Blog, Maisie Monday

5 Things This Puppy Taught Me

Some Puppies Really Have All the Energy

I have had a few dogs in my years and have trained even more, but I have yet to own a dog with the energy this pup seems to have. We have to make sure she gets tons of exercise or she can be a bit of a brat. Our original routine was to walk a few miles up to 4 and then spend some time at the dog park. Right now since she is in heat we have increased the distance of walking to 5 miles.

She Knows How to Communicate

All dogs learn how to communicate with their owners over time. Most make cute little eyes to help get you to give them treats or will whine at the door. This is not always a behavior they pick up on when they are very young, but our puppy started immediately. We got her at 7 weeks and she was doing this within a few weeks. It is great but also annoying because she will also bark just because she wants to take a stroll up the driveway.

Dogs in Heat are Weird

We have never had a dog that has gone into heat, but per the newer recommendations, she is to have one heat cycle before we spay her. Seems easy enough, but it has come with a list of strange behaviors that send me into what is wrong with the dog mode. She spent a good two weeks being even more scared of things, tucking her tail and wanting to leave the park at the slightest loud sound. Now we are at the part of the cycle where she wants to go out all the time, like every 5 minutes, literally. She wants to pull more, and her appetite has gone down. All of these are signs of being in heat, but for me, many of them make me worried that something else is wrong.

Sticks are the Devil

All dogs like to chew on things, pick up sticks and chomp away. My last dog loved to carry sticks twice her size through the woods, but this puppy seems to think that all sticks are horrible things that need to be punished for existing. She will grab every stick we pass and fight it to the death, then move on to the next. All size sticks are guilty of being the devil, some even while still attached to the tree they belong to.

My House Would Feel Empty

We got this puppy just a few months after we had to put our last dog to sleep. We didn’t intend to get another dog right away. We had said we were going to wait, but you could feel the emptiness in the house. The kids felt more alone when they were home, and it just seemed wrong. Yes, this puppy has changed our entire routine and thrown the day into chaos but without her, the house felt empty. My children have never grown up without a dog, I had one my whole life except those few years in college when I was in a dorm. We had no choice but to get one and I would never trade in my strange weird different puppy although I do wish she would get tired after a long walk.

Want to see more of the puppy? Be sure to check out our Instagram where every Monday we show you what she is doing!

Self Care Sunday

Self-Care Sunday, Jan 15th, 2023

Self-Care Sunday 2023 is going to look a bit different. In the past I have spent time creating posts that help you to think of things that could be considered self-care, coming up with ideas and suggestions about how to work these ideas into your week. This year however we are approaching self-care Sunday with a fresh new look. Sundays will still be here for your self-care needs, but there will only be a blog post once a month, the other Sundays I will be taking you along with me on hikes, or showing you parts of my daily routine, maybe even a sneak peek at a good book. I want my experience trying to give myself more me time to be reflected in all that I am showing you, so to do that I have taken the pressure off to produce some blog post every week. Instead, I am going to invite you along on different things I am up to that are for me.

This week I spent time hanging with a few friends, drinking coffee, chatting, and making soil blocks. We headed over to a local community garden and helped them to make soil blocks for them to use when planting those first few crops that you want to start for the spring. I love the setup at this garden, they have a great space and tons of people that came out to support and help get things done. It was a fun way to help give back and get to hang out with friends.

What else have I been up to in terms of self-care? Well, first my daily walk with the puppy helps, it gives me time to just be with myself, listen to a podcast, or just listen to the birds and other wildlife we come across. I am not going to the gym currently so the walks also get me in some form of workout for the day that is better than running around at work and hoping it is enough. The other thing that I have been doing is being sure to spend quality time on the weekends with my husband. We spend all week on opposite schedules so on the weekends we like to do as much together as possible and I enjoy making us meals that we will love. Our kids can be super picky so all week my husband makes meals that they will enjoy and on the weekends I make things that they may not want to eat but we have been wanting to try. This week alone I have made burgers, gnocchi, and ravioli.

What have you done this week? This month? Or even just today to be sure you have given yourself some time for you? Comment below or post a picture in Instagram and tag us!

Blog

Are We Making Soap?

Some of you may have heard me tease some of the new products we are thinking about adding to the line-up. These ranged from more bath bombs with super fun shapes to the possibility of soap!

