Caregiver Connections

Good morning, Cadre family. Happy New Year to you guys. I hope this new year of 2025 finds you well, and if not, I hope that 2025 will bring you some health and happiness. Good morning. Good morning, you guys. Happy caregiver Thursday. Happy New Year. For those of you I have not met yet, I am Steph Irwin. I live in Savannah, Georgia. I'm a mom of two wild and wonderful neurodivergent children, both of whom have adhd. And my daughter also has autism and anxiety, So I myself live with anxiety. So our house is lots of fun lately.

Good morning, Shannon. Good morning. It's good to see you guys on here. And professionally, I work with children with cancer, providing programs for them both inside and outside of the hospital and just providing support to them and their families. So it has been. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I feel refreshed. I did a polar plunge yesterday. You guys got outside of my comfort zone for the new year, was my first polar plunge. Oh, thank you. Has anybody morning speak wonder. Has anybody done a polar plunge before?

Because I'm sure it wasn't as cold down here in Georgia as it is up in Minneapolis and up north, so. But it was still. It was still invigorating and refreshing, and I'm glad that I did it. So this morning, y'all, I have my hug in a mug. I have my little. My little cup of peace and comfort this morning, and it is in my peace mug again, because instead of resolutions. Oh, Luke is doing one soon, too. Yeah, I'm sure it's a little bit colder up there. Instead of New Year's resolutions, I like to focus on a word for the year.

And this year, I have chosen to focus on peace. Peace in my own life, peace in my own heart and mind with my family, with my children, and in my work life. So. And just overall finding that sense of peace. Do y'all know polar plunge for you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know Minnesota is probably a lot. A lot chillier than my polar plunge was yesterday, but. But baby steps. One day I'll go up to Minnesota and do, like, a true ice polar plunge. A cold shower. Yeah, I try to do that, too. I'm like, it'll. It'll.

Cold showers will wake me up and refresh me for the day. Do you guys. Does anybody have a word that they're focusing on for the new year or a goal that y'all want to share? Resilience. Oh, yeah, that. That is a great. A great word to focus on for the new year. I love that. Right. We can all gain a little resilience, gain a little peace, and just focus on that and focus on taking care of ourselves. Easier said than done, y'all. I know that caregiver life is. It's not. It's not always easy. Oh, illuminate.

Slow down. Oh, yeah, yeah. I gotta tell myself to do that, too. And illuminate. That just sounds fabulous. Speak. Wonder. I feel like that word fits you very well. So, you guys, I don't know if y'all have been feeling this, and we have had a lovely Christmas, a lovely holiday season, but we are out of routine. So things have been quite chaotic. But I've been trying to focus on finding the gratitude, being with family, family, having this time together, having time off work, which has been nice to take just a little bit off my plate, and, you know, just trying to soak it all in, but, you know, it's been crazy.

My house, as Shannon has said in. In a live past, talking about she's in her messy house era, if I remember, I am there. I am there. I'm probably always there, but right now, I'm really there. We've got Christmas gifts everywhere still, things that need to be set up. My kids are like tornadoes, and I have to be on top of them to get them to clean up after themselves. But you know what? It's okay. It is okay. I'm just trying not to think about that stuff. So I don't know if you guys are feeling that right now or just being out of a routine in general.

Dirty. Oh, yeah. Dirty house era. Yep, yep. I'm there. I'm there. I'm not gonna show y'all the rest of my room right now because it's. It's. It doesn't look as lovely as my Christmas tree. So, you know, just trying to find that gratitude amidst the children tornadoes in my house and all the caregiving duties that I need to do. My daughter has been out of ABA the past two weeks, and so behaviors have been a little bit over the place. All over the place. She goes to ABA to help her through therapy with her behaviors.

And so that has been very helpful to our family. But we. I'm looking forward to her going back this afternoon, so. And looking forward to school starting. As much as I love this family time, it's going to be good to get back in a little bit of a routine. So. Yeah. We travel through life in seasons. Yeah. Whether you're caregiving for children, aging parents, friends, whatever it may be. I mean, it's definitely. We're going through it, all right? Similar situations, maybe a little bit different, but we all have that caregiving, the caregiving duties that we're trying to balance along with caring for ourselves.

And it is, it is always going through some kind of season or wave, right? So my message for y'all is to be kind to yourself, be gentle with yourself in this new year. Find what brings you peace, find what brings you joy and growth, you know, and at the same time, be gentle with yourself. So don't be afraid to find something that is going to help you grow, but don't beat yourself up about it if you're not where you want to be at that moment. So just give yourself the grace you need and don't be afraid to find the things that bring you joy and peace.

All right, y'all. Happy caregiver Thursday. And I'm gonna cheers you guys from my hug and a mug yours. And I hope this new year is off on a good foot. Yes. Honor your progress. You got it. Speak, wonder. Honor your progress, even if it's.