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Category Archives: Mom Life
Make the beach with toddlers awesome
Going to the beach with toddlers can be a blast. We’re just a month away from going on a family vacation to the beach with our own toddler, so I’ve been gathering the last few things we will need for a week away in the sand.
We’ve of course got the beach must-have’s ready to go, but I want to make our trip to the beach special. There are a ton of fun ideas out there about how to make a trip to Disney more magical and I love the whole concept of making a special vacation extra special. So, we’re going to make our beach vacation special with a few tricks up my mama sleeve.
This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.
Books
We’re packing a few beach-themed books from our favorite characters for the drive down to the beach. Tiger and George will definitely be making the trip down with us. We’re keeping it special by tucking these little guys away until the drive down to the beach. They’ll be a great surprise around hour 4 when the grumpies set in.
And my son loved Hide & Seek Harry. It was really fun for him to be “in” on the joke that Harry wasn’t very good at hiding at the beach. It’s an adorable little book.
Movies
And for the 6th hour, when the extra grumpies set in, we’ll have Finding Nemo rocking on the iPad. We’ll all enjoy watching it and we might even bring an HDMI cord so we can watch it in the room from our iPad during naptimes.
Snacks
The week before, I’ll try to find a few beach-themed snacks that we can munch on for the drive down and then a few more snacks to take out to the beach with us. Having cute little beach snacks will make snack time even more fun when the waves are calling our name instead of snacks. If you aren’t into making snacks and packing suitcases, grabbing some Goldfish on your last pre-vacation trip to the grocery store just might hit the spot.
Fun Beach Supplies
Another way to keep things fun at the beach is to pick up some new beach towels in your kids’ favorite character or beach-themed animal. You can find character/animal beach towels at places like Target, Amazon, Babies R’ Us or Bed Bath and Beyond. I know my little guy can’t wait to wrap up in his shark beach towel. He’ll probably want to sleep with it.
We also plan on getting Graham his own chair for the beach. Nathan and I have our own beach chairs and since Graham needs a spot to get a break and a snack, we think this little octopus chair is adorable and functional with a beach theme. Plus, it actually matches our chairs. Bonus!
Do something extra special
Does your vacation spot have an aquarium or water park? An aquarium is a perfect rainy-day spot to chill and learn about some of those animals hiding under the water. And a water park can be a welcomed change to splashing in waves.
Make memories to take home
Of course you’re going to make memories on your beach vacation, but don’t forget to get your camera going so you can always remember (and maybe even watch on the drive home). I have a waterproof camera that I absolutely love. It’s 3 years old by now, but it still does the trick and is perfect for saving beach memories.
There is also this one that’s a less-expensive option.
You can also go seashell hunting and save some seashells. I know some people have seashells from all their vacations displayed in a decorative jar in their home. It’s a fun way to remember your family vacation memories. This handy little bag can help you collect your favorite seashells.
The beach with toddlers can be a blast!
Family vacations are all about having special family time and creating memories. It doesn’t have to be a Disney vacation to be “magical.” You can make a beach vacation special with just a few special beach items.
The reason I wear makeup on lazy Saturdays
I am the kind of girl that always wears makeup when I go out. Grocery store or date night, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to at least wear eyebrows, eyelashes and cheeks. I do switch it up if it’s a more casual day, and I do skip makeup when I’m at home all day. Except for the weekends.
Why? Why would I wear makeup on weekends but not the other days. The superficial reason is that I’m just too lazy to put it on during the weekdays when I know I’ll only be seen by a grownup who notices for about an hour before I have to wash it off for bedtime. And there was a time that I honestly got super lazy. I would skip makeup on weekdays and weekends.
[ReviewDiscliamer]
Let’s be real honest here. I am beautiful without makeup. I don’t need it to feel beautiful (especially in the summer when I have natural highlights and a soft glow on my face). And my husband adores me with and without makeup.
But I know I look good with makeup on. Seriously. I’m (only) 32 and have finally learned some tricks to actually use makeup to make me look extra beautiful.