But are we making soap? The short answer is yes, the long answer is it is on the to-do list. I found and started following a very impressive soap maker on Instagram and decided that this is the kind of soap I want to make. This soap is something that I believe will add something fun and necessary to the products I already have. I love this style of soap because it allows me to be really creative in a way that makes the product not just something functional but also something fun to look at.

Amazing Soaps from Instagram!

Soap however is on the to-do list. Unlike creating bath bombs there is a much greater learning curve with soap. I have had to begin by researching terms like saponification (in layman’s terms the process that must occur to give your soap.) Then I had to compare the processes between cold and hot process soaps. Which will be best for me and the designs I want to create? I also had to research materials, like lye, what is it and how dangerous is it really to work with? Find the supplies like the correct containers and molds, plus the right safety gear so that when I soap I am being as safe as possible. Lastly a recipe. How do I make one up, what are terms like superfat, and how do I know I am doing this right?

As you can see soap making is a whole different ball field from bath bombs and those took a lot of learning about as well. My current plan is to delve into the field of cold-process soap making, which means I have to come up with a recipe or two to try, make the batches, cut them, and let them cure (4-6wks) before I can even see if the results are worthy enough to add to the line-up. Then I have to learn how to make cool designs in the soap similar to what you see from these other soapers but unique enough to not be a copy.

Therefore soap is for sure on the list but it may not be until spring or even summer before you see our first bar. This will all depend on how well I can figure out the steps and process while also keeping up with the rest of the business, homeschooling, and homesteading (don’t worry my plate is not too full.)

Tell me below if I can make it happen what kind of themed soap would you like to see? Do you have a scent in mind? Shapes, colors, or even ones made for men? Send me your ideas they will help me when I brainstorm and you never know you could see your suggestion come to life!

Blog

Homesteading in the Winter

It is winter here in NC so what does that mean for our homestead? In the area of NC where we live our winters aren’t back-to-back snow storms and freezing weather, but it is a lot of up and down temps and lots of rain. So many days it feels like we are just growing mud, which sadly doesn’t yield much profit. What are we up to then during these months?

First, remember we are not a huge homestead, we work on trying to grow as much food as possible and raising our birds. So that means that we focus on planning the garden, and keeping the birds happy. Step one of prepping the garden was to be sure that the garlic was well covered. We planted the garlic back in the fall and it needs to stay under a nice deep bed until the late spring when it will be about ready to pull out.

Step two is planning what we are going to plant this year. If you look back at last year’s post about starting the garden you can see I have a large area to cover and honestly did not get the amount done I would have liked to. That means this year I am going to try a different approach, starting with checking all my old seeds by sprouting a few of each type that I have left over. This will help me to narrow down what I actually need to buy.

I have already gotten my seed catalog and begun circling things I think we may use. I am still working on narrowing down the best varieties and amounts of each seed that we need, although I have yet to figure out what we need to make it through the summer and have extra to can. The only thing that I know I get right is the number of potatoes I need to order which tends to be a whole crap ton. I get my seed potatoes from Fifth Season Gardening in Greensboro and tend to be one of the customers that get the most.

How is the planning this year going to be different? I am starting earlier, last year I was very late getting going but this year I am starting now! I also have a great journal that I plan to use to help me get my thoughts and goals straight. I still have the map I made last year of the garden with all the measurements and the potential placement of the beds. I plan to start going one bed at a time and re-creating their borders and adding the soil to raise the beds. I will then plant some cover crops that will help keep things happy until I need the bed.

But why raised beds? My garden is in a great place in terms of sun, however, the soil at one ends gets and stays very wet after every rain, which means I need to raise my beds. I raise them in a few ways. I make hügelkultures in some spots, in others a standard raised bed, and in others, some made using fencing to keep the soil contained. I have realized that raising the beds on top of the wet soil helped to keep the beds moist underneath and allowed me to not have to water as often after a good rain.

Other than garden planning I spend this time getting ideas put down of all the things I think we need to fix or improve on. This year I know that we need to fix some fencing and fill some holes on the property. Plus I would like to make some improvements to my chicken coop to keep it as strong as possible. Last year we had some predators get into the coop and kill a good number of our birds in early spring because there were holes in the fencing that we had missed, so this year I want to get out there earlier to double-check everything. We also have some areas where some animals look like they have been burrowing and I would like to fill those in.

What do we do in the winter? A lot of little things to get ready for the spring, planning and fixing things as we are able. As we grow this list will get longer, it may come to include the care of more animals or a larger garden to plan. We are not big yet, we are still slowly learning how to do all of the things needed to be successful and have even more food come from our own property.

