Friday Five

1. I loved this article that was being passed around Facebook this week called, “When Did Being a Good Mom Turn Bad?” When you think of being a mom as a full-time job, just like in the workplace, you want to continually work hard and try to be the best you can be. We also should encourage others to be that way. Instead of being negative when they seem to go above and beyond, just congratulate them and tell them they’re doing a great job!
2. Eva had been putting up a fight on the whole going to bed process last week and I was going to lose it! I also hated her going to bed after us yelling/threatening/crying. I’d much rather my child going to bed peacefully after giving me lots of hugs, wouldn’t you?! So, I decided to make a chart for the week. She got a sticker each time she finished something on the list, such as brushing teeth, reading books, going to bed with three books without asking for more (she had been calling me in her room over and over again asking me for more, but refused to read the same one she had read within the same week!). All of the tasks had to be done without any whining or crying. Each time she would cry, she would get a “crying sticker” and if she got more than three crying stickers through the week, she wouldn’t get a prize on Friday. Well, it really worked! The first two nights she got crying stickers and TJ was very skeptical of the system, but the third wasn’t filled so today she gets a prize! It made putting Eva to bed SO much easier this week and more fun for Eva. And the prize? An ice cream sandwich! She’ll be so excited!
3. My beautiful bestie Danica is having her baby any day/minute back in Utah. I can’t stop thinking about it and am constantly texting her for an update. She wrote a blog post yesterday about pregnancy style and since I have a million friends that are expecting right now, you all should check it out! Come on, Baby Holdy… we are all so ready for you to come!
4. We finished the Friends series on Netflix, please don’t try and calculate how fast we finished it. I watched the whole series through back in college, but it was fun to watch it again since we are in NYC (even though it wasn’t really filmed here). But now that that is finished, what show should TJ and I watch on Netflix now?
5. Here’s another post I saved on Facebook called “Are You Lonely, Mama?” I’ve been thinking about this post a lot. I’ve always been someone who likes having a social life, so I continually try and make friendships. But next week, one of my closest friends here in Jersey is moving away. I’m trying to come to terms with her moving and just be grateful for the wonderful times we had together, that we both moved in at the same time, and that we could learn to love this place and call Jersey City our home. It’s just hard to lose friends, isn’t it? And it’s even harder to FIND new friends, close friends. Especially as mothers. So this article put a really great twist on it, reminding me that this is the time for me to focus on my family.

Mama, I know that you’re lonely too. It’s ok. Just remember that this is a season and it is the most sacred season you will ever have the honor of experiencing. This is the time when your babies need you and want you and enjoy having you around. This is the time when they will cling to your legs as you try to leave the house without them and run into your arms when you come home as if you’d been gone a lifetime. You will never be more loved and wanted and needed as you are right now…in this moment.

That’s it! I hope you have a great weekend! And didn’t this week go fast? If only the rest of February goes this fast, we’ll have beautiful Spring in no time!