Sanity Saver

This week I got a great deal and a sanity saver it’s a 2 for 1!!!! As you know by now if things look good I tend to like them better, yes that is superficial but it’s true ( this is only referring to things of course). This week is a perfect example of that. I found yesterday in the Target dollar section these super cute work gloves!!! How cute are they?
These fun gloves are $1.00 ( so of course I got 2 and may go back for more) there are so many times I which I had rubber gloves to do the yucky task at hand but I never bought them for no real reason other than I don’t like rubber gloves. Now that I have really cute ones with a fabric cuff to cover my shirt sleeves I am more than happy to take on those yucky tasks that we moms seem to attract. ( actually I would still prefer not to do them but my fun gloves make the task much more bearable!) So go get yourself some fun work gloves and tackle those gross messes with a smile knowing you look good doing it!

Sanity Saver

This weeks sanity saver is the local public library. I love our local public library here are a few of the reasons why:

• Free movies, you can get the latest new release or an old favorite for FREE. At our library if they don’t have it just request it and they will get it. Plus they have lots of great educational videos for the kids.
• Story Time. My library has an amazing free story time that combines stories, music and dancing to teach the kids and get them excited about books. This is a great free way to get your kid involved in activities and meet other moms in your area with kids the same age.
• Free books. Of course this is a great reason for going to the library. Books for you , for the kids, books on crafts and books full of ideas for activities at home.
• Puzzles, toys and more. If you are lucky enough to have a library that rents out puzzles and toys this is another great way to beat your kids boredom by bringing home new things to play with and its free. You can also spend the morning playing at the library for a fun day out. Meet a friend and pack a lunch for an on the go play date.
• Music. My library has a great selection of music that you can take home to enjoy. I love the kids music and seasonal stuff to change up our usual favorites at home. Plus then I can test before I buy.
• Lectures and guest speakers. Our library system is always holding interesting and free lectures and guest speakers. These are great things to enjoy for free with your spouse or some friends.

I am sure most of you utilize your library but if not hopefully I have given you a few reasons to top in this week.

Sanity Saver

This weeks sanity saver for me is my Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. I know you are thinking really? I got my first on for FREE fro Walgreens a few months back and love it. I started with a clean shower before I first used it. Then after the last shower/bath of the day I hit the little button and hear the sweet sound of cleaning happening. It really does keep your shower clean longer which means I don’t have to clean my shower as much and that is a really great thing. This week you can get a great deal on one for your self ( I highly recommend it) at Walgreens. Check out my post here for details but hurry today 1/17 is the last day for this deal. If your store is out be sure and ask for a rain check. Do you have a great cleaning supply you love that saves you time and sanity? Please share I would love to know about it.

Sanity Saver

This week I am going to do my sanity saver a bit differently. Many of you have expressed an interest in posts about grown children and things to do with them. That got me thinking about what my mom and I do together. My mom lives 10 minutes from me so we see each other quite a it, but my sister lives in Hawaii so we only see her a couple of times a year. So today I am going to share what we do in my family when the ladies get together. Hopefully this will inspire you to spend some quality time with your grown daughter or daughter-in-law.

My mom raised us to be feminine women, now that probably seems like an odd statement but when you think about it it really isn’t. I was raised fully aware of the reality that we are judged by our appearance whether that is right or fair is irrelevant. People judge instinctively by appearance. Now I am not saying my mom raised us to be vain or overly concerned about appearances, not at all, but we were taught to take pride in our appearance. To be clean, neat and well groomed at all times. We were taught to dress appropriately based on the occasion and to take care of our bodies with good hygiene habits. You are probably wondering what this has to do with spending quality time together. Well here is a list of things we do when my mom, sister and I get together:

• Go out to lunch
• Go shopping
• Get spa pedicures
• Get manicures
• Get our eyebrows waxed
• Get facials
• Go to the spa for any number of treatments
• Get a free makeover at the makeup counter
• Go to a chick flick
• Bake

Get the picture? We do girly things that have to do with pampering and being women. It is lots of fun and always a great stress reliever. We laugh, we talk and we just enjoy each others company. Don’t want to spend the money on these things? That’s ok you can do all of them at home. Make your favorite meal together, rent a video, give each other manicures, pedicures, facials. The point is we do activities that we wouldn’t do with men, things that are special for women to do together. So call your daughter or daughter-in-law or even if she is in high school or college walk down the hall and invite her to a girls bonding day and save your sanity while building up your relationship.

Sanity Saving Saturday

This weeks sanity saver is all about vacation, as I sit here typing listening to the ocean waves outside my room I am grateful for the opportunity to recharge and spend some quality time with my family. My husband and I have not taken a vacation since our honeymoon 3 1/2 years ago. Not that we haven’t wanted to but it has not been in the budget. My parents very generously brought us to Florida with them to visit my grandfather giving us a much needed vacation.

