Archives for May 2012

Taking Care of Yourself Tuesday: Unplugging to be Present

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One really important way we can take care of ourselves is unplugging to be present in our lives.  I’ve been thinking about how much noise is in our lives these days. We carry phones that give us access to what all of our friends are up to, our email, videos, music and more.  We watch TV, listen to music (now anywhere we have speakers thanks to iPhones, iPods and iPads), and have information (any information) at our fingertips as soon as we think about wanting it.

All of these things are great for a mom who wants to be productive and make the most of her time.  But I’ve been noticing that all of this noise makes it difficult to stay present in the moments of life.  And sometimes I think we don’t care to.

Perhaps the present moments in life are painful?  Maybe they are just hard.

Motherhood is hard.  It can be great and fun, but there is really no way around the hard {trust me, I’ve tried to make it easier}.  I’m not going to list all of the ways moms work because I’m pretty sure you can name them easily.  The point is that, because it is hard, we can find ourselves not wanting to feel it or deal with it.  We can look for ways to escape and we have plenty of ways to be numb to our present reality.

 

The problem is that when we are constantly listening to noise and escaping reality we are missing opportunities to be present, to be thankful for what we have, to acknowledge the good things and to get healing for the sad/hard/painful things.

I’d like to encourage you to make time to unplug every day to live in the present moments. Some ways you can do this are:

  • Only check your email once or twice a day.
  • Don’t keep the TV on when you aren’t actively watching it.
  • Write down the things you think of that you need to check online and set your timer when it is time to look them up.
  • Get in the habit of leaving your phone in your purse when you are eating a meal.

The goal is to stay present most of the time.  This isn’t just for your kids sake but for your sake.  When you learn to really listen to yourself, your feelings, and take in the beauty of life around you, you will have less reasons to feel the need to escape.

Here are some things to do help you enjoy your present reality:

  • Over time invest your time and money into making your home {especially the rooms you spend the most time in} beautiful and peaceful.
  • Eat without the distractions of your phone, computer or TV. You’ll enjoy what you eat and probably eat less.
  • Count the things you are thankful for as opposed to the things that you are bothered by.
  • Give yourself permission to relax and enjoy life instead of always having to stay busy.

How about you?  Do you feel like you are constantly connected and distracted?  Are you trying to avoid pain? How do you make sure you are staying present.

 

 

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Taking Care of Yourself

What Moms Love Weekly

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I love it when Fridays come quickly! This has been a fun week jumping on our new Springfree trampoline {did you enter to win one?}.  The kids have gone to bed worn out every night {smile}.  This week I am loving “I love you mommy” whispered from a toddler who makes it her favorite phrase of the week.  I am also loving teaching tweens life lessons that I know will help them long after they leave home, eating strawberries by the bowlful, yummy new smoothie recipes {recipe to come}, and a fresh haircut for a little boy that makes him look a little bigger {this one is bitter-sweet}.

How about you? What are you loving this week in your mom life?

Here are some favorite finds this week and the theme is baby.  Even though my youngest is 3, I cannot seem to get over baby things.  Love ‘Em!

1. phil&teds Nest Sleep System– Have ever wanted to leave the baby with Grandma for a bit or not have to take a big & bulky bed with you when you travel?  I sure have and I love the idea of this portable bed.  It has it’s won bag that you can bring along baby’s stuff in too and travels easily.  Sure wish I had one for all of our travels with baby in the past!!

2. aden + anais dribble bibs/burp clothes– I heart aden + anais swaddling blankets and now these dribble bibs.  These are great for the dribbliest of droolers.  They are so soft and snap around baby to cover them fully.  They also double as shields for moms shoulder when carrying around a bound-to-spit-up-when-you-least-expect-it baby. They come in a sweet assortment of baby friendly designs and colors.

3. Skip Hop ABC Zoo Activity Gym– I love Skip Hop products and this ABC Zoo Gym is too cute! There is so much for baby to look at and play with and this would be perfect for tummy time to build up those little baby muscles.

4. Jones Design Company Name Prints– Go ahead and ooh and ahh! These name prints are ADORABLE and so stylish for a modern baby nursery too.  I want one for each of my kids and I absolutely LOVE the damask cat print!  So sweet!

