Tag: lifestyle

Why I chose to attempt the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge

ChelseaLeave a comment

Have you ever just felt called to do something? It isn’t often that I get this feeling but every once in a while, I just know I am doing the right thing. I felt it with being a mom. I felt it with staying home and homeschooling. I felt it with this. Notice how it all centers around my kids? Yeah. There are mistakes I have made in my life. So many choices I have wondered or known weren’t the best. But my kids are not even close to one of them. With them, I know I am meant to be their mama. And I know I needed to attempt this challenge.

I love my children dearly, but with 4 pulling me in different directions, we have gotten away from time. Time together, time to ourselves, and time with nature. In this digital age, everything is instant gratification. Everything is here and now. But in nature, you have to wait for the ground to thaw, the plants to bloom, the leaves to fall, and the sun to rise. It always happens but only on its own time. I used to feel a connectedness to nature. Like I was home when I was outside. Some of my favorite memories from growing up are from being outside. I remember being outside from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep practically in the summer. I remember being on my bike the entire day, rolling down the neighborhood hills.

Grandma and I gardening

This past year we had a great school year. We did a lot more together, it was more organized and we had so much fun (well if you ask me, if you ask Monkey and Monster, they probably have a different idea of how it went). But I still felt like something was missing. Then I read Call of the Wild+Free by Ainsley Arment (not an affiliate, just a fan) and wow. Then I read Home Grown by Ben Hewitt (also not an affiliate). I felt such a purity in the way they were living life. Exploring nature, spending time connecting to Earth and each other, living off of their land and it just called to me. This is what is missing. In my wanderings through the internet, I came across 1000 Hours Outside page and a wonderful community started and growing through the efforts of Ginny Yurich. We all know how competitive I am, so naturally we were going to do 1000 hours. But see, I didn’t think about it. I didn’t plan for it, and we fell WAY short. Because 1000 hours outside doesn’t seem like much until you calculate that that is almost 2.75 hours a day! Do you spend 3 hours outside a day? Yeah, most people don’t. So it takes some serious intentional planning. So I’ve started my plans. And along the way it may turn into not having to. But right now I have to say yes, when I want to say no. I have to make the plan, when I want to stay home.

Monkey has a screen addiction, lets face it my whole family does. But screens affect his mood a lot more than the rest of us. He eats, sleeps, and breathes screens. Shows, games, now web searches, and it doesn’t matter what. Tinkerbell, Barbie, Pokémon, if a screen is on, it has his attention. So to break us all of the habit I decided to hit us hard with not only starting our 1000 Hours Outside challenge but also taking away screens at the same time (at least during the week) right at the beginning of our year!

Monster punting the football at 7am on a Saturday

They pretty hated me for two days because they got their chores done and *gasp* didn’t get screens afterwards (insert horror scream here). Instead they played with LEGO, we have gone to the park, we have ridden bikes, played football with the neighbors, and gone on a walk, made chalk pictures, and eaten ice cream. We started 6 days ago and already have almost 21 hours hours logged. They won’t hate it forever. Because soon it will become part of them.

Playing in the stream in the Smoky Mountains

They will see trees, sticks, streams, insects, and everything in between, as home. They will learn to observe nature, care for nature, and experience nature and all of its beauty. They will ground themselves in their surroundings, get natural vitamin D, learn to listen to their body, explore, learn, and live. Is it the right thing for us to do? I don’t know. But I do know that I have said yes to going outside a lot more than I have said no to screens in the past 2 days. And for that, I may just make it to 1000 this year.

The Perfect Life

ChelseaLeave a comment

I have been thinking about this for a week. I wasn’t sure if I was going to write it. But I think I need to. I need to for me and I need to for the mom or dad who is struggling and needs to know they aren’t alone.

A little back story. My oldest has had a rough couple weeks. Like seriously… rough. He is at the age of testing boundaries and feeling like he is grown enough to make his own choices but is still only 9 so those choices are not always the greatest. He got in trouble for a myriad of things and therefore was not allowed to participate in a play date with friends. I wanted to spend time with her and her family, so I was not about to cancel something that my 2 other kids and I were looking forward to because *he* couldn’t make the right choice, especially because I had already done that with another friend that week. While hanging out at the playground, my friend couldn’t believe that my child was in trouble. She even said that she thinks of my life as perfect and that my kids could never do anything wrong. (If you are that friend, seriously this isn’t about what you said, I love you and this is just because I want you to know your life is no less perfect than mine😘)

I am here to tell you…. it isn’t and he did.

