reduce stress

End-of-Pregnancy 101: Preparing For Birth

Congrats on your pending arrival! Are you ready? This checklist will help you prepare for the big day, and includes some things you might have forgotten!

Stocking up on swaddles, receiving blankets, and diapers. Putting the finishing touches on the nursery. And, of course, waiting (im)patiently for your labor pangs to begin. Yup, no question about it – if you’re doing these things, then you’re probably preparing for birth and excited to become a parent. If you’re in the final nesting […]

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4 Ways That Diet Can Affect Your Life

What we eat has a far greater affect on our bodies and overall health than just what the scale says. Read this for more on how diet can affect your life.

Image via Pixabay Everyone knows, at least on some level, that diet matters a whole lot. But beyond weight management, many people aren’t too clear on how diet can affect your life. Beyond maintaining a healthy weight, why does what you eat really matter? What are the real implications of what we consume? It’s all

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Why Mama Needs More Sleep (And What She Can Do About It!)

Are you a sleep-deprived mama? Here are my top 10 reasons why mama needs more sleep - and more importantly, what you can do about it! (Or maybe not...)

a.k.a. Help for Sleep-Deprived Parents As I type this, the rest of my household has been in bed for well over an hour (the girls much longer than that). And that’s after I was first one up this morning, in part so I could sneak off to yoga class before the girls went to summer

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10 Stress Relief Tips For Your Children

Children face more stress and anxiety than we realize. These ten stress relief tips will help your kids to manage the stressors in their lives.

Children don’t need stress relief tips … or do they? You might be surprised. True, your kiddos probably don’t have to worry about paying bills, going to work, or getting dinner on the table. But that doesn’t mean that they’re completely carefree. We all like to think of our kids as happy-go-lucky bundles of joy,

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Clothespin Chore Chart: How-To’s, Inspiration, and Tips for Success

Do your kids need a morning-routine reboot? Or help remembering after-school chores? This clothespin chore chart tutorial has tips and examples to help them create their own!

Are your kids starting to get squirrely for the end of the school year and the start of summer break? Do you find their school-year routines and ability to self-regulate breaking down? Those skills have long since flown the coop around here, so we tried something new this morning: a brand-new set of clothespin chore

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Mother-Daughter Spa Day with DIY Spa Products

What's the only thing better than a mother-daughter spa day with your little girl(s)? A spa day with homemade DIY spa products - bonding time that's fun AND inspiring!

There’s something special about mother-daughter bonding days. Taking some time to do something special with your favorite girl (or girls) is a great way to strengthen your relationship while having fun. And what could be better than a spa day? One with homemade spa products that you created yourselves! With winter winding down and spring

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How to Organize Important Documents: My New Secret Weapon

Wish you knew how to organize important documents more effectively? I've discovered the ultimate secret weapon in the ongoing battle against paper clutter and lost papers.

Think about it. How many hours of your life have you spent hunting for a missing piece of paperwork? Your Social Security Card. Your kids’ birth certificates. The contact info for that guy who unplugged your drain a few years back. The warranty and purchase information for an appliance on the fritz. Time and time

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How To Teach Your Kids Gratitude

Kids not quite as grateful as you'd hoped? With these tips on how to teach your kids gratitude, your kids can become more grateful too!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating in the United States (as well as expats overseas) today! In honor of this national day of giving thanks, I’m thrilled to share a guest post written by a blogging friend of mine, Michele Tripple. If ever there were a Supermom, this amazing mama is definitely one in my eyes!

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How Bullet Journaling Has Made Me A Better Parent

I’m now just over two months into my bullet journaling experiment. For those of you who’ve thought about bullet journaling – either to become more efficient and organized, or to help you juggle your competing to-do’s – yes, it’s made a huge difference in those areas. But I’m also surprised to discover another upside: Bullet journaling has unquestionably made

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Back-To-School Anxiety: Tips on Herding the Purple Cow

So the kiddos have been back to school for a few weeks now. How’s the back-to-school anxiety level in your household? In ours, it seems we’re still sorting through back-to-school anxiety, with mixed results. Your back-to-school anxiety checklist Have you noticed any of these back-to-school anxiety symptoms in your child(ren) since they resumed classes this

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Holiday Hacks: Ten Tips to Make Your Life Easier This December

Do you need a few good holiday hacks? I know I do. Barely a week in, my December is already bursting at the seams. My to-do lists keep getting longer, and some things (like this post) never get done until weeks later than I’d planned. What’s on your plate this month? Too many kids’ concerts,

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Reset Buttons Broken? Try Using a Code Word

Oh, the ironies of parenting. Not twenty-four hours after publishing my last blog post, on finding your kids’ reset buttons, I found myself mentally running through my own checklist, searching in vain for one of my own tricks that would work on a five-year-old who stubbornly resisted each and every attempt I made to help

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Finding Your Kids’ Reset Button: My Top Ten Hacks

It’s one of those days (hours, minutes), and you’re at the end of the rope. You just wish your kid had come with an on/off switch, circuit breaker, or some other way to turn her off. Then you could power her down, reboot her, and start all over with a clean slate. Or maybe it’s

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Sanity-Saving Hacks for Roadtripping Solo With Small Children

My house is a mess of unpacking, my writing is behind schedule – can you guess that my family and I have just spent the past few weeks on various road trips? For many families, summer means travel. But the reality is that in two-parent households, parents can’t always coordinate limited vacation time with other

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Mindful Decluttering: 5 Tips on Decluttering Your Home

Is decluttering on your new year's list? These five mindful downsizing tips will help you get all areas of your life back under control, once and for all.

How’d you do on your New Year’s resolutions last year? My New Year’s goal for last year is still an ongoing effort, but remembering to use the Calm Mommy voice when I want my kids to cooperate is becoming more second-nature. My goals for this year center around being more mindful each day, saving myself

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Tunes for Traveling With Kids: Our Top 15 Road Trip Soundtracks

Before your next family road trip, treat yourselves to some tunes everyone can handle. It will make your journey a happier one for everyone involved.

Are you sick of listening to your kids belt out the theme song from Frozen yet? Do you wish that the singing purple dinosaur had never been invented? Do you prefer some good music for a long car ride over hearing your kids’ dueling electronic toys in the backseat? Do you have a long car

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Less Is More: Three Ways We’re Cutting Back and Living Better This Holiday Season

Even though the first week of December was rainy and dreary in our neck of the woods, the girls and I have had a super start to our month. Part of the credit goes to the fact that I’ve made some very conscious decisions to simplify our lives, both for the holiday season and beyond.

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