Which brings me to my point every one needs a vacation it is not a want but a need. Now I know they are expensive but as I sit here thinking about all of the great things that have come out of this week away I realized you can have these things anywhere it is about the circumstances not the surroundings. In my opinion here are a few tips to an at home vacation that will leave you refreshed and recharged but not broke.

1. Turn off your cell phone and your home phone. One of the major benefits of vacation is that feeling of isolation with your family. You can recreate it by removing yourself from the outside world. If you can not communicate or be available to others than you are free to fully concentrate on your family and be present in the moment.
2. Do vacation activities. What is it you like to do most on vacation, play family games, cook family meals, read a book, watch the sunset? You can do all these things at home or locally and make them just as special.
3. Don’t do your daily routine. Eliminate your regular schedule and go into vacation mode. Sleep in, stay up late, wear your pajamas until noon. Do the minimal cleaning to keep the house livable, no laundry, no projects unless it is for fun.
4. Make a theme and plan fun activities and meals accordingly.
5. RELAX and just be, this is a hard thing to do especially for moms who are always on alert mode when the kids are around. But try to relax and just have fun the reward is worth the possible chaos.
6. Do day trips to local attractions pretending you are from out of town.

These are my thoughts and the ideas I plan on putting into practice. Ideally I would have avacation weekend once a month but that is not realistic for our busy schedule. I am hoping at least once a season or 4 times a year we can do a seasonal vacation weekend and really reconnect as a family. Do you have any tips for an at home vacation, please share in the comments below.

Sanity Saving Saturday

This weeks sanity saver will be brief, I am still spending time with my family in celebration of the holidays. This weeks sanity saver has been living in the moment. With so much to do to prepare for the holidays it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Often when I get overwhelmed I spend so much time worrying about all the things still on my to do list that I miss out on what is going on right then. So as we finish out the holidays and 2008 take the time to live in the moment and cherish the time you have right now with the people around you. I hope you are having a very happy holiday!

Saturday Sanity Saver

Time for another sanity saver and I have to say I am feeling a bit insane with the holidays fast approaching. As I began to ponder what my topic this week would be I realized that the most helpful sanity saver this week has been my attitude. By that I mean my conscious decision not to get upset and worked up about things.

I made the decision this week to let things slide that needed to be let go. As a mom I can sometimes get worked up over “typical” toddler behavior and let myself get really upset. In my mind I “think” my daughter is doing something just to annoy me when in reality she is just being a curious toddler. By choosing to see it as her growing and discovering instead of her deliberately trying to irritate I am much better at coping.

For example: As I tried to leave the house to pick up my husband from work today my daughter kept taking off her shoes and putting on different ones. This was very frustrating and my first reaction was ” why is she being so disobedient and taking off her shoes just to annoy me!” When I took a deep breath and stepped back I was able to see the situation as a toddler proud of her new found ability to put shoes on and off. It had nothing to do with making me late on purpose. This allowed me to applaud her new skill then calmly explain we need to leave our shoes on because we are going outside. This then ended the issue calmly instead of me feeling further frazzled and stressed about my toddlers behaviour. readjusting my view point has really helped my sanity, what is saving your sanity this week I would love to know!

Saturday Sanity Saver

This weeks Sanity Saver is a great blog that I have just discovered and has changed my life, literally. First a little background…

I love doing crafts with my daughter and I think it is important and valuable in her upbringing that she have arts and craft time on a regular basis. I think fostering creativity is an important thing and strive to nurture that quality in my children. That being said I am not gifted in the creativity department so when it comes to arts and craft ideas my poor daughter is being ripped off. Enter No Time For Flashcards, first of all I love the name it is so clever, second of all this site is just what I have been looking for.

Allie at No Time For Flashcards is an expert in the are of early childhood education not only is she a mom ( which qualifies her immediately) but she has been working with small children in various capacities since 1993 ( view her profile here). Allie’s site NTFFC provides age appropriate crafts, books, songs and other activities. It truly is a gold mine of information. I have only just started using her site and already have made several Christmas crafts to the utter delight of my daughter. Here are a few of my favorite Christmas posts she has:

Paper Plate Santa
Candy Christmas Trees ( I am having a group over to do this one!)
“Bow”tiful Christmas Tree
Snowglobe Snowman

There are so many other great crafts and lots of great book recommendations I could go on and on. I highly suggest in you are a mom to a young child to check out this site for lots of great ideas. Now I have a child who looks forward to craft time knowing it will be more than just crayons and a coloring book ( Thanks Allie). So what is saving your sanity this week? I would love to know please share I could use all the help I can get!

Saturday Sanity Saver

Making dinner with kids can often be a challenge, most nights I have a specific window of time to get dinner ready and if I run out of time all chaos breaks loose. That is why I prepare ingredients ahead of time and freeze them to save me time. One of the items I often do this with is potatoes. This past week Meijer had 10lb bags of potatoes for $1.88. Even though I had no plans for meals using potatoes this week I bought them at this great price to cut up an freeze.

