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STEM Education Through a Snapology Franchise

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I can’t believe we’re a mere two weeks away from the start of the school year here in Ohio! And with my first born headed off to kindergarten, it’s been making me think a lot about education and supplementing his learning with STEM activities.

STEM education (or science, technology, engineering, and math) helps to prepare our children of all ages to make a real difference in this world by helping them to learn the skills that may be missed in our traditional education system.

That’s why Snapology franchises — like the one opening in Westerville — are so important to me.

For those not familiar with Snapology, it’s a nationwide company based in play through learning with LEGO and robotics. They offer after-school workshops, Summer camps, and even birthday parties for kids of all ages.

So you can understand my excitement to know that there is a location nearby for my little guy. He has thousands and thousands of LEGOs already and I watch his imagination run wild with creativity all day every day. I just want to encourage his enthusiasm for STEM learning even further.

Science is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore + engage with the world, + then have the capacity to change that… Click To Tweet

I often wonder how different my adult life would be if I was encouraged to pursue science and mathematics as a young adult. In fact, as soon as I graduated from college I regretted not getting my degree in accounting. I have such a love of numbers and mathematics, but it was overlooked in high school and thus even I missed my I think may have been my calling.

I’m happy to know that my children’s’ curiosity for STEM will be nurtured, with both the help of me and the amazing programs in our area. And so I guess I can go into this (very first!) school year with a bit less anxiety. I mean, for now! 🙂

 

What are some of the ways
in which you are encouraging
STEM learning for your children?

 

How To Trust Your Mother’s Instinct

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Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TrustInGentle #ChooseGentle #CollectiveBias

Parenting is an exhausting, but rewarding, journey. Even now, taking home my third newborn, I find myself saying “Wait, is this normal? Should she have these bumps!? Is she running a fever?!”

As moms we second guess everything. Whether it's our first kid or our 7th kid, the decisions we're faced with on a daily basis are difficult. Click To Tweet

I feel lucky to have created a tribe of wonderful women to rally around me for support when I’m in dire need of my mothering questions answered. This ‘tribe’ ranges from my mom to other relatives, to grandparents, to friends, to my online community.

They’ve helped me answer so many questions and given me the confidence I’m missing in those moments of sleep deprivation. They’ve listened to me cry when my babies would not sleep. They’ve held my hand and helped me through the darkest of times.

Because we have all been there. Every single one of us.

But even though we’ve all had these moments of self-doubt, as moms we also know when to trust our gut. On so many occasions I’ve been equally grateful for my motherly instincts — including a time where I just knew that my eldest needed to be in the emergency room for dehydration caused by a gastrointestinal virus.

All of my tribe — young and old — have grown up trusting JOHNSON’S® baby products for our little ones. And in those moments where my mommy instincts have led me to sleepless nights, it’s nice to know that I can run to Walgreens, day or night, to get those batteries for our thermometer or to pick up the JOHNSON’S® baby shampoo that’s 100% gentle and free of parabens for my littlest one!

It’s so comforting to trust a company that has been around for over 100 years to help care for the ones that are most precious to me. And knowing that their products are more gentle than ever before is so comforting. They are one of the most trusted names in baby products and we’ve trusted JOHNSON’S® products for all three of our children.

JOHNSON’S® continues to be a company that evolves right along with the rest of us — from baby boomers to millennials, JOHNSON’S® stays true to who they are by using only the safest ingredients.

I’m excited to share that you can save money on your favorite JOHNSON’S® products at Walgreens! From now until August 25th, buy 1 and get 1 50% off with your Walgreens balance rewards card! So you can feel extra good about treating your littlest loves with the #1 choice of hospitals! So head over to Walgreens and feel good about saving money on the products we’ve all loved for generations.

And mamas — in moments of self-doubt, remember your tribe and your neighborhood Walgreens will always be there for you. Oh, and so will I. 😉

4 Ways to Help Siblings Adjust to a New Baby

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This is a sponsored blog post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Is anyone else in complete disbelief that we’re nearing the end of July already?! I can hardly believe that our third baby, Mila, is already a month old. It’s all sort of surreal.

These past four weeks have been a huge adjustment for our family. Between bringing a new baby home and having my husband at home 24/7, my two older kids, Ari (5) and Remy (2), have been having some issues. Nothing major, honestly. Just a tad bit of attitude and a few listening issues.

And I have to say that throughout this adjustment period we’ve found little ways to make the older kids still feel special and important.

Movie dates  //

My husband and I have always been movie buffs. When we were dating (aka before we had kids) we would go to the theater weekly. It was our ‘thing.’ And I’m proud to say that we’ve instilled the love of the movie theater to Ari; but up until recently, Remy had yet to go.

