Work Life Balance

So how are you holding in there? Life right now continues to be crazy and each day we are just trying to make it through. Get through the work day, try to accomplish little tasks, keep the children alive/entertained and then cooking and cleaning. This has been tough! I feel like we are just getting by and not really rocking any part of life. States are now steps to start re-open, which is great and necessary, but of course makes me nervous about everyone’s health and well-being. This quarantine time has come with economic implications - our family has kept both of our jobs, but my work will not be giving our merit based raises this year. I know that is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to seeing what will happen with jobs and income in the next year. We of course are thankful for our health and being together and having the ability to work from home. That is a blessing!

What have you been doing to stay sane during this time? For our family, we have had to do certain activities during the day and trying to stick with a schedule. We normally have breakfast around 730am and then I have rounds that start at 830am. Then from 9-945am we have our Bible study time, house chores and snacks. Then around 945am I start rounds again that go until lunch (around 1115am). The afternoons include some reading time before nap, then when the boys nap I try to do as much work as possible. In the afternoons we try to walk the dog, fit in a run or some type of play time (inside or outside). Some days go better than others and some days the schedule just falls apart.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because, this is hard! This time in life is hard for all of us. Stick with it and hang in there! You are doing a great job and you should be so proud of making it through today. I found this graphic online and I am so glad that WHO and the CDC are supporting parents during this time. I loved how this graphic talked about giving positive encouragement to your child. I have found myself many times just yelling “no!” or “stop” and I need to remember to say positive things and encourage my boys when they are making good choices.

Hang in there and know that you are not alone. We are all struggling at this whole work, life balance and I know things will continue to be different for all of us for the rest of 2020. Stay strong, find joy in the little things and if you need to hide in your bathroom for 5 minutes of peace and quiet … that is ok too, no judgement!

Giving Yourself Grace

I realized as I was looking at posts that it had been a few weeks since I had gotten a post up on my blog. I have to admit, since the beginning of the year it has been tough to stay on top of blog posts and to come up with content to share. It has been a priority that has taken a back seat as life as gotten busier and more complicated. I really enjoy having this platform to share thoughts and nutrition information with the public. This blog was created to provide a creative outlet for me and I have loved having this spot to share my thoughts.

With that being said, I have been giving myself grace when it comes to posting weekly. I have tried hard to make that happen, but it hasn’t happened consistently. I just wanted to use this opportunity to remind you to give yourself some grace. That is OK if I don’t get a post up weekly. I am doing lots of things and balancing all of that in a healthy way is important. I saw several Instagram posts recently about being OK with not having everything perfect. That spoke to me this last week. There are lots of things that I use to be able to do and stay on top of, but laundry, grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, mopping the floors and even dog walking just aren’t all getting done right away like they use to. I get laundry done and then it sits in a basket for a week, finally get it folded and it takes 2 days to put away and then it’s time to wash more clothes. The cycle never ends. I use to be able to hit up multiple grocery stores in one day and knock all the food purchasing in one day, nope … not any more. I go to Aldi and then some times find time to squeeze in another trip to Kroger (if I am lucky). Don’t get me started on my floors, I maybe get them mopped once a month.

Do you see how this list can go on and on? Do you see how it can be so easy to be hard on yourself and get depressed that things just don’t get done like they use to? This is why I think we need to make sure that we give each other some grace. My caring husband, if not at all mad that the laundry sits in the basket for a week, he is thankful for clean clothes. My children don’t care that the floor isn’t mopped, they get baths everyday. My bank account is thankful I don’t have time for shopping any more. I am working on trying to embrace this new life that is crazy, busy and chaotic. I am trying prioritize the things that are really important and then also take moments to just be present with my children. Deciding to leave the dishes until after they go to bed. Taking 10 minutes to play outside before dinner and enjoying that nightly routine of dinner, baths, reading and snuggles before they go to sleep.

There are lots of nutrition related things that I am working on and excited to share with you in the upcoming 4 months. You will have to stay tuned and I will make sure to write blog posts about these happenings as well.

Exciting Things Coming Up

• Continuing to offer outpatient counseling sessions/workshops with Mini Minds, LLC in Carmel, IN. If you know of anyone in need of nutrition counseling services, let me know!

• Preparing FNCE presentation that is due at the end of September and then presenting in Philadelphia at the end of October.

• Putting together a rough draft for 2 chapters on Pediatric Nutrition for the IAND Nutrition Care Manual that is due at the end of September and first draft due in December.

• Giving a presentation on Sharing Nutrition Topics on Social Media that will be to RDNs in Lafayette in November.

• Putting together presentation on Baby Led Weaning for NICU RDNs in the Indianapolis area that will be presented in December.

• Continuing to serve as the Strategic Partnership Coordinator for IAND and we are hosting a booth with activities for Girl Scouts on October.

