Mom's Timeout

Year after year, I remember sitting in the auditorium on the first day of school bored to tears and listening to orientation. Policies and procedures and all that stuff wrapped up into a few hour assembly as if there were any chance of us actually remembering it. These days, I’m not even sure if those assemblies […]

  I may or may not have already mentioned to my husband on more than one occasion that I’m definitely ready for baby #2. As much as I love the toddler stage, I definitely miss having a newborn, lack of sleep and all. Crazy, I know. But I’m surely not getting any younger. Ironically, I loved the […]

Have you ever taken a good, hard look at why you might be exhausted all the time? Or even just considered how all-consuming this mom thing really is? It’s crazy, isn’t it? Trying to be everything to everyone. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I can’t even tell you how many nights I literally […]

This Christmas take a break from all the holiday madness. Take a moment to kiss your husband under the mistletoe. Take a minute or two to catch snowflakes on your tongue.  Take the time to drink hot cocoa or read The Night Before Christmas to your kids as they snuggle in their beds. This Christmas there […]

As parents, we get lots of unsolicited advice. Everybody has an idea about how we should be raising our children. Most of the time we just ignore it. Family gatherings have a tendency to be stressful as it is, throw in a dash of unsolicited parenting advice from Great Aunt Helen and you’ve got a recipe […]

We have decided to home school, so I won’t be writing a letter to the teacher…. because how silly would it be to write a letter to myself? But if we weren’t home schooling, I’d definitely write a letter to the teacher that sounds a lot like the one on the next page.  I have […]

Ever wish you could make grocery shopping easier on yourself and your kids? You know, because the mid-aisle melt-downs are inevitable. I stumbled across this amazing video from What’s Up Moms that tells you how to do just that. These hacks are awesome! A lot of them I’ve never heard before. The pool noodle idea […]

How do you feel about the mommy wars? I think most of us agree that they need to stop.  In fact, lots of moms have adopted #endthemommywars in an effort to help stop the debates and judgement.  Companies and bloggers are joining forces to take down the judgmental trolling that happens with moms all over […]

Could you imagine having a baby and then not being able to enjoy those first few precious months? I definitely couldn’t, but that was the unfortunate reality for one new mom. Holly Gerlach had her daughter and then was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre  Syndrome and was paralyzed from the neck down. What a heartbreaking story, but also […]

There are certainly moments when I do, sometimes entire days. Mom guilt is powerful stuff! When my son begs me to play with him and I have to go to work…. When my daughter cries inconsolably for hours (colic)…. When the day has been so bad that I’ve been feeding my kids junk all day…. […]

A few years ago we painted one of our pumpkins teal as a part of the Teal Pumpkin Project, a project aimed at keeping Halloween inclusive for kids with food allergies.  As an allergy mom, I was excited to see a few more teal pumpkins lining porches in our city this year. What does it […]

Have you seen the meme that depicts adults missing out on big moments with their kids because they’re too busy staring at their phones? It made me feel guilty. There are moments like that in my life. There’s a lot of pressure on moms to do it all.  We’re supposed to be present with our […]

I remember some of the crazy stuff I said and did as a kid. I’ll bet you do too. Sometimes, I can’t even believe how much of a brat I was. I mean, the things I said to my poor mother. In hindsight, I feel so bad for all the craziness I put her through. […]

Psst… Hey you! Yea, you! Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into? I remember all the times well-meaning strangers told me all kinds of things I really didn’t want to know. Funny things. Sad things. Terrible things that scared the ever-loving crap out of me. My entire pregnancy was like one big […]

I’m not perfect. I’m not a perfect mom. I think I’m a good mom most of the time, but I’ve fallen into some “mommy traps” from time to time. I’m not always as patient as I’d like to be. I’ve hurt my kids’ feelings before and felt pretty crummy afterwards. I don’t always get down […]

I personally don’t think it’s unrealistic that I intentionally choose to spend this season of life with my son more often than not. It really wasn’t all that long ago that I didn’t have the little guy and I could do whatever it was that I wanted, whenever I wanted. I assure you that wasn’t […]

There are different types of questions that kids ask: easy-answering, Google-answering and Can-I-Answer-Truthfully-answering.  An example of an easy-answering question: why do I have to go to bed?  Because I need you to, I need the peace and quiet.  An example of a Google-answering question: what makes it rain?  Hold on, I’ll find out. But what […]

Being a mom is hard. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do. From not sleeping for the first few months to sending them off to college. Sometimes, it’s going to be difficult and sometimes it’s going to break your heart. You know what, though… you are stronger than you think. You can do this, mama. […]

For so long, I was the woman without kids. I was the one who sat in uncomfortable silence as everyone talked about their little ones. You know, because I obviously had nothing to contribute to those conversations [insert sarcastic grin here]. I didn’t exactly know much about teething or tantrums back then. I would imagine […]

Do you have kids? Is your house in a constant state of chaos? I’m willing to bet that for a lot of moms, those two things go hand in hand. I mean, it’s almost inevitable. You pick things up and your kids get them back out. You clean. They make a mess. I always have to […]