Mom. Wife. Busy Life.

Category: Tips & Tricks

How to Survive a Power Outage With Kids

Disclosure: I received a MyCharge HubPlus 6700mAh at no cost for review purposes. I’m a loyal fan and proud owner of several MyCharge portable power packs and love sharing my thoughts about them with you!

During the last week of the holiday season this past year, we experienced a heavy windstorm that knocked the power out all over the area for days. This occurred a few days before Christmas. The problem with this windstorm is that it wasn’t necessarily predicted to be as bad as it was, leaving residents like me – unprepared. Some residents went without power for about 48 hours, some for a week or more.

With three kids at home, there were moments where I did panic a bit. Because of this, I made sure to plan ahead and prepare for possible future power outages. When we had our week long snow storm in February, we were prepared. The power didn’t go out, but we were warned about the possibilities of power outages during the snow storm. Here are some tips that I wanted to share with you based on our personal experience with the latest power outage.

1. Stock up on lanterns, flashlights, and batteries.

During the windstorm power outage, I found myself scrambling around the house to find lighting for our home. I was able to find our 15 year old unity candle from our wedding, two used candles that I pulled from a recent swap, and a few flashlights that I found placed in random drawers. I did not have a specific place in my home devoted to lighting. Lesson learned. I have one now. In this storage bin, I keep our four pack of lanterns that I purchased after the power outage, a few candles with lighters, flashlights, and batteries. I do recommend using the lanterns and flashlights before candles, but if you need to light candles, you will be prepared with them. We light our candles in the kitchen out of reach of our children for safety purposes.

2. Keep your portable power packs charged.

With three kids, my husband, and myself using our devices for entertainment during power outages, I was thankful that we had a couple of portable power packs on hand, fully charged. Portable power packs are amazing to have during times like power outages. Thanks to the MyCharge portable power packs, I now have a least one power pack per family member. This will allow everyone to have their own portable charger during outages to keep devices charged. We use our portable power packs on a daily basis around our home, so they are a great investment and something I highly recommend you add to your emergency kit! They are great for on the go, too!

The MyCharge HubPlus 6700mAh charges up to three devices (smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, headphones, BT speaker) at once. This portable power pack has a built in wall prong for rapid recharge of the power bank. It includes built-in lightning & micro-USB cables to quickly charge your devices. I absolutely love this feature because it keeps me from having to look around for extra cables to use for charging!

Check out more MyCharge Portable PowerPacks. I recommend having one for each family member! While you are here, read my review on the MyCharge Unplugged 5k charger.

3. Stock up on non-perishables and water.

When I looked through our remaining food items after the power went out, I was afraid we didn’t have enough. This was due to poor planning. When I shop now, I try to grab at least a gallon or two of water to store once a month. By doing this, we will have water on hand during the next outage. I also grab a few cans of soup and other non-perishable kid friendly foods and place them at the top of our pantry where we store our emergency food. By shopping a little here and there, I’m confident that we have enough food and water for another power outage. Our emergency food and water did come in handy during the recent snow storm and I’ll be replacing what we used during future shopping trips.

Check out these emergency food storage options.

4. Stock up on games.

There’s not much you can do during power outages and kids can get bored quickly. My kids received a Crayola Light Board for Christmas and it came in handy during the power outage! Battery operated, light up toys are perfect for times like this. If you don’t have any of these types of games or toys, pull out the traditional board games and flashlights for a family game day or night.

Related: The Importance of Family Game Nights

5. Keep cash available.

When the power goes out, many businesses can lose power, too. We had one grocery store operating with cash only for payment during the outage. We did NOT have cash on hand during this last power outage – lesson learned again. Store cash in a fire safe for future emergencies. I would recommend at least $100 if not more for things like food and gas.

These are my top 5 ways to be prepared for a power outage. Prepare in advance so that you don’t feel that sense of panic like I did when our power went out for a few days!

October 4, 2019
How to Be a Great Mother Without Losing Yourself in the Process

Motherhood can be challenging! Learn how to be a great mother without losing yourself in the process!

It’s a situation that’s all too common these days.

Women–who were once strong, independent and fun–become mothers and lose a large part of themselves in the process. Baby comes along, and nothing else matters as much anymore–not work, not friends, not your appearance, sometimes not even your relationship with your spouse. You’re a mother now. It’s your entire life. And it’s overwhelming.

