#like there what........ 3.. 4 ? maybe a few more depending on your definition of 'contentious'

[dirty-xenobladeconfessions]

tbh voting on if being attracted to a contentious character is Very fun. i kinda wish there were more

[notspoondere]

May 2018 List Re-Review

I did this once before for fun and wanted to do it again. For the reference, the May 2018 analysis was here.

If you’re not familiar with the idea, in this post I will be highlighting statements where I made predictions about the shape of the format to come and scoring them based on how accurate they turned out to be, then tallying those scores at the end to see how well I did. Let’s get into it.

(Also, September 2018 list analysis is on the way. I didn’t want to do it at first but have received a request for it.)

Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King

Yep, this is Luster Pendulum.  He’s now Zoodiac Drident crossed with Apoqliphort Towers, and naturally he’s on the banlist again.  Feel old yet?

To continue on that analogy, I fully expect this deck to go the way of Qliphorts and continue to see play as a stun variant.  Note that nerfed Draco is still a better deck than Qliphorts, unfortunately.

Correct on both fronts: Qliphorts are still bad, and Draco is still seeing play as a stun deck with two variants, one using The Monarchs Erupt, and the other using Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries, both with the intent of winning by preventing your opponent from playing the game and drawing cards to beat them down once they can’t.

Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis

Woohoo, we won’t get Plant FTK!   With that, I have the feeling we’ll be getting the Aromage Link Monster next set, since that’s the card that enables this FTK.  Once again, a good hit.

Wrong: We didn’t get the Aromage link monster, but who cares. I’m not going to score this because this post isn’t really about my predictions about Konami’s product design, but rather the metagame.

Oh and we technically got a plant FTK involving Samsara Lotus. Whatever.

That Grass Looks Greener

F.

I’ve been a 60-card player since around this time last year, and Lightsworn is my favorite deck of all time, so I’m sad to see this one go, but it was absolutely responsible for 60-card decks’ most unfair hands.  “Oh, you decided to drop Ash Blossom on my Lonefire?  Here, let me just mill a third of my deck real quick and end on Naturia Beast or Void Ogre Dragon with Fairy Tail - Snow and Shiranui Spiritmaster in the GY.  Oh, and you only have three cards in hand.  Sorry, not sorry!”

There’s nothing factually wrong about this since there’s no real prediction, but I would like to mention here that a totally different 60-card deck has seen play since: it turns out that there are some Pendulum variants that legitimately have 60 cards they want to play and wouldn’t have played Grass even if they had the chance. Shine on, you crazy diamonds.

Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter

This is the best card in Draco that isn’t named Master Peace, and is the sole reason for why I think the deck isn’t totally dead.  Return and Apocalypse are still absurdly strong cards going first and this card searches them. 

Correct: I don’t think anyone would disagree that this is still the scariest card left in that deck (unless you think it’s Rivalry, but Frogs and Altergeist play that too).

Gem-Knight Master Diamond

Here’s another “spin the wheel” hit; the Gem-Knight that actually burns is Lady Lapis Lazuli, but hitting this hurts the deck’s attempts to play legitimately, too. Problem solved, I guess, but at what cost?

They can’t make Calamities anymore, either, but that matters much less when they can’t actually kill you, either.

Wrong, unfortunately. Gem-Knight FTK has topped once since this hit happened. I don’t know how and I don’t really care. They should have banned Lazuli.

Chain Strike

And there’s a strange hit!  Chain Burn has been a nuisance since, well, the release of Chain Strike, and this hit is kind of out of nowhere, but who cares.  Chain Burn is dead if you don’t draw an insane hand.  Better now than never.

Correct, haven’t seen this deck since. Don’t care to either.

Semi-Limited Cards

Apoqlihport Towers

Ring of Destruction

I’ll take “Cards that have seen no play” for 800, Alex.

Though much weaker in a format with copious Extra Deck-based removal by battle, this card’s namesake lives on as a reference point for insurmountable boss monsters.

