My Life as a Juggling Act: Managing Parenting, Caregiving, and Personal Goals

As I sit here reflecting on my life, I am reminded that juggling multiple responsibilities can be overwhelming. As a parent of two children, one with autism and the other who is 2 years old, taking care of my father who has dementia, and trying to balance work and personal life, I often feel like my plate is full - overloaded, to say the least. Many people can relate to this feeling, and I want to assure you that it's not just me who is struggling to manage everything.

My children are a constant source of energy and joy in my life. My 9-year-old child with autism brings a unique set of challenges, but also teaches me about patience, understanding, and acceptance every day. On the other hand, my 2-year-old is full of curiosity and mischief, keeping me on my toes and making sure I never sleep through the night. As a single parent, I often find myself wondering how others manage to balance their children's needs with their own lives.

In addition to parenting, I have also taken on the role of caregiver for my father who has dementia. This added responsibility is both emotional and practical, requiring me to make difficult decisions about his care and well-being. It can be isolating at times, but I am grateful for the opportunity to spend quality time with him and help him navigate this challenging phase of his life.

Given the demands on my time and energy, it's no wonder that some days I feel like I'm barely holding it together. But despite the chaos, I am determined to make a positive impact in my children's lives and ensure they have every opportunity to thrive. Whether it's attending school events, sports games, or recitals, or simply being present for bedtime stories and family movie nights, I want to be there for them whenever they need me.

Of course, parenting is not just about the kids - it's also about setting a good example and modeling healthy habits. As a parent, I strive to be mindful of my own behavior and make conscious choices about how I spend my time. For me, that means being more intentional about self-care and prioritizing activities that nourish both body and soul.

In recent years, I've come to realize the importance of taking breaks and practicing self-compassion. As a Type-A personality, I often struggle with resting and relaxing - it's hard for me to sit still or do nothing when there are tasks to be done. However, I've learned that this tendency can lead to burnout if not managed carefully.

This year, one of my personal goals is to make more time for rest and relaxation. While it may seem counterintuitive, I believe that taking care of myself is essential to being present and engaged with the people I love. By setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care, I hope to become a better version of myself - one who can show up fully for my children and loved ones.

Another area where I'd like to see improvement is in my relationship with social media. As someone who's prone to mindless scrolling, I often find myself wasting hours on my phone without even realizing it. My goal for 2024 is to use social media more intentionally - meaning less time spent dead-scrolling and more time spent engaging with meaningful conversations or simply being present.

My husband and I have also set a shared goal of renovating our home and making some much-needed updates. From redoing the garage to giving both kids' rooms a fresh new look, we're excited to get creative and make our space feel like home again.

Finally, as a family, we've made a commitment to be more budget-conscious and mindful of our spending habits. With two young children and an aging parent to care for, it's easy to overspend or lose track of where our money is going. By setting up a system to track our expenses and making conscious financial decisions, I hope to create a more stable and secure future for my family.

