Category: Mom Hacks

Motherhood Monday: Momma Guilt

Back dating this post because hey, I didn’t get this done when I wanted, but who said I can’t post it now! No sense in sweating the small stuff. And this feeling is so fitting for this Motherhood Monday post. It is no coincidence that Mother’s Day is this weekend and it’s also Maternal Mental Health Awareness week, so what a perfect time to share some thoughts that have been on my mind that I’m sure we all suffer from!

We are busy, we want to do it all, we want a clean/perfect house, we want our kids to be learning at home. Let me preface by saying, I do suffer from OCD tendencies (my house is far from what you would expect a person with OCD house would look like). My OCD is one that builds up and erupts when things around me appear to look or feel like rock bottom in my own head – can anyone else relate?!

After chatting with my Mom and Mother in Law it occurred to me. Why do we (particularly myself) put so much unnecessary stress in our life?! Accepting the fact that you will fall short in some areas so many times in our lives (particularly during these toddler years) is something I need to understand as completely NORMAL.

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2021 Toddler Easter Basket Ideas

My goodness, what a week it has already been! We returned home from vacation this past weekend and I had every intention of getting my blog posts together for the week, but the tummy bug has been making its’ way through our house! Finally able to sit down this afternoon as Audrey was the final kiddo to be hit with the bug. The great thing is, it is very quick and both the boys were back on their feet within 12 hours. Praying it will skip over Andrew and I, but not sure that will happen – this bug is wicked contagious!

We’ve been hearing of family members, friends and coworkers who’ve been dealing with it so we know it’s making its round. The first thing we did before getting home Saturday was stock up our sick essentials – reposting that here because I think a lot of us will be needing it.

Anyway, happy to pop on here today and share some toddler basket ideas with you! Vacation last week has thrown me off, so I’m playing catch up and getting our lives back in order around here!

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What to Do with Kids – Week Nine Winter Activity Ideas

Reporting to you late this Tuesday evening! My gosh, what a weekend of getting things together before our trip and daylight savings time throwing off my internal clock, -but I told myself I was going to post so here I am! Today, I’m sharing week nine of our “What to Do: Winter Activity Ideas”. Only one more week left and I feel like it is on to brighter and warmer days ahead! We were outside yesterday from 3:00pm – 7:30pm and the kiddos were tuckered out! In the event you’re stuck with nothing to do, check out this week’s ideas!

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What to Do with Kids – Week Seven Winter Activity Ideas

Good morning! I’ve been MIA on here, but I also needed a break! Sharing this post super late, but needed some time to focus on myself and really got slammed with invite orders as of recent – which is a good thing! Today, I’m sharing week seven of our “What to Do: Winter Activity Ideas”. We’ve been enjoying these activities and it is a great way to switch things up! Hope these give you some ideas and would love to hear any boredom busters you use at your house!

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What to Do with Kids – Week Six Winter Activity Ideas

Good morning! We are having a little heat wave around here – it’s a BALMY 37 degrees, but it is making me hopeful that spring is near! We just need to stick it out another month or so and we’ll be able to start shaking that cabin fever! Today, I’m sharing week six of our “What to Do: Winter Activity Ideas”. We’ve been enjoying these activities and it is a great way to switch things up! Hope these give you some ideas and would love to hear any boredom busters you use at your house!

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What to Do with Kids – Week Five Winter Activity Ideas

I’m posting a little late today as our boiler decided to bite the dust during the coldest stretch of days! So I’m FINALLY sharing week five of our “What to Do: Winter Activity Ideas”. We’ve been enjoying these activities and it is a great way to switch things up! Hope these give you some ideas and would love to hear any boredom busters you use at your house! Hopefully there will only be 7 more of these to share!

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Tip Jar: Toddler Routine for SAHM

Becoming a stay at home Mom excited me! While I was a little nervous about making the transition, I was also so ready to manage the household and grab hold to some sort of routine. I searched Pinterest all the time for sample schedules prior to leaving my marketing career and figured I would share our routine if you happen to be a working Mom making the leap to SAHM or just someone who likes to see how others do things (this is totally me, I’m so nosy!)

Today I wanted to share a sample of our routine around here – particularly for the boys – Tommy is nearly 18 months and JP is 3 years old. I followed this same exact schedule since JP was around 12 months and it still continues to work for him (with some modifications) and Tommy. I was recently chatting with a Mom and her son is almost 2. She was telling me his morning nap was rough and his naps (he was still doing two naps a day) felt really short. I suggested switching him to one nap a day as he was probably not tired at that time of the day anymore. She seemed hesitant because as a Mom, it is great to have some free time to get things done, but once I mentioned the afternoon naps were 3 hours, she couldn’t believe it!

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What to Do with Kids – Week Two Winter Activity Ideas

If you missed it last week, I shared my new post series to get us through the final weeks of winter. My plan is to share 4-5 simple, inexpensive and easy activities you can do with your kids while stuck inside on a weekly basis! The nice thing about it, you can do them at your leisure or whenever you have the supplies available, but most of these activities can be done using items you have on hand at home!