• Working at the Social Media Chair for CIAND and helping to share upcoming events via social media.

As you can see there is always plenty of things going on and lots of things to continue to juggle as we approach the fall and holiday season. I am excited for the months that are ahead and excited to be able to share some amazing projects that I am working on. So stay tuned and i will continue to work hard to put together some blog posts to share these exciting happenings with you all!

Can You Really Have It All?

So disclaimer, this post isn't one about nutrition advice or exercise recommendations. This one is for women out there who have felt that tug between their work/career and their family. For me this is about being a mother, wanting to have kids and continuing in my career. I know I have heard that you can't have it all and I believe that in life we make compromises. We give up things in order to do other things. I wanted to take the time and write up my struggle and feelings. I feel like as women, it is different for us compared to men. We are different beings and that should be celebrated. Lots of times though I feel a sense of guilt about struggling with this choice between a family and work. 

I, like lots of my peers, finished my 4 year college degree and got a job. I have been a Registered Dietitian for 7 years and I now moved through being a novice in my field into more of an expert. I don't know everything, but after passing that 5 year milestone, I feel like I know some things, but of course have way more I want to learn. I would say that I have a career. I have a specialty area where I work that I love. I am good at it and I enjoy the challenges. I have learned some new things about myself as well - my desire to write and possibly run my own business in the future. I enjoy educating people about my specialty area. I have learned those things about myself over the last 7 years and I have worked hard to be good at what I do. 

I am also a mother and have a child. A 15 month old little one, who I love and enjoy spending time with. Now I have this desire to spend time with him and I have thought about do I want to keep working? Being a mother starts bringing all these questions into your mind that never had been there before. I start wondering if that is something I would want to do? If I didn't have a child, I never would be asking these questions. But now, I feel like I am being asked to choose; between being a Mom or continuing with my career. What I find frustrating is this idea that I HAVE to choose. That some how my desire to continue with my career shows a lack of desire to be the best mother I can be. I know not everyone thinks that, but that is the mindset that society puts on us. 

I believe that as a woman, you have to choose what is best for your family. What do you want from life? What do you want to do? That is what Chas kept asking me the other night. Not what would I would be willing to do for my family. Not what I think I could see myself doing if I had to. The simple question ... where do I see myself in 5 years? Right now, what do I see myself doing? 

As I look into my crystal ball, I see myself working and continuing in my specialty area of dietetics. I would love to have another child, but I understand that additional strain that would put on me as a working mother. I can't help, but want to have it all. I have worked too hard for my career to just step away from that, but at the same time I want to be the best mother I can to my son and hopefully future children. 

I don't have an easy answer to that questions ... where do you see yourself in 5 years? I have hopes and dreams. As a woman, I just want to celebrate other woman out there in that pursuit of "having it all." We give up time with our children to pursue our career and we hope that teaches our children how to be successful later in life. We are mothers, but we are also more than just that vocation. We are still the women that went to college to pursue our dreams and in the end, when our children move out, we will still be those women with our aspirations. Is you choose to stay home with your babies or go to work and snuggle your little ones at night ... doing what is best for you and your family is always the right choice!  

Work, Life Balance

I had someone mention to me the other day ... "I don't know how you do it all?" I am sure from the outside it can easily look like I have it all together. Social media has a way of only showing the highlights of life. None of us just post our boring weekday evenings, washing the dishes or folding laundry. It is easy to compare ourselves to one another. We look at other working Moms and wonder how they find time to take their kids on a walk and then also cook dinner that evening. Often I feel like working mothers feel this constant pull in so many different directions. I know that I will see stay at home moms on social media and I am often jealous that they don't have to fit a traditional work schedule into their routines. 

This comparison is not healthy. Social media is just a quick snap shot into people's lives and never shows the whole picture. I thought it would be a good idea to just touch on work, life balance and maybe share some recommendations to help you. I do not claim to have everything in order and all of this figured out. I am just a working mom who is going through life, doing her thing and then using this blog platform to tell you about my experiences. 

Time Management 

I think any mother would tell you that time management is part of motherhood. As soon as you become responsible for another little human, you have to start managing your own time. To help with my own work, life balance I have accepted the fact that I do the same things over and over again. Each day I get up at 6am. I get ready before William wakes up. Then I load the car with the bags that I packed the night before. I go to work. Then after work I have about 30-45 minutes that I can fit in some physical activity before picking up William. Then the night time routine starts when we get home: make dinner, clean up after dinner, bath for William, put William down, pack lunches, and get myself ready for bed by 10-11pm. Then this cycle repeats each day. Managing my time each day is the only way that "everything" gets done. Taking the time to figure out what your schedule looks like and then account for each hour of each day will help you prioritize what needs to get done. If I have any tasks left undone and it is already 11pm then I just call it a day and head to bed. I need that 7-8 hours of sleep a night and that is a priority for me! 