As I reflect on these goals and aspirations, I realize that achieving them will require effort, patience, and perseverance. But I'm ready for the challenge - because when it comes to juggling multiple responsibilities, staying present, and taking care of myself, I know that's exactly what I need to do.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone my name is Heather and welcome to the channel bookables today we're going to talk about some of my goals for 2024 and I was not going to film this video originally because I was like I don't have that many goals but then I thought about my own personal goals I'm like well I do have quite a lot of goals so why not share them because it's always a great thing to have goals I'm a very goal oriented person that's kind of how I thrive I'm a type a person am I that person that will write a to-do list and already and write down one thing I've already done and go ahead and check it off because I feel yes I am so goals are a big deal for me I haven't written anything down I'm just going to go with it on the top of my head because I think that's totally fine as with goals I don't think you should have too many or too few I think if you have too many you will just fail and failing is a part of life yes but you don't need to fail when yourself up for failure if you have too many goals you're just setting yourself up for failure and that's never good if you have one goal I think that's okay but I think it's good to push yourself so I have about four or five that I really like to focus on in 24 and we're going to talk about some bookish ones and some personal ones so let's get into it so as far as bookish goals go bookish goals go book that's a that's a tongue twister I do always start off with the number of books I want to read every year and I think I always set it to 50 I think in 2023 I think this year I read 80 maybe 90 I don't know I don't keep track of the number anymore which is why I might not even take the school off because it's just not pertinent to me 50 is a good number for me I'll probably read close to 70 or 80 because that's kind of my track record as far as it's going it is going down though because I'm reading less I think it's because children but either way that will be my reading goal for the year and hopefully I will accomplish that and my biggest reading goal of the year is to read more physical books and so I love ebooks I have loved them for a while I really fell in love with them in 2020 when and a lot of Publishers stopped sending physical copies of arcs and physical books and I was like and the libraries had problems so I was like oh my gosh how am I going to read books and then I bought a Kindle and it was amazing I read so many books and I fell in love with kindall I never thought I was going to be eBook reader but man 2020 changed me and then after that I have my second kid and when you have a baby let me tell you right now holding a big old book up while you're like rocking them to sleep or feeding them is just not ideal it ain't going to happen Okay so I loved ebooks even more but now as she's growing and um I just want to read more of my physical books because I have a whole bunch of books on my cart that I have not read just because I don't feel like picking up a physical book I'm like oh ebooks easier which is yes I think it's still valid ebooks reading I still read a lot on ebooks but I read a lot on my phone because it's just easy and accessible and one thing with that is I get distracted very very easily because it is on my phone yes I could read on my Kindle I get what you're saying but I just want to read more physical I want to really work on my physical t this year like I feel like these books have stayed here for the past 2 years and I just haven't picked them up because I been lazy that is just me so that is my biggest goal is to read more of my physical books personally my own you know um and dwindle my physical TBR down it's not like add of control or anything but it's just there's a lot of really great books up here that I want to read that I'm just again lazy to pick up like I just yeah that's my biggest like reading goal is to read more physical books is that weird I don't know um then we have another one that I want to read more romantically now back in the day when I was reading young adult pretty much exclusively I read all of the fantasy I read all the fantasy I read all the dystopian all the Sci-Fi but I have moved out of the um young adult genre into the adult genre and fantasy and sci-fi scares the crap out of me as adult genres because I don't feel like I'm smart enough and I know you'll be like don't bash yourself I'm just not I am just not and I'm okay with that sci-fi for me I Tried reading it especially the adult genre it just can't happen for me I will really feel stupid but fantasy is something I am interested in but I think for me my Niche is romantasy which they've come up with these past couple years romance and fantasy like I want to read more of those so I want to get into that kind of air if you will of the Romany and I have books like on my TBR that I need to read like um Iron flame I still haven't read this yet why I don't know I couldn't you a good reason but this is Romany I need to read it we could also say another goal of mine is to read sequels because I got that one I also have House of sky and breath haven't read it again another Romany the third book's coming out literally next month I need to read it that's another sequel I need to read I mean I have so many on my TBR that are just Romance of fantasy this one's more fantasy I would say it's the last graduate noic um once's upon a broken Heart by Stephanie Garber this is a ya fantasy I believe and it's kind of fantasy that cozy fantasy the encyclopedia fairies by Heather faucet what else do I have that is kind of cozy fantasy a soul by Olivia Atwater like I got I got lots I got lots and I need to read them and I think Romany is kind of my stick for this coming year I want to read more of it I want to love it I have a lot that I put on my TBR and hopefully I will get to them so those are like my three main reading goals have my reading goal like of number books I want to read I have my physical TBR and then I have a genre I really want to read other than that like I'm kind of just especially this past year I have just been reading whatever I feel like I have not put pressure on myself to keep up with new releases I've not put pressure on myself to read back list I've just been reading whatever and that's been you know what it is and I think I'm just going to continue to go with that because as I've told you many times you're probably sick of me hearing you're probably sick of hearing this but I have two kids I have a 9-year-old that is autistic and then I have a a 2-year-old so I it's hard and not only that but I'm taking care of my father who has dementia and he lives with us and it's just when I say my plate is full it is like overloaded but I know a lot of other people's do like that too it's just how we have to handle it all