Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Thank You 2015


This year has been quite the ride, a few swerves, but mostly smooth.

I stayed at home with my daughter more. I cherished my days with her more. I was able to be a more present mom. I got a great job working for a great company. It was a job I deserved after having a shitty one I didn't.

I hustled my little heart away through blogging and made an income from it. I was now doing things I truly loved and getting compensated for it.

I felt courageous, I felt weak. I felt ugly, I felt pretty. I struggled with my greatest fear of aging, I perservered at facing my fears of public speaking. I grew in different ways. I became more accepting, a better listener, and more empathetic. I let the little things slide, and focused on the big things. I'm working toward purpose, though I'm not there yet.

I thought about my dreams, I pondered what dreams passed me by. I made promises to myself, I made promises to my daughter. I broke promises to others. I failed people, I surprised people. I focused on being a good mom, I sometimes failed at being a good mom.

One thing is for certain; I am thankful every single day for where I am. I'm thankful for my health, my happiness, my safety, my freedom, and my abundance of love - both given and received. I sometimes whisper thank-yous into the universe. We made it another year, we made it out alive; not everyone gets so lucky.

2015 was good to me. It was another nicely paved road I got to ride on that will bring me closer to another road I get to ride next year. The roads aren't always paved well, and I don't always get to pave them myself, but I learn how to ride them regardless.

My main is to keep my mind on the big tasks. To not get caught up in things that don't matter. What matters? Love, health, and happiness. If it's not bringing me closer to those things, then I'll step away. 

What kinds of goals does everyone want to manifest in the new year? 
Monday, December 21, 2015

UPS #WishesDelivered

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPS. All opinions are 100% mine.

So, last Monday I posted about the UPS #WishesDelivered campaign. Who shared their wishes? There's so many good hearted people out there, I think this is a great time to acknowledge someone special. Remember that for every wish you share, UPS will donate $1 to one of their charity partners (Boys & Girls Club of America, World Food Programme, Toys for Tots Literacy Program, The Salvation Army, or The UN Refugee Agency).



One sweet acknowledgement I came across on the #WishesDelivered Site was the Crayon Initiative. They take unused or discarded crayons from restaurants and melt them down and make new crayons for children's hospitals across the country. This not only is economical in that they are recycling, but they are helping brighten children's days by helping them with a creative outlet.

Get on social media and share your wish to Twitter or Instagram and use the hashtag #WishesDelivered! A simple tweet or 'gram could help a charity! This campaign ends on Friday January 1st!

Comment/share the link below if you've submitted a wish to the UPS #WishesDelivered site!
Visit Sponsors Site
Monday, December 14, 2015

Share Your Wish With UPS

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of UPS. All opinions are 100% mine.

The holidays are a time for family, food, and decorating with twinkling lights and banners of holly. But most of all, the holidays are a time for giving. And it's not all about giving people gifts from their lists of superficial things, it's also about giving to people and charities who truly need help.

UPS is putting on a great campaign called #WishesDelivered. UPS deliverers are extremely busy this time of year and work so hard to get everyone their packages on time. This season, UPS wants to highlight the people and organizations who are dedicated to making their communities, country, and world a better place by “delivering wishes” in their own way.



We are asking YOU to submit a wish for someone. By submitting a wish with the hashtag #WishesDelivered, you are helping for a greater cause, because UPS will donate $1 for every wish submitted! The money will get donated to one of UPS's charity partners: Boys & Girls Club of America, World Food Programme, Toys for Tots Literacy Program, The Salvation Army, & The UN Refugee Agency. Your wish could automatically be a part of the #WishesDelivered site by simply posting the wish on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #WishesDelivered, or going directly to the #WishesDelivered Site and submitting there.

Some examples of wishes are: helping the homeless, tackling poverty in third world countries, and as many of you may know, helping Safyre, the fire survivor from New York, to receive holiday cards.