This card’s errata in 2015 addressed its infamous problems in tournament by preventing it from stealing games and forcing draws.

Correct.

Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

Compulsory Evacuation Device

Fairy Tail - Luna saw no play and Solemn Strike is still at 3.  Who cares.

Also Correct.

Grandsoil the Elemental Lord

The functional errata is effective already, though we won’t get it in print until FLOD: SE.   Elementsaber buff, though the deck really isn’t good anyways.

I don’t remember getting this spicy. Yeah, Elementsabers didn’t turn out great. Correct.

Mathematician

This is still a solid card, honestly.  I could see it seeing play again in decks that don’t need a Normal Summon, or if they finally unban Construct.  I don’t think that deck’s in the game right now, but it could be soon.

So Mathematician saw no play whatsoever, but I still think it’s because the right deck doesn’t exist; after all, Armageddon Knight is arguably more restricted than Mathematician, and that card does see regular play (in Gouki because it’s a Warrior, in Dinosaurs because it can send Overtex, and in Zefra because it can send Destrudo). All that really proves is that a monster which consumes a Normal Summon in order to send something generic to the GY is good enough to play, and Mathematician is definitely that, so I think we’ll see him come up again once a more useful Level 4 or lower target is introduced for a Type or Attribute that doesn’t already have a better alternative, or for ones that need three more copies of it (with Armageddon Knight, Dinosaurs have eleven cards that send Overtex to GY or search a card that does). For that reason, I’ll call this a maybe--ultimately, as much as I can try to demonstrate that it’s a good card, it depends on whether that deck comes to exist.

Atlantean Dragoons

Dragoons was tearing through boards years before SPYRAL Tough was, and honestly, there’s very little stopping it from doing so now with Light of Sekka in the game (Abyss-scale is a brick and chances are that you don’t run any spells that do anything more impactful than drawing two cards and fixing your hand).  This is kind of like when Charge of the Light Brigade came back to 3: It’s a fairly solid buff to a fairly solid deck.  Add onto that the imminent reprint of Moulinglacia and the new Mermail Link Monster, and the deck is looking like it’s soon to be in a very strong place.

Mermails have seen minor competitive play, but it is certainly stronger than before, and indeed, the deck plays Sekka’s Light over Abyss-scale. Correct.

Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior

This means virtually nothing compared to Dinomight coming back to 1.

…

Okay, hear me out.  Ignis was the deck’s best play going second since it grabs Heritage, which plusses off of disruption.  That’s fine, but:

Amano-Iwato stops your opponent from doing anything to stop you already.

You are going to search your spells with Diagram anyways, and you don’t need your opponent to be using effects on your turn to do that.

Heritage is still a disruptable card itself, and the proper play with Ignis is usually to let him hit the board and swing over him later in order to give the opponent Heritage on a turn when they can’t immediately use it.

For these reasons… yeah, Ignis doesn’t actually matter that much.  Draco would still be fine with Ignis at 1, and I don’t really expect that he’ll be run at more than 2 at MOST due to the way optimal ratios work with Card of Demise.

This is a pretty contentious portion of that post and I kind of regret being so bold. Actually going through and looking at what was right and what wasn’t here is a mixed bag because much of it plays upon theory that is half-true and ended up being half-followed. Let’s take a look.

Ignis is an important card in Draco.

Ignis is a good card in Draco, and the deck often plays two or three copies.

True Draco with Master Peace and Demise regularly played the same ratios of eight monsters in the Main Deck: 3 Amano/Boarder, 1 Ignis, and two Majesty and Master Peace.

The current incarnation of the deck plays roughly nine monsters. It has lost two of the previously available ones and gained a potential three more; not counting the other Dracos, this would account for 3 Amano/Boarder and Ignis, 2 Majesty, and 1 Dinomight, but about half of the lists I’ve seen play two Ignis and a sparse few play Dreiath and/or Metaltron.

Waterfall of Dragon Souls is a fair bit more popular now than it was then, too.

