The Mom of the Year

...a less serious look at the world of parenting

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Healthy Choice Meals

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Packaged weight-loss dream-come-true.  At least in theory…

Every time I am “concentrating my weight loss efforts”, at some point I always get the notion that it would be wise to start eating some of those Healthy Choice,/Lean Cuisine/Weight Watchers/etc. meals.  Unfortunately, for me at least, this is an idea that is far better in theory than in practice.

The primary sticky wicket with these meals is that I would need to eat at least 2 of them to even begin to feel full.  Eating them in multiple would sort of defeat the goal of eating a healthy, miniscule carefully proportioned meal.  If I eat the meals as prescribed, I remain ravenous and this is when I start enviously eyeing up my children’s goldfish crackers.  The price of these meals also isn’t super-cool, though I can usually manage to keep the expense down with a combo of sales and coupons.

Satiation-deprivation and cost set aside, there is another major drawback to these meals.  Immediately post-consumption, I feel like I need to scrub my teeth vigorously for about an hour.  Where does the instantaneous mouth-coated in dirt sensation come from?  Extreme spice content.  The makers of these meals are smart.  Apparently if your brain gets the sensation that you are gnawing on a brick of garlic salt, it won’t register that you are actually eating nothing more than virtual air.

Well played, packagers of frozen weight-loss dreams.  But this Mom of the Year just called your game and will now be signing off these meals.  At least until my next diet venture when suddenly these meals make their reappearance as a brilliant idea…

 

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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Just Say No

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Somehow in my world of SAHM-ing it, I too often overlook the stay-at-home part.  I could chalk it up as a misnomer, and just throw ourselves into being out and about, but I think this may be a disservice to my family.  As in, I think there is an inherent value in actually just staying home.

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Always looking for that opportunity
to highlight to Nanc’s efforts…

Logistically, leaving the house with two young ones can be a beast.  Potty-training has done me in and made me want to chain myself and my son within a 3 ft radius of the toilet because any place else was/is just too scary.  Throw in baby girl’s commitment to her morning nap (read: she becomes Chucky’s bride if she misses it, and no one else in the house has any peace the rest of the day or subsequent night), and going out just isn’t seeming so fun.  Then add packing the ginormous amount of gear required for an errand run, and basically becoming a social recluse is looking pretty good.

But the tendency towards overload is always beckoning.  It’s not so much a matter of “keeping up with the Joneses”, it’s more just there’s all this cool stuff to do, and it just sounds fun.  There are even some people I actually even like and want to see 😉  Truly, all these things in and of themselves are great, but when you add them all up, it can get a bit overwhelming…Plus, I just like hanging out at home with my kids, just chilling and letting them play.

It might be lame to say no, but I’m thinking this might be the way to go a little more often.  As long as you’re not the jerk who cancels the morning-of with the “Oh, I forgot we are away on vacation all week” excuse (oh yes, have been on the receiving end of this one…), looking out for your family’s needs has got to take top billing.

So it may be time to pull my “pass” card more often and go it Nancy Reagan-style. Yes, I get that she was referring more to drugs than to playdates, but the great lady was onto something there…

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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The Public Library: The Monday Review

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Pony up the library card and crack one open, my friends!

Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt

When we first moved to this area, one of the first places I visited was the public library.  And you may recall when I lost my wallet last fall, I sobbed pretty hard over my missing library card.  If you are a hardcore reading addict who is working a budget such as myself, borrowing books from the public library is a genius solution.  This also works out great as far as not having to store and stash piles of books.  I borrow what I want to read and then give it back so the next person can enjoy.  A very green philosophy indeed 😉

The public library is also chock full of programs and activities for kids. We’ve participated in their story hour for young kids and the summer reading program, which have both been fantastic.  Story hour let us experience being in a class setting for the first time and taught us some really cool songs.  Not to mention giving a chance to get out and connect with others a little during those sometimes very lonely early days of motherhood.  As for the reading program, anything that can encourage us to read more is always a good thing!  Plus, my son thought the prize store at the end of the summer was really neat!  I know there are programs for older kids as well, and I’m looking forward to what’s in store as my children continue to age.

It’s a great resource for adults as well.  It works for research and internet use if you don’t have access at home.  Their collection of audiovisual materials is also pretty top-notch, and you can’t beat the prices.  Rent a DVD for about $1.75 for an entire week?  Sign me up!  And they’ve got a bunch of audio book you can rent too.  I haven’t yet participated, but I always see signs at the library for book clubs, talks, and events for adults as well.  Maybe someday in the post-young kids age, I’ll have a little more wiggle room to take part.