What do you guys do? How do you spend your winters? Do you have a homestead? a farm? or just a little garden? I would love to hear about your winter plans and what you are getting ready for.

Blog

Finding Your Homeschool Crowd

Homeschooling is hard. First off you have to figure out what and how to teach your children while being put under a microscope by most of the people you meet or even your family. Secondly, you have to fight with yourself daily, over things like, if the kids are where they need to be, are they getting out enough and learning how to be social, are you even doing anything right? Well, these along with a long list of other things that can weigh on your mind as a homeschooler is why you need to find your homeschool crowd.

Just like in any activity you need to find others that are doing what you are in a way similar to you. People you can relate to and complain with (trust me you want to find your complain with crowd, we all need one.) But how do you find your crowd when you homeschool? How do you find events and playgroups for your kids? The first place to start is social media. As much as we all have our problems with social media the one thing it does give us is an excellent network to find others that are doing what we are doing. I personally am in a number of groups, some of which I am very active in, some where I am a fly on the wall, and some that I have started myself. There are groups for everyone, no matter how you choose to teach your child. Some take members from everywhere and are designed to be a support group as well as a good way to find out about other groups local to you. Others are area-specific and you can find them by searching for groups based in your area.

Hike Group

If you like me find your area limited in what they offer you can always start your own. When I started homeschool 10 years ago the area I live in had just a few groups and many were not what I was looking for, so I started my own. The group I started was a homeschool hiking group and the purpose was for people to come out to a different trail each week to hike, explore and socialize. I have met so many amazing people through this group and this was how my kids and I found our first good friends. I did not make this group into anything specific about homeschooling, it was just designed to get people out in a relaxed atmosphere to chat and get some outdoor time.

I am also part of a local activity group. Things like park days, field trips, an art get-together, and so on are put up in this group. Through this group, I got my book club. This was done for me. I love meeting up with other mothers and reading a book each month. We all have different views and opinions about the books so the discussion time is always tons of fun. Being in this group led me to another great thing you can find for your kids, a co-op. There are a few other co-ops in my area but they were not a good fit for us. Through my book club, I found out about a new co-op that sounded like just what we needed. Then of course the dreaded Covid hit and put the co-op on hold until this past fall when we were finally able to hold classes.

Catching Snakes with friends and brothers

So far we have had an amazing experience at our co-op. My kids get to meet up with others twice a week. They get to learn, play and just socialize in the ways they need. I get to teach and meet other families that school in similar ways to us. It is a great feeling to have a group to get together with twice a week and know that both my children and I get to hang out with others. This group has been especially good for my youngest who has always struggled to fit in but has found a good number of kids to hang out with each week.

The most important thing about finding your people is that you actually have to look for them. When we homeschool we have to be willing to get out there and try things and meet people. I know many of you might read that and say no way I am not extroverted enough to meet people, but you have to! I know it sounds like a tall order but think about the fact that both you and your kids will benefit from having a group no matter what size to navigate the twists and turns of homeschool.

Fun at co-op

Once you have found some groups on social media take a moment to post a little intro about you, and your kids, you may even want to let people know the general area you live in. This will give you an idea of how many people leave near you and some may even suggest other local groups that they know of. Now you have to do the hard part, reach out to a few people, plan a park day meet up, or check out that group or co-op mentioned and see what you think. Just because you head to an event or meet a family at a park doesn’t mean that you have to again. Maybe you realize they are not what you were hoping for, and that is fine but you need to try again.

Homeschooling can be lonely, parenting can be lonely and when you are doing both without a few friends that are in it with you, things may begin to feel even more isolating. So get out there, meet some people, try some events and find your crowd. Your homeschooling experience will greatly benefit from it, as will your mental health!!!

Blog

Self-Care Sunday, April 17th, 2022

Last weekend started early for me, on Thursday! My husband and I took some much-needed time for ourselves by going to see one of our favorite bands, Drake White and the Big Fire. We love going to see them when we can, their concerts are something truly special, especially since the fact that Drake is performing at all is a miracle. In August of 2019, he suffered from an AVM (read more about his AVM here or head here to listen to his TED Talk) which almost killed him, and did leave him having to learn how to walk again. Listening to his story and his positive attitude can only lift you up and make you feel great.

Never heard of Drake White? Here was my favorite part of the show!

