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Gratitude & Goals [a link-up]

February 3, 2017 By mamamotivates 1 Comment

Welcome to the Weekly Gratitude and Goals Linky Party hosted by Julie at Fab Working Mom Life and Suzanna at Mama Motivates! The idea behind this party is to take a step back and reflect on those things, both large and small, that we are thankful for in our lives this past month as well as think about what goals we may have for ourselves for the upcoming month. So share a list of everything and anything you are thankful for and add any goals you have. This party will start on the first Friday of each month, but you are welcome to link up anytime during the month.

I’m so glad to be hosting this link up with Julie again this year. I think it is so important and helpful to pay attention to all of those things we are grateful for while also looking forward and spelling out our goals each month. It’s a lot easier to see that we had a good month when we can go back and check off our goals and the things we accomplished.

My gratitude list for January:

  • Happy, healthy kiddos
  • Cutting back at my in-office hours
  • A growing VA business
  • Meeting new friends via Facebook
  • The unicorn afternoons when all three kiddos are asleep at the same time
  • Hitting the gym each week

[Read more…]

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TIGF (things I’m grateful for) in the season of toddler-ness

February 3, 2017 By mamamotivates 1 Comment

I have a (relatively) newly-minted threenager and a (very) newly-minted two-year-old in my house these days. As you can imagine, this stage of life comes with it’s own unique set of challenges. After several days of skipped naps, lots of wailing and crying (sometimes for no apparent reason!), and general toddler-ness, I decided for my own sanity, that I’d jot down some of the things I’m grateful for in this season of life.

things I'm grateful for -toddler edition-

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8 time management tips for working moms

January 31, 2017 By mamamotivates 2 Comments

I spent my first 2.5 years as a mother working full-time outside of the home. Each day started early, needed to be handled with lots of planning, and usually ended with a late night. Still, though, it was challenging to get everything done each day that needed to be done. Throughout the years, I learned some tips and tricks that helped me end each day feeling a little more in control of my days. These 8 time management tips for working moms will help you get a few more things done each day.

8 time management tips for working moms

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One Little Word {January}

January 2, 2017 By mamamotivates 1 Comment

Hey friends! I’m excited to be joining some fantastic ladies again for the One Little Word series. Each of us have picked out our focus word for the year and we’ll be sharing our progress towards our monthly and yearly goals on our blogs each month.

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Combating the exhaustion of motherhood

January 2, 2017 By mamamotivates Leave a Comment

Let’s talk about the one thing all mothers miss the most once they have children: sleep. Once you have kids (and let’s be honest, even before they are actually born) your chance to sleep through the night is almost zero for the foreseeable future. There are several things you can do on any given day to combat the bone-tired exhaustion moms experience in the early days (and years) of motherhood.

combating the exhaustion of motherhood

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31 day blog challenge: day 11

November 22, 2014 By mamamotivates Leave a Comment

I’m linking up with Jess at Peonie & Pine for her 31 day blog challenge.  Today’s blog prompt is: the last book you read.

The last book I read was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  It is a very dark story, but well written and I would definitely recommend it!  I can discuss it much without giving important things away, so just go read it so we can talk about it together!
What was the last book you read?  Would you recommend it? 

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31 day blogging challenge: day 10

November 20, 2014 By mamamotivates Leave a Comment

I’m linking up with Jess at Peonie & Pine for her 31 day blog challenge.  Today’s blog prompt is: Your Daily Routine

[This is just a summary of a typical weekday for me – the days that I have meetings after work or we have other commitments obviously change up the schedule, but these are the basics of my day-to-day life]

My day starts nice and early these days, thanks to #BabyD.  During the week, I’m up between 6:00 and 6:30, I let the dogs out and back in, and then feed the boy.  [Coffee, coffee, coffee – yes, it’s decaf, but that’s the best I can do these days!]  Once he has his bottle and we play and snuggle for a little while, he often goes back down for a short nap while I shower and get ready for work. 

We all leave the house around 8:15 or so, drop the boy off at daycare and head to the office.  My work day usually runs between 8:30 and 5:30, with a break during the lunch hour to run home and let the dogs out for a pee break (if I’m lucky, I can also get a few errands run during my lunch break, but that isn’t always realistic).  We pick up the boy on the way home after work and then comes one of my favorite times of the day.

