Recommended YouTube Channels

Here are my recommendations of YouTube channels to check out. Most of these channels are pretty well known. I thought I would start with them and do some additional post with lesser known channels.

Beauty:

Jaclyn Hill - Jaclyn Hill has over 3 million subscribers. She focuses her channel on makeup looks and techniques. She has a very bubbly attitude and her video's are visually appealing.

Jaclyn Hill

Carli Bybel - Carli Bybel has over 5 million subscribers. She does makeup tutorials, hair tutorials, and Vlogs. She seems very down to earth and her video's are very visually appealing as well.

Carli Bybel

Glam & Gore - Glam & Gore has over a million subscribers. This channel focuses more on special FX makeup. If you are looking for more "out there" makeup idea's for things like Halloween, this channel is great!

Glam & Gore

Lifestyle:

High Carb Hannah - High Carb Hannah has over 2 hundred thousand subscribers. Hannah's videos are based around her vegan lifestyle. She also lives in a tiny house and shares videos about that as well. 

High Carb Hannah

Samantha Maria - Samantha Maria has over a million subscribers. She is a fashion and lifestyle Vlogger from London. She has a very sweet personality and covers a wide variety of topics.

Samantha Maria

Carly Cristman - Carly Cristman has over seven hundred thousand subscribers. Her videos include fashion, home, and lifestyle. Her video are very visually pleasing.

Carly Cristman

  

How To Get Through The Hard Times

Everyone goes through rough times throughout their lives. How do we not only get through these times, but thrive through these parts of our lives? I think in order to do this you must find the good no matter how small and focus on that. We can let bad times break us or we can come out of it stronger than ever, despite them. When I look back on hard times in my life, those are the moments that changed me the most, made me a stronger person, and instilled something in the very core of me. I don't want to let anything break me or defeat me. I want to come out the other side showing my war wounds proudly! We as humans are incredibly resilient, and we need to realize how strong and capable we are. Immediately when something starts to go wrong, stand up to meet these hardships with an attitude of this situation will not get the best of me! Your mind is a powerful tool, its all in how you choose to use it. If you are conscious of how your mind is reacting to a bad situation, it's easier to start to force yourself out of a negative state of mind. 

Ask yourself what you might learn from this situation. Maybe you will learn to have patience, appreciation, love, strength, courage, a sense of self, not take things for granted, compassion, forgiveness, responsibility, self reliant's, thoughtfulness...ect  I'm sure you get the general idea. when you don't let these times control you in a negative way, you are giving yourself the power over your life. Don't just wait to magically find what you could learn from it, search for it, focus on it. Take the focus off of the hardship and put it to where it actually matters. Push forward, know that you WILL come out the other side stronger than ever. Soon this rough patch will be a distant memory and you will be an even more kick ass version of yourself .💗

12 Things You Might Not Know About Pregnancy and Delivery

In this post I will be listing things you might not know about pregnancy and Delivery. Keep in mind that everyone's experiences are different and some of these thing might not apply to you.

Pregnancy 

1. Menstrual like cramping: When you initially get pregnant you can experience menstrual like cramping. Obviously when you first find out you are pregnant and then experience pain, it can be very scary. With my first pregnancy, around the time I would have gotten my period I did experience cramping. If you are experiencing bleeding (heavy bleeding or bright red bleeding) accompanied by cramping, you should get checked out right away.  

2. Very painful pelvic pain: With my third pregnancy near the end, I experienced extremely painful pelvic pain. The pain got so bad that I was finding it difficult to actually walk around. Some woman can develop Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. SPD is a condition that causes excessive movement in the pelvic region and causes pain and discomfort.

3. Baby's movements can be painful: I'm sure every newly pregnant woman can't wait until the point in her pregnancy when she can feel little baby's movements. It's great to feel that they are active and doing what they are suppose to, but as baby grows their living environment shrinks. My pregnancy with my second son had me at times to the point of saying "ouch" out loud. Not to fun to feel like your baby is working on cracking your ribs one at a time.

4. Each one of your pregnancies will be different: Just because one pregnancy was difficult doesn't mean the next one will be and vice versa. I have went through 3 different pregnancies and each was completely different. You can not predict future pregnancies by past ones.

Labor  

1. Induction contractions are different than natural ones: In my experience at least, induction contractions are much more painful than the ones I had naturally. With natural contractions I had downtime between each contraction even at the very end. With my induced contractions the contractions were coming so quickly with the help of the medicine, that there was no time in between each contraction to recover.

2. Catheters: If you decide to get an epidural you will also be getting a Catheter. A catheter is a flexible tube inserted inside you so that you can relieve your bladder. This is necessary because with an epidural you can not walk to the bathroom or feel if you need to relieve your bladder. They will take the catheter out before you push your baby out so you probably won't have to actually feel a thing.