Well, lucky for us, the Cinemark Summer Movie Club has been a go-to in our new weekly routine! Remy has sat through 3 different movies with Chad and her big brother since Miss Mila was born.

They think this movie date with daddy is the coolest thing ever — especially since they get popcorn and “fizzies” during their big date!

Special Treats at Steak ‘n Shake  //

Bringing home a new baby can mean lots of ‘fend for yourselves’ meals, which, in our house means lots of hot dogs, fruit, and sandwiches. We’ve been lucky to have a handful of friends bring us meals, too! Otherwise, I fear our children would not have had a single home-cooked meal these last 4 weeks.

We’ve also made it a point to take advantage of special ‘treat’ meals — like our recent adventure to Steak ‘n Shake for their Kids Eat Free weekend promotion. For every $9 you spend, you get one free kids’ meal! How awesome is that?!

Steak ‘n Shake does such an awesome job of making kids of all ages feel special — from first greeting to the last sip of milkshake!

Just look at how happy this little lady is! And she ate every last bite of her (free!) kids meal!

Solo errands  //

There isn’t always time for grand adventures, like those above. But ya know what? Kids don’t need big adventures. Small errands with just one kid are equally as rewarding. That undivided attention is glorious to them!

Whether it be Chad running to the grocery store with just Ari, or me taking Remy and Mila to Target for an hour, they are happy with the extra attention.

Extra bedtime snuggles  //

The one area where the older kids seem to be struggling the most is with bedtime routines. Between illness and toddler sleep regression, we’ve had our fair share of bedtime obstacles; but even on the best of nights, we find ourselves giving Ari and Remy lots of extra snuggles just before bed.

One extra story, one extra leg rub, and one extra snuggle and hug go a long way.

And when all is said and done I try to remind myself that they won’t remember the struggles of these early days as a family of 5. Nope. They’ll remember the special moments that are so small they seem insignificant. That’s the hope that I cling to in the moments of chaos — to just turn simple moments into long-lasting memories.

 

 

Prenatal Self-Care with Make-Ahead Scrambled Egg Muffins

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NatureMadePrenatalDHA #CollectiveBias

As a new mom, one of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was the following:

Plan, prepare, and adjust your expectations as you go.

Pregnancy and adding a family member are, at best, an adjustment. And, at their toughest, they are a battle. I consider myself in the lucky category regarding pregnancy. We never had any trouble trying to conceive. I began taking my prenatal vitamins the moment we decided to try for our most recent baby and, though convinced it surely could not be as easy to get pregnant as the previous times, we became pregnant almost immediately.

But all of my pregnancies were very different. The first time around I felt invincible — I ate what I wanted, failed to exercise, and still felt relatively great. But that was not a healthy pregnancy. I struggled to recover and get back my health postpartum. Eventually I did, but it was harder than it should have been. The second time around I was too sick with hyperemesis gravidarum to maintain any bit of health. But the third time around I made a vow to myself and my family to be a healthier, better version, of pregnant me.

Using a 5 month supply Nature Made® Prenatal Multi + DHA from Sam’s Club.

The easiest way for me to stay on top of my health during pregnancy was making sure to attend regular OB checks and purchasing a 5 month supply of Nature Made® Prenatal Multi + DHA from Sam’s Club. I knew that I was doing everything in my power to provide the essential vitamins and minerals needed to properly develop my baby’s nervous system.†

Having the 5 month supply means that I can focus less on running out and more on keeping myself healthy and at my best.


Remaining active.

I also maintained my exercise regimen — which is something I had failed to do previously. I continued teaching cycling classes and coaching gymnastics, all while also participating in group exercise classes such as Zumba and kickboxing. Sure, my stamina and level of physical exertion certainly changed, I stayed active and did my best to maintain a physical lifestyle.

And I have to say, it made a huge impact in how I felt. I was able to keep up with my kids and give my energy a boost when I was feeling sluggish. As a bonus, the exercise made my pregnant body sleep so well!

Stocking up on healthy foods. 

As a busy mom of two already, I needed to fuel my body with foods that would help me keep up with chasing them around. One of my favorite ways to keep us all from starving is to buy the pre-washed and pre-cut fruits and veggies from Sam’s Club. This way when a tiny toddler comes screaming for “snaaaaacks!” I can just open the fridge and hand her a carrot! It also helps that I love raw veggies and that they are an excellent way to keep me from eating the unhealthy foods neither I, nor my baby, needed!


Make, bake, and freeze. 

