Living Life at 110%

Why Not…….Say Yes!

By this time of summer I know a lot of moms and women in general feel like summer is never going to end and are ready for kids to go back to school. Why can’t we do this and that? Why can’t we have another popsicle? Why can’t we have another friend over? Why not? Well, I’m here to help that summer break continue on with fun activities as well as ways to help you not loose your mind by all the Whys!

People start summer off strong and then get exhausted because they feel like they have done so much and yet have so much more to go. Here are a few tips that help me get through summer…

Find time to do unexpected things. Rather that be with or without your kids. Take the time to schedule a girls night or a evening run to Target alone. Or head out to take the kids for snow cones when they have had too much time at home. Don’t add it to your to do list but be open to the unexpected and unplanned. Why not just go with the flow and keep the kids on their toes?

Lock the door and take a bath. I repeat Lock the Door. Take the time to relax whether that be a mid day bath or late night bath. Go all out with bath bombs and salts and soaps. Even if it’s only for 30 minutes, tell the kids that you are going to take a bath and make sure they have what they need. Setting these boundaries over time will become normal and will turn into time that they know you cannot help them do anything. I have always locked the door during and so they know when I am in there to not come Mom me silly! If this just seems impossible then do something easier like paint your nails. I use the colorstreet nail stickys but the InstaDry polish is great for moms on the go! Why not take the time you deserve and know that the kids will be fine?

Have an outing at the Dollar Tree! Give the kids each $10 to spend and let them shop away. Not only will this be fun for them but will also teach them the value of a dollar. Plus they have a few new things to keep them busy at home! Why not spend a few bucks to give them a lesson?
This next one sounds silly but I find it to help…every night before you go to bed…do 50 crunches and 10 push ups. No matter if you have worked out that day or not. Something about doing it right before you go to bed makes that full stomach from earlier or sore stomach from another workout feel better. Why not…..plus you feel skinny when you wake up the next day haha!
Surprise the kids with doing something they thought or would normally think you would say No to. For example, when Jack got upset because I had no fake tattoos for him to put on I whipped out a marker and drew them on him. Nothing a little soap and water won’t get off. Or fill up some pie tins and let them pie each other in the face. You will completely catch them off guard with this one! Why not get crazy with this one and be the cool mom like I talked about in a previous post?

marker 101
finally got tattoos for this one

I know a lot of you moms will say some of these or maybe all of these things are not realistic to accomplish or it’s just too much with multiple kids but my question for you is Why? Why not do something not on the to do list? Why not draw on your kids with marker haha? Why not? Why not just say yes and do it and see what happens? Maybe its a disaster and you never do it again. Or maybe just maybe you do it and take something away from it. Now is the time to give it a try and see what happens. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if our kids knew mom was in the bath soaking away the stress to be less snappy at the kids? Tell them that! Tell them that you need that time just like they need your time all day. I have come to see that after a while my kids know this and they respect it.

One thing I have realized with raising my kids is that they just want to know WHY and as long as I can explain and justify my reasoning to them things run a lot smoother. So the next time your kid or friend or family member ask you WHY………..ask yourself WHY NOT?

Until next time….the crazy say yes to it all mom,

Heather

follow me on Instagram at heather.guillot.styleblog

Be a Verb not just a Noun

One question or just something to think about…what does your name say about you? Ok so I know that started off way too deep but really…your name is just a noun. Your name is simply what you go by. Your name is how people identify you. But what does your name say about you? What comes to someone’s mind when they hear your name? Now a lot of you will say oh we shouldn’t care what people think about and if they like what we say or do and that is true, but that’s not what I’m saying here. You can spend a lifetime caring what people think about the choices you make, how you parent, who you are friends with and so on. But what you can also spend a lifetime doing is building your name your noun into a verb.

A verb is used to describe someone. A deeper meaning of someone’s name. How would someone describe you? Would you be described as warm or cold? Sweet but sometimes a you know what? Stuck up or an includer? Lazy or acts like she’s on go go pills all the time? BINGO! I have always had very high energy. Even as a child I was constantly pretending to be something or planning my next tea party or making my next craft. I look back at pictures of my childhood and think “what was I thinking.” But the beauty in all these past pictures and memories is that I wasn’t thinking. I was living life to the fullest and creating my verb.

