Caregiver Connections

Good morning, y'all. Happy caregiver Thursday to all of you. Sorry, that's my dog barking. It's good to see you guys today. For those of you who I have not met yet, I am Steph Irwin and I live in Savannah, Georgia. I am. Good morning. Oh, good morning. You guys are all coming in. Good to see you. Hey, Jules. Hey Jules. I hope you all are doing well here on this caregiver Thursday and we're glad you're in the Cadre sphere today. So for those of you I haven't met yet, I'm Steph Irwin and I live in Savannah, Georgia.

I am a mom of two neurodivergent children. My daughter has ADHD and autism and anxiety. So just a caregiver for my kiddos and then work wise. Good morning, Kelly. Work wise. I work for a non profit that supports families of children diagnosed with cancer. So both inside the hospital as well as in the community, we have programs for them. Oh, you guys are all coming on. Hey, Speak wonder. So, yeah, that's just a little bit about me. And I have my hug in a mug, my little coffee treat this morning for myself, my little bit of self care.

I hope you guys are doing something to take care of yourselves today. I don't know about you guys. Oh, thank you. Shower today, you know, doesn't. Doesn't always happen. Speak Wonder. But us caregivers have to take care of ourselves some way. I don't know about you guys, but it is taking me a while to adjust back to the swing of things after the holidays. It's taking my kids a while too. Oh good, you've got your hug in a mug. Yeah, it's so cold outside. I'm sure a nice cup of coffee or tea or hot chocolate feels good and warm this morning.

So yeah, it's taking me a little while getting back into the swing of things. My kids are taking a little extra time to adjust back to, you know, the real world and the routine after the holidays. So we are just taking it one day at a time. One day at a time. And that's the best we can do, right guys? Anybody else experiencing this? Getting back into routine and schedule, which is a great thing by the way. It's just, just taking us a little minute. So I wanted to talk to you guys. I have been thinking about the word nourish lately.

I myself have some autoimmune conditions and just coming into 25, I'm really wanting to take care of myself better and make sure I am eating all kinds of nutritious food to nourish me. Ooh, coffee with eggnog. Sorry, I just got. Just got excited about that. That sounds delicious. And, you know, thinking about all of the ways we can nourish ourselves, and it isn't necessarily just with nutrition. And I'm thinking, you know, especially with us as caregivers, it's so important that we're taking care of ourselves on a whole level approach, a whole comprehensive approach.

So, you know, know, nutrition. Or maybe you guys, maybe you're working on nourishing your. Your physical exercise life. Maybe you're working on nourishing yourself with being in nature more often. Maybe you are wanting to nourish yourself with more time in community and maybe giving back or just finding a group that you can be a part of. I know a lot of the families I work with. Community is such an important piece to their. To their healing journey. And especially when, you know, their child is diagnosed with cancer, it's so important for them to find a group of people who know a little bit about what they're going through and that they can relate to.

So community is just a huge piece for any of us. Nourish and flourish. Yes. I love the poetry. I like that. Let's just call that the title for today. And I know it's hard to try to nourish ourselves in every single way, every single day. So there's going to be times where you may want to focus on one avenue of nourishment, and that could even be nourishing relationships, whether they're family or friends. If you guys have any more ideas, feel free to throw them out. So nourishing self with community, physical activity, nutrition.

Let's see, what else? What else we got? Anybody have any good ideas? Nature. How else can you nourish yourself? Feel free to share. I mean, just taking time for yourself. I know we talk about this a lot, but even just maybe you want to take a, I don't know, an Epsom salt bath or read a book for 10 minutes. Nourishing yourself mentally and emotionally, it's so important. And being here in the Kaja sphere, that is a great app and avenue to nourish yourselves mentally and emotionally. And it's also a great app for community.

So I love how we all can come on here and support one another and be here for one another. So y'all feel free to share with me. I want you guys to think of maybe one area of focus that you really want to nourish maybe this week or this month. Like, what is the Main area. You really want to focus on nourishing right now and feel free to share that with me and I'll check in with you guys next week and see how everybody's feeling and doing. So right now, I am going to after this. Well, I have some work to do, but I will be going to the grocery store today and getting some nourishing foods and trying to meal plan for my family and make sure we have things to nourish our body.

So my children like to avoid veggies and fruits unless they're in the mood for them. So I have to sneak them in to their foods sometimes. So you never know, maybe we'll do a session one day where we are cooking nutritious foods for the people that we care for. And we can talk about how we each like to sneak in some. Some veggies or whatnot into the recipe. Good morning, Shannon. Sleep. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a really great way we can nourish ourselves because if we're not sleeping. Thanks.

Yes. Showering today, it's a big deal. If we're not sleeping, how are we going to function to take care of and therefore take care of the folks we are caring for? So it's so important. You guys, what else? Anybody else working on something? Encouraging notes to friends and family? Upbeat notes in the mail. Yeah, people love getting. People love getting snail mail. It's. It doesn't happen as much nowadays. You can send a text to people fostering that relationship with them, nourishing that relationship with them.

Or snail mail is awesome, too. I love when I get a card in the mail. Chocolate zucchini bread. And my kids love it. Oh, yeah. That's a great way to sneak things in. I like making pumpkin bread and sneaking some applesauce instead of the oil in there and some, you know, pumpkin puree. So they're getting. They're getting a little something. So. Yeah. So clever and sneaky. Yeah, y'all let me know if we should do that one day. Maybe we could have a little recipe sharing session and make make a fun. A fun treat with some nutritious things.

All right, y'all feel free. Share with me what you got, what you want to focus on nourishing. And I hope you guys find something to nourish yourselves today and every day. And I'll check in with you next week. All right, guys, take care.