For Moms Only

10 Simple Tips For Flying With A Baby

August 24, 2017

Hi mamas! I have been so excited to share tips for flying with a baby for quite some time! Since I am flying with my baby several times in the next few weeks, it seemed like the right time! While our baby has already traveled quite a bit in her short eight months- including seven states- a lot of it has been road trips, not flying! Because of that, I turned to my friend Micah for these tips! She and her husband traveled internationally twice before their baby was even 5 months old! Her tips for flying are fantastic!

I’m Micah and I am married to an awesome man named TJ, and together we produced one adorable baby named Abner, born on March 22, 2017. TJ and I met while doing missions in Africa so we knew from the get go that we would be a flying family. Through a series of events we ended up getting airline credit that needed to be cashed in before August of this year. We decided to book a trip to Ireland in June and then go to Ecuador with my family in July. Before we left I researched different tips on traveling with a child but I couldn’t find anything about flying with your baby, so here is my attempt to shed a little bit of light on the subject.

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How To Eat Clean On A Budget

August 22, 2017

I am just going to get straight to the point on this one. I know I am not the only person that has heard someone say it is ‘too expensive’ to eat clean! I understand the reasoning for this thought process, I really do. So many ‘clean’ and ‘organic’ supermarkets have price tags that are far out of reach for the majority of us. But even with those high market tags, the notion that it’s ‘too expensive to eat clean’ is just plain silly! If you just know the right tools and tricks, you can eat clean on a budget- even on a tight one!

I’ll just go ahead and be totally open here, although we normally don’t share exact numbers in our finances. My husband and I spend exactly $80 a week on groceries. We spend no more, and we spend no less. And that food also feeds our baby who now eats solids at every meal with us. Within that $80 budget, we eat as clean as we possibly can. And that $80 budget gives us three meals every single day, as well as our extras (coffee, almond flour for baking, dark chocolate).

Some of you may be thinking “there’s no way that’s possible.” Others may already be there! If you already eat clean on a budget, we want to hear your tricks, too!…

The Lie Everyone Believes About Breastfeeding

August 21, 2017

If you are a mom, if you want to be a mom, if you are friends with a mom, or if you just know a mom, you’ve probably heard some pretty strong statements about breastfeeding. And it is likely that you have your own strong opinions about those statements.

The heat of the controversy is pretty much everywhere these days. And while I am a mom, I can definitely say that these controversies were in my face far before I ever became pregnant.

It seems to me like there was some sort of drastic shift a few years ago. All of a sudden there were all of these breastfeeding debates swarming around social media that I had previously never seen or been aware of. I don’t really know what flipped the switch, but the switch was definitely flipped.

A news feed that had previously been filled with simple photos of my mom friends and their sweet babies was suddenly filled with articles and videos created by breastfeeding activists. The agenda in each was the same: to normalize breastfeeding….

How To Do Your Makeup In 5 Minutes Or Less

August 15, 2017

Y’all want me to tell you how to do your makeup in 5 minutes or less?

Just kidding, I can’t tell you, because I don’t know how.

Now you feel like I tricked you into coming here? I didn’t, I promise.

What makes this post so completely fun is that I am learning the very thing I want to share with you!

It all started with a promotion! If you don’t know already, I am a Beautycounter consultant. I absolutely love Beautycounter, but to be honest, most of my experience is with the skincare products, not the makeup.

And that’s not because I don’t want to buy the makeup. It is because I seriously have never worn face makeup and have no idea how to even put it on. Yes, I am serious. I am twenty-something years old and don’t know how to use concealer….

Why The Laundry Can’t Wait

August 14, 2017

As a first time mom, I swear I have heard it all. Whether spoken with good intention, frustration, or even bitterness, the “friendly advice” given to new moms is often more than overwhelming. I would be willing to bet that the majority of people giving that advice don’t actually mean any harm. Even still, the ever accumulating advice in my new mom notebook is exhausting. I could share a long list of “just wait,” “you’ll see,” and “that’s a first time mom thing” sort of statements, but I am learning to brush most of them off and move on.

