understand that the standards while working in the office, will differ while at home because it’s a different environment now.
Have a designated work area/space: This allows you to have consistency and have a go-to location like when you were heading to the office. This will allow you to stay organized and mentally shift into work mode.
Create some type of structure/routine for both yourself and the kids: Honestly, when you have kids, it’s hard to plan out your dad and follow through. But having a rough schedule highlighting the important things you want to accomplish is so important. This will help to plan what the day will look like.
Restructure your routine: Understand that both your morning and nighttime routines will have to change. You might have to get up before everyone to get some alone time to complete some work for the day. Understand that some days might have to drag on a little longer to get work done late at night. I have also learned to accept that I just won’t be able to work at my maximum capacity like I do while at the office.
Give yourself grace, understand that you are juggling a lot more than you are used to at this time. It isn't as easy as it seems, so take each day at a time, and don't be so hard on yourself.

This has been an interesting experience, and some days are better than others but the biggest thing for me was changing mindset from being a super working mom and realizing that it’s a different time, and the norm has changed.

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Once your kids get to an age where they start to understand what is going on and also get the concept of birthdays and birthday parties, then you have to put a little more thought into planning those birthday parties. But as much as you would love to give them the entire world and go all out for those birthday parties, you also have to be realistic and keep it within budget. So I thought I would share some ways to make it a fun and memorable party, but keep it easy on your wallet as well.

Keep it very low maintenance, something as simple as a backyard party or if you don't own a home doing it at the pool in your apartment or club house. This saves you money from having to plan an extravagant party, or having to worry about paying for a hall space or purchasing a party package from you local party locations.
Seek out cheaper options, the dollar store and even the dollar spot at Target are always life savers, you can get so many good items either to entertain the guest or for your goodies gift bags.
Stick to non-traditional themes, so instead of doing a popular Disney movie theme, mix it up and do something more in line with colors. Or instead of my little pony theme, do a unicorn theme birthday party. You can check out the site basic invite to get amazing different birthday party invitation that not only affordable, but give you variety of options to stay on theme for whatever theme you decide to with. They offer a custom party invitations at the fraction of the cost which is amazing for the mama that wants to have a party that looks and feels like she spent a fortune, but her wallet doesn't feel it.

Buy store bought cakes rather than doing a custom order. Stores like whole foods or Sam's club have beautiful inexpensive cake options that are also delicious
Keep it low key, sometimes we get overly excited to do it up for our kids. But honestly when they are young, they could careless they just want their parents there and the people that matter the most. So keep it low key and make it close family and friends, less people means less foods and less spending.

I know that pressure we put on ourselves as moms to go the extra mile for our kids and give them the world, but we have to also be smart about it. I think celebrating your child's birthday and marking that age in their life is necessary but it doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg!

What are some ways you plan and celebrate your child'd birthday on a budget?

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After you get out of holiday mode and start to get back into life as you know it, that can also mean getting yourself and your family out of holiday habits and routines. I don't know about your guys but, honestly from thanksgiving till after the new year I tend to find myself in this phase of constant snacking and just eating everything within sight. So now I am trying to transition us back to healthier new year habits, by making very minor but much needed changes

More outdoor activities, during the holidays and the two weeks that the girls were out of school, we ended up being indoors a lot more than I would have liked to be so for the new year I plan to try more outdoor activities to take us out of the house and away from our screens. More park days, taking a walk around the neighborhood, and some good ole running around outside

Meal Planning, it is so easy to want to order pizza or just have the entire family go out to dinner because you got too lazy to prepare dinner. Or you get back from work and the last thing you want to do is stand in a kitchen and prepare a meal. But if you stay ahead of it, by preparing the entire line up of food over the weekend for either the week ahead or even in some cases I have heard people prepare their meals for a month ahead, its a chance to prepare healthier meal options and also you are saving money so win win situation!

Staying active, I never quite understood why moms had their kids in so many sport activities but being a mom now I get it. Especially in a world where kids end up spending so much time indoors and behind screens. Putting them in some type of physical activity, where they get to burn energy and also it keeps me accountable for my own fitness journey
Incorporate more fruits and veggies, especially when you have young kids. It can be so easy to incorporate more fruits and veggies, be the example of for them if they see you eating and enjoying it then they are more willing to want to enjoy it.
Switch out juices for more water, I recently got into sparkling waters and so I have been using that as the perfect substitute for juice and soda

I know it will take some time to get my entire family aligned with the lifestyle changes, but just being the example and staying on top of things with time it will become the norm.

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After the holidays it almost feels like my body and mind just seems to still be stuck on holiday mode and can't quite snap out of it. By the time the new year rolls around, I am having to pep talk myself back into the swing of things, and make sure I can get going on all the goals and various things I have set out to accomplish for the year. So this year to get ahead of things and not allow my January to run away from me before I know it, I am implementing some minor ways to mentally reset after the holidays.

Clear out my Christmas decor within the first few days of the year. This one can be hard, because the decorations tend to keep the spirit of Christmas alive and I mean who can look at Christmas lights and not instantly get into a good mood. But, that also gets us stuck in Christmas mode. So this year, we actually took down the Christmas decoration on new year day. I saw it as a great way to start the new year, everything fresh and cleaned up.
Purge out your refrigerator, all those holiday left overs that have been seating in your refrigerator. The Christmas desserts that you packed away that you probably have no real plans to eat except as a late night snack, just go ahead and toss it out. Creating space for fresh new meals that you will be making in the new year, fresh and healthy!

Get back into schedule/routine, during the holiday especially with everyone being on break routines everything slowly makes it to the back burner. But in other to shake off that holiday and vacation lifestyle, you are gonna need to get back to your routines. Get back to going to bed when you usually do, waking up with your alarm rather than just hitting the snooze button.
Plan ahead, take some time to plan out your year. For me I actually purchased a calendar and went through the entire year and plugged in important dates like birthdays, vacation, no school days, appointments and so on. By doing this, it clears it out of my head and it gives me a chance to see what is to come and plan ahead.
Write down your goals, this year I am very intentional about writing down my goals and having visual representation of everything I am setting my sight on for 2020. By writing it down and having it where its constantly in my face and I am always reminded of it. This keeps me motivated to get my stuff together and achieve what I need to.

Being a mama to young kids the holiday season end up being such a busy and hectic season, trying to keep up with all the endless to-do lists as well as trying to make sure you make it memorable for the entire family. So after all that running around, usually you kind of want to rest up some more and so those first few weeks of the new year is spent recouping, but hopefully taking the right steps to mentally shift your mindset rather than lazying around or being in limbo.

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