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Freshful Tips for Mom Life!

February 13, 2020 by Rachel 26 Comments

This post is sponsored by Gerber. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found out I was pregnant with my first child nearly 8 years ago to this day. In that moment, I had a crystal clear version of the type of parent I would be.

My husband and I knew how we would parent. I was sure of how I would ‘make’ my children behave and I certainly knew what kind of disciplinary style I would use. I was dead set on breastfeeding and then making my own baby food with my top-of-the-market blender.

But then real-life happened. Parenting wasn’t as easy as it appeared to be. By some sort of miracle, I quickly understood that we are all just doing our best.

Making your life easier as a busy mom is crucial.

Accepting that certain concessions need to be made, as a mother, for the sake of you and your children, is crucial.

Real-Life Tips to Help You With Your Baby

I’m sharing some of my go-to tips and tricks for both new and seasoned moms.

Fed is Best

You’ve heard it over and over again — “Breast is best.” Heck, I heard it nonstop from doctors, nurses, and strangers, throughout each of my three pregnancies.

Gerber-dontstressmama

But the truth is, so much more than breastfeeding goes into breastfeeding. And it may just be that breastfeeding is testing your sanity. So don’t stress about something so trivial. Whether your child is breastfed, bottle-fed, or formula-fed, says nothing about you as a parent.

Babies Need Very Little

Based on ads and marketing, you would think you’re going to need to double the size of your house when welcoming in a new baby. That narrative is completely false.

Babies need so little. Know what they need? They need food (see above), love, diapers, and a safe space. Everything else is unnecessary.

Sure, other items can be helpful, but they really just take up space. I can count on two hands the amount of ‘bonus items’ that I used over and over again (even my first didn’t make it into his own crib or room for nearly a year).

Don’t stress if you don’t ‘have it all.’ Your baby will get everything they truly need.

Gerber baby Freshful

Give yourself a break

This is something a new mom hears time and time again. And it’s easier said than done. But there are things that you can control and give yourself a little break.

First and foremost, you’re doing a good job. Sleep is minimal and the crying just won’t stop, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t doing a good job. Just survive this stage and know you’re a great parent.

Second, recognize now that everyone has been in this exact same position. Every one of us has felt like they are struggling to get by. Remember that every day for the rest of your parenting ‘career.’

Third, remove all expectations of what you expected to be like as a parent. Things are different now.

Perfect Moms Are Fake

Louder for the people in the back — Perfect moms are not real!

Sure, it would be awesome to have all of this time to make Pinterest-worthy pretty bento box lunches for our school-aged children and to puree our own baby food, but that’s just not realistic.

Gerber-freshful

The reality is that our lives are much more chaotic. Stop focusing on the things you can do ‘from scratch,’ be it cookies for the preschool party, Valentine’s Day cards, and even baby food. These entrees are SO from Gerber are so convenient. 

Look for trusted products like Gerber® Freshful Start™ to reduce the stress of mealtime

Mealtime equals chaos in my life. The school-aged kids are picky and the baby demands food now. Instead of making my own baby food, I looked to Gerber® Freshful Start™.

Gerber - Freshful food

Gerber® Freshful Start™ offers high-quality, fresh tasting, cooked with love foods that are free of preservatives and GMOs! These always-organic baby and toddler foods are so fresh tasting they need to remain refrigerated.

This product line ranges from Homestyle Purees for the Sitter Stage to Veggie Entrees for toddlers. Both are prepared in minutes and make it easy for me when I’m dealing with the chaos of feeding a family of 5.

Gerber-Mila

You can pick up the Gerber® Freshful Start™ line at your local Meijer store in the refrigerated section of the baby food aisle!

Gerber-Mila8

Because being the perfect mom is totally overrated. Be the mom that has happy, healthy, and well-fed children. Most of all remember this: We’re all just doing our best.

Freshful Tips for Feeding Your Baby

Filed Under: #MomLife, babies, brews + food, busy mom, children, family, favorites, life with a toddler, mommyhood, Oh baby!, parenthood, tips + tricks Tagged With: #MomLife, brews + food, busy mom, children, family, life with a toddler, mommyhood, motherhood, oh baby, parenthood, shop my favorites

Favorite Fall Activities

October 8, 2018 by Rachel 15 Comments

Fall is my most favorite time of the year — it always has been. Not only is it the season of my birthday, but it’s the season of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving! The weather gets cooler, the leaves change, and pumpkin spice is readily available! Ha! 🙂

Our Fall has already been off to a great start! Here’s what we’ve been up to and loving lately!

Hayrides!

We went to a local Fall festival and the kids were super excited about the hayride through the apple orchard! Remy had never experienced a hayride and the last time Ari was on one was several years ago, so it was excitement across the board.

Remy laughed and smiled the whole time. Everything — the apple trees, the birds, even the far-off sound of a ‘choo choo’ — is more fun when you’re on a hayride.

Ahh, to be a kid again! ♥ ♥

Going to the pumpkin patch!

This is one of the things I love doing the most in the Fall and I’m happy to share my passion with my kids. Thus far, they seem all about it. I mean, who doesn’t love pumpkins!?

Ari has already mastered the fine art of picking his own pumpkin. The biggest pumpkin is the best, of course. Ha!

Swim Lessons at Goldfish Swim School.

Outdoor swimming may be over for this year, but a change in season is no reason to stop learning to swim! Remy is in the middle of her Mini 3 lessons at Goldfish Swim School in Hudson and we’ve seen huge progress with her abilities already.

The small class sizes of just 3-4 kids per instructor along with a fun curriculum has helped her love of swimming grow by leaps and bounds! Even during the one lesson where she cried and cried (for zero reasons), the teachers were so gentle and loving — they even had her smiling and laughing by the end of class!

