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Monday’s Mama is Right on Time.

Published on March 19, 2018March 11, 2018 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

Remember when I used to post about cool mamas every Monday?

Remember when I used to offer my toddler vegetables and have a generally clean house and have friends and playdates and take Babystar to the park all the time?

Remember when I used to change my clothes at least once a day?

Yeah, me too. If any of this sounds like you, first of all, let’s start a Club. We will never meet because we are all overwhelmed af.

BUT ALSO, you need to check out Bethany’s wisdom over at Mama Finds Her Way. She is finding THE WAY for all of us. Bethany has three kids and still finds time for herself so she’s basically a superhero.

Bethany has tons of great tips for taking care of your house or your finances or your kids but I love her blog the most because she focuses so many posts on taking care of YOU.

She even has a self-care workbook that you can have for free if you subscribe to her blog. Do it. You will not be disappointed.

Bethany answered some questions for me way back in 2017 and she is not even mad that I’m just now sharing her answers with all of you in March. She gets it. She’s overwhelmed too. But she’s figuring it out for all of us and trying hard to help us all be happy and calm mamas that remember to take care of ourselves. Thank you, Bethany.

1. Your blog is all about helping overwhelmed mamas practice self-care. That is AMAZING! Can you give us mortals an easy tip or two to help live our lives with Calm and Serenity? Or even just Clean Hair and No Yelling?

My best advice is to find some time for you to do something that fills you up. It doesn’t have to be anything productive, either. In fact, on particularly stressful days, during nap time, I will just sit on my couch and stare into space. (I may or may not be eating chocolate during this time). Everyone needs time to breathe. I also strongly encourage all overwhelmed mom’s to start slowly implementing self care. Implement one new habit at a time until it becomes ingrained and then focus on something else. Eventually you will notice that you have more energy and patience. You can actually enjoy your day and your kids more, instead of wishing it were bed time already.

2. What do YOU do when you get overwhelmed? (Do you ever get overwhelmed?)

I get overwhelmed quite a bit. More often than I would like to admit. It’s something that I am continuing to work on and, although I have come a long way, there is always room for improvement. In fact, I created my blog as a way to help myself process through my own overwhelm and help other moms in the process. For me there are different kinds of overwhelm. Sometimes, I am emotionally overwhelmed and when I feel that way, writing it out is very cathartic for me. When I am overwhelmed by my to do list or the state of my home, I do a complete brain dump of everything I need to do and then I will prioritize that list and start chipping away at the list one task at a time.

3. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?

It has been awhile since I have been to the theater. I think the last movie I saw was Captain America: Civil War.

4. It’s the PTA Bakesale: homemade, store bought, or NOPE?

I intentionally try not to get involved with things like this. I am trying to create more space in my life for the things that fill me up by saying no to things that drain me. And for me, this would be something that is draining.

Bethany is an inspiration. Everyone should go read her blog and follow her on all of the things: Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram.

I am now going to practice self-care by making another cup of coffee instead of waking Babystar to take her to a 10am concert. Because fuck Daylight Savings Time. What will YOU do today for yourself?

Monday’s Mama is Flossy Flossy.

Published on January 29, 2018 by Darlene DeeLeave a comment

Please meet Flossie, the awesome flossy flossy mama blogger behind Super Mom Hacks.

Omg she just might virtually murder me for that title but I CAN’T HELP IT. I tried to think of another title but all I can hear is Fergie. (Flossy = super amazing.)

And Flossie IS super amazing. She was a teacher before becoming mama to Kimmie (age 8) and Essie (almost 6). Flossie is a country girl who married a city boy, and she and her family now live in Suburbia, U.S.A. She enjoys bicycling, cooking, crocheting, volunteering, and chauffeuring her darlings to Scouts or swim lessons or church choir. Flossie shares all her parenting tips, tricks, and hacks to save busy parents time, money, and sanity at supermomhacks.com. Her blog is full of really useful information. You will find simple recipes, easy home DIY that a regular person can actually pull off, and lists of vacation tips, cleaning tips, and organizing tips. She even has a post about getting melted crayon out of laundry.

And just in case you wonder ‘what if’ or maybe you are super into schadenfreude, Flossie also tells you all of the ways she tried that DID NOT work. It is refreshing to know that even Super Moms sometimes take two or three or fifteen tries to get something right.

Flossie is so good at work-arounds that she has figured out a way to show us a picture of her and her kids without actually showing a picture of her kids. Behold her genius.

Flossie rocks so hard, and she was nice enough to answer a few of my questions.

1. Your blog is SO FULL of helpful information. How do you know everything? Are you a genius? Why aren’t you President?

Sure, I’m a genius lol. No, seriously, I’m actually pretty dense sometimes – but I like to problem-solve, so I find myself thinking “There’s GOT to be a better way!” Whenever I stumble across something that makes my parenting existence easier – whether it’s a recipe hack, a super-useful product, or a better way to do something – then it’s going to be posted on the blog, sooner or later. I actually started my blog when a friend of mine who was always running her parenting questions by me, told me, “you should start a parenting blog with this stuff.” So I did. I was a teacher until Kimmie was born, so it’s fun to get up on my soapbox and tell everyone how NOT to make the same mistakes I’ve made. (And unlike teaching, there’s no essays to grade – yay!)

