Persevering Momma

Taking The Day One Spoon At a Time

DIY Glowing Latern

by Leave a Comment

Things have been a little crazy around here since Covid-19 hit, just like they probably are in your home and that has led to us getting creative and our children’s therapists getting just as creative. This past week we made DIY glowing lanterns with my preschooler’s recreational therapist, Juanakee.

It was a fun project for us because my little guy had to step out of his comfort zone and risk getting a little messy while making some extra fun. It’s been such a hit that I decided to recreate this impromptu project on here so that you might be able to get a little joy from it all like we have.

What you’ll need:

  • Jar (preferably plastic)
  • Large glow sticks
  • Glitter
  • Sequins or foil stars
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue gun & glue(optional)

Let’s get started!

1. Start by opening your glow stick packages. Have your child open up the jar and have them help you crack the glow sticks to activate them. You will want to make sure it’s very broken up before cutting one end off.

After cutting the end off have your child shake the contents of the tube into the jar. Do this with all of your glow sticks.

2. Add glitter. Now you will want to add in glitter to the jar. I suggest silver or white as they won’t darken the jar up. Add glitter little by little until you like how it looks.

3. Screw on the lid. Once the kids is on have your child shake it up until it’s completely covered in the glow in the dark ink and glitter.

4. Turn off all the lights. See the magic at work!

5. Glue on lid. (Optional) If you are afraid of your kid getting into the jar then glue the lid shut. This will make it so you can’t add more glow stick ink when it stops glowing so I’d suggest not glueing on the lid.

Prepping For Breastfeeding a New Baby

by Leave a Comment

Prepping to breastfeed your new baby can mean a variety of different things to different moms. New moms often feel lost and overwhelmed by everything that is out there. Even seasoned moms can feel overwhelmed by everything that is out on the market for nursing moms. It has been 3 years since I have shopped for breastfeeding supplies and I have done a lot of research as to what I will need this time around.

A Good Breast Pump

A good breast pump is a must have item for any new mom that plans to be away from their baby for an extended period of time. Most US health insurance plans offer a variety of different breast pump options for free. If you are low income and are on WIC this is also another way you can try to get a breast pump. I would recommend picking one with a closed system as those are easier to clean. In addition to an electric breast pump you might want to look into a manual hand pump or something like the Haakkaa breast milk collector. This works great to catch milk off of the free boob while the baby nurses on the other side. 

Milk Storage Bags

If you are pumping then you will want to look into milk storage bags. I liked the Kiinde Twist bags when I had my son 3 years ago because they stand up nicely. If you aren’t planning on having a big milk stash in the freezer then I would recommend these because you can pump directly into the bags with ease. However, if you plan on having a freezer stash I suggest you choose bags that freeze flat to help conserve space in your deep freezer. There are a lot of different breast milk storage bags on the market so you will want to do your research to see which ones work best for you. I liked the Lansinoh bags. For freezing your milk flat you will also want to look into the MAMMaway Freeze It Flat. I would recommend splurging and getting the double version so that you can freeze two at a time. If you will be pumping a lot then you might even want to invest in more than one of these to help speed up the freezing process.

Baby Bottles

Most people think of baby bottles for formula fed babies, but these are important to have if you plan to be away from baby at any time. We tried a million different baby bottles with my son and this time around we are going to try some different ones again. The Comotomo bottles are highly rated as great bottles for nursing children as they help to mimic the shape of the boob. We will also be trying the Evenflo Feeding Proflo Venting Balance bottles.

Nursing Pillow

A good nursing pillow is ideal for at home nursing because a nursing baby gets heavy after a few minutes. So, if you plan to nurse sitting up I recommend getting a nursing pillow. There is quite the variety of nursing pillows out there. I used the Boppy Nursing Pillow with my son, but I am looking into a couple of other options this time around. The Boppy was a little snug on me last time so I want to see if there is something that will fit around my plus sized curves better this time around.

Coping With Parenting Guilt

by Leave a Comment

Mom guilt is real; parenting guilt is real We all deal with it to some extent, but god some days are hard. We feel guilty about working or not having enough time for our children. In those moments we hold our babies close and shower them with our love and affection, but what do you do when you can’t shower your child with affection when you feel guilty?

There really isn’t anything you can do. We are only human after all. It doesn’t help to just say it happens to everyone so let’s just brush it off. We can’t say this because we can’t always just brush it off and keep living. Instead we dwell on our fear and start to view other parents as being the perfect parent when really no one is perfect. That is why I have started to trick my mind.

Make that parenting guilt run away!

When that parenting guilt really starts to sink in and I cannot think of anything other than how I am a terrible mother because of a million different reasons, I just take a moment to breathe. I have an Apple watch and I use the Breathe app to take a minute to just focus on my breathing. After this minute I sit there and think about all the things that make me a great mom.

