 Hey everybody, welcome to the Waldoch Way. I'm Jessica, and today's video is part four of our four-part series on homeschool mom self-care. Now, in case you've missed parts one, two, and three, I will link them right here for you. In those videos, we talked all about why self-care is important, kind of why I wanted to prioritize it for a year and keep going, some of the benefits that I've seen from it, how I prioritize myself physically with some very small actionable steps that I took to get there and how I prioritize myself emotionally with some very small actionable steps of how and what I did to get there as well. Today's video, we are going to be talking about self-care for the homeschool mom, how I prioritize myself mentally. Now, in addition to some of the things that we've already talked about, so we're talking diet, exercise, rest, limiting negativity, learning to say no, asking for help and having a support group or a community of people that have your back, all of those obviously had a huge role in my mental health, right? Like because I was eating healthier and because I was resting more and because I was moving my body and because I had limited that negativity, like mentally, I was in such a better place than really probably I've ever have been. So in addition to all of those, because obviously all of those were very important, one of the things that I really wanted to do was be more mindful. But I wanted to do it in such a way that it didn't feel like this big thing or this other thing that I had to do because I was already trying to do so many things and baby steps lead to big things, right? Like little tiny baby steps lead to big changes and I knew that. So the one thing that I was like, okay, I'm gonna be mindful, I'm gonna do some sort of mindful exercise but I needed to be short and sweet and simple. And so what I did is I bought myself this book last year called Breathe, Mama Breathe, which is making everyday moments a chance to find calm and feel more connected. So it's five minute mindfulness for busy moms and basically, for example, there's a reading that's about two to three pages and then there's normally some kind of little, I guess I would call it an action. So this one is called Hit the Floor and the Hit the Floor Break or the action says like in those moments when you are intent on completing the infinite list and the kids begin to drive you crazy with interruptions, firmly but gently pause and step back from the situation. Forgive yourself when that seems difficult as it often is. Observe it as best you can from an outsider's perspective. Examine what is needed in this moment. Perhaps it's getting down on the floor to play Legos. Perhaps it's pulling your child into your lap for a short snuggle or simply dropping whatever it is you're doing and giving your teen your full attention as she recount recounts a noteworthy part of her day. The key here is offering your 100% uninterrupted attention. It is often much harder than it sounds. Notice the inevitable tug to get back to work. Breathe and stay for a brief while. Most often as you return to your tasks you will do so with less frantic, more mindful awareness and you might even thank your child for the opportunity to come back to what really matters. And so it was exactly what it said. Five minutes for a busy mom. They were practical and they really did kind of help calm my mind and help me connect either with myself or with Emily or with my family. And so it was the perfect first step for me. So that if you're just wanting like something simple for mindfulness I highly recommend this. If you have something that is short and simple for mindfulness like that please leave it in the comments because I would love something else for this year if it's not huge yet. Like I still feel like I need small things because I'm trying to do those baby steps lead to big things. Another thing that Emily and I actually started this past year and it was kind of one of those two birds one stone kind of things. And it was journaling. So we began journaling. It was kind of my goal for 2022 was to sit down and journal slash it's probably kind of scrapbooking. I actually have a video about us doing it and how we do it. So I'll link it up here for you. But we just not every day. Sometimes it's once a week. Sometimes it's twice a month depending on how our schedules roll out. And we sit down with our journals and we just write. We might write about a field trip we took. We might write about our new year's goals. We might just write about the mundane just the everyday stuff. We print pictures to go with it. So it's kind of like a journaling and scrapbooking that I actually found more mental clarity in the fact that we were journaling side by side because there would be something that I would have deemed not worthy to journal about. Like something that was just seen like our everyday mundane that she found important enough to make an entry in her journal. And it could have been something simple. Like she journaled about us journaling. Like how big of a deal it was to her. How excited she was to do it. How she loved doing it with me. She journaled about a STEM or a science experiment that her and Kevin did. That again, felt very mundane and everyday to me and even to Kevin. So to see some of those things through her eyes again was very kind of like brought you back to this is important. These are the little things that I should be focusing on and really made you kind of be mindful of those small moments that again make big moments. And so I really, really suggest some kind of journaling. For me, I knew I would not journal on an everyday basis for myself. I was like, I'm never gonna do that. But if I make it a homeschool activity and I counted as writing and spelling and grammar and I make it a point to say like this is mine and Emily's thing. I knew that she would home be accountable because she would wanna do it and I knew I could put it on my homeschool list and it could be two birds with one stone and it would be like homeschool and for me. And so this is me saying that if that's what you have to do to get it done, like if you have to use your kids to hold you accountable or if you have to put it on the homeschool to do list because you'll do it if it's on the