After this, we both had Friday off, with a great surprise as our niece and nephew showed up. We hadn’t seen our nephew in 2 years so we took them and our boys out all day, everyone got along and had a wonderful time. It was such a nice relaxing family day, no one was stressed about having to be at work, or having to get school accomplished the perfect start to the rest of the weekend.

Today, as you are reading this I want you to take out your planner, open that calendar app, or check the schedule on the fridge and see where there is time, any time. Can you carve out 20min a few times this week to just do for you? Maybe you can only find one day but there is a whole free hour. Find that time now and add it to your schedule in Big Letters: ME TIME! Schedule it now so you can see it and not add other plans, and DO NOT cancel on yourself. You are the one person you should never cancel on.

After you have found your day and time come back here and comment below. Then decided on what you want to do. Read? Take a bath? Go out for a drink? Put this on your calendar as well, then come here and tell us about it. Everyone that posts about what their me-time looks like will get a check-in on Saturday in the comments to see if you truly had your me-time. I will post what I plan to do as well that way we all can be ready for the upcoming weekend!

Self Care Sunday

Self-Care Sunday, March 27th, 2022

My husband said yesterday that this weekend was Angela weekend. I gave him a look that was said “um No…” to which he responded, “yes it has been, think about what you have done this weekend.” He then rattled off all the things we had done and how really it was all centered around what I wanted to do. So yes maybe he was right. Let me tell you about my weekend.

To start I went up to my Alma Mater to hang out with my professor and good friend. He was having a get-together of German students, with pizza, soccer, and just general hanging out. My husband was supposed to come but had to work, so I just went and got to hang out without the kiddies. Somehow I got convinced to participate in the soccer game. A few quick things about me, soccer, and well running in general. I usually don’t play soccer or run much (I have a bad knee that hates when I run), but here I was in the middle of a soccer game with kids half my age (it hurts me to say half my age.) I had to actually run, kick the ball and in general be a part of the game. It was fun, I even scored, but when we were done I had to go back to my friend’s house and ice down my knee. I got to hang out there with other adults for a few hours before going home. So for sure Friday was a day for me.

Now we get to Saturday. I had an event at my friend Rodney’s Coffee Shop (check his shop out here) so again no kids. I love going to his shop for events because even when it is slow we still enjoy each other’s company and listening to great music. After this event ended he was hosting a paint party at the shop which I, of course, signed my husband and me up to participate in. For all of you that don’t know my husband does not do art, but he knew I wanted him to come, so he sucked it up (got coverage for 2 hrs from work) and came to paint. I am going to assume he had a good time and we both had some nice paintings in the end.

Okay, so yes so far Friday and Saturday seem like a me focused day, but we still have Sunday. Sunday was also for me. I met some friends at a coffee shop (a Sunday routine), without my husband (still working) and kids. Then I sat here writing this masterpiece for you and will conclude my day with having book club. I love the Sundays I have book club. We started our book club the year before the dreaded Covid hit, and the person that started it decided not to continue running it during the Covid year, and I took over because having book club is great. The ladies that come to meet up are amazing and the books we pick are normally excellent so I couldn’t let it fall apart.

A strange but good book.

Maybe my husband was right about this being Angela weekend. I think I needed this weekend though. Work kinda sucked this week, ending with a few people yelling at me for things I was not in control of, so a weekend with relaxing fun activities was just what I needed. I may be in pain (I am never playing soccer again), and I may have been gone most of the weekend, but the fellowship I have gotten to enjoy was worth it. I do hate that my husband had to miss most of the weekend with me, usually, we do all of these activities together, but I am glad I still was able to do things this weekend that made me feel good.

What I want you to take from this is that sometimes you can have a YOU weekend. Yup take a weekend or most of a weekend for you and what you need to feel better. I didn’t plan to have this weekend be all about what I needed but I am glad it worked out this way. When you get the chance to do things for yourself, take it, but also try to find a way to do the same for others in your family when their need arises. We all need to remember we function better when we have had time for ourselves.

Blog

My Business Adventures: 4.5 months in

About a year ago I had this idea to start a blog, which then transformed into an idea to not only have a blog with hopefully useful information but to also start my own business to go along with it. But what business? What I could I do or make that might do well? I ran through many ideas in my head. Should I teach on Outschool? Or maybe VIP Kids? No, I really am not sure that will yield the money I would like nor the satisfaction I was looking for. So what else could I do, dog training? Maybe I was always good at it but wait, no, insurance is insane. Then I had an idea. What if I made sugar scrubs and bath bombs? That seemed like a good idea to me since I made some various scrubs for myself and enjoyed the products, not to mention making bath bombs in different shapes seemed like a lot of fun.

