Hey, Mamas! Not only has it been a while since I’ve shared a currently post (not since OCTOBER), but it’s been a few weeks since I’ve shared any kind of post! I took two weeks off for the holidays and it was so nice! When you own your own business, you sometimes have to make yourself take time off, or you won’t ever stop working! So every year I take time off in the summer and for Christmas, and it was very refreshing this time!

Since my last currently post, we’ve celebrated Halloween (we were Batman villains), celebrated Thanksgiving, and celebrated Christmas (my parents got to come to town for Christmas, which was a nice treat!). And I guess you can count New Year’s, too, but it’s not as exciting as the other three holidays!

We also finally got to go to another Jazz game here in Minnesota (they won and our oldest son got to come with us!), and J also started basketball (my husband is the coach!).

I redesigned my blog (please tell me you’ve noticed!), changed my weekly email, Mamadvice, to be more useful, helpful, and interesting, and accomplished one of my goals for 2019 (I wanted to run 500 miles in 2019, I ran over 580 miles).

We’ve played in the snow, built some snowmen and a snow fort, shoveled snow, and played with snow inside. It’s definitely winter here in Minnesota. And unfortunately, it will be for like three more months.

We’re doing good over here, and now that we’re all caught up, here’s what’s coming up for us in the next few months:

Resolving to make no resolutions. Yes, you read that right. I decided that I am not making any goals or resolutions this year. Honestly, I’m not good at sticking to them when they are big, yearly goals, and I also kind of just don’t want to. I’m happy with how things are, and just because I don’t have formal resolutions doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue to improve and work on bettering myself!

Celebrating my husband finishing his residency in two months. Four years of undergrad, four years of medical school, one year of residency in Texas, and two and a half years of residency in Minnesota. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, guys! We got married when he was two years into his undergrad, so I’ve basically been with him on this long journey the entire way. He’s officially done on March 6th, he’s already passed his family medicine boards (so he’s officially certified!), and he’s got a job lined up to start just a few miles from our house. I am so, so proud of him, and so, so excited for him to finally start reaping the benefits of all his hard work.

Starting to think about our garden! Gardening has become such a big part of our lives the last few years, and I can’t wait to start planning and planting our little seedlings in a few weeks! There are some things we planted last year that we don’t want to plant again, and lots of things (like our tomatoes and peppers) that we definitely want to plant again. Although I still have about 15 jars of canned salsa in the basement!

Potty training the youngest! Guys, we might never have to buy diapers again! Last Thursday we went all in and decided to potty train him. He’s been doing great, and has even used the potty at the gym a few times, at church, and at a gas station. I can hardly imagine not having to carry around diapers anymore. I’ve had diapers in my life for almost seven years, so this is a pretty big deal for us! We just have to figure out how to get him to poop in the potty now!

Well I can’t think of anything else anyone would possibly find interesting that’s going on besides those things, so I’ll wrap it up now. Thanks for all your support and here’s to 2020!!

The post Currently: Winter 2020 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Hey guys! It’s been a while since I’ve done a currently post (which has been on purpose) and I’m excited to fill you in on what’s been going on behind-the-scenes over here!

What’s been up:

Turned 30! What what! The big 3-0! I love being 30! My husband threw me a big party with so many friends and a big inflatable obstacle course. We had some adult competitions and it was a lot of fun! Plus there was pizza and cake and we had great weather, so it was wonderful. I’m more than two months into my thirties and I can honestly say I’m loving it!

Took a trip to Colorado. I grew up in Colorado and we were fortunate to be able to have a “family reunion” in the mountains in July. I say that with quotes because our family only consists of my parents, my sister and me, our husbands, and our collective five kids. We had three dogs there too, so it was a full house. We visited Winter Park and played games and celebrated birthdays and had a fun time. We don’t get together very often so we’re glad we made it work!

Ran another half marathon! Guys, how crazy is that? I’ve run three half marathons since April! If you’d have told me that I’d be running three half marathons in less than six months I’d be like girl, you’re crazy. But I did! It’s so fun to have something that I truly enjoy doing and can actually challenge myself with. I’m not a very fast runner, but I can run far! (Just don’t ask me to sign up for a marathon!)

Gardening! Our garden has been so much more productive this year, and we are taking full advantage of it. We have had so many tomatoes and peppers and I’ve canned over 15 jars of salsa (and it’s delicious, I might add!). My friend taught me how to can so I’ve basically been canning as much as I can (get it?). Plus we have had onions and celery and potatoes and raspberries and strawberries and cantaloupe and corn and carrots and spinach and lettuce and beautiful flowers. I wish I could garden all year round! 

School started! My oldest is now in first grade, my daughter is in her second year of preschool, and our toddler still stays at home with me. School is going well for everyone and we’re settled into a nice little routine. It’s so fun listening to my six-year-old learn to read. We’ve had conferences for him and his teacher said he’s doing great, which didn’t surprise us but is still always great to hear. At the start of last year our daughter was super shy and not at all social, but within a week or two of school this year she knew at least five kids’ names, so we’re proud of how she’s grown, too. 

Also, we went to the Minnesota State Fair, my daughter turned 5, my 6-year-old did his first triathlon, we did a Tough Mudder 5k and a trail duathlon, went up North, and Penelope got spayed.

