self care

I really thought I’d be older and feel older and look older by now. I’m starting to think that 47 is a perfectly good time when you take care of yourself.

How do I take care of myself? I’ll share. I feel like women who have learned to manage stress and life need to speak up and share about it. I’ll go first. Maybe there’s one little thing that will spark an idea for a better way, so you can start feeling your best if you don’t yet. Share a life tip, healthy habit, or hack you love in the comments!

So here’s to my body, mind, soul and spirit:

Coconut oil and raw honey for everything – including skin care.

My own herbal tea blends to treat everything, no need for medications 99% of the time.

7 hours of sleep. Early to bed early to rise, unless I go to bed late and want to sleep in.

Apple Watch says I usually get 4-7 miles a day on these feet.

Less than 1400 calories a day this year- I seriously don’t need more. I went from 165 to 147 after Pastor Danny’s New Year’s sermon about counting calories and steps. Yeah, at church I learned to get an Apple Watch and My Fitness Pal. I gained 30 pounds I didn’t need after turning 40. When I stopped nursing my last baby, had some miscarriages, and kept visiting Cheese Cake Factory (and the family dinner table) with no understanding that just one typical meal was 2000 calories.

Skin care products from the Dead Sea, with no artificial ingredients.

Raw milk

Sunshine

A house full of love

15 pregnancies – blessing me with 10 healthy babies and six in heaven- all pregnancies provide regeneration to the well nourished mother’s body – through an infusion of stem cells that renew the moms body at a cellular level.

Jesus above all

I read good books

I read to my little girls

I garden and crochet

I keep my hands busy and my mind active

I never watch movies or shows alone

I never eat desserts alone, unless it’s chocolate

I light candles often, almost daily

I play peaceful music all the time in my house

Bible time and prayer with my husband every single night.

Date nights weekly, travel often (click here to read more great birthday tips from Sarah!)

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In my earlier years, I spent some time modeling. You can read about it in my biography, Windows to Our World. Now, I spend a lot more time modeling in a different way, enjoying my passions and studying my interests and doing my projects. I invest more time in modeling than I do trying to compel my kids to do their school work. I just model a love for learning, a passion for projects and show them what it looks like to live life to the fullest.

I am fully alive and totally focused on pursuing things that I am excited about. I invite them in to be part of my interest, and they invite me to be part of their learning. Anything I want to encourage them to do more of, I do myself in relation to my own interests.

I have a life, and I have adventures, and I enjoy projects and activities that have nothing to do with my kids. This is the essence of Mom-Schooling! My children see that I am a very passionate learner and I am living dreams right in the middle of raising a family. I share my accomplishments and struggles, and they share theirs.

I am curious about their learning and pursuits and they are just as interested in mine. Because I am enjoying life as a learner, they do too. I have done so many things in my life that my kids can learn from. I entered an election and became vice president of the town council. I wrote for newspapers and magazines. I made new kinds of foods and put on parties. I read books and listened to audio books. I tried to build a village, and failed. I invested, I won, and lost. I show them what fun it is to be a wife and mom. I teach them that it’s okay to eat chocolate in the morning and fill up journals with poems. I make tea for myself and some for them, and they make tea for me. I plant trees and research strange animals. I travel. My husband makes music and fixes computers and plays Pacman… We do a lot of things that we love, and we have fun. They can join us, copy us, learn from us, ignore us… and when they are gone we will still have each other and our hobbies and interests! This is Mom School!

There are a lot of things I don’t do to make time for what I love, and what I love the most… family.