When I learned about the Gerber Good Start A2 Infant Formula, I was excited to try it. A2 milk contains only the A2 protein and it comes from special cows that naturally produce this easy to digest protein. Finding something that was gentle on Christian’s belly was important to me. Gerber’s A2 formula is the first and only of its kind in the US. (It’s a highly coveted product in Australia and China.) Along with the A2 protein, the Gerber Good Start A2 Infant Formula also has probiotics and prebiotic HMO designed to give your little one advanced digestive support for a great start. 

 After the first week of trying it, I realized that Christian digested it easily. He wasn’t fussy when I burped him after a bottle which was a relief. Finding the right formula can be a task (especially because every baby is different). After trying the Gerber Good Start A2 Infant Formula for a few days, I could tell that he was getting the hang of supplementing without any tummy issues. It was a priority for me to find the right formula for Christian’s tummy. Like any mom, I want the best experience and health for my baby.

 For me, breastfeeding and supplementing is the best fit. The Gerber Good Start A2 Infant formula has certainly helped make this journey a lot simpler. For more information on Gerber Good Start A2 Infant Formula visit their site here. 

This post was sponsored by Gerber. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If being in quarantine has taught me anything it’s to take sleep seriously. With 3 small children, I’m not getting 8 hours of sleep a night which I have come to terms with. But what I notice contributes to the quality of my sleep is the kind of pajamas I wear. If I feel good going to bed, I tend to get better sleep. Turns out, your mindset matters – even when it comes to what you wear to bed. And I’ll be honest with you – a cute pajama set makes me feel good. 

Naturally, I’m not always as fancy as pictured here and I go with a short set or cotton option. But be clear – they still have to be cute. We might as well make bedtime a well dressed occasion. (Where else are we really going during a pandemic?) I’ll admit, these are the dressiest pair I own, but I love cute pajama sets with chic details like feathers (I have a thing for feathers) or fancy buttons, prints and patterns (and pockets if possible)!  Lastly, wearing a cute pajama set is a part of my self care. 

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

I’m also eating while prioritizing my gut health and blood type, so I’ve been including foods that noticeably benefit my health at this time. Traditions in my house include always eating dinner at the table together and eating a big pancake breakfast on Saturday morning. We tend to eat breakfast together on weekdays unless Chris or I have a meeting and the kids are dragging feet. I love eating all our meals together, so trying to tweak our daily schedule to increase the likelihood of that happening. 

Breakfast tends to sway on the savory side – but when I made smoothie bowls last week, it was a hit. Lunch varies from sandwiches, leftovers, frozen pizza and takeout. It’s my biggest opportunity to get better as far as meals are concerned. Lunch time always seems to sneak up on me like, “Oh!” Because of Maizah’s virtual class schedule sometimes we have lunch early (around 11) or (around 1:30). 

I need to designate a time for lunch (even if it alternates on every other day) to give everyone a clear expectation on when they will eat lunch. The kids eat various snacks throughout the day, but the ones I try to ensure quality over convenience is the one before dinner and the one after breakfast. The snack after lunch can be something fun like fruit snacks or a popsicle. I am a firm rule – no processed sugar after 4p since we have dinner around 6 and their bedtime is 8p. They can do fruit or have a dry savory snack, but I’ve noticed good things when we let them have their sugar earlier vs. later. Chris is easily the healthiest eater in our home but he also has the biggest sweet tooth. I make him a cup of green tea every morning and encourage him to stay hydrated. Between making sure the kids are on schedule and have something to do plus staying on top of work, it’s easy to get dehydrated in these work from home streets. 

 If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I encourage drinking 12 oz of water before coffee or anything else. Water does everyone’s body good and you can have it so many ways – with ACV, room temperature, cold, warm, with lemon. There are a variety of benefits for any way you do it, but it’s all about finding the best fit for your current body and your needs + goals. Typically, I plan my meals & order groceries on Saturday and set us up for success on Sunday. Since the pandemic started, I usually don’t get to that until Monday or Tuesday. But Monday ends up being a takeout dinner day for us anyways because of our work and Maizah’s school schedule. So ordering groceries on Monday works out because the goal is to cook most of the time Tuesday through Saturday. Home cooked meals just taste and feel better in my opinion. (They’re also usually healthier.) 