What I’m excited for: 

Latter-day Mamas. My sister and I have started a new Instagram account for supporting, inspiring, uplifting, and encouraging moms of faith, with an emphasis on sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I’ve been trying to find a way to share my beliefs and help other mamas strengthen their faith, and I’m so excited that I get to do both of those things with my sister by my side! We plan on sharing tips for teaching the gospel to kids, holding on to faith during trials, resources for the Come Follow Me curriculum, quotes from prophets and apostles, and anything else we think will help you find happiness and strength as you minister to those around you and strengthen your own testimony. This account is for members and non-members alike who want to grow closer to Jesus Christ. No matter where you are on your faith journey, whether you’re investigating the Church or a life-long member, whether you have doubts or a strong testimony, we encourage you to follow along! 

Halloween. Halloween is one of my top three favorite holidays, and I’m so excited it’s only a few weeks away! We already have all of our costumes ready (I’m going to share hints about what we’re being on Instagram so keep an eye out) and I’m helping out in my son’s Halloween/fall party at school. And my husband actually gets to come trick-or-treating with us this year, so that will be a huge bonus! Yay Halloween!

Doing fall things. Pumpkin patches, apple picking (we’ve already gone once but want to go again!), drinking fall drinks and eating pumpkin treats, playing in the leaves, wearing sweaters, all of it. I really like fall, and as long as it doesn’t snow before Halloween, I’m going to be a happy camper!

Reassessing LWML. Now that I’ve been able to kind of slow down here on Life With My Littles with just one blog post a week and a more focused and planned Instagram account, I feel like I might want to make some changes again. The internet is constantly changing and it’s so hard to keep up and always know what to do and what not to do. But I have 2+ hours four days a week while my daughter is in school and my youngest naps to get some serious work done, and I feel like I want to really take advantage of that. I want to maybe change my newsletter Mamadvice (I love the name, but not sure I want to keep doing it the way I have been), get more focused on my purpose/mission statement to help moms enjoy their lives, and maybe even do a big overhaul of the blog. We’ll see, though. It’s definitely going to take some time if that’s what I decide to do!

Well that’s it, friends! As always, thanks for following along and reading and sharing my posts! Helping fellow mamas is what keeps me going!

The post Currently: Fall 2019 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Hey mamas!

It’s been a few months since I shared a currently post, and I am happy to report that I am feeling so much better about everything! Yay! You may remember that I was feeling lost and stuck and like I didn’t have enough time to work and be with my kids and because of the change I made to only post once a week, do one currently a quarter, and one Honest Birth post a month, I feel AWESOME! No more stress from my blog! Which is exactly how it should be! 

So many great things have happened since my last currently post, too! I think since I’m only doing these four times a year, I’ll do a section about things that happened, and a section about things that are coming up! 

What’s New 

Ran two half marathons and a mud run. Remember how I was training for the runDisney Star Wars Half Marathon in April? Well I did it and it was awesome! And then I decided since I was already running far, I would sign up for another local half marathon. And THEN I also signed up for a 5k mud run (which I’ve always wanted to do!). So many runs, feeling so awesome, and I’m glad I finally found some type of exercise I enjoy! 

Cheered for my husband in Grandma’s Marathon. My husband did the Star Wars Half and then was like “Psh, that was easy” and he signed up for a full marathon! Such a boss! We all went up to Duluth two weeks ago and cheered for him at the finish line. It was so much fun, he ran in honor of his dad for the AFSP, and he finished in under five hours, despite a bunch of injuries and pain leading up to the race. We made matching shirts and posters to cheer for him and had the best time. So proud of that guy!

Adopted a goldendoodle puppy. Yeah, if you know me this one is probably like WHAT? But we did. My husband has been puppy shopping for a while without me being on board, and one day in April we went for a drive to a breeder and after a lot of deliberation, we got her. Her name is Penelope, she’s really soft and pretty, and she’s already 6 months old (today, actually). She’s a very good puppy (I keep telling myself), even if she does chew shoes and bark a lot.

Enjoying school being out. We’re having so much fun this summer! This is our first real summer vacation since J finished kindergarten last month, and we’ve been really trying to make the most of it. Movies, parks, splash pads, the library, and fun at home. Summer is so fun!

Growing a way better garden than last year! Oh my goodness, the second year of gardening is so much better than the first. Our garden took a lot of work to set up and we made some mistakes last year, but this year it’s going GREAT! Our peas are as tall as me, and we’ve harvested TONS of strawberries. My flowers are beautiful, everything is growing so well and beautifully, and we’re going to have tons of strawberries and like 1,000 peas soon. It makes me so happy just to go out and stand in our garden! We even caught some ladies standing outside it taking pictures last week (it’s really impressive, IMO).

Visited Iowa (and ate at all of our favorite places!) last weekend. We decided to take a trip down to our old stomping grounds and visit Des Moines! My husband went to medical school at Des Moines University and graduated in 2016, so it was a lot of fun to go back for a few days. J and A were both born there, so we showed them around and where we used to live and stuff. But the best part was definitely the food! Zombie Burger, Jethro’s, Scratch, and the Des Moines Farmer’s Market were so, so good. It was a great weekend! 

Rocking bangs. In May I decided to give myself bangs! I love them, my husband does not. But honestly, he can deal because I really like them and have enough confidence that I don’t care if he doesn’t like them!

