Balancing Motherhood, Creative Goals, and Self-Care: A Week in the Life

Do you know what it is? No. It's a wreath. For some reason, when the first of the month lands on a Monday, I feel this need to just get my together. Feel like the pendulum just swings back and forth. If I have a season where I'm just existing and life's a little chaotic, then it's only a matter of time where it swings the other way where there's a little bit more control, a little more rigidity. I guess like the main goal is to land somewhere in the middle. So, either way, the pendulum's swinging.

It's swinging that way. Hi. Oh, I feel so much better after doing like a big chunk of work. Okay, it's like 11:45 and I'm heading to the gym right now. Let's go get a pump in. Something I want to do until the end of the year is fill out my self-reflection journal. You basically grab a journaling prompt from this deck of cards and you write about it. And today's question was, "What's one small step I can take today towards a goal that feels out of reach?" The first thing that came to mind was, I'd like to get to a place where I'm really enjoying to make YouTube videos again. Maybe because I'm like filming this right now, so maybe

that's why it's top of mind. One small step I can do for my goal is I can watch some of my favorite creators that inspire me. For some people, watching other creators can be disheartening being like, "Oh my gosh, I could never do something as good as them." But for me, it does the opposite. I'm like, "Oh, wow, like this is actually possible." I really want to try and make my own like video essay. A channel that I love watching called Internet Analysis. She recently posted a video on how she creates these. So, I can watch that and take notes and maybe that'll give me a guideline on how I can formulate my own video essay. The last low-lift thing I can do is I can search for new music

that I can use for my YouTube videos. I'm probably not going to have time to do any of this until after I put my son down. I should have opened this journaling prompt like right when I got up to give me more time. Oh my god, okay. Well, let's set up dinner. The last time I stretched was probably the last time I filmed myself stretching. And my goal was that one day I would like to do the splits. Am I anywhere near that goal? Ow. Yeah, this is at max capacity. I feel like a more impossible

goal is me being able to do the splits. I have never in my life been able to do the splits. But I have in my life made a good video. So, I'm glad that I was able to do one small step towards doing the splits. We got an early call time tomorrow, guys. I'll see you in the morning. So, one of my neighbors gave me and Lennon this chocolate Advent calendar. The box fell down and all the chocolates came out of place, so I thought I would rearrange them back so that way tomorrow he has a chocolate to open.

One of the chocolates fell out again. Okay, whatever. I can't deal with this. Today, I think I'm going to tackle all the little things on my to-do list and I did not wake up feeling motivated. I wish I did. I actually had a therapy session where we did a deep dive on why I've been avoiding things the past few years. Also, quick shout-out to BetterHelp for sponsoring this portion of the video. I was not normally this type of person, especially in my 20s. Like if I had a task that I needed to complete, I would resolve it immediately. But then in my 30s, when I became a mom, I think that is when I really started to examine whether things were truly a priority or not. Like if

there are things involving my son, yeah, they go on top of the list. But fast forward to now, I find myself avoiding things that get me outside of my comfort zone creatively, professionally. So, I just need to get out of this loop and therapy gave me tools and language to help me break this cycle. If you were ever curious about therapy but didn't know where to start, BetterHelp makes it super easy. You just fill out a quick questionnaire and then they match you with a licensed therapist, usually within a couple of days. And let's say the match doesn't feel right, you can switch at no additional cost. They've got thousands of reviews and a 4.3 rating on Trustpilot, so it's a platform

you can genuinely trust. So, if you're looking for therapy that will fit into your real life, try BetterHelp. You can click my link in the description box or type in betterhelp.com/jen. That's better h e l p for 10% off your first month. Whenever I'm tackling a super long list of things to do, I end up doing the easiest thing first because I feel like once I cross off one thing off my list, then it creates this domino effect. This bag will be for my niece and this bag will be to donate. It is time to do the thing that I said I was going to do yesterday, which is source music. I specifically need music for my Korea vlog. So, there's a couple of music libraries that are my

favorite. Number one is probably Epidemic Sound. I feel like Epidemic Sound is probably the library that most YouTubers and creators use. They've got great like bossa nova, big band. I like stuff that's like whimsical and fun. If you want songs that have vocals, Musicbed is perfect. I feel like a lot of the songs on Musicbed you could probably hear on like the radio. Then we have Artlist. I feel like not many people use this music library, which is a pro because you won't run into like songs that everyone's using. Finally, we have Splice. This is a new addition for me. I like using Splice for sound effects. And that's like a good place to start. Here I go on my hunt. I hope I find something good.

I feel like my mind's kind of blown after watching Tiffany's video. Already, my mind is just bursting with so many ideas. Like topics that I can dive into and now it actually feels approachable. Like it feels like a tangible goal. You follow her through the week where she's starting with an idea, like a concept, researching, and then writing an outline, and then flushing out the treatment, putting in the videos that she found online to support her thesis. And now I haven't got to the part where she's actually sitting down and filming it, but god, like it actually feels manageable. Like I feel like I can do it, too. And the fact that she is also a

mom, power to her. I thank you so much for creating that video. It's so good. Or I guess Love Islanders do a heart like this. I feel like this is the perfect time to go grocery shopping when you are so full. Yeah, cuz then you just you're just shopping for the essentials. Okay, get salt. Wait, really? Yeah. Oh my gosh, how is this not on front pages? This is insane. Headlines. I'm so glad we went to the Korean market. Grocery shopping with your friends is so much better than doing it alone. While we're here, I might as well

just show you guys what I got. Got some organic bean sprouts, dried anchovies, two types of tofu, furikake, soba soup base, gochujang sauce. They have truly perfected the hot, spicy, slightly sweet sauce category. Just completely knocked it out of the park. I will go through this quickly. These are purple sweet potato sliced noodles, a rice cracker snack, premium dog treats for Cheeky, and then I just got like three pop and cooking sets.