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What to Do with Kids – Easy, Inexpensive Activities during Winter

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I am SO SO EXCITED to introduce a new post series with you! For the final weeks of winter, I plan to share 4-5 simple, inexpensive and easy activities you can do with your kids while stuck inside on a weekly basis! The nice thing about it, you can do them at your leisure or whenever you have the supplies available, but most of these activities can be done using items you have on hand at home!

My husband and I try really hard to switch things up around here and keep it fresh for the kids. Generally speaking, we go a little stir crazy in the winter when we feel we are doing the same old evening routine. We tend to feel overwhelmed on weekends at the thought of “what in the heck are we going to do with these kids” (particularly when everything is closed down).

I plan to share the graphic below every week on Instagram, so feel free to follow along and same them so you are able to look back at if you run out of things to do! So, not only are we looking forward to doing some of these activities, I hope this helps you beat the winter boredom and makes your kiddos happy!

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Motherhood Monday: Buried Alive – Toys Edition – How to Handle All the New Gifts

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Good morning! Happy Monday and Happy New Year to you! Welcome 2021, I hope you are super sweet to us all 🙂

I’m sure everyone is still recovering for the holiday season – I know we are! This weekend, my husband and I took the time to sit down and regroup taking a thorough look at our budget and things we want to tackle. The main thing we both agreed on – donating, purging and reorganizing the house.

If you remember, the kids and I actually went through our toys on Giving Tuesday and donated a lot to make “room” for Santa and also give to those who are less fortunate than us. Along came Christmas and the onslaught of toys so, we decided take another look at the toys we had, where they were being stored and whether or not things should be donated or thrown away – again. We were able to find a lot more, so you can say I was pleased to rid of the clutter! I also went through my closet and found so many things to give away!

Today, I wanted to share some of our methods to keep the clutter under wraps AS BEST WE CAN because hey, we’re dealing with a 1,3 and 5 year old!

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Motherhood Monday: Parenting Self Audits

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you had an amazing weekend – we definitely did as our weather was an absolute dream! We still have some nice weather on tap for us this week and we are definitely making the most of it.

I’m not going to lie, the past week has been rough. I’ve found myself angry, I’ve found myself consumed by everything that is going on in our country and also slightly terrified. I stepped away from watching ALL the news/media, which is sad this is what it comes to. I’m often left feeling upset that we are being controlled little by little and we will never know the total TRUTHS in anything going on. Journalist integrity is DEAD and that alone has put me in a dark place.

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Motherhood Monday: Baby Registry Essentials – What you REALLY need

It’s Motherhood Monday! Today, I’m sharing some baby registry essentials for any Momma’s-to-be! I was pleasantly surprised that we had ALL the essentials covered from our first baby shower 5 years ago. I’ve seen so many new gizmos, gadgets and inventions come out and really did not invest in any.

Because I found myself content with what we had, I’m sharing the main things you REALLY need – no frills, just basics! These items worked for our family and sometimes I find – the less, the better!

A huge shout out to my former boss who assisted me in putting together the best list of items to include on my registry, the most patience when it came to explaining certain things and answering all my questions related to what to expect when becoming a Mom!

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Motherhood Monday: My Kiddos

First off, Happy Mother’s Day to every MOM out there! I am praying for you all today!

To my incredible Mom, thank you for showing me what selflessness is. You don’t appreciate what Mom’s do, or even see the little things until you are in it, so thank you for IT.ALL. – being my advocate, listener, example of faith, advice giver, rock, and best friend. It has been so amazing watching you become a Grandma and I am EXTREMELY blessed to have a Mom like you!

I also wish Happy Mother’s Day to my amazing Mother-in-Law for raising the most incredible man ever. I am so blessed to have you in my life as a bonus Mom! Raising 5 kids, I could not even imagine! Thank you for the person you are! The kids are so lucky to call you their Grandma!!

To my Grandma, my husband’s Grandma, our deceased Grandmothers and all other Moms I’ve been so blessed to be surrounded by in my life (Aunts, sister-in-laws, cousins and friends) wishing you all a Happy Mother’s Day as well!

I figured the day after Mother’s Day would be the perfect day to add Motherhood Monday to the mix on my blog. I thought this would be a fun way to answer questions I’ve had, share insights discovered and be a resource to others all things related to being MOM! At times it will be light and fun and at other times I envision it raw and real.

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Tip Jar Tuesday: Easter Basket Ideas

One of the things I look forward to all year is putting together my kid’s Easter baskets! Just like Christmas, it is so fun to watch pure joy and happiness happen right in front of us.

This year though, circumstances are a bit different. I was lucky enough to HAVE to run in to Target to pick up baby wipes that I could not place for order pickup and quickly went through the toy/Easter section to grab some of the staple items I am always putting in their baskets.

I figured I would share some of the items I put in my kid’s baskets this year! It is nothing earth shattering given the fact I couldn’t browse through the store for things – which is one of my favorite things to do every spring!

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Tip Jar Tuesday: For the “New” Stay at Home Parent…Activity Ideas

Welp, this quarantine has been something else! My husband and I were just chatting recently at how crazy it is that most people are now working at home and having to juggle that and their children.

Since not a whole lot has changed around here on my end (besides trying to keep the kids quiet during my husband’s conference calls upstairs) I figured I would share some activities/toys we have been playing to keep busy while we are forced in the house during this time.

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