Now I had the idea, but I also needed a way forward. How does one start a business? Step one for me was to get an LLC. I applied for and got my LLC months before I launched my company. At this point, I also bought my website and began to learn how to design the store portion of the site (after 4 months I am still learning this part.) Then it was time to make and test products. I made a variety of products both scrubs and bath bombs and just gave them out. Yes, gave them out for free and asked for feedback. I took that feedback and adjusted the products until I was happy with what I had. Once I was satisfied I uploaded products on my site, added prices, pictures and had it go live with my fingers crossed that I would get at least a few orders. I had some friends and family order right away which I was thrilled about because I knew they ordered to help support me and I appreciated each purchase.

My product pictures got better over time

That my friends are the cliff notes version of what I did in those first few months however the story is much more in-depth. Before I could even start selling my products I had to do research on how to market my product and what the rules were for selling things like scrubs, bath bombs, and soaps. The key that I found both in my research on the FDA website and from books and articles I had read is that I had to be sure my descriptions did not make claim to curing anything medical. For instance, I could not sell a cream that I claimed cured acne because that would fall under the category of a drug and not as a cosmetic. I had to be sure that all my descriptions met that qualification or I would have to change the way I had my business set up. I also had to figure out how to calculate the cost of making each product and what a good price point was for everything that I would be selling. I not only followed a few videos on how to make these calculations (learning even more about how to use excel in the process), but I also looked at the market, both in person and on sites like Etsy, so that I could price my products competitively.

Can you believe I took this with my Phone!!!

Lastly, I also started following procedures that were outlined in the book “Good Manufacturing Practices for Soap and Cosmetic Handcrafters.” I have not gotten through all the suggestions they have since there is a lot to record and many procedures to put in place. The one thing I did try to follow from the book was to work on things a little at a time so as not to feel overwhelmed. This is the longest part of the process because it requires hours of computer work to record everything you need to have an appropriate record of things.

It has now been 4.5 months since I have started my business, and I am sure you may be wondering how things are going so far. Firstly, I have made at least one sale every month since I started. That may not seem like much but it is, I think, a great accomplishment for a brand new business. Second, I have already met a ton of new people that also have great businesses they have started. This is probably the most important part of my journey as it is these newfound friends and fellow entrepreneurs that will help my business grow. Meeting these people has driven me to speak out often on my social media about the importance of shopping local, and even helping to promote small businesses in my area. When we all support one another I feel like we will all succeed.

I know that I have a long journey ahead to figure out everything and make my business profitable, but I feel that my first few months have gone well. The next few things that I have to tackle include things like learning how to do the quarterly taxes, getting better at advertising, and of course continuing to work on my product development.

Fellow small business people leave me a comment about what you have found the most challenging and most rewarding part of your journey.

Check out my shop by clicking the link below:

Blog

Another Late Start!!

Have you started your garden? Depending on where you live it may be time to start your sprouts. We should have started them a few weeks ago but of course life! This past weekend we went ahead and started to get the plans in motion. I have designed a plan and spent the weekend laying out markers to designate where I want my paths and beds to go. This is a much bigger step than years in the past, this year I am trying my hardest to have a plan and stick to it.

In years past we have had a small plan but I seem to ignore it right away plus being so busy, nothing gets accomplished, except potatoes, we always plant potatoes. We end up with so many potatoes that the menu is normally a protein and potatoes for months. This year though I am on it. I have a grand plan, with tons of beds, a seating area, places for water buckets, and even a rudimentary bed rotating plan. I am totally on top of it this year, I tell myself as the little voice in the back of my head laughs at my goals knowing that all good plans must fail before they come to fruition.

What does the plan entail you may ask? Below is the Grand Plan (which btw my husband laughed at because as he said “who is doing all this work?” point taken.) This is where I am starting, with the plan on paper to motivate (or discourage) me. Then I am going to actually map it out in the garden.

Step one began a few weekends ago. I headed out with whatever helpers I could find, mostly just me and Spotify, and began to lay out the paths. I decided I really needed to take some string and some stakes and mark off where the paths were going to be this year. After which I went ahead and marked out my beds. I am trying to do a better job of rotating crops this year as you can see from my above diagram. The numbers on the beds tell me which type of crop I want to plant in which bed and which beds are resting and only being planted with various cover crops to help increase the fertility of the soil in years to come.

