Arizona Chronicles: The Flight

Bragging time. My kids are angels. I can’t even begin to explain how proud I am of my babies. They are fabulous travelers. We’re there hiccups? Maybe one or two... 

I may have yelled at an airport gate employee for not letting a mother and her crying newborn on with the first boarding group. The baby was starving and tired and needed to be fed. However this man said no you have to wait for your group. I was furious. People. Come on. What does it matter if she gets on a little sooner. She is tired, stressed and that baby is starving. Let the poor woman on. Have a heart. It broke my heart. There are times when I truly feel like society is failing. The order of boarding truly is not more important than a hungry newborn. To that momma- I see you, I feel the pain you felt, I hear your cries for more accommodations in place for breast feeding mommas- and mommas in general. We truly all must do better. 

Okay, I ranted. I am good now. Now let’s get into the fun stuff. Ahhhhh ARIZONA! Our home town. We left the blizzards in Minnesota for the warm sunny cactus Christmas in Arizona! 

Like I said at the beginning. The flight was really great. The kids were well behaved. Camden wore his mask and the baby slept a lot and was very calm. Camden loved the thrill of the plane, watching the bags get loaded. Seeing all the different people in the airport. The moving floor in the airport. Watching out the window as the plane took off and landed. It was the coolest day ever in his book. Jackie and I were so thrilled watching the excitement and joy in his eyes. It was a good day. Can we please talk about airplane pretzels? Why are they so much better in those tiny foil bags? The salt, the crunch the yummies. Ahhh I could bathe in those. Okay okay was that too far? With all seriousness - I truly look forward to those pretzels when flying! 

Holy cow y’all. Traveling with 2 kids is no walk in the park. Air travel with kids is definitely a lot of preparing and stuff. Oh the stuff. 2 car seats, 4 suitcases, 4 carry ons, 1 stroller- the bottles, the diapers, the snacks, the toys, the clothing. THERES SO MUCH. I definitely wouldn’t change this for the world though. I love taking my kids on trips. Seeing the awe in their eyes with every new thing is just a huge reminder to me at how fragile and precious life is. Watching the world through my kids eyes makes the world seem way better and more beautiful. Kids have this way of finding joy and beauty in the smallest most mundane things. Camden reminds every day to sit down, slow down and enjoy. Soak it in. We won’t be here forever. 

Thank you to my father-in-law for getting us safely to the airport and helping us carry our 537 items to the check in counter. I’m sorry for the crumbs in your truck... and the crackers thrown at your head while driving. Camden wanted to leave a piece for you to remember him by in your truck! LOL!! 

Getting checked in went great, I forgot our car seat check bag in my car that I left at my father in laws... BUT the nice guy checking us in said he couldn’t remember how to charge us for one so gave it to us for free. How sweet! What a great little Christmas gift! 

Quick side note: Traveling on Christmas Eve is not recommended — there are 700 people in the airport and FYI the flights are completely

Packed. Full capacity. 

All checked in, Camden is now convinced himself and us that he can walk through the airport by himself with his own backpack! He is soooo big! We’re on our way to security. Hooo boy! That is frightening. Lmao! Each airport is different so some make you take every single food item, bottle, electronic, watch, bracelet, belt, etc out of the bag and off before sending it through the scanner. Yup. 72 fruit snacks have to be taken out of the snack bag and placed into their own bin. Oy. Is. Right. Why is every security check point man so freaking grumpy when families with kids come through? Do they enjoy making our lives more stressful? We got through security after about 20 minutes of unloading and reloading our 4 bags! And off we went to our gate to check in and get on the flight! The first flight was absolutely amazing. Camden loved it! He got a snack, watched out the window and played with his toys so well! 

Once we landed in Denver we definitely were getting hangry! Pizza was the choice of the 3 year old! We filled our bellies, and off again on the plane we went! The second flight was fast and sweet! Both kids and Jackie slept and I wrote a blog, edited some videos and photos and kisses the heads of my 3 sweeties! I also ate all 4 pretzel bags!! Yummy! 