Tell us your general wish for the greater good, or share how someone you know is making wishes for others come true. This is supposed to be a selfless campaign to help others and to help the world. UPS wants to celebrate these people and spread holiday cheer! Get in the spirit and share your wish!


How to Submit a Wish For Good:
Post your wish for good to Twitter or Instagram with the campaign hashtag #WishesDelivered.

How to Submit a Wish Story:
Go directly to the UPS #WishesDelivered site (https://wishesdelivered.ups.com) and submit a story about how you or someone/an organization you know that is making wishes come true.



This campaign will run from November 10, 2015 - January 1, 2016


Visit Sponsors Site
Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Currently: Mira



Reading: Tallulah books, Christmas books, Big Green Monster, Air (a scientific book about air), Dr. Seuss, Where's My Mom?, No! David + other David books

Watching: Daniel the Tiger, Mickey's Christmas movies, Galaias My Big Big Friend, Tinkerbell movies, Justin Time

Activities: Blocks, playing "baby", where she pretends to be an infant, cooking in her kitchen, tag, hide and seek, watercolor painting, coloring with markers, puzzles, organizing things by color, singing songs, dancing, playing with trains at the bookstore, digging for dinosaur bones at the children's museum

Favorite stuffed animals: Her puppy Sophie, her other puppy, "Rexy" her pink dinosaur, her teddy bear, and now my old doll

Cute sayings: "Mommy! Daddy! I wake up!" when she gets up for the morning or from a nap. "But you have to!" when she wants us to do something. "I want 1-2-3 of us" when she wants mom AND dad to be home. "Stop saying stuff!" when she wants us to stop talking, yeah she's a sass.

Loves: Her new pre-school (we love it too), Santa, the "blue playground" near our neighborhood, getting her nails painted, smoothies, brushing her own teeth

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Resetting and Realigning Myself

Sometimes I find myself slipping away from my goals and needing to reset. Or even worse, I don't have any active goals that I'm working towards. I sometimes just realize things are out of alignment and want to get them back on track.


There's things that get in the way and there's things I need to prioritize:

1. Health
I've been eating like crap lately. Between Halloween candy and the desire for convenience, I have not been focusing on proper nutrition. Instead of warming up leftover chicken and rice, I have been reaching for the chip bag. This isn't getting me any closer to my health nor my body goals. Time to start being more disciplined with tracking macros!

2. Attention
I started to realize I had my phone in hand way too often. I first changed my settings to remove all push notifications from my apps, but that just meant I went in and checked more often. So I decided to delete my facebook app. It was little use to me. I can still go on on my computer, but I'll obviously go on a lot less.

3. Time
Yeah, I'm still working on this. Between leaving work at 5:00 every day and daylight getting shorter, it made me feel like I had no time at the end of the day. I do now have different and more flexible hours, about 10 hours less per week, which will help. I still can't do anything about the short daylight hours, but I need to work on stalling less. No more putzing around with things that don't matter.

4. Activities
Enjoying fun things with our daughter. We went to the library, the children's museum, hiking, outside play, did puzzles, painted, etc. last week and that wasn't even close enough to keeping her entertained for the week. I need to start implementing more creative play and organized activities to keep her occupied. Cue me following all the kids activity blogs that I used to hate.

5. Follow through
Follow through with my lists. When I make a list of things I need to do or things I need to buy, I just need to do it. This kind of piggy backs off of time; I shouldn't stall.

6. More alone time
I did this today, and the other day and it felt great. I like to go on trail runs and it's the perfect time to collect my thoughts and recharge. It's amazing how great my mood is when I get this alone time. I'm so happy and giggly right now because I got an hour completely to myself outside of my home, away from people. That is all it takes!



What do you do to realign yourself? 
Do you take breaks from social media? Do you meditate? Take a trip?
Monday, November 9, 2015

Why I Quit All of My Mommy Facebook Groups


There are groups for things like breastfeeding support, natural/holistic parenting, babywearing, and several other generic groups where you can go to vent about all things parenting. They're mostly private or closed groups, so no one else can see them but the members of the group.