To be clear: No one is arguing that motherhood isn’t incredibly important and fulfilling or that it isn’t the most important job in the world. I think it is. The problem happens, however, when women get so wrapped up in this one facet of their lives that they suddenly forget everything else.

How to Be a Good Mother To Your Children

Do you know what I’m talking about? Have you seen it in your own life? Perhaps you once hung out with friends on a regular basis, but now you can’t remember the last time you had a girls’ night out. Perhaps you once took pride in your appearance and loved dressing in cute clothes, but now you live in ratty sweats out of sheer laziness. Perhaps your once-sizzling love life has pretty much faded away now that you’re too tired to care.

Whether you’re still in the trenches with a newborn baby at home or your children are half-grown and you’ve simply gotten in bad habits, the good news is: If you want to reclaim part of yourself AND still be an amazing mother–you can! Here’s a few tips on how.

How to Be a Great Mother Without Losing Yourself in the Process

Realize that You are Worth It

As mothers it is all too easy to fall into the trap of always putting everyone else first. While that is usually great, you can’t ALWAYS put yourself last. You have to take care of yourself at least a little bit so you will have the energy to take care of others. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for those you love. They deserve to see you be happy, and whether you know it or not, the way you treat yourself DOES have a huge impact on them as well.

Make Plans with an Old Friend

If you keep telling yourself “someday I will…,” it will never happen. Call up an old friend you haven’t seen in a while and make plans. This will force you to get out of the house and do something fun. Even if all you do is get together to take all of the kids for ice cream, it will still be good to get out of the house.

Carve Out Time for Your Spouse

If you’ve gotten in the bad habit of always leaving your spouse for last, make it a priority to change that. Set aside one night (one day if you need to!) to completely clear your calendar and focus on each other. Rest up and prepare ahead of time and then go have fun! You won’t regret it!

Buy Something New

If you have a shopping problem, I wouldn’t recommend this, but if you’ve been in a serious slump for a while now, something new can really brighten your spirits. Find a shirt that looks AMAZING on you or even purchase a few flowers for the kitchen. A little pop of color can really do you some good!

Take Up a New Hobby

What is something you used to love or something you’ve always wanted to do? Why not start today? Whether it is scrapbooking, singing, volunteering, baking or running–find something you enjoy that is truly just for you and then go do it!

There are certain times of life when you’ll probably come last for a while (particularly the infant stage)–and that’s okay! But if you are always so busy putting others first that you forget to ever do anything for yourself, that can quickly become a problem. Maybe today is the day you take a good, honest look at your life.

Are you living the life you’ve always dreamed, or is it time to make a change?

October 1, 2019
Five Things You are Wasting Your Life On

In the pursuit of finding “the good life,” we often find ourselves busy. And while some busyness is good–it’s great when you get to do things that you love–how often are we just plain busy for no good reason? If you want to find more time in the day for the things that truly matter to you, then it’s time to take action against these five things you are wasting your life on. After all, the less time you waste, the more time you have for the things that truly matter.

1. Games on Your Phone

How many minutes (or hours?) do you spend playing games on your phone each day? Even if it is just a few minutes here and there while you are waiting, chances are that there are better ways you could spend that time. For example, you could pick up a few things around the house, chop a vegetable or two for dinner, write a note to a friend, read your child a story or simply take a breath and relax for a minute!

What to do about it: If you generally find yourself playing for just a few minutes here and there because you don’t think you have enough time to do something else in that time, make a list of 5-minute tasks you need to get done. Then, when you find yourself with five spare minutes, you can use them to get something crossed off your list, not to play on your phone.