Here’s what I’d like to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner this week. 

TUESDAY 

Breakfast: Multigrain toast plus bacon, avocado, kiwi and mango Lunch: Cheese quesadillas plus cucumber salad (slices for the kids) and strawberries 

PM Snack: Snack board with orange slices, yogurt pretzels, Gouda, cashews & green grapes

Dinner: Linguine with ground turkey red sauce plus broccoli and french bread 

 

Currently, I’m using and loving the Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6100 and was so relieved to get my new brush heads right at my doorstep after 90 days. When it comes to my oral care, I’m on it – I brush every day and evening and floss in between, so having my Philips Sonicare Subscription to do the hard work of replacing my brush heads makes me feel confident that I’ve got this self care routine down. 

 The subscription is so easy to sign up for – just 3 steps: Choose your Philips Sonicare toothbrush starter kit. (It arrives at your door in 3-5 days!) Choose how you want to pay – all up front or month to month. A new brush head will be delivered to you every 3 months. Hands down, the Philips ProtectiveClean 6100 is my favorite toothbrush. It’s the #1 recommended power toothbrush brand by dental professionals in the U.S. Depending on the sensitivity of your teeth – it has three modes – Clean, Whiten or Gum Care and also has three power speeds – low, medium and high. I love that it covers all the bases. And the fact that I don’t have to worry about going out and buying my replacement brush heads is my favorite part. Happy to pay for that convenience! I’m all about hacks that help me maintain my self-care and the Philips Sonicare Subscription does just that.

I’ve happily paid $20 for jeans and enthusiastically spent $300 on denim. If you find a pair that fits you like a glove and makes you feel confident, it’s worth the money in my opinion. No matter how much denim costs, you most definitely will get your money’s worth out of it because of how many wears you get out of it. Many of us have been home for the majority of 2020, and now that we’re sloooooooooowly but surely finding ourselves leaving the house again – if only to go to the grocery store – I’m excited to wear my jeans again. These pair are sold out, but I love a good wide leg and my go to mom jeans which I have included in this round up as well. 

In 2020, I’ve noticed that so many silhouettes of jeans are trending – everything from Mom jeans to straight leg, so in this round up I decided to focus only on my favorites. When finding products for you guys, it’s a delicate balance between affordability and quality. Not everything that’s cheap is bad and not everything expensive is good, but for balance I’ve kept the price point under $100. Shop the jeans featured below simply by clicking the item in the photo or the Shop The Post section below!

Whether you're a writer or a wedding planner, part of being a successful creative is knowing what's going on in your industry. What's in, what's out, what's now, and what's next are questions you should know the answers to. Getting those answers means being aware of your peers and what they're doing, how they're doing it, and who among you is doing it so well that they're literally winning all the awards. 

Seeing someone succeed or achieve at an incredible level in your industry can be inspiring and motivating...or it can be a trap. There's a fine line between inspiration and envy. Inspiration fuels your artistry whereas envy feeds your insecurity. It takes you to a place where nothing you do or have done shines as bright, means as much, or is as good as the person (or people) you're comparing yourself to. And that my friends, is a creativity killer. 

So how do we avoid it? The truth is...we can't, not really. We see someone else doing what we want to do or are trying to do and being so successful and so talented that we're both awestruck and intimidated. We tumble down the rabbit hole of wanting and wishing and feeling inadequate. That's human and it's okay that we fall down. The thing is though, we can't stay down. We have to climb up out the hole. What's for you is for you and you won't find it stumbling around in the dark wishing you had someone else's light. So how do we get back up?

Refocus on yourself and your journey. You may not be on their level (it is what it is, fam) but that doesn't mean you can't be great where you are. 

Challenge yourself. Work on your weaknesses. Build on your strengths. Commit to being the best version of yourself, producing your best work. 

Realize the person you're idolizing is most likely comparing themselves to someone else and feeling they come up short. 

Make the goal progress rather than perfection. Be motivated. Be inspired. Be amazed, but above all else, be you because that's something no one else can do as well as you can.