I had my friend Cydni once say, “I’m about to Guillot this thing” and it has stuck with me ever since. She made my name a verb! In over 30 years of being this high energy, loving life, crazy person with big ideas I had never had anyone refer to me as a verb. Not only is this hilarious but I took it as a huge compliment. I pride myself in being dependable, fast working, easy going and making things happen in ways that most people can’t imagine. You can come up with an idea and I will find a way to make it happen. I may stay up late and wake up ready to go but that’s how I operate and what people have come to see in me. Ever since she said this it has stuck with me and has led me to help other people see their names as verbs.

My best friend, Audrey is someone who lives care-free. She honks her horn like a spaz but just to wave to people for letting her over. She is always up for an adventure and road trip. She isn’t shy about walking up to a complete stranger and just having a conversation. She is easy going and a yes girl….who likes to take long naps haha! When I am going back and forth on making a decision about when to take a trip or when to decide whether or not to do something out of my comfort zone I say “I’m just gonna Audrey this thing.” All these things are so much more than her name/noun. These are the things that make her who she is and the verbs that make up her life story.

So what are the verbs that you want your name to be made of? What do you want people to think of when they describe or think of you? When someone is in a time crunch will they say, “I really need to Julie this.” When someone needs to help someone out in a hard time will they say, “I need to Morrow this.” When someone needs to make someone laugh will they say, “I need to Sarah this.” What verb makes you special and more than just a noun?

Thanks so much for being on this blog journey with me!

Your 110% friend,

Heather

check out and follow me on instagram at heather.guillot.styleblog

Secrets to Being a Rockstar Summer Mom

Summer comes and goes and we look back on the things we should have done, the crafts we should have made, the vacation a we should have taken, the sleepovers we should have had and so on. My answer to this is just say YES! Say yes to getting the kitchen messy and say yes to pulling out every blanket and pillow into the living room, and maybe even the mattress, and let the kids sleep there for a few days. Say yes to jumping in the car and having a day of adventure. Say yes to having a friend stay the night for multiple days at a time haha. I say yes to all this because number one, these yes things are free, and number two your kids think these little things are super cool which in return makes you super cool. You don’t have to oh la la them with pricey trips to Target or trampoline parks. Half of the time when I ask my kids what they want to do they want to stay at home. They want me to come up with crazy fun ideas AT HOME. This leads me into another blog post I was going to make giving lots of at home DIYs that are easy to do with your family but I decided I needed to drop a few ideas in this post, my type of cliffhanger to get you to keep wanting more haha!

Make a tent and include the tv. Drape sheets over your pallet or bed and make it to where it goes over and includes the tv. This is so they can have movie night completely covered! I literally tie sheets and use ponytail holders to tie sheets to my ceiling fan to drape it down! My kids still ask for me to build them tents in their rooms and is one of their favorite things for me to do when they have sleepovers!
Pick up some painters tape at the store. I have done this since my kids were little. It started with when they were around age 2 me making roads and buildings all out of blue tape on the floors and rugs for them to drive toy cars on. Now it’s elaborated into baseball fields and basketball courts in my kitchen. I’ve even brought in outdoor riding toys before and made roads around my whole house…when they were younger.
MAKE SLIME! I repeat MAKE THE STINKIN SLIME! I don’t know why parents don’t like making slime or playing with playdough. As long as the Kids know where the boundaries are with the slime I see no harm. Mine know it doesn’t leave the kitchen and most of the time they are sitting on the kitchen counter playing with it. It’s so relaxing too and cheap and easy entertainment!
Surprise them with a day out of the house without breaking the bank. Take them to the Dollar Tree or $5 and below and tell them they have $10 to spend. This does drive me a little crazy because the decisions are endless but I also give mine a time limit! It’s fun watching them budget and make decisions on what they want to get. Then head for a snow cone after or ice cream!
break out the water hose. What is it about turning on the water hose and giving kids permission to play with it? Mine can be swimming in the pool and I’ll go to add water to the pool and instantly all they care about is playing with the water hose. So why not put it to good use? Have them wash cars or water plants or fill up buckets or play water hose limbo!
Three words…Kids Baking Championship! My kids love watching cooking competition shows with me haha. So why not put them to the test. And this is something that can be done at any age. Whether it’s decorating cookies or cupcakes or giving them certain ingredients to make something out of or if they are older and can use the oven make them do a cake! Give them each an apron to decorate before with their “tv name” on it and ready set cook! Now of course everyone’s a winner here and mom gets to enjoy the taste testing!
and now my favorite thing to do which I will go in to further detail in a later post….CRAFTS. I always buy those canvases by the 10 pack from michaels for like $20 and always keep them in stock. I also always have craft paint on hand too. My kids love for me to draw outlines of things for them to paint or just let them look up drawing ideas on their tablet and let them go to town. We then hang them up as a “summer art display.” Their friends who come over love to do this too! We also go outside and find rocks and other things to paint. I’m so glad my kids have my love for arts and crafts.