Writing for the Twin Cities Moms Blog. I talked about this last time, but I’ve had two posts go up and got to go to a professional photo shoot and meet some new mama friends! It’s such a big honor because I’ve wanted to be a part of it for a few years, so I’m still thrilled about it! 

What I’m Excited For

Training for more races. Crazy, right? My husband and I are doing a duathlon relay (he bikes, I run) and a 5k Tough Mudder this month, and then I’m getting ready for another half marathon in September. I realized that if i don’t sign up for things my motivation to push myself wanes, so I signed up for more!

Turning 30 this month! This one’s a big one! I’m actually super excited about it and not sad in the slightest. Almost all of my friends are in their 30s, so I feel like I’m joining an awesome club. I’m going to bake myself a cake and enjoy my day and just have fun with my friends and family. 30!

Driving to Colorado for a reunion. I don’t know if you can call it a reunion technically since it’s just my parents, my sister’s family, and my family, but that’s the whole crew, so we think it’s a reunion. We’re renting a cabin in the Rocky Mountains and it’s going to be a lot of fun! My sister has two boys so the kids are really excited, and it will be fun to be together for a few days! Plus, we’ll be celebrating my dad’s birthday (the 4th of July), my birthday (the 16th of July), my sister’s birthday (the 23rd of July), my nephew’s birthday (August 1st), and I think my daughter’s birthday (September 4th). So it’s basically going to be a giant birthday party for half the family while we’re there.

Harvesting lots of yummy fruits and vegetables! We’ve already had lots of strawberries and lettuce and spinach, but I’m excited to harvest even more! Peas, potatoes, corn, raspberries, celery, onions, broccoli, carrots, and cantaloupe. I think that’s everything else that will be ready this year! It’s so fun and fulfilling to eat food you grew yourself! Especially from seed! I just love my little plant babies!

Well that’s it! We’ve had a lot going on and some fun things coming up! Hope everyone’s having a super fun summer!

The post Currently: Summer 2019 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

It’s spring! Finally! Seriously this winter has lasted FOREVER.

We had a good March. We celebrated J’s 6th birthday, went to Disney on Ice (our family tradition!), started our seeds for our garden, the snow melted and we got to play outside several times, we got to do a few fun things during J’s spring break, my husband and I went on a date and saw Jim Gaffigan, we ate lots of Girl Scout Cookies, and have finally gone more than two weeks without anyone getting sick. Things are finally looking up! 

Anyway, you may have noticed that the title of this currently post says “spring” instead of the current month, April. Well remember last month when I said I’d been feeling stuck? I took the time to sit down and really think about what needs to happen in my life to help me feel better. I love writing and creating and I knew that if I completely quit blogging I would have a big hole in my life. Instead of quitting, I decided to scale back a bit. There will be three main changes that you’ll notice moving forward:

1. I’m only going to share one Honest Birth post a month. This has kind of been happening for a while anyway because I’m having a hard time getting people who say they want to participate to actually send in their stories, but I’m going to make it official so I don’t stress about trying to find two people to share each month.
2. Instead of monthly currently posts, I’m going to do seasonal currently posts. So I’ll do a spring one (duh, this one), a summer one, a fall one, and a winter one. I like keeping everyone updated on what’s going on with us, but I feel like Instagram is more the place for that than this blog. 
3. I’m only going to be posting on my blog once a week. A few years ago, I decided to go from three posts a week to two posts, and it was great for a while. But now I’m only going to be doing one post a week. I’m going to work on writing better, more helpful content because helping other mamas is what this blog is all about.

So why the changes? Well besides feeling stuck, my kids are just at stages in their lives where they each need more individualized attention. They all have their own stuff going on and it takes a lot of energy and time to give them what they need. Personally, I’ve also been going through sort of a self-awareness journey, and as dumb as that sounds, I’ve been trying to figure myself out a little more. I have been feeling like I always need to be working in every spare moment I have (I’m blaming my dad for that workaholic part of my personality!), and it’s exhausting. I have lots of posts I want to update and a lot of stuff that I need to get done behind-the-scenes since I’m the only one I employ, and there’s just not enough time. I’ve also been trying to figure out how to stay in a good place and prevent my anxiety and stress from getting the best of me and making me feel like I need to work all the time. I’ll be writing more about that at the end of the month in a post for Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, so if that’s vague it will be clear soon. I’m just figuring out what I need in order to be at my best.

Change can be hard, but it can also be good, and while the ultimate goal of Life With My Littles is to help other moms enjoy their lives, I also need to step back and reassess mine a little bit. I love writing and creating, but there is a time and a season for all things. I may go back to posting more one day, but for now, I need to step back a little bit.

Anyway, now that you know what’s up, I have a few more things I want to tell you about!

• My half marathon is this weekend! Woo! All the training, all the long runs at the gym, all 18 weeks of getting ready and the race weekend is here! I’m so excited, I know I can do it, and I can’t wait to share all about it. I’m going to write a post about training for a half marathon when you have young kids in two weeks so you’ll get more details then, but for now, YAY! 
• We started our seeds and are planning our garden for this year! So far we’ve planted celery and peppers and tomatoes, but we have more we’re planting tonight and then about half of what we’re planting we’re going to seed directly in the garden mid-May. We want to make sure we pass that frost date! We learned a lot last year so we feel like this year our garden is going to do even better! Yay gardening!
• I also recently applied, was interviewed, and chosen to write for the Twin Cities Moms Blog! I’m so pumped and so excited because the City Moms Blog network is such an incredible resource for mamas, and I am thrilled I get to be a part of it. I already have a bunch of ideas for future posts, and I will definitely be sharing on Instagram when my posts go up on their site. Yay!
• I heard back from Barnes and Noble about stocking “Preggers” in stores. If you want to read about it, check out this insta post.