Support System 

To maintain whatever schedule you create for yourself and your family, you need help! You need the support of your friends and family. There will be days that things don't go right and the schedule get totally messed up. There will be times you will be asked to help with something that you didn't anticipate. Being able to call on those friends and family members at those times will keep you sane. For example, there was a week day when I decided we needed to go see a family member. I had to make a few extra stops after work and I called up our amazing nanny. She helped me by assisting William with making a card. I didn't have the time to do that with him, but with her help and support we were able to get that done. Having those support people in your life to help you is so important. Even if it is someone you can complain to at the end of the day. Just having a shoulder to cry on is important. 

"Relax Days" 

Having a schedule and sticking to that routine throughout the week is great, but we all need some down time. When we can relax and just wear our pajamas all day and don't care. That is the weekend for me. I try to not set an alarm on Saturdays so that I can just sleep until William gets up. That is so liberating. After the hustle and bustle during the week, that quiet, care free start to the weekend is a must. It provides some time to help re-charge those batteries and gear up for the upcoming week. This past weekend, I came down with a cold. I let myself take a nap on Saturday and Sunday! When William slept I took a 2 hour nap with him. It was the best thing ever. I knew that I need to slow down and take that time for myself. Those "relax days" are an important part to the whole work, life balance dance. Without them, you can easily get burnt out and then be left feeling so overwhelmed. 

Working Moms

I have a new round respect for working mothers. I didn't realize how crazy life is being a working mom. It is a totally different experience than what I ever imagined. I have learned so much about myself and realized what I am/am not couple of over these last 5 months of being a mother. 

Things I have learned, as a working mother ... 

1. You can survived on little sleep. In fact, you can do better than survive you can go into work, do your job for 8hrs, come home, do tasks around the house and you can accomplish all of this while waking up 4 times during the night. 
2. You can multi-task and do at least 12 things at once. It is amazing how my multi-tasking skills have improved over the last 5 months. I can think of at least 3 things I need to do while completely another task and then start in on working on those 3 things I was just thinking of. 
3. Must plan ahead. So the next day to do smoothly, everything has to be ready and put together the night before. That is only way this entire operation functions smoothly. So each night there is whole routine that must get accomplished - the lunches get packed, bottles get labeled, diapers get rinsed, and the bags get all packed for the next day. 
4. If it outside of the normal routine ... it won't happen. The things that I have forgot/messed up have been changes to my routine. If there is something that I have to do outside my normal rhythm of things, then chances are that I am going to goof it up and something is going to get over looked. 
5. My personal time has decreased quite a bit. That means that my time end up being at the when I drive to work, when I have time to take a shower and when I finally lay down in bed for the night. The entire rest of my day is filled with taking care of things at work and coming home and taking care of my family. 
6. I do laundry ALL the time. I have a love/hate relationship with my washer/dryer. I love putting all the dirty clothes and diapers into the washer and and getting them out of the dirty clothes hamper. It is such a great feeling, but then when the laundry is done in the dryer I have to fold it and put it away and that is part that I don't enjoy. 
7. My exercise time has to happen during the day or in the evening with William. My time to exercise isn't have flexible has it use to be. This means in the evenings that if I work it, it is normally with William and we go running. If I want to go to the gym or do yoga I have to take time during my lunch break to fit that in. 
8. Cooking dinner can be tough. Have the time/energy to prepare dinner is challenging. Learning how to balance grocery shopping and then food prep with a baby is tough. I think that I have a nice rhythm down .... finally. I go to the grocery on the weekend and get items for the upcoming week. Then I make sure that whatever I am cooking can be done in about 30 minutes. That is the only way we end up with a warm, nutritious dinner is if I have something already in the refrigerator I can prepare and it takes no longer than 30 minutes. 
9. I love my job. I really do love what I do every day. I enjoy the challenging and using my brain in a different way than I use it the rest of the time. Some times I wish that I could be hanging out with William or puppy, but I also work to really value my time away from work. In the evenings, I try to be present and spend as much time with William before bed time. I really value that time with him. 
10. Some times I need to step away. It is so easy to get caught up in the all the things with work, extra activities and then hectic-ness of running a house. Sometimes I have to disengage with all the extra things and just relax. This weekend I had that chance. I took a nap with William on Saturday and on Sunday ... gasp! I know! I can't remember the last time I actually took a nap. It had been too long and let me tell you it was glorious. 

Life is crazy and being a working mom is even harder, but I love it. I am so thankful for my amazing job, great co-workers, and my wonderful family. I am glad to have a flexible job and the chance to do what I enjoy. I am still working hard to keep all of this in balance and some days go better than others. To all my working mothers out there ... keep it up. If you work outside or inside the home ... it all counts and it is all a challenge.