Here are some of the dishes I prepare the potatoes for:
Homemade French Fries
Potato Pasta ( I dice the potatoes for this dish and freeze them)
Hash Browns Roasted potatoes
Mashed potatoes ( I do not prepare the mashed potatoes ahead of time but peel and dice the potatoes so they are ready to boil)

This past summer I had a very prolific garden and ended up with more peppers than I could cook with. Instead I diced them up and put them in freezer baggies. Now I have pre-cut peppers for my chili. I have since added diced onions to even further reduce my prep time. There are so many items you can prepare and freeze ahead of time to cut down on your last minute cooking prep. These are just a few of my favorite things to freeze. Reducing my prep time greatly saves my sanity by allowing me to finish cooking meals without as much stress. That’s what is saving my sanity this week, what is saving yours? What do you freeze to reduce your cooking prep time, I would love to know please share in the comments below.

Saturday Sanity Saver

This weeks sanity saver has to do with traveling. We are heading out of town for a wedding and driving with 2 kids is always an adventure. My older daughter loves to color and since crayons and paper in a car seat are not the best idea we turn to a travel sized Doodle pro. I picked ours up on the checkout lane at Target for $5 and it has gotten lots of use. My daughter takes it to church and on car rides. It is perfect since the pen is hooked on their is nothing to lose. If she wants to start over just erase and begin again.
My other trip sanity saver are the snack trap bowls that have the lid that kids reach into to get food but can’t dump the whole bowl out. So while they are little you can hand them a bowl of cheerios and not have to worry about them spilling everywhere. Do not get overly confident though as they get older they figure out how to hold it open, but for awhile it works! So these are my little gadgets to make traveling easier. What are your sanity savers, I would love to know.

Saturday Sanity Saver

This weeks Sanity Saver is my crock pot. I LOVE my crock pot. There are so many delicious meals you can make with a crock pot. Here are just a few of the reasons why I love my crock pot:

1. You can make dinner whenever you have time ( like during nap time!)
2. Even the toughest piece of meat is juicy and tender after all day in the crock pot
3. There is only one dish to clean, the pot
4. Your house smells wonderful
5. Even if you forget to defrost your meat you can still cook it in a crock pot
6. It takes very little time to make a meal using a crock pot

I could go on and on, the crock pot is my sanity saver because I can cook dinner when it suits me and not right before it needs to be served. As a mom of 2 young kids it is often hard to cook dinner at dinnertime, for whatever reason that is the time of day when my kids refuse to be occupied by anything other than me. By using the crock pot I can throw all the ingredients in while they are napping earlier in the day and just serve when dinnertime comes. Since I love the crock pot so much I tend to have lots of crock pot recipes. Be sure to check my recipe tab up top for past crock pot recipe posts. Here is a rebate for $5 off a crock-pot purchase of $24.50 or more. What is saving your sanity this week? I would love to know!

Saturday Sanity Saver

In sticking with the theme of this week one of my most important sanity savers since I had my first child has been my baby carriers. My first baby carrier was a Baby Bjorn Original. As soon as my first daughter was big enough to go in it she did. I took her everywhere in it, we went for walks, to the store, around the house, she lived in it. As a new mom I wanted to hold my daughter all the time and she in turn wanted to be held, but life still needed to be attended to. So the Baby Bjorn worked great for both of us. When she was teething and didn’t want to sleep she napped in it. My first daughters infancy would have been much rockier for both of us without my Baby Bjorn. Fast forward to the birth of my second daughter.

At this point I am more knowledgeable about all the baby wearing options available to me and I wanted to try a sling. I wanted something I could place my newborn baby in so she was close to mommy yet be able to still spend quality time with my older daughter. My mother bought me an adjustable sling from Momma’s Milk. I don’t know if it was the wrong size or what but neither my baby nor I were ever happy with it. In desperation I started looking for a new sling, I knew I had to have a carrier my baby could snuggle up in while I chased after my toddler. That is when I bought a Hot Sling. My Hot Sling is amazing. My daughter loved it and I kept it with me at all times. For her it was a safe haven no matter how much chaos was around and it fit well and was comfortable for me. As I lost my baby weight and my daughter grew the Hot Sling no longer felt safe to me and I never got the hip carry to feel secure. Now I use my new Baby Bjorn with lumbar support for active carrying ( long walks, zoo trips) and my Sleepy Wrap or Rockin Baby Sling for comforting, sleeping and hanging out around the house.

Now that you know my baby carrying history I am sure you are overwhelmed. My daughters and I have a very close bond and I know that the amount of time they spent physically close to me helped with that. I truly can not imagine caring for a baby without a carrier. So what is saving your sanity these days, I would love to know.

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