There are certain plants that I know we need to get in the ground this year:

  • Kale
  • Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Green Beans
  • Cucumbers (hopefully without the worms this year)
  • Garlic (not sure I have ordered that yet)
  • Lettuce
  • Black Beans
  • Melons
  • Carrots
  • Corn
  • Herbs

I am sure there are more but those are the most important right now. So we will begin by starting some of those indoors. Which again according to all the books and veterans I am late one, but hey better late than never right?

To start our seeds indoors we will be creating soil blocks. Have you done this before? It is reminiscent of building a sandcastle on the beach, you know when you pack the wet sand into a bucket and dump it out in the exact shape you want. Making a soil block is very similar. You make/or buy a soil mixture that you wet and pack into your blocker, then you push the handle down and pop out comes nicely shaped blocks with the perfect little indentation for your seed.

Other than getting the seeds started we have also bought some plants that were already cute baby plants to put in the ground and a tea plant. Yes you heard that right a tea plant (more on this guy later.) We also did some much-needed maintenance on the garden and began to lay out what will be a seating area.

The last thing that we have done so far is getting our potatoes set out. This year I am doing things a tad differently with my potatoes. For starters, I am putting them out in egg cartons in a sunny area to start to chit. Once they do I will cut them into smaller chunks and then let them heal before planting. I plan on planting them in a few ways this year, both in the ground and in 5-gallon buckets so we shall see how that goes.

Where are you in your garden adventure? Further along, then we are or farther behind? Either way now is as good as a time as any to get started on something. Post below and let me know what you have going on or what kind of plans you have for your garden this year. I know we can all learn and get inspiration from each other in this adventure.

Blog, Self Care Sunday

Self-Care Sunday, March 13th, 2022

Does anyone else feel like the last 2 years have been a whirlwind of crazy stuff going on all to end up with war? It is like everywhere you turn there is something going on that can take you away from yourself, pull your focus, increase your worry, make your anxieties skyrocket. We can see this a lot with our kids who have less of a capacity to handle all the crazy that is happening. The question is how do you worry about yourself and your health and wellness when you know there are people across the globe that are suffering and having to run for their lives? How can you focus on what may seem trivial to you or others in comparison to the lives being lost? What do we tell our children to help them get through it all?

First I think the most important thing to remember is that even with all the crazy going on, all the war and death, it is important to realize that if you don’t take care of yourself then there is no way you can be part of anything that may help with the situations at hand. If you are run down and out of sync with yourself, you can not possibly think you can help in any of these other larger situations.

Secondly, I think it is important to gauge what you are capable of in terms of helping. Are you in a position to help in a large-scale way, or do you need to set your focus on a more locally centered effort? We all want to feel like we have done our part have reached out and supported what we felt was important but that does not have to happen on a global scale sometimes it is just as important to focus your efforts on something more local and grow from there.

The only step that is important at the beginning is making sure that before you help others you have yourself in the right state of mind. You can not provide help or ideas for others if you are all out of sorts. Take a moment and write down what you want to accomplish and how you see yourself getting there. What is needed for you to make this happen? Do you need a certain amount of your time each day to be ready for your goals? Or do you need to find the right group of people to help you get there? Are the things you are involved in now helping you move toward or away from what you want?

Once you have laid out what it is you want and the path you wish to take to get there you can better prepare and plan your route to that goal. Start with the small easy goals and work your way to the larger ones, some of which may include providing the help and support to others that you wish for. Maybe if you are someone that wants to do more for the people suffering across the globe your first step may be to donate money or help raise awareness in your local circles. Starting here while working towards a larger scale effort will keep you from feeling overwhelmed and like you never seem to help.

Maybe you are in a situation similar to mine where you are not sure what you want to do to help. I don’t know what I want to do, or how I should handle the things I see or hear about, so my effort has been focused on trying to be sure my kids understand what is happening. It is just as important for those of us with children to focus on helping them cope and understand the things they hear and see. Teaching them is what will help later generations make what we hope are more informed decisions.

So this Self-Care Sunday message as a whole is to try your best not to let the crazy and horrible take a root in your life. Take a moment and make a plan on how you can handle the things going on without losing yourself or letting it harm your children. Take a break from the world and the news when needed it will still be there tomorrow and you can not be a part of any solution big or small if you are not good yourself.