With previous pregnancies I gave in to every craving under the sun. I am honestly fairly certain I lived off of ice cream and Philly cheesesteaks my entire first pregnancy. But it turns out you shouldn’t feed your family ice cream and cheesesteaks every day, so something had to give with this third pregnancy.

Enter meal prep. My nemesis and my saving grace. See, I’m not a huge fan of cooking. I like to get it all done so that when I’m hungry I can just eat — no waiting. So the saving grace is that I can prep meals ahead, make them, bake them (or cook them), and freeze them in smaller amounts for later.

And what better way to freeze items than in cute, bite-sizes, so that my kids think it’s ‘fun‘ to eat! Did you realize you can put basically anything in a muffin tin and it suddenly changes the way that kids see meals!? All jokes aside, this really and truly works!

That’s why I’m sharing one of my favorite healthy meals that can be made ahead and put in the freezer to grab and go — Easy Scrambled Egg Muffins!

Easy Scrambled Egg Muffins

I grabbed all of the items from Sam’s Club so that I could make a big batch to freeze and have handy.

Ingredients:

  • 18 eggs
  • 1 C chopped spinach
  • 2/3 C whole milk (or 2% milk)
  • 2/3 C flour
  • 2/3 C grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1 Tbsp basil
  • 2 small tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 tsp. baking soda


Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
  2. Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Slowly mix in milk.
  3. Stir in black pepper, sea salt, and basil.
  4. Fold in spinach, tomatoes, and cheese.
  5. Add flour and baking soda until thoroughly mixed.
  6. Use 1/4 measuring cup to scoop into muffin tin.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let stand to cool. Enjoy and freeze extras!

Good for you, delicious, and easy peasy!

† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

 

Postpartum Update // One.

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It’s been over a week since my whirlwind delivery of Mila Rose. I really expected things to be different than they are right now. Not in a worse way, but not in a better way either.

Just… different.

Expectation Versus Reality  //

We’ve all been going through a bit of an adjustment. I came home from the hospital on Thursday, the 21st, late in the afternoon. The kids were very surprised to see us because Mimi told them we wouldn’t be home until Friday! And, truthfully, we had a really easy first night home. Mila slept for 5.5 hours straight!

But the days that have since followed have not been easy. The kids have been restless and overly energetic. I’m certain that some of it is the adjustment of having a new sibling at home; some of it is the crazy heatwave we’ve had; and the rest is probably the fact that their lives are totally different with having their daddy at home all day.

Sure, our patience has been tried. And sure, we expected quite a bit of that. But expectation versus reality can be a bit of a shock.

But over the last week we’ve attempted to keep their lives (and ours) as ‘new’-normal as possible. Chad took both the big kids to see a movie, they’ve played in the park, had playdates with friends, and ran errands. Basically, business as usual (minus work, plus an infant).

Mental Health  //

I’m surprised at how well I’m doing, honestly. But I know it’s still early — and I’ve had a lot of help with my husband being on paternity leave. So I’m taking it one day at a time.

It definitely helps that she sleeps better than the other two kids. Ari had colic so the witching hour was awful; and Remy just never slept (day or night), period. So the fact that this child will sleep some is better than the other two already.

And she absolutely LOVES sleeping in her DockATot. If you haven’t heard of a DockATot, you must go check them out. Mila apparently likes hers so much she’ll fall asleep in it during all of the crazy chaos of the big kids being loud!

Again, it totally helps my mental health that she will sleep — and with this incredible product to help us? Even better.

Physical Health  //

I’ve recovered so quickly from this labor and delivery, it’s nothing short of amazing. It’s honestly amazing what our bodies can do. I keep looking down at my squishy belly and I think “I can’t believe this body just had a human in it a week ago!”

I’m happy to say that I’ve definitely lost a significant amount of baby weight already (something that never happened this early for me with the other two) and I can’t wait until I am cleared to workout! I’m itching to sign up for a race of some sort, but I also don’t want to push my body too soon.

Maternity Leave + Paternity Leave  //

I’m still planning on going back to work in about a week and a half. The older kids are so restless and we all thrive on a well-oiled schedule. Getting them out to play with friends while I’m working will be helpful.

But I’m honestly dreading the fact that my husband goes back to work after the upcoming holiday. Both kids have gotten so used to having him here during the day that I’m certain another ‘adjustment period’ will be coming when he returns. Our saving grace is that he has 6 more weeks of leave he can take — whenever I need him to!

Yes, I realize we’re beyond lucky that his company now offers paid paternity leave! This is a first for us since it just started this year! And we’re going to absolutely use it!

This Upcoming Week  //

We have more ‘tot time’ scheduled, another $1 movie from Cinemark Kids Clubhouse, and a 4th of July without plans! Luckily my parents are coming up on Wednesday so I’ll have some help when Chad returns to work Thursday.