Well that’s what’s currently going on here! I know that’s kind of a lot of changes as far as my blog is concerned, but it’s what needs to happen right now to help me keep my head on straight. Thanks for the support and for sticking around, mamas! 

The post Currently: Spring 2019 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Happy March! March is a good month because it means the first day of spring is coming! And that means we can plant our garden soon! Yes, there’s still a few feet of snow on the ground, but I have been thinking about our garden for a few months already! I just can’t wait!

February was a fun month for us. My husband’s brothers both came for a weekend visit for the first time ever, and that was so much fun. They went ice fishing and to US Bank Stadium for some motocross races, and we celebrated my younger brother-in-law’s 18th birthday a few days early. The kids were so jazzed that they were here, and we can’t wait until they visit again. 

The kids also did a kids’ race (J ran a mile and got third for all the kindergarteners and A ran her first 1/2 mile race with her daddy by her side) and we got to see The LEGO Movie 2 (it’s so cute and we loved it!). We celebrated Valentine’s Day and I was in charge of J’s class party again. I got a hair cut (I cut off about 4 inches) and feel pretty fresh now. We’ve also survived several snow days (so many in fact that they’ve already added another day of school in March). Which is crazy because the entire time I was growing up in Colorado we only had like two snow days ever. I did finally get to build a snowman though, so that makes it almost worth it!

Anyway, February was good, and March is going to be good, too! Here’s what’s currently going on for us this month:

Training for my half marathon! Yes, this has been on the last few currently posts, but my race is next month! A little over a month away, in fact! The farthest I’ve gone so far is 11 miles (which is insane to me), and I’ve been working really hard to get ready for the full half marathon. Running is hard, but I really like it. It’s going to be such a huge accomplishment, and I’m really proud of myself for doing this! Also, I am working on my “costume” for the race! Nothing special, but I’m making a Darth Vader shirt to match my husband’s stormtrooper shirt.

Celebrating my son’s sixth birthday and the first anniversary of Preggers! Yay! I can’t believe my oldest son will be SIX this week! Crazy! He has requested lots of McDonald’s and LEGO sets, and instead of a cake he wants me to make him brownies this year. As far as Preggers goes, I am still waiting on Barnes and Noble. I initially thought it would take three months after submission for them to decide, but apparently it takes way longer. Which is fine, it’s just hard to wait! I’ve been in contact with an administrative assistant over there, so I know they have it and it’s not lost or anything! But the first year of Preggers has been great! It’s doing better than I thought it would on Amazon, and get excited every time I see a new sale come through! 

Feeling stuck. I’m not completely sure where I want to go right now. I love my blog and writing, but some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes has kind of started draining the fun out of it. I want to update old posts for SEO and to make them easier to read, and I also want to write an ebook (like I mentioned last month). I don’t think I want to take time off to do those things, but it’s getting harder to post twice a week and still have time for other things. Finding time when you have three kids is hard! But I’ll figure it out. I’m just not quite there yet!

Done with snow. I’m just done. My husband and I decided that the best word to describe how we feel about winter at this point is “defeated.” Every time it snows now I dread having to go out and clear the driveway. Our snowblower broke so for a few weeks I was shoveling it like I did all of last year. That is HARD WORK, man. But we just got another one and even though it’s not super high quality, it works. Anyway, I’m so ready for spring. Even though the snow is going to take months to melt with all that we have.

Planning for spring break. My son’s spring break is next week and while we aren’t going anywhere, I want to make sure we have fun and don’t just sit at home the whole week! Because seriously, I’m worried about that. Any suggestions on what we should do are much appreciated! 

Planting our garden! Not outside in the ground, but we’re going to plant some of our seedings indoors this week! We went and got a bunch of new seeds on Saturday (and I bought a house plant, name TBD) and soil and I just need to get a table and a few containers to cover them when we plant. I’m seriously so pumped. Gardening gives me life. And food and flowers.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on for us this month! And yay spring (soon)!

The post Currently: March 2019 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Happy February, mamas! January was just about the coldest month of MY LIFE. We had so many days in the negatives and one day where the high was -12 degrees. THE HIGH. We went to the gym in the morning and my car said -26, but then with the wind chill my phone told me it felt like -50. WHAT THE WHAT!? That’s just unfair. To everything. Including our apple trees I slaved hard over planting last spring (which I will be PISSED if they die). But alas, we have chosen to live in Minnesota, and despite the freezing temperatures (literally), we enjoy it!

Besides being a cold month, January was a good month! We celebrated my husband’s 30th birthday (mine is coming up this year, too!), celebrated my youngest son’s 2nd birthday (my baby is 2!!!), I finally studied and took the test to get a Minnesota driver’s license and passed, and my New Year, New Mama series went up and was a huge hit! I had so many shares, comments, and messages from people telling me they loved the posts and they really helped them out. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I encourage you to go read the posts here.

