The Life of Bon: Taking Care of Myself

Hi guys. We had the kind of weekend over here that you need in order to get your head on straight. We hung out as a family, Greg and I went on TWO dates, (one of which was a couple massages where I about dang near experienced death by over massage. OUCH!) and we binge watched Making a Murder. We slept in, I made Greg's favorite soup tonight, June charmed us all with her new "WHOOOOAA!" sound she is making. It was the kind of weekend that we needed after the kind of week we had and for that I am grateful. (Oh and we all three took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon after church. It was everything a winter Sunday nap should be.)

Now it's Sunday night and I feel excited to check in here on the blog. I love Sunday nights where I don't have to go in to work in the morning. I can stay up until midnight or so watching my favorite guilty pleasure shows, baking cookies, reading my book, painting my nails. Sundays without work the next morning just makes me feel like all is right in the world.

A few things happened this week that made me realize that I need to take care of myself a little better. I have been going at a million miles an hour making sure that our family is provided for financially since Greg quit his job. Add that to raising a baby and the personal issues that Greg and I have been trying to work through, I felt like I kind of hit my "I can't do this anymore" point this week. It felt good to step back this weekend and kind of re evaluate things a little bit. I know that I need to "take care of myself" (as many of you and many of my friends and loved ones have suggested) but I don't always exactly know what that means or how to do that. Here's some ideas I had. Of course, any of your ideas are more that welcome because I'm obviously not very good at it.

WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.
1. Plan to go "out" every day that I am not working- try to arrange to meet friends and family, but if not just go with June to shop, eat a hamburger, or somehow get out of the house.
2. Take Maverick for a walk at least three times a week. Don't let the cold be an excuse. (I'm normally really good at this but the cold has made me a huge baby. I want to make this a priority because it's really good for me to get outside, get fresh air, and get some exercise.)
3. Make the effort to reach out to friends who live out of state. I have a lot of friends who are so great but I don't reach out to them because sometimes when life is sucky it's just easier to not talk about it. And if I call then I have to talk about it. So it's easier not to call. And then I lose touch with the people who know me and love me best.
4. Read my scriptures and/or some kind of inspirational material every day.
5. Get a haircut. Make sure I do make up and hair and get dressed every day. (I know it's vain and stupid, but I really do feel so much better about the day and about my life if I look presentable. I can't do the pjs all day thing. It just makes me so depressed.)
6. Ask Greg for alone time when I am feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated. Since we are both home a lot more than we were before, sometimes I can start to feel kind of overwhelmed by always being around people. (It doesn't help that on my work days I teach four straight classes from 7:40-2:25. I love those kids but agreeing to teach four classes instead of three was definitely a mistake for me this year.) I just need to be better about telling Greg when I need a little bit of regroup time and he can take June out grocery shopping or go see a movie with a friend or something to give me a bit of space.
7. See a counselor on my own. I feel like this would just help me to better navigate our weird world right now. I feel like currently I'm not navigating too successfully and I'd just like to feel like I have a little better handle on myself, my emotions, the way I act, the things I say, etc.
8. Allow myself to take a break from sponsored content on the blog. This stresses me out because sponsored content provides income for my family, but applying for blogging campaigns can be very time consuming and the deadlines often bring out my worst self. I think for a few weeks here I'm just going to allow myself to not stress so much about constantly applying for sponsored content. December was a good month for us income wise because of holiday sales in jewelry, so we have a little bit of cushion space for January. If the blogging content comes to me, great, but the blog needs to take more of a back seat in the next month or two so I can get my head on straight.
9. Be better about delegating responsibilities. I tend to just do things on my own instead of asking for help. With the jewelry especially, I want to show Greg how to order inventory, how to add listings to etsy, etc, etc, etc so that he can basically take over that. Right now he does all the orders, but there is so much more than just orders that I often feel overwhelmed by it. If I can give more of this to Greg I feel like I can focus more on marketing and growing the business and less on the minutiae that easily stresses me out.
10. Read more and get off social media more. ESPECIALLY FACEBOOK. I mentioned this in my last post, but I feel like I'm thriving more on snapchat. I love seeing what others post and I like posting myself. Such a happier, less stressful place than facebook and instagram in my humble opinion. (You can follow me @thelifeofbon)

Any other ideas you guys have? So many people have told me "make sure you take care of yourself during this time" but I mean, what does that mean?!?!?! HELP!

I want to thank you guys again for how awesome you've all been. I never imagined when I started writing this blog that it would turn into such a great community of support and love. I appreciate your kind comments and my family appreciates every time you click a link or order a necklace. We could never do it without you all.

Speaking of necklaces. I feel so grateful to you blog readers so I want to offer you all a special discount from Hey June to say thank you. I am not putting this on my insta or facebook or anywhere else so the only way you could get the discount is if you are reading this blog. Enjoy code BLOG25 for 25% off your order at Hey June good from now through Tuesday. (January 12) I know it's not much, but it feels like a little something I can give back to you. And we've got lots of great new stuff in the shop since the new year, so if you haven't checked it out for a while make sure you do.