The public library offers so much, for both adults and children.  For now, I’m just enjoying my books and the stuff for kids.  It’s a wonderful place–if you’re not already a patron, check it out, my friends!

Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt
Ah, the sweet invitation offered within these walls!
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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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Countdown to Christmas

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Source: Microsoft Office
Awaiting all the light and hope

In my perfect world, as soon as the leaves start to change, we would throw ourselves whole-heartedly into celebrating the Christmas season.  This makes my husband grouchy, however.  He is very big on enjoying ALL of the holidays, and would never want to rush the fall holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Ergo, we have a strict moratorium on anything Christmas-related until we meet up with Black Friday (perhaps the most important of all holidays, as far as I’m concerned!  Three cheers for an entire day dedicated to the art of bargain shopping!).

But right now, I’m really struggling with holding off on the yuletide cheer.  Last year was a more difficult one for my family, and last Christmas wasn’t so-super-great, so I have been counting down the days until this Christmas since sometime shortly after New Year’s.  (The current count is 67 days FYI).  I’m trying to remain respectful of all the ghosts, goblins, and turkeys, but I’m definitely getting itchy fingers wanting to stalk out a station that plays some early Christmas tunes.

I just love the Christmas season, and this year especially, I want to soak up every last drop of it for all that it’s worth.  I love the pretty decorations, and the parties, and the look of joy on my kids’ faces, but moreover, I just love the very full sense of hope that somehow hovers wonderfully heavy in the air.

So I hold off on queuing up the carols for now, but know that in my heart, I’m gleefully watching the days turn over and spill us into the season of miracles and light.
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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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For Whom The Bell Tolls

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Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt
It was there. I SO know it was there…

One morning last week I woke up and start hearing this repetitive little dinging trill.  It sounded like a bell was chiming in the distance.  At first I just assumed the obvious–I was crazy.  I put off asking my husband about it for at least a 1/2 hr. because I like to keep up the illusion in our marriage that I’m not totally off my rocker. If he starts to think that I’m now hearing voices and such, I’m pretty sure he might try to jump ship, and I honestly couldn’t blame him.

Since I was on the computer, madly trying to ace out some blogging tasks in the wee hours before the kiddos woke up, I started noting the exact intervals between the chimes.  The ringing came every 5 minutes. Of course now I had to check in with my husband because it was becoming super-likely that someone had set up a  time bomb to go off in my home.  I was probably going to have to act fast, haul the kids and the dog out to the van, and make tracks putting some distance between us and the house that was about to explode.

After my husband confirmed that yes, he too heard the noise, together we scoped out the scene, nosing in closets, diaper bags, trash cans and the like.  Source remained undetected.  As my conviction that we were under attack mounted, my husband shocking fled the scene, declaring that he had to get to work or some such nonsense.  The dinging did not cease.

Then something caught my eye.  My husband is a home brewer.  He was working on fermenting yeast or something-like-that-which-I-don’t-understand and had set up a glass jar covered in foil on the edge of the counter.  In that moment it all became clear–my husband had turned coat.  He had joined in on a government conspiracy to test the effects of repetitive noise on the psyche of the SAHM.  But no way was I going to be taken down.  I ripped the foil off the glass and gave that yeast a good stir searching for the alarming bell!

Aha!!

Okay, so there was nothing there but a bunch of runny yeast…and a very miffy husband upon his return home from work that day to discover that I had disturbed the fermentation/settlement process or whatever.  And as for the bell?  Yeah, so somehow after an hour or so, it just stopped.  But honestly, does it really matter?  Just give this Mom of the Year some props for being willing to defend her family at any cost, digging into yeast and all, right?

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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A Day Out With Thomas: The Monday Review

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Thomas is rolling into the station!

Recently we were looking for something special to do with our son, and after several friend recommendations, we decided to give A Day Out With Thomas at the Strasburg Railroad a try.  In short?  It was awesome!  Perfect pick and perfect thing to do with young kids.

Since our daughter is still only 1, outings that last all day for a long day can be a bit too much, but A Day Out With Thomas was just the ideal adventure for our little ones.  We arrived shortly after 10am.  Our tickets to actually ride Thomas weren’t until 11:15am, but they suggest getting there an hour beforehand.  I imagine this is to make sure you get there in time to park (parking wasn’t too bad with getting there early in the day, but a few hours later on, they appeared to be busing people over from an extra lot), and figure out where to go.  There were a bunch of fun activities for us to do while we waited to board the train and to keep us busy after we got off.  With pictures with Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt, a mini train that ran on coal, a rail car to push, a temporary Thomas tattoo table, elaborate train tables for the kiddos to play at and loads of yummy food (you can also pack your lunch and eat in their picnic area), no one got bored!  And by 1:30pm, we had pretty much exhausted the scene and were ready to head home.

