 Hey everybody, welcome to the block way. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be the first video in a four part series, all about self care as a homeschool mom. I know I get it. We are homeschool moms and we are doing 3000 things at all the times. Our plates are overflowing and we are juggling 200 balls. There is no time in the day to take care of ourselves. I was one of those people for the majority of my life. I would go full speed until I ran into a wall. I would burn the candles at both ends until there was no candle left. And I would juggle all of the balls until they came crashing down on my head. I was constantly in a cycle of doing all of the things and then crashing and burning and either losing it on one of the people that I love people that I love most or just sleeping for 12 to 14 hours until I would recharge because that was it. That was me taking care of me. I would occasionally be like you can't pour from an empty cup and I would be reminded of that and I would do something like go get my nails done and get my hair done which was only even then once or twice a year or maybe have a glass of a mug of tea sitting beside the Christmas tree or something small. But it wasn't sustainable and it wasn't something I was doing on a regular basis. So it wasn't really having a lot of benefit. I mean it benefited enough moment but not a ton. And so in 2022 the goal that I made the promise I made myself is that I would make an effort to put myself first. And that is what I did. But first here's why the older I got the harder I found that it was to burn the candle at both ends juggle all the balls and do all the things because I was having to crash more frequently to be able to recoup 10 years ago I could pull all nighters three nights in a row and I was fine but the older I was getting the harder that was becoming and the older Emily was getting the more I started thinking like what kind of example am I setting for her is this what I would want for her when she gets older but I want her to take care of herself first or what I want her to burn the candle at both ends juggle all the balls and go so hard till she ran into a wall. Obviously as a mom your answer is you would want her to take care of herself obviously and so it was kind of like if that's what you want you need to show her how right like you need to set a better example because I'm it that's what she has is me and so like okay that's what I'm going to do is I'm going to take care of myself and so I made kind of a list of ways that I could take care of me that were realistic for me that were hopefully something that could be sustainable for me and things that would not only just benefit me but hopefully in the long run benefit like our family and everything and so in this series the things that I'm going to talk about are how I prioritize my self care examples of that what I used for that and we're going to talk about how we prioritize self or how I prioritize self care mentally emotionally and physically so I'm going to kind of go through all of the things now I will tell you the the bullet list that I made myself the beginning of 2022 was to eat better move my body more and read more and by reading more I was very very specific in my goals but we'll talk about that in the later series but those are kind of like the generic like this is what you're going to do you're going to eat better move your body more and read for you like that's it that's kind of like the bullet points that will get you to where you want to be which is taking care of yourself and taking care of me was really difficult at first because I felt very selfish by having Emily maybe sitting in here eating breakfast by herself while I was maybe trying to get a quick workout in or I felt very selfish and saying hey I'm going to go for a walk and leaving heaven and Emily at home it was very very hard for me at first but I was like okay but there's going to be benefits to this not only for yourself but for your family just keep going and I did and I'm glad I did because I was right the benefits of putting me first far outweighed the feeling of being selfish and eventually I didn't have to feel selfish anymore because they ended up joining me in the long run anyway but it's kind of like when they say you can't pour from an empty cup or to put your oxygen mask on first on the plane there's reasons for that and the more that I put myself first the more that everything else just kind of fell in line my mood was better which meant that I wasn't as cranky I wasn't raising my voice to Kevin or Emily as much I wasn't letting things bother me as much my energy was higher which meant I could do more things I could be more productive I could even get more done in less hours than before my feelings like I physically felt so much better that I was able to do things that I couldn't do before and I don't even just mean like hiking although that was a big one for me I mean like getting in the floor and playing with Emily you know or doing things that maybe there was like a weight limit before that I couldn't do with her for example she wants to go ziplining and I couldn't zipline with her I'm still not sure I want to zipline some scared of heights but I will be able to do that now because I'm no longer at that weight limit going to theme parks I used to have to ask for a specific seat or a specific row or specific section which a lot of times is not for example on roller coasters it tends to be the back row which if you're a kid you want to be in the front row and so if Emily wanted to ride with me admit not riding where she wanted to ride which now means that that doesn't have to be the case anymore she can ride in the front row because I can fit in the front row so it's like all of these things that came from and benefited not just myself but Kevin and Emily in the long run because I put myself first because I made the choice to take care of me and that's something that I have become very passionate about after having done that for a year um it's not something I wanted to share about in the beginning or during my journey because well if I'm being honest it's something that I started and failed at many many times and I didn't want to be held accountable and I know that people are thinking well you need to be held accountable but I didn't want to be because I didn't want to let you guys down and I'm going to get emotional sorry um I didn't want to let you down so I didn't want to talk about it and I wanted to say thank you also to all of you who noticed and left comments whether on social media or here on youtube and I don't even mean the ones who noticed the physical differences in myself over the course of the last year which I'm really really glad that you did because there were sometimes that the comments would come through and just when I needed them just when I felt like I couldn't go any longer or I couldn't go any harder or I didn't want to do it anymore um or I didn't see the differences and you guys did but it wasn't even just the physical ones it was those of you who said things like you could tell my energy was better or that my eyes shined again it was just so so sweet and so many of you asked me what I was doing and how I was doing it and how I was making time for it and so after putting myself first for an entire year after taking care of me first after kind of finally feeling like I am kind of balancing me and our family and our homeschool I mean it's not perfect I don't do all the things I juggle and drop the balls a lot of days but I kind of feel like I finally have a enough of an idea of what I'm doing um to share it with you guys and so that's what I'm going to do I'm going to talk to you guys about self-care and about what I've been doing and I really hope that you'll join me for all of the videos because there's so much that I want to share that I'm just not gonna be able to get into one so today I just wanted to let you guys know what we're doing that we're gonna be having an amazing time with this series it'll be two weeks four videos and I'm just gonna talk about why it's important the benefits of it and everything that it's done for me and my family I do want to say that I have noticed so many positive changes not just in me or our family but in our homeschool and even outside of that like it's even at this point reached people like my mom is like okay well if you can do it I can do it and I love her and I love that she's doing it too or I've had a lot of you send me messages like you're such an inspiration I'm gonna do it too and so I just love that it's like you feel selfish at first like you shouldn't be putting yourself first but then you sit down and you think about it and you're like okay but look at everything that's come from it and it's like not it's totally not a selfish thing and I really really want to encourage you guys to watch these videos I'm gonna try to be super transparent and realistic with you and share all of the processes and all of the things and I hope that if nothing else you will take one thing away and that is that self-care doesn't have to be complicated and it's not selfish and it can be simple it can be something as simple as drinking more water or taking more steps or getting your sleep or even just saying no and putting a boundary up like it doesn't matter you can totally do it