Simplify & enjoy life at home with littles.
Let’s be honest. The title of this post is ridiculous. Nothing could ever totally help you with preparing for baby. But, should you find yourself expecting a baby (or hoping for, adopting, or fostering a baby), there are a few things that might make the transition to mommy life just a …
In this post, you’ll learn the exact laundry system I figured out to the laundry overwhelm for a big family with several small children. 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 …
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 …
I originally wrote this post several years ago after we got our first two babies sleeping through the night by 12 weeks. Since then, we’ve done the same thing with two more babies and thousands upon thousands of people have read and shared this post. I’ve also written a more …
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 …
First of all, if you are a new parent, CONGRATS! Kids are an awesome gift and you will sleep again. I promise!! This post is designed to help you understand the eat play sleep schedule you might have heard about. We’ve had 4 babies of varying sleep personalities and used …
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 …
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 …
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 months of winter here cause us to get a little bit creative with our indoor activities. And by creative, I mean, …
If naptime has gone CRAZY at your house, you’re in the right spot! In this post, you will learn: When do babies drop to one nap and how do you know if your baby is ready? What nap transitions look like and some nap transition tips The 2 to 1 …
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 …
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 …
In this post, you will learn 34 tricks and tips for coping with a toddler and newborn, especially during baby-feeding times! 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, giant, …
In this post, you’ll get sample baby schedules for various ages from your baby’s first year since it’s helpful to see what most babies need. I’ll also give lots of tips to help you think through how to get your baby on a schedule… ASAP! You can truly start our method from …
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 …
There are a million articles, books, and blog posts about sleep training on the internet. With a million different thoughts and opinions. Much of parenting boils down to personal preference, and our personal preference has been to sleep train our 4 kids from birth. We recommend sleep training your newborn! …
There is a lot of advice about how to sleep train out there… everything from “dictate your baby’s life down to the minute” TO “my baby sleeps whenever they want and I never know what to expect.” We have taken what we call a holistic, parent-led approach in our sleep …
One of the most common sleep-training problems I encounter is moms wondering how to get a baby to nap longer. I hear a version of this naptime problem a lot! “My baby only naps for 30-45 minutes. And they wake up screaming.” “I try to keep them awake for 2 …
Okay, are you ready? This is probably going to be the world’s shortest blog post, but I finally decided to write it because I get this question a lot! How do you transition toddler out of their crib? Don’t. There. The end. Just kidding – I’m actually going to give …
In today’s post, I’ll share my best tips for surviving the first trimester of your pregnancy! I have been pregnant 5 times in the past 5.5 years. One of those pregnancies ended in an early miscarriage, but all 5 came with varying degrees of morning sickness. With each pregnancy, I …