So, this past summer, I was getting up every day and heading to the store to buy supplies for our home renovation. Yes. Every day. It’s expensive to update a house. And before I left the house, I always got dressed to look cute (even in work clothes) and I put my face on.
And when weekends came around, I just wanted to put my hair down and relax. Skip the makeup. Wear serious work clothes (because every single weekend was spent doing the heavy duty jobs on the house with Nathan’s help around).
And then I realized it one Saturday morning I was planning on going sans-makeup.
My family deserves the best of me.
My family deserves the best of me far more than the people I’ll bump into at Home Depot or the grocery store. They love me either way, but I want to honor them by looking the part. I’m far from a trophy wife or mom, but I can put forth some effort.
It only takes me about 10 minutes to put makeup on, but that 10 minutes ensures that I can go anywhere and do anything at the drop of a hat with my family with confidence. It just takes 10 minutes to be someone my husband would be proud to introduce to an acquaintance. Just 10 minutes to be someone I can carry with confidence. And just 10 minutes to honor my family by being my best me.
Don’t get me wrong. I can rock a makeup-less-yoga-pants-mom-bun day just as good as the next girl. And I truly believe there is honor in our efforts on our most exhausting days when there isn’t even 2 minutes to brush our teeth.
But when I can, I have realized the value in my 10 minute makeup routine on a Saturday morning.
My addiction to cleaning supplies
I have an addiction. To cleaning supplies. I am a self-proclaiming cleaning supplies hoarder.
When we moved, I gathered all my cleaning supplies from around my house so that they could move to the new house all in one box. Funny. It was more like 6 boxes. I seriously have as many cleaning supplies as my son has toys.
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“A watch won’t take you to where you want to be. It’s up to you if you want to be on time.” Mama Bear Berenstain
If you haven’t discovered The Berenstain Bears on Sprout, you really should look for it. The show is everything you want a Berenstain Bears cartoon to be, right down to the calm demeanor and bluegrass music. To say I love that show would be a sincere understatement.
I love the wisdom of the Berenstain Bears and that same simple wisdom brings me back to my cleaning supply stockpile. Apparently, I believe somewhere deep down in my heart that if I have this one more cleaning miracle, I will finally win the battle with my dirty, messy house.
And that’s just about like saying that a watch will get you somewhere on time or a camera takes nice pictures. Cleaning supplies don’t actually clean your house. Now, if I could just convince my wallet not to buy them…
I just stink at cleaning. That’s the cold, hard, and really bitter truth. Almost as bitter as 100% chocolate. I love having a clean house. I really do. I just have “more important” things to do. Or I’m already exhausted from a long day of hard work being a mom and I can’t fight yet another battle with the mop and a dirty floor.
I know you’re feeling my pain right about how. And, as much as I would like to inspire you with a “here’s how I fixed it” moment, I just don’t have one. I’d love to start cleaning Ruth’s way with only 10 cleaning ingredients for the whole house. But she says not to start using those products until you’ve used up what you have. And I have years worth of cleaning supplies.
What a tangled web we weave…
So, in leiu of inspiration today, I’m just going to hang out with all the other mamas with dirty houses and a stockpile of cleaning supplies. We may not be the awesomest at cleaning. And we may think we’re making progress when we buy that new scrubbie. But we make a darn good pie. Not your thing? No. Me either. I bet we are killer organizers. Me neither. But!! I do make the awesomest sheet fort you’ve ever seen. Even if there are fuzz bunnies in the corner.
There’s no judging here. You’re totally not alone. As long as you promise I’m not alone, either.
Turning $4000 of life’s lemons into lemonade
Today was a bittersweet day for us. Our house was remediated yesterday. The crew was really sweet. They made our (sheetless) beds, cleaned our rooms up, and even fixed some things that were broken around our house. But that kind of work doesn’t come without a price.
This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.
A hefty price, at that. It actually broke our hearts to have some of our worst fears confirmed a few months ago. We spent 5 months pouring love into (renovating) this house and got to spend only 2 sick months in it before we moved out “just to see” if the house was making us sick. Suspicions confirmed.
