10 sanity saving tips you need NOW

As moms we often find ourselves frustrated and flustered with overwhelming amounts of To-Do list, classes, meetings, practices, dinners, laundry, and husbands. Can I get a "Amen!" or a " I hear ya girlfriend!" no? How bout a "Yeehaw!" or a "Preach preacher!" ?????


One of my goals in starting this blog (other then selling my movie rights to my blog and life) was to help other women achieve the perfection and sanity I have as a mother and wife


Below are 10 sanity saving tips that will change your life drastically!

1.  Invest in reversible clothing.  1 outfit = Two days. How much easier can it get? .... Well.....


2. Purchase only "lounge wear" clothing. Cute enough to wear out, comfortable enough to sleep in. Kids go to bed already dressed for school. Bonus? Less cranky because they can sleep in.


3. Febreze- Spray your kids as they are walking out to school to help cut down on laundry.

4. Don't allow your kids any extra curricular activities. Period. Nada. None. Unless they can walk to and from.


5. Invest in a signature stamp and allow your kids to sign there own necessary school documents. 

6. Make Christmas shopping easy by giving your kids the same toys they already own that they've "forgotten about" 


7. Keep all kids who don't go to school in diapers and sleepers all day. No need to wash 15 outfits a day and saves time when changing at bed time.


8. Don't allow anything other then a bed and 2 books in the bedrooms. Nothing to clean up.


9. Say no to everything. 
"Mom can I have a birthday party?" "No!"  
 "Mrs. Smith can you bake 10 dozen cupcakes for the PTA bake sale?" "No"
"Honey, can we have sex? "No" (And this is two fold. No sex means no need to fight kids to go to bed early and duh, if you're not having sex you won't run the risk of producing more time suckers, er, uh, kids.)


10. And if all else fails,produce tons of kids who can do all the work for you a la The Duggars.

Disclosure: Because I know these fantastic sanity saver tips will change the life of ever woman I have decided to link up for a blogging contest from the TwitterMoms community. There is a chance this post could be randomly selected to win a $50 Target GiftCard, so wish me luck (Ha! Like I'm actually going to need it)! For more details, you can view the contest page here (http://icomp.ly/IconApps).

Potty Training Tips

I promised last week that I would post some of my mom’s tips for potty training on Monday. But sometimes things like announcing the winners of the giveaway or making melting avalanche cakes get in the way.

I've probably mentioned before that I am the oldest of 8 so instead of wasting time reading 50 different parenting books for advice I just pick up the nearest cell phone and shoot my mom a message for the best advice.

She's been on me since his birthday to get on the potty training thing. She believes (and I agree) once a kid is eating real food their poop goes from that strange sweet smell it has when they are breast fed (Are my husband and I the only weird ones that thought breast milk poop smelled good?) and goes to absolute grown man smells when they're eating ice cream and nuggets that they need to be on the potty ASAP!

So we've tended to potty train way before two (and even a year and half) in our house.


So here are her tips.


• Set an egg timer to go off every 10 minutes to remind you to put your tot on the pot.

• Keep on the potty for 5 minutes when there is no accident.

• After an accident put on potty for 2 minutes.

• Take a week and watch your tots "poop schedule" to determine when you should expect them to need to poop.

• Keep them naked during the day. Cuts down on the laundry. But now realize when you do this you may have yourself a little naked chef in the kitchen.

• During nap and night time put a diaper on.

• As soon as your toddler wakes from nap or wakes in the morning put them straight on the potty.

• When your toddler sits on the potty (even if they don't do anything) give them a treat (we use M&M's which are his favorite). The idea is to get them excited about sitting on the potty. And when they do final go on the potty make a huge deal about it!

• During the week you watch for poop times, use the potty as his chair to watch TV and read.

• If your toddler has an accident take her to the potty to show her where she is supposed to go.

• If your toddler seems to be extra cranky or sleepy or your getting close to dinner time end potty training for the day.

• Read to him while he's on the potty.

• Puppy smell remover works best for cleaning up accidents

• Be consistent!

We are now working on our first full week and it's going pretty good but I'm still interested in hearing some of your tried and true potty tips!