#BabyD doesn’t nap well at daycare, so he’s often tired by the time we all get home.  We take the time to unwind with him, listen to him “tell” us about his day, and play for a while before he makes it quite clear that he is done for the night.  Then it’s Bath, Bottle, & Bed for the little man, and mama turns her attention to dinner and spending some quality time with Hubby.  [One of the things that would really help me, I think, is meal planning and weekend meal prep work.  Being able to come home to a few different dinner options where a majority of prep work is done would help us limit eating our dinner at 8:30 p.m.]

 

Once the guys are asleep, I take the opportunity to clean the kitchen, do some other miscellaneous household chores, and then I can use the rest of my energy for knocking out a blog post or two, taking care of some volunteer tasks, or checking in with some of the groups I’m a part of.  Once I too am done for the evening, the house gets put to bed (no wet laundry in the washer, stoke the fire in the woodstove, prep the morning’s bottle for #BabyD, make sure there’s water in the keurig, let the dogs out one last time if they want to go, and lock up the house) and, if I’m in the middle of a good book, I try to read a chapter or so (hey, slow progress is better than no progress!) and then it’s lights out.  A good night means the kitchen’s clean, the blog post is scheduled for the next day, a chapter is read, and mom is in bed with the lights out by 11:30. 

Phew, even reading this makes me tired.  I think I’m going to head off to bed shortly.

Tell me, though, what does a day in your life look like?

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31 day blog challenge: day 9

November 19, 2014 By mamamotivates Leave a Comment

I’m linking up with Jess at Peonie & Pine for her 31 day blog challenge.  Today’s blog prompt is: Do you have regret?

Yes. There are a few monumental screw ups in my life that I regret and there are a few situations in my life that I regret allowing to continue on as long as they did, but I choose to learn from those experiences and move forward.

 
 
What about you?  What are your opinions on regret?  Do you have any?
 


 

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Finally Friday and TIGF

October 25, 2014 By mamamotivates Leave a Comment

Some nights being a mom is hard.  Some nights, after the baby is up from 11:30-1:00, the dogs need to let out at 4:45, and the baby is back up again at 6:30, it can be difficult to be in a good mood, but making a list of things I’m thankful for helps pull me out of my funk. Here’s my list for today: 

Clean sheets & electric blankets

Gas logs
Curbside recycling pickup 
Friendly neighborss
Toothy baby smiles 
Social media
Working mommy support groups
Encouragement
Coffee
Baby snuggles
New baby kicks

So what are you grateful for today?

Filed Under: TIGF, Uncategorized

Homemade ravioli {recipe}

October 22, 2014 By mamamotivates Leave a Comment

I’ve posted about some of our adventures making homemade pasta before, but recently we decided to make another batch of ravioli, and I wanted to write a post to try to show you how easy it is and encourage you to try your hand at it!
The best recipe and tutorial I’ve come across for making homemade pasta with a KitchenAid mixer was written by Julie.  I go to this recipe every time we decide to break out the pasta rollers and we always get good results.
Product Details
This is a cheap ravioli mold that we bought from Amazon – easy to use and easy to clean!  There are several different brands available and all seem to be comparable.
For this batch of ravioli, we decided to keep the filling super simple: three cheese.  We started with a base of ricotta and an egg, and added parmesan and mozzarella (we were trying to use up the last of a couple of blocks of cheese that we had in the fridge).  Add some herbs and spices to taste (we added a little cayenne pepper, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder), but be careful of how much salt you add.  With the parmesan cheese adding to the saltiness of the mixer, it’s easy to over-salt the filling (which we ended up doing to this batch).
Other ideas for filling would be to add other cheeses, or to add spinach (we defrost some frozen spinach, making sure to squeeze as much water as possible out of it before mixing it in with the cheeses), or adding some ground beef or sausage.  Basically, you can make whatever variety of ravioli you are hungry for!

As with all fresh pasta that I’ve encountered, this ravioli takes less cooking time, so keep your eye on it.  (Oh, and just to whet your appetite, these are also good breaded and fried!)

Have you made pasta before?  What are some of your favorite ravioli fillings?  Have you every tried fried ravioli?

Filed Under: recipes, Uncategorized

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I'm Suzanna and I'm here to help other mamas bring inspiration, motivation, and balance into their daily lives. Read More…

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  • Gratitude & Goals [a link-up]
  • TIGF (things I’m grateful for) in the season of toddler-ness
  • 8 time management tips for working moms
  • One Little Word {January}
  • Combating the exhaustion of motherhood

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