Sometimes life gives you lemons and you’ve just got to put on your big girl panties and deal with the bitterness. But, the good news is that if you can find some sugar and water, you can come out with lemonade.
Our lemonade comes in the form of credit cards. For our Dave Ramsey family, this is taboo, but it’s the silver lining for us at the moment. Yes, this house put us in serious debt. I wouldn’t recommend it. But, I would sometimes recommend using stellar credit to your advantage. Here’s how we did it.
Right now (and often), Southwest and Chase are offering their Southwest Premier card with 50,000 bonus points. And the Rapid Rewards program is awesome. We used it for our 5 year anniversary to upgrade our wedding rings and I wear the bonus from that credit card on my finger every day. Real diamonds and gold.
It doesn’t come without strings, though. The first string is that you have to spend $2,000 with the credit card in the first 3 months of having it open (the details vary). And the second string is it comes with a $99 annual fee. So, basically, when you open the card, you already owe them 100 bucks.
But here’s the good part. 50,000 rapid reward points comes out to $500 in gift cards! You read that right! So, I pay $100 and get $500 back in gift cards. It’s not a bad deal. And if you’re like us, you can get one for each person. That comes out to $200 in fees spent for $1000 back in gift cards.
Don’t forget you have to spend $2000 for each card, though. Before we found out about our house situation, I planned to make the $2000 happen by putting everything I could on the card, including bills. But, it just so happens that our remediation is $4,000. See where I’m going with this? We’ve already got our spending taken care of!!! Sugar for our lemonade!
The next thing we have to do is sell our house and pay off the hefty balance, which should happen in the next month or two. And then, we pick out our gift cards! Hooray!
So, in essence, we’re spending $4200 ($4k for remediation and $200 in fees for 2 cards) and getting mold remediation and $1000 in gift cards. That’s really not a bad deal when you think about it.
Want me to make it even sweeter? Because, I mean, who doesn’t like a cherry on top? I’m going to get Walmart gift cards. Not that sweet? Well, Sam’s accepts Walmart gift cards. And guess what they sell at a discount? Disney gift cards. It’s about 5% off (just like at Target if you have a Red Card). So, if I spend my $1,000 at Sam’s on Disney gift cards, I’ll be getting $1,050 to spend on our Disney vacation.
I know. Our sad mold remediation just turned into half of a Disney vacation that we were praying to be able to take next year already anyway. Now, we’re just praying that our cute little (healthy) house sells now. God is good!
Are you flossing all wrong?
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Are you flossing wrong?
Have you ever done something your entire life only to find out it was a waste of time because you were doing it all wrong? This is Nathan’s story about how his first cavity was caused by his faithful flossing fiasco. I’m giving you the whole story so hopefully you can save yourself some cavities and wasted time from improper flossing.
He’s a straight-up guy, my husband. He does what he’s supposed to. Skip brushing your teeth because you’re tired? Um, no? Eat a cupcake because you’re mad? Why? Turn off the air conditioner before turning off your car? Most definitely. This guy does almost his entire life by. the. book. And I love him for it. Usually.
And so he flosses his teeth. I’ll be honest. I’m not a very good flosser. I know it’s really good, but it really hurts because the floss always gets stuck and then goes full force into my gums. My mouth is really small. Just literally, though.
So he flosses. I don’t (usually) floss. But, at least I know how to floss properly. I always assumed he did, too. Since he’s such a flossing pro, afterall.
Turns out his entire flossing life has been a lie. He officially has 3 cavities! Gasp with me now! gasp! Mr. Flosser has 3 cavities. Where you ask? Right where it would count if he was an actual flosser.
Did you know you’re supposed to floss around your tooth? If your gums were a mountain that comes to a peak between your teeth, the floss should slide all the way down the mountain on both sides. To almost the center of the bottom of your tooth. On every tooth.
The dentist lies to me and says it doesn’t take very long, but just getting that floss wrapped around my fingers without it unwinding or turning them blue takes me a little while. So, when I do floss, I use the pick kinds. It really helps with my crazy close together teeth. And it makes it go faster. But that’s a lot of teeth and a lot of…floss-es.
