Schmoozins

One of my favorite blogs to read is Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.  Jen is a wonderful writer but there is so much more than that to her blog.  She opens the front door, brings you in and makes you feel right at home.  One of my favorite sections of her blog is the Frugal Fashionista.

In her Frugal Fashionista category you will find the genius finds of all things thrifty and frugal.  It seems Jen has this natural ability to just wave her fingers at thrift stores and rummage sales and find the perfect outfit.  She puts each outfit together in $15 or less and shows you pricing on each item.

You will find a wealth of tips and creative ideas just following her posts.  Jen often inspires me to dig a little deeper in a secondhand store and find something special that flatters my figure.  What have you purchased recently on the cheap?  My biggest find recently wasn’t clothing but a great laptop bag by Franklin Covey for $2!  It sure come in handy for all my scout meetings and leaves me looking classy at that.

A friend of mine showed me a really cool awareness this morning called the No Name Zone.  It isn’t really a product but a way of labeling your children’s items so that they aren’t labeled by his or her name.  Check out the video that explains how to teach your kids to label their items safely.

If this interests you then sign up for the No Name Zone Pledge and be entered to win a free IPad!

This is definitely the week to check out Lovable Labels a fun website that will help you remain organized.  Karin over at Lovable Labels is hosting a back to school giveaway and you have until August 16th to enter.

What are Lovable Labels?

Well Lovable Labels are a quality label product for everything you might need to personalize from your notebooks to your shoes.  Putting them on all your child’s new school supplies is a great way to prevent you from having to replace them after they are misplaced.

If you send lunch to school with your child you are really in for a treat when it comes to caring for their containers.  Lovable Labels are dishwasher and microwave safe.  You need not worry about them wearing off or no longer sticking after a run through the dishwasher.

Make sure you also pick up a set of shoe labels for the gym shoes and snow boots that regularly get changed throughout the school day.  These labels can even go through the washer and dryer.

Maybe you don’t have kids headed back to school.  Don’t worry Lovable Labels has something special for you too! Wouldn’t some labels or stationery with your name be useful around the house as well?  A woman can always use a nice notepad to send out notes to those she loves.

Stop by and say hello to Karin over at Lovable Labels and enter her back to school giveaway.  Show a mom with a business some support for her unique product line!

My husband has his class reunion this weekend and I am making an attempt to look a bit more like a woman and less like a mom for an evening.  The problem?  I feel a bit clueless as to how to make my makeup look modern.  I typically don a pair of yoga pants or capris and a t-shirt but I thought this would be a good opportunity to look feminine and pretty again.

I found a really dressy tank top trimmed in lace with a sweet black shrug while shopping the clearance racks but I still had to address my make up situation.  Being home most of the time I don’t wear makeup often.  I feel really out of the cosmetic loop.

After a little hunting I found Makeup Geek aka Marlena.  What do I love about Marlena?  She is a plus-sized gal not afraid to be beautiful and share her tips with the world.  She has video tutorials on everything from modern wedding look  to a fabulous bollywood look.  I am just looking to make my eyes sparkle a little and get past the mom look.

I haven’t selected a style yet but I have spent a lot of time watching videos.  Marlena has a store on her site selling the colors and products she recommends but with my limited time I did a little hunting for a store and found ULTA stores have most of the products needed to create the looks.  While I don’t have one locally I will be stopping at one during the trip to my husband’s hometown.

I love that the looks won’t break my budget.  Have fun, watch some videos and create a new look while getting out of the mom funk.
photo credit: dreamglow pumpkincat210

Through the past week I talked about the stages of motherhood and gave you some reading resources.  I divided the years up into four stages: Infants & Toddlers, Elementary Ages, Teenagers and College & Adult Children.

Each age group has it’s own challenges and I provided some good reading material resources for each group.  Also, during the time of raising our kids we go through different motherhood and marriage stages.  It is very important to remember we often teach by example and caring for ourselves is just as important as caring for our children.

Keep in mind that while there are hundreds of books out there your best resource is often another mom.

