Home Making – scrunchymomz

Hello my Gals!

I have some pretty meaningful content coming up. At least, it’s meaningful to me, but I like to think it will have something to offer you guys one way or another.

I’m going to be talking about body issues again, and about how although Mom’s groups are super helpful, they could also be making you depressed.

Those posts are currently in the works. I just want to make sure I have time to work on them. And that’s been harder to do lately.

In the meantime, I wanted to whip up a quick post from my phone so I don’t lose momentum.

Forgive me if this isn’t my best, I still have a DST hangover and the boys have not been sleeping that great 😑

I love classic meme formats 💕

So we just turned the clocks back an hour recently, which means it’s been getting darker much earlier. I always have a hard time this time of year.

My motivation plummets, I get more tired, and my anxiety and irritability increase.

A lot of people experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) when winter comes around. And it makes sense. Less daylight and more time confined indoors can take a toll on anyone’s happiness.

Strangely I love cloudy weather. I would be super happy if it was cloudy all of the time. Like if I could move to Seattle or London where it rains or mists all the time, I’d be elated! So it’s not so much the overcast and chill that bothers me, it’s the balding trees and darkness that does it for me, personally.

Anyway, I have noticed this seasonal shift starting to affect my parenting, which isn’t good. So I need to come up with a plan on how to stop it in its tracks.

Here’s what I plan to do, if you’re interested 😙

Take More Vitamins

A big contributor to seasonal depression is a decrease in vitamin D. According to this article, most people seem to be suffering from a lack of vitamin D, and a lot of those people are also suffering from Anxiety and Depression.

Coincidence? The science doesn’t seem to think so.

I used to be so much better about taking my vitamins. And not just D, but a multi vitamin and a mood balancer. And wouldn’t you know it, I felt better then. Not as great as I could, honestly, but a heck of a lot better! So I need to recapture that.

#notsponsored, I was just looking for an image. But food-based is better! 💯

I plan on taking a vitamin D, multi vitamin, mood balancer, and magnesium supplement each morning.

Do More Crafts

I’ve really come to enjoy doing seasonal crafts with the boys as a way of decorating the house. I’ve also gotten more interested in making the home over with decor to match the upcoming holiday.

A Halloweeny garland I made with the boys’ foot and hand prints and some fake foliage from my wedding 🎃🕷🍂

It makes it feel less suffocating to be home looking at blank walls all the time, and the boys get so much out of doing crafts together. It also helps take us away from too much screentime, which can contribute to mood and behavior problems in toddlers and children.

So at least a couple of times a week, I plan to take to Pinterest and do a few crafts with the boys.

Wake and Bake

I’ve been doing the Keto diet for a while now, so I’ve been missing out on a lot of my old favorite seasonal confections 😭

But I’ve noticed that when I do bake something, I feel accomplished. It’s so satisfying seeing something go from a recipe and separate ingredients to this whole sheet of cookies or a whole quiche.

Me looking a hot mess in my favorite apron ❤️ I was legitimately having a great time, though

Vinny also loves watching me and “helping,” so it’s a great way to spend time together and help him learn.

And I have since found so many delicious Keto friendly alternatives to thinks I love 😋

I plan on baking a few times a week to fill the house with the warmth and scents of festive confections to get us through cold days. 🥧

And one of these days I will get the measurements to all of the ingredients right 😂

Field Trips

Living toward the tippy tip of the northeast United States, it gets pretty cold for a pretty long time out of the year, which can make trips to the park sometimes impossible, or at least unpleasant.

But, we have no shortage of Malls in the area where I live, so if the boys (or myself) get cabin fever (which happens A LOT), we can get in the car and go to an indoor play area or take a lap or two around the galleria.

Paul Blart Mall Cop memes are hilarious to me, and the more absurd, the better honestly

This way the boys get their ya-yas out, and I get some extra steps and exercise 🙌🏻

At least once a week, weather permitting, I plan to take the boys out to a different Mall, or local library event, etc in our area.

Work It Out

Chasing around two boys 2 and under counts a exercise, right?

But in all seriousness, getting a good and proper workout in is easier said than done with kids. But it’s so important for mental health.

What has been working out (pun intended lol sorry) for me is during nap times or meal times, I put on a HIIT workout video and follow it the best I can. I’ll do this a couple of times a day when I know I have at most 10 minutes before the boys need my attention, and on days where I don’t take them out on a walk.

*Me at 29 after getting my kids into the car 😂😪

I recommend Lucy Wyndham-Read or Blogilates on YouTube for some quick, fun, and dare I say effective workouts. I also really like the women behind the workouts, as they’re not snooty or pushy and actually fun to work out with. Though their bodies intimidate me, their virtual presence is actually nice.

I plan to do these workouts at least 3 times a week, and at least two videos a day.