2. Making Unnecessary Trips to the Store Do you find yourself frequently making a "quick" trip to the store several times a week? Maybe it's because you need one extra ingredient for dinner or because your children need a school supply that you don't have on hand. While these trips may seem short, the truth is that they can really add up quickly. What to do about it: Avoid unnecessary trips to the store by creating a meal plan and corresponding shopping list every week. This way you'll always have the ingredients that you need on hand. If there are items that you are always running out of, stock up on extras. Try to combine trips as much as possible. 3. Social Media Whether you love Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube or an online chat room, it is all too easy to get sucked into social media and spend hours reading the latest articles and catching up on what all of your friends have been up to. Before you know it, bedtime was an hour ago and you're still up watching funny cat videos or pinning pictures of your dream kitchen. What to do about it: Set aside time for social media, and then set a certain time limit for when you will get off. Use a timer if you have to. Then, when the timer goes off, it's time to get off. 4. Compulsive Busyness Sometimes we are too busy simply because we feel like we have to be. We think we have to sign up for every little thing or that we should be spending our days finding something productive to do. Sitting and doing nothing feels so unproductive and wasteful. Yet, some time for peace and relaxation is absolutely essential for recharging our batteries so that we can be more efficient and productive later. What to do about it: Evaluate your commitments and see if there are any that you have agreed to do just because you feel like you "should." Let them go. Make a to-do list of the tasks that you HAVE to get done, and then let the others wait for another day. 5. Television The fall television line-up is now in full swing, and there are plenty of great shows out there for the watching. And yet, how much more time would you have for better things if you didn't spend two hours camped out on the couch every night? Not that you can never watch t.v., but it shouldn't be an automatic reflex where you always sit down at 8 p.m. What to do about it: Choose a few of your favorite shows to watch and turn the t.v. on only for those shows. Fold laundry, meal plan, or exercise while you watch t.v. to make the most of your time. How much more time do you think you would have if you cut back on some of these tasks that aren't as important? What area do you think you should work on first?

October 1, 2019
8 Multitasking Ideas That Can Shave Hours Off of Your Day

You may have heard that recent science suggests that multitasking can actually make you less productive, rather than help you get more done.

While there is some truth to this, it really depends on the tasks you are trying to pair together. Working and playing on your phone at the same time isn’t likely to work out well. However, when you combine activities that naturally have some downtime or that require less concentration, multitasking really can help you get more done.

In fact, here are eight multi-tasking ideas that, when used together, can actually shave hours off of your day!

1. Clean the Tub While You Shower

You’re in the shower anyway; why not fight some soap scum while you’re at it? Keep a soap filled scrub brush in the shower and give the walls a good cleaning before you get out. The steam from your shower will help loosen the gunk, and the water from your shower will wash the soap right off. It’ll be so quick and easy you might just find you don’t hate cleaning the tub after all!

<br /> 2. Fold Laundry While Watching TV

Don’t sit on the couch mindlessly while your favorite shows are on. Use the time to get a few household chores done. Laundry and TV make the perfect pair. Laundry doesn’t require much concentration, and you can sit down. Just wait until the commercial break to put the clothes away.

3. Clip Coupons While Helping with Homework

When your kids are working on their homework, you want to be available, but you don’t want to just sit and do nothing for an hour. Sitting down at the table with them to clip or print coupons is a great way to multitask. You’ll be right there if they need help, and you won’t mind being interrupted if they have any questions.

4. Clean the Bathroom While You Supervise Bath Time

Do you have toddlers who still need a little supervision during bath time? Clean the bathroom while they play happily with their toys. You can wipe the mirror, clean the toilet and sweep the floor all without leaving the room. Just be sure to mop real fast after they’re out so you don’t risk them falling on a slippery floor.

5. Meal Plan While You’re Cooking Dinner

Instead of sitting down for an hour to meal plan every week, plan out your meals while you’re cooking dinner. Every time you have a few minutes until you need to stir, flip through the other pages in your cook book. Write down a few new recipes you’d like to try and the ingredients for each. By the time dinner is ready, your meal plan will be too.

6. Dust and Scrub Baseboards While Talking on the Phone

Dusting and scrubbing aren’t difficult, just incredibly time consuming. Why not combine this time with the time you spend on the phone either talking to your friends or on hold with various companies? Get in the habit of dusting and scrubbing every time you’re on the phone and the tasks won’t build up as much, making them much easier to tackle in the future.

7. Combine Errands Into One Trip

Running out to the store every time you need something can be very time consuming. Save your time by setting aside a certain time each week to do all of your errands at once. Keep a running list so you don’t forget anything. Sure, it may take you an hour or two on a Saturday morning to get everything done, but that’s much less time than it will take you to make 30-45 minute trips several times a week.

8. Run the Dishwasher and Laundry Overnight

Do you spend time every morning washing a few dishes so you can eat breakfast or searching for clean clothes for your children to wear? If so, try running the dishwasher and throwing in a laundry each night before you go to bed. This way, you’ll always wake up to a home that is ready for you, not piles of dishes and laundry that prevent you from getting anything done.

How often do you multitask to get things done? What are your favorite tasks to pair together?