Though I probably should have expected it, I was thrown by the TON of Thomas merchandise they had available for sale.  Thomas potty seats?  They had them.  $10 Mylar train balloons?  Check.  And yes, in case you were wondering, they do indeed make Thomas-imprinted mini cookies.  If you were looking for a special treat to buy your child, you were well in luck!  Might be wise to go with a game plan and let your child know in advance that he will get to get to pick one small toy.  Our little guy scored a wooden train whistle, which he though was pretty cool 😉

A couple weeks later, he is still puffing away trying to achieve the perfect shrill whistle with his new treasure and talking about his day with Thomas.  The day was a definite hit!

Our little conductor in the making!

Anyway, Thomas has rolled out for now, but will be back to visit November 16-18.  If you’re local, consider   hopping on this train–it’s well worth the ride!

 

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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“Sticking a Flag in the Sand”

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A year ago on this day, I had no idea what a blog was.  A few months prior, a friend had sent me the links to a couple of blogs she liked.  I think I checked in once or twice, but I didn’t get it.  My best understanding of a blog was that it was an online diary.  Fair enough, if not completely accurate.

I honestly have no idea what clicked in my brain that Wednesday afternoon when I picked up my computer.   By the time my husband came home a few hours later, I told him I had started a blog.  I don’t think I have ever seen my husband truly have a panic attack before that moment, but after my announcement, given that I am the most technologically inept person on the planet, I’m pretty sure he feared The Apocalypse had indeed arrived.

Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt
Gone are the days of pen and paper,
but the outlet to find your voice remains…

Ultimately, 366 days (leap year) post-blog conception, I have two overriding thoughts:

1) I’m in over-my-head.  I still don’t understand Twitter.  I waited a ridiculous number of months before starting a Facebook page.  I’d love more followers (insert shameless plug) but don’t really know how to “do” this whole blogging world better than I am.  I run begging to my husband more days that not as I struggle to figure out html code and the like.  I never know what I’m going to post about next and maintain that when God stops giving me ideas, it will be time to call it a day.  I feel like I’m swimming upstream, playing a game I can’t win and don’t really know why I’m doing it.

2) BUT…I’m really proud of myself.  I’ve figured out A LOT in the past year.  While there is still so, so much that is above me, I wear the little bit of what I have learned like a badge of honor.  I think for someone who has no clue what’s she’s doing, I’m not doing that bad.  I am so thankful for each and every person who reads my posts, comments, follows and who has helped me along the way.  Truly, praise God for all of you and thank you…

I also know one truth that does not often escape me: I love to write.  Somewhere in my post-college years consumed with jobs and mortgages, and grad school and psychotic dog and kids and taking out the garbage, this passion got over-looked.  WAY overlooked, as in I didn’t even remember it existed.

A few months ago, I was blessed to read Love at the Speed of Email by Lisa McKay.  I wrote about this book before when Lisa joined me for an interview, but what I failed to share before were some of the most awesome and true words in the book.  Lisa was discussing what writing has done in her life, how it has helped her find truth and clarity in this world.  What she says is beautiful:

“Usually it wasn’t that I found great answers to these sorts of questions while writing.  It was more that the writing forced me to stick a flag in the sand, no matter how small, and say something.  It pushed me to figure out what I actually thought and wanted rather than simply reacting to constantly revolving merry-go-round of people and events.  It helped transform happenings, thoughts, and moods into things acknowledged, clarified, and manageable.

It made me commit to being more myself.

It made me my own life.”
Oh wait, on second thought, I know exactly why I blog.  In a time in my life when I needed a voice and a centering force within all the upset, I found it.  Or more precisely, God gave it to me.  Thank you.
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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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Pooping Your Pants: The Adult Years

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Sadly, I’m not talking about either of my children pooping in their diapers (yes, again, thanks for noting that my son will still not poop on the potty).  After reading quite a few poop horror stories online lately, I decided it was high time for me to suck it up and share my own tale of defecatory woe.

