Search Results for: blog sneaking me time into your day

Exercise Can Improve Your Ability to Parent

Everyone knows that getting regular exercise is important. Exercise helps you lose weight, tone muscle, and stay healthy. Did you know that exercise can actually improve your ability to parent your children? This revelation could give parents a whole new reason to start exercising. Stasia Bliss wrote an article at Liberty Voice about the many ways that exercise improves parenting. She notes that when you are exercising you are nourishing yourself. Personally, I see what she is suggesting as “me time”. When you are exercising, your entire focus is on yourself and what your body is doing. It is a … Continue reading →

5 Quick Activities for Self Care

Many parents are looking forward to the start of a new school year. Keep in mind that back-to-school comes with hectic mornings, help with homework, and the enforcement of a bedtime routine (that may have lapsed over the summer). It is important for parents to take a little time for self care while the kids are at school. Here are a few simple ideas to start with. The Living Self-Care website says that moms and dads that take care of themselves first will have more to offer to their children (and to the rest of the world). Self-care doesn’t have … Continue reading →

Never Too Old

I was only 21 when I got divorced. I was extremely young, but I felt like I had lived the life of a much older woman. As time went on I wasn’t sure I would ever get married again. It seemed like I had been single for so long already, I just couldn’t understand why it was taking me so long to find someone again. I felt like I had a lot to offer, but all the men that kept coming into my life were, well…less than what I wanted for me and my son. Stealing credit cards and sneaking … Continue reading →

The Gift of Time

If your child is like mine, then she likely got more plastic junk… I mean, Christmas presents… than she knows what to do with. My kid hit her meltdown point shortly after lunch, which, if memory serves me right, is a few hours later than last year. At least she made it through breakfast. Christmas morning can lead to sensory overload for many young children… and their tired parents too. But when all is said and done, and the gifts have been opened and the paper gets pitched, I will bet you anything that the present your child appreciates the … Continue reading →

Candy Patrol

What do you do with your Halloween candy? Whoops, did I say that? I mean your preschooler’s Halloween candy. We’re not really a candy-eating household, and this is definitely a candy-eating time of the year. Sure, my daughter eats candy, but it’s not in excess and it’s just upon occasion. That said, I’m not interested in banning Halloween. We have a lot of fun in our neighborhood on Halloween, and yes, part of it is about the candy. What can you do if you don’t want your child overdoing the candy? Provide alternatives. Go to a Halloween party and do … Continue reading →

Is Apple Pie a Health Food?

Yesterday my family went to the apple orchard. We go up to the apple orchard every year. I find it to be one of my favorite fall places to visit. The colors of the trees are beautiful the smell of the apples on the trees is so tempting. Letting the kids run around and pick apples, pose by pumpkins and measure sunflowers is just part of the fun we have spending the afternoon at the orchard. After all the running around we stop by the store for cider slush. This is a great treat since there is no additional sugar … Continue reading →

Health and Fitness Tips During the Holiday Season

With so much to do over the holiday season finding time for fitness is even more difficult than it usually is, but very necessary. With the extra chores that we must do during this time of the year there is increased calorie burning, but not enough to conquer all of the good food calories that we will most likely be indulging in. As always and now more than ever use those sneaky ways to give your fitness a boost. Shopping is crazy hectic at this time of the year. Remember not to dive in to the closet parking spot to … Continue reading →

Fitting in the Spring Cleaning

With three young children and a work-at-home job, it can be difficult to get the spring cleaning underway. As much as I would love to take a weekend to just complete it all at one time, that is nearly impossible. So I find myself sneaking up on the spring cleaning here and there as I can. Today, I actually started with a bit of the actual cleaning part of the spring cleaning. I have been organizing and de-cluttering along the way in the last two weeks, but outside of normal day to day cleaning, very little deep cleaning has been … Continue reading →

How to Turn Leftovers into New Meals

Leftovers never go wasted in my house. If you love to use leftovers but hate having the same thing night after night, consider employing some of the following leftover strategies. Meal one night, side dish the next One of the leftover strategies that I employ is to make a meatless dish one night and have it as a main meal. Then any leftovers can be turned into side dishes. This allows you to use up your leftovers without overloading your family with the same tastes. For example, I may make homemade baked means and serve them over rive for the … Continue reading →

A Mother’s View from the Pool: Why are you Wearing Crocs in the Water?

There’s a fierce debate going on in cyberspace regarding whether “fashionable” people should be wearing Crocs—those plastic clog-like shoes that come in an array of bright colors—in public. I’ll leave that bitter battle to others. However, the popular footwear does play prominently in observations I’ve made this summer as a mom frequenting our local aquatic center. As I mentioned in my previous blog my 4-year-old daughter is learning to swim, thus we have spent quite a bit of time at our community pool in the last 12 weeks. In that time I’ve had the opportunity to view interesting parenting techniques. … Continue reading →