Well there ya go, 7 days of things to do to be the best summer mom you can be haha! Like I said before, be the YES mom. Say yes to those things that you often roll your eyes at and who knows maybe while they are occupied you can enjoy a cup of coffee and an episode of real housewives!

Your summer yes mom,

Heather

Heather.guillot.styleblog

Be the BEE!

Ever heard the phrase “busy as a bee?” Well that bee has nothing on me! People often ask me, and when I say often I mean just about everyday, when do I sleep and how do I have time to do all the things I do. My answer every time is that, “you gotta keep moving or that’s when you get tired.” If you think about that it’s totally a valid statement. How tired do you get while waiting at an appointment, being still watching tv or lets be honest, getting on your phone and checking social media? For me I start to crash and burn in the car pick up line, hence why I usually have an afternoon cup of coffee.

My daily routine normally consists of getting up and helping the boys get off to school, a morning workout session at CrossFit Chivalry in West Monroe, running errands for my full time job as a real estate agent or for my clients for my interior decorating side business, getting the boys from school, showing or listing houses and dragging the boys along for the ride, figuring out what is for supper while they are at practice depending on what season it is, making sure the house is clean, getting everyone ready for bed and finally crawling into bed around 10:00 pm to usually catch up on any shows I’ve missed. Occasionally there will be that late night phone call from a client trying to make a deal work out or finishing painting a piece of furniture that needs attention or just completing an art/DIY project in which I volunteered to do! I am also very involved in the community and volunteer a lot which also keeps me very busy.

I’m saying all this just to give you a peek of how I stay busy everyday. Do I have a problem saying no? Yes, but I’m working on that and have gotten a lot better. Do I like to be this busy all the time? No, but I can’t imagine sitting or laying on the couch all day waiting on the kids to get out of school or having to sit at a desk all day and punch in and out on a time clock. I like the constant schedule of doing things and also planning things. Do I like to be the person that people come to when they need their crazy ideas to come to life? Absolutely! I am a people pleaser and love for people to come to me with something that seems unreachable and when I can figure out a way to make it or make it happen it’s an all around celebration!

I wanted to start this blog as a way for me to show and help people see ways in which they can be that rockstar busy bee for themselves and for their family and/or friends. Over the years people have said to me that I do everything at 110% and that’s where this blog stems from. I want to show and tell people that if doesn’t take much effort to be “extra” and to live life at 110%. It doesn’t have to be extreme elaborate showcases of “look what I can do” for people to see that you are a dependable, motivated, positive, hardworking busy bee. For example, rainy days for me when my kids were young was putting blue painters tape on the living room floor and making roads for the boys to play cars on while I sat in the other room having coffee and watching housewives! MOM WIN and SELF WIN for sure! I will talk about all these examples in future posts too. It’s all about time management, priorities and making sure you are having fun doing all the things. I can’t wait to share with everyone some things I have been jotting down in my notebook. I will talk about life goals and how to get started on making those happen, fun things to do with your kids and being a smarter, yes smarter, “summer” mom, how you can mess things up and still succeed, being intentional with what you want to do and say and a ton of other topics!