Mom's Timeout

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 […]

I may or may not have mentioned to my husband on numerous occasions that I can’t get this time back. I’ve reminded him over and over again that our son is growing and changing every day. What seemed impossible yesterday is within reach today. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around it. It’s […]

I know a lot about behavior. In fact, I’m a certified children’s applied behavior therapist. I know all the rules and reasons why, but when my own kids act out… I tend to forget everything I know. When my children misbehave, I often lose my cool and start making discipline mistakes I know won’t fix […]

Toddler tantrums suck!  I used to look at the mother’s of these toddlers in the grocery store and think: I would never put up with that! My child will not act like that!  Since having children,  I know better. Now when I see that mom at the store, I catch her eye and smile knowingly. Why? […]

Are your kids on a schedule? I had my son on a fabulous schedule. Then, somehow, when I transitioned to being a stay at home mom… his schedule got all jacked up.  Now, we’ve added a new baby and here’s the truth: we all need a much better schedule and fast! I really believe that […]

Imagine coming home from an awesome “girl’s day” to find something crazy. What could it possibly be? Around here, that crazy usually comes in the form of the contents of the little guy’s diaper bag scattered across the living room floor. Oh, and then there are all the clothes that get pushed off my rocking chair […]

Have you thought about delayed cord clamping? Have you done it?  We did and I feel great about the decision. There can be many benefits to delayed cord clamping.  After studying the benefits during my first pregnancy, we opted to delay clamping with both our children’s births.  The first time, we received some negative feedback […]

There are quite a few things in life that you can only manage to get away with if you’re under the age of three. It’s hilarious to think about, isn’t it? What we consider normally and even cute for a toddler is just plain old crazy for an adult. Imagine that. I look at my […]

I gained 45 pounds during my first pregnancy. I lost nearly half of it when my son was born. The other half I lost in the first six months of his life without even trying. I credit breastfeeding. Losing weight while breastfeeding is a benefit that that advocates of breastfeeding love to promote, but the […]

Have you ever heard of pregnancy limbo? Oh, that’s definitely something I’ll never forget. I will forever remember those first few months. I had been feeling nauseous for the last couple of days, but I just chalked it up to being flu-type sick. After all, it was October. And then something made me buy a […]

Isn’t it crazy to think that Christmas is only about a week away? Hard to believe. I’ve been getting the little guy a few things at a time and “hiding” them in the studio. Of course, I use the term hiding loosely because he’s entirely too young to understand that all of the boxes I […]

It isn’t always easy to fit a work out routine into my busy day managing the children, the house, and working from home.  I know I need to get exercise, I know I need to take care of my body in that way.  So what’s a busy mom to do? Did you know you’re actually […]

Am I the only one who has always romanticized the Amish lifestyle?  Perhaps, but there’s a lot we can all learn from the Amish. Today’s economy has forced many of us to take a step back and reevaluate our spending habits. It’s become cool to save money and thank goodness for that! So what can […]

There are certain lessons you don’t learn until you’re a mom.  For instance, you don’t realize the depth of love a mother feels for her child until you’re holding your baby.  You don’t fully comprehend what it means to be tired until you’ve spent all night playing nurse to a sick baby. You might think […]

Do you struggle in your relationship with your in-laws? Sometimes it’s a mutual failing to compromise and communicate between you and the in-laws. Other times, well, some people are just toxic. How can you avoid putting your spouse in the middle?  What can you do to keep your bad relationship with toxic in-laws from poisoning […]

I’m willing to bet that you wake up every morning with the best of intentions. You plan to have an awesome day and imagine everything being perfect… At least until you wake up your little one and he/she isn’t exactly thrilled with the idea. And then you make breakfast and somehow it ends up all […]

Babies give everyone the gift of gab. After you have one, you’ll suddenly have random people walking up to you to chat whenever you leave the house.  Perfect strangers will stop you in the grocery store and at the post office to ogle your infant and ask you questions. Sometimes these polite attempts at conversation […]

Before we had our first baby, a lot of people told us “enjoy it, you won’t be able to do that after the baby comes.” What is the “it” I’m referring to? Oh, just everything. Seriously, we heard that about everything from sleep to sex to going to the movies. Don’t worry, they were only […]

Have the dynamics between you (the only-child mom) and your friends (the multi-child moms) changed a bit? A lot of the time, I think it does. And generally speaking, I don’t think it’s intentional. It just sort of happens. More often than not, I think it’s that we forget. We forget what it’s like to be […]

Fun fact. My son apparently hits when he gets excited, so every day when I’m finished cleaning in our Preschool classroom and I go grab him from the toddler room, I get a big hug and then smacked. He starts flailing his arms around then.. Yep, you guessed it! Fun times. Note: I said fun, not […]