✨🎄GIVEAWAY TIME!🎄✨ This is the first of many giveaways I’ll be having for you this month! Is this not the cutest advent calendar you’ve seen? It’s made out of wood, the numbers are in silver & gold, and the wreath slides around to mark the dates. It can stand on it’s own or hung up on the wall. I’ve been looking for a good one that isn’t cheesy or loud but classy & elegant and I’ve found it! I loved it so much I bought two so I could gift it to one of you!

Go to my Instagram post(my brand new account): https://instagram.com/p/BNcWfhSgJ21/to enter. Good luck!

 

*Many of you have asked where it is from, you can buy the cutest advent calendar here!

 

 

 

 

This post is in part of the monthly series for #JOHNSONS® for Socialstars™. Thank you so much for supporting me, it means so much to me.

 

We finally had our first snow here in Utah in mid-November! Which is pretty late for Utah but we didn’t mind the warm weather one bit. Jay and our son got some lawn mowing in before the first snow. As soon as Jay says, “I am going to go mow the lawn!” Our son runs off to grab his own lawn mower so he could mow with his daddy.  I could watch them mow the lawn all day long!

 

We used the JOHNSON’S® baby soothing vapor bath last night for bath time for all 3 of our kids because one of them has a runny nose and as a precaution for the other kids as well. It’s enriched with rosemary, eucalyptus and menthol, ingredients that are known for their aromatherapy benefits, which Jay does not believe in bytheway, but I wholeheartedly believe in! Certain foods are known to cure sickness or symptoms, why wouldn’t God also make plants and herbs that help and cure our bodies? It makes sense to me. 🙂 

After bath time, I lathered my son in a NEW JOHNSON’S® HEAD-TO-TOE™ extra moisturizing baby cream, their new cream that is gentle enough for newborns and moisturizes sensitive skin for a full 24 hours. I love that it contains no parabens, phthalates, or dyes, my kids have very sensitive skin and they haven’t had any allergic reactions from using any of the JOHNSON’S® products, which is a huge relief. Two of my kids are allergic to various sunscreens and break out in red bumps all over their face and bodies so I am always very careful choosing skin products for them.

 

Check out their other products, JOHNSON’S® hand & face wipes DESITIN® multi purpose ointment.

And I mentioned on my Instagram post that I started my book club, I had our first meeting last week and it seriously was a dream come true and everything I expected and more. We read spiritual/uplifting/life changing books and gather as a small, intimate group to discuss & make personal goals that we check in with each other at our next book club. Refreshments of course, but no fancy dress-ups, themes or parties(I’m not that cool yet- baby steps), it’s a very simple, informal gathering where only our presence is required with opinions & insights ready to share. Some of you have wondered which book was our first book, the book is The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children, by Shefali Tsabary. It really is life changing guys. Every person needs to read this book. I feel I have matured and grown and become a better parent by 10x times just from reading this book.

There are soooo many excerpts that I want to quote, and I will talk more in detail about the things I learned on a later post, but here is one of my favorite excerpts from the book:

 

Consciousness means being awake, truly awake, to everything we are experiencing. It involves being able to respond to the reality in front of us as it unfolds in the moment. The reality may not be what we tell ourselves it ought to be, but it is what it is. 
To be in a state of consciousness means we approach reality with the realization that life just is. We make a conscious choice to flow with the current, without any desire to control it or need for it to be anything different from what it is. We chant the mantra, “It is what it is.” This means we parent our children as our children are, not as we might wish them to be. It requires accepting our children in their as is form. 
I mentioned earlier that when we refused to accept our reality- be it our children for who they are, or our circumstances- we imagine that if we are angry enough, sad enough, happy enough, or domineering enough, things will somehow change. The opposite is the case. Our inability to embrace our reality in its as is form keeps us stuck. For this reason, not resistance but acceptance of our reality is the first step to changing it. 
Feeling our emotions without reacting to them can be terrifying. To sit with emotions means we have to be in solitude, which is unbearable for many of us. We are too used to having a thought and being triggered by it, experiencing an emotion and reacting to it. for instance, if we feel anxious, we eat or self-medicate in some way. If we feel angry, we experience an urge to vent or even explode at someone. Sitting and watching our thoughts and feelings and stillness may seem pointless to us, but it’s by doing precisely this that the core lessons of consciousness are learned. By silently witnessing our thoughts and feelings, we learn to except them as they are, allowing them to rise and fall within us without resisting them or reacting to them. 
As you learn to be with your emotions, they will no longer overwhelmed you. In the full acceptance of surrender, which is of a quiet different character from mere resignation, you come to see that pain is simply pain, nothing more and nothing less. Yes, pain is painful- it’s meant to be. However, when you don’t fuel your pain by either resisting or reacting, but sit with it, it transforms itself into wisdom. 

 

 

Isn’t that amazing? It goes perfectly along with what I learned and posted on my Instagram post here, before I read the book. Me and Shefali are in sync! What did you think of this excerpt? Do you agree?

 

 

 

 

 

hat | dress | shoes

I had no intention of posting about politics but feel strongly that I should so hear me out. Or just scroll down if you want to, no offense taken. I’ve seen people unfollow others for posting politics & that is fine too, I’m not afraid to lose followers for standing up for my beliefs. If I did, 90% of my posts would be gone.

I felt so sick today. I couldn’t even function & my kids were neglected today. I was in mourning and my heart ached. I cried a few times. I made fun of him to my friends, hoping it would make me feel better. It didn’t. And I realized, hate for hate is never right. Two wrongs never make a right. And instead of wishing it was different, to go back in time, I remembered the lesson I learned a few weeks ago, to be present in the moment & soak in the hurt and let it shape me and refine me, instead of denying or wishing if only’s… That it’s okay to mourn, to not feel guilty or rush that stage, but to let it shape you & change you for the better. Then after that mourning is over, pick yourself back up & live stronger and better.

Then I remembered Mr. Trump’s speech last night and how he talked about unity, thanked Hilary Clinton & didn’t say anything negative. And I realized one thing. He is already changing. He is stepping up to be the President that he knows our beloved Country deserves. I believe he loves our Country. And from this calling he will step up to, he will step up to live the higher law. It is bringing out the best in him, I know it is. And he deserves a fair chance. So I have faith in my country, the citizens(no matter who you voted for), and Mr. Trump as our President. People act the way you label them as. So let’s respect him & give him the best light, & have faith he will rise up to the calling. I believe in Trump. I’m no longer in mourning, I have hope, love and faith. Let’s unite in love, not divided in hate. We all want the same thing after all; love, respect & happiness. Let’s all fight for that. And no matter who would have won(I voted for neither), what happens inside of my home will have the most effect on me & my children. No matter who would have won, God is at the head of it all. And his work will prevail.