Raising Boys - Joyful Messes

3 Inappropriate Realities of Being a Boy Mom

“Another boy?!” “Were you hoping for a girl??” “Are you gonna try again for a girl??” These are the questions I get asked every day as we navigate through our activities. Our pictures show beautiful glimpses of our life. The pretty, happy moments are quite sporadic in between the messy toilets, batman pajamas, runny noses, fingers in noses, and hands in pants. Oh, the joys of being a boy mom! We clean up well for social events, but there are definitely confessions I can share. Here are my three reasons you might be pulling your hair out: 1. Underwear Unwanted Boys do not like underwear, or pants for that matter. They naturally find it more satisfying to throw their pants and undies to the wind whenever outside – not aware of any sort of indecent exposure laws. As soon as I let the boys outside, I’m prepared for them to…

Kids Activities

5 Ways To Help Your Kids Be In Charge Of Recycling + Free Printable

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone. #HonestKidsRecycle #CollectiveBias Getting your kids involved with recycling can be super fun, and it makes things into less than a chore, and more of a learning experience. The reason I love to put kids in charge is because it takes some of the pressure off of me! I make it super fun for my kids to take charge and be in charge of sorting, and their favorite – smashing the boxes! Make sure to click the image below, to shop the juice boxes and join the recycle program! I have 5 ways you can help you kids be in charge of recycling, and I was super excited to find out about the Honest Kids® at Walmart and the recycling program. I had no idea this existed, and I thin it is PURE GENIUS!!…

Kids Activities

The 20 Best of The Best Summer Activities for Toddlers

I’m so excited for all these summer activities for toddlers!! Some of these are the classics like water slides (scroll to the bottom for a DIY Video!), and other’s are full of innovation and creativity. Not sure about you, but with three boys 5 and under, I am always looking for ideas to keep them busy, especially in the summer! I hunted through the internet to find what I think are the best of the best ideas to keep all your toddlers busy and having fun all summer long! Messy Boats from Busy Toddler DIY Marshmallow Shooters from Coffee Cups and Crayons Ice Boat Racing by Toddler Approved Pool Noodle Sprinkler DIY Catch and Toss Deep Blue Sea Activity Bin From Happy Hooligans Outdoor Water Bed by Just Another Utah Mom Kiddie Car Wash by Momendeavors Backyard Beach. Click here for tutorial. Water Pistol Painting by Messy Little Monster Lemonade…

Mom Hacks

If Your Day Ended Like This, You’re Doing Everything Right As A Mother

Silence. Finally. I tip-toe around hot wheels, bits of plastic and various articles of clothing. It appears that everyone strips down and loses an article of clothing in every room. I look at the dishes stacked in the sink, sheet pan full of burnt food bits from a many uses, and so many crumbs from the toast we had at dinner. I’m never doing toast again. Way too many crumbs. I had a list of things to accomplish now that it’s 9pm and no one is awake to bother me. It will last about an hour before the baby stirs and looks for me to put him back to sleep. I can’t find my list, so I just sit down and stare. I’m staring off into space because my brain is fried from the constant discipline and monitoring. I have a extremely smart, defiant child that pushes the envelope. I’m…

Mom Hacks

7 Ways To Be A Legit Mom When You’re Tired AF

Lets face it, just being a mom is exhausting. Being a present, engaged and enthusiastic mom is something more than exhausting. It can put you in a mental daze of pure brain overload. Combine that with sleepless nights from sick kids, sleep training, or the black hole of social media, and its a recipe for our bodies to short circuit. You can still be a good mom, even when life throws you to the wind and leaves you with black bags under your eyes and hair slicked back with baby powder. These ways involve no television or electronics. Just pure, tired, creativity. Story of my life. The baby lost his shoe, and no one is looking. Here’s 7 Ways to Be A Legit Mom When You’re Tired AF 1. Play Them An Audible Story: This has been a life-saver for me when bed time rolls in, and I am way…

Mom Hacks

Tips to Keep Your Home Clean When You’re The Worst Cleaner

I have to admit, I am a terrible cleaner. I “don’t have the eye” as my sister mentioned to me before. That’s the truth really. To be a great cleaner, you have to have an eye for the details. I do not focus on details. I think in large pictures, images and my brain jumps around a bit. I get overwhelmed with small tasks, and my mind goes off into a place of creativity, where I’m not even seeing what I’m doing. As the women of the house, I’m in charge of cleaning, and my husband is a better cleaner than me. Shoot. So, I’ve learned to put my mind to work and clean better. I just don’t even notice things some other “cleaner” people do. On the other hand, I hate clutter and have a very minimal style. I can clean up clutter, and I like everything to be…

Raising Boys

5 Fall Adventures You Can’t Miss This Year With Toddlers

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BornToShred #ShredTheDay #CollectiveBias 5 Fall Adventures You Can’t Miss This Year With Toddlers Fall is here in all its beautiful glory, and with that comes the cozy activities that brings us so much joy. Being from the Pacific Northwest, we have beautiful falls, and there are some fun adventures I look forward too every year. Having toddlers makes the adventures a bit more difficult at times. I remember trying to haul my toddler and a baby to a pumpkin patch, thinking it was going to be so fun, and it was just chaos. Strollers don’t go well in muddy patches. We start our adventures with a great breakfast, like the Post Shredded Wheat in flavors like Frosted Berry, S’mores and Cinnamon Roll. My kids are super picky, and sometimes it is so hard…

Baby Goods

Where To Start When Shopping For a Stroller

I’ve been obsessed with strollers in my almost-five years of being a mom. I’ve had joggers, double joggers, umbrella strollers, standard double strollers and more. There’s some information you should know when you are a new mom thinking about which stroller you might want to invest in. I talked about how I forgot an umbrella stroller on my first registry. I’ll go over that here, as well as what each stroller-type is, and the kind I recommend. It’s important that you know all of this because I had no idea, and ended up buying and returning a few strollers. This post contains affiliate links. First, think about how many babies you are planning on having. I originally chose the BOB Stroller for my first baby. If you are planning on only having one child, this stroller is AMAZING! There is a reason it’s so popular and I loved it, but…

Mom Hacks

How To Get Your Kids To Leave You Alone

I am probably way behind on finally getting my kids to leave me alone, after almost 5 years of being a mother, but for some reason, I am just now figuring out some tricks to get my kids to leave me alone. Keeping up on cleaning, blogging, organizing, grocery shopping, paying bills…just life in general is IMPOSSIBLE when your kids won’t leave you alone to think. I still am struggling to get enough time alone, but I’ve now figured out a way to get them to give me some space for a decent enough time to clean the kitchen, check some emails or brush my teeth and put some makeup on. Nap time is a great time of course but as kids get older nap times shift and/or go away and you can’t always wait for nap time to take care of something. Just 30 Minutes In reality, it’s not…

Raising Boys

Celebrate Back to School With Peanut Butter and Jelly Milkshakes

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SoHoppinGood #BlueBunny #CollectiveBias Back to school season is in full swing, and so are the massive amounts of peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches. Being as excited as we are, we are of course celebrating with some fabulous Peanut Butter and Jelly Milkshakes with Blue Bunny® PB ‘N Cones™! These are great because its still hot out as we enter school, so a nice, cool milkshake is a great way to celebrate surviving the first week of school. To make them is even more fun, I did a race car version and princess version. My boys LOVED the race car milkshakes! They couldn’t believe it was red like their race car, and came with a new car on top. My base for the shakes is the brand new Blue Bunny® flavor, PB ‘N Cones™ This flavor blends up so…