Birthday thoughts of thirty-something mom blogger.

Hey Mama,

(That’s how I open every email to my lovely subscribers. Feel free to join the list – you can sign up either under this post or in the right sidebar)

Tomorrow is my birthday and that is why I decided to write something different today. Something more personal.

Here come some birthday thoughts of thirty-something gal

A few years ago, at this time of a year, you would find me with my head in the clouds, pretty dark clouds, thinking “how it is possible that God is good, I have the best Husband ever, the loveliest kids in the world, (I even had a job back there) and I am still not exactly happy?”  And the mom guilt would slapped me in the face, how ungrateful I was and so on. I felt I am a bad mom because I was feeling down.

The fact is we all have some kind of self-doubt, a worse phase of our life, we want to just give up. So if you’re in this state of mind currently read on. You are not alone.

This year for me is different.

This birthday is awesome, even though I am sick, everyone is busy, the whole family is an ocean away so won’t try my cake, but you know what? It’s ok, there are no clouds, I don’t need anything.

I am at peace.

I’m not even bothered by the amount of the candles my kiddos will meticulously stick into the mentioned cake. I will, of course, play my part: I will be outraged and will point out that they for sure made a mistake because that’s what makes them laugh. And they will tease me how old I am and that’s just our thing.

But it will not bother me.

You see, I’ve met my monsters from back then. I defined them. And then redefined myself.

Boom. Sounds cool, huh?

It wasn’t cool, it was hard, but today I’m not going through that anymore. I don’t have to remember that, this does not impact me as much. Because I don’t let it. I keep my monsters in a box I don’t open. Are you surprised they are still alive?

Oh yes, it’s like with alcoholism. You may not be drinking for years, but your monsters are not dead. They sit and wait.

Thank you.

Thanks to my family, my faith and strong will to focus on what’s important I am strong, and I can enjoy my life. I can enjoy getting older.

I am enough. I am valued and needed. And you know what? You are too. You are brave and capable of doing miracles. If you have troubles believing that take a look at Shine Your Truth Community. Jess and company created an empowering movement for females. You can also look them up on Instagram!

But hey, back to me!

I don’t know why exactly but the vision of me in my 30s was scary. I think all my birthday thoughts after 2012 were focused on how the world will end when I finally hit this “30” mark.

So if you are reading this and you are in the late twenties, don’t worry, thirty is great. My 30s are revolutionary so far: two babies, major crisis and a rebirth of some kind (to be a little dramatic).

Blogiversary

Ok, Mama, I’ll tell you something more. Recently this blog had also a birthday. First to be exact. I love this blogging adventure of mine, but I struggle to find time to invest all my love in here.

That is why even though JustRedefine was nominated for different blogging community awards I couldn’t accept them because I had no time! I would need to write a post about the award, but I barely had time to write my mom stuff! Priorities won. My mommy readers always are the priority to me.

Buuuuut, this post is different like I said. This is my birthday and now I will share some celebration with my blog lol. Let’s play a little bit!

---

The Sunshine Blogger Award 2018

Last week JustRedefine was nominated twice (!) to the Sunshine Blogger Award 2018.

This award is a way to recognize creative, positive bloggers in the community and I feel honored and grateful to Shyla from Sincere Mommy and Candace from Working Mom X that they nominated me. Thank you!

Here are the SUNSHINE BLOGGER AWARD RULES:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you in the blog post and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

To be fair, I will answer both Ladies’ questions so prepare to know me much better after this post 😊

Questions from Sincere Mommy:

1. What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time besides blogging?
   I don’t have any spare time. Unfortunately, I cannot redefine 24hours into 36, I spend all my time with my family and any in any spare moment I try to grow the blog. I like to read, I love to watch romantic movies but recently all of this I switched to e-books and courses about blogging.
2. What is your favorite season and why?
   Any that is not winter. And yes, I live in Wisconsin.
3. Where would you most like to travel someday?
   I love to travel, I don’t think I could choose one place to go the most. But next on my list is a road trip along the west coast of the USA.
4. What movie, if any, has made you cry or come close to crying?
   I cry all the time! On movies that is. My favorite movies to cry on are based on the Nicholas Sparks novels.
5. What animal would you have as a pet if all animals were domesticated?
   The one that can take care of itself. I have enough on my plate.
6. Who is your favorite actor/actress of all time?
   There’re too many to mention and at the same time too hard to choose the favorite. And you know, even the range is huge. From Jennifer Lopez to Denzel Washington. Impossible to answer.
7. What is your favorite candy/sweet?
   Peanut butter m&ms lately.
8. If you could pick one person to live on a deserted island with, who would you pick?
   Without any doubt: My Hubby. Can we take kiddos too?
9. Do you believe in ghosts or supernatural things?
   I’m Catholic, I believe in souls.
10. What inspired you most to start blogging?
    Again, Hubby. I was looking for a creative outlet after I found out I cannot legally work anymore and he said I should write. For the longest time, I felt the need to share with other moms what I know about the importance of taking care of yourself while caring for others. And here we are.
11. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
    Geographically I have no idea. Blog-wise, hopefully on some live mom coaching events.