You probably shouldn’t listen to me, though. Because, even though I’m married to Mr. Flosser, I’m not a Mrs. Flosser. And apparently, he isn’t, either.
But that is) the proper way to floss, in case your entire flossing life has been a lie like Mr. Flosser’s.
How to get your toddler to sleep quickly
There’s a secret to get your baby and toddler to sleep that has been passed down in my family for generations.
My mom told me about it when my son was born. She said that my grandmother told my mom about it. And, I’m sure she probably learned it from her mom.
It’s so easy you won’t believe you wasted so much time on other ways to get your toddler to sleep.
This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.
I am going to start by saying that we have mainly been a co-sleeping family. We weren’t always, but life has a way of changing your plans, so here we are today.
I didn’t usually use this method with my son as a baby because, well, milk did all the heavy lifting in the sleep department for us. Hopefully, we can change that next time around, but that’s how it went for us for the first year.
But, after the bottle was gone and my son began to grow up some, I needed some new tricks to get my toddler to sleep. And this fun trick to get my toddler to sleep just won’t work every night.
Plus, it’s also an amazing way to calm down a toddler that’s just too excited to go to sleep. I know sometimes even I can’t go to sleep after getting excited about something.
And, there are always those times that kids just need extra help getting to sleep because of environmental situations. Traveling and sleeping in a strange location always made my son take forever to go to sleep. And noisy situations are always tricky, too.
But, the great news is that this trick works and even helped my son go to sleep on the night before our surprise beach vacation. Yes! It’s that awesome of a trick.
Here’s what you do to get your toddler to sleep quickly.
You hold your toddler and pretend to be asleep.
Yep. That’s it. No, not like hold your toddler down and fall asleep. Haha. That’s weird. There are a few extra steps, but that’s basically the gist of it.
Here are the steps to get your toddler to go to sleep. For real.
- Hold your toddler close (or snuggle up close).
- Close your eyes and pretend to start getting sleepy even if he/she is still chatting it up.
- Start breathing softly but deeply.
- Relax your grip or hold on your toddler so they can feel you relax.
- Continue for 5-10 minutes, if it even takes that long for your toddler to fall asleep.
For real. I know. It sounds too good to be true.
There is some science behind this age-old sleep remedy, but since I’m not a doctor, I’ll let you do your own research.
This trick has helped me get my toddler to go to sleep so many times I really couldn’t even guess, and the best news is that it hasn’t failed me yet! If I am willing to give him about 5 minutes, he will fall to sleep without shedding a single tear.
Want to help a mama out? Share or pin this post so your mama friends can learn this time-proven way to get her toddler to sleep in no time at all. 🙂
And, if you’re cosleeping and trying to get your toddler in his own bed, you will love this trick method I used to get my toddler to sleep on his own in one day.
An Easy Trick to Get Your Toddler to Sleep
Are you having a hard time getting your toddler to go to sleep? I have discovered a really fun trick to get my toddler to sleep.
I’m far from a perfect mom, but I do have my genius mommy moments. This one of my favorite strokes of mommy genius. Who doesn’t want (and let’s be honest, absolutely need) more sleep?
For real.
This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.
So, here’s a quick easy way to get your toddler to sleep.
One afternoon my toddler and I were laying down for a nap. We were co-sleeping at the time, and so I would usually help him go to sleep.
Shoutout to all the co-sleeping mamas out there. It’s hard work waiting on your child to be ready to go to sleep on their own. I know.
But this trick does work even if you aren’t co-sleeping with a toddler.
He was especially active and crazy this week. And, honestly, I dreaded nap time every afternoon. If you’re a mom, you know nap-time is the prize you get in the afternoon for enduring the morning. But to dread naptime. That’s a really really bad situation to be in.
Getting Toddlers to Sleep is a Game
All toddlers love playing games. I read something once that explained that toddlers are always the “losers.” They are smaller, shorter, slower, and less-coordinated than everyone else. They have to struggle more than others to accomplish even simple tasks. So, they always love a chance to actually win.