And hey, what the heck, any native-born citizen can be President, right? I briefly considered being President when I was little; one day I learned at school that the president’s salary was $200K, and that sounded close to millionaire-dom to my seven-year-old-self. But then I decided it would be too much work.

2. Do you have any Super Mom Hacks about unpacking? Asking for a friend.

Haha, unpacking after a move. Yeah, I last moved almost a decade ago, and I *still* have a few boxes that I haven’t touched since packing them up! My favorite hack is to pile them all up together until you either A) need something in them or B) get sick of the pile sitting there. Once you get through all the A boxes, someday you’ll get to the Bs and when you open each B box, you’ll be like, “no wonder I lived without all this stuff for so long!” It’s remarkably easy to let go of the contents at that point. (The ideal hack, of course, is to get rid of as much of your $#!+ as you can BEFORE you move, so there’s less to unpack. Or so I’m told – can’t say I’ve ever truly pulled that one off.)

3. What is your most top secret, nobody else knows, super awesome mom hack? We won’t tell anyone. 🙂

I’m afraid you’re too late, because I’m not very good at keeping ANY hack secret (hence my blog). Probably my all-time FAVORITE parenting hack, for which my dear husband gets credit, is the Mommy Potty. It was the only way to get out of the house with my children for the 3 or so years I had a kiddo working on toilet training.

(Darlene here interrupting: OMG go read the Mommy Potty Hack. Brilliant! I would have never thought of that!!!!)

4. It’s the PTA Bakesale: homemade, store bought, or NOPE?

Definitely homemade – seriously, when do I have time to go to the store? BUT you have to give me at least a month’s notice. Three to six months is better. That way I can bake it ahead (preferably with the girls’ help – something to occupy them on a Sunday afternoon, double-win) and stick it in the freezer. I probably have some double-chocolate zucchini bread hiding in my freezer that’s almost as old as Essie.

You need Flossie’s wisdom in your life. Really. Definitely check out Super Mom Hacks. And follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Help HER help YOU. Really, dude. Trust me.

Monday’s Mama is HASHTAG GOALS.

Published on October 16, 2017October 15, 2017 by Darlene Dee6 Comments

Katherine blogs at Welcome to the Nursery and she is every woman. Well, she is every woman who has an engineering background but now stays home to care for two hilarious energetic small children. So, maybe she is you, but she is a hell of a lot more awesome than me.

Katherine is the mom who runs the Puff (1.5yo) and Squish (4yo) nursery. She hung up her engineering hat four years ago to start the mom gig; it turns out her skills of tank driving and bullet design didn’t transfer well to child care, but at least with parenthood you can learn on the job (right?!). Katherine shares her amusements and frustrations along this journey. When the kids are asleep, she nurses a fledgling writing career, obsessively reads English historical fiction, and dabbles in painting and sewing.

Welcome to the Nursery is full of funny yet thoughtful things her incredibly astute four-yer-old says and some really genius parenting ideas. Katherine is a superwoman, super mom, and probably super fun to hang out with on a mom’s night out. Like, for real, she has so many ideas and they are all so good. How does she have so many good ideas?! When does she sleep?? When does she THINK!? I want to be like Katherine when I grow up.

Katherine answered a few questions and showed that she is COOLER THAN I EVEN KNEW. I mean, Guns N’ Roses? Come on.

1. What is your most favorite grown-up book? Kid’s book?

My blog readers probably know by now that I A) LOVE to read, and B) absolutely adore Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. There are many series I love (by Ted Bell, Daniel Silva, Conn Iggulden, Vince Flynn), but as a standalone book you really can’t top P&P. My favorite kid’s book was Roald Dahl’s The BFG.
2. Where did your girl’s nicknames ‘Puff’ and ‘Squish’ originate? Are there stories behind those names? Speaking of names, is your blog name a wink to ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ or not? I’ve been wondering.

I think my husband came up with both of them, actually. My 4yo’s full nickname is “Squisher Pants,” because as a baby she was such a squishy thing to hug and cuddle. Adding “Pants” to the end of any nickname – or even a full name – is just silly and fun. We sometimes call our 18mo “Puffer Pants,” although mostly it’s just “Puff” or “Puff-Puff.” She is – you guessed it – so puffy! She’s not a really chubby baby, but she’s just so soft! She also likes to “puff” her stuffed animals. It’s so freaking adorable….

As for the blog name, I actually named it after the Guns N’ Roses song “Welcome to the Jungle.” Squish was a few months old, and I could already tell that our house was destined to become a madhouse – and I pictured a wild, loud, messy place … the “jungle” with that song blaring in the background. P.S. I have no idea what the lyrics are actually about!

3. It’s the PTA Bakesale: homemade, store bought, or NOPE?

Oh, homemade for sure! I have a decent reputation for baking yummy things – from homemade soft pretzels to Italian seven-layer rainbow cookies. My mom passed down those handy skills … thanks, ma!

Katherine is basically Pinterest personified. You should bookmark her blog and follow her on Twitter.