5. Bella Tunno Laminated Bib in Miss Thing– Baby bibs have come a long way from “I love my aunt” painted across the front. Bella Tunno makes some of the cutest laminated baby bibs with ribbon velcro neck closures.  The bibs have a pocket to catch stray peas that little ones might drop {they eat their peas right? Wink}.  I love this Miss Things bib but it’s a hard choice.  Since these bibs are so cute you won’t be so anxious to get it off baby to reveal the cute outfit underneath.

 

Filed Under: Gift Ideas, What Moms Love Weekly Tagged With: ,

Unjunk Your Junk Food- Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks

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If you are a mom with the goal of eating healthy and feeding your family healthy foods then I have discovered a book that you will enjoy.  I recently read Unjunk Your Junk Food: Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks and thought it was fantastic.  It it such a handy little book that informs you on the better choices to make when it comes to eating packaged foods.

We all want to pick the right foods but sometimes we just aren’t sure which ones are okay and which ones should be avoided.  You may have questions like “which oil is a healthier choice?” or “I know I should cut out white sugar but are other sugars okay?” This handy little book will show you how to decide what to eat and feed your family.

It is a very quick read and also a guide that you will want to keep to reference again and again.  The book is small enough for you to fit in your purse to take with you when you shop.

My family and I have been on a journey toward healthy, organic eating for the past 5 years and I was a little skeptical that I was going to agree with Unjunk Your Junk Food completely.  After all of my personal research I agree with the ideas that full fat dairy and meats are good for you and eating low fat is not necessarily healthy.  I tend to expect that many still believe that low (or no) fat diets are the way to go.  But this book actually shares research that I agree with on this topic.  They also explain sugars and which options are healthier.

If you ever spend time (precious time) standing in the grocery isles comparing labels to see which food might be a healthy choice then this book is for you.  If you want a quick guide to specific foods to look for when you shop then this book is for you.

I happily recommend you read this book.  Even if you know a good bit about nutrition you may discover some new things you never knew (I did). You can read more at Naturally Savvy (even read a sniplet of the book).  There’s lots of other great info on the site as well.

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of Unjunk Your Junk Food for free to review.  The opinions shared are my own and I only recommend what I use and love.

 

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: ,

Old School Blogging: What it is & Why I’m Doing It

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Stern Woman BloggerPhoto Source

I’ve been blogging for a little over two years now.  In that time I have learned a lot {and still have a lot to learn}.  Recently I’ve made a decision though to go back to Old School Blogging.  What is old school blogging, you ask?  Let me give you my definition:

old school blogging= blogging about what you love and enjoy just because you love and enjoy it, and doing it to serve others by sharing your knowledge and expertise.

Blogging has become this game of likes and follows.  Anyone can set up a blog, which is great, but what people used to have to work hard for, there are now many ways to cheat the system and I don’t really see how it’s helping anyone.

It used to be that a person started a blog with an idea and shared the blog with their friends and family.  If their friends and family really liked what was on said blog they would share it with their friends and so on. And that’s how a blog’s readership would grow.  As an added benefit the blog naturally used key words that would begin to show up on Google searches and drive even more traffic from those looking for that specific type of content.

Now days a blogger has so many ways to cheat the system to get likes and follows.  Recently I have seen bloggers hosting giveaways with multiple bloggers for a large prize and the whole purpose is to boost their numbers. And it works.  They get lots of followers very quickly.  Which is great but they aren’t real followers in my opinion.  I know this because I have done plenty of giveaways in the past {and I love to do giveaways for my followers} and I always gain new followers with them.  I even advertise these giveaways because I feel it is my job to get the company I am working with as much exposure as possible and I really enjoy sharing a company or product I believe in. However, many of the new likes and follows I get from giveaways aren’t true followers. In other words they didn’t “like” me because they really liked Mommy Kudos or sign up for emails because they can’t wait to read the next post.  Lot’s of them aren’t even in the demographic for Mommy Kudos.  When I did a giveaway for moms to do something nice that is taking care of themselves I had plenty of men commenting because the giveaway was in the form of an Amazon.com gift certificate.  I’m pretty sure these guys aren’t becoming loyal Mommy Kudos Fans {smile}.

I understand the appeal for bloggers to boost their numbers with joint giveaways or blog hops or asking other bloggers to follow you for return follows, however I’ve decided that for me and Mommy Kudos that I am going to refrain from these things from now on.  So what am I going to do? And what ways will I choose to get more exposure for Mommy Kudos so that the right people know that I’m here and what I’m about?  Let me share:

Giveaways

I’ve decided to limit the giveaways I do on Mommy Kudos.  I’ve been doing a lot {too many} and they are a lot of work.  They take up a bunch of time that I feel could be better spent on great content {this mom of 6 has quite a lot to share}.  I will do giveaways when I feel like it is a really great product that I don’t want you to miss.

