Last night I was staring down my week and wondering how I was going to cram in everything that needed to get done.  I love being busy.  I love my kiddos being busy. But, lately I’ve felt my weeks getting away from me by the time Tuesday evening rolls around.  It’s TIRING being a mama, right?!

So, as I was trying to make sense of the 51 Post-it note reminders I had strewn on my desk (together with my “perky” phone “beep” reminders going off every couple of hours) I decided to take a moment.  And breathe.

Then I jotted down some ways I could help myself have a better, more productive, and less stressful week – a “Note to Self,” if you will, so I decided it might be helpful to share these tips in case they might be helpful to you, too!

1. I will plan for the next day the night before. 

I will take five to 10 minutes each night, look at my calendar for the next day and lay out anything special I may need, make any reminder notes and organize my thoughts so that when my munchkins wake me up and my day is going full speed ahead at dawn, I already feel on top of it.

2. I will plan my food menus for the week.

This will help tremendously and will help me with my shopping (staying on budget and on task), making healthy, nutritious choices, and not panicking when I am completely exhausted and have to come up with a family dinner.

3. I will schedule time for myself to work out. 

Whether it’s a walk around the neighborhood with my kiddos, a jog, a favorite class at my gym, or even a workout DVD in my living room.  I will schedule my workouts like I would picking up my kids from school or being on time for a doctor’s appointment – otherwise a million and one things will come up and invade my time.

4. I will plan at least one fun thing I can do with my kids today. 

Sometimes the day can get away from me and I don’t want to forget to enjoy my children. It can be an outing, a play date, a simple game of Candyland, playing at the park, reading a book…whatever we feel like doing together.

5. I will go to sleep at a reasonable hour. 

Yes, it is sooooo tempting to use my evening and nighttime to catch up on…well, whatever I didn’t have time for during the day.  Or even veg in front of the TV with my favorite DVR’ed show.  But, what I’ve learned?  My kiddos are up at the same time, EVERY morning, no matter how late I stay up.  This is another way I need to take care of myself, so I can better take care of everyone else.

What tips do you have, mamas?  Any great advice or time-saving ideas?  I’d love to hear from you! 

Recently, my husband and I finally had our meeting with Darlynn Morgan, of Morgan Law Group, our focus: setting up our Kids Protection Plan.

I can’t wait to have a catch-all plan in place for the not so pleasant to think about “God forbid what if something happened to us” scenario.

I say finally because it is something we’ve had on our to-do list for a very long time. And actually, we had initially scheduled the meeting for January, but had to reschedule with Darlynn, because just days before my Mom tripped and broke her knee cap, and her emergency surgery was scheduled for that day.  My poor Momma.

Just a reminder that sometimes we get thrown curveballs we can’t plan for…

I know Darlynn, and what a nice woman she is, but I must admit, walking from my car to her office, the importance of what we were meeting to do had left me slightly anxious.Upon entering Darlynn’s office, I was greeted by her super friendly staff and the serene decor was instantly comforting.

To start the meeting Darlynn briefly shared her heart-wrenching story of having lost her husband at a young age. It was her experience working with a traditional law firm that was hard to get on the phone during an extremely difficult time that lead her to pursue Family Estate Planning Law.

She knew she could do a better job taking care of families, and built her firm based upon this premise.

Next, Darlynn walked us through how they like to do things differently, and quickly outlined their Kids Protection Plan.

Their plan makes sure that children are covered by naming short term guardians (who live within 20 mins of your home, who your children are very comfortable with) and long term guardians (taking care to name the specific individual in case of a future divorce).

The plan includes specific instructions for the babysitter if she were to get the horrible call that something had happened to you.  It also includes forms to give to your chosen short term guardians so they could step in and show the police, ensuring there is no confusion and your children wouldn’t end up in Child Protective Services.

Next Darlynn bridged the topic my husband had been waiting for: the fees. Being completely honest, before we left for the meeting, my husband said: “Susanne, I know you know Darlynn, but if it’s too expensive we’ll have to say no.”

What we really liked is she offers her services on a flat rate.  She doesn’t want her families to feel discouraged from calling her with a question by high hourly fees.

After going over everything with us, she offered us time to discuss our decision alone, and if we wanted to get started we could get our plan in motion today.

We were ready.

Darlynn’s calm and sweet nature with these difficult decisions put us at ease.  The plan is so organized she swiftly moved through the important topics and we answered what we could right there.

There were a few questions we needed more time with, which we took home as homework.

Before leaving we set up a signing date for early April.

