You know when you’re a mom, and you have glorious plans for self-care… but then life happens? Yeah, that.
Hey tea fans! This is Heidi’s very first contribution to Empress Tea. She currently resides in Boulder, Colorado. Welcome to the family, Heidi, and sorry you’ve had such a rough week!
The Head Empress
I had great plans this week to write about Self-Care. As a mother of 3 young children, including a set of twins, I have experienced firsthand how valuable self-care is and how much caregivers need it because you can’t pour from an empty cup.
But then some things happened…
- children are being separated from their families at the US border
- our car was totaled from a hail storm
- my little guy screamed from 5am-7am on Tuesday morning
- my daughter got sent home from preschool with lice
- I was touched too many times on Wednesday
- on Thursday morning I once again did not go to the Soul Sweat dance class, even though I made it my goal to attend
- I ordered Thai take-out instead of the Chinese my 5 year old wanted and apparently we were never-ever-ever-ever going to order again
- on Friday, I forgot my reusable bag when I went to the market
- the plastic bag I used at the market is going to choke a sea turtle and turn the ocean into a plastic soup and I don’t speak Spanish, or Indigenous languages, or have a law degree, so I would be no use if I just showed up to help
- my ears are still ringing from the crying from the last 30 minutes my family all spent together in the mini-van
- someone tagged me in my mom’s FB group about what to do when you’re having twins
- I can’t decide if we should get the electric cargo bike to go on family bike rides, or not
- would $10 donated to “xyz fund” really make a difference?
- and Melina Trump wore a jacket with words on it to visit refugees
I planned on giving you a long list of big and little items of self-care, some splurges and some free, some low-tech and some high-tech. I was even going to tell you the story about self-care and chickens! But like I said, THINGS HAPPENED. I guess the chicken story will have to wait for another time.
At the end of such an exhausting week, all I can say is that I hope you are doing a few things in your life that fill you up, instead of eating you up, and that you treat yourself with the same kindness, forgiveness, and respect that you treat your families, children, clients, colleagues, and friends with. Personally, I’m going to quickly go eat the beautiful, fresh, organic, and expensive, blueberries that are my kids’ favorite and not even feel guilty about it.
