20+ Easy Ways To Spend One On One Time With Your Kids

One of my goals this year has been to spend more one on one time with each of my kids.  This has proved to be more challenging that I thought it would be.  My oldest just finished kindergarten, my middle on is in preschool and the baby is just barely four months old, so we spend a lot of time together.  But what I've come to realize as I've made an effort to plan one on one time with them is that they don't care if it's 10 minutes or 2 hours.  They just want to have my undivided attention while we do something together.  Being a busy mom of three usually means that we're leaning more towards the 10 minutes rather than the 2 hours side of things, so I've had to become a little creative to work that time in.

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3 Ways My Happy Baby Wrap Makes Me A Better Mom

I'll be honest: I never thought of myself as a "baby wearing mom".  I just figured I'd hold my babies or put them in the swing or bouncer if I needed to when I was at home and keep them in the car seat, cart or stroller when we were out.  But do you know what I've learned since having my first baby over six years ago?  That I am a baby wearing mom and when I use my wrap, I am a better mom because of it.

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5 Ways To Be More Mindful

With all of the things that occupy my mind day to day, it can be so hard to find the time to step back and be mindful of ourselves.  As a mom and wife, the needs of others are constantly coming first.  A lot of the time I don't mind this, especially since I recognize that my kids literally could not survive without someone to take care of them.  And my husband obviously could survive without me, but serving him by maintaining a clean home and having dinner on the table are ways that I show my love.  But after a long day of demands on my time and energy, I often don't feel like I have a lot left in me for myself.

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Define Your Time: More Than Just A Time Management Course

Last November when I went to Pinners Conference, I attended a class about how to make the most of your time.  The speaker, Nicole Carpenter, founder of MOMentity, gave us 10 tips for getting more done and most of them were easy enough that you could implement them the next day if you wanted to.  If I had to guess one of the top 3 things most people say the don't have enough of, it's time.  It's elusive.  It goes by too quickly.  It's viewed as either your enemy or your friend.  It's something we don't have control over.  Or do we?

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Mid-Year New Years Resolutions Check-Up

6 months into 2016.  The time has been absolutely flying for me, especially now that we are into summer and have so many activities going on.  When I was looking at my plans for my posts this week, I couldn't believe that it was already time to review my new years resolutions and evaluate my progress.

And I have to say that sharing my goals and progress with you every three months has been interesting.  Part of me really likes the accountability, but the other part of me feels like I'm letting you down when I don't accomplish my goals or work on them like I know I should (even though they are all personal goals).

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New Years Resolutions Check Up

Can you believe we are already three months into the new year?  Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and Easter have all come and gone.  Spring is here.  Time seems to go by more quickly every year and sometimes I just want to yell for it to STOP !  Do you feel the same?

At the end of last year, I shared some of the goals I had set for myself for this coming year.  Then, at the beginning of the year, I gave some tips for improving success in reaching those goals.  Now that we are 3 months into the new year, I wanted to do a little check up on how those goals are going for me.  Maybe it will help you reflect on your own goals as well.

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"Mom, will you be my friend?"

"Mom, will you be my friend?"

I looked away from what I was doing and down at my daughter, nearly four years old.  She was holding her Belle tea set in her hands and looking up at me hopefully.

"I am your friend, sweetie."  I told her.

"But Mom, you aren't playing with me.  Will you be my friend?"

How many times are we in the middle of something and when our children try to get our attention, we wave them off?  Tell them to go play.  Suggest they find a sibling.  Go read a book.  Watch a show.  None of these are bad suggestions in and of themselves.  But how often do we stop and give them our full attention?  For myself, I know I could improve.  Sometimes I get so concerned with multi-tasking and checking things off my list, that I don't notice what my kids are doing until they are getting into something they aren't supposed to.  And then what's my knee-jerk reaction?  To tell them to stop.  Stop arguing, fighting, annoying each other, etc.

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Splitting Time Between Family During the Holidays

The first Christmas my husband and I celebrated after getting married was probably my least favorite.  And it had nothing to do with him!  It had to do with the fact that we tried to split our day between five different places.  By the time we made it to our last stop of the day, we were tired and cranky.  We did our best to muster up the last bit of energy we had, but I'm sure everyone (including us) could tell that our hearts just weren't in it.  On our way home that night, we vowed that we were never going to allow ourselves to do another Christmas like the one we'd just had.

My husband and I are in a somewhat unique situation in that our families and most of our siblings are all in the same state.  In addition to this, my parents are divorced which means we have three sets of parents.  While we love having so much family nearby, we don't like it as much during the holidays because it always seems like someone doesn't get visited or an event can't be attended.  We've experienced a lot of frustration and guilt over the years as we have tried to make everyone happy, to the exclusion of ourselves.

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Finding the Balance Between a Clean House, Happy Kids and Your Sanity

Today, like most days, I was straightening up the house—putting away toys, starting the laundry, cleaning off the counter—with my kids trailing behind me.  From the 3 (almost 4) year old: “Mom, what are we going to do today?  Where are we going to go?   Can I watch a show?  Can we do a project?”  The questions keep coming, like they do from curious preschool-aged kids.  And then there’s me, trying to answer the questions as they’re asked, still while trying to clean up: “I don’t know what we’re doing today.  We’re not going anywhere until the house is clean.   No, you can’t watch a show right now, I need you to help me clean up.  We'll do a project when your brother's asleep.”  Meanwhile, the 19 month old is pulling out all the toys I just put away and dumping blocks all over the floor.   Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

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