Questions from Working Mom X:

1. What’s the most surprising thing about being a Mom/Dad?
   Almost everything surprised me! I also talked about it here.
2.  Did you want a boy or a girl?
   I always wanted both.
3. You get a few unexpected hours of me time. Besides going to Target, drinking a cup of coffee or sneaking a bubble bath- what do you do with this free time?
   Update a home page of my blog.
4. What’s the most outrageous children’s birthday party you’ve been invited to?
   I don’t think any of the birthday parties I’ve been to I could call outrageous. Most of them are in rented kids’ fun places, quite predictable but children have fun and that’s the most important.
5. What’s your proudest mom/dad moment?
   Every time one of my kids unexpectedly do something nice I get this little boost of mom pride. And they are boosting it pretty often. I love to point it out to my husband saying, “look, we did something right”.
6. How do you control your kids’ screen time? Or do you just give up and throw the iPad at them for a few minutes of peace?
   The only thing I strictly control is what exactly they are watching/playing. I’m always checking these. My kids do not have a lot of free, unplanned time on their own, so I let them spend it as they’re pleased. And yes, with my little one who is with me 24/7 we have during the day obligatory baby shark playlist so that she can dance and mommy can have a coffee.
7. Best family vacation that you planned? Did it go accordingly or was it 100% chaos?
   Every year we have a fantastic family vacation, this year it was in Greece. Because we want to spend the time together and get as much rest as possible, the plan is very rough. If you travel with kids there will always be chaos. So set your mindset to deal with chaos and you will not be disappointed.
8.  Your child’s pet has died. Could be a free goldfish, turtle, dog, cat, bird or whatever.  How do you explain the death to your child?
   Circle of life? Children can handle more than we expect them to. I always tell them the truth, just choose words according to the age.
9.  What’s the biggest thing your husband/wife has done to help out with the kids?
   I could write a book here. My husband doesn’t just help with the kids, we really do the whole parenting thing together. He is fully involved. But what I love the most is that he knows when I am really exhausted and he takes kids to the playground so I can be alone for some time. He’s the best.
10. How do you balance it all? Never ending supply of coffee, wine, or tons of chocolate?
    Yes, yes and yes. And I don’t balance, I just try to manage stuff. Read more here.
11. What’s your favorite recipe? Please share.  It can be for anything.
    Tough one! I don’t usually follow recipes, I cook as I feel it so to speak. But I was told my crepes are fantastic and you only need eggs, milk and flour to do them 😊

And now the really fun part.

Here’s the list of 11 great bloggers who will hopefully answer my 11 questions:

1. Kim and http://thismamaneedschocolate.com/
2. Tasheena and https://thecinnamonmom.com/
3. Courtney and http://www.supersizefamilykitchens.com/
4. Ashley and https://thepurposefulnest.com/
5. Diana and https://fulfillandthrive.com/
6. Stephanie and https://onecaringmom.com/
7. Maud and https://mypassionprojects.com/
8. Kirsta and https://mamaofthedrama.com/
9. Samantha and https://www.journeytosahm.com/
10. Gemma and https://everydaylatina.com/
11. Jessie and https://onelostcoin.com/

And the questions are:

1. Why did you decide to start a blog?
2. What is your gift/your superpower that you share on your blog?
3. What is the last thing you learned (not necessary blog-related)?
4. What would you like to do/to get on your next birthday?
5. What family tradition do you cherish the most?
6. Do you set goals for the upcoming new year and do you do that on January 1^st?
7. How do you work on your mindset to motivate you to do something?
8. If you could play a role in a movie or series which movie/series would you choose?
9. What is your favorite way of spending weekends?
10. Where in the world would you like to live (if money or anything else were not in the way?)
11. If you were to write a book what would it be about?

[mailerlite_form form_id=9]