What I really have loved about this whole experience is I honestly feel like I have someone in my corner.  And my husband really loves knowing that if something happened to him, I would have someone I trust and feel comfortable with to be there to help me work through that difficult time.

You can meet Darlynn and learn more at these three upcoming free workshops for parents. Please RSVP here; space is limited.

Kids Protection Planning Workshop, Legal Planning for Busy Parents

“9 Easy Steps To Make Sure Your Kids Are Protected No Matter What!”

April 13 at 2:00pm

Granola Babies

3315 Hyland Ave, Costa Mesa

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April 20 at 1:00pm

My Gym

2040 Quail St, Newport Beach

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April 25 at 6:00pm

Xpecting Boutique

369 E.17th Street #20, Costa Mesa

www.kidsprotectionworkshop.com

[Disclosure: Morgan Law Group is a Tiny Oranges Sponsor]

I love watching my girls on the beach. I love the inhibition that comes with the lack of awareness of how they look. Instead, their body focus is on movement; playing, splashing, running, cartwheeling, creating. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?

As they grow up, I want to raise my girls to love, appreciate and care for their strong and healthy bodies. But knowing how to do this can be challenging, especially in today’s world, which is why I think this is such an important topic.

Dr. Lyndsay Elliott is a local Orange County mom of two and is a clinical psychologist with a speciality in eating disorders and body image issues. She wrote a phenomenal article on how to talk to your kids about weight to promote healthy eating attitudes and positive body image. Here is what she wrote…

How to Talk to Your Kids About Weight

by Dr. Lyndsay Elliott

Talking to your kids about weight can be scary!  Some of us might worry that we’ll say the “wrong” thing and it will have a negative impact on our kids’ sense of self and body confidence.

It can be so overwhelming that we might even avoid the topic altogether.

There are simple, fact-based ways to discuss food, health, and weight with our children that will help them understand the relationship between food and our bodies in an appropriate and hopefully life-long beneficial way.

1. Model a balanced diet of healthy, nutritious food.  

Kids are sponges! They observe and learn from nearly everything we do. Therefore, parents are often the primary example of healthy (or unhealthy) eating behaviors.

Help your children understand the purpose of food, what it does to help our bodies work and grow, and how different types of food have different effects on our body.

Rather than labeling “good” and “bad” foods, let them know which foods in their diet are nutritious and beneficial.

Desserts and treats have their place as well–help kids to understand the difference and how to appropriately balance their intake.

2. Model healthy eating attitudes.

Just as important, parents are the go to example of healthy eating attitudes.

Be aware of any critical remarks you make regarding your own body and eliminate words like “diet” from your vocabulary.

Try not to make critical comments about others’ bodies (strangers, friends, etc.)  Children pick up on these remarks and may be reactive to other people’s size and shape.

3. Emphasize healthy lifestyle choices instead of weight loss.

It’s important to emphasize healthy lifestyle choices rather than weight loss as a goal.

Be aware of talking about calories, fitting into certain articles of clothing, needing to lose X pounds before summer/events/vacations, etc.

4. Move! 

Model an active lifestyle and get your children engaged with their bodies.

Creating body awareness helps strengthen the understanding and desire for fueling our bodies to be strong and healthy.

Engage in physical activities as a family and encourage them to participate in sports and other activities that require movement, engagement, coordination, motor skills, and/or being outside!

When weight is put into the context of an ongoing learning process about healthy living, it’s not quite as scary!

Remember, you want your children to learn healthy eating habits and eating attitudes so that they’ll be healthy, well-developed, well-nourished people–not simply to keep them from being overweight.  If weight is your focus, they’re likely to pick up on that as the most important factor as well.

www.DrLyndsayElliott.com

Thanks Dr. Lyndsay! What do you all think? How do you handle the topic of weight in your family? Do you have any questions for Dr. Lyndsay? Please comment below!

This guest blog on how to grow out your little girl’s bangs is by OC hair stylist and mama of three, Tera Rae Stephens. Tera is currently in the process of growing out her four-year-old daughter, Harper’s bangs.

At each phase of the growing out process, Tera will be sharing with us realtime mom-to-mom styling tips to keep the shaggy dog look at bay.  Here is what she writes about the first phase of the “grow out!”

“It’s no secret that my family gets the least amount of attention when it comes to hair cuts and styling so when my daughter begged for a hair cut  ”at your work” I finally gave in. AND I IMPULSIVELY CUT HER BANGS!!!!!

That is Harper in the image above on the day I cut her bangs, sitting in my chair at the salon feeling very cool and grown up.