Finally, optimal ratios for Demise necessitate as few monsters as possible, but optimal ratios for Desires insist that you play more cards in triplicate than usual.

So with that said: I feel safe in saying Ignis can be justified at 2 or 3 copies, and I definitely feel safe in saying that he’s a worse card than Dinomight. Going off of this, I’m tempted to say I’m right, but my language was a bit too decisive and derisive (surely people would have played 3 Ignis even if it was demonstrably wrong), so I’ll say this was at least partially wrong and call it a maybe.

In the last section, I made a bunch of predictions about various decks; I’ll go over them each and judge how they should be scored. I’ll also tally this separately just to see how well I guessed how the format would pan out; these will not be scored twice if I mentioned them earlier.

Magicians nerfed.  FTK and Zexal builds murdered.  Pure deck is still viable.

Every other pendulum deck nerfed, though pure Metalfoes arguably lost the least. (Zefra didn’t use Astrograph at all, but really needed AFD.)

Magicians are still a tier 1-2 deck (is Gouki tier 0 or 1?). Pure Metalfoes actually really liked having Astrograph, though for what it’s worth, it is the only one of these decks that doesn’t need to play bad cards in order to make Vortex. Zefra also did play Astrograph, though at the time, the only Zefra player I knew complained that it took two slots in a very tight extra.  Maybe on this.

Draco nerfed.  Still viable, mark my words.

Correct.

60-card is dead outright.  The best playmakers are still there, but Left Arm into Grass is no longer valid backup for Lonefire Blossom.  You may see 40-card Dino or Zombiesworn lists in the future given good enough hands, but there’s no good way to fit the Lonefire combo in 40 cards without bricking too often.

So this is a weird one. The Lonefire combo has seen play at least once in the form of a Gouki deck, but that follows a different combo route than the Lightsworn variant did and is demonstrably a worse version of that deck: it’s hard to get more explosive than Gouki already is, and it requires at least two more bricks. 60-card decks as we knew them are totally dead, so I’ll say this is correct.

Gem-Knight FTK dead.

As mentioned above, unfortunately wrong. Haven’t seen it beyond that one time, though.

Chain Burn, for some reason, also dead.

Haven’t seen it since. Correct.

Every deck that plays Destrudo into AFD is nerfed or dead.  I expect ABC and Zefra to survive through sheer power, though both lost much in consistency.

This is correct as it is obvious. Calvin Tahan would top with ABC in Nekroz format if it happened again today and Zefra will be better than the best rogue deck until they start losing copies of Zefraath or get horrendously powercrept.

Invoked are fine, though invoked hybrids lost AFD, I guess.

Invoked didn’t really do much but get power crept. I guess this is wrong? The one Invoked hybrid, AKA the deck with six field spell engines and nothing else, did lose this, but it also literally died. So.

World Chalice untouched.  If you think you’re good at this game, try this deck and realize how wrong you are.

I didn’t make an explicit prediction here, so no score, but I should mention that it did top at least once during this time. The only list I can find doesn’t use Knightmares to their full potential, but to be honest, the deck doesn’t entirely need them; it can still do an extra link and make the opponent discard four cards off of an opening hand Venus and any monster without Knightmare Goblin.

SPYRAL untouched.  Easily a top-tier contender.

Deck was really good for a while, yeah. Correct.

Burning Abyss untouched.  Still a solid deck with proper backrow.

Well goddamn, it turns out Burning Abyss is still a solid deck without proper backrow. Current lists run Sekka’s Light at three copies and more than a dozen hand traps. I’d like to call this a coincidental maybe, but I honestly felt at the time that Burning Abyss was only strong due to its ability to pack in powerful backrow without losing consistency, and in that regard, I was totally wrong.

Paleozoics untouched, though the worst part of their worst matchup is totally gone, and they’re very solid versus Altergeist.  Budget players, keep an eye on this deck.

Paleo Frogs were good for about half of the format and dropped off pretty hard. It’s not like what it does it bad, just that there are more counters to it. Also is indeed a budget deck. Still correct.