Goldfish Swim School offers a state-of-the-art facility featuring hairy drying stations, swimsuit dryers, private bungalow-style changing rooms, a glass-walled viewing area, and 90-degree water for the kiddos. Teachers offer weekly feedback and help closely monitor the development of each child to maximize their swimming success.

Remy is so proud of what she’s learning —  flutter kicks, wall holds, and even holding her breath underwater. But most of all she’s having fun and keeping her Summer skills active year-round!

Fall Food + Beer.

One of the best parts of this season, at least for me, is all of the delicious food and drinks. Apple pie, pumpkin spice lattés, apple butter, pumpkin ales… the list goes on and on.

Basically, if it has apples or pumpkins in it, I’m here for it!

I mean, have you ever had an apple cider donut!? They’re delicious.

And we’re nowhere even close to Thanksgiving yet. So basically the best is yet to come!

And, of course, Halloween Parties!

I know it’s still a bit early in the ‘season’, but we’ve already been to one big Halloween party and look forward to at least two more!

My little Ninja, Skye from Paw Patrol, and little unicorn (held by Tigger) loved dressing up and playing games. Ari was especially into it. Like, extra. Ha.

He can be seen here eating all of the sugary goodies off the candy apple bar and then followed it up with an enthusiasm for apple-bobbing that I’ve never seen in another human before in my life!!

This kid, man. Freaking hilarious! I think he’s found his passion. And his passion is 1000% Halloween.

What are some

of your favorite

Fall activities !?

 

 

Filed Under: #MomLife, Akron, brews + food, busy mom, children, cleveland, coffee, explore locally, fall, family, favorites, fun, holidays, life with a toddler, live happy, mommyhood, NEO, Ohio, parenthood, review, sponsor Tagged With: #MomLife, akron, celebration, children, cleveland, explore locally, family, food, foodie, life, life with a toddler, Live Happy, local, mommyhood, motherhood, ohio, parenthood, sponsor

Friday Favorites

May 18, 2018 by Rachel 11 Comments

I’ve been struggling to keep my head above water this week. Truly, nothing extraordinary has happened; I’m just feeling the weight of the end of pregnancy. Between pregnancy insomnia, chasing the kids, and pregnancy exhaustion (thanks to that insomnia and lots of jabs to the ribs), I’ve been a terrible homemaker this week.

As we sit here,  there are three large loads of laundry piled up on the living room furniture — in plain sight so that I will fold them and put them away — that have been sitting there for a couple of days; dishes are piled up in the sink; and our floors are in desperate need of the vacuum.

Despite all of the craziness, here’s my current favorites from this week!

Favorite on Netflix: We may or may not have binge-watched the new crime docu-series Evil Genius this week. Although it was no Making a Murderer, it was still really good. And super freaky, considering it happened not far from where I grew up — but I had no idea that this even happened until this show! Was I living under a rock!? No, I was just in college.

Favorite read: This article titled What if All I Want is A Mediocre life? It really struck a chord with me. Especially the part about being a mom. In the age of the ‘pinterest mom’ I strive to be just mediocre. Not kidding.

You know why? Because a while ago I realized I wasn’t happy when I was being a ‘pinterest mom’ — and my family noticed — and they weren’t either!

Favorite listen: As per my norm (I’m a creature of habit, y’all), my favorite listen this week was a This American Life episode! Check it out here.

Favorite ride: For the last week I’ve been driving around this incredible Mazda CX-9! We recently turned in our lease of a small SUV and I was really curious about trying this Mazda. I have to say — this car was a game changer, y’all! First of all, it has optional third row seating. Also? All the bells and whistles — between the huge navigation system, to in-dash speedometer with traffic sign recognition, Bose sound system, and the lane-keep assist — were awesome on a little mini-road trip we took!

The kids loved it as much as I did!

Favorite sip: This week was brought to you by… coffee. Copious amounts of coffee! But seriously. I know I generally drink a LOT of coffee; but this week I literally could not have functioned without it. I was a zombie. Not sleeping at night; not able to nap during the day; and did I mention that we transitioned the kids to bunk beds last weekend?? Yeah, that’s been buckets of fun.

So it should come as no surprise that my favorite drink of this week was the Triple Threat Latte from Nervous Dog.

Favorite eat: As I mentioned before, I’ve kinda been a trainwreck on the homefront this week. If it weren’t for my husband being off from work Monday and Tuesday, I swear my children would have eaten spaghetti o’s everyday for lunch and dinner.

But, alas, he was home to save us! And instead, we ate a delicious dinner Bibimbap — which is basically a Korean dish of rice, veggies, and beef.

Favorite link: Just another shameless plug — but my latest blog post for Cleveland Plus went live a couple of weeks ago! Check it out here.

Favorite place: I feel like I don’t say this enough, but I truly love working at the Riverfront YMCA. My fellow coworkers and the members are like an extended family for us. And this week, Ari celebrated his last day of preschool at the YMCA. He’ll be heading off to kindergarten this Fall!

So we celebrated with friends this week and said goodbyeeeee to preschool! It was such a bittersweet moment for all of us!

One of my favorite places will always be the YMCA. It’s a good thing we’re still going to be there everyday 😉

 

What are some of your favorites

from this week !?

 

Filed Under: #MomLife, Akron, brews + food, children, cleveland, coffee, Explore Ohio, favorites, lists, live happy, NEO, Ohio, review Tagged With: akron, brews + food, cleveland, coffee, explore locally, explore Ohio, Friday favorites, Live Happy, love list, NEO, ohio, review, sponsor

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