homeschool to do list then that's okay. If that's where you have to put yourself care then that's where you have to put it. So put it there. So that's what I did was I did journaling alongside Emily and I actually have a journal by myself at all but I really, really enjoyed journaling with her and I love looking back. Like at the end of this past year we had a whole year's worth looking back at that year of pictures and memories and being able to look back at my goals at the beginning of last year because we had made our, entered our goals last year was just, it was amazing and I'm really, really glad I did it. And then the last thing that I did mentally like the one thing that I was like this is what I'm doing for me was reading for me. I've never made a reading goal before, not for myself. And when I say for me, I mean for me, my books, my eyes, not the audio books don't count but I really wanted to read a minimum of two books a month an average of two books a month. So 24 books in 2022 with my eyes for myself. And the reason I say with my eyes because I'm not just crediting audio or anything else but I am a visual learner. Like Emily is an auditory learner so audio books are amazing for her but I'm a visual learner and so I knew that there was going to be more that I would kind of absorb and mentally take in if I was reading it with my eyes. And trust me, I still read tons of fun books like I read tons of fiction just for me but I just knew that I would obtain it and kind of like be more mindful in the moment of reading if I was using my eyes versus just listening. Like I wouldn't tune out, right? Like because I'm visual, I can't tune out to a book or even my Kindle in front of me. And so that is my number one tip. As a Kindle, it helped me read a ton and 2022 my goal was 24 books. I ended up reading 30. Actually the last week of the year I had told my friend that I was not gonna hit the goal because I'd only read 23 books. And she's like, seriously? Find a short book and read it. Like who cares if it's five pages, 100 pages, whatever. Like get it done. And then I had taken that week off of work and it was the week between Christmas and New Year's and I always forget how chill that week is. And I actually read seven books that week. I read a book a day. So anyway, so I hit my goal. And it was amazing because I haven't read just for me. Like I wasn't pre-reading for Emily and I wasn't reading aloud for our homeschool. I mean, I was still doing those things but like I just would pick a book that sounded good or that somebody recommended and I just read for me for no other reason, like just to enjoy a book. And it was amazing. But my Kindle is my number one tip for that because it's super small. You can get books from the library for free on it. You can buy books from Amazon there immediately. So the minute I was done with the book I could find something else right then. I didn't have to wait to go to the library or wait to go to the bookstore. The font, this sounds so, this is gonna make me sound like an old lady, I'm sorry. I can make the font whatever size I want. So I don't have to have my glasses when I'm reading which is just kind of nice because I don't have to worry about falling asleep and having my glasses on. Also I don't have to have a book light because there's a light on the Kindle. So it's easier to read in the bed with it. It's easier to throw on my purse. And then that way if I find myself somewhere that maybe I have an extra 10 minutes I can read with it. It's small light. So that has been probably my number one like easy way to get in reading for myself. And then now because I really, really wanna make sure that you guys have tons on your list to read if you were looking for books to add to your reading list so that you can take care of yourself mentally. I have a stack of homeschool books or books that I highly recommend for the homeschool mom to read. So I'm gonna share them with you. And then I will also leave a link in the description box to an Amazon list that I update as frequently as possible with books that I have read recently. So everything I'm gonna share with you right now is gonna be once I highly recommend you read as a homeschool mom. But the link you're gonna find in the description is just gonna be an frequently updated list of whatever I've read lately. I'll go ahead and let you know I really like mysteries and thrillers and sometimes like hallmark type romance. So that's what you're gonna probably find on that list. So you've been warned. But let me just go ahead and dive in in no certain way for the books I think you should read as a homeschool mom. We have The Call of the Wild and Free. A Place to Belong. The Wild and Free Family. Homeschooling Gifted Kids. Awakening Wonder. Teach. How Children Learn. Mothering by the Book. A Thousand Hours Outside. Before Hour School Day. The Read-Allowed Family. Outside Kids in an Inside World. Introverted Mom. Teaching From Rest. Home School Bravely. More Than Enough. The Brave Learner. Memory Making Mom. Give Your Children the World. Or Give Your Child the World. Sorry. Mere Motherhood. Let Them Be Kids. Homeschool Gone Wild. The Unhurried Homeschooler. Better Together. The Life Giving Home. Adventuring Together. The Book of Boundaries. And then the last one, kind of along that same lines, would be Atomic Habits, but my copy is currently loaned out. So that is kind of the books that pretty much live on my bookshelf in the Every Homeschool Mom Should Read This. And I'm constantly loaning them out for homeschool moms to read. So those are the ones that top my list. And then like I said, I'll leave a link in the description of everything else that I'm currently reading, the kind of fun fiction books. So if you're looking for that, check that out. And I would love it if you would leave any of your tips for mental self-care for the homeschool mom in the comments. So do you have some sort of mindfulness routine or mindfulness suggestions? What are some of your favorite books for the homeschool mom? What are some of your favorite mindful activities? Please let me know because I would absolutely love to read them and add some more mindfulness to my days. And I'm sure that other homeschool moms would love to add some extra ideas for themselves as well.