In general, I don’t fare well in this department.  Let me just going to lay it all out there, dear readers, and admit that I have pooped my pants more times in my 30s than I ever did in all of the rest of my post-diaper days combined.  What has happened to me?!  I’m going to claim some bizarre result of childbirth as I can pretty much directly correlate my difficulties to my postpartum days.  But regardless of the source of my prolific loss of bowel control, my husband is permanently horrified.  Which is, of course, a huge motivator for writing this post–it’s kind of just plain fun to watch him squirm.  He is astonished (and not in a good way) every time I have an “incident”.

Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt
Clearly, I can never have too much of this on hand…

While generally a  loving and forgiving man, he will never be able to move past the occasion in which he found himself hosing down my capris in our yard immediately post birth of our daughter.  Moreover, he will shrivel in humiliation when he realizes I have written this post and sent it out into the blogosphere.  I do also realize that, as I type this, our neighbors will now be putting their homes up for sale rather than continue living in the proximity of the crazy people who wash out their poop-laden clothing in the yard.  But this story begs to be told.

It started in the hospital, hours after baby girl made her entrance into this world.  I was nursing her and then low and behold, I found myself literally throwing my newborn at my husband, screaming “Take her! It’s an emergency!”  Would have been better to have not even tried to make it to the bathroom.  Within minutes I became known around the maternity unit as being “the lady who DOES NOT need colace”.  We had a bit of mess on our hands, and would you believe they actually do not have air fresheners in the hospital?

While I died in mortification, several sharp nurses put their heads together and came up with the idea to coat paper towels with shampoo and lay them over the drain in a hot shower, allowing the steam to permeate the fresh scent throughout the room.  It had truly become and all-hands-on-deck situation for the unit.  Absolutely doing my part to promote teamwork for the staff.

Though the odor situation was somewhat abated, nothing can extract the image of poop gurgling out of places that it should never, ever be ever.  I will stop with the sordid details, but for those of you who have given birth–you know those sweet mesh panties you rock post childbirth?  Yeah…you may want to find another alternative should find yourself in a loose stool scenario….

My daughter is now 14 mo.  How am I faring in the poop department?  I’m proud to report that there have only been a handful more “hospital incidents” as we have so lovingly come to call them.  I think this is good news.  My husband remains absolutely terrorized.

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Where I need to be hanging out…ALL. THE. TIME.

I am not saying that this is normal.  But I have tried to explain to my shell-shocked husband that I am not alone with having extreme poop difficulties.  I have read of several such instances on other blogs.  I vividly remember Kim at Let Me Start By Saying‘s post about trying not to crap herself in an elevator at the BlogHer conference.  And who didn’t fall a little more in love with Anna at My Life and Kids when she blogged at In the Powder Room about how she snagged her husband by pooping in her pants?  Her post was then followed up with a guest post by Stephanie over at Binkies and Briefcases who shared that poop had played a major role in the evening of her marriage proposal.  And my absolutely favorite post on the hot topic of poop is from Pish Posh, when she wrote about the horrors created by some pre-graduation ceremony pizza.

See I’m really not the only one.  Lots of people are poop-challenged, really…really.  Really?!  Tell me I’m not totally crazy or really bite the bullet, my friends, and leave your own poop horror story or link to one below.  In the meantime, I will probably just be hanging out on the toilet, trying to avoid a future such incident.

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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My FAVORITE People

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People are so grand.  Right now, I’m especially feeling the love for:

Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt
EXACTLY how I spent my morning too…

The doctor’s office receptionist who got snarky with me when I called to schedule my flu shot.  So terribly sorry that my 14 mo. old daughter is so horrendously ill-behaved that she chose to fall and start screaming exactly when you were giving me the available time slots and I had to ask you to repeat yourself.  I really appreciated your attitude because my life wasn’t delightful enough at the moment.

Chirpy mother in the preschool pick-up line who informs me (while I’m balancing a fussy baby on my hip and wondering where the heck my son’s class is) that she just had a “spa morning”, running 6 miles and then doing a long foot soak afterwards.  While I was chasing madly after my daughter all morning, she dumped a cup of water on me–I know exactly what this mom means about feeling great after exercise and a good cleanse.

People who forget the incredibly tricky dance of young kids and can’t even throw me a bone of understanding once in a while.  Yes, they need afternoon naps.  Yes, they will continue to need them for a while, and no, long car trips with my daughter who screams bloody murder after being in the van for more than 30 minutes aren’t fun.  I’m currently seeking PTSD treatment after the trauma of an especially long ride with her, thanks for checking in.

The middle-aged man who breezed passed me on my way into Kohls as I was pushing the double stroller and let the door slam shut behind him.  No problem.  Let me just get out my 3rd arm and I’ll be right behind you.

