Mom Hacks, Tips & Tricks

2019 is finally coming to a close. For some of us, we are grateful it is over, and for others, we may be sad to see such a wonderful year-end. One thing we can all look forward to, is starting a new year with less baggage and worries. Let us clean out our closets, drop those drama-filled "friends" and wake up on January first with less burden filled hearts. January has always felt like the calmest month to me. The craziness of the holidays is over and most of us are all too tired to do much of anything in January, so my suggestion is to use January as your transition month. Transform into the new year with less stuff,...

I keep seeing posts about not giving toys for holidays. Instead, gifting experiences. Can I please tell you... I AM HERE FOR IT! Our house feels like it is bursting at the seams with toys when my children have just as much fun playing in a cardboard box. As much as I love the thought of experiences, I wasn’t really sure how to implement it in our family. Until now... I decided to make gift cards for my daughters and niece. The gift cards would be for things for us to go do with my niece - not just for her parents to do with her. For example, going to get donuts one morning, at-home pedicures, going bowling, baking cookies, going...

Do you ever work yourself into a tizzy attempting to take care of everything around the house on some self-imposed, arbitrary deadline? You know, trying to do all of the laundry – washed, dried, folded and put away - all in a matter of hours? Or when you just HAVE to reorganize the pantry after you get the kids to bed? What?! Why?! Do you tell your kids you can’t play with them or can only read 3 books instead of 5 because you just HAVE to get the kitchen cleaned and a load of laundry done before you go to bed? Not A Nice Mama I have certain expectations of myself when it comes to housekeeping that can actually ramp up...

There are a few sayings that go around every now and then about having a clean home when my children are grown and missing their fingerprints. I do see the point of that, I do. We need to cherish the days of messy projects, sticky fingers, and SLIME. For me and my house, we do all the fun things but end the day with a clean house. There are a few reasons for this. First, it makes me happy. This keeps my anxiety at bay and I can be in a good space mentally to love on my family. I am a better mother and wife when physical and mental clutter is at a minimum. Second, it teaches my children responsibility....

I am notorious for reading books and researching information on how to do...well, anything in life. As soon as I find myself not knowing the answer to something, I quickly revert to the internet or to my bookshelf to find it. The process of searching, reading, analyzing, synthesizing, and arriving at a well-thought-out conclusion is so comforting to me.  This logical way-of-life doesn’t always work with parenting, because kids simply aren’t logical, nor is the process of parenting. Many times I have said to myself, “this doesn’t make any sense,” or “the book says I should be doing this,” or “the article I read explained this will happen if I do this.” It makes me want to curl into the fetal...