I think about how I …

  • helped teach my son to crawl, and walk
  • have bouts of crazy laughter and fun with my son
  • help him to grow and become a strong little boy
  • am not perfect, and that is okay
  • am stronger than I ever knew I was

All of this and so much more reminds me that I am a good mom and it helps to ease my mom guilt. It helps me to realize that we all deal with parenting guilt and that it can build us up if we let it instead of knocking us down.

How do you deal with parenting guilt?

Things To Look For As a First Time Home Buyer

by Leave a Comment

 

I never realized how unprepared I was going to be when we started looking for our first home. (I also never knew I would be on such a time crunch when it happened, but here we are.) I always thought my background in leasing homes with the family business and selling manufactured homes would give me enough to go off on when starting the house hunting process, but boy was I wrong.  Being a first time home buyer is not an easy task; there is so much that I didn’t know when we started this process.

I knew nothing about loans, down payments, or the fees that come with buying a house. It is such a more in depth process to buy a real house over buying a manufactured home/trailer. I will forever say this is my first house even though I bought a trailer years ago. It wasn’t the same- it never felt like it was my house. Now, let me tell you what I’ve learned these past few weeks.

home buyer

 

1. Buying a home is a slow process.

I never realized just how slow of a process it is. Don’t expect to be able to buy a house in a month or two unless you have a buttload of money laying around. It has taken us approximately two months to even really start getting ready to get a pre-approval for a home loan. It has been a lot of work and we still have a long way to go before we get our pre-approval.

Remember that after getting the pre-approval then you have to find the perfect house and closing after that takes another 32-45 days. It is such a slow process and not fun when you are on a time crunch.

2. Get your financials in order.

Before you even get started get your financials in order. This means getting your down payment and first months mortgage saved up. You will also want to look at your debt to income ratio because you might need to get rid of some debt in order to get approved for a loan. We got stuck in that boat and had to pay off debt before we could move forward. That also means that we have to save up half of our down payment all over again. Try to think ahead if you can; it will really help in the long run.

3. Don’t take no for an answer.

Everyone told me to just go with what our real estate agent and broker were telling us, but we quickly learned that isn’t always the case.  We ended up finding a second agent and a second broker and were able to get the help that we needed.  Our first broker wouldn’t attempt to run my credit so that I could be on the mortgage, but the second was more than willing and it actually helped us to get a better loan option!  Our second real estate agent was also better suited for us because she is highly responsive and is willing to answer all of our crazy first time home buyer questions that pop into our heads!  It is very important to find the right broker and real estate agent for you and your family.  Shop around if you have to before picking the perfect ones for you.  Don’t be afraid to move on to another company or agent if you aren’t getting the service that you need from your first choice.

4. Go through your possessions.

This isn’t mandatory, but you don’t really want to move crap you don’t use so while you wait for this slow process to work it’s magic go through all your stuff and start to clear out everything that you don’t use or won’t use at your new home. We started doing this by going through everything in the attic. It has been great to clear out things that we haven’t used in years and don’t plan to use in the future.

What tips do you have for new home buyers?

Planning a Kids Party The Easy Way

by Leave a Comment

After throwing my son’s first birthday party last year I learned a few things that are making the process much smoother this year. I struggled to remember everything last year so I wanted to make it much easier to remember things this year and I thought I would share some of my tips with you on how to make planning a kids party easier and less stressful.

Organization.

Organization is the number one thing that you need to think about. If you make a plan and lists you won’t be as likely to forget anything for the party. It certainly would be terrible if you forgot dinner or heaven forbid the birthday cake! I like to be overly organized so I make a guest list that includes everyone’s addresses and names. This makes it easy to send out invites and check off people as they RSVP to the party. I make my guest list using Microsoft Excel, but if you don’t have Microsoft Office you can always download Open Office online and use their spreadsheet program instead.

Choose a Theme.

Choosing a theme is another big step. Once you have chosen a them for the party you can get back to the organization of the party. I love lists so I make lists for everything. You can see an example of how I organize for my son’s party below.

I like to use Microsoft OneNote for my lists because I can access them from any device and edit them as I go. You can see here I have a semi-detailed list of the various things that will be needed for my son’s Dino Dig birthday party. Last year I madd a lot of his birthday decorations from hand (all of which you can find here) and this year I am still making a lot of his decorations, but will be using my Cricut to help make it a faster process than it was last year. I am so thankful that I won’t need to cut them all out by hand again this year.

Throw Everything Together.

There are many ways you can throw everything together for the party, but I personally find myself a plastic tote to put everything in as I make it and/or buy it from the store. Doing this will help to guarantee that I don’t lose anything before the party. It also helps with transportation because we don’t have his parties in our home so we have to bring everything with us for the party.As you purchase or complete a task make sure you check them off of your list so that you know it’s done. This is helpful when looking back at everything as well as gives you a sense of accomplishment every time you complete a task.

How do you prepare for a kids birthday party?