At Home Spa Day Ideas for the Empty Nester

Pampering yourself at home can change the way you look at your home and week ahead. I’ve heard it said that French woman set aside time on Sunday to take a few hours to pamper themselves. You can choose what ever day works best for you. This doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. Full Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, some products with Amazon links earn me a small amount from qualifying purchases. I only endorse products I truly love.

Prepare your space

A well lit bathroom is best but if you don’t have a separate bathroom you can lock yourself in for a few hours then your kitchen, a quiet garden spot or even a balcony will do. What ever space you choose should be clean and as clutter free as possible. Taking a few minutes to clean and declutter your space will let you enjoy your spa day without thinking about chores.

Create Your Personal Spa Treatment Menu

Think of at menu at a fancy spa, what treatment would you choose?

Bath - Salt bath to relieve tension, aromatherapy bath, bubble bath

Face - Spa facial, extraction, facial mask, waxing

Hands - cuticle treatment, exfoliating scrub, nail shaping, nail polish

Feet - callus removal, moisturizing treatment, nail trim, nail polish, foot massage

Hair - deep condition, color, or scalp oil treatment

All over skin treatment - scrub and moisturize, tanning or self tanning, shave or waxing

Gather your supplies

You should get everything you need before you start so you won’t have to leave your spa experience. Here’s a list of things you might want. Full Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, some products with Amazon links earn me a small amount from qualifying purchases. I only endorse products I truly love.

Entertainment

• Phone or tablet and charger for reading

• Download your free privacy door hanger (see below)

• relaxing music - Free YouTube playlists 3 Hours of Spa Music , Hawaiian Music

  Beach waves , Relaxing  Beach Music or Apple Music check spa playlist

• Free guided meditation app

• Watch the live stream of Naples Beach to calm your mind and take a virtual trip to the beach, available 24 hours a day

• a good old book or magazine

Ambience

• Candles

• Oil diffuser & essential oils

The soft stuff

• A few nice towels and we love these soft and quick drying wash cloths

• Tissues or cotton pads

• Fuzzy socks

• A robe

Refreshments

• A wine chiller and bottle of wine, and a pretty wine glass

• Pitcher of lemon or cucumber water and a glass

• Assortment of tea, a tea cup and an electric kettle (my new favorite tea tastes like lemon pound cake)

• Snacks - fresh fruit, healthy snacks or chocolate

Bath supplies

• Plain Epson Salt and essential oils (lavender and grapefruit are some of my favorites)

• Dr Teal's Restore & Replenish Pure Epsom Salt & Essential Oils Pink Himalayan Mineral Soak 48

• Dr Teal’s Foaming Bath with Pure Epsom Salt, Soothe & Sleep with Lavender ( If you’re not in a bathroom these work well as a foot soak in a wash tub)

• Bubble bath or bath bomb

Face and lip care

• Face Masks

• Lip Scrub

  Homemade Lip Scrub - mix 1 part almond or coconut oil with 1 part sugar

• Treatments, Toner, & Moisturizer See a list of my favorite facial products

Body Care

• Exfoliator our favorite is The Scrub of Your Life from Soap and Glory

• Moisturizer

Great extras

• Almond oil - a moisturizer, makeup remover, cuticle oil, scalp oil, bath softener  Feathered Empty Nest Tip this works great as a natural personal lubricant

• This amazing foot mask doesn’t seem to do much but in a few days all the dead skin just flakes off your feet! It requires you sit still for 45 minutes (hello refreshments!) and relax while it does all the work. It doesn’t harm your pedicure.

• Nail polish

• Self tanner - I love St Tropez Self Tanning Mousse

• Spa Bath Tray

Step into the your Spa

1. Turn on your music, light your candles, start your diffuser

2. Start with a clean slate - shower or take a long bath

3. Treat your hair - treat your hair and pull it back away from your face

4. Exfoliate and Massage your hand and feet and cover them with fuzzy socks

5. Pamper your skin face and body

6. Sit back and relax read, meditate or just close your eye and take slow deep breaths

Download your free door hanger HERE

At Home Spa Day - Feathered Empty Nest

7 Ways to Release Mom Guilt in your Empty Nest

I have an Empty Nest - Why do I still feel Mom Guilt?

 It starts when we become parents. Should I breastfeed? Should I work less? Do they have too much screen time? Are they fitting in at school? Did I push them too hard or not hard enough? Did I do something wrong?

The guilt I was feeling was just left over mom guilt.

After my kids had moved out I used to get a horrified feeling at 4pm everyday like I forgot to pick someone up from school. I would wake up in a panic in the middle of the night that I had forgotten to buy something for some school project or to mail in some form for some school event. This was from years of being a responsible parent. 

Self sacrifice becomes a habit too.

I realized one day that I had the habit of taking the over ripe banana, the crappy first pancake, the oldest cell phone, the last annual dentist appointment after I made sure we could afford the dental work the kids needed. I wanted the best for my kids and my busy husband. I would stay home for a night with friends knowing I had early carpool duty or someone needed help with a school project that evening. No one even noticed all these small sacrifices I made for them. After my kids moved out, I was still doing it! It seems really ridiculous now and even more ridiculous that I continued to feel guilty about putting myself first long after the kids had moved out.

This is what I did to release the guilt and find the joy:

1. Take care of yourself FIRST Make yourself number one, before your spouse, before your parents, before your kids. Remember what the flight attendant always tells us to do with the oxygen mask. Take time to eat well, spend time with people who fill you up, move, get to those annual doctor and dentist appointments, get a regular pedicure, get a massage.

2. Be kind to yourself Treat yourself in the same way you would want your child or your friend to be treated. Think or say something nice to yourself everyday.

3. Get enough sleep This is when your brain sorts through your experiences and figures out how to deal with them. As many a new parent finds out, sleep is very important. Hormones can effect sleep so talk to your doctor if you need help getting a full night’s sleep.

4. Let your kids solve their own issues Give them a chance to figure it out before you step in. Avoid thinking that you “should” help them with their problems. If their life isn’t threatened and they aren’t on fire let them figure it out. We learn by the mistakes we make when we are young.

5. Take time to sit with your thoughts and breathe This can be meditation or just sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee. Turn your phone off, be still and breathe. Only you know what is best for you but sometimes we forget to listen.

6. Don’t blame yourself for their problems You have spent their lives sacrificing for them. You’ve worked so hard to give them all you could and you did the best you could at the time. Remember, many children who grow up with much worse situations than your kids did are do just fine as adults.

7. Be the person you want your kids to be Have a full, exciting, rewarding life. Get out there and do something fun. Being the best person you can be is better for everyone in your life.