Joint Giveaways for Followers

I simply will not do these unless it’s for a company that I am working with in conjunction with other bloggers that I really believe in and want you to be aware of.  I will not do one just to get a bunch of quick likes and follows.

SEO

I am loving learning about SEO {Search Engine Optimization} and am thrilled that there are ways to get key words about the things I write about to show up closer to the top on search engines.  I will pursue this method of gaining readers because I feel it is a great way to bring my content to those who are truly looking for it.

Community

I am so thrilled at how blogging and social media has allowed me to meet some incredible people that I have developed relationships with and now consider friends.  I will continue to build my community and reach out to other bloggers and online friends. I feel that any platform I have is so that I can serve others with the knowledge and abilities that I have been given.  I want to serve others by promoting other bloggers and companies that I believe in.

Content

Like I said above, I believe my platform and blogging is a way for me to serve you and because of that I want to share what is on my heart, what I have learned that may help you and resources that you may want/need to have.  This is pretty much my mission for Mommy Kudos.  To serve you.

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So how about you? I know it can seem like a sloooowwww climb when you are a smaller blogger and it’s really tempting to work the system to get followers quickly.  What are your standards for yourself in gaining a readership?

If you want to learn from some great bloggers about building your readership {most of them did it the old school way} then check out some of my favorites:

Blogging With Amy – her site will will help you start your own blog or website. She also shares tips, tools and tutorials that will help you improve the one you’ve got.

ProBlogger – Ways to make money blogging

SavvyBlogging – Lots of tips and advice

SITS Girls – Tons of tips and support for bloggers {great place to make friends too!}

 

Filed Under: Blogging Tips

Taking Care of Yourself Tuesday: Learning to Say No & Priorities

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Welcome to Taking Care of Yourself Tuesdays! Today we are discussing learning to say no to people and having priorities:

Sometimes you just need to say NO. But saying no can be hard when you are a mom and worse if you are a people pleaser.  The reality is, though, that you can only do a few things well in this life and the rest you will have to give whatever you have left over, which might not be much. There are good things in life and then there are great things.  If we really want to live meaningful lives we should focus on doing the great things.

No. No. No.Photo Source

Now, don’t get me wrong, doing laundry and cleaning toilets can be a part of a the great things. I am not saying that the mundane things in life aren’t worth the effort. I am really hoping to encourage you to examine your life, what you spend your time on, and eliminate those things that are stealing your time from the truly worth while things. If you are a mom, then the mundane things are part of your great things!

Think about it. Your children are watching you.  They see your no’s and your yes’s. They are learning from you what is important and what time should be spent on.

 

So how do you manage your yeses and noes? We’ll let me give you an example:

My kids like to ask for things on the spur of the moment (heading to a movie with a friend, a new pair of shoes, a toy they can’t resist) but there’s something we have in our family called a budget (perhaps you have one too?).  I learned a neat little trick once from an older, wiser woman and that is to say something like “I’d love to honey but let’s see what Mr. budget says.”  This way “Mr. budget” can say yes or no according to what is true about what is in our budget. Mr. budget gets to be the bad guy sometimes.

The same thing can be applied to your time.  You can budget your time with your priorities.  Make a list of your top priorities in life.  Mine is something like this:

  • God
  • Marriage
  • Kids
  • A Healthy Lifestyle for Myself & My Family
  • Taking Care of Our Home {Making it a place of beauty and peace}
  • My Calling
  • Friends/Family

I can then insert into each category the ways I will spend my time to keep these things priorities. Anything else can only be added and done if these things have been done.  This helps you to focus on the great things and when someone asks you to do something you can assess whether or not it fits into your priorities and if it is going to hinder you from getting the things higher up on your list done.  You can say “My priority list doesn’t have room for that right now.”

Sometimes you have to say no to yourself and not just to others.

 

Don’t let spur of the moment ideas take you off on tangents unless they are part of your priorities. If you make an effort to do this then you will find yourself doing the really great things in life and it will get easier and easier to say no to things, even the seemingly good things.

Do you ever struggle with saying no?  How do you manage your yeses and noes?

Filed Under: Mommy Tips Tagged With:
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