Neo-Spacians tier 1, obviously.

AHAHAHHAHHAAHAHHHAAHHAHAAHHAAHHAHAH

This dumbass one-off comment I made has come full circle because Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin saw regular play in a tier 1 deck, that being Gouki. It is played because it’s a level 3 Warrior that can mulligan your opponent’s hand of hand traps, and in that regard, it is absolutely unmatched. This card’s burn damage closed out the last game of the European WCQ in time. Do I deserve to be correct for this? You decide. I think so.

Trickstar ANYTHING

This deck has fallen off a bit, but Drollcarnation is still legal and the deck is still a threat based off of that alone.

Another funny one. This wasn’t that true early in the format, but so-called Kid Touch (Trickstar Sky Striker) ended up being a tier 1 deck for a couple of tournaments immediately after the implementation of the new end-of-match procedures, though not entirely because of them, and not entirely because of Drollcarnation, but both together ended up being an unbelievably scary combo: Trickstars could now make Link Monsters without drawing Scapegoat, and Sky Strikers could get even more consistent advantage while also ticking away with burn at a time where it matters the most. Correct either way.

Tallies after eliminating duplicates:

11 Correct

3 Maybe

3 Wrong

64.7% correct, 17.6% definitely incorrect. Pretty good ratio.

[gethealthy18-blog]

Why I Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions & What I Do Instead

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/why-i-dont-make-new-years-resolutions-what-i-do-instead/

Why I Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions & What I Do Instead

I’m going to share a little secret… I’m really competitive. (Like, really.) My husband is the same way. So you’d think we’d be great at New Year’s resolutions, right?

Not so much! Let me explain why…

New Year’s Resolutions: Yay or Nay?

Of course I’m not against the idea of self-improvement (far from it) and I’m in full support of setting New Year’s resolutions if it works for you. It became apparent that we needed something different for our family after a few years of trying to set and keep New Year’s resolutions together.

I’m the first one to say that better habits are worth the effort and that strong daily routines go a long way toward a successful outcome. Still, if you’re like me and winning is important (maybe too important), goal-setting has the potential to be frustrating.

My usual downward spiral when it comes to New Year’s resolutions (or resolutions in general) goes something like this:

I think too big and bite off more than I can chew.

I get mad at myself when I don’t accomplish the goal as I thought I would.

Therefore, I don’t want to make new resolutions.

My intentions, while admirable, were not getting me too far. Time for a new approach!

Out with New Year’s Resolutions… in With Experiments!

Since my husband is the exact same way, one year we had a meeting of the minds (over a glass of wine, of course) and decided to take some pressure off of New Year’s resolutions. That year, instead of resolutions, we would try experiments.

In case you were hoping for something more revolutionary, hear me out…

First, let’s look at the definition of “resolution”:

a firm decision to do or not to do something

the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter

Now let’s compare “experiment”:

a scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact

a course of action tentatively adopted without being sure of the eventual outcome

Doesn’t one sound a little more motivating (and fun) than the other?

We totally owe Tim Ferriss for the inspiration for our experimental approach:

“I like pushing myself to the limit and pushing the envelope, and in my mind that is not really compatible with a reliable long-term plan,” says Ferriss. “I generally treat my life as six-month projects and two-week experiments of various types. Then I take the most attractive door that pops up, and rinse and repeat.”

Calling our goals “experiments” (we also call them “challenges” at times) builds excitement about the process and keeps the focus on the learning process more than the end result. We make a hypothesis about what will happen and see what we can learn from the experience… no winning or losing involved.

It may sound like the easy way out but these experiments suit the more intense personalities in our house because they allow us to have laser focus for a shorter period of time. Or, we can just have fun with it and see where it leads, depending on what our family needs at the time.

Ideas for a Healthy New Year (& How to Stay Motivated)

So how to start “experimenting” with a great 2019? Here are some favorite experiments and challenges we’ve tried over the years (and I share a full list of mini-goals for the New Year in this podcast if you’re interested):

1. Keep a Journal

If there’s any one way to make positive changes (and keep them), making long-term things much more accomplishable on a smaller scale and on a daily basis is the place to start. This is where a daily journal comes in.