October 1, 2019
Ways to Pamper Yourself as A Busy Mom

Are you tired or stressed out? Need a little break? Here are Ways to Pamper Yourself As a Busy Mom!

If you are a busy mom, you know how difficult it can be to find time for yourself.

You have a lot of responsibility as a mom to make sure everyone is taken care of and at the end of the day, you may find that there’s little time for you. This can leave you feeling burned out, exhausted, and craving moments to do things that YOU love to do.

If you need some time to yourself, there are several ways to pamper yourself as a mom. Don’t feel guilty for taking time for yourself. It’s important to schedule time for yourself on a regular basis so that you can feel refreshed and energized.

Here are several ways to pamper yourself as a mom!

Ways to Pamper Yourself as A Busy Mom

1. Buy fresh flowers.

There’s something about a bouquet of fresh flowers that make me feel good as a mom.

Often times my husband and my girls will pick up a bouquet of flowers while grocery shopping and bring them home for me because they know how much fresh flowers make me happy.

My girls love to pick out the most colorful flowers in the store and usually come home with these bright beauties.

Fresh flowers can add a pop of color to your home and may bring feelings of happiness and cheer!

2. Take a warm bath.

Fill up the tub with warm water and enjoy a long soak in the tub with your favorite body wash.

If you are having a hard time finding the right time for a moment of solitude, I recommend waiting until the kids go to bed or asking your husband to watch the kids while you sneak away for a little bath time retreat.

You can even light candles, place flowers around the tub, and play some calming music while you enjoy your bath!

3. Enjoy a sweet treat.

If you knew you could enjoy your favorite sweet treat without the feelings of guilt that may come along with it, what would it be?

Every now and then, allow yourself to grab your favorite sweet treat and take time to eat your special treat alone.

My favorite treat is dark chocolate. I usually eat a square or two of dark chocolate when I’m craving something sweet or when I’m feeling a bit stressed!

4. Curl up with a good book and a cup of coffee or tea.

Do you have a book on your wish list that you’ve been wanting to read for a while?

Take some time in the day to curl up with a cup of coffee or tea and read a chapter or two during your moment of free time.

5. Give Yourself a Pedicure.

Treat your feet with a home pedicure! Find a quiet place to sit down and pamper your feet. Use peppermint foot scrub for a fresh and cooling feel!

Choose a pretty spring or summer nail color and get your feet ready for flip-flop season!

You can also invest in a foot massager to soothe tired feet.

6. Schedule a massage.

Take some time for yourself and schedule a regular massage. You can choose massages from 30 minutes to my favorite – the 90 minute massage!

If you don’t have time to go to a spa for a massage, consider investing in a shiatsu neck and back massager! I’ve had this Homedics 3D Shiatsu & Vibration Massage Pillow with Heat since 2015 and I STILL use it on a weekly basis, especially when I feel myself getting tense!

7. Start a Journal.

Journaling can be therapeutic and is a great way to jot down your thoughts, ideas, dreams, and future goals.

Invest in a quality journal and spend some time writing daily.

There are several ways for you to pamper yourself as a mom. These are a few of my favorites! Try to find a little time every day for yourself!

Here are a few printables available on Etsy that you can take advantage of for more self-care!

Self-Care Printable Planners

Self Care Journal Self Care Kit Self Care Planner Self Care

Self Care Planner Self Care Routine Planner Self Care

My Self Care Journal Women Self Care Journaling

Self-Care Printable Checklists:

Self Care Checklist Printable PDF Routine Checklist Habit

Grey and Black Self Care Checklist Instant Download PDF

Editable Self-Care Checklist Canva Planner Editable

April 23, 2019
Is Your Busy Schedule Affecting Your Children’s Behavior?

Think your busy schedule is only running you ragged? The truth is, it may be affecting your family more than you know–even if you’re the only one who is busy. The old saying “no man is an island” couldn’t be more true for overworked moms. Here are four ways your busy schedule might be causing unintended consequences in your family.

Is Your Busy Schedule Affecting Your Children’s Behavior?

1. You Don’t Spend as Much Time With Your Children As You Should

Yes, your children will likely always want more attention than you could reasonably give them, and no, there is nothing wrong with letting your kids play by themselves for a while so you can work. If you are constantly telling your children “one more minute” or choosing work over them, however, they will feel neglected and they will start to act out to get your attention.