Little R finished speech therapy this month, too. In the short three months he went, he has made incredible improvement. He no longer just yells “mama” all the time. I mean he still does a lot, but things have been a lot better because I can usually figure out what he’s saying. He says “want _____” and “where ___?” so that’s pretty cool. He’s like a completely different kid than he was in October! It’s great! I’m planning on writing a post about what to expect when your toddler starts speech therapy this month, because I honestly had no idea what to expect when we began!

My husband just finished up two and a half weeks of working nights, which sounds like a bummer but was actually fine because he got to sleep at the hospital most nights, so instead of having to sleep during the day we got to hang out with him! The kids loved it and I got a lot of work done while he was gone at night. It’s good to have him back at home at night, though!

Here’s what’s currently going on this month:

Planning my son’s Valentine’s Day class party. Yes, I was in charge of his Halloween party, too, thank you very much. I had originally signed up just to help for the Valentine’s party like I did with the Christmas party, but nobody signed up to be in charge. His teacher sent out an email asking for someone to volunteer, and I said that if nobody else did I would do it. Of course nobody else did, so I’m in charge again. I’m excited because it’s fun to help out in his class and I like planning and coordinating parties!

Running hard as I train for my half marathon. Guys, when I first sat down and wrote down my training plan in my planner (because that’s what I do!), it was so intimidating. Run 8 miles by the end of January?! WHAT!? But I’m doing it! I’m running further than I ever have before, meeting my goals, and feeling confident about my race in April. And super excited! I also got new running shoes so I’m jacked about that, too.

Making videos. One of my goals for the year was to make one new video a month for you guys. Videos are fun (not to mention they also help me make more $) and I wanted to try and make some more, especially for my most popular posts. I made a video last month that’s going up with my post on Wednesday, and I’m working on the scripts for a few others. I like combining helpful tips with a little bit of humor, and it’s fun to see the finished products! I’ve also started getting subscribers on my YouTube channel (what!?) so that’s cool. And this video has over 10,000 views! Woo!

Figuring out how to help J. Remember last month I mentioned that J was having meltdowns? Well they got really bad and really frequent for a few weeks, and we were feeling so lost and unsure how to help him. Through some trial and error and research (thanks, Dr. Google) we figured out that if we give him a snack and 20 minutes of alone time to decompress when he gets home from school, it helps him not meltdown as much in the afternoon. He also knows that he has to do his homework after that (which is like 5 minutes tops). Giving him choices, having expectations, and making sure he knows the plan has helped a ton. And offering little incentives, too. Taking things away doesn’t work, time outs don’t work, and yelling doesn’t work. But we’ve started getting a handle on it and things have been so much better!

Thinking about maybe writing an ebook. Yes, I already wrote an actual book that’s printed and one of the coolest things ever, but I have so much more I want to share, and I’m thinking maybe an ebook is the way to go. The thing I love about my job is the opportunity I have to share things I’ve learned with other mamas to help make their lives easier and help them enjoy motherhood more. I want to maybe compile some of those things into topics and put out a few ebooks or something. I don’t know. We’ll see. Like I said, I’m “thinking” about it!

Well that’s what’s going on for me this month! 2019 is off to a great start, friends!

The post Currently: February 2019 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Happy New Year! I am PUMPED about 2019! But first, let’s quickly recap December! It was a good, busy month filled with fun, family, and holiday traditions! I surprised my husband with a date to Monster Jam (basically a super cool monster truck rally), and that was super fun. We did a bunch of activities on our Christmas Bucket List (although we didn’t have much snow and what we had MELTED before Christmas so we couldn’t do some of them). We made lots of cookies and treats and caramels, which is always a lot of fun. We also got to have my mother-in-law and brother-in-law come stay with us for a few days over Christmas, which was so good! The kids had a week and a half off of school, plus all three kids got pink eye in December (BOOOO), and I got to help in my son’s kindergarten winter class party. December was a lot of fun and 2018 certainly went out with a bang!

Here’s what’s currently going on:

Rethinking my business plan. I recently sat down and calculated where most of my money comes from, where my traffic comes from, and what I was spending the most time on, and it was so eye-opening! I was spending SO MUCH TIME trying to grow my Instagram and seeing no return. And when I say no return, I mean less than 1% of my blog traffic was coming from Instagram, and less than 5% of my income was coming from sponsored Instagram posts. Want to know how much time I was spending liking and commenting and taking pictures and writing captions? At least an hour a day. I know there are great things about Instagram and I’m going to continue posting a few times a week, but I’m not going to waste the time on it that I was before. Likewise, I am going to put more effort and energy to improving and growing my actual blog that you’re reading right now. This space right here is my baby, and it’s the body and the head of my business. And I know that if you aren’t a blogger yourself this little rant might be boring, but my little assessment really changed where I’m going with my business in 2019, so it definitely warranted a paragraph here!

Sharing a new series. Yay! I mentioned this in last month’s currently post, but I want to tell you what the series is since it’s starting next week! It’s called “New Year, New Mama” and it’s an eight-part series with ideas to help you live your best life. I’m going to talk about why we feel mom guilt and how to get rid of it, how to balance everything you have going on in your life, how to stay on top of your schedule and get things done off your to-do list, how to get and stay organized in your life and your home, why and how to take time for yourself, and how to be a “fun” mom for your kids. I’m SO EXCITED because it’s based on answers you guys gave me to questions I asked a few months ago about stresses in your lives. For reals, it’s going to be amazing.