At first I thought I had struck a gold mine when I joined. I can now connect with people who have similar goals, values, and mindsets as my own. I can ask questions that I am too afraid to ask my facebook friends or I can simply tell the groups things I know won't resonate with my other mom friends.

But soon I started to see a pattern. Whenever I had a concern or wanted to ask an opinion on a choice I was making, I wasn't just getting help. I was getting sanctimonious responses that made me feel bad. I noticed that instead of people answering questions, they wanted to include their two cents about others' lifestyles and choices. It was often hard to differentiate between those who meant well and those who didn't.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Currently




Loving: Halloween candy
Tuesday, October 27, 2015

What is a Blogger?



Blog (n) : Weblog

It sometimes feels weird to call myself a blogger. First, it seems like it's more than that. And second, people don't always get what blogging means. It's always such a relief to meet someone in real life who is also a blogger. Otherwise, it feels lame to talk about. It's a hobby (and often times career) that seems SO popular online, yet the bloggers I've known in real life are so few and far between.




So what is a blogger? 

They aren't always the best writers. You don't have to have a Master's degree in journalism to blog. Hell, you don't even have to have the best grammar or do the best research. You simply write the way you speak. Otherwise, quite honestly, it wouldn't be a blog. It'd probably be a research article. And those are boring, right?

Friday, October 23, 2015

The Flu Shot: Deciding to Cut Off the Last String From the Anti-VaxxerCrowd


Let me set this straight. I'm not or never have been considered an anti-vaxxer. We've done all the suggested vaccinations except for the flu shot. When my daughter was born, she received her Heb B shot. Two months later, she received four more vaccinations. And two months after that, four more. She continued receiving her suggested vaccinations at her six month visit as well. It wasn't until I started paying attention to my fellow "crunchy" moms that I had even thought twice about vaccinating.

Monday, October 19, 2015

The Most Common Mommy Fights


Luckily, I've never gotten into an argument with a mom in real life. I've only ever been involved in mom fights online, in facebook groups. I could write an entire post about facebook groups, too, and I might sometime. Moms just get very protective over their parenting choices and it's never smart to criticize or as much as challenge another mom on their decisions. Here are 6 of the most common mommy fights that happen over and over. 



1. Vaccinations
We have all seen this get ugly. There's a very small, small percentage of people who are apathetic on this issue (I'm included in that small percentage). Most people fall under pro-vax or anti-vax and often shame you in some way or another if you choose a different route than them. You're either poisoning your kid and just blindly listening to the lying government OR you are an arrogant SOB who thinks by googling, you are smarter than someone with an MD. (And I don't feel this way, I'm just reiterating the common arguments).

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Mira Lately


She's growing up. She really is. I can talk to her, as in have actual conversations. She often will say "what do you mean?" or "what's that?" but she can conversate, man can she conversate.

She asks me to put her in a dress so she can be "pretty". I always tell her "you're always pretty" and she responds, "I'm always pretty?" I know she thinks dress is a synonym for "pretty", but I want her to know she's always pretty. She gets the biggest smile on her face once I put that dress on her. She then proceeds to twirl around, grabbing the bottom of the dress and throwing it clockwise.
Thursday, October 1, 2015

5 Things You Should Subscribe to Now!

I believe in doing things to enrich our lives and to make things easier. Anything that saves time is worth it in my book. Sometimes it's nice to not have to go scrounging around for a bunch of things and have it all one ONE PLACE! Plus, it's fun to try new things!



5 Things we all could use some outsourcing to gather our resources:





The news
Sometimes we just want to hear about the top news of the day without having to click through a bunch of articles from a bunch of sites and have to deal with ads and slow site loading times. The Skimm is the best thing I've discovered in the news world. All you do is subscribe with your email and you get the daily news skimmed to your inbox. It takes all of 5 minutes to read through everything. You can choose to click the sources and read entire articles, but don't have to. It's like the cliff notes of news. Big time saver!

