The baby has finally been asleep and I’m in that mom limbo of just knowing she’s going to wake up as soon as I doze off. Soooooo I’m over here being weepy over pictures from when Alma was born. It feels so big for my heart to be a mama of these girls. After my mom took the kids to the car after this visit, she called because Bekah was so sad and wanted to come back up. Sweet little girl walked so timidly back into my room, into my arms, and sobbed. I’ll never forget the weight of her body and her feelings in that moment. She loved the baby. She was safe with the grandmas taking care of her. Even so, there was so much new going on and her feelings were so big she just needed her mama.

I hope I’m always her safe place where she can fall apart. It’s so easy to hurry the kids’ feelings or want them to not be quite so big. If I always want them to come to me, then they have to know they’re never too much for mama. As someone who feels too much most of the time, I think I subconsciously want to help them make their feelings more manageable by keeping them smaller but this just doesn’t work – for me or for them. They respond SO much better when I invite them to feel their feelings, to talk about why they’re there, and THEN talk about what’s next and how those feelings can inform our choices but don’t control us. There are lots of quotes about how parenting is really coming to better understand and even parent yourself a bit – it’s so true.

Going more natural in any part of life can feel overwhelming and expensive. My mom turned me on to Root Pretty as an affordable and quality option and I have slowly moved everything in my skincare and beauty to their products. I’ll be sharing here what I use and love. If you decide to buy, this link will save you some money and grant me points to use on my own makeup for sharing with you. This is in no way an endorsed promotion, just me sharing what works for me.

Skincare

Face wash. I use the charcoal and grapefruit oil based fresh face cleaner on the daily. Charcoal bars have become popular thanks to Young Living and Beauty Counter, but I’m not a fan of bars as I find them messy and they can be easy to waste in the shower. The handy pump keeps you cleansing away impurities in a super efficient way.

Anti-aging night cream. Like most good night creams, this is a bit more of an investment relative to the other prices you’ll see in Root Pretty. That said, it lasts forever and I saw noticeable changes in my skin after the first three days of use. If you were to ask me what ONE thing to buy from RP, it would be this.

Makeup

The Pretty Kit. If you email Root a makeup less photo, they will help you match to a foundation color. You can then order a trial amount of that color and a few close to it to match. Once matched, I highly recommend this kit that comes with a Kabuki brush and blender along with your foundation, a classic bronzer, and setting silk. This is such a good deal!

For fuller coverage, I’ll often add a drop or two of my essential oil face serum that I make to the foundation powder and apply with the beauty blender.

I’ll be back with additional installments of how I switched over fully to Root Pretty little by little. Let me know if you order anything or what your faves are!

Teaching was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Doing life – the good, bad, and the ugly – with my kids was the greatest privilege. Nearly eight years later, the time I spent teaching still blows my mind and heart. 

“Most of us raise our children based on our gut reactions. But how do we know whether such responses are trustworthy or just the result of bad lasagna? Actually, adult “gut reactions” are the results of childhood responses to family emotions and interactions. Therefore, “gut feel” is more valid if we had a happy childhood and presently have peaceful and rewarding relationships at home and elsewhere. On the other hand, if we react to our childhood by saying, ‘I sure do want things differently with my kid than my mom and dad did with me,’ then our gut reactions will probably be untrustworthy and faulty.” – Parenting with Love & Logic

“And the scary thing I’ve noticed is that some people really feel uncomfortable around women who don’t hate themselves…Which is why you need the tiniest bit of bravery. People get scared when you try to do something, especially when it looks like you’re succeeding. People do not get scared when you’re failing. It calms them…But when you’re winning it makes them feel like they’re losing or, worse yet, that maybe they should’ve tried to do something too but now it’s too late. And since they didn’t, they want to stop you. You can’t let them.

I get worried that telling girls how difficult it is to be confident implies a tacit expectation that girls won’t be able to do it.” – Mindy Kaling