What is self-care? How as women do we care for ourselves in a healthy way? Have we been fed a lot of baloney about what the perfect life is supposed to look like? Has the media taught us we're not perfect unless we're available 24 hours 7 days a week? Meeting everyone's needs while looking fantastic, great personality, and making piles of money!
These are questions Theresa and I explore during our discussion. I share a lot about my life. What I thought I was supposed to think and do as a young 20-year-old trying to figure things out 3000 miles away from my family. And now, as I edge closer to the big six-O, have I really evolved over the decades? What do I think about life, family, and career now? Do I think we can still have it all? Have I forgotten about caring for myself? What would I tell my 20-year-old self today?
Theresa shares strategies about how we can begin to care for ourselves. She recommends we start small. She demonstrates how I can calm myself periodically throughout the day to re-focus and give myself a mental break. It's a great technique and I've started to do this when I get overwhelmed in the day.
The show is 2 hrs and 20 minutes long. The first part of the show is my update, and it's a long one. I struggled to get this show done. It seemed I had a lot of roadblocks these past 3 1/2 weeks. As I say in the intro – a lot of weird shit happened in my household. But I'm happy to say, we're all ok and I powered through and ta-da! I've finished the show!
If you want to skip all my drama, the interview starts at 31:20 minutes, and I've added our 5-minute meditation to the end of the podcast. That starts at 2:13:35 minutes or click on the bar below and listen to the meditation here on the website.
5- Minute Mediation
Altraform Website: https://www.altraform.pro/
Instagram:@theresa_WV
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/altraform
Personal Update:
Despite all the craziness this past month, I was still able to publish 4 books in our counting books. Paul came up with the name Kids Count Series. I just love everything about that name.
I'm waiting for the fourth book Counting Reindeer to be approved by the distributor. It's taking a few days longer than expected. It should be released by December 14th or 15th.
Things have finally calmed down for us. Although, I'm still smelling that distinct smell of exhaust. I've had the mechanic come out for a third time checking our boiler system. I'm told everything is fine.
We tried to figure out where the smell is coming from and so far we can't find the source. There is no other machinery down there other than a treadmill – which gets unplugged so we're scratching our heads on this one.
Paul installed the new carbon monoxide and smoke detectors throughout the house. I purchased the fourth detector mainly for peace of mind. This one has a carbon monoxide reading. I thought it would be good to have so I could check if there was ANY toxic gas in the basement.
Paul and I were impressed with the voice activation units telling us what kind of emergency we were having. Carbon monoxide vs. fire – that was very helpful in our course of action. Although when I saw the black smoke coming from our chimney, I honestly thought we had a fire.
Thankfully our town's volunteer fire department was awesome and quickly confirmed there was no fire. Thank you Glastonbury Fire and paramedic unit for all your help!
The fire captain explained that once these detectors are activated, their battery life may be “spent” and will not activate if we have another emergency. In addition, there is no way to check the remaining battery life. He recommended we replace all the units just to be safe.
We agreed. A small price to pay to save our lives and have peace of mind. Each detector is $46.52 on Amazon. If you buy more than one, you can interconnect them together.
If one goes off, they all go off. Our electrician had installed the original detectors at the critical spots in our house. One at the foot of the stairs in the basement. One at the foot of the stairs on the main floor and one at the top of the stairs on the second floor. It was simple to just swap out the old detectors for the new ones.
As promised, I'm posting links to the type of detectors we have in our home. The battery life is ten years, easy to install, and no expense to have them hardwired.
Show Sponsor
Please consider sponsoring this show. Due to COVID, I have not been able to sell as many products to support the administrative costs of the show. Any amount will be appreciated. Click Here
Farm to Bath| Our philosophy is to live a locally focused naturally beautiful life, a lifestyle choice that is infused into the products we make. The ingredients are locally grown and/or acquired and are as basic and pure as nature itself. Each bar is full of fragrant aromatics that provide a rich moisturizing lather with no artificial colors or preservatives added – naturally beautiful!
My Garden Journal: A How To Garden Book For Kids| Gardening is a learned skill – everyone has to start somewhere, and a journal provides the best way to improve your gardening skills to ensure more successes and fewer failures.
The intent of this journal is to simultaneously teach basic gardening techniques while providing a place to record your journey with important information about the “how, when, and where” to grow food and flowers.
There are suggestions on themed gardens such as “A Harry Potter Garden”, “A Young Chef's Garden”, or a “Monarch Butterfly Superhero Garden” for budding Naturalists and places to either sketch or photograph your plants to remember their appearance for the next growing season.
You'll be amazed at how much you will learn by journaling about your garden!
Music
A special thank you to Gene Tullio for writing and producing this music. He has given me special permission to use this song for the show.
Gene's music can be downloaded from Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify. For more information please contact him at dreamshipmusic@gmail.com
Album: The Dreamship| The Forge Of Life| Copyright 2018
Social Media Links:
Please follow us on all our social media outlets. We would love to hear if you tried the recipe(s) from these podcasts.
Please follow us on all our social media outlets. We’d love to hear if you tried the recipe(s) from these podcasts.
Living and Lovin Herbs Website: https://livingandlovinherbs.com/
Instagram: @livingandlovinherbspodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livingandlovinherbspodcast/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Twitter: @Livingandlovin6
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuuHD-5N2tPYDbWwI4wzIJA
Thompson Street Farm LLC: https://thompsonstreetfarm.com/
Brenda J. Sullivan Books: https://brendajsullivanbooks.com/