Studying the New Testament. I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and this year we are studying the New Testament. I’m so excited because we just got these incredible manuals with ideas for personal and family study and ways to apply what you’re learning to family nights. And everyone, no matter how old you are, is going to be studying the same thing each week, so it will be fun to actually know what the kids are learning about because I’ll be learning about it, too! And who doesn’t want to read the New Testament and learn more about Jesus Christ!? Anyway, I’m stoked to be starting it. (Also, fun fact, my husband and I met in a New Testament class in college.)

Setting my goals for 2019. I don’t like calling them resolutions, because I’m not really trying to change anything. It’s more that I’m setting goals for things I’d like to accomplish. Things like run 500 miles in 2019, have quarterly dates with each of my kids, monthly dates with my husband, (finally) finish going through my hard drive and cleaning it up, and simple things like that. Nothing too big, but I have a few areas of my life I want to work harder to improve in.

Learning how to parent three very different kids. Guys, I could say this one every month but the last month I have really felt the magnitude of this. My kids are all so incredible and wonderful in their own ways, and they are all so different! Going to speech therapy with R, trying to help A be more positive and not talk down on herself, and figuring out how to help J when he has emotional breakdowns is exhausting. What works for one isn’t going to work for the others, and they all have different challenges. It’s crazy and hard but also worth it and amazing. Doesn’t seem to make sense but it does!

That’s what’s going on for us this month! I also wanted to share how I did on my 2018 goals and my new goals for 2019!

Update pins. CHECK. I got all of those bad boys done (except for like three of them I still want to do) and it took about six months!

Get book in national bookstore (AKA Barnes and Noble). Not check yet. But I am still waiting! I did hear from someone in the Small Press Department at the end of October and she told me that they have my book, but there were a lot of submissions this year so it’s taking longer than normal. But they have it! Crossing my fingers I hear from them soon! This is still a huge dream!

Maintain income. CHECK. I actually earned more this year, but that wasn’t something I was actively trying to do.

Continue posting twice a week. CHECK.

Make 5 videos. Not check. I made three (four if you count me making a video for Instagram TV). But I am going to work on that this year (see below!).

2019 Goals

Make 1 video a month. This will be a challenge but they’re fun to do and I’d like to do it!

Film “You’re Welcome” video. I have been wanting to do a parody video to the song from Moana pretty much ever since I heard it. So I’m making it a goal to finally do it!

Post twice a week. That seems to be my sweet spot.

Learn more about and improve SEO. Most of my traffic comes from Pinterest, but my second source is from search engines like Google. I want to work on improving my SEO and get more people over here!

Reach out and get at least 1 sponsored post a month. This will be hard, but I want to try.

Focus on quality posts. I want every post to be QUALITY!

Get more Pinterest traffic. I know, I already said most of my traffic comes from Pinterest, but there’s always room for improvement!

Well there you have it! My monthly currently post and my goals! Make sure you check back on Monday for the start of my New Year, New Mama series!!! Yay! Happy New Year, mamas!

The post Currently: January 2019 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

It’s December! Not only is it the last month of the year (whaaaaaat!?), but it’s the month of Christmas! It took me a while to get excited about it already being so close to Christmas, but I’m there now, so yay! November was a fun month for us! My parents, my sister, and her two boys came to visit for Thanksgiving (my brother-in-law had to work), and oh my heavens, we had a time.  My nephew who is 17 months got sick on Thanksgiving morning (barfing and pooping) and then my mom got sick that night, and then on Saturday my dad got sick, got dehydrated, had a seizure, and went to the hospital in an ambulance. They were supposed to leave the next morning at 7am so we had to reschedule their flights so they left on Monday afternoon. Luckily my kids didn’t get sick, and we deep cleaned after they left so I think we’re in the clear. It was good to be together but next time, we’re not going to do it at our house! I also found out that my toe is indeed fractured, not sprained like I had previously thought. I was wearing a post-surgical shoe for a few weeks, but I’ve been trying to start weaning myself out of it. I ran last Monday and today and felt okay, so that’s good news. I just need to go slow at first before I start running 4x a week again! I also switched the color of my hair from pink to purple, so now I’ve got purple ends! It’s been so fun having colored hair, but the length has been driving me crazy so I’ll probably chop it off at the end of the month or in January.

Here’s what’s currently going on with us in December:

Training for a half marathon! Well, as soon as my toe is 100% better. I’ve been wanting to do one for a while since I’ve already done a 10K and it’s kind of the next step. I’ll give more details as it gets closer, but I’m super pumped and also crazy nervous. 13.1 miles is a dang long way to run, and the farthest I’ve ever run was 6.54 miles. So double that, and I’m there. It’s going to take a lot of work but I think if I really train I can do it! And I’m going to!

Taking time off (like I do every year) at the end of the month. I always take the last two weeks of December off, and this year is no exception! When you’re self-employed the only time you get off is the time you give yourself, so I have to actually let myself have time off. You might think that being self-employed would be easy and you could just take time off whenever you want, but I’ve only taken two weeks off so far this whole year (back in June), so I’m due for another two weeks! So don’t worry if you don’t see any new posts for two weeks, because in January I’ll be back with something extra special!

