I love finding great tips from other moms whether it be tips about working from home with kids, recipe tips, frugal living tips, coupons, whatever...I love tips!
So I thought it might be fun to start a "tip of the day" post where each day I'll post a tip of some sort that hopefully moms will find helpful!
If you have a tip that you'd like to share, please let me know. Just leave a comment and your tip, and I'll post about it with a link to your site.
Thursday Tip of The Day
Didn't get this posted yesterday (oops!) but I'm catching up today! Crystal left some great tips yesterday, and I wanted to share one that she uses to help get some 'quiet phone time' when the busy work at home mom needs it!
"I actually had my kids create their own "dream board" They spent hours flipping through old magazines and tearing out pictures of all the things they would like to have. (That is if money wasn't an issue and there were no limits...)
We then took a big poster board and pasted them all over to create their own lil' collage. Anytime I am on an important call, I either set it up or hang it on my office door. They know that when they see this it means mommy is working and they must wait and I will let them know just as soon as I finish."
Great tip Crystal! Thanks for sharing it.
Wednesday Tip of The Day
I really have a hard time with finding time to make dinner every night, and even my kids think we order pizza too much (omg..that should tell you how much we order pizza!) But today I found an article that I think will save my family from having another hastily thrown together dinner, or worse, another pizza. The article, Once a Week Food Preparation has wonderful suggestions for getting your menus planned and prep work done for a week's worth of healthy meals. Even better, this website Thirty Minute Meals that offers quick easy recipes for every night of the week! This is a great resource for busy moms!
Tuesday's Tip of The Day:
Genesis from At Home Mom Blog sounds like she is living in my house with two little boys that keep the freelance writing mom on her toes while she tries to meet deadlines, do her research and answer "why" questions from her inquisitive toddler and soothe a teething sweetie! So Here are some of Genevive's best tips for us busy moms:
Take a “sick” day. If you can, push your deadlines back, ask for an extension, or outsource the work. Then take a day to just deal with kids. Or, if you can´t change anything to do with work, see if your spouse can take the kids to the park or if a babysitter can keep them occupied.
Forget the non-essentials. When everything is crashing down around you, let some of it go. Let the dishes pile up, don´t sweep the floor, don´t bother fighting with kids over cleaning their rooms. In fact, this is the perfect time for a mess. Put a pot of water in the middle of the kitchen floor (this one had me laughing out loud--oh how my two little ones would love this idea!!) and let the kids splash in it, or dump all the pots and pans out for them to smash around with. Then put on some headphones and get to work.
Alternate tasks. Sometimes . . . and only sometimes, it can work to switch back and forth between carrying kids around the house in a sling and working on your latest project that needs to be in shortly.
And of course, all moms probably do this one just about everyday....
Multi-task. Genevive says, "A good example is what I´m doing at this very second, rocking a very unhappy, teething little boy in his bouncy chair with one foot and writing this blog post while also answering my toddler´s “Why? But WHY?” questions!"
Thanks Genevive!
Monday's Tip of The Day;
The Phone Box
I have the hardest time even picking up the phone when it rings...let alone trying to talk to whomever is on the other end! It's like my kids have telephone radar...they are in desperate need of my attention almost as soon as the phone starts to ring. Not to mention the fighting, crying, whining, noise from toys sent sailing across the room that goes on if my little ones see me talking on the phone.
So, I have made a box that has some special toys, healthy snacks, and coloring papers and crayons that are "special"...usually printables I find online and print out.
When I know I need to answer the phone and have a few minutes of uninterrupted conversation time, I take the box down and viola! my kids are delighted and quiet!