We thought they were really cute and totally changed the way she looked.  I also liked how they naturally kept most of her hair out of her face and made her ponytails and braids more interesting.

The first time I had to trim them came way too quickly and she wasn’t happy to sit still for the clean up.  And her reaction after the trim was hilarious! She actually thought the bangs would be gone!  She was as tired of them as I was, so I explained to her that the only way to get rid of bangs was to grow them out and we decided it was time to do just that…

That is how my girl is looking at the first stage of “grow out!” Super Shaggy Dog!

I wanted to share this process with you because I have some great tricks that can make the process so much easier.  And you may find they work for you as well! Here are a few ways we’ve been keeping the shag out of her face and eyes…

Slick It Back

By putting a medium hold gel in the front of her hair when it’s damp (or sprayed with a water bottle) I can slick it back into a bun or ponytail and it holds her bangs back all day.

Make a Braid Headband

My favorite style on her has been to part it in the middle and braid each section into a braid.  I then wrap the braids over the top of her head and bobby pin them in place.  They work as a headband to keep her bangs back!

Train a Middle Part 

The last two pictures below are a little trick that works wonders.  I plan to train her bangs to part in the middle as that seems to be what they want to do naturally. When she’s eating her breakfast in the morning, I bobby pin the hair back and by the time she leaves for school the hair stays parted there!  If you want a side part, push all of the bangs to the side and pin it there!

We have also been using elastic head bands (see me in a tutorial on how to make your own elastic hair ties here) and lots of barrettes!

Stay tuned… In my next post, I will show you how to make a small adjustment to the shape of the bangs by cutting that will make the grow out process smoother than you expect!!”

Thanks Tera! Soooo cute! Do any of you have tips to share on styles to keep the bangs out of their eyes? Comment below!

The Parenting Passport handbook by The Parenting Doctor, Dr. Ann Corwin, is a simple, go-to parenting guidebook for all of your parenting challenges. And quite simply, it is the best $12.95 you will ever spend!

Moms, have you ever heard yourself say any of the following?

“You should know better!”

“I’m not telling you again!”

“I have told you a million times!”

“If you don’t knock that off, we are NOT going to play!” 

I have.  And I know that most times they don’t work, which is why I have found the Parenting Passport to be so amazing.

The Parenting Passport will give you a PLAN; an effective plan of action for the times when you are the heat of the moment an feel like screaming one of the above phrases.

I have heard Dr. Ann speak in person and her philosophy is compelling.  It’s so simple and makes sense.

When hearing her speak, or when reading her Parenting Passport, you will find yourself having many “A-ha!” moments because it is full of them.

Her parenting philosophy is based on the attachment theory and the strong need for the relationship between parent and child.

This relationship is vital to a child’s survival, and this instinctual desire for this relationship with their parents means kids will do whatever they can to get it.

Sometimes this relationship shows itself in love and affection. Other times it can show itself in the forms of power struggles or doing things to “push your buttons.”

Dr. Ann explains that kids are not trying to “push your buttons” but are basically doing what they can to get you to engage in a relationship with them, even if it is one where you are yelling, “I’m not telling you again!” at them.

Because by doing the unsatisfactory behavior, they are getting a relationship with you. You are looking at them, talking (sometimes not in the nicest voice) to them, and often touching them (like grabbing their hand and saying, “LISTEN!”)

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Whether it is bedtime struggles, homework resistance, temper tantrums, potty training madness, hitting, public meltdowns, cleaning up fights, or any other baffling behavior, Dr. Ann’s Parenting Passport will help put an end to your struggles.

And isn’t that what we want most as parents?

You can purchase the Parenting Passport online through the Parenting Doctor website for $12.95.  It’s inexpensive, short, easy-to-read, and is something you can throw in your purse for moral supp0rt any time you need it!

Dr. Ann is a popular local Orange County speaker and expert in her field.  She is also available for phone and in-home consultations.

She is so easy to talk to – talking to her is like talking to a good girlfriend.  With empathy and understanding, she helps YOU figure out how you want YOUR family look and interact.  From there, she helps you put a plan in place to reach your goals for your family in a cooperative team effort.

She helps you become the parent you want to be ~ so empowering and inspiring.

Start with the Parenting Passport and you will see what I mean.

Do you have any questions for Dr. Ann? Email them to me at jennifer@tinyoranges.com. We are planning a future post where Dr. Ann answers some of your parenting challenges.

[Disclosure: Dr. Ann is a Tiny Oranges sponsor and I am thrilled to share her effective parenting tools and services to help promote happier home environments!]