Take Time To Slow Down

Is anyone else tired? I love the holidays but boy am I tired. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. When you are a single parent the time to get it all done is even more reduced, there just isn’t anyone else to help. It seems my to do list gets especially long this time of year, cooking, baking, decorating, shopping, in addition to all the other things you have to do on a normal day. I remember when Hailey was younger just wishing I could have an entire day to myself to leisurely … Continue reading →

Christmas Baking

Tomorrow starts two of my favorite days of the year. Every year my best friend and I take two days off work and do all of our Christmas baking. It’s a huge mess, a lot of work but we love it, and so do our kids. When my friend and I were newly divorced we lived together for a while and our kids are really good friends. Our baking days are something they look forward to all year long. In the past we would send them off to school and get down to the serious work of mixing and baking. … Continue reading →

Sick Days

It’s that time of year, the time when everyone is getting sick. Tonight in Utah we are supposed to get our first freeze of the year but it seems that everyone is getting sick ahead of the really cold weather. It sucks when your child is sick, when you are feeling under the weather it’s even worse. For the past few days my back has been bothering me. Annoying but I’ll live. Now Hailey has the stomach flu and I feel something catching up with me. I’m very run down and just want to sleep. Not at all possible when … Continue reading →

Taking A Time Out

Friday takes on a whole new meaning when you are a single parent. It’s almost as if you don’t know how to feel on Friday. There are those Friday’s that all day long you are just a little sad because you know you are going home to an empty house. Hailey was usually picked up before I got home from work so I was not in a hurry to go home. I hated walking into the empty house, no little chatterbox to tell me about her day and what this friend said or that friend did. Then there were those … Continue reading →

Time To Move On

After a divorce it’s hard to know where to start. For me, I felt like I didn’t even know who I was, for so many years I was Steve’s wife that I wasn’t sure what my identity was with him. I used to say to my friends, only half jokingly, I have no idea what I even like anymore! Years of being married and compromising causes our personal likes and dislikes to blur at the edges, we are half of a marriage so we do the things that everyone likes. When you get a divorce you have to figure out … Continue reading →

How To Relieve Stress

Just when you think you can take a break, just when you think you won’t worry so much, something else comes along and smacks you in the back of the head. I had a moment like that over the weekend and our lives are pretty much being turned upside down. I’ve had a constant stomach ache, I’m running around trying to do a million things at once and nothing was being done well. I realized I needed to slow down and take a few minutes for me. As a single mother I always feel guilty taking time for myself. There … Continue reading →

Volunteering – Time For Yourself While Helping Others

For the past seven years I’ve been a work at home mom. I love the flexibility it offers since I can start and stop any time I please, take vacations, and not have a boss breathing down my neck. Well, to be honest, I’m the worst boss ever. I tend to push myself too hard and since I do work from home, all I think about when I’m at home is work. Whether I’m online writing articles, counseling a client, doing a movie review, or cooking and cleaning when I’m offline, I always tend to work. Since my kids are … Continue reading →

Finding Me Time And Not Feeling Guilty About It

Anyone who’s a single parent knows it’s a full-time job and then some. You fulfill the role as maid, nurse, cook, disciplinarian, leader, handyman, psychologist, friend, confidant, teacher, and more. Combined with the fact that I homeschooled my kids and had a full-time job, so I could pay the bills, keep a roof over our heads, and clothes on our backs, it left no time for “me” time. Or so I thought. I went through two decades of setting myself aside so I could take care of the house, the kids and everything else that was crammed into my already … Continue reading →

Blessed to Be Single

As the new single parents blogger, I have been spending some time reading through other posts in this blog. In doing so, I have been able to get a sense of what has already been covered and find inspiration for my own future posts. One topic that I have seen a lot of is dating as a single parent, and while I understand why this would be an important issue, I am amazed that I have not been able to locate even one post about the joys of being single. So I decided that would be my inspiration for this … Continue reading →

Self-Esteem Uplift

Most people feel very low and unworthy after a break-up with their partner. If you have been left for another this is especially more painful. It is common to go through feelings of feeling depressed, unloved, unattractive, and unworthy. Feelings of being ugly, uninteresting, too fat, too skinny, not smart enough, and so on go through your brain. “He must have left me because there is something wrong with me” run through most people’s minds. To help you get through this difficult time there are some things that you can do to make yourself feel better. They are not cure-alls, … Continue reading →