Working on a special January series. So back in October I asked people on Instagram a few questions. I asked what the hardest part of motherhood is, what an area they’d like to improve on is, the biggest stress in their life and what would help, and what kinds of blog posts they’d love to read. I got some awesome answers, and realized that they were actually all pretty similar! So I’ve got a big eight post series coming in January to help with all of those things that were brought up. I don’t want to give away too much right now, but it’s going to be amazing and super helpful for any mama!

Shopping for Christmas gifts. I love giving gifts. Not like in a Leslie-Knope-gift-giving-is-a-sport kind of way, but in a I-just-love-giving-gifts kind of way. I was having a hard time deciding what to get people this year (I’m usually done or almost done with all my shopping by December 1st), but I started with coming up with stocking stuffers and then decided to do the wear, want, need, read thing for the kids, and that helped narrow it down. I have a big surprise coming for the husband, but now my problem is coming up with gifts for all the other people in our family (parents, siblings, niece and nephews). We’ll get there, though!

Mailing Christmas cards! Hooray! I actually designed them and ordered them and got them before Thanksgiving (because I just love Christmas cards that much!). I went with Shutterfly again for like the fifth or sixth year in a row, because they always turn out great and I love all the designs. We’re only sending them to family members, but I still love doing it. I’m going to share them on my Insta soon, so keep an eye out!

That’s what’s going on for us this month! Make sure you check back each week for some more Christmas posts before I take time off and then in January for my new awesome AMAZING series for mamas!

The post Currently: December 2018 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

Only two months left in the year! Can you believe it?! We’ve been in our house for almost a year, which seriously blows my mind. This year has gone by so fast. I’m sure I’ll say that again in next month’s currently post, but it’s worth repeating. Goodness!

We had a great October and got to do a lot of fun things! We went Up North to Duluth and Two Harbors to see the fall colors (it was perfect timing because it was straight up gorgeous). We ate at Betty’s Pies twice in the two days we were there (which, if you aren’t from Minnesota, Betty’s Pies is an INSTITUTION). I also finally ordered business cards, and they turned out awesome and I love them. It only took me five years of owning my own business to get them made haha. Also, if you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I dyed the ends of my hair PINK! I was just planning on doing it for a few weeks, but guys, I love it so much that it’s going to stick around for a while! I also finally went to the doctor about my toe and found out it’s broken, so now I have a super awesome post-surgical shoe to wear around so it will heal. I still can’t run and it’s driving me CRAZY. We also had HALLOWEEN which is one of my favorite holidays. We were Jurassic World (you can see the details of our costumes here), and for our church Trunk or Treat I decorated our trunk for the first time and did the gates of Jurassic World. It was a lot of fun and I’m super happy with how it turned out (and bonus, we won the best decorated trunk award!)! I also was the mom in charge for my son’s kindergarten Halloween party, and it was so much fun and turned out great! Plus we took Little R trick or treating for the first time and it was so cute! October is just the best!!!!

Here’s what’s currently going on for us this month:

Preparing the garden for winter. I hate that I had to even write that sentence. But winter is coming, so we have to put our garden “to bed.” Basically we have to mulch around our annuals (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, asparagus, onions, and a few flowers), trim some of my annuals back, and make sure we’ve pulled everything that is done producing (the rest of our peas, beans, and perennial flowers). We already lowered and stained the fence (thanks a lot, neighbor who complained) so now the only thing that’s left to do is get the actual garden ready for winter. At least we’ll have a lot less work to do come spring! Building and setting up our raised row garden was a TON of work!

Working on Christmas posts. I know, we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet. But in the blogging world, you have to get stuff out well before the holiday your post is about. Which means, I’m working on my Christmas posts. I have some fun stuff in the works and even though we haven’t turned on the Christmas music yet, I’m getting in the Christmas spirit!

Sewing Little R’s stocking. Along with that, I need to sew Little R’s stocking this month! He actually didn’t have one last year (even though he was 11 months). To be fair, I was painting our house and we were getting packed up and ready to move into this house from the house we were renting. But still, kid needs a stocking. I sewed matching ones for the rest of us a few years ago and luckily I still have all the fabric. So now I just have to actually piece it all together! It will be worth it in the end, right!?

Planning some fun things for 2019. I printed and bound my blogging planner last week so I’ve started thinking about what I want to do with Life With My Littles in 2019. I’ve got something fun coming in January, a few sales and giveaways for Preggers planned, and I am just excited about a new year and all that it has in store! Some big exciting things happened in 2018 so obvs I’d love more big exciting things to happen in 2019.

Baking all things pumpkin. Yassss! We got so many pumpkins from the garden, and even though some of them didn’t quite turn 100% orange by Halloween, they are still fab. And the best part is that we had some surprise pie pumpkins grow (that we thought were cucumbers but were absolutely not!). So far, I’ve cooked and pureed 4 of them and I have two more ripening on the counter. We’ve made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cake and pumpkin donuts (and that’s just from 3 of the pumpkins!). I froze some of the puree and I’m going to use it to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, which I’m stoked about. But seriously, if you thought pumpkin was already the best flavor in the world, try eating pumpkin something that came from your garden! My cookies are basically vegetables, guys!

Hosting my parents! My parents are flying in for Thanksgiving and it’s the first time we’ve had family come for Thanksgiving, so it should be fun. We’re going to see Wreck-It Ralph 2 the day they fly in (because Wreck-It Ralph 1 is the most underrated Disney movie and we are all STOKED for number 2), plus we’ll eat all the food and do some Black Friday shopping. My husband only has the day they get here and Thanksgiving off, so that’s a bummer but it will be nice to get out and do some fun things while they’re here, because grandparents.

