We had 4 kids in 5 years… I was pregnant or breastfeeding a total of 64 out of 76 months between 2012 and 2018. So, if you are looking for some tips on a maternity wardrobe that doesn’t break the bank, I’m your girl. Because while we were having all those babes and figuring out…
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How Much Should I Spend on Groceries? Use These 5 Simple Questions
I hear people bemoaning the darn grocery budget all the time! It’s so hard to know how much groceries “should” be costing. In fact, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “how much do you spend on groceries?” or “What should your grocery bill be?” In the last couple years that we’ve been paying off our…
How to Survive a Road Trip with Toddlers
We have always lived out of state from one or both of our families. As newly weds, we used to enjoy the 7 or 8 hour car rides together… listening to new music or podcasts, reading aloud, discussing life, stopping as we please for coffee & bathroom breaks. Those days are long gone though. Fast…
Marriage & Motherhood
Becoming a parent can be hard on your marriage. There’s a big learning curve, trying to figure out your new roles as parents, and how to communicate with each other. You don’t want to talk about your kids all the time, but when you finally get a quiet moment alone, you kinda can’t help it….
How to Teach a One Year Old “No” [Complete Guide to 1 Year Old Behavior]
Our 4th child just turned 1, and I can say for sure: it’s never too early to start setting expectations and training your little ones. 1 year olds understand WAY more than we realize. It might seem silly because those 1 year olds are so darn cute! Toddling around, giggling at peekaboo, pulling everything down…
Easy Peasy Laundry: 3 Step System to Eliminate Laundry Overwhelm
I used to be drowning in laundry. With 4 kids under 7, there were clothes everywhere all the time. Dressup play = clean clothes all over the bedroom floor. Outside play = wet, sandy, muddy clothes all over the mudroom floor. Potty training…I probably don’t need to elaborate on what potty training does for the…
4 Easy Ways to Track Your Grocery Spending [SPREADSHEET]
Whether your food budget is $100 per month or $1,000 per month, if you want to stick to the food budget you’ve decided on, you have to know how to track your grocery spending. After all, if you have a budget, but don’t know how much you’re spending, then do you really have a budget?…
Infant Sleep Training: A Way-Too-Long Guide to Everything We’ve Ever Learned About Getting Babies to Sleep Through the Night by 3 Months
I’ve been wondering how I could contribute to starting the third world war. I decided that blogging about infant sleep training would be a good next step. I mean, if there is anything that can get some mommas’ panties in a bunch, it’s talking about sleep training or breastfeeding philosophies. But seriously. Here’s my disclaimer….
Morning Routine for a Stay-at-Home-Work-at-Home-Homeschooling Mom
Before I had children, back when I was a perfect mother, I subconsciously imagined that our mornings would be slow and cozy… I thought it would be fun to have the kids come crawl into bed with me, and we’d all wake up slowly together. There were also unicorns jumping through rainbows in this figment of my imagination. But here’s the…
The Ideal Newborn Feeding Schedule Explained: Eat, Play, Poop, Sleep
First of all, if you are a new parent, CONGRATS! Kids are an awesome gift and you will sleep again. I promise!! Getting a newborn feeding schedule in place will help your newborn baby with tons of things: Regulate your baby’s metabolism Learn the difference between days and nights Help them start sleeping longer stretches…
Everything You Need to Know About the 4 Month Sleep Regression
There is an infamous 4 month sleep regression that happens sometime around when a baby is 4 months old. Coupled with typical postpartum exhaustion and/ or depression, it can be exhausting and overwhelming for even the seasoned mama. You can help your baby through this sleep regression and I plan to offer some explanation and…
57 (ish) Aldi Products, Features, Warnings & Hacks: A Complete Aldi Review
Confession: I’ve use to think Aldi was gross. I thought that you would only shop at Aldi if you had to. And if you could possibly afford to shop anywhere else, you obviously would, because ew, Aldi. I don’t know why I thought that, and seeing as how I’ve done most of my grocery shopping…
21 Cheap Homemade Toddler Toys & Activities (AKA: My Kids Play with Trash)
Our zero-degree-freeze-the-snot-inside-your-nose midwestern winters are in full swing, and we are officially hibernating. I bought 3 months worth of food and we’re not leaving the house until April. The freezing weeks of winter here cause us to get a little bit creative with our indoor activities. And by creative, I mean, my kids play with our trash….
When Do Babies Drop to One Nap? A No-Fail Trick to Nap Transitions
Have naps gone cray-cray at your house!? We had 4 babies in 5 years and they’ve all more or less followed the same general pattern. When they were newborns, they slept all the time. Eventually, they went from 4 naps to 3 naps to 2 naps to 1 nap to just an afternoon quiet time….
Helping Older Siblings Cope With the New Baby | 11 Tips from a Mom of 4
There’s an ongoing poll in my mom-friend circles about which transition is the hardest: Having your first kid, going from 1 to 2 kids, 2 to 3 kids or adding more kids after 3. Each transition is different but going from 1 to 2 kids is REALLY REALLY HARD! If the first child is a…
4 Simple Reasons Why Creating a Baby Schedule is Life Changing
After having 4 babies with totally different personalities and varying levels of “easy baby” to “hard baby,” (is that a spectrum??) I’m convinced you can get almost any healthy baby trained to sleep through the night and on a predictable schedule during the first few months (even weeks)… if you want to. I’m also convinced…
The Newborn and Toddler Circus: 31 ideas for keeping your toddler alive while feeding your newborn
We had 4 kids in 5 years, and the hardest part of every newborn (after the first) was always the toddler. The clingy, confused, barely verbal, highly active toddler who does not understand why it takes you 45 minutes to feed the baby or why he can’t thrust his elbow into your chest for leverage…
Baby Registry Must Haves |Mom of 4 Shares Baby Registry Checklist
Creating a baby registry is understandably overwhelming because, well, you’ve never had a baby before! It’s so hard to know what you’re really going to need or want. Plus, it’s super fun to look at all the fun “must haves for new baby.” After all, everything is so dang tiny and cute! This list won’t…
How to Get Baby On a Schedule… ASAP! (Plus sample schedules for the whole first year!)
When we had our first baby, I read all the sleep-training books. I tried so hard to get my baby to follow an exact schedule. And when baby got “off” from the schedule I’d determined, I felt stressed and like a failure. In hindsight, I realized rather than aiming for an ultra regimented “schedule,” it…
Simplify Your Life: 9 Tips for Eliminating Errands, Notifications, Clutter and More!
I googled “simplify your life mom” as I was writing this, and got over a million results. So why one more post about simplifying life? Because, I read a few, and they weren’t simple! The top result had 72 tips to simplify your life… 72! 72 isn’t simple. Here’s the hard truth. You might have…