some days I handle it really good some days I do not much like everybody else so to really focus on reading whenever I feel like mood reading is my thing I like it I like seasonal reading but I also like mood reading it's just how it is so those are my reading goals as far as personal goals I only have a couple my first one is is to be off of this more like to not use this as much a lot of us are on this way too much we I mean I I have to say myself 100% for sure I will find myself if I'm just sitting there my kids are actually occupied by watching something or playing with something you don't want my attention I would just dead scroll either on Instagram or on Facebook I'm not on Tik Tok a lot because if I add that into there that'd be that'd be too much too much so I would just dead scroll and I'll just 30 minutes will go by and what have I got accomplished nothing and I do understand the importance of resting but that's hard for me to do again I've told you I'm Type A I actually have a severe problem with um resting like I can't you know people that could just sit there and watch TV no it's not me I'm either sitting there watching TV folding clothes sitting there watching TV making the grocery list I'm always doing something else that should be done and I just I know it's a problem it's something I need to work on which we could make it at a goal of 2024 is to like relax more and just do less but I honestly do not know how like I cannot function my brain my body to do that so one thing I can do though is to be off of this less and be more present I will sometimes be on my phone and my kids do want my attention we are all guilty of that as parents if a parent says they're not guilty of that I don't know what to say we all have those problems but I want to be present more I want to put this away and I don't want to look at it I don't want to look at social media I don't want to look at just dead scrolling I want to be more in the moment especially with my family that is the most important thing for me so that is a big big goal and it's going to be hard to accomplish I'm not going to be like day two this is easy as mess no it's going to be hard I think for all of us it is hard we are hardwired to our phones now and that's just how it is and it's not the best thing it's not the worst thing it's something I personally want to work on and my other big I would say my husband and I um we're going to do re redoing we love working on our house I've shown you several videos of that we've kind of redone things we're going to kind of redo our garage again to make it more um officy kind of area for my husband um and then we're going to redo both the kids rooms and we're doing some stuff in our living room so we're always doing house projects and with that is money Our Big Goal this year is to save more we're trying to be more budget conscientious we're trying to make sure we tighten the purse strings up and I know it's cliche to say but budgeting does really work being careful with your money knowing where your money goes is very beneficial and there are some moms that's just like I spent that amount of money like what the heck and budgeting is always good you always have to set yourself up for the future and when you have kids especially you have to set them up and that's just a whole another thing so yeah those are all my goals when I say them all out loud I feel like it's a lot hopefully I can manage all of them somehow I manage by Michael Scott I don't know why I said that anyway I would love to know some of your goals for 2024 do you have a lot do you have a little do you have none let me know as always thank you so much for watching and I will see you in my next video byehello everyone my name is Heather and welcome to the channel bookables today we're going to talk about some of my goals for 2024 and I was not going to film this video originally because I was like I don't have that many goals but then I thought about my own personal goals I'm like well I do have quite a lot of goals so why not share them because it's always a great thing to have goals I'm a very goal oriented person that's kind of how I thrive I'm a type a person am I that person that will write a to-do list and already and write down one thing I've already done and go ahead and check it off because I feel yes I am so goals are a big deal for me I haven't written anything down I'm just going to go with it on the top of my head because I think that's totally fine as with goals I don't think you should have too many or too few I think if you have too many you will just fail and failing is a part of life yes but you don't need to fail when yourself up for failure if you have too many goals you're just setting yourself up for failure and that's never good if you have one goal I think that's okay but I think it's good to push yourself so I have about four or five that I really like to focus on in 24 and we're going to talk about some bookish ones and some personal ones so let's get into it so as far as bookish goals go bookish goals go book that's a that's a tongue twister I do always start off with the number of books I want to read every year and I think I always set it to 50 I think in 2023 I think this year I read 80 maybe 90 I don't know I don't keep track of the number anymore which is why I might not even take the school off because it's just not pertinent to me 50 is a good number for me I'll probably read close to 70 or 80 because that's kind of my track record as far as it's going it is going down though because I'm reading less I think it's because children but either way that will be my reading goal for the year and hopefully I will accomplish that and my biggest reading goal of the year is to read more physical books and so I love ebooks I have loved them for a while I really fell in love with them in 2020 when and a lot of Publishers stopped sending physical copies of arcs and physical books and I was like and the libraries had problems so I was like oh my gosh how am I going to read books and then I bought a Kindle and it was amazing I read so many books and I fell in love with kindall I never thought I was going to be eBook reader but man 2020 changed me and then after that I have my second kid and when you have a baby let me tell you right now holding a big old book up while you're like rocking them to sleep or feeding them is just not ideal it ain't going to happen Okay so I loved ebooks even more but now as she's growing and um I just want to read more of my physical books because I have a whole bunch of books on my cart that I have not read just because I don't feel like picking up a physical book I'm like oh ebooks easier which is yes I think it's still valid ebooks reading I still read a lot on ebooks but I read a lot on my phone because it's just easy and accessible and one thing with that is I get distracted very very easily because it is on my phone yes I could read on my Kindle I get what you're saying but I just want to read more physical I want to really work on my physical t this year like I feel like these