Mila’s newborn photos have been rescheduled for this Thursday (thanks to a baby who refused to sleep during her shoot last week) and we have a weekend with zero on the agenda.

So basically survival. Survival is the only solid plan I have for this week. Everything else is negotiable.

Tell me —

What got you through

 

the early postpartum days ?!

 

What’s In My Hospital Bag

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Nothing. No seriously. Up until a few days ago, I had zero packed. Not for me, not for the new baby, not for my other two kids (who will, undoubtedly, need a change of clothes and diapers when a friend watches them).

But I finally stopped slacking. I packed my bag with everything but the last minute items. I’ve learned a LOT from two previous hospital deliveries — on what’s totally unnecessary and the things that I truly wish I had the first time around. So here’s what I’m packing in my hospital bag for baby number 3 — and what I wish I would have had for my first labor and delivery!

Peppermint Essential Oil.

I do not handle nausea well. I know this will be my downfall if I can’t keep it under control. So the first thing I put in my hospital bag is doterra peppermint essential oils.

I put a few drops in my hand when I’m feeling nauseated and sniff the inside of my hands. It truly was a lifesaver last time.

Nursing Bras.

Essential, but honestly one of my least favorite purchases. I’m still looking for that ‘perfect’ nursing bra, but I found a few with decent reviews to bring with me in the meantime.

In the hospital, it’s all about comfort. I expect my milk to come in quickly, just like last time. And underwires are not my friend — at least not until the gals start to regulate themselves, milk-wise. So something comfortable is key!

Comfortable pajamas.

All of my pajamas from the last two kids are destroyed, so this time I purchased a few different sets of pajamas and loungewear from Cuddl Duds. I’d heard that they’re incredibly comfortable, so I ordered a few online and tried them on — big mistake because I don’t want to wait until labor and delivery to wear them!

I also got a nice long cardigan to cover up with. Those hospital rooms can be a tad bit chilly and it’s nice to be able to take off layers as needed.

Ollie World Swaddle.

I wish I had known about these Ollie World Swaddles for the first baby, but having them for number 2 was a LIFESAVER. If you’ve ever had an infant, you know that the startle reflex is real — and something that all babies struggle with. And on one wants a baby to struggle to sleep, am I right?!

The stretchy fabric is perfect for use for babies of all sizes — and it’s super soft! Bonus? It opens easily at the bottom for easy diaper changes!

Hospital Outfits for Baby. 

I don’t allow many visitors at home those first couple of weeks, but I do allow for visitors at the hospital. So a couple of cute hospital outfits for the baby are a necessity. A couple is the bare minimum because it’s basically a guarantee that the baby will blow out of at least one outfit in the hospital.

I got several comfy outfits for this baby girl to lounge around in while we spend our 24-48 hours in the Mommy-Baby ward!

Portable Noise Machine.

Everyone in my family uses a noise machine to help us sleep, and what better way to emulate the noises in the womb for a newborn!? So I’ll be bringing along a portable, battery-powered, white noise machine for the hospital stay, that way I can ensure a semi-smooth transition to naps and nighttime sleep!

I grabbed this one from Target — it’s small enough that I can keep it in a diaper bag and even keep it next to her in the car.

Nursing Pillow.

If you plan on breastfeeding, set yourself up for as much immediate success as possible by bringing a nursing pillow with you to the hospital. Some of my best experiences, postpartum, have been with the help of the lactation consultants in the hospital.

The Milk Boss nursing pillow from Itzy Ritzy is amazing! It’s different from traditional nursing pillows because you don’t have to worry about it falling off of your lap — you loop your arm right through it! How cool is that!?

Other necessities.

Phone charger. Camera. Toiletries (Toothbrush, makeup, hair products, etc). Contacts/solution. Identification/insurance information.

As important as all of this is, here’s what is NOT important to bring in your hospital bag: 

Lots of real underwear. You won’t wear it — just stick to the mesh stuff they give you. Just bring one pair to go home in.

Pads. They will have THE best pads in the hospital. In fact? Take some with you.

Diapers/wipes. Again, they will be provided for you.

A water bottle. One of my favorite ‘things’ to bring home from the hospital, aside from my baby of course, is the mega water bottle — oh and the hospital ice! So yes, leave your straw cups and water bottles at home. Take full advantage of the giant cups they give you instead!

Tell me:

 

What’s on your must-bring list for the hospital?

 

Disclosure: I received the Ollie World Swaddle and the Milk Boss infant feeding pillow in exchange for an honest review. As always, all thoughts herein are solely my own.