Birthdays = A Month of Mommy Breaks
Moms, when is the last time you took a month of mommy breaks? Not just the obligatory hour or so a week to go grocery shopping by yourself or to take a hot bath at the end of a long day. I am talking about a thoughtfully planned and executed month of events and activities that you truly enjoy doing. I am sure the majority of you reading this blog post would answer: “UH Never”. Well today, I am here to share the perfect opportunity to do so: your birthday month. It is the best opportunity to celebrate you. It will be the time of year to experience the least amount of resistance from your spouse, partner or significant other to get out every week. (I mean that would be kind of rude if they said “Babe, I know its your birthday month but you can’t celebrate you every weekend, that’s just too much attention on you"). I wish someone would dare to say that to me with everything I do for my family!
I am a BIG birthday person! I love celebrating other’s birthdays and I love planning (and stressing about what to do) for my birthday so needless to say for 40 I wanted to do it BIG! I have been thinking about turning 40 since I was turning 35. I was excited to turning 40. To be entering a new decade more self assured and confident in the woman I was growing to be. Not at all satisfied with what I have accomplished, but a new resolve that whatever I wanted in life, I have the strength, inspiration, and motivation to create it. Finding joy in accepting that I am running my own race, and I am going to enjoy the journey. I was leaving the insecurities of my20s and the”out of whack-ness” I was feeling in my 30s. This decade was going to be the best one yet! I was going to celebrate big for this milestone and the best way I knew how to do this was to celebrate the ENTIRE month. Every weekend in February I wanted to do something to celebrate!
When I first came up with this idea to celebrate my birthday every weaken of my birthday month, I felt a little overwhelmed, putting unnecessary pressure on myself to find the perfect activities. I realized it was not about the perfection of my friends’ experience who would join me, it was about ME and the things I enjoyed doing. Of course I wanted tons of friends to join me every weekend, but i was also prepared to go solo if I had to. About a month out I started dropping hints to my husband that this is happening. February is going to be all about me babe soooooooooooo I have first dibs on all of the weekends 😉 He knows his wife and how big of deal I was making 40 so he was completely supportive and gave minimal resistance (even planned my party) I know that in order to ensure minimal resistance, I needed to be prepared to allow him to do (even go as far as encourage him to do )whatever he wanted to do on the days I did not have anything planned so that he felt like he had space to get away. The one day I stayed away from planning anything was Super Bowl Sunday, a personal holiday for my husband.
PAUSE:
Moms: This is a great strategy. I encourage you to try it out. You want a mommy break this weekend — encourage your spouse or partner to get away at some point during the same week or on the days you do not have anything planned.
Here was the celebration breakdown:
1st Weekend: Boozy Upside Down Tea @ the Virgin Hotel - Friends joined me for a “spot" of boozy tea and some delicious bites.
Enjoying a “spot” of tea ;)
2nd Weekend: Birthday Weekend: I kicked it off with a fashionably late (ok beyond fashionable due to my hair transformation ) arrival to a birthday dinner at Tao with family. Saturday I enjoyed a birthday party at the Silver Room where friends were able to enjoy music, cocktails, and shop. I closed the weekend doing one of my favorite things: Sunday brunch.
3rd Weekend: Girls Trip to Miraval: When I turned 39 I knew I wanted my birthday celebrations to include a trip and commenced to saving. One of my girlfriends planted the seed of a destination spa/wellness resort and I couldn’t let the idea go. I was blessed to have 6 friends join me at Miraval Spa and Wellness Resort in Austin, Texas. it was an amazing experience to relax, get centered, and decompress. Little did I know that I would return from the trip with the flu the Monday after I got back. I was so mad but so grateful that I didn’t get sick while I was there.
Great group to travel with! We had a ton of fun at this fabulous resort!
PAUSE:
Have you had the flu recently? I have not! I felt HORRIBLE. I didn’t know when I was going to feel back to myself (took a whole week even with tamiflu) I also got pretty sad because I thought I was going to have to end my birthday month sick! But fortunately, by the weekend I was on the mend!
4th Weekend: Theatre Outing: I love going to see plays! I could go to one every weekend! So needless to say, I was ecstatic when I felt like 80% better from to flu to go and see a great play. I was so grateful that I had one friend who was patient enough to see if I was going to feel better and ready and willing to go!
Theatre buddy! You can’t even tell I had the flu!
Many of you may be thinking, “wow Nicole, this sounds awesome but I couldn’t do this”. WHY NOT! Why can’t you celebrate your existence during your birth month for four (or five weekends)? Why are you not worth the sacrifice to do this? Why is enjoying yourself every weekend that big of a mental hurdle to get through? You are worth it. You are a Mom. You are a superhero that juggles and conquers multiple balls in the air effortlessly DAILY and that is reason enough to take a moment to celebrate you. So you may not have the desire to do something as elaborate as me OR may not have the financial means either, but we are still early enough in 2019 so that you can make this happen in 2020.
Happy Birthday to Me….. Happy (early) Birthday to You!