When I am Feeling Down

Being a parent is hard. Being a single parent can be even harder! There will always be bad days and on those days it is important that you have a plan of attack. Now, there are different kinds of bad days… Bad hair, hard days at work, sad days, fat days, stressful days, and overall just horrible days all around. Here are some things I do when I feel like crap, some of them are better for sad days and others better for days when your child seems to have been possessed by a devil.


• Make a playlist with upbeat happy songs. I prefer the boy bands and bubble gum pop from my high school/middle school days. NSYNC, BSB, Britney and Christina.

• Have a piece of chocolate… or two.

• Go to this website: cakewrecks.com

• Distract yourself by baking yummy dessert and then eat it!

• Hug your child, smell their hair and tell them that you love him/her.

• Take a shower, cry in there is you feel the need. Then put on your PJs.

• Watch Anchorman, Step Brothers or any other Will Ferrell movie.

• 13 going on 30 is another good pick me up movie!

• Take your child to a small local downtown/flea market for some leisurely window shopping.

• Ask a toddler to tell you a story. Any story! Have them make it up, because there is nothing more hilarious than a small child’s imagination.

• Pull out an old scrap book, try to find one that will make you smile (don’t pull out old wedding pictures featuring you and your now X).

• DANCE PARTY! Rock out in the living room.

• Go to this website: cuteoverload.com

• Play a board game or video games

• Memorize a poem

• Go outside and walk.

• Go swimming or set up a sprinkler. Child or not it is just darn fun!

• Call a friend of family member and talk or go to/rent a movie.

• Find a mindless game to play on your phone. I like Bejeweled or Slingo…

• Read or download a good book. I love audiobooks cause I can listen to them while I clean or relax in the bath. There is a cool app for iphone called HOOPLA where you can rent audiobooks/movies and other items through your public library! Just enter your library card number and BAM! Free books with no need to drive to the Library to return them!

• Stretch or do some Yoga.

• Play with your hair and makeup. Go back to your teen/preteen years and experiment a little.

Bad days are just bad days, they do not equal a bad life. Just the same, a hard life is not a bad life. Remember that.

30 before 30

Today I turn 29. That magical number that a large group of women use as the last stop in the aging process and my last year as a twenty-something… I feel pretty neutral about it. Maybe because for about a year I was in a fog, I feel younger than my age. Not in the sense that I feel immature or don’t want to get older, I just feel like I am still stuck at 26. I am hoping that changes over the next year. By this time next year I want to FEEL 30. I want to embrace my age and move forward. In this spirit I am going to initiate a project. Starting today I am going to try to get 30 things accomplished before I turn 30. Below I will make a list, by May 7th, 2014 I want to check at least 30 things off the list. I want to accumulate experiences.




1. Run a 5k

2. Eat only organic/unprocessed for at least 1 week

3. Take a new class at the community center

4. Make something my daughter can keep forever

5. Go on a date

6. Volunteer in the community

7. Apply for a dream job, even if I am not completely qualified

8. See a professional ballet performance

9. Get in the best shape of my life

10. Buy a new car

11. Give myself a makeover and try a more standout lip color

12. Try to get something published (a short story, article or poem… maybe a Lifetime original script ;) )

13. Have a savings account with at least $1500 in it

14. Sell a painting

15. Record a song, even if is just for me to see/hear

16. Adopt a pet

17. Get a tattoo

18. Have my first mammogram

19. See a dermatologist and have my freckles checked

20. Print out my pictures and make a family photo album for Nugget and I

21. Go one day without spending any money, maybe two

22. Visit Disney or other major theme park

23. Try to be an extra in a film

24. Audition for something

25. Take Nugget to her first baseball game

26. Buy myself good piece of jewelry

27. Make myself a piece of jewelry

28. Write letters, by hand, to friends that have moved far away

29. Make a music video with my Daughter

30. Learn to drive a stick shift

31. Learn a foreign language, enough to have a simple conversation

Any other ideas? I like having choices!