Research shows that journaling reduces stress and has a real impact on happiness and physical health. I’ve always kept some kind of journal, but this year for the sake of research and a bunch of new health routines I plan to try, I’m experimenting with getting a much more detailed journaling process going, such as:

things I’m grateful for

a health picture of the day (what I ate, exercise, how I’m feeling, etc.)

my daily to-do list

a challenge list (more on that in my 2019 New Year’s podcast)

One of my favorite ways to manage my to-do list is to pick the two most important things for the day, every day. (Something besides obviously feeding my family and keeping up with the household, etc.) If all I can get done is those two most important things, then I can consider that day a success!

2. Take a Detox Baby Step

I’m often asked how I “do it all,” and the answer is… a little at a time! The recipes and health articles you see on the blog came to be over 10+ years of experiments, trials, and false starts. I’ve shared my successes, but as my kids would be all too happy to tell you… there were plenty of failures along the way!

This is why I designed my Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox book to offer baby steps that let you tackle a little at a time, in the area of life that matters most to you. Whether it’s your food, cleaning products, makeup and beauty products, or even your mental health that you want to declutter and make healthier, there’s a step that will help with that (in a way that’s not overwhelming or unrealistic).

Some baby steps to start on (covered in detail in the book):

Replace conventional cleaners and detergents with natural ones (get 15% off my favorite starter kit at Branch Basics with code MAMA15)

Swap out plastic cups, plates, or silverware for nontoxic alternatives

Clear the mental clutter and reconnect by setting a digital day off (use a kitchen safe if you have to).

3. Write up (or Refine) a Family Manifesto

Years ago we discovered the power of a family manifesto to shape our family culture. It keeps growing and changing as our family does, but we’re very intentional about pursuing those goals.

I’ve explained more about what’s in our family manifesto elsewhere, but a big goal in our family is to raise kids with an entrepreneurial mindset. This is something that is very important to both my husband and myself. We try to give them opportunities to think outside of the box because with the way some things in the world and environment are headed, we need people who can tackle and solve these problems.

Once we narrowed down to our the core values that really define and excite us, we put it in writing. Visual reminders like these wall quotes help keep us focused on what really matters to our family.

4. Conduct a Sleep Experiment

Having trouble narrowing down to just one thing to tackle this year? What if I told you just one thing could help your body restore and heal, regulate hormone production, boost your mood, and aid in weight loss? Yep, sleep! Plus it’s free (or almost free)!

Of course as moms there are many situations that make it tough to get enough sleep, but when even just one missed night of sleep can give you the blood sugar levels of a diabetic or pre-diabetic, it’s an area to take seriously.

One thing I can control even as a mom is my sleep environment and this is a great place to start experimenting. I go into exactly what I do in this post, but some additional things to try are:

avoiding blue light a few hours before sleep (or wear orange glasses)

lowering the temperature at night

using black-out curtains (and ditching nightlights)

investing in a good quality mattress

exposure to outdoor light for at least 30 minutes in the morning (or use a sun lamp)

Sleep better and you’re already off to a great start in 2019!

5. Have an Attitude of Gratitude

It sounds cliché, but cultivating gratitude as a daily habit is perhaps even more important than any resolution or experiment, because it’s the secret to fighting stress and staying motivated. The point here is to keep from falling into the trap of thinking, “If only I had XYZ, I’d be happy,” or, “If only I didn’t have to deal with ABC, I’d be happy.” This is a pretty vicious cycle.

I love this TED talk from Shawn Anchor where he points out that gratitude and happiness are the first step and not the end result. So making the choice to be happy and have gratitude is not only healthy, but it can improve performance and success as well! Sometimes just writing down what we’re grateful for (and telling others we’re grateful for them too) is all we need to realize we’re doing just fine.