 XOXO, Dylan 

 As you can see, things are a little different around here. I think the changes are for the better but I'll let you guys be the judge of that. Let me know if my tinkering made things better or worse. I also owe you guys an apology for completely flaking on my blogging schedule. Long story short, I'm on a new medication for anxiety and it made me really, ridiculously sleepy and unmotivated for the first few weeks. I'm adjusting and feeling a lot better the past couple of weeks so hopefully that continues. 

With all that out of the way, let's dive into this blog post. If you go on my Twitter one of the first things you see is my pinned Tweet: I'm not saying queer, Black, and female is the sum total of all I am. What I am saying is my sexuality, race, and gender are intersecting social identities that have a substantial impact on both how I view the world and how the world views me. I'm all of those things (and more!) so if you're my friend or ally, you have to acknowledge, accept, and respect all of me, not just the parts of my identity that serve your agenda or support your narrative. 

It may take a bit of trial and error, but eventually every planner finds the formula that works best for them. I speak from experience here. I'm a planner. I plot my stories from beginning to end. I live and breathe for the planning, the plotting, the checking and rechecking and filling of plot holes before the actual writing happens. It's what I've always done and what I'm comfortable with. But...and hear me out...what if by doing what I've always done, I'm missing out on easier, better, more effective, way of writing? 

Pantsing, aka writing without a fixed outline and going where the story leads you, varies in intensity (some pantsers completely wing it and begin writing without much more than a general story idea while others do some very loose planning) has always struck fear in my heart. I am...not the most spontaneous person. I have lists for my lists. The idea of jumping in the author car and setting off on a writing adventure without a detailed itinerary and trusty map spelling out how to get from the opening line to the final word stresses me (seriously, my anxiety is spiking as I type this) something fierce. But, in keeping with my own personal Year of Yes, I'm doing the thing that scares me. 

 New Year's typically comes with revelry, reflection, and resolutions. We set our writing goals (some of them recycled from the year before...and the year before that...and the year before that...) and convince ourselves this year will be the year we finish our manuscript, get published, or land an agent. The thing is, it takes more than motivation and a pretty planner to see our dreams come to fruition. A lot of us know what we want and why we want it, but have no idea how we're going to get it done. A huge part of figuring out how, is understanding that a key component of goal setting is an action plan. And by plan, I mean both the noun and the verb. In order to achieve our goals we not only need a detailed strategy but also to decide and arrange in advance how we're going to execute our strategy. This is where the SMART goal system comes in. 

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Bound and the system brings organization and perceptibility into our goal setting. Here's how: S is for Specific. What exactly is it you're trying to achieve? Why this goal at this time? Who is going to be part of your process? What are the limitations or restrictions? Are there acceptable alternatives? The more specific you are with your goals, the clearer they become. The S is the difference between "I want to be published." and "I want to be published by Riptide." M is for Measurable. The M is what keeps us from getting overwhelmed. It breaks our larger goal down into manageable chunks which yield tangible results. How? Part of making sure your goal is measurable is establishing deadlines for getting things done and determining how you'll track your progress. For example one of my 2018 is to expand my online social circle of fellow writers and publishing peeps. Social anxiety and my general tendency to be the most awkward of turtles means I have a relatively small group of online peers (but they are AWESOME and I love them). 

One of the ways I plan on changing that is by actively participating in online events, joining message boards, being active on my social media platforms and speaking up in writing related chats. I plan on measuring how successful I am in increasing my peer group by having a specific goal of making two new contacts every three months. That may not sound like much, but for someone with my awkwardness and anxiety it's a challenging, but not entirely impossible goal. Most to the point though, it's measurable. A is for Attainable. Don't set yourself up for failure. Making two new contacts every three months is an achievable goal for me; making ten is not. The key to keeping a goal attainable is knowing what steps you're going to take and evaluating whether or not you have the skills or resources needed. R is for Relevant. This one is pretty self explanatory. Your goal has to be important to you or you're going to lose motivation quickly. Ask yourself why you want to want to reach this goal, what's the objective and whether or not it's really worth investing your time, effort, and energy. T is for Time Bound. Set a firm deadline for completion. Firm. Deadline. Be realistic. be precise, and be accountable. 

 So there you have it, guys. The SMART way to reach our writing goals in 2018. The cool thing about this system is you can apply to pretty much anything that requires long range planning. Talk to me, fam. What are your 2018 writing goals? How can the SMART system help you reach them? Leave a comment and let me know.