How I'm Thriving in Motherhood.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, I had a beautiful day celebrating with my family. I hope that you all had a beautiful celebrating the women in your life. 

One of the areas I wanted to Thrive in this year is motherhood. Most of 2013, I felt like I was in a fog when it came to mothering. I was learning how to be a mom of two, juggling a preschooler and an infant was no easy task for me. 

For far to many days I was lazy, we stayed in our pjs way to much, and I didn't feel like I was accomplishing very much in my days with them. I was just barely surviving during a really trying season. 

When I thought about what I wanted the next year to be like God put the word Thrive on my heart. I knew he wanted me to thrive in all areas of my life, but motherhood was very close to my heart because of the season that I'd just come out of. This next year, I wanted to enjoy mothering more. Take more risks, pour myself into other moms, enjoy being a wife and mom again in a way I hadn't in the last year. 

God has been teaching me a lot about his grace during times like this. Teaching me a lot about the importance of rest and self-care that we mamas so easily forget to do ourselves. 

I wanted to share with you some practical things that I am doing to Thrive in motherhood. To take care of myself and my family. I first want to say that I don't do it all. I say no to a lot of things, and over the years have really learned my limits and giftings in this area. I try to prioritize everything around my faith and family. So when I'm asked to do something before committing to anything I really run it through the list of priorities based on those two things. My family always comes first before I say "yes" to something. I look at our schedule of what we already have going on, I take that into consideration a lot. My husband and I talk about the week ahead, we don't like to be busy everyday of the week or weekend so we also take that into consideration.

A few things I'm doing to thrive in motherhood this year;

1. Making time for myself.

I know this is really hard for a lot of people, for me too. But I realized last year that when I didn't make time for myself and take care of myself that I wasn't very happy with myself and lacked confidence in myself as well. A lot of people ask me how I make time for working out, and my answer has just always been you have to just make the time. You have to make yourself important, carve out the time and do it. Maybe your thing is reading and you want to carve out time, do it. I've learned making time for myself has been vital in helping me to thrive in how I then mother. 

2. Keeping Sundays free.

Keeping the Sabbath and committing to rest on Sundays has been key for me. We don't schedule anything on Sunday. We go to church, we come home, often times we're lazy and that's the way we like it. Casual, no plans and a time for rest. There's a lot of play time and family time involved on Sundays and it's been so good for this mama's heart. 

3. Date Nights.

My husband and I haven't always been great at this, however this year we've really tried to make an effort to make date nights a top priority. I've seen how they vastly improve our marriage and how we are together. Even if you can't get away, carve out special time together at night after the kids go to sleep. 

4. Spending time by myself. 

I've learned that sometimes I just need to get away by myself to recharge. Sometimes that looks like a Target run by myself, grabbing a Starbucks, or sometimes that means I steal an hour alone in my bedroom kid free. Either way time alone for myself to recharge has been really helpful and important. 

5. Play Dates. 

When I first started staying at home with both my kiddos I thought that I'd be hopping all around from play date to play date with friends. Well, things didn't quite happen like that and I felt really isolated a lot. I learned that I needed to get my kids out of the house, and let them play with others on a regular basis. I also realized that I needed that interaction as well. 

6. Time with Friends. 

Simply, I've been pursuing community and friendship in my life more than ever. At least once a month I've made it a point to hang out with girlfriends, get out of my house and my yoga pants and do something with friends. It's been amazing for me to see my friendships grow over the past few months simply just by me being willing to step out of my comfort zone and pursue intentional relationships. 

Thrive is so much more than a word to me this year. It's a goal for me. It's a motto for me. It's becoming a silent reminder to me when I make decisions I ask myself; "Will I thrive if I do this, if I see this, if I pursue that.?" 

I'm thankful for what the Lord is teaching me during this season of life. 

What are you learning about yourself during this current season of life that you are in?

Coffee Date:: Thrive Moms

Good morning friends. Happy Friday. 

How was your week? Mine was good. Eventful, I woke up Monday morning with car troubles. Not the best way to start your week. 

But I was quickly reminded to keep things into perspective. Because they could have been worse, I know because I've been in worse situations than measly car troubles. As I am sure so have you. 

So that perspective I was talking about? It's Jesus. Keeping focused on Him. Remembering that he's got it all. That he sees me, my situation and my family. 

He sees yours too. He's the redeemer of all things if we let him. 

You may have seen if you're following me on Instagram (@andreamworley) I announced last week that I'm now officially apart of the Thrive Moms team! I couldn't be more excited about this new adventure. 

For a long time now God has put moms and mothering on my heart. Maybe it's because last year was such a struggle in my mothering journey, or maybe it's because I so desperately want the "mommy wars" to end I can taste it! Or maybe it's ALL the things. Either way he's been tugging at my heart for Moms. 

I first learned about Thrive Moms almost a year ago when they first started and have been following them ever since they reached out to me on Twitter one day as asked me how they could pray for me. It was so heart felt and sincere. And I was thankful on a day when I felt like I had nothing left inside as a mom, they were the encouragement I needed. 

