10 Practical Ways to Make School Mornings Less Stressful

I am not going to pretend this is the end-all, be-all morning routine for getting your family out of the house on time. There are plenty of people on the internet who seem to have mornings figured out down to the minute. Their children wake up peacefully, eat a nutritious breakfast, get dressed with…

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How to Let Go of Someone You Love Without Hating Them

A little disclaimer: This post isn't about my marriage. 😂 Sometimes I write about things I've experienced, things I've witnessed, or things I've learned without them being a coded message about my current life. This one is about relationships in general. One of the hardest things to…

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What You See on Social Media Isn't the Whole Story

What you see on social media is not real. I understand how that sounds coming from a blogger who utilizes social media and is basically building an entire platform around being real, but hear me out. I had a very close friend who took themselves off social media for a while. When I asked why, they to…

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The Christmas List Test: Why I Want My Kid to Make a Wish List From Memory

It's that wonderful time of year. You know, the one where we're all caught in the throws of HalloThanksMas. Halloween hasn't even had the courtesy of packing up its decorations before Christmas trees, inflatable Santas, and enough tinsel to choke a reindeer start appearing in stores. Now,…

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Different Ways to Fill Your Cup When You're Running on Empty

Because self-care isn't one-size-fits-all, and sometimes what you need is to do absolutely nothing. I recently had a productive day off. Did I check off a single thing on my to-do list? No. But that's okay, too. I did maybe one productive task and spent the rest of the day relaxing, doing what …

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The One Thing My Mom Taught Me About Letting Go

My mom is not a deeply profound person. At her core, she is thoughtful and playfully silly. She's not the person you necessarily go to expecting some life-changing philosophical wisdom. And yet, every once in a while, she says something that sticks with me. When I was younger, I was upset about so…

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The Vacations I’m Dreaming About for Our Family

I am so glad that we finally started taking vacations. For years, vacations felt like something other people did. We had reasons not to go, reasons to wait, reasons it wasn't the right time, or just the very practical reality of having a kid, bills, work schedules and approximately 900 things t…

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Your Timeline Isn't Their Timeline

I think it’s important to understand that your perspective of parenting isn’t the only version of parenting. Your timeline isn’t the only timeline. Your child isn’t the standard every other child is supposed to meet. I remember when Ava was little, she hit so many milestones early. Much like Bluey in…

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Clogs My Feet Actually Love

I’m making this quick post because I found something I genuinely love. I’m not sponsored, I’m not receiving anything for this, and nobody asked me to write about it. I just really like these shoes. 😂 If you grew up in the millennial era, you probably remember the suede clog phase all too well. And…

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What to Do When You Feel Like You're Drowning

I am choosing this topic because, quite honestly, I feel like I'm drowning a little bit right now. Not literally. But you know that feeling where there are so many things happening at once that your brain doesn't even know where to start? Everything feels urgent. Everything feels important. A…

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Sometimes We Have to Let Our Kids Surprise Us

If you had asked me how Ava was going to handle starting an entirely new school, I would have told you I was nervous. Not because I didn't believe in her. I know my kid. And historically, big changes have not exactly been her thing. When she transitioned from the preschool program she'd been i…

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Adult Friendship Is Hard

Adult friendship is hard. I don't think we talk about that enough. In my adult life, I've had a pretty limited circle of friends. Sometimes I wonder if that's because I'm probably somewhere on the spectrum. I'm undiagnosed, so I don't actually know that, but let's just say…

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I Don't Want a Day Off From My Family. I Want a Day Off From Being Needed.

I don't want a vacation from my husband. I don't want to send my kid away. I don't want to escape my life. I just want, for a little while, to not be responsible for everyone else's needs.  I want to sit somewhere without someone asking me what we're doing next.  I want to eat a meal…

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Maybe Time Didn’t Speed Up, Maybe Life Just Got Fuller

I feel like having a child completely changes your relationship with time. I don't know if that's true for every parent, or if some of it is specific to those of us who had babies and toddlers during COVID, when the normal markers of time seemed to disappear. But sometimes I look at the year…

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Here's to the Flyaways: Finding Hope in the Little Signs of Progress

I'm going to be a little vulnerable about something I've become surprisingly insecure about lately: my hair. It's funny how something you may have taken for granted for most of your life can suddenly become something you think about far more than you'd like to admit. For me, it starte…

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How I’m Using Apps to Earn a Little Extra for Our Disney Trip

Disclosure: This post contains referral links. If you sign up for Swagbucks or Fetch through my links, I may receive referral rewards, and in some cases you may receive a bonus as well. I am not sponsored by or paid by either company to write this post, and neither company has endorsed this post. T…

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How to Stay Connected in Your Marriage When You Have Kids

I feel like so much of the conversation around marriage and relationships, especially among parents, centers around getting time away from the kids. Date nights. Weekend getaways. Vacations without the children. Couples' trips where you finally get to be “just us” again. And I understand the appe…

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I Didn’t Know I Was Living the Good Old Days

Sometimes I look at pictures from my childhood and feel a kind of grief I didn't expect to feel as an adult. Not because I want to go back and be a kid. I don't want to trade my life now for my childhood. I like being a mom. I like having my own home, making my own decisions, and building a …

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I Didn't Realize I Had Anxiety Until I Became a Mom

When I became a mom, I expected to learn a lot about my daughter. I didn't expect to learn so much about myself. Like many parents, I find myself watching my daughter navigate the world and thinking, Oh. You got that from me. Sometimes, it's the fun stuff. Her sense of humor. Her creativity. H…

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Motherhood Changed My Relationship With Work. I Wish I'd Known Sooner That It Didn't Have to Be This Hard.

I think the transition into motherhood is one of the biggest identity shifts we experience, and nobody really prepares you for how disorienting it can be. You spend so much time preparing for a baby. You think about the nursery, the appointments, the birth, the things you'll need to bring home f…

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