Y’all, I can’t even begin to explain how proud I am! My kids are so wonderful!! (Just wait for part 3 to hear me change my mind about flying with kids haha! JK!) The travel part to Arizona really went swimmingly! We arrived and Lloyd was there waiting for us! He was so happy to see his grandkids and we were so happy to be on land again! 

Just wait for part two of our Arizona Trip Chronicles! 

See ya on the next one! 

Love, Momma Olson 

Finding Balance

 Hello my loves!

From the title you can see that today's blog will be about finding balance. This is something that I have always struggled with. Figuring out the prefect recipe to make every aspect of my life work smoothly and be perfect. Reality Check!! There is no perfect recipe to perfection. Perfection is near impossible. Instead of trying to be perfect, I have slowly come to realize that what I really need to be is balanced. There is a recipe to balance- but here's the catch... it is different for every person and every family. No two people can balance the exact same way. Just like in cooking or sports you have to follow a general rule or routine but you have to adapt that routine or rule to fit your specific needs. This is the same for life as well. 

If there was a set recipe or cheat code to finding the perfect balance to life-- life would be so much simpler. But life shouldn't be simple. Simple is boring. Life should be fun, challenging and constantly engaging. We should strive to keep our lives exciting and adventurous, and find simple ways to maintain a balanced life. OKAY OKAY -- HEAR ME OUT!!

When I say constantly engaging, adventurous, exciting and fun I don't mean that it will always be- but we should strive for that. We should try and fill our daily routines with things that will keep us going and our cups full. At least half full.

Let me preface it this way; Let's say on your todo list you have: Groceries, laundry, dishes, cleaning the bathroom and getting gas. But also in that day you have to work 8 hrs, take care of kids, and find time to eat, shower and play with the kids. Does this sound intimidating? Does is look daunting? Does this sound fun and exciting? How can this be BALANCED?

    Good morning! Its 7 am- I have to work at 9 am which means I leave at 830 am. Okay let balance this morning out. Lets check items off that list and lets have a FUN morning!! It can be fun, balanced and productive. *Turn on some jams- upbeat music with a good message. *Make a coffee, and see how many eggs you can crack into bowl while your coffee is brewing. Boom breakfast is started, coffee is on.✅✅ Now lets get those kids up and shower for the day. Go into their rooms- get them up and give them a challenge. Say "can you get dressed and brush your teeth before I get out of the shower?" Now GO!! The race is on! Boom- 3 more items are checked off! ✅✅✅

    See how simple can really be to add some fun into your busy morning? It can really make that morning so much more enjoyable. Your day has started on a great note!

For me I realized I needed to change my lifestyle when my son was starting to act out because instead of playing with him I was constantly cleaning the house. My home was spotless but my son was missing me. I was home 24/7 yet he was missing his mom. He wanted me more. He wanted to learn and help and play yet all I did was worry about the other things around us. This is when I adapted this whole balanced life thing. It wasn't easy at first. After a week or two I really noticed how much happier we all were. Just by using the awake hours of the day to play and teach my children and the sleep hours to clean the house. I would only give myself a couple hours at night and after that I waited until the next day. I did this so my schedule wasn't so intimidating. 

Y'all balance can seem intimidating at first, I get it. I am not always balanced. I'm only balanced like 82% of the time. But just by being balanced 82% of the time- my life truly is so much more enjoyable. My daily life isn't as daunting anymore. I feel better knowing that balance can be achieved in very simple ways. 

My message to you all is this--

When you wake up everyday, instead of seeing all of these tasks and things as scary and daunting. See them as a chance to create a challenge and balance. Try to find a way to give yourself 30 minutes to clean and 30 minutes to eat and play. Equal time for everything. If you cant give equal time to all tasks cut one out and move it to the next day as a new added challenge. Don't worry if the dishes aren't perfect and clean. Just live, and enjoy and remember that you truly only have one life. Don't spend your life scrubbing away- spend your life in a balanced way. 