Monday, September 28, 2015

6 Things Toddler Moms Have Given Up





1. Throw pillows
HA! One big HA. Things that go on table tops and couches and beds all belong on the floor, duh.

2. Centerpieces for coffee tables
See above. And if it doesn't go on the floor, it gets broken. It's more often the latter.

3. Candles
Because, well, burn. Toddlers still have this temptation to do things they are told will hurt them.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

I'm featured over at the Breastfeeding Diaries today!

Go over to The Girl in the Red Shoes blog and see my post on breastfeeding!


Monday, September 21, 2015

Things Non-Parents Might Frown At...

Okay, sometimes I wonder if other people find my choices annoying. Most of the time, other parents understand. But when a person doesn't have children, or their children are older, they might think I'm crazy. Parenting these days is a lot different than it was years ago. And full disclosure; before I had a kid I got so annoyed of other people's kids. I probably thought every 1 out of 3 parents just did a bad job. Well, I was wrong, and naive.

So here are 4 things that I do that I think non-parents would frown at.



I let her run off a little bit and explore.
Sometimes I hate myself for this, but in the end I know as long as she is within my sight it's okay. She deserves to run around and explore the world around her at her own pace, at her own free will.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Every stage with kids is hard

Sometimes I look in the mirror and realize I haven't really seen my face in a while. I then study my face for a good couple minutes taking note of all the changes that have happened over the last couple weeks. I notice maybe a couple new little wrinkles, a gray hair, my teeth looking darker... "Are those considered freckles or age spots?" I think to myself.


I then realize I haven't really had time for my own thoughts all day. I've thought about making breakfast, coming up with play ideas, potty training, when's nap time.... Ah, nap time. I need to better utilize this time. And I don't mean for cleaning. I mean for good old-fashioned me time.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Currently



Digging: this duvet cover I got for Mira's new toddler bed, the new bieber song, salted caramel brownies, and this new version of Too Faced mascara

Reading: Quit halfway through Girl on the Train and googled the ending. Good twist, I suppose, but I cannot get into fiction novels. I don't know what it is. Now I'm starting The Alchemist.

Watching: Narcos

Monday, August 31, 2015

Is Being a Blogger Similar to Being an Entrepreneur?

Mmmm kind of. It depends.

Entrepreneur: (n) a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Trying to promote and monetize my blog got me thinking. Both bloggers and entrepreneurs market similarly, we are both held accountable for the success or failure of our businesses, we are both doing what we are 100% passionate about, we need to have a plan, goals, and the reason "why" we are doing what we're doing all lined out. But there are some things to think about.



Are you just blogging or doing more?

Monday, August 17, 2015

Cookie Cutter Birth Expectations Apparently Cause PTSD

#birthrape is an actual hashtag that women have been using for a while when talking about their birth experiences. #breakthesilence started as a rape hashtag, and now it's evolved to birth. And now there's #birthrapeisreal and other variations. You can find an entire website dedicated to it here. (Facebook page here, #birthrape on twitter)

I was going through a bunch of the images in awe. Not because I was astounded at these women's birth experiences, but astounded that they think they can consider normal birth interventions such a violation to them that it is comparable to rape. There's a common theme of: unnecessary C-sections, unnecessary inductions, and episiotomies. It's unfortunate that these women felt this was so traumatic that many claim to have PTSD. I definitely don't want to discount their feelings, but I think the real problem is what people think the "norm" is for birth as well as not being educated.

But had she ripped instead, that would probably be the doctor's fault as well. 
Monday, August 10, 2015

How To Make Your Kids' Clothes Stretch Down To Their Siblings

There's a lot of different avenues of style that moms go for their kids. Some like the twee southern frilly look (puke), some like the brightly colored Carter's sets, and some like to dress their kids like a straight up adult (I dig that). These are just a few of the style choices, but I choose to cherry pick different pieces from different styles and stores.