Get involved with a moms group, church, book club or any other place you might find a mom to connect with.  I have a friend who has already raised her children that gives me a listening ear and sound advice when I feel overwhelmed.

Most of all enjoy your children!

We are only given our children for a limited amount of time.  Raising them is a blessing although it can be difficult at times try to enjoy as much of it as possible.  Make yourself available to mentor a younger mom as you can be a gift to someone else as well.

What is your favorite resource for help with raising your children?  How have you coped with the demands of motherhood?

Over the past few days I have gone through the stages of motherhood with you including: Infants & Toddlers, Elementary Ages, Teenagers and now College to Adult Children.

A Child Leaving Home Doesn’t Mean You’re Not A Mother Anymore.

To some it make seem like a blessing that your child is leaving to others it may seem like the world is going to end.  As mothers our job is to raise our children and send them out into the world to make a way for themselves.  Just because they leave doesn’t mean we won’t ever be needed.  However the boundaries of telling our children what to do are getting finer.  Here are some resources to help you figure out those boundaries.

For those moms sending your child off to college 1001 Things Every College Student Needs to Know: (Like Buying Your Books Before Exams Start) gives a lot of advice for your new college student.  This book is going to share everything from housing advice to planning which classes to take and even how to develop great study habits.

Maybe your child decided to not attend college but you still want them to achieve everything that they possibly can.  You need to read Parenting Your Adult Child: How You Can Help Them Achieve Their Full Potential for some great tips.  Maybe your child just had decided to not grow up this is going to help you give them a push to get on their own feet.

Maybe your child just hit their 20′s and needs some help gauging maturity. Help Your Twentysomething Get a Life…And Get It Now: A Guide for Parents gives a lot of advice which is desperately needed by many parents.  You don’t need to enable or manipulate your child to take responsibility for themselves but you may need to give them a wake up call.

The kids are gone and now is a time for natural change. Loving Midlife Marriage: A Guide to Keeping Romance Alive From the Empty Nest Through Retirement is going to be a great resource for those moments when you don’t know how to adjust in your marriage.  Now is the time to recreate all those moments you dreamed about while the kids were growing up and you didn’t have the time or money to make them come true.  Take a breath and make a list so you can deepen your relationship.

Remember even though the kids are gone life hasn’t ended.  It won’t be long and you can spoil the grandchildren and then send them home.

The past few days I have touched on resources for mothers with infants and toddlers and elementary aged children.  Today I want to talk about tweens and teens.

I really find the teen years the hardest but with good reason.

During the teen years your child is going to work really  hard to separate themselves from you as an individual.  Our job as parents is to instill values in them and provide guidance that will help them make the right choices in life.  We cannot as much as we want to make the choices for them.

Sometimes the hardest thing is knowing when to let them fail.

The first resource I want to share with you is Parenting Your Teen and Loving It: Being the Mom Your Kid Needs.  Just because our kids need to learn to stand on our feet does not leave us unneeded as a mother.  Sometimes we all need to understand just how much we are needed and where.

So now you know where you are needed but can you stay calm while going through the rough issues of your teen?  Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens + Teens is going to give you the advice to slow down and remain in control.  Not necessarily in control of your child but in control of yourself and your reactions to  your child’s behavior that tests your limits.

So maybe you have a tween, not quite a teen but past the elementary age group. The Everything Tween Book is going to be the best resource you could have possibly found.  No matter the issue you are bound to find a standard limit in this book.  Think about makeup, fashion, dating and so much more.  We all have our own ideas but this gives us a place to start for setting limits.

While you may feel like you are going crazy with tweens and teens in the house the last thing  you want is a crazy marriage.  The next book Loving Your Man Without Losing Your Mind might save you when you feel like screaming at your husband for something little he might have done.  It isn’t hard to carry over the stress from the kids to your marriage but now more than ever when you teen starts to date they need to know how to treat the opposite sex.

Parenting isn’t over after the teens so come back for the next part in the series about college and adult aged children.

It won’t be long and you will be empty nesters but the need of a mom never goes away.