2018: A Wellness Mama Year in Review

Resolutions aside, I do value this time of year for reflecting on all we’ve done and accomplished. The last 525,600 minutes have been busy, hectic, hard, amazing, rewarding, and so many other things all rolled into one crazy year and I’m so grateful that I got to spend it with all of you!

To celebrate some of the things that make life easier (hooray!), I’m sharing some the best natural living resources and hacks I found in 2018 (and I’d love to hear yours in the comments as well).

Highlight of 2018: Working With My Best Friend!

2018 will go down in the books as one of my very favorite years, because it’s the one when Heather and I decided to join forces! Now we have unlimited excuses to hang out (you know, in the name of health research) and make even better content for all of you.

You’ll see more changes coming on the site soon, and thanks for your patience as we navigate all the technical ins and outs of creating the new and improved Wellness Mama!

Biggest Lesson Learned: Hurricane Michael

It was a real test this year sitting in a hallway of a hotel and watching the predictions that the path of the storm would make landfall exactly where we lived. Trying to choose gratitude in that moment, even realizing everything we owned could be gone, was definitely difficult.

At the same time, it made me realize more than ever how the most important things are people we love and how little else we really need.

Our house was spared, but with the devastation still in many areas around us, there’s a long road ahead for our area. It’s spectacular how people here are pulling together to help each other and I won’t ever forget this lesson about the importance of community.

Favorite Christmas Memory: Handmade Gifts

No matter how I try to keep them little, my kids just keep getting older. Many of them are starting to handle gifting on their own. I loved seeing how many of them chose to give handmade gifts this year. I’ll cherish these gifts more than anything that could come from a store, and thanks to online courses from Udemy, some of them were complete surprises I didn’t even know they could make!

Biggest Health Game-Changer: SteadyMD

I wrote a lot this year about what we use for health care, and we’ve made some big changes for the better. My family doctor is now only a text away thanks to a service called SteadyMD. They asked me a series of questions about our lifestyle and health preferences and matched each person in the family to the best doctor for them. Our SteadyMD docs are on call 24/7, and mine even specializes in Hashimoto’s (since he has it himself).

We use the family plan so I can text or call the doctor about all of the bumps, scrapes, sprains, and mysterious rashes (oh, the rashes!) that seem to come with having kids.

p.s. If you’ve ever thought about using a health-sharing ministry or service in place of insurance, I write about our (very positive) experience with Samaritan here.

My Favorite New Gadget: The Oura Ring

I’ve stayed away from sleep trackers and Fitbits until now because I didn’t like the idea of wearing wireless technology… until I found the Oura Ring! Unlike other trackers, the Oura Ring works in airplane mode. It’s incredibly accurate too. I can set fitness goals, track my heart rate, get a view of my physical activity, analyze sleep patterns, and even track my cycle.

Runners Up:

Best Beauty Product: Alitura Naturals

Just when I thought I’d perfected my oil cleansing facial routine, I found a skincare line that blows everything I’ve ever tried out of the water. The amazing formulas include all of the best organic skincare ingredients like jojoba oil, rosehip oil, bee propolis, astaxanthin, neroli oil, and more. I interviewed Alitura founder Andy Hnilo in this podcast, and the story behind his company is so inspiring.

Runners Up:

Best New Health Product for Kids: Genexa

I can’t even tell you how excited I am that there is now a natural, organic, dye and preservative-free line of over-the-counter medicines at the corner pharmacy. It’s basically what I’ve dreamed about for years. I use Genexa’s Sleepology when the kids can’t sleep, Allergy-D for seasonal allergies, and their Cold Crush and saline spray to loosen congestion… but the whole line is amazing. Check them out here.

Runner Up:

Ready, Set, Food! – Only in the runner-up category because it is for the more limited category of babies ages 4-11 months, but this is a break-through new product all moms should know about, especially if you worry about your children developing food allergies.

