5 Tips to De-Stress After Work

As working moms, we are essentially juggling two careers.  It’s at home where our second career begins.  Cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring our kids to practices and activities, playing with our children, monitoring homework time.  That’s  not to mention the work that goes into maintaining a great marriage.  Love you honey!

Hey, mama?! RELAX! We don’t have to be perfect or even have to do everything by ourselves, either. There are ways to make your life easier. The less stressed you are, the happier you will be. Happy mama means happy husband and kids.

Here are some ways to help you de-stress after a long day:

• Listen to music, especially smooth jazz. Listen to relaxing music in your car, at work, at home, and anywhere else that you can. It definitely helps ease the transition between work and home. The best part of my day is singing Beyonce’s Love on Top with my too-cute toddler on the way home.

• Set boundaries. For example, you might tell your boss (and certain family members and friends) that you turn your cellphone and computer off after a certain time each night (if you can). Can’t talk! Having fun with my fam!

• Take a minute or two for you. When you reflect on your day, focus on at least one good thing that happened. Oprah and friends will be so proud.

• Get moving! Don’t just flop on the couch (As good as it feels to do it!). Exercise, spend time outside and interact with family and friends to boost production of feel-good hormones. Or if you can (so jealous!), relax by reading, taking a hot      shower or engaging in a favorite hobby.

• Chat it up with  your girlfriends Having one or two friends who understand your struggle is so beneficial! Log on to facebook and talk to us for a minute. Answer our Coffee Break Question of the Day. All of your stress will just go right out the window. I promise you.

How do you de-stress after a long day?

Working on a few things

Hi gang!

What fun we've been having as a family!  It's been super busy around these parts! Want a Harper update?  Ok, here you go!!

           Harper is two years old! know!! GTFOOH!! She is so active! She's still loves climbing, but has added running, hopping and skipping to her amazing physical abilities. Even as I write, she has her older cousin's jump rope in hand and is doing her very best to jump rope, only the rope is way to long and well, she's just jumping all over the place. Oh yes, little miss will be starting gymnatstics very soon!  And I'm sure her dad can't wait dor the day he can sign her up for track.  AAU, here we come, oh boy!

                                     She's such a an amazing learner already! Making the decision to move her and keep her in her current school is really paying off!  Her vocabulary is really soaring, though her favorite word right now is... No.  I really don't like that word..  But it truly is so much fun watching her grow.

Yes, that super cool tutu, was made by yours truly!  I love making them!

My schedule has been super busy as of late, but for good reason (More on that later!!)  Between working, Harper, our commute (ugh!), kickball and life, finding time to blog has been a but difficult.  But I'm working on it!

It happened again...

I neglected you!  Super sucks, I know.  Friends, again?  ok good. 

Moving on....

So since I've blogged last, our fam has had a few exciting changes.  Johnny has a new job!  Yay!  In addition to owning/running the most awesome adult kickball experience here in Tampa, he's now an editor/manager (you like my slash --/ moment, right) for an internet/marketing firm.  He manages over 30 sites/blogs.  His interns and freelancers do the writing, he does the editing, concept creation, and managing.  You like how I made that sound like I know what he's doing, huh?  Don't ask me any other questions about what he does, because I got nothing.

Harper transistioned from home daycare to well, uh, daycare in August.  And she's done great!  Her teachers are happy and impressed with how quickly she's acclamated to their school.  Apparently her climbing skills are out of this world.  Haha, I knew that already.  I'm happy that she's learning, appears comfortable and is happy.  No tears at drop off makes a for a very happy mama!

Change number 3... we've moved about a half mile away from the beach.  It's so laid back here.  Our section of the beach is a self proclaimed weird, eccentric area and our neighbors and beach residents like it that way.  Their slogan is "keep it weird".  Seriously.  It's on signs and and banners and stuff.

So, now as we are gearing up for the holidays, my mind turned to my neglected blog. I've missed this!  I will be better.  Plus, with all the comings and goings of this season, I need some place to reflect and stay sane.  You have been on my mind.  I've going to get better at documenting the making and growig of our fam.  Really I am.

Hold me to it, ok?

Can a Working Mom practice Attachment Parenting?

That was my question as I pondered this parenting style and the undeniable fact that I was returning to work.  Nonetheless, I was determined to make it work!

As a teacher/educator, I have the benefit of added in breaks to my work schedule.  Due to the fact that Harper was born via (emergency) c-section, this afforded me 8 weeks as opposed to 6 weeks of maternity leave.  And my maternity leave ended right before Spring break, so I had 9 wonderful uninterrupted weeks with my girl!  I was a babywearing, co-sleeping, breastfeeding junkie!  And I loved every minute of it!  As did Harper.  Due to her small size at birth, I definitely wanted to do everything I could to ensure her health and development stayed on track.

Then came the dreaded day that I had to go back to work.  I had to make sure everything was in place for my girl and our style.  I found a great caregiver.  When I started back to work, I came with breast pump in-tow!  Fortunately, my position and schedule allowed me to sneak away at leaast twice a day to pump.  My body certainly had to adjust to the new schedule.  When it was time to pump, boy was I ready!!!

When we got home, it was babywearing and breastfeeding time!  This allowed my girl and I to reconnect and allowed us to maintain our bond.

Almost a month after I went back to work, a wonderful thing happended... SUMMER BREAK!  Two more months of time with my girl. 

Now my high needs baby is a high needs toddler (different blog post for a different day!).

Yes, you can work and practice attachment parenting.  Work to achieve the right balance for you and your family.  And enjoy the ride!

Time management

I've got to get better!  I want to blog, be an awesome mom and Teacher of the Year (well, pretty darn close).  But how to do it all?  How are other working mommies doing it?

Artsy Fartsy

Being the working mom that I am, I've got to make the most out of my time with my little girl.  In my mind, I'm really artsy fartsty.  But I never seem to make anything worth talking about.  So I figure why not involve the little one and implement a weekly craft activity on the weekends.  So, went searching for craft ideas and came across this neat website. 

The girls (my niece is here this weekend) and I are had fun creating Easter Eggs!

Harper turns 1!!

Technically it was almost two months ago, but hey, I like remembering good times!

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