Mira doesn't have siblings, but that doesn't mean I don't have them in the back of my mind while purchasing clothes for her. Someday she will have a brother or sister who I would like to dress with many of Mira's old clothes. If she has a brother, I will have to get rid of all her dresses and pink outfits, but a lot of clothes are gender neutral and that's not by accident.

I not only think about gender, but I think about "will this be too dated in 4-5 years?" I try to keep clothes classic and timeless so my next child won't look like they just stepped out of a time machine.

Rule #1

Top & Bottoms: Target Black converse: gifted

Thursday, August 6, 2015

How to Run Your Blog While Working Full-time

I've blogged both when I was and wasn't working and you can probably guess it's a lot easier to blog when you don't have another job to tend to.

I started my blog in 2011 (or was it 2010?!), back when I was an undergrad. I barely blogged once a month. Then I got pregnant and took my blog in a different direction; a mommy blog. I started blogging weekly during pregnancy and biweekly once my daughter was born. Easy, right? Then in January when I decided to start building my blog, I blogged weekly and often twice a week. It's hard enough to blog with kid(s), and add working to that...




Making your blog work while you have to work 40 hours a week at another job is plain tough. Here are 5 things I've learned to do so your blog won't suffer.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Currently




Loving: summer, my city, dinner and drinks on patios, these cool breezy nights where we can leave our windows open

Working on: blog posts and collaborations

Reading: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity

Watching: Nothing lately. Patiently waiting for Bate's Motel's newest season to show up on Netflix.

Researching: new parenting books to read (open to suggestions) and why Mira has such loose stools all the time. Could it be gluten?
Friday, July 31, 2015

5 On Friday: Little Girl Outfit Pieces

It takes everything in me not to go on weekly shopping sprees for Mira. And it takes everything in me not to veer off into the toddler section when I'm trying to shop for myself. Toddler girls are just so much more fun to shop for.




It's the "end of summer" according to clothing stores, so things are getting cheaper. It's a great time to buy summer clothes, because we do still have a lot of summer left. 

Here are 5 pieces out right now that are my favorite:

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

My Liebster Award Nomination

Okay. So I was nominated for this almost 2 months ago and just didn't get around to completing the post because I didn't know which 10 blogs to choose to nominate and I couldn't think of 10 new questions to ask

But anyways, yes. I got nominated for the Liebster Award by Happy Mama Tales (thank you!), which is an award for small bloggers (under 1,000 subscribers). It's a cool way for us bloggers to get to know each other and recognize each others' work. 


Monday, July 20, 2015

Natural Cleaning: Bleach vs. Vinegar + All-Purpose Cleaner Recipe

The average home today contains more toxic chemicals than the average chemistry lab at the turn of the century. 

According to the EPA, there are over 150 toxic chemicals in your home that are 3 times more likely to cause cancer than any other cancer causing factor. 

I could go on and on with these kinds of facts, but I think most people get the picture. So many of us think we need to clean our homes with harsh, toxic chemicals in order for it to be clean. I was one of these people, using things like Clorox with bleach and lysol, until just 3 or 4 years ago. Simply because I didn't know better.

I think there's an issue with education about natural cleaners. People seem to be afraid that they aren't effective. In most cases, natural cleaners are the better choice, there are some instances where you do want to use bleach, like in the event you have mold.



Sunday, July 12, 2015

7 Quirky Things Toddlers Do That Are Too Cute To Be Annoyed With

Toddlers do some weird things. They're simply just learning so much, so fast. They're learning to try new things and they are learning to reason. To us, their reason is a little bit strange, but to them it's completely normal. 



1. Asking the same question over and over until they get an answer they want.
"What you doing?" Cutting up onions. "What you doing?" Cutting up onions for our dinner. "WHAT you doing?"  If she asks too many times I just throw out a weird answer and that usually does the trick. "The onions need to be skinny so we can eat them."

Thursday, July 9, 2015

3 Minutes of Ridiculous Things We All Say as Parents

"Don't make me count to 3"
"Don't touch that!"