My little guy was no different. We played all kinds of “games.” Like playing the game to chase the germs out of his mouth with a toothbrush. Or the game to race mom to the potty. Or the game to see who could pick up the most toys the fastest.
Or, in this case, to see who could be the quietest.
Enter the Quiet Game
So, I came up with the idea to turn our naptime into a game.
I explained the rules of the quiet game. He was immediately intrigued. We had a round where I lost. It was all fun and giggles as I over-reacted to my loss. We had a round where he lost. And then, we played our last round of the quiet game.
You can tread carefully here. My toddler wasn’t afraid of being awake alone back then, but I know that now some mornings when I don’t respond immediately (or soon) he gets worried. So, proceed at your own discretion.
The last round of our game, the room filled with silence as we were competing to see who could be the quietest. And then, I started lightly snoring. I had “accidentally fallen asleep.” He tried to get me to wake up, but I just snored louder.
And eventually, he laid back down and talked to himself for a few minutes. It was the absolute most adorable conversation ever. It was excruciating trying not to laugh. I just wanted to hug him all over. “*sigh* Mom’s asleep. She fell asleep. We were playing a game. I wonder if she’ll ever wake up. *high pitched pretend voice* Oh no! Mom’s asleep! What are we going to do now?!”
And in just a few minutes, you’ll never believe it. The little pretend voice got quiet. And in a few more minutes, the wiggles stopped. And my boy was asleep. Without a fuss. And without a fight.
That is my genius mommy moment to get my toddler to sleep. If you’re having a hard time getting your toddler to go to sleep, give this tip a try. Even if it doesn’t work, you at least had fun trying! 😀
If you’re looking for a more long-term solution, you might want to read this post about how to get your toddler to sleep quickly every time.
Was this a helpful tip worth sharing? Help a mama out and share this to save her some sleep. 🙂
I am a sucker for kitchen buying appliances as much as the next girl.
Do I have a Kitchenaid Mixer in my basement storage? Why, yes. Yes, I do.
And do I have an entire cabinet in my kitchen solely devoted to appliances? Yes.
Do I need a butler’s pantry just to hold my appliances and baking materials? What a dream that would be!
This post may contain affiliate links to stuff I love. It doesn't charge you any extra, but it will help support this blog and my family.
But I’ve discovered the trick to buying appliances that I will actually use. You’ll never believe it. It’s so simple. It’s so easy. It’s almost unbelievable, but it works.
Buy the smallest ones you can find. Really.
The Nutribullet is used pretty often in my kitchen. A lot more often than my beehive blender. Why? Because I can whip it out quickly, make a batch of something yummy and put it back.
The beehive is heavy and bulky. Do I really want to bend over and pick up a boulder? No, thanks.
When we had Graham, I was making his baby food. I needed a food processor (don’t try the blender for baby food. It’s a no-go.) So, naturally, I was wondering if a larger food processor would be better. I could make larger batches at once = less time cooking = might get a shower.
But I opted for the mini food processor. Greatest baby brain decision I made! I love that little thing! I whip it out all the time for making salsa and even desserts (Oreo crumbles, anyone?). It’s so lightweight. It’s easy to clean in the dishwasher. Plus, who can resist teal blue? AmIright?
I mentioned a have Kitchenaid mixer. Well, I also have a vintage Sunbeam stand mixer, too. She’s a chrome vintage beaut! I mean, she belongs in a 1950s Sunbeam commercial somewhere.
But when I need to mix up some cream cheese and vanilla pudding, do you think I’m reaching for that stand mixer? Or am I grabbing the little hand mixer? Most definitely. My little hand mixer wins out almost every time.
If you’re anything like me, you want fast and easy. When you think of a 12 cup food processor do you think fast and easy? Me neither. What about a mini 4 cup food processor. Do you think fast and easy? Me too.
See? It’s one of those untold secrets of life. But now I just told you. So you’re in on it.
Consider yourself permanently freed from buying huge appliances that could take over your life. You’re free to put your Kitchenaid into storage, now, too.