Tag: working mom

My Life Intentional

My Life Intentional

by kwoodfamily ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

As of the time I am writing this, I have three and a half years left in the active duty military. That will put me at 20 years of service. It is hard to believe that it has come this far. All that I have seen, learned, experienced. It is has all shaped who I am today. I have grown into the person I am because of this service and I do not regret it.

With all of that being said, I have been thinking really hard about what I want to be when I grow up. The second go around.

Here’s a few things about me. When I was college age, I always said I wanted to be a stay at home wife and mother. It was something about being there for my family and maintaining my home that intrigued me. Flash forward to now, I still have that desire. The change is, I also have an identity outside of being a wife and mother. In 16 years, I have learned I love to help and coach, volunteer, serve, and so many other things.

I will often joke that I am not going to work once I retire, because I will become that SAHW/M that college me wanted. However in the past five years or so, my husband and I embarked on a financial independence, retire early journey. I am so thankful and grateful that we were able to pay off our debts and save towards our future. We did this very aggressively for a few years. Of course as time went on, how I viewed our future changed as well. I do not want to to be confined to a hustle and not enjoy the fruits now. I want my children to understand delayed gratification, but not forget to enjoy the present.

I have a few ideas, but I want to focus on giving back and growing. Helping people just like us achieve their goals and live life on their terms. I am a strong believer that God places people in our paths for reasons. Sometimes we ignore or do not catch on. I will say in the past year, God has put the vision in front of me so clearly.

Faith without work is dead. I have three years to do the work and walk the path laid out before me. I have no idea of what that entails completely, but I am excited to learn. I am excited to share my experiences with you via my YouTube channel and other platforms. I am excited to provide tips and be a sounding board.

It is hard to believe I started this blog in 2020 with the intent of documenting our journey to financial freedom. Here I am three years later with three years until the real fun begins. Join me as we continue to be intentional and thank God for the blessings bestowed upon us!

Five Tips to Stay Motivated

Five Tips to Stay Motivated

by kwoodfamily ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Now tell me this have you ever felt tired, unmotivated, not really wanting to go on? If so this post is for you. Today we are going to talk about tips to stay motivated. If you are a mom, a working mom, or you just have obligations; these tips might help you out specifically.

First Tip is:

Do not compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter 10.

I know we’ve all heard it before, “comparison is the thief of all joy”. That is true. When you are looking at where you’re at in life versus where you want to be and someone else is already living that life it can get really demotivating as though you’re never going to get there. If anything learn what they’re doing right so that you can follow behind and do those same things, but do not compare yourself to other people’s progress because that will just put you in a slump. Then you’ll start wondering:

  • Why am I not there yet?
  • Why haven’t I been promoted?
  • Why am I not doing this, why don’t I have the bigger house?
  • Why don’t I have the nicer car?
  • Why can’t I go eat out a nice steakhouse, or whatever the case may be?

Be happy and be present in your moment.

Second Tip is:

To find your tribe.

Find your people and find your community. It’s very important that we surround ourselves with people who are aligned with our goals our morals. You know the saying it takes a village to raise a child, well it takes a village to be an adult too. You need a support system. I credit my support system to a lot of my success. Honestly, without my support system I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at today.

It’s finding those people you trust, who have the same mentality as you, and you are all trying to be in the same position. You are the sum of your closest five friends, right? Keep that in mind, you are the sum of your closest five friendships. If you have those one or two people you can call talk to when you’re feeling down and out, talk to them and they won’t judge you. Again, you guys are all part of the same tribe!

I love like some of the connections that I have made over the years. We may not talk every day, but if I’m on social media and a post resonates with me I’ll send it to them. I want to let my tribe know they’re awesome too and I want them to know that! It might seem superficial when looking at it, but really that means a lot because sometimes you just want to know that someone’s thinking about you and you’re doing a great job with what you have to accomplish what you need to accomplish.

Third Tip is:

Wake up early.

Wake up early, make a schedule, and get ahead of the process. Have you ever woke up and life happens to you from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep?!? That is no fun and if you have not experienced that, trust me, you do not want to. If you can get ahead of the day, that will make the day go so much smoother. Or even ahead of the month to plan things out, know what’s coming at you so you can anticipate those events.

