Category: Love and Treasure Your Baby

My Lifestyle Favorites For Spring 2017 (Part 1)

Is it just me or has 2017 gone by in a flash?

You probably feel it’s gone in a flash, too.

So, before any more time slips out of our hands, let me share some of my Spring 2017 Lifestyle Favorites that you can enjoy this Spring and beyond.

Some of these links are affiliate links. All opinions are my own, and I share these products with you because I think you’ll REALLY love them.

**Do You Feel Guilty Just Thinking About Shopping?**

Hey, I get it.

When you have little ones, what you want to do is buy things for them. Buy what they need, not necessarily what you want.

But, let me share a favorite plugin, that will make you feel a little bit better about buying online.

Ready?

It’s called Ebates.

If you haven’t tried Ebates, you’re in for a very special treat. Can I be super honest with you? I had heard several people raving about

Can I be super honest with you? Several years ago, I had heard several people raving about Ebates , but I didn’t sign up. It kept on pushing this task off, thinking that this wasn’t as cool of a plugin as people said it was.

But boy, was I wrong! And it potentially cost me hundreds of dollars as a result of not having signed up earlier.

Why do I say this?

Because within days of signing up, I had earned about $25.56 dollars cash back, given that I had made a few more purchases than usual (you’ll see some of these purchases below).

If you sign up for Ebates through this link, you’ll get $10.00 in bonus cash back right away. Pretty sweet, right?

5 Ways To Embrace Your Inner Artist (Part 2)

In the previous post, we talked about the first 3 out of the 5 ways to embrace your inner artist. Today, we will explore the rest.

4) A Pristine, Clean Home Isn’t The Goal

There is a time and place to teach your kids to take care of themselves. But unless paint, glitter, glue or something super hard to clean is being thrown all around, don’t worry too much about the mess that your kid can be making while making art.

Two posts ago, I shared that deciding where to make art was important. I also recommended using an art mat to protect your table.

But overall, know that you will see glue sticks out, crayons out, artwork on your home surfaces, paint projects drying. It’s normal.

It’s common to see this kind of stuff in homes where kids are just being kids, but if you’re homeschooling your kids with the Mother Goose Time Curriculum, expect to see these artistic products and finished projects even more.

“The art supplies, art projects and kid messes you feel overwhelmed by today, will probably be the things you miss most when your kids leave the nest.” – Haydee Montemayor

5 Practical Ways To Get Comfortable With Art

Last week, we talked about the fact that often, we are the ones who get in our own way of creating art.

But, we need to get over ourselves for our sake, for our child’s sake. We need to create art for the fun of it and for the creativity benefits it provides.

“There’s no better way to learning about creativity than by being creative.” -Haydee Montemayor

Here Are 5 Practical Ways To Get More Comfortable With Art

There are 5 little things that you need to make art:

Gather The Materials to Make Art
Make The Time to Make Art
Decide The Best Location To Make Art
Be in the Moment While Doing Art And
Appreciate The Art You Make

Have Breastmilk? Making The Time To Breastfeed Does The Body Good

Are you wanting to breastfeed but are telling yourself what is probably the number one excuse we ALL use, (that I really shouldn’t have to tell you because you know it already) which is, “I don’t have time” to breastfeed.

When it comes to breastfeeding, “I don’t have time,” can mean three things.

It can mean that:

1) There so many doubts and hangups that you have about breastfeeding that you FEEL like you don’t have the time to figure out how to breastfeed, why to breastfeed, when to breastfeed, how often to breastfeed and everything else that breastfeeding entails. And don’t worry, I totally get it that that’s a lot of information.

2) You are a busy person and literally don’t know when you’ll be able to squeeze in the time to breastfeed.

3) You’re just using the phrase as an excuse.

So Now That You Know What’s Holding You Back In Your Breastfeeding, What Are You Gonna Do About It?

The good news is that when you use the “I don’t have time” excuse for any of the reasons mentioned above, you can actually test these the reasons/excuses by asking yourself a simple question that author of The Work, Byron Katie asks and that is “Is it true?” If you say yes, then you ask yourself her second question, which is, “Can you be absolutely know that it’s true?” Or you can take my shortcut and just ask yourself.. “Is that really true?”

After Love, What’s Your Biggest Ally To Help You Breastfeed Successfully?

Women, in general, seem to like comparing themselves to other women. I don’t know if we do it because we really CARE if we’re ahead of the rest of the women or not OR because we have SO many insecurities about ourselves that we just want to confirm that we’re not the worst player on the team.