These are just a few things I plan on doing to curb the SAD, as well as going to see my new counselor bi-weekly, trying to do more bible study, being mindful of what I eat, and making myself write more!

I think I may be starting to look forward to winter…maybe 😅

What sorts of things do you Mamas do to keep SAD at bay? Let us know in the comments! 💬

Thanks for reading!! 🙏🏼😍😘

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📝 Upcoming Content: Battling Body Dysmorphia As A Mom, Why Your Mom’s Group Might Be Making You Depressed, and My Journey To Being More Domestic

(Blog note: Please know that I’m not trying to seem ungrateful in this post. I realize I am so very blessed to have a home and any appliances at all! I am just trying to make a light-hearted post to guide those getting ready for the next level in their life 😘)

Hello my Gals!

This one goes out to any engaged readers wondering what they actually need on their registry. And a big congrats to those preparing to tie the knot! Marriage is an adventure.

Take it from me, a registry is super helpful, especially if you’re a young couple still living at home and not moving in with your fiancée until you get married, like my husband and I were.

But even if you lived together before, it can still be super helpful! Because as we all know, Millenials are irresponsible and don’t know what appliances are and only Postmates their food.

I got engaged fairly young, at 22. I got married when I was freshly 24. So I did most of my wedding planning at 23.

And at the time, I was a young 23, with most of my interests outside of trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up consisting of parties, staying up late playing video games, and having combos and wine for dinner.

Marriage and family life was always something I’d had cognitive dissonance about. I definitely entertained the idea of diving right into the family and housewife life after marriage.

But when it came time to complete my registry, I was more concerned with how I would entertain an apartment full of 30+ friends every other Friday night than I was with meal prepping and maintaining a household.

Which is exactly how we ended up with a whole cabinet full of wine glasses, whiskey tumblers and margarita glasses and no measuring cups or cheese graters. And how to this day we still have to make salad from bagged lettuce (personally though I find this super convenient as a Mom).

Image result for parks and rec april and andy eating off of frisbee — Literally me and my husband the first year or two of marriage

With that said, here’s a list of items that I personally have come to find would have been great to register for instead of all the gimmicky “as seen on tv” stuff they had littering Bed Bath and Beyond back in 2014.

Because if I had seen a marshmallow gun at the time, you’d better believe my immature self would have put that first on the list.

Toaster

I’m pretty sure this thing has crumb residue from the 1970’s, and it tries to thundershock me at least once a week.

If you don’t register for a toaster, your husband might take the one his parents (maybe even grandparents) had, and it will nearly catch fire or short circuit every other time you use it.

Salad Spinner

If you don’t register for a salad spinner, whenever you try to make a salad that hasn’t come from a bag, you will have to individually wash and dry each leaf and it will take way too long.

The husband bought the wrong kind of bagged lettuce, and I didn’t want feel like returning it. It was a soggy salad.

Mortar And Pestle

If you don’t register for a mortar and pestle, you’ll have to crumble the nasty keto crackers you accidentally put half a cup of salt in instead of half a teaspoon in by hand to make your keto meatloaf. It will be messy and annoying.

I’ve been trying to get rid of these disgusting things since May. At least they have enough sodium in them to sustain their shelf life…

Coffee Maker

I need a prayer of encouragement multiple times a day. Moms, who can relate?

If you don’t register for a coffee maker, your husband will again take the geriatric model from either his parents or more likely his grandparents and you will get coffee grounds in every cup of joe you make.

So of course when I took this picture it was the one time it didn’t actually have coffee grounds in it so I improvised, but I promise you this is how it looks every other time I make coffee in this thing.

Food Processor/Blender

If you don’t register for a food processor, you will have to try to blend things you need finely ground. If you never end up investing in a good blender, you’ll probably end up trying to use the baby bullet you bought off of OfferUp and you will always overestimate what you can fit into it without the thing making a huge science fair volcano mess.

I don’t have a specific photo example for my plight with trying to process food with this thing, but suffice it to say that this item was only meant to make pureed fruit and veggies for infants.

These are just a few of the items I’m kicking myself as an actual sort of adult for having not registered for as a just out of college “I know what I’m doing, I’m getting married!” big kid. I’m positive I will continue to run into more issues in the kitchen as I continue my journey towards full domesticity and as I mature in my SAHM experience. I may have a follow up to this entry at some point.

Are there any veteran Homemakers out there who have pearls of wisdom for us newbies/late bloomers? What appliances or gadgets did I miss? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks for reading, my gals! 😘😘

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📋 Upcoming Content: My 7-Month-Old Got Kicked Out Of His New Bedroom, Battling Body Dysmorphia As A Mom, and Getting Ready For The Holidays, Two 2 And Under.

Category: Home Making

Feeling The SAD: How To I Plan To Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder

Take More Vitamins

Do More Crafts

Wake and Bake

Field Trips

Work It Out