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Sometimes I feel like I am sucking it up in the Mom department. You know, always saying “no”, constantly telling Blake what she can’t do and usually in a rush or running to the next thing on the to do list. I worry that I’m not just letting her be a kid enough. I’ve been trying to really work on this, trying to just let loose a little bit, live a little. I’m what you would call a “workaholic” and well, since my work is primarily around being a Mom and home life, it’s hard not to intertwine the two of them. This year though, I’ve set goals and am really making an effort. Work time is work time and Mom time is Mom time. When I get up in the morning, rather than going straight to my computer to answer emails, schedule posts, etc. I snuggle Blake, we play and we eat breakfast together. Obviously not every, single, day goes that perfect, but it’s the effort and I’m really putting it forth. The mornings are Mom time, I’m only a Mom and Blake is my priority, she’s my focus for those few hours before lunch/nap time. It’s honestly changed my life. It starts each day off right. Then lunch time rolls around, she eats, I usually answer emails during lunch and then she goes down for a nap and my work day begins. Yeah, it means longer hours and more work after she goes to bed, but it’s been nice to separate work and Motherhood. Then Saturdays we spend the day as family. I think Saturdays are my favorite day of the week. Marcus is home from work and we generally do something fun. Saturdays are tricky though because I generally am working while we play. Since I blog most things and because my family is such a big part of what I do, I have to (and love to) include these types of posts. For instance, this past weekend we drove to a small town nearby to spend the day as a family while also working with Discount Tire (just you wait until you see this video). I am pretty proud of myself though y’all, I handled it like a champ. Eight years later of this blogging thing and I’m finally (semi) figuring out a balance. Plus Blake is just used to that camera being there. 😉 I don’t worry about the perfect shot anymore, but rather try to focus on real life, the fun and family and honestly–it’s made for even better shots and perfect videos.

So, let me just show you what I’m talking about.

We packed up the car late Saturday morning and took these new snow tires for the ultimate test. 😉 AKA: A trip down the canyon, through the snow and on a mini “roadtrip”. They handled first off like the friggin’ champs they are and we had the best time just the three of us. If only the pups would cooperate enough to come on our little day adventures, but well…they don’t even listen to us when we tell them to come inside from the backyard. HA! So you can only imagine what it would be like out in the open. Anyways, we drove through the canyon, stopped at the cows, Blake fell asleep in the car (finally, she hadn’t napped in four days) and we stopped for milkshakes. We drove around looking at all the cool old buildings, Marcus drove around in the snow (you know, to “really” test the tires out. I guess it’s a guy thing. HA! We ate our milkshakes and waited for Blake to wake up. As we were driving we came across an old train station and train and knew we just HAD to stop. Blake seriously LOVES trains. We waited there for a few minutes before she woke up. She woke up in such a good mood, it was the cutest! We had the music on low and she woke up just dancing away in her car seat, it was the best thing ever. We pointed to the trains and well, it was all history from there. She was in pure train HEAVEN. She screamed and screamed and yelled to get “out!!” and then ran over to the train yelling “TWAIN, TWAIN!”, then back and wrapped her arms around me giggling. It’s little moments like that, that really make me happy in this Motherhood thing, you know the ones that give you a little reminder of okay, I’m doing something right.

I’m glad I’m finally figuring out the balance thing, I’m so grateful for the little family I have and for our Saturdays together and I owe this past Saturday all to Discount Tire because well, without them we wouldn’t have driven up there to “test” the winter tires out.

Oh and the tires, they’re really good y’all. I can’t tell you enough about how much of a difference they made. They have such a better grip and helps this Mama feel a little more at ease driving around during the winter. You can see my full review of them, here.

Here’s to family, balancing and making this year a good one, no matter how hard somedays might be!

Thanks to Discount Tire for sponsoring this post.