Delivery and beyond 

1. After birth: After you push your new bundle of joy out, you're not actually done. You will have to deliver the placenta. The placenta was the home to your baby for the last 9 months. Usually with a few pushes directed by your doctor, your placenta will be delivered.

2. Swelling: As you can imagine, pushing a 7 to 9 pound baby out of you can cause damage (down there). You might need stitches from tears and you will probably have swelling. Usually within a week most of the swelling will go down unless you had some sort of complication. 

3. sitting normal: It might be a little while before you can just sit normally. Just think, If your swelled (down there) and have stitches, you are not going to want to put pressure on that area. Usually shifting your weight to one side when you sit can fix the problem until you are back to normal.

4. Sitz bath: At the hospital they will provide you with a Sitz pan or you can purchase one at places like Walmart. a Sitz pan goes on your toilet, you fill it with hot water and sit on it. This helps to reduce swelling, keeps your stitches damp so they won't pull, and helps keep everything clean down there. Sitz baths will help your recovery process, so you'll want to do as many a day as you can until you feel back to normal.

6. Not like it use to be: If you happen to have had tears during your delivery, its only natural that you can have scarring. Doctor's will try and "fix things up" down there as best they can, but don't be surprised if things are not EXACTLY the way they were before.  

5. Baby Blues/Postpartum Depression: Sometimes after woman have a baby, they can feel down or get extremely depressed. Remember it takes a while for your hormones to get back to normal and just adjusting to a new baby can be difficult (no matter how much you wanted it). Sometimes things don't go as well as you would like or maybe you put to much pressure on yourself to be perfect. If you are feeling down or depressed I high recommend talking to a doctor. Sometimes you just need a little help getting through a rough patch and there is NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF. You are no less of a mother just because you're going through a hard time, in fact you are an AWESOME mother for getting the help ,so that you can be there for your baby. You are not alone!!

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few things about myself. I'm so grateful to all the people coming to this blog and reading my posts. I hope that after this you can feel like you know me a little bit better.

1. I'm a goof ball-  I am a pretty silly person if you get to know me but I also don't let just anyone see that side of me. I've had a lot of people ask me why I don't show that side more, so I'm trying to be more open. I feel like becoming a parent has made me even more silly because there's nothing better than hearing my little ones laughter.

2. I have always lived with Anxiety- I can make a post about this and go more in depth, but basically I have had this problem all my life. I feel like a lot of people either downplay anxiety or don't really understand it if they haven't experienced it. I think people who have anxiety are very strong because they fight two times harder to do things verses someone who doesn't.

3. I am OBSESSED with tiny houses- I love looking at tiny houses and find the minimal living very attractive. I could just imaging a tiny house by a lake with a little garden beside it, and in my mind that is my happy place. 

4. Fall is my favorite season- I not only love fall because my birthday's in the fall, but I love fall because I think its the most eye pleasing season. I'm hoping to get out this fall and take some amazing pictures of the beauty around where I live.

5. I can't stand someone rubbing their hands on carpet- So this is a weird one, but it is what it is. Just thinking about it grosses me out, and I can't really give you an explanation on why. I think most people have funny quirk about them and this is ONE of mine 😂 

So there you have it! 5 things you didn't know but now you do. Let me know if you have any special quirks 😝

More Makeup (pics)

I found a few more picture's of makeup looks I did. My other makeup post seemed to get a lot of views, so here's some more. Hopefully you can get some idea's off it.

The Key To Happiness

Everyone wants to know how to be happy. First off, happiness is the state of being happy. So how do we reach a state of happy? I don't believe that you can find happiness in material things. Some people can get a mood boost from the initial feeling of a purchase, but that will soon fade. Trying to make yourself happy with "things" will never actually get you to a state of real happiness. New things get old very quick and you're left with a never ending cycle of purchasing, to hold on to that little "high" you might feel. Secondly, thinking that another person can make you happy is also a dead end. Not only is it a horrible thing to put that burden of YOUR happiness on someone else, but also your relationship with that person WILL eventually burn out from your high expectations. Relying on any outside things for your happiness will never get you true happiness. Ultimately, happiness is a state of mind and needs to come from within. No one can affect your mind, unless you yourself allow them to. Focusing within yourself is your best chance to have true happiness. So, how do you become happy on the inside and not let anything affect it? I would say the first thing is to understand that happiness is not a switch you can just turn on and you're good from then on. Its something you have to keep up, maintain, and protect on a daily basis. You will have days where you do awesome and days you do not. Practicing positivity can give your mind a new out look, and gives you a different perspective. If you focus your mind on good things , then the things that tend to get you down won't have the same affect on your mind. Another great thing is to try to become aware of when you are starting to feel down and nip it in the butt. If you recognize your previous negative behavior coming, then you have the opportunity to stop it in its tracks. YOU have the POWER and realizing that can be life altering. lastly, I would encourage you to learn to really appreciate those happy moments. When your doing really well really absorb those moments. If you really make it a point to consciously take in happy times, they will get you through to the next happy moment. If being truly happy was easy than everyone would be, so don't think that its a one time thing. Put in the work everyday and kick some unhappy ass! 💖