These are all deja vu!




Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Our First Month of Summer in Pictures



Monday, June 29, 2015

8 Reasons to Appreciate Toddlers

I've been realizing more and more how many ways I want to be like my toddler. And how many ways people underestimate toddlers. We all just think of the "terrible twos" part; the destruction, the tantrums, the messes, the stubbornness. But I think we ought to give them a lot more credit. Toddlers have so many great qualities, I hope mine never loses them. 


1. They test their boundaries.
They're pretty fearless. But it's mostly because they have a clean slate. They don't know the cause and effect of sticking their fingers in an electrical outlet. A lot of things are innate, like heights and the teeth on a barking dog, but they are still unaware of the total effects of jumping from 5 feet in the air or how badly wounded they could be after a dog bite. They know the results aren't going to be good, but they still wanna know how bad. That's where we have to step in, and that's when the "why mama?" happens.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

My guy


Mother's day and Father's day are so awkward once you become a parent. I feel like I should be glorifying my dad like I always have, but now Adam is a dad to my child and I really want the day to be about him. Same with mother's day. I am now equally sharing the "best mom ever" role with my mom. Okay that's not that awkward. That's kind of cool.

I feel like whatever I do for Adam on father's day doesn't do him justice. There's never enough words to tell him how great he is. Never enough gifts I can give him.

How is he able to come up with such sweet words on the fly? Whether they are original or movie quote compilations that he's paraphrasing, they're always genuine. I need an entire day to articulate how I feel about him after writing it down on paper and reciting it in my head.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Salon Quality Hair Care Made For Kids: SoCozy Review

I think it's important to teach kids the importance of self care. And it's important to use good quality products with high quality ingredients. And even better; when the product is fun to use and smells amazing. 

SoCozy started out as a children's hair salon in NYC on Madison Avenue. Customers were raving about the products they used, so Cozy (yes that's her real name), the owner, made the products available for the public to purchase - the first ever professional line of hair care for kids. 

c/o SoCozy

The first thing I did when I opened up this package was smell allll the products. You can just tell by looking at them that they're going to smell amazing. And they did. I mean, I would (and might have) use them on myself.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

5 Perfumes That Don't Suck

Being in my mid-twenties, I have always felt like there's only a small amount of perfume scents that were appropriate for me. I'm too old for extremely fruity or cheap scents, and I feel too young to wear strong floral scents (smells church perfumey to me). As I start exploring more perfumes, that becomes less true. There are a lot of good ones out there that are perfect, you just have to do some digging.




About 3-4 years ago I tried Viva la Juicy and fell in love. I wore it every single day and the bottle lasted years. It's a light, sweet, little bit floral, and flirty scent. Adam then got me the Viva la Juicy - Noir version for Christmas last year and it is very similar, almost exactly the same, just a tad bit sweeter. I have to say the exclusivity has worn off since I first bought it; even my brother had told me with a little bit of distaste as I was walking by, "that smell you're wearing is what every girl wears." He's probably right. I'll still wear it, but I try and switch it up a bit here and there.
Monday, June 15, 2015

How I Could've Easily Prevented a $900 Medical Bill: a UTI Story

Some women get them all. the. time. And some never do. I am part of the former. UTIs. It's not that we women who get them are unclean, it's just hereditary. Statistically, half of all women will get a UTI in their lifetime and 20% of them will get recurring UTIs; as many as 3 per year. I am just getting over one right now. I'm so lucky....