Because I am not perfect. I am far from perfect. I yell, I cry, I am lazy and somedays I struggle holding my little life together. My house is a mess more days than not. I am horrible at communicating my needs (ask my husband). I live with anxiety and a form of depression. I read books to learn to be a better person because I am not fully the person I want to be or saw myself being. I forget things on a regular basis, like moving laundry, calling my parents back, taking stuff to goodwill, and even making doctors appointments for my children’s well visits. I rarely have a good night’s sleep and I take the weight of the world on my shoulders. I spend WAY too much time on my phone, which causes me to think I am failing in all sorts of ways (you know what I am talking about…). I have trouble letting go of things (both physical and mental) even though I know my life would be less chaotic if I did. I worry about things that I said to someone 3 years ago. I drink way too much coffee and I relax with a glass of wine or 2 a couple times a week. I let things slip through the cracks that I know I shouldn’t.

My children are not perfect either. They are good kids, don’t get me wrong. Honestly, if there is one thing I am confident in, it is being a mom. I will always do my best to aim them in the right direction. But that doesn’t mean they won’t stray. They have their own free will and they are going to make the wrong choices. It is part of growing up. My job is to show them that their actions, good or bad have consequences. They have attitudes, they don’t want to do chores, and they get their Switch taken away at least 2x a month. They have lied, hurt things and people, attempted to steal (yep, not a proud moment for me), thrown fits, yelled, got toys taken away, haven’t clean up after themselves, and pissed me off more times than I can count.

My kids are homeschooled, as most of you know. But that doesn’t mean our days always go smoothly. They get frustrated with school, just like every kid. They hate when things get hard and they don’t get it right away. They don’t like doing busy work that seems like it has no reason for it. They would prefer to play video games or go outside or play with LEGO. They hate to write, complain about math, and science and history are almost non-existent right now because I was tired of fighting about them. Some days I want to give it up and put them in public school. But honestly it just isn’t for our family. My stresses would increase 10 fold if I did and, yes, part of the reason I homeschool is because of my own stress. #callmeselfishidontcare

I aim for perfection. I rarely hit my target. But I struggle when I don’t hit it because I am a perfectionist. I want the perfect house with the perfectly groomed kids who always listen and I meet each day with a joyous attitude and everything is beautifully decorated and has a place. I want the Instagram dream life. This is a dream that will never happen. Not until they are out of the house at least, and then I am going to miss these days because it will be quiet and I will be drinking hot coffee and reading a book and missing stepping on LEGO and playing tea party.

In reality, at this exact moment, I have a 2 year old who just finished her first of probably 3 movies of the day. My 7 year old is throwing a Scentsy Scentpak around and then running after it (not really sure why) while dressed in dress pants and a torn tee shirt. And my 9 year old is getting frustrated that the 7 year old keeps running in front of his video game while wearing long sleeves and sweat pants despite being told at least twice that it is too hot for that. None of their teeth are brushed because they ran out of toothpaste yesterday morning and I didn’t want to go to the store. I have dirty dishes on the counter and in the sink, laundry in the washer and dryer that has been there for 3 days, my bathrooms are gross, our dining/school room are a mess, there is a random bag of rubber bands strewn about my couch along with a ton of Duplo. We won’t be doing any school today, just like every Friday, because I. don’t. want. to. My hair is up in the same bun since Wednesday night, I am in the pjs I wore yesterday, I’ll shower when I can (probably naptime), and I have a zit on my forehead. I can tell I am having a rough mental day, although I haven’t lost my crap today (yet)! I am behind on orders and working with my UBAM business. I still have to run to the store to get the stuff for the beach that I forgot last week and the stuff I forgot for our dinner tonight and toothpaste since I didn’t know we were out.

My life isn’t perfect. If you look at my pictures, they are cropped because of the mess in the background. I show my kids reading, because yes they like to do that, but they also like to play with swords and at least once a day someone is hurt by their brother or sister. My dogs still have accidents in the house. I will loose my temper today. You may see a picture of my little one in a cute mermaid dress with a coordinating bow, but it probably took me 5 tries to get her smiling or not blurred. I am not perfect and my life isn’t perfect. But this morning, I woke up and I kissed my husband who loves me unconditionally in our messy unmade bed (and it will stay that way). I got my 3 kids up and ready in (probably) clean clothing and fed them decently healthy breakfasts. The boys have already destroyed their room with LEGO, my Mermaid is being a great “Mommy” to her babies. They are home with me. They are learning through life. We are figuring out things together. It isn’t Instagram worthy. It is messy, tiring, and not usually pretty. But just like your life, it isn’t perfect, but it is still great in its imperfections.