books have stayed here for the past 2 years and I just haven't picked them up because I been lazy that is just me so that is my biggest goal is to read more of my physical books personally my own you know um and dwindle my physical TBR down it's not like add of control or anything but it's just there's a lot of really great books up here that I want to read that I'm just again lazy to pick up like I just yeah that's my biggest like reading goal is to read more physical books is that weird I don't know um then we have another one that I want to read more romantically now back in the day when I was reading young adult pretty much exclusively I read all of the fantasy I read all the fantasy I read all the dystopian all the Sci-Fi but I have moved out of the um young adult genre into the adult genre and fantasy and sci-fi scares the crap out of me as adult genres because I don't feel like I'm smart enough and I know you'll be like don't bash yourself I'm just not I am just not and I'm okay with that sci-fi for me I Tried reading it especially the adult genre it just can't happen for me I will really feel stupid but fantasy is something I am interested in but I think for me my Niche is romantasy which they've come up with these past couple years romance and fantasy like I want to read more of those so I want to get into that kind of air if you will of the Romany and I have books like on my TBR that I need to read like um Iron flame I still haven't read this yet why I don't know I couldn't you a good reason but this is Romany I need to read it we could also say another goal of mine is to read sequels because I got that one I also have House of sky and breath haven't read it again another Romany the third book's coming out literally next month I need to read it that's another sequel I need to read I mean I have so many on my TBR that are just Romance of fantasy this one's more fantasy I would say it's the last graduate noic um once's upon a broken Heart by Stephanie Garber this is a ya fantasy I believe and it's kind of fantasy that cozy fantasy the encyclopedia fairies by Heather faucet what else do I have that is kind of cozy fantasy a soul by Olivia Atwater like I got I got lots I got lots and I need to read them and I think Romany is kind of my stick for this coming year I want to read more of it I want to love it I have a lot that I put on my TBR and hopefully I will get to them so those are like my three main reading goals have my reading goal like of number books I want to read I have my physical TBR and then I have a genre I really want to read other than that like I'm kind of just especially this past year I have just been reading whatever I feel like I have not put pressure on myself to keep up with new releases I've not put pressure on myself to read back list I've just been reading whatever and that's been you know what it is and I think I'm just going to continue to go with that because as I've told you many times you're probably sick of me hearing you're probably sick of hearing this but I have two kids I have a 9-year-old that is autistic and then I have a a 2-year-old so I it's hard and not only that but I'm taking care of my father who has dementia and he lives with us and it's just when I say my plate is full it is like overloaded but I know a lot of other people's do like that too it's just how we have to handle it all some days I handle it really good some days I do not much like everybody else so to really focus on reading whenever I feel like mood reading is my thing I like it I like seasonal reading but I also like mood reading it's just how it is so those are my reading goals as far as personal goals I only have a couple my first one is is to be off of this more like to not use this as much a lot of us are on this way too much we I mean I I have to say myself 100% for sure I will find myself if I'm just sitting there my kids are actually occupied by watching something or playing with something you don't want my attention I would just dead scroll either on Instagram or on Facebook I'm not on Tik Tok a lot because if I add that into there that'd be that'd be too much too much so I would just dead scroll and I'll just 30 minutes will go by and what have I got accomplished nothing and I do understand the importance of resting but that's hard for me to do again I've told you I'm Type A I actually have a severe problem with um resting like I can't you know people that could just sit there and watch TV no it's not me I'm either sitting there watching TV folding clothes sitting there watching TV making the grocery list I'm always doing something else that should be done and I just I know it's a problem it's something I need to work on which we could make it at a goal of 2024 is to like relax more and just do less but I honestly do not know how like I cannot function my brain my body to do that so one thing I can do though is to be off of this less and be more present I will sometimes be on my phone and my kids do want my attention we are all guilty of that as parents if a parent says they're not guilty of that I don't know what to say we all have those problems but I want to be present more I want to put this away and I don't want to look at it I don't want to look at social media I don't want to look at just dead scrolling I want to be more in the moment especially with my family that is the most important thing for me so that is a big big goal and it's going to be hard to accomplish I'm not going to be like day two this is easy as mess no it's going to be hard I think for all of us it is hard we are hardwired to our phones now and that's just how it is and it's not the best thing it's not the worst thing it's something I personally want to work on and my other big I would say my husband and I um we're going to do re redoing we love working on our house I've shown you several videos of that we've kind of redone things we're going to kind of redo our garage again to make it more um officy kind of area for my husband um and then we're going to redo both the kids rooms and we're doing some stuff in our living room so we're always doing house projects and with that is money Our Big Goal this year is to save more we're trying to be more budget conscientious we're trying to make sure we tighten the purse strings up and I know it's cliche to say but budgeting does really work being careful with your money knowing where your money goes is very beneficial and there are some moms that's just like I spent that amount of money like what the heck and budgeting is always good you always have to set yourself up for the future and when you have kids especially you have to set them up and that's just a whole another thing so yeah those are all my goals when I say them all out loud I feel like it's a lot hopefully I can manage all of them somehow I manage by Michael Scott I don't know why I said that anyway I would love to know some of your goals for 2024 do you have a lot do you have a little do you have none let me know as always thank you so much for watching and I will see you in my next video bye\n"