We’ve been living with my parents in New Jersey for three weeks now, but it could be three months. How can it feel like we’ve been here forever when we’ve accomplished so little since we arrived?
I’m not exaggerating when I say that we’ve been so busy we haven’t even finished unpacking. There are open boxes and overflowing bags taunting us in every room.… READ MORE!
Some time between having a baby at the end of February and moving across the country two weeks ago, living a healthy lifestyle became less of a priority. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve adopted more than a few unhealthy habits these past few months.… READ MORE!
Well, we made it.
Except for a detour en route to the airport in Omaha, our trip to New Jersey on Monday was uneventful. In fact, it was practically ideal… READ MORE!
One of the most challenging aspects of blogging is the pressure to create original content. It’s obviously much easier to link to other people’s blogs or to post product roundups than it is to produce, photograph and write something entirely new.
For many of us (especially those of us with babies who still don’t sleep through the night), inspiration doesn’t flow 24/7. But even when we’re feeling totally inspired, we’re often not able to publish a DIY or launch a new series immediately. Because life.
So what happens when another blogger beats you to the punch? When somebody else publishes an identical DIY or launches a similar series while you’re still getting your act together?… READ MORE!
I’ve never been crazy about cherries. It’s not that I don’t like the sweet taste of summer’s favorite fruit. The process of cleaning off the fruit from the pit makes my teeth feel funny, and I’m not a fan of cherry pit spitting.
(Incidentally, I don’t eat a lot of watermelon because of its pesky seeds. I’m even turned off by the small white ones in “seedless” watermelons.)
Lucky for Levi, JB does not share my strange aversion to cherries (although he does have strong feelings about corn), and the two of them have been snacking on them all summer — and making quite a mess. Sticky red fingers are unavoidable when you have to cut your toddler’s cherries in half to remove the pits before serving them.… READ MORE!
Thank you so much for your enthusiastic response to our big announcement earlier this week! We appreciate your congratulations, good luck wishes, and offers to network on behalf of JB. Who knew so many of you were so well connected!
As excited as we are about starting this new chapter in our lives, we’re also feeling incredibly stressed. Can you blame us? Moving and finding a job are two of life’s biggest stressors, according to the Holmes and Rahe stress scale, and we’re doing both simultaneously.
Being pregnant and adding a member to the family are also on the list of 43 life events that can cause stress — and yes, things were a bit crazy at the end of February. However, life really started feeling hectic in May when we returned from our family vacation to Hilton Head. We’ve been going non-stop ever since: traveling to Salt Lake City to speak at Alt Summit, putting our house on the market, flying to New Jersey for a long weekend and then to Cleveland for a week…
And have I mentioned that Asa is up every two hours or less during the night?
We’re exhausted, and our exhaustion is making us feel cranky and slow and even more stressed out.
Meditation would probably help relieve some of my stress, but I’ve never had the ability to sit still and quiet my mind for twenty minutes — or however long it takes to reach a state of zen. So it was fortuitous that I recently came across an article about Mark Robert Waldman’s two-step process of relaxation and positivity.
Waldman, the coauthor of Words Can Change Your Brain, offers four ways to reduce stress in one minute, all of which seem more doable than sitting cross-legged on the floor:
1. Run in place for 60 seconds.
2. Close your eyes take one full minute to roll your head 360-degrees.
3. Yawn 10 times.
4. Slowly stroke your hand or arm with your fingertip.
Once you’ve entered a state of relaxation, spend one minute focusing on a word that represents your deepest innermost value (for example, integrity or peace). When practiced daily, says Waldman, this combination relaxation-positivity exercise has been proven to reduce stress.
Obviously, I like the idea of a shortcut to relaxation, and I can see the practice of taking 60-second relaxation breaks being useful even after we relocate and JB finds a new job. Because simply being a parent is stressful, too. Amiright?
Do you ever meditate or practice yoga to relieve stress? What are some stress-reducing techniques that work for you?
(image via The Diagonal)
I have a vivid memory of being a teenager home alone one night and burning a bag of microwave popcorn. The kitchen reeked of scorched kernels (and continued to smell that way for days), and the bag was literally smoking. The popcorn was burned so badly that I feared it might spontaneously combust, so I brought the bag outside and dumped a glass of water over it.
Perhaps I overreacted (big surprise, right?), but if you’ve ever burned a bag of microwave popcorn you know just how awful it smells afterwards — and how it can put a damper on snack time or movie night.… READ MORE!
This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® Pop Secret and Fox Entertainment, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #PopForRio2 http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV
When your three year old goes to bed before 8pm, family movie night is usually family movie afternoon — or afternoons, plural. Feature-length films are not geared for a toddler’s short attention span, so it frequently takes us two or three sessions to finish a movie.
Still, I like to make a big deal over family movie afternoon so the experience feels like a special treat for Levi. We snuggle together under a blanket on the couch and share a big bowl of microwave popcorn…for about 10 minutes. Then Levi usually slides off the couch, assumes his typical movie-watching position standing behind the coffee table, and requests his portion of popcorn in his own bowl.
Levi has only seen a handful of animated movies, including Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, and, of course, Frozen. (After watching Frozen, I started hearing Levi sing yell, “Let it go! Let it go!” from his room during nap time. So cute!)
One of the next animated movies we’re looking forward to watching as a family is Rio 2. In keeping with the bird theme of the film, I plan to make a “Bird Seed” snack instead of simply serving microwave popcorn straight out of the bag. I’ve been playing around with salty and sweet combinations for our people bird seed — really, popcorn trail mix — and here’s the winning recipe:
Popcorn Trail Mix (aka “Bird Seed” snack)
Popcorn offers a light and airy base for the additional “bird-friendly” ingredients — chewy “beak-friendly” dried fruit, melty “mud” chips, and crunchy “twig” noodles. The beauty of trail mix is that you can determine the ratio of ingredients…and which ingredients to include. For example, you could swap the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips and the chow mein noodles for pretzel sticks.
What would you include in your popcorn trail mix?
Bonus! If you head to Walmart to pick up your copy of Rio 2 and a box of microwave popcorn to make trail mix, you can save $1 off any Pop-Secret popcorn while supplies last.
Thank you for supporting the brands that support A GIRL NAMED PJ!
Today is Independence Day, but fireworks have been illuminating the sky in my neighborhood every night this week.
Omaha only recently allowed fireworks to be sold within city limits — and only during the 10 days leading up to the Fourth of July. There are tented fireworks stands set up in nearly every shopping center parking lot, which means that my neighbors (and their teenage children!) have access to enough fireworks to last through August.
Can you detect the hint of annoyance in my tone? I have no problem if you want to set off fireworks in your backyard to celebrate the Fourth of July, but when it becomes a nightly occurrence, the novelty starts to wear off. Explosions are not my favorite sound. Plus, the noise is a constant threat to my sleeping children.
We’re lucky, though, that Briscoe isn’t phased by fireworks, as fear of fireworks is very common in dogs. Most dogs will cower in the corner when the booming begins, but some dogs get so riled up that they tear through screen door, dig under fences, or chew through their crates. Did you know that more dogs are lost on the fourth of July than any other day?
If your dog is afraid of fireworks, here are a seven ways to help ease his anxiety:
, noise-reducing headphones created for dogs flying in airplanes.
, designed to reduce stress and anxiety.Have a safe and happy 4th of July!