Dealing With Bad People

Hopefully in your life you don't have to deal with "Bad People", but many people in the world have shitty Bosses, Co-workers, Neighbors, and people from their past they have to deal with. Its a shame that some people are so pathetic that they have to try and bring negativity in someone else's life to make themselves feel better. I often wonder if mean people actual realize how other's perceive them, or maybe they are so into themselves that their unaware. If someone reveals themselves as a bad person to me, I'll from then on have nothing to do with them. I stay away from people that talk down about others, gossip, and are generally negative. Another big one for me is people who manipulate. I have known people that have tried to manipulate situations, whispering one thing in one persons ear and then something else in another to cause conflict. This works for a while until people start talking and figure out the cause of the conflict (the manipulator). Some bosses seem to be harder on one employee more than another, and often take out there frustration on that person. Its an abuse of power and just not right! Its not exactly easy to rid yourself of these types of individuals, but try your best. Pay attention to what people say and their actions. If someone gossips about people, they'll gossip about you. If someones mean to someone, they will be mean to you. If you see someone manipulating someone, you WILL be their next target. In life you need to be aware that some people would love to see your life fall apart, don't give them the satisfaction. You are worth being treated with respect, accept nothing less!!

Empathy

What is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to understand someone's experience, situation, or feelings. I thinks it's also the effort you put into trying to understand as well. If children are not taught to look at things through someones else's eyes, they will only think about their own feelings, and disregard any pain that they might cause. No parent wants their kid growing up and leaving a string of emotional causalities behind them, because all that child cares about is themselves. If the world is to become a better place, we need to instill empathy in our children. I remember in school being taught "The Golden Rule", treat people the way you want to be treated. I think we should go above and beyond that as parents. I try to use situations to sit down with my kids and really explain why its not ok to be hurtful, or mean towards other people. For example the other day my two sons got in a fight over a toy, and one ended up biting the other. Along with my son getting a punishment for that, I explained to him that people are much more important than toys. Hurting someone is not the right thing to do, and if he doesn't like his brother hurting him than he should not hurt his brother. As my children get older I will continue this dialogue whenever something comes up that allows me to talk to them about it. 

I do often wonder with me teaching my children empathy, how I will protect them from kids that have never been taught the concept. I think the only thing I can really do is make my children aware that some kids will be mean and will never learn. Fortunately, there are also kids that they can be a positive influence on. You never know how you can touch someones life when you care enough to treat them with respect and kindness. Everyone in life goes through hard times and its often the feeling that you're not alone that can get you through to the other side.

Lastly, I think that adults need to practice what they preach as well. There's no greater way to teach a lesson than leading by example. When your child see's you sympathizing with other people's situations and circumstances, it becomes a less foreign concept. So let's all practice empathy and make the world a little bit of a better place.

Being bored is an essential ingredient for a child's imagination

With all of the electronics out there like game systems, cell phones, tablets, and TV's, kids no longer have a need for their imagination. I don't think having a bit of TV or playtime on a Tablet is bad. I just think as parents we should be making sure that are kids also get "boredtime". When kids have nothing to rely on to entertain them, they then have to rely on their imagination to come up with ways to entertain themselves. This is so important because imagination strengthens your child's creativity muscle, promotes critical thinking and also (bonus for parents), your child won't look to you to always entertain them. People of the world that have great imaginations are responsible for writing amazing books, inventing things, and ultimately changing the world. Every man made thing you see in the world first started inside someones head. Its important to give your kids not always what they want but what they need. They might think it's mean that their mommy and daddy wouldn't let them play PS4 all the time, but its our job as parent to also do what's best for our children in the long run.

Why I Started A Blog

I didn't start a blog to make money, or because I think I know more than other people. I started a Blog for my kids. I am a chronic thinker. I am cursed or blessed with thinking out a million scenarios for every situation. I've thought many times before, what if something happened to me and my kids couldn't continue to get to know me. What if I couldn't tell them my thoughts on whats important in life. I wanted them to be able to go some place and read my thoughts and feel like I was still there with them. I know this probably all sounds quite morbid, but life happens and none of us are guaranteed anything. I hope that this blog is never used for this purpose, but it makes me feel better to know that even if something happened, they would still have some little piece of me. So I will continue to tell stories, post on things I've done, write out my thoughts, and desires for the future. I appreciate anyone that takes the time to read my posts. Its definitely a bonus for me if other people can get something out of this blog too. So thank you so much for your interest and support 💓