Finding balance is not something that has to be an all at once thing either. You can really start with one thing at a time. Start with your mornings and once you balance those try lunch. Move up your day and schedule until you find what works best for you. I promise you it is doable and it will be worth it. I believe in you- You've got this! 

Its okay to fall, and start again. Balance takes trial and error. Just take it one step at a time! 

I love you all, Thanks for reading. See you next time 

Love, Momma Olson

Be The Change

*I will preface this by saying this is in no way a political post*

Its officially 2021. I am not sure whether to be excited or nervous about what 2021 may bring. To be real- the worlds' events are definitely swaying me toward the anxious side of things. BUT--- If you know me you know that I really do try to see the positive in things or at least find something else to be happy and positive about. There is so many scary things and unknown things happening in our nation that I truly am rattled. I don't know what the future holds, neither do a lot of others. I'm sure there are millions who are as confused I am. I want to say that finding the positive in the current events is really hard and it has taken me a few days to really process it all and find my words. 

    As a mom the first thing that pop into my brain when anything happens is "how will this affect my children?" Now normally the event that happens is minuscule or wont truly affect myself or my children, unfortunately that is not true for the most current of events that took place at our Nations Capitol. My social medias, news outlets and notifications have been flooded with hundreds of different opinions and perspectives of the events. It took me days to truly comprehend what the he** took place and why. One answer will truly never be fulfilled for me no matter what anyone tells me. In my mind violence of any form or any manner is not necessary and just escalates things further. 

    In the last 8 months there has been many times where I turn on my phone to check my social medias and instead of seeing silly memes, cute animal videos or family posts; I see horrific photos and videos of violence. Unsettling news articles and headlines. I see fear, I read fear. Fear has been everywhere. There are people hurting, clearly broken and trying to speak up and speak out. Unfortunately there are extremists that turn the hope for peace into a roar of violence. The pain of those hurting is overshadowed by the unfortunate events that have taken place in multiple different places and settings. To those people hurting: YOU ARE HEARD. YOU ARE SEEN. We aren't afraid to speak out and incite change. Change will happen. It must. We must unite, grow and listen to our fellow Americans. Its imperative for the future our children. 

    From a Pandemic that locked our nation down, broke many families, destroyed businesses, pushed our front liners to the brink, and swallowed us alive; we moved straight into the presidential race that completely divided our nation in half. We were no longer unified. We were exhausted, broken and confused. How were we supposed to feel? How were we to react?

                 

                NOT THE WAY WE DID.

Moving forward my message to you all is that change starts at home. Our children are the change, they are our why. We have to start behaving the way we want our kids to. We need to make a place that we want our children to grow up in. The current way our society is behaving and working is not what I want for my kids. Now is the time to speak up, make a change and encourage those around you to stand up and and make a positive change in our nation. The future in our hands. We decide the future of our country and the future of our children's country. 

    Acknowledging the events that have happened in the 8 months is imperative. You must know what has gone on. Anger has started rallies that have not only harmed things but people. Fear has awaken monsters. Control has divided a people that have worked hard on creating a safe and unified home. There were the events that took place in Minneapolis, an unfortunate death, unfairly treated people, lack of equality, police and law enforcement complications (bad and good) to the most recent event that took place at our capitol. I have acknowledged, have you? I am truly and completely heart broken over these events. I am confused. Like many others out there I do not know how to react or to feel. But what I do know that I feel pissed, I feel enraged, I feel hurt. I feel ready to make a change. I feel ready to speak out. I am ready to make this country a safer place for my children to live. There cannot be anymore of this. No more fear, No more violence. We must talk and we must LISTEN. Not only hear but listen to the needs and the fears. Listen for the change. Make the change heard. 

CHANGE STARTS AT HOME. CHANGE IS IMPERATIVE.