2. You Take the Easy Way Out When It’s Time to Discipline

When your children start to act up (as they inevitably will at times), you have a choice. You can put work aside for a minute, sit down with your children and discipline and instruct them properly. Or you can yell at them to stop what they are doing and go play somewhere else. Unfortunately, for many busy moms, the second happens far more often than we’d like to admit. Not only is this not fun for anyone, but since the issues aren’t resolved, they are more likely to pop up again in the future.

3. You’re Constantly Tired and Grouchy

When life, work and home responsibilities begin to pile up, taking the time to take care of your health is often one of the first things to go. This is unfortunate, because self-care is so important, not only for productivity, but also for being a good mom to your kids. When you are tired, you’re more likely to be grouchy and yell, which in turn only causes your kids to act up more.

Related: Five Reasons You Need to Make Rest a Priority

Related: Ways to Pamper Yourself as a Busy Mom

4. You Don’t Really Know What Your Children are Up To

You have an idea what your kids are doing while you are working, but do you really? How many times have they broken something or made a huge mess that could have been avoided if you had been paying attention? What real issues are they struggling with in school or in life that you need to address but don’t know about? The truth is, you’ll never know until you take the time to find out.

4 Ways Your Busy Schedule Is Hurting Your Family

5 Signs Your Schedule is Too Full

Please understand, this post is not intended to make you feel guilty or to add additional burdens to your already overloaded plate. Instead, it is to encourage you to take a good, hard look at your life and the way it has been going lately. You work hard for your family–but do you really? Or are you really just working hard at your family’s expense? If so, it may be time to make some positive changes.

Is your busy schedule affecting your children’s behavior?

April 22, 2019
Green Living Tips for Families

Are you interested in living a greener life as a mom? Do you want to find ways for your family to help pitch in towards a greener life? Living a green life doesn’t have to be hard! In fact, it can be fun when you work together as a family to find ways to create a healthier environment. Follow these steps below and you’ll be on your way to a greener life before you know it!

Green Living Tips for Families

1. Invest in a reusable water bottle for each member of your family.

In the past, I was guilty of purchasing cases of water that I found on sale at the store each week. I would bring up to 8 cases of water home each month, about two per week. If you do the math, that means we were throwing away 192 plastic bottles a month, or 2,304 bottles per year. That’s a lot of water bottles and a lot of waste. Earlier this year, we decided we were going to stop wasting and start reusing. We invested in reusable water bottles for each member of our family, including our girls. We purchased a new water filter pitcher for our refrigerator and we refill our water bottles every day as needed. My girls love their water bottles. They fill up their water bottles before we head out on road trips so that we don’t have to stop and purchase bottled drinks along the way!

2. Clean with natural cleaning products.

Make the switch to natural cleaning products that are non-toxic and multi-purpose. If you have young children in the home, you may be concerned about dangerous chemicals in cleaning products and worried that your loved one may get into those toxic products. Natural cleaning products such as vinegar and baking soda are perfect to have on hand for your cleaning needs and they are great for the environment. These products are also very affordable and can go a long way saving you money, too!

3. Switch to eco-friendly batteries.

How many kids toys do you have around your home that require batteries? I know we have several. Replace the batteries in toys with the new Energizer EcoAdvanced Batteries available at Walmart! We just replaced the batteries in this walking horse.

4. Reuse containers.

I’m not a fan of tossing out perfectly good containers that can be used for other things. We go through a lot of containers around here. My kids love to eat foods like yogurt, pudding, macaroni and cheese, applesauce, and other snacks that come in handy little containers. Instead of tossing these containers, reuse them for art projects such as painting or for snacks, especially for on the go. If you don’t plan to use them, consider recycling the plastic or donating clean containers to teachers at school that may be able to use them (art teachers, preschool teachers to use for snacks, etc.)

5. Visit your local recycling center as a family.

Once a week we load up our plastic containers, glass bottles, cardboard boxes, and other recyclables and head down to our local recycling center to dispose of these items in the appropriate bins. There’s even a bin at the end of the loop that allows us to donate any clothes or shoes! Our children come with us so that they can learn the importance of recycling at a young age. Get the kids involved and allow them to place contents in the appropriate bins so that they can feel like they are contributing to a greener environment!

Follow these five simple steps and you will be on your way to greener living in no time!

Do you have any green living tips for families to add?

April 22, 2019