Instead of just saying, “oh life is always getting thrown at me, I never have any idea what’s going to happen.” Get ahead of the problem and then go from there!

For me this is just it starts on the day before. We prep the night before by picking out clothes, start packing lunches, and all that great stuff. I get up before the children, like even if it’s 10 or 15 minutes, I try to make it more than that. However, you know again life happens. But I get up before they do. In doing that, I can grab something to drink, brush my teeth, wash my face, and change clothes before them. Then when they wake up they’re not dealing with a frantic mommy because no one wants to deal with that.

Fourth Tip is:

This moment is temporary.

Wherever you are in life at this very moment is temporary, it’s not forever. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and drive on. Embrace the suck and know that this too shall pass. It is not going to last forever.

  • Someone cut you off in traffic- TEMPORARY
  • They got your order wrong at Starbucks- TEMPORARY
  • Had a fight the night before- TEMPORARY

Fifth Tip is:

Find your why.

This is probably the most important tip, if I’m being honest, for me. Find your why! When you wake up every day, put on your uniform, or you get dressed to go to work, or you’re making breakfast for the kids; why are you doing it? Like honestly, why are you doing it? Tell me why you’re doing it and then that be your reason to keep going. Like I said before, the stress you are in is only temporary. For me I’m doing it because I know, that in a few years I will have the ability to be a stay at home mom. It’s very important for me, that I put in place everything to get me to my overall goal and my why is to be present in my family’s lives. Presence means different things to different people, but at the end of the day find your why!

It can be hard to like juggle work, parenthood, being a friend, life, and side hustles. Don’t let it get to the point where you’re just in a continuous rut and you don’t want to do anything. Pull it all together using these Five Tips:

  1. Don’t compare yourself
  2. Find your tribe
  3. Make a schedule
  4. Remember that this is only temporary
  5. Find your why

Bonus: Whatever you do it well and always give yourself Grace

Watch here for details not covered in this blog.

I Am Torn

I Am Torn

by kwoodfamily ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
The last time I had coffee

How often do you give up things you like and enjoy to reset, show yourself you can do it? Me, about once a year. This year it happened accidentally this year, but I decided to stick with it. Maybe it was God’s way of telling me, “do it now”. Normally I do this in November. I’m usually training for work, the stress is high, and it is the not so perfect but perfect time. >>>I am snickering at that.<<<

Accidentally?

Yes, it was accidental. I went for a run one morning and had my runner’s high after the fact. Well, I forgot to make my morning coffee. Probably because I was consumed with drinking as much water as possible following the run. It was hot and humid y’all!

Hot and humid

So once I realized I didn’t have coffee, the headache and afternoon drag were already alive and well. I was busy at work and could not break to get some coffee.

This Feeling Is Horrible

The headaches were horrible. The afternoon drag, horrible. The inability to concentrate, horrible. Y’all, one night I woke up sweating and with chills. Now look, I am a one cup of day drinker. For me going without and feeling like this, I was shocked to say the least. Like night sweats? For real?!?

But the withdrawal symptoms only lasted a week and I have been functioning as an adult just fine. Well, except that one time I went to get a slice of pumpkin bread from Starbucks. The smell of coffee brought on another headache.

Aside from that, just fine. Which brings me today.

Nostalgic

I’m three weeks into this now. Going strong. However, this morning is a cool crisp morning. I’m teleworking because my oldest is out of school. There is a pot of coffee made and I just want to wrap up in my blanket and sip some coffee.

Do I need to do this? Nope! Will I? Can’t say as I write this. It’s that nostalgic feeling I am thinking about. I do think I have accomplished something I was not seeking to do when I did.

I can literally taste it now.

I think I am missing all the things I associate coffee to be. Warm, comforting, tasty, time with friends… Maybe this is part of the challenge. You know, being faced with another complexity?

What to do?

Do I continue for week four? Do I mark this as done and enjoy my morning Joe? What would you do in my shoes? Would forgetting coffee even be a thing for you?

Let me know in the comments below!