That’s what’s currently going on with us! Make sure you follow along on Instagram for more updates and check back on Wednesday for my first Christmas post of 2018!

The post Currently: November 2018 appeared first on Life With My Littles.

It’s October! It’s officially fall, the leaves are changing, and it’s Halloween month! Hooray! I love October, so I am pumped! Last month my oldest son started kindergarten, my daughter turned four (and started preschool), and my youngest son finally stopped teething and has been so much happier! Seriously, it’s been a lot better around here! We’ve figured out a routine for the school week that’s working nicely (I go to the gym in the morning before school, then take Little J to school when we’re done, come home and get ready, and then we have the rest of the day to do what we want!), and those two days a week that Little A goes to preschool and Little R naps the whole time have been bliss. I am SO productive when nobody is coming in asking for water or for me to wipe their bum. Who knew!? I also sprained my toe by stubbing it on the corner of our bed in the middle of the night, which has been super annoying because it is inhibiting my movement and my running routine. Stupid toe. Stupid bed. Stupid everything. But thank goodness for KT Tape and ibuprofen.

Aaaaanyway, here’s what’s currently going on for us this month!

Excited about Halloween. Halloween is one of my top three favorite holidays (it’s tied with Christmas and the 4th of July) and we’ve been getting ready for weeks. We’ve got our costumes 100% complete (I’ll be sharing the full details Wednesday) and I could not be more excited about them. I’ve also fully embraced Halloween candy (the Cookies and Scream M&Ms are my favorite) and I’ve started decorating for Halloween a little bit already. I’m also in charge of my son’s “fall party” aka Halloween party at school, and I’m pumped about that! I love planning parties and it will be his first ever class party so I really hope I do a good job! Yay Halloween!

Growing pumpkins! Yay! Our pumpkins are doing awesome, and we even have two kinds! I hope they’ll all be ready in time for Halloween, because how incredible would it be to be able to put pumpkins we grew ourselves on our front porch? One of the kinds we’re growing are carving ones, and the others are pie pumpkins. I’ve never made anything pumpkin from scratch before, but I absolutely am going to try this year. I’m thinking definitely a pumpkin pie and hopefully some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Or maybe pumpkin chocolate chip bread. We’ll see how much we get from them. I’ve have 4 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree from 2 we picked last week. And now we don’t have to pay an outrageous amount to go to a pumpkin patch!

Running more regularly. Like I said, we’ve got a good routine going with the gym in the mornings before school, and I’ve been going 4x a week, with one of those days dedicated to strength training and the other three dedicated to running. I’m actually starting to get faster again, which is exciting because I was at a 10:30 pace for a while, and now I’m under 10 minutes again! At least I was until I sprained my toe (stupid toe, stupid bed, stupid everything). We actually did a 5k last weekend, which I really didn’t want to sit out, so I manned up and pushed myself and just did it and actually got faster than my normal time. But seriously, it’s such a lame, incredibly annoying injury. Plus I was limping because it hurt to walk on it, which makes me feel lamer, since it’s not like a gruesome visible injury so I just looked dumb. And then I saw someone who had an actual visible leg injury who was limping and I felt dumb that my toe was making me limp. It’s the worst. But I digress.

Printing our family pictures! My husband’s friend did our family pictures last week and it was so much fun! I learned long ago not to put too much pressure on getting the “perfect” family photo, because it causes so much stress and anxiety. So we all got in coordinating outfits and did our best to look nice and went out and did a shoot down by the Mississippi River! The lighting was perfect, nobody had a meltdown, and there are so many that I just LOVE. I can’t wait to print a bunch out of finally update the pictures we have hanging around our house!

Waiting on Barnes and Noble. Yup. Still. In case you were wondering. I’m still waiting for their response. And now I’m getting a little nervous that it’s taking so long! I’ve decided that if I don’t hear back by the end of the year, I’m going to send it in again. So at least I have a plan! Sales are pretty regular and I’ve got some new promotional ideas in the works, so hopefully I’ll just keep getting the word out about my amazing book, Preggers!

Loving my Roomba! Yeah, my husband got me a Roomba. It’s been such a game-changer. I used to be really worried about getting stuff on the hard floor in the kitchen and entryway because I HATE sweeping every day (or worse, multiple times a day), so my husband got me a Roomba. I set it to vacuum/sweep once a day in the kitchen and entryway, and it’s been amazing. I just brush all the crumbs from the table and chairs on the floor and POOF! They’re gone in an hour! It’s a dream, and it really has been something that’s helped me relax and not be so anxious when the kids are eating or when we’re coming in and out of the house. And yes, I know that’s totally a first world problem and you might think it’s super lame, but my brain is constantly worrying about all that I have to do so to have one of those things taken care of for me is a relief. Also, in case you’re wondering, his name is DJ Roomba (and if you can name that reference, I’ll give you a virtual high five).

Well, that’s it for us! We’re super excited about October (I’ve already decorated for Halloween a little bit!) and I can’t wait to share our costumes and family pictures with you guys! Check back again next month for a new currently post, and make sure you’re following on Instagram for more of our daily life!

The post Currently: October 2018 appeared first on Life With My Littles.