But the fact that we want to run, run , run as fast as we can, turn back and say, “you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread gal” is a huge indication that we shouldn’t be wishing to get ahead just for the sake of getting ahead. That wishing to get ahead without a real focus on what TRULY matters is all mental games. And that instead of focusing our attention sideways to see if anybody is “caught up to us” or behind us or in front of us, when it comes to breastfeeding, we should pause, look down at our baby and re-engage with WHY we’re breastfeeding in the first place. We’re breastfeeding not to compare to other women. We’re breastfeeding to offer the best of ourselves to our baby.

What’s The Main Hesitation About Breastfeeding That You Need To Get Over?

I know that it SEEMS that some women have it “easy” when it comes to breastfeeding.

And you may THINK that you don’t have it easy or won’t have it easy.

Let me just pull back the curtain for you and reveal an important truth that I would REALLY like for you to TRULY process:

Out of ALL the breastfeeding women I know, NOBODY has had a 100% perfect breastfeeding experience.

Like NO-BO-DY .

Yet, many women have gone on to breastfeed for yeeeeears.

What Do You Need To Shift In Order To Get Over The Fact That Breastfeed Isn’t Easy?

Do you know what the difference between the women who breastfeed for years and those who don’t even breastfeed for 6 months is?

Do You Have What It Takes To Breastfeed?

Are you thinking about breastfeeding? If so, you’re in the right place.

Just like parenting, the further you learn about breastfeeding, the more you realize that you don’t know all that you need to know.

And that realization can get pretty overwhelming, very quickly.

So today, let’s take it one step at a time and deconstruct breastfeeding so that it’s as simple as possible for you to get started and get the momentum going.

To Get Breastfeeding Started, You Only Need A Few Things

If you think about it, in order to breastfeed, you just need a couple of basic things:

You
The baby
A good “why” for why you’re breastfeeding
TIME To be around the baby to get to know them
SELF-CARE To take care of yourself to have the energy that breastfeeding requires
And persistence. You need to breastfeed, breastfeed, breastfeed.

What Is Breastfeeding Really Like?: An Introduction To Breastfeeding

Introduction To Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is one of those topics where introducing it to someone won’t be enough or as “satisfactory” as it would be if you were getting an introductory overview of another topic.

You see, in order to understand breastfeeding, you have to actually DO IT.

What Is Required For You To Really Say You Know What Breastfeeding Is Like?

Before you even start breastfeeding, you need to really have a clear motivation for DOING IT and for CONTINUING TO DO IT. In other words, you need to commit to breastfeeding by remember who you’re breastfeeding for.

Obviously, you’re committing to breastfeeding for your baby’s wellbeing.

“Breastfeeding is no walk in the park. But you know what? It’s the best red carpet you can roll out for your baby.” – Haydee Montemayor

You need to learn about the breastfeeding process and apply it. Breastfeeding isn’t about theory. It’s about practice.

You need to feel what it feels like to breastfeed.

See the baby enjoy it.

Realize that it actually feels good to do it.

Eye-Opening Facts About The Nutritional and Health Benefits Breastmilk Offers that Formula Simply Doesn’t

The phrase, “you are what you eat (which by the way should really be, you are what you absorb) starts on the day that you’re born.

Your baby’s quality of life starts to be defined the minute you decide to give him/her breastmilk or formula.

Breastfeeding has nutritional, intellectual, immunological, emotional and psychological benefits.

Formula has nutritional benefits.

It’s important that when talking about any food item that you keep in mind that nutritional benefits are comprised of two things:

The actual nutrients found in that food item
And how those nutrients impact your direct and overall health

Today we will focus on the nutritional benefits of breastmilk and formula by doing a side-by-side comparison. And will discuss how these nutritional benefits impact your baby’s health now and for his/her lifetime.

My Story in Deciding How To Nourish My Baby

As I shared in the last post, when I became pregnant with my firstborn, I KNEW I wanted to breastfeed.

So when I was hours away from holding my baby in my arms, I was SUPER happy to see the best educational visual EVER hanging on the hospital wall (where I had my baby naturally with no medications) that showed how long the list of positive ingredients in breastmilk was in comparison to the list of ingredients in formula.

I didn’t need the extra push or validation to breastfeed, but if I did, seeing that poster would have made me sing “Whoomp there it is! Whoomp there it is! Shaka laka shaka laka shaka laka shaka whoomp!”

Do You Feel Guilty Just Thinking About Shopping?