Pause Pages: Korea Travel Prep, Focus Mode, and Tying Loose Ends

a monthly care package of thoughts, faves, and little joys — plus some prompts for a little mom self-care woven into your day.

Welcome to the monthly roundup! Think of this as a little care package of all the things I’ve been loving, thinking about, and obsessing over lately — books, baby stuff, articles, and random life joys that deserve a shoutout. It’s also a time to pause, reflect, and nurture yourself — a little mom self-care woven into your day.

August Intention: Focus & Flow

This month isn’t like the others. There’s a time to slow down… and a time to lock in. And for me, this month is go time!

I’ve got a big trip coming up in just a few weeks (hello, Korea!!) — and I want to be fully present for it. That means August is a window to focus, to tie up loose ends, to clear the path so future me can find more ease.

So, August is all about working with intention now so I can truly play later. (And make my sole focus to write my book in Seoul). July was a fruitful month of inspiration, so I have quite a lot of ideas already in the queue for this dear Substack, so posting will continue as usual! And when I’m feeling inspired to write something off the cuff, you betcha I will.

💭 Prompts to Ponder:

• What are the things I actually need to finish this month — and what can wait?

• How can I set Future Me up for ease, joy, and presence?

• What boundaries or systems might support my focus this month?

Reflection: 12 months into motherhood

• Well, we made it to one whole year, and I’ve been quite emotional about it. I cried multiple times at Keira’s first birthday party.

• Keira consistently takes a couple stumbly steps!! And I hear it happens fast once they start doing that… soooo my bet is that she will be walking by the time we fly to Seoul. That will either make the plane ride better or more challenging haha. She already doesn’t want to sit still, so at least if she’s walking, she can have freedom to do so… vs with crawling, she can’t do that on the plane. Or that would be gross.

• Sleep has been pretty great overall… so much so that I forget to even mention it these days. No, she’s not sleeping through the night, but a 5-6 hour stretch more often than not is a huuuuge win.

• I share more reflections on one year of motherhood in this post.

🧠 Mom Brain Moment: We were getting to go for a walk, and I said to my husband, “I’m almost ready. You can go ahead and put Keira in the fridge.” Stroller… I meant stroller.

Life Lately: things worth sharing (travel edition)

1. LOVE these indestructible baby books! Keira has a handful of them and loooves it too! I linked her favorite one. We are taking several with us on the plane for our trip to Seoul. They are washable, unrippable, chompable… all the things.

2. Thanks to very kind friends and fam, we have some new toys in the mix. This balance bike is one of her faves! She uses her legs to push around and she has pretty great balance!

3. In preparation for our trip, I’m putting together some immune-boosting kits to take on the plane. I love taking propolis, and so I got Keira a kid’s nasal rinse to flush out germs post-travel.

4. Got this cooler to take with us on the plane for all of K’s meals & snacks. My cousin recommended this cool pack that lasts 24-48 hours, and I plan to also cook some rice/meat/veggies (all of our dinner) for our arrival… we get in late, so I don’t want to have to worry about grabbing dinner with Keira. Our plan is to beeline it from airport to airbnb, and try to sleep. It shall be interesting… 14 hour time difference haha.

5. I have been wearing this hip carrier, and it’s great for tasks around the house or running errands like grocery shopping, mall returns, etc. It’s less bulky than the Tush Baby… and since we are traveling soon, we wanted something we can fold up easily.

✨ Got any topic requests or questions? Let me know in the comments!

See you next month, mamas!