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cry it out

Cry It Out, Baby: How Sleep Training Saved My Sanity

baby, grow, nourish, rest, Unpopular Mom By July 15, 2016 2 Comments

It’s true. On the surface, I do look very much like your typical crunchy-granola attachment parent. I breastfeed, make my own baby food, buy organic, wear the babies, redirect rather than punish (or try, at least), and even do a little bed sharing. Letting my baby cry it out would be the last thing a mom like me would do.

You might assume I’d be one of those moms who pops up in your Facebook newsfeed, all sanctimommy in my choice of shares, doling out judgment and unsolicited advice—but you’d be wrong. You won’t find me mom-shaming anywhere. My philosophy is ‘we’re all in this together.’ And try as I might, living with my headstrong 3 ½ year old daughter leads to considerably more yelling and empty threats than I ever thought would be in my mommy wheelhouse.

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Emotional Intelligence

7 Tips for Raising Kids with High Emotional Intelligence

FAM, Featured, health, kids, nourish, self By July 14, 2016 5 Comments

How do you react to stressful situations? I will be the first to admit that my anxiety is clearly linked to my inability to effectively manage my emotions during stress. I am famous for catastrophizing and overreacting. Growing up, I was always known as the one who would freak out all the time. Today, I know that I just needed to develop my emotional intelligence. It doesn’t come naturally and it’s something I will continue to work on throughout my life, but if I can give my children these tools much earlier on in life, I hope that they won’t have to freak out as much as I did.

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Disney Planes

Disney Planes Lifts off on Netflix

grow, LIVE, nourish By July 8, 2016 1 Comment

We had a ‘family movie night’ today. It’s really an excuse to eat while watching a film, snuggle together on the sofa and glance at each other over jokes and sad bits. Some of the closest moments I have exchanged with the kids were during these fun nights, and as we flicked through the offerings today – Disney Planes on Netflix was a unanimous YES!!

Planes centres on Dusty the crop duster, who dreams of flying in a race around the world. But in order to qualify, he has to overcome his fear of heights.

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inner calm

Busy Mom/Chill Mom: Finding Your Inner Calm

FAM, LIVE, nourish, self By June 13, 2016 Tags: , , , , No Comments

Whether you have little ones running rampant, or teenagers getting social all on their own—most moms will tell you that their household is running a busy schedule. Between carpooling and household duties, combined with working outside the home, or the never-ending battle that is being a stay-at-home-mom—coordinating a family’s activities is something that many women are balancing very, very carefully. It’s easy to forget to enjoy the journey, there’s often not enough time, but there are some easy ways to avoid succumbing to the ongoing state of ‘being busy’ and find your inner calm. Here are five simple ways to help bring the joy back to the chaos.

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Mom’s Away: How to be a Better Mom by Travelling Solo

eat, grow, LIVE, nourish, play, rest By June 11, 2016 3 Comments

It happens at some point for every mom and it was happening for me today, one and a half months before he would turn the big oh-two: the first trip away from my baby.

I’m a journalist and editor, so it’s been easy to find reasons to work from home over the past few years, scrambling to squeeze every workable second out of naps, evenings, and weekends—but when a press trip came up for Ann Arbor and my first choice writer couldn’t make the dates, I considered whether it was perhaps time to get back into the game and go myself—a mom’s getaway.

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Julie Andrews Netflix

Musical Theatre on Netflix (for the Preschool Set)

grow, LIVE, nourish By June 10, 2016 No Comments

I am positively giddy!!! Many readers know that I trained as an actor, singer and dancer before falling into my current career. I can sing most songs from most Broadway shows, and have studied choreography from Jerome Robbins by watching films and live performances over and over again until I memorized the moves.

Even before ‘Frozen’ fame, Idina Menzel was an extreme girl-crush of mine. And Julie Andrews? I can’t even bear to sing along to the Sound of Music because I may drown out her beautiful voice. Think of it: Musical Theatre on Netflix. The streaming company has announced that Ms. Andrews will star in ‘Julie’s Greenroom‘, a new preschool show from The Jim Henson Company that features an all-new puppet cast of kids learning about the performing arts. The series will be available exclusively to Netflix members globally in early 2017.

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stay-at-home mom

Stay-at-Home Moms Need Nannies Too

grow, LIVE, nourish, play, rest, Unpopular Mom By June 8, 2016 4 Comments

Stay-at-home mothers are lucky. We get to be with our babies full-time and witness all of the coveted milestones that make parenthood so special in those early days. We have unlimited time to spend with these tiny creatures who hold our hearts so tightly, and we are free from the guilt and anguish that so many mothers feel for sending their little ones to daycare. We don’t have to put on a suit and drag our tired asses to an office, tearfully kissing our little ones goodbye. And we don’t answer to anyone but our own children, who, in reality, are the worst bosses anyone could ever have. As temping as it is, we must not fall prey to the idea that staying at home with children is a leisurely endeavour—it is work, and yet, somehow, this job that nobody really considers a job, has been placed on the bottom of the totem pole. Yes, we are lucky, but this shit is hard and asking for support shouldn’t be anything to be ashamed of.

But, it is.

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Moms and wine. How many glasses is too many?

Moms and Wine: Best Frenemies?

FAM, LIVE, nourish, self By May 19, 2016 Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Like many women, as I entered my 40s, I began fighting with my weight just a little bit more. My jeans are too tight, even my clothes from last year are snugger than I’d like. The worst part (and one I hate to admit, but I will to you guys) is that I know that what’s really responsible for the added pounds is wine consumption.

I definitely enjoy the occasional glass of wine here and there, but when I’m stressed (this happens often), I tend to drink even more than usual. Obviously, a lot of us do: Moms and wine have become a boring cliché, a too-obvious meme. We use wine as a crutch when our lives get out of hand, as a symbol to make us feel like we’re in control. Just glancing at a few wine labels at the liquor store, it’s frighteningly obvious that too many wine companies are marketing to the ‘stressed-out-mom’ demographic, like me.

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