Favorite New Recipe

I’ve always liked recreating my favorite restaurant meals at home, but this was the year I perfected some of my favorite “at-home take-out” meals (and saved a lot of money in the process):

Favorite Snack or Quick Breakfast: PaleoValley Beef Sticks

Hands down, my favorite kid-friendly snack in the pantry are these PaleoValley beef sticks. Unlike a lot of other snacks they deliver a solid dose of protein and keep kids satisfied until we get to where we’re going. They’re also organic, grass-fed, and naturally fermented and shelf-stable without preservatives. My kids’ favorite flavors are the Original and the Summer Sausage.

Runners up:

Best Time-Saver in the Kitchen: Real Plans

Without a doubt, the tool that saves me the most time in the kitchen is Real Plans for meal planning. The Instant Pot saves me the most time in cooking, but Real Plans saves time planning and shopping (and it has many Instant Pot recipes too!). My favorite part? It is so easy to use that I can plan everything from my phone while waiting at kid activities!

Word of the Year

I’m keeping my word of the year from 2018 because I think it’s still fitting — “community.” It couldn’t be more fitting as I’m trying to focus on building strong community in our home, our city, and here on the blog. What is your word this year? If you need ideas, try this word of the year generator for a kickstart!

Giving Back in 2018…

From the very beginning, the mission of Wellness Mama has been to help other families live healthier lives and empower moms (and dads) with practical ways to accomplish this.

I feel like the mission to help parents provide healthy food for their families doesn’t stop in my own community or even just in the blogging community as there is such a need for this internationally.

Did you know?

If you’ve ever clicked a link on the site and made a purchase from there, you’ve helped keep WellnessMama.com up and running, and a percentage of that is also donated to charities that provide sustainable food and water sources worldwide. Thank you so much if you’ve helped support my blog in this way and also helped support many others worldwide.

Reviewing the numbers today, the giving is the real thing that I’m most excited about and most proud of. Over the years, the Wellness Mama Community… YOU… have helped provide items to families in need all over the world.

These gifts not only provide food or clothing to those in need, but in many cases, also a sustainable food or water source and a way for a family to earn an income.

Over the years, you’ve helped give:

2000 pounds of non-perishable foods

840 chickens for eggs, meat and income for families

72 pigs for food and income for families

12 goats for food and income for families

4 donkeys for transportation and tilling

3 water pumps that each provide water to a village

4 beehives for food and income for families

20 fruit trees so that families can grow the fruit and sell

10 pairs of work boots so farmers can work safely

5 sets of agricultural tools for small farmers

10 large coolers for fishermen to store fish to sell

8 sewing machines and thread/material for women to open sewing businesses

plus medical supplies and school supplies for children around the world

These things were donated through Food for the Poor in case you want to send some chickens to someone in need this year 🙂

I’ve always been a big believer in the “teach a man to fish” mentality, and giving in this way not only provides food or water for someone one time, but helps other families to start their own businesses and provide food for their children regularly. Because at the end of the day:

Looking Forward to 2019…

Again, thank you so much for reading, for being a part of the Wellness Mama community, and for sharing in the mission of providing a healthier future for our children.

In 2019 I hope you’ll join me in one of my personal goals: to let go of the stress, expectations, and perfectionism that seem to go hand in hand with modern motherhood. To set a good example for my children and teach them the coping skills to manage stress as they get older.

If this sounds like a lofty goal, it’s only because it’s one I’ve been working on for years. I can finally say I’m at the point where I’m letting go of old habits and convincing my Type-A driven personality to make self-care and self-compassion a priority.

I’ll be talking about these things a lot more on the blog this year, and sharing the systems and habits that have made the difference for me. Hopefully what I’ve experienced will help some of you, and I’m sure you’ll have ideas for me!

Happy New Year 2019, Wellness Mamas!

I may be the original Wellness Mama, but the truth is all of you make this community what it is — a tribe of moms searching for better ways to care for ourselves and our families. I’m honored to be on the journey with all of you, and I wish each of you a very peaceful, happy, and healthy 2019!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? What works or doesn’t work for your family? I’d love to hear your ideas for experiments, challenges, or resolutions!

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/26215/new-years-resolutions/