OUTFIT DETAILS – SHOP THIS LOOK
“I always wondered about Ryland and Rori’s dad”
Ryland and Rori’s dad is in their life. He just isn’t present on the blog/Instagram.
“What’s your major?”
Long story SHORT (or kind of, lol!) I wanted to start my blog about 7 years ago, but never had the guts to do it because I absolutely hated taking photos and was afraid of failure and change. I was pregnant with Ryland and desperately needed to do something with my life so I met with a counselor and took all of the prerequisite courses for a pediatric nurse. I applied to the nursing program 3 times. I was REJECTED all 3 times. I was sad, lost, and just felt discouraged and wanted to give up. After my 3rd rejection, I told the counselor I needed a backup plan in case I never get into the nursing program and she helped me apply to University of California, Davis as a Human Development major. While waiting for my acceptance letter from UC Davis I decided to write my first blog post on Pieces of Emerald. I stopped focusing and stopped stressing about the nursing program and just focused on my current state in life and I kind of feel that everything was meant to be exactly the way it was supposed to be. Two years later (September 24th) I will now be celebrating Pieces of Emerald TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Will I apply to the nursing program again? I don’t think so, at least not anytime soon. I am happy running my blog and will soon have my bachelors degree in Human Delovement. Not sure if I will even use the degree, but at least I can say that I have it and worked for it.
“How do y0u deal with mom burnout?”
This one is tricky. Some days I do alot better than other days. I am a mess, but I have plenty of help from family whenever I need it. But with working a fulltime job, two kids, running blog, kids activties, and going to school myself – my biggest tip is to BE PRESENT. This may seem like a no brainer, or maybe it may seem impossible depending on your personality. When I say be present, I mean – if I am helping my kids with their homework then my phone is face down. If I am having date night with my kids, then phone is on a charger and we are stuffing our face with popcorn. If I am writing a blog post then I try to sneak off to starbucks and write or I stay up late to write. I’ve tried to blog while my kids are running around the house and let me tell you I get nothing done but wasted a bunch of time trying to form a thought and yelling at my kids. NO ONE wins. Then im stuck staying up late anyways, so what was the point? If im on a blog trip, I always miss my kdis and we facetime, but I remind myslf that this is work and I will see them soon. If I continously miss my kids while im gone and feel bad for being gone then what good does that do me and our family? I will be wasting money on this business trips because I won’t be able to fully execute my social business plans. Be present when you can be. It will save you time, headache, body exhaustion and so much more.
“Sacramento area forever?”
For now, YES. I can’t imagine moving away from my huge family. HOWEVER, I feel like Sacramento is not the best spot for taking a blog to it’s full potential. I feel like Los Angeles is the place to be when you are in this blogging/social media industry. Los Angeles is where all of the hot spots are for parties, events, and in person brand meetings.
“Are you Married? If so, how do you manage mommy life and mommy/daddy dates without kids”
I am not married. I have a baby daddy, haha! We are still together, but just not married. I will be totally honest, I hate even typing this… but my relationship has not been my focus. SO SAD TO SAY. We are both very busy right now, he is running several businesses, I am doing the mom life, school, work, blog and honestly we just don’t have time right now to go on dates. I am hoping that this season passes and we get to a better place one day. The good thing is that we both understand that we are busy and neither is blaming the other person.
“What’s your favorite TV shows?”
- Big Little Lies
- Greys Anatomy
- The Enemy Within
- The Burden of Truth
- Gossip Girls
- MOMS (so funny!)
- Friends
- Baby Daddy
- Younger
- Young and Hungry
- This is US
“How do you do it all? Mommy, life, work, school, self-care. Any time mangement tips?”
I do NOT have it together. What you see on social media is not the full picture. I am a freaking hot mess, without the hot. But, I would say that writing things down has helped me manage my life. I don’t use any of these technology scheduling. I put pen to paper and write down everyhting we have. I color code with highlighters to distinguish the different areas of my life. Kids/home activities = pink highlighter, Pieces of Emerald = green highlighter (minimal information, just jot down when I am away. EX: photoshoot), School = Blue highlighter. I do this so that when I glance at my planner I can see where my focus needs to be. **I also have an entirely seperate notebook for blog content creation planning/campaigns so I can see exactly what content I need to shoot for and write about and this has all the details of each event. I would also reccommend making a checklist DAILY of things the top 3 things you HAVE to finish that day and 3 more things that you can need to finish by end of week, but if you have time you will work on it that day. There is something so satisfying about checking boxes off as complete and that motivates me.
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