Here’s to Finally Taking “Thyme” to Do a Little More of What You Love

Hi Friends!

I’m so excited to share this very first post with you on the blog that I’ve been talking about creating for way too long now. Around eight years ago (or 7 years and some change, but who’s keeping up with time these days?) I had my first child. I was 25.

Motherhood rocked my world in the best of ways. More than anything, it made me check myself in terms of my priorities and how I spent my time. Most date nights for my husband and me suddenly turned into a party of 3 with our newborn baby in-tow. Nights previously spent staying up late to watch movies together suddenly turned into going to bed just a bit earlier so that I could wake up three hours later for a nighttime feeding.

Careers that I had previously been very interested in diving into as a young 20-something college graduate pursuing my masters degree turned into me taking a slightly different path – at least for the time-being. At 25, I worked full-time by day as an alumni relations professional (which seems to have stuck…you never know what God has in store for you!) while finishing up my masters program full-time by night. To this day, I’m so very grateful to my family and my rock-star husband for their support and encouragement during that time. Finishing my masters program on-time was one of the most important things that I could do for myself before our family started to grow like weeds in the best of ways.

Fast forward 7 years and four kids later, I now find my days are so richly blessed with caring for our wonderful daughters, working at an establishment near and dear to my heart with amazing coworkers, and coming home every evening to my husband and sweet girls. I wake up and repeat this everyday, with weekends dedicated to more activities for the kiddos and church.

Y’all, what an amazing and incredible journey this has been for me. And yet, whew – I am tired! No one said balancing all the things would be easy, and that’s absolutely ok. Depending on when you’re reading this, you may now be finding yourself doing even more of “all the things” with COVID-19 giving mamas the responsibility to not only keep the tiny folks alive, but make sure they get their schoolwork completed and keep whatever skills they’ve developed in their extracurricular activities going. Add to this keeping the house clean, keeping up with your own work tasks, making sure you squeeze in time to nurture your relationship with your husband…the list goes on.

How does one maintain sanity in doing all of this? If I had the perfect antidote for everyone, I think I’d probably be a millionaire. What I can share with you is this one little nugget that seems to be working for me: I am committed to taking time daily for myself. Wow – time to myself? What’s that, mamas?!? What does that even look like? Right now, it looks like me trying to wake up before the rest of the house to squeeze in at least 25 – 35 minutes for a workout. It looks like me spending time with Jesus for a moment of prayer before I even roll out of bed and asking Him to help me set the tone for the day. It looks like me spending a little more time to dream about doing things that I’ve really wanted to do for a while but haven’t dedicated any time in my normal routine to do them. I started a vegetable and herb garden. I planted some flowers. I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen whipping up good food for the family. I took time to launch this blog.

Peace y’all. So much peace has come from all of these things, not only for me, but perhaps for the rest of the family too. Those 30 precious minutes of my morning workout leave me feeling like I can conquer whatever the day may bring. Zoning out in the kitchen making meals for the family (which I love!) while the kids make a mess in the living room make me a bit happier to deal with the mess after dinner because, well, good food brings me peace :). Sitting on my front porch for 5 minutes in my rocking chair, going out back to check on our veggies, and literally stopping to smell the flowers in our flower bed (yes, it’s a thing and you should try it even if you feel silly doing it!) has been so calming.

This is a very long way of saying that in a situation where I have been forced to do so much, I have also found myself stretching to find more ways to take care of myself. I am taking more time, time that has really been here all along, to reset and think about what will make me a better me for, well, me! I’m taking a little “me-thyme.”

Thyme, as I’ve discovered via watching my newly planted herbs, is an herb that really just does its thing. You plant it, water it and watch it grow. Eventually, if you let its flowers fully blossom, you’ll discover a beautiful, tiny purple flower on the end of the thyme stem. You can let it fully blossom but, while beautiful, the flavor of the herb will be weaker. It’s best to cut stems back a few inches before they have a chance to fully blossom. When you do this, the herb thrives for a longer period of time and you’ll be able to watch it grow and cut it again for use in delicious recipes. You’ll have a bountiful harvest all summer (and possibly even longer!).

I think we as women are like thyme. Whether you’re a mama or not, you’ll find you’re truly living your best life as your best self when you take a little time for you.

Join me on this journey as we learn how to find a little more “me thyme” for ourselves. Cook food and eat delicious things from places that you love so much that you have to share them with your family, friends and coworkers. Pick up some new hobbies/crafts or take little more time to develop the ones that have been there all along and share those gifts with your children and the world. Spend time in your closet putting together outfits you love and wear them even if you’re at home quarantined. Plant some herbs and take peace in watching them grow. Thrive friends. Plant, grow, harvest and repeat. It’s time for some “me thyme.”