My husband and I will be married 13 years this September. We have three adorable kids, ages 7, 5, and 8 months. I enjoy reading, exercising, playing with my kids and spending time with my friends. Although I am far from being a photographer, I love taking pictures of everything my kids and I do together. I also enjoy keeping our family blog (jimandcanmarks.blogspot.com), which is also our family journal and scrapbook, up-to-date. I love traveling and seeing new places!
When I received the request to do a guest post on this blog I was extremely honored and very, very overwhelmed. I do not consider myself very good at any one thing but I guess I am pretty good at many things. We’ll see how I do at this.
I know it is way late for resolutions but what can I say, I’m a procrastinator. All right, I’m not really just making my resolutions, (even I’m not that big of a procrastinator), but writing this post has helped me evaluate my New Year goals to see where I’m at with each of them. Plus, I believe you should never give up on bettering yourself.
Two years ago I quit working after 20 years to stay home full-time with my 3 kids. I have really struggled after quitting. My job was my identity; it made me who I was. I really enjoy being ‘just a mom’ but have really struggled with me and who I am. So, this year I decided to start a journey to not only find “me” but to better myself as well. I know this makes me sound selfish but I figure better me= better wife and mom. Okay, that’s my justification but it makes me feel better so it works. Here are some of the things I decided to do to find myself and make me a better me.
Face your fears, do something that scares you, like write a guest post for a blog that is a very popular blog 😉 or take a pole dancing aerobic class when you are extremely uncoordinated (yes I did this and laughed at myself the entire time). I’m also doing a mommy models contest this summer even though I absolutely hate having my picture taken.
Set a goal to do something you’ve never done before and possibly thought you’d never do. I decided to run a ½ marathon before I turn 35. I don’t absolutely love to run but figured this would be a two-fold goal. First, I’d do something I have never really wanted to do and second, it would help motivate me to work at losing my baby weight.
Take a leap of faith. After 20 years of working I quit my job to be ‘just a mom’. I really didn’t know how I was going to do this, both financially and mentally. Luckily the financial stuff has kind of worked out on its own and I’m continuing to work on the mental stuff each and every day, even after two years.
Learn new things. Some things I am learning are to plant a garden, bottle the food from my garden, make homemade bread and rolls, and get food storage for my family. Some of these have been pretty easy to do and others have been quite overwhelming, but I continue to work at mastering each one.
Take time do something for yourself every day. Even if it’s just ten minutes a day to file and paint my nails, anything that’s just for me and makes me feel good about myself.
Exercise every day. Come on, when you feel good about yourself physically it makes it easier to feel better about yourself in all other aspects of your life.
Keep in mind I am not a professional at making myself a better person, far from it. And when I look at these goals that I set for myself, I realize I have quite a ways to go on many of them but I am a work in progress and as long as I’m working, I’m growing.
How do you better yourself?? What do you enjoy doing??
(I would love to hear ideas from other women – things you do just for yourselves.)
Good luck to all of you on your journey as wives, mothers, employees, etc.
– Candace
Great post! I did this same thing 9 years ago. I’m a homebody so I love nurturing my little garden, taking care of my kids and my husband and our puppies. But, I think we all need to stay active both physically and mentally. I walk/run (have a goal to run a 5K by my next birthday … the big 40) and I volunteer at my kids’ school once a week and whenever they need me. It keeps me going, and still involved with my kids.
thanks for sharing!! i’ve been on a journey this year as well…to better myself. i don’t think it’s selfish at all to take care of yourself!! it’s def makes you (me!) a better mother and wife. =)
ps your chidren are adorable!
Hey I loved your post today and wanted to thank you for it. 🙂
Good for you, Candace! Think how much better this world would be if EVERYONE tried to improve themselves the way you are. Great post!
I actually feel that I am on the other end of the stick here; I am a 23 year-old married woman, who works full time as a nanny while my husband is also working and trying to get back into school. I love our church, but it is very small and my husband and I are the only (yes, truly) young couple who does not yet have children. It is so hard for me to have to go away to work everyday while everyone else is staying home and having babies. Also, we don’t have much other “friendship” type situations outside of church unfortunately. We just don’t have that much time.
I often feel like a stay at home mom myself, since I nanny two young babies nine hours a day, lol. It’s a great job, but I do get lonely, and they aren’t my kids. So I know how frustrating it can feel at times, especially when you’re juggling grumpy kids and you are tired as well.
The things that keep me going are: Taking an hour-long walk with the kiddos each day, spending time relaxing on the couch in the evening with my husband, and looking forward to our weekend plans. Pretty typical I guess! ;oD We don’t have kids yet, but are both exhausted all the time anyway, so it’s an interesting balance.
Keep up the good attitude about staying home with your babies, there are not enough women who understand what it really means to be there for your children! I know, I worked in a daycare for a year and saw those kids every day. Your kids will thank you for it one day. 🙂
I love the feeling of bettering yourself. Great suggestions! Thanks Candace!
Great post, Can (you closet writer, you!)
Candace – Your post rocked girl. No reason to be scared at all about guest posting, you did a great job. I actually saved your goals so that I could maybe begin to follow some of them too. Thanks for the reminder that one is never to good to better themselves, it’s a constant job. Sometimes we tend to lose ourselves in our day to day routine but I agree, I can always do something to better myself.