Marla the Blogger

I've been sick for the past week.  Nothing serious, just a really bad, really annoying cold and cough, but definitely not fun, especially during the holidays. Both my husband and son have been sick too, so I'm not sure I could have avoided catching it entirely, but it certainly didn't help that I haven't been taking very good care of myself recently. I've been staying up too late, getting up too early, and running around non-stop.  Combine that with not exercising and not exactly eating right, and it's easy to see why my immune system wasn't up to fighting off this illness. I don't want to spend all winter fighting colds, so I'm going to try to take better care of myself starting today.  I'm going to start with the most obvious things first:

• Get more sleep - my son has the same bedtime each night; I need to set a specific one for myself, too.  And it needs to be about an hour earlier than I've been going to bed lately. So, just like we start his bedtime routine about 30 minutes before it's time for him to go to sleep, I'm going to do the same thing for myself instead of starting to get ready for bed when I really should already be there.
• Eat better - I've been slacking off on my good eating habits recently. With evenings filled with unpacking and preparing for the holidays, I've tended to pick up something to eat while I'm out instead of cooking at home. And I've been taking advantage of all the holiday treats sitting around the office too much. I'm going to start bringing more healthy snacks with me to the office to help me avoid too many temptations when I'm hungry.  And I'm going to plan out my evenings better so that eating something healthy for dinner becomes a priority rather than an afterthought.
• Get some exercise - this one is tough. We haven't had a chance to join a gym since we moved, and the dark and cold weather in the evenings makes doing something outside almost impossible. It's been tough for my son, too, who is used to going to the park and running around or other activities after I pick him up from daycare. So, I'm going to try to incorporate some early evening exercise for both of us. He enjoys literally running around the house, so we're going to do some activities together, like races up and down the stairs and indoor hopscotch games.
• Do less - this one will be the hardest. I tend to try to cram too much into my evenings and weekends. We have a never ending to-do list to get completely settled in our new house. But I'm just going to have to relax and do one thing at a time and be patient about not being able to do everything all at once. I'm prioritizing my to-do list so the most pressing things get done first, and will tackle no more than one item a day, even if it takes a month or more to get to the end of the list.

I'm infamous for taking care of everyone else and not taking care of myself and recently fell back into that bad habit. But I know I can do better and I will; I need to take time to take care of myself to help stay healthy, especially this time of year.

Like a lot of other people this year, I'm having to rethink the way I give gifts this holiday season. With our recent move and my husband changing jobs, along with some upcoming big purchases we have to make, money is tighter than usual this year. We're not able to spend as much on gifts and charitable donations as we'd like to. However, the important aspect of gift giving is to show other people how much you appreciate them, and help those who are less fortunate, and that can still be accomplished without spending a ton of money:

• Give the gift of time - As a working mom, there is nothing that I would like more than for someone to offer me an evening of free babysitting or to come over and help me finish unpacking and organizing for a few hours. If a close friend or family offered me something like that as a gift this year, I would love it.
• Give fewer gifts - a few years ago my husband's family finally decided to simplify the holidays by exchanging names instead of everyone buying gifts for everyone else. It's so much less stressful from both a financial and time stanpoint to only have to buy for one person instead of eight. We all get together to exchange our gifts and enjoy spending the day together even if there isn't a huge pile of gifts under the tree.
• Skip the gifts - if you're finding yourself short on cash this year, odds are many of your friends and family are in the same situation. Why not suggest that you don't exchange gifts this year? Instead of buying a gift for a friend, why not make plans to meet for coffee instead? With as busy as we all are these days, a few hours to catch up with a good friend in person would mean more to me then getting a present.

One thing we usually do this time of year that I'm really missing is making a charitable donation of some kind. I felt like the very little amount I could give this year wouldn't make much of a difference. But then some of my coworkers came up with a great idea. They collected canned goods and cash donations at work to give to a local food bank. A few cans from my pantry and the small amount of cash I could give didn't seem like much, but when I went to drop them off at work, there were boxes and boxes of food and the cash jar was half full. Even though each of us only had a little to give, combined it ended up to be quite a sizable donation. 

Like lots of other things in life, I think the focus this holiday season needs to be on what's most important. And I think showing people that you care is what's most important, not how much money you spend on gifts. We all like to buy nice things for our loved ones and make donations to a good cause. But there are still ways to help out and show your appreciation for others without spending a lot of money.

Sometimes when I'm deep in thought, and probably with a blank or vaguely concerned look on my face, my son will look at me and ask, "Mommy happy?" And I'll quickly smile and say, "Of course. I'm always happy when I'm with you." And then I clear my mind of whatever I was thinking about and focus on him. It makes me realize that people can pick up on your emotions, and even a toddler can tell when you're stressed or preoccupied.

The good news about how we pick up on other people's emotions is that apparently happiness is contagious. Researchers found that the good mood of our friends, and even casual acquaintances, can increase our happiness as well. And in a six-degrees-of-separation kind of situation the happiness we get from our friends can make our other friends and neighbors happy as well.

So, I'm going to try to make a conscious effort to be more upbeat and positive, not just for my own sake, but for my friends and family. Not only will it help improve my day, but it could make the day a little brighter for those around me. And in turn even their friends and neighbors. Just think if more people made an effort to be cheery. The world actually could be a brighter place.