Thrive is a ministry for mothers. To help encouraged, inspired and uplift. They have a big heart for moms all over and I'm excited to use my talents and gifts God's blessed me with to help further his message and heart for moms through Thrive. 

It's funny though my word for the year 2014 is THRIVE. God has a great sense of humor. :) 

For more info on Thrive Moms and how you can be apart of local community groups where you are visit the link on the menu bar that I've added to the site. There's an awesome community of moms there for you. 

If we were having coffee today what would you tell me? How has your week been? What are you doing this weekend? 

PS- I wanna say a special Happy Birthday today to my Mama! She's the best in the world, and I love her so much! 

When You Make Healthier Choices, Your Kids do Too!

“This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Weave Made Media® and Lifeway Kefir, but all my opinions are my own. #weavemade # http://my-disclosur.es/RgFrEH”

One of the biggest things I've learned this past year on my journey to better health is that if you eat healthy and create better habits you're family will too! 

Especially your kids. It all started when I realized that my kids were eating better than I was. A fruit and veggie at every meal. Always drinking water. They inspired me to change and make sure that I was making better choices. I realized if our family is accountable to these habits they stick. 

Us moms we're busy ladies. We need quick and easy options for our littles ones and for ourselves. If we don't then we'll end up eating a box of cookies for lunch. To make this time easier I like to have lots of healthy and yummy options on hand. 

Fruits and veggies. 

Another thing my kids love is smoothies. I love adding Lifeway Kefir to their smoothies too! With delicious flavors like strawberry and blueberry, packed with vitamins, nutrients and live cultures you can't go wrong. 

My kids love it and it's pretty sneaky too since they don't even realize it's got all kinds of healthy goodness inside! I love when they ask for the "strawberry" drink! 

Not just for kids Lifeway Kefir is full of probiotics to help keep everything moving along and promote digestive health as well. I love adding it to my morning routine at breakfast. It's a great addition to my gluten free muffin and fruit. 

How do you get your kids to make healthy choices? What are their favorite healthy snacks?

Have you tried Lifeway Kefir in your home? 

What To Pack in Your Carry On

My carry on essentials. 

I love traveling. Airports have some of the best people watching ever. I think there's a few things you should never go with out while traveling, here's my must have list:

Magazines- I like to bring mine from home, I rarely buy them in the airport so I just grab what I haven't read at home and pop them in my bag.

iPad- Love having a movie ready to go on this, or playing a game. They are also great entertainment on long flights with kiddos. 

Small Cosmetic bag- Perfect for hand sanitizer, lotion, lip gloss and gum! All things that you MUST have when traveling and warding off gross germs and chapped lips. 

A small notebook & pen- Most flights I take are at least 2 or more hours long. I like to use this time to jot down ideas, work on things for the blog and my home. I love keeping a small notebook handy for this undistracted time.

My day planner- I don't go anywhere without it. Seriously. And even though I might be on vacation you never know when someone might call you and you need to know what's going on. My last trip I took without kids and the Hubby was home with them, so this was good to have on hand in case he called and needed to know some scheduling thing.

Wallet- nuff said. You need money and your ID when traveling.

Chargers for your electronics- I like to keep mine all together in a ziplock. Easy & effective.

A Big Bag to Carry it In: I love using my over sized Coach bag. It is big enough to hold everything I need any then some. 

I also love having a light jacket or scarf handy because planes can be cold and it's annoying to be cold on an air plane. Depending on where I'm going I also like to bring an umbrella in which I did on my recent trip to Chicago and it fit perfectly in this bag with everything else. It also nicely holds my DSLR camera & a lens. See, nice big bag. 

What are some of your carry on must haves?

Coffee and Friends.

A couple weekends ago I had the pleasure of hosting some of my girlfriends over to try out the new Keurig Rivo System. There's nothing I love more than Jesus, friends & coffee (in that order.) I love throwing simple parties that take little effort and spoiling my friends when they come over. 

I love to entertain and add special details, I try not to stress over throwing parties. One of the ways I don't stress out is that I buy easy store bought stuff and dress it up and make it fancy schmancy with out a lot of effort. 

Fun paper bags holding party favors and store bought flowers are my thing! They make parties special. 

I used the drink sleeve die from Lifestyle Crafts and made these cute personalized sleeves for each of my guests. The paper is all from the basics paper pack. 

Store bought mini cupcakes get dressed up with some fun homemade cupcake toppers. Using one of the flag dies I cut them out using my Evolution Machine and inserted them onto white sticks. These are so easy to make and really dress up some store bought cupcakes. Use code WORLEYHOUSE for 20% off your purchase from www.shopwer.com

The new Keurig RIVO is awesome. If you love espresso drinks this is a must have at home. I used to work in a coffee shop and it took me a while to learn to make that "perfect" foam. But this machine does it all, and has seriously perfect foam each time! If you'd like to purchase one of your own you can use this code for 40% off from keurig.com (code: 7BJR5kJ) Good till 5/24.