The first time I ever had a UTI, I didn't know what to do. I didn't really know what it was, but had an idea. I called the doctor's emergency hotline (what?) at 11 at night to ask what I can do since I was in so much pain. They basically told me I could wait until the morning or go to the ER. Umm, wait until morning? In that much pain? No. I went to the ER. I drove down there and parked my car right out front, where the AMBULANCE is supposed to go. I was apparently in THAT much pain. I didn't want to deal with parking like a normal person. I went inside and waited for half hour just for a doctor to come and give me some urine tests. Another half hour of staring at the wall and I finally got my results. Yep, bad urinary tract infection. They gave me some pain meds for immediate relief and a prescription for antibiotics. I took the pain meds RIGHT away while sitting in that room. Drove to Walgreen's 24/7 pharm and picked up the antibiotics. Phew, it was soon over.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Friday Favorites: 5 on Friday

My top five favorite random things lately: 

[ONE]


We don't have these for Mira, but I would love to get them! They're adorable and high quality.


[TWO]




Thee. best. facewash. I've ever tried. It exfoliates your face like I've never seen before with these micro crystals. I am actually glowing after I wash my face with this. You can't find anything like this at the drugstore, people, I've tried!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

6 Backhanded Compliments Moms Hate



I started thinking of all the comments other people, often times other moms, make at each other that are supposed to be a compliment but at the same time seem like a diss. Backhanded compliments. Are they genuine? Who knows. I'm sure sometimes they are. And sometimes they might be a little bit calculated. I crowd sourced a little with some other mom bloggers from my blogging communities to see what their pet peeves were, too. 

6 Backhanded Compliments Moms Hate


1. "I don't have time to go to the gym like you do."

We all have 24 hours in our days and the gym takes only 1. If you don't want to go to the gym just own up to it and say you don't want to. Don't hide behind "I'm busier than other moms!".

2. "I wouldn't feel comfortable nursing in public."

So I guess they're basically saying I shouldn't be comfortable nursing in public. Or that my nursing in public is making them uncomfortable.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Freshly Picked Moccasin Giveaway!



I have been so excited to share this giveaway with you guys! 

My daughter got her first pair of moccasins when she was about seven months old and after that I was HOOKED. We literally get stopped in our tracks from strangers every single time she wears her moccasins (which is a lot) just to ask where we got them. And ever since Susan appeared on the show, we often hear "Are those the shoes from Shark Tank?!?" Yep, they are!

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

5 Favorite Healthy Snacks for Toddlers


Let's face it, toddlers love snacks and could probably live off of them if we left it up to them. Here are 5 healthy snacks that are delicious and fun for toddlers to eat. 

1. Crackers & Hummus


We experiment with different crackers and different flavors of hummus. If you're lucky enough to where your child likes vegetables, hummus and veggies is a great snack! 


2. Granola Bars


Basically, you can put anything in a granola bar and kids will eat them. I have a recipe here for clean granola bars. 


Monday, May 25, 2015

You Know You're An Introverted Mom When...



I used to be a lot more introverted, especially throughout college. In the last couple years, I've become a little more extroverted, honestly. I think having a kid might have something to do with that. Weird how that kind of stuff can change. But I think I will always feel like a complete introvert, no matter what some Meyer's Brigs personality test says.

I always wondered how introverted moms handle having children, especially 3, 4, or more. Even one child takes a lot of energy mentally and physically. There's things I do that, I guess, keep me centered when I feel like I am running on empty.

You Know You're An Introverted Mom When...

1. You stay up 4 hours after everyone has gone to bed just because you need the silent alone time.
Or if you're a morning person, waking up an hour before everyone else is heaven on earth.
Monday, May 18, 2015

Blogging: 6 Things I Didn't Know & What Non-Bloggers Should Know



I've blogged for a few years now. I started out like most bloggers start out; just for fun. A nice little way to articulate my thoughts before they implode in my mind. Sometimes a way to simply document life. Sometimes to help people and make a difference. Sometimes to just have a network of like-minded people.

When you're blogging as a hobby, it's easy. You get to write whenever you want to, even if it's only once every couple months. When I decided to monetize just this year, I realized it's a whole different ball game. You can't get away with writing only 6 times a year if you want to receive any benefits from it.

Here's a list of 6 things that I learned about blogging and what non-bloggers ought to know:
Saturday, May 16, 2015

Our Spring Outdoors in Photos






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