Octogenarian who pulled out right in front of me and then chose to drive about 30 miles under the speed limit.  I’m sure he had somewhere important to be at 8:50am.  The only way this would have been acceptable would have been if it was Betty White, because I really like her and would forgive her easily for any manner of transgressions.  I’m pretty sure it was not her, as the person appeared to be a man, was wearing a bolo hat and smoking a pipe, though who knows how Betty rolls nowadays?  Maybe it was her…

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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The Depth of Canine Thought Life

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Pretty sure this is one of those way-overdone posts, but oh well…

Source: Microsoft Office ClipArt
Surprisingly edible…

The other day I paused for a moment, stared hard at my little 70lb. chocolate fluffball of a lab and thought, “What the heck is this creature actually thinking?”  His neurosis is well established, and has been ever since he accidentally ate our Christmas tree in a panic the first year we got him. (Sort of understandable, as holiday stress can make everyone lash out it weird ways…)

In any case, this is my best guess as to what is running through his fur-covered head at this exact moment:

I  want food

I need food

Where can I get food?

I want food

Maybe if I continue to hover under the baby’s highchair and whine pitifully she’ll throw me a stray yogurt melt.

Those yogurt melts are the most awesome thing ever. I’m so glad Mommy is supporting the Gerber industry by repetitively buying these things in bulk and piddling away the kids’ college fund.

Love yogurt melts.

Love food.

Love any food.

(sound of door to garage opening and closing)

Hysteria!  My people have left me!  They will never come home!  I am all alone!  I have to freak out, cry, run in circles and find a Christmas tree to eat NOW!!  I will never survive!  This is terrible, this is–

(sound of garage door opening and closing again as human returns to house after spending 8 seconds taking the garbage out)

I want food.

How can I get more food?

The further I jut out my chin, the more dignified I look.  Really…


Oh crap.  I see Mommy coming at me with a poofy wad of shiny fabric. Is this that awful time of year again when she makes me dress up in stupid costumes and everyone laughs at me while I pretend to act dignified?

Hate this.

Love food.

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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Guest-posting at Adventures with Captain Destructo!

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Ever run out of conversation topics?  To play it safe, I came up with my own list of conversation “firecrackers”.  Caution: These are to only be pulled out when things get desperate, b/c these are truly sure to light a few sparks!

Hop on over to my dear blogging friend’s site, Adventures with Captain Destructo (fun name, huh?), to check this list out.  As she self-describes, Melissa blogs about “adventures of a cloth diapering, baby lead weaning, wood toy loving, breastfeeding, slightly crunchy mom and the boy that drives her crazy”.  Yeah, she had me at “slightly crunchy” too…Head on over there today, and show her blog and my little post some love 😉

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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75 Ways to Have More Fun

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Have you stopped by the wonderful blog, My Life and Kids?  Ever since I found this site almost a year ago, I can’t get enough!  Anna makes me laugh every time I check it, and moreover, she keeps it real.  She has an uncanny ability to make me feel more normal and help me see the humor in my oh-so-glamorous day-to-day.  I adore her.  

So naturally, I’m over the moon that she has come out with a new ebook, 75 Ways to Have More Fun. You’ve gotta check this thing out. What a treasure!  Anna offers loads of suggestions to make something can often be not-so fun (staying home with your kids) really fun.  From throwing random surprise parties to figuring out ways to make washing toys seem like a game to rolling out the sleeping bags in your living room, her ideas are cool, fresh, and realistic.  These are activities a regular mom would actually enjoy doing with her kids.  Yes, these are things that even this Mom of the Year, in all her totally anti-DIY-er glory could handle!  

Score a copy!

She writes in the style of her blog, allowing you to laugh and enjoy yourself along the way, while sharing some really great inspiration.  I eagerly read through, trying to figure out which of these ideas I wanted to give a try in the coming week.  I think in the next few days I’ll be turning the kids loose with the safety scissors.  Maybe we’ll even chance a breakfast picnic if I’m feeling really adventurous?  And see the picture below to see how well the shaving cream activity went over!  This book is a perfect thing to grab onto as the weather cools and we start to move into winter-hibernation mode.

Not all the ideas are this messy, trust me…

Forget all that crazy stuff over-the-top stuff on Pinterest, snatch up a copy for yourself and gift one to a friend.  The book is on sale through Amazon as well as through her website as a PDF document for only $3.99!  Definitely worth the cost to shake things up around your house–or cover them in shaving cream, as the case may be 😉

I received a free copy of this ebook for review purposes, but I received no other compensation for the post.  All opinions are entirely my own.

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.
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