Even still, there are certain pieces of advice that tend to linger in my head. I find myself thinking about them and basically writing a blog post in my own head while having conversations with myself.

The latest conversation I have been having in my head involved one particular nugget of “wisdom” that others have continually shared with me.

“The laundry can wait.”…

3 New Tricks To Heal Your Baby’s Diaper Rash

August 9, 2017

There’s nothing cuter than a squishy little baby booty, right? There’s also nothing more frustrating for a mama than when then cute little booty is plagued with a diaper rash. Some babies make it through their first year with very few of them, and other babies just seem to be prone to getting them all the time.

Whether it’s one rash here and there, or a rash that seems to carry on for weeks, it’s a pain in the butt…

An even bigger pain is when diaper rash creams don’t seem to work. Even more frustrating is when you realize some of the harsh ingredients that are in diaper rash creams. It makes you wonder if the chemicals in the cream are doing more harm than good to your baby’s precious little booty….

Simple Beauty Tricks To Make You Feel Like a Million Bucks

August 2, 2017

Wanna know what day it is?

Worry Free Wednesday!

Y’all want honesty, right? Always. I seriously spend more time worrying about not being put together than almost anything else. This whole mom thing is not for the weak. Most days I am drenched in sweat (hello ninety-eight degree weather and no air conditioning), covered in a mixture of baby drool and spit up, and completely incapable of telling you when I last showered. Between being a full time mama and being the owner of my own small business (AND adding Beautycounter to my business), my life is just plain crazy.

I know, I know, show myself a little grace, right? Cut myself a little slack?

I feel like that’s the thing… I constantly show myself grace and cut myself a little (a lot) slack. But what happens is that somewhere in the midst of all that grace and slack I stop enjoying myself. After a while I just start to feel sluggish and gross….

Dear Women, Start Respecting Yourselves

July 20, 2017

This is post is very personal to me. I mean, I guess all my posts are, but I often try to keep it objective and share more about topics and facts and less about emotions and my heart. This is one is straight from my heart. It is a letter to fellow women, and a deep cry for change.

I have wrestled with this for quite some time. I don’t just mean writing this post. I mean that I have literally wrestled with the very thing I want to talk about, and my words come from deep experience and painful process.

So what is it, you are wondering? I want to talk about women posting photos on social media. I want to talk about the photos in swimsuits, the gym selfies, the photos of our kids that conveniently show the muscles we are most proud of, and the selfies we took over and over to get the perfect one that showed our very best features. I want to talk about the photos, and I want to talk about the motives behind them….

Should We Vaccinate Our Babies?

July 18, 2017

This is more than a can of worms. It’s more like a raging war with arrows on fire, attached to bombs, launched from WWII canons.

The great vaccine debate is one that I honestly don’t usually engage in unless someone directly asks for my opinion. There is so much tension around the matter that I find myself afraid of saying what I think, for fear of being ripped apart. The anti-vaccine community has such strong opinions, and the pro-vaccine community is no different. The thoughts, opinions, and feelings that drive the communication between the two are far from healthy.

And honestly that is kind of sad. We should be able to talk about these things without losing relationship. We should be able to talk about these things without such great offense, and we should be able to agree to disagree.

So today, I am breaking through my fear and talking about it….

Balancing + Charcoal Facial Mask

July 12, 2017

Worry Free Wednesday has somehow rolled around again, and I feel a little bit stressed about it.

The irony.

We had a super busy weekend here in the Crawford home, and I got so caught up in doing giveaways and helping my husband with the last minute touches for his website launch that I forgot to take care of me.

I feel like that is pretty common for a lot of us, but especially for us mamas. We spend so much of our time taking care of everything and everyone else, that we can easily forget to take care of us. We go and go and go, and by the time we realize we should slow down we are already drained….