Like the last time me and Lennon did this, he was like 3 and 1/2. But I think now that he's 4, I feel like this is going to hit different. Oh [cough] cough is killing me. Okay. That is everything I got at H Mart. Day two of stretching. Do you guys see a difference from yesterday? Is there any progress that you see from my split right now and my split from yesterday? Maybe I'm just expecting results too quickly. What's the best gift I can give myself in this chapter of my life? This was a very big question to answer right as I woke up. But, I think like the first thing that came to mind was just to enjoy my life now. That is quite possibly the best gift you can give

yourself at any moment. Maybe not so much like the past few years, but I feel like now I'm in a place again where I'm like, "Dang, I'm really going to look back at this point in my life and be super nostalgic for it where I'm like I'm healthy, feel young, I like have an amazing son. My parents are both healthy and alive and involved in my life. I'm vlogging myself, had a really good week, and I'm not even like trying to front. Thing is, it goes up and down. I don't know how I'm going to feel next week. I don't even know how I'm going to feel tomorrow. But, so far the past 3 days have been really like grounding. Another gift that I'm giving myself right now is just to continue to make maintain these good habits because

my habits that I've made in my 20s bled into my 30s. So, there wasn't like this whoa like wake up call like I need to completely shift my life. I'm just doing what I did in my 20s. And now I feel like the habits that I've made in my 30s, they're going to meet me in my 40s. Yeah, I'm feeling really happy and positive this morning. So, let's just ride that wave. My throat isn't sore. There's just so much mucus. Hopefully this tea helps. Oh god, it's still so hot. And it's been like a very strange virus that I've had because at no point did I feel like actually sick. Just I woke up one day

with a bunch of mucus in my throat. That jujube tea is going to take another hour, so I'm glad I have this one. So, this is what the jujube tea looks like at this point. I'm going to put yours in this one, okay? Yeah. This looks so good, Lennon. Mommy needs this for her throat because she's been coughing a lot, huh? That was me. You've been coughing a little bit, too. This is my first time having tea. This is so good. Really? Oh my god. It's 10:07. I was this close to not stretching tonight because it took me a minute to get my son to bed. But, no, we're still going to do this.

I'm so happy that I washed my makeup brushes earlier this week. They are clean, they are dry, and now I actually feel inspired to do something different with my makeup tonight. Today is my night off. Uh my son is going to be with his dad, and I am going to go to a bunch of events. This is an instance where all the events are things that I genuinely want to go to. And that's like one of the big perks of living in LA is that there's always something really fun happening. And so, the first event is the YouTube AAPI gala. This will be I think this will be like the third year that they're having this. And this is one that I really don't want to miss. Then there's a food event for this

pop-up restaurant called Chain, but it's kind of like reimagining chain restaurants, but in like a Michelin star lens. And then finally, we have a Sephora event in West Hollywood. That one is where like I'm meeting all my girlfriends, so I definitely want to stop by for that. These tutorials on Instagram they go way too fast. How does the bun look now? I'm going to take a picture of the back of my head. I thought for tonight I was just going to cash in all my chips for the theme burgundy. Uh-huh, we've got burgundy nails, burgundy makeup, so burgundy dress anyone? And I also thought that this would just be a very forgiving and flattering silhouette, so let's go put it on. This is why I

thought the updo would be nice. So, it's just like a nice clean back. This would look so cute with like a little sandal, but it's going to be really cold tonight or cold in LA standards. So, I'm going to put some boots on. So good. For my jacket, I have an Eggy archive piece. Oh my gosh, I completely forgot I had this coat. It coordinated pretty well with this color story here. So, I can walk in the event like this, and then once I enter, just going to be ready for business, you know? It's just a floor-length trench in this stunning caramel color. But, yeah, I feel like this works perfectly. All right, let's head out to the events.

meeting the possibilities of representation. She showed the world that creativity isn't reserved for experts. Oh my god, Nicole, thank you so much. Thank you so much, YouTube. You got the bag. Wait, hello friend. Cheers. Thank you so much. It is 12:14. I did it. I did all three events. Okay, I feel like this is where I normally speak to you guys when I do my splits. Um as you can see, there's there's not much progress from my splits, but you know what? It's only my fourth day. Where are they? Then where's 11?

It's coming here, too. Where's 14? I found one. There's another one? I think this is quite possibly my favorite way to spend an evening in, multitasking, getting my skin care on, and also working. But, not like insane work. I'm just I'm continuing to source music. Fridays are when I feel the most whole. I think it's because my house is physically full like my parents are here, my son's asleep. Like it just I don't know. I it feels like some sort of full circle moment where I'm back with I'm actually like living with

my parents again. All right, guys, I'm going to call it a night and also a wrap on this video. Um I can't believe we spent like the whole week together. I appreciate you guys watching this video, and if you made it to this, like wow. Truly wow. Because long form is like a dying art, so thank you for supporting me and this channel. Like it really goes a long way. I hope you guys have a great rest of your day, night, wherever you are, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.