three things you need in order to be a successful parent...because crazy actually does happen. truth.

this is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of asurion. all opinions are all my own. 

when you become a parent there are some "must-haves" in order to be successful. in my opinion, the first of these is a giant semi truck load of patience. if you want to stay sane and navigate (at least semi-successfully) through all the new territory having a baby and subsequent years bring, patience is a must. the second "must-have" is a sense of humor. life tends to throw you curve balls when children come into the picture.....and the only way i have found to get through it is with a big smile on my face, while i shake my head remembering how life has changed in crazy, amazing, wonderful, insane, challenging, fabulous ways. the third, and most important "must-have" for me, is a cell phone protection plan. truth. i can't even begin to tell you how many phones i have lost to the causality of parenthood so far: one awesome razor flip phone met its match when my newborn literally slobbered on it to death. another phone must have fallen out of my diaper bag on one of my frequent trips to target and was never to be seen again. countless others found a watery grave in a toilet, ocean or swimming pool......and an almost equal amount stopped working after being dropped too many times (i haven't yet met a case that i can't destroy in some way). once, I even had my cell phone stolen off the top of my stroller when we were visiting the zoo. 

i have learned my lesson about backing up my phone to preserve the ridiculous amount of photos and videos taken of my littles, but having a protection plan on my phone has been my saving grace in instances where i haven't done so. truly. think about all that you would lose if your phone was gone or drowned right this minute.....okay, now stop panicking, start backing up your data and get a protection plan on your phone!

this afternoon, while soaking up a sunny san diego november day by the pool, carma reared it's ugly head and provided me with a current case study. while bending over to help my youngest who was sitting on the steps of the pool, my oldest casually asked why my phone was on the bottom of the pool. really? yep. my phone had somehow slipped out of the pocket of my shorts and had found it's eternal resting place at the bottom of my parents pool. good times. the bonus is that i have a well-used protection plan in place with asurion, which includes the coverage of water-logged phones. they even cover stolen and lost phones, like in the case of my target shopping fiasco and zoo adventure....how awesome is that?! with the love of expensive smart phones out there, i know way too many friends that have had theirs stolen or lost. cell phone theft is on the rise and smart phones, in particular, are 35% more likely to be lost or stolen. let's face it; practically our entire lives are on our phones and they are often a life-line of sorts for mama everywhere, working full-time outside of the house or as a full-time stay-at-home mama. 

so, ladies....learn from my mistakes and plan for the phone disasters....they happen to the best of us. 

for more information, visit http://on.fb.me/XB9MF0. 

this is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of asurion. all opinions are my own.

cheers to the first day of school

then there were two...

this week marks the first day of school for countless families. my own oldest three marched off on wednesday for their first days of fifth, second and first grades. as my husband returned from dropping them off, i'm pretty sure the dance party music could have been heard from several houses away. if i had been more prepared, mimosas might have been served all around. i think i am missing the nostalgic mommy gene. 

don't get me wrong. on the first day of kindergarten for each of my three kids, i welled up with tears. my heart ached that one chapter of our lives was over. now though, it is still over and onward we march. i still get sad. i can look through old photo albums and my whole being misses the way my babies used to be. i remember their sweetness and their cuddles and their sweet cherub faces that have morphed into something else. i miss those moments when my babies were small.

even my oldest three were little once...

my current reality, however, is that they are no longer babies and that summer is LONG. i love all my kids and i am happy to have five of them but summer is exhausting. my ears are constantly listening for five little bodies. i cook and clean up meals for seven three times a day all summer long (more if there are friends over to play or guests in the house). conflict is inevitable and, let's face it, after about the first six weeks, the kids are pretty tired of each other. i feel like a summertime mix between a referee, a long term party planner, and a very under appreciated maid. 

add to that fact that i feel like i really have two separate families. i have an older family with three kids. they love to ride bikes, have friends over, play video games, and fill days with activity. my other family is made up of a three year old and a one year old. they take naps, like mickey mouse, play with blocks and play-doh and still need help wiping their bottoms. when you mix the two pieces of my family together, some group is always sacrificing and i am stretched to somehow meet the needs of two groups of little people in very different places. 

all of that to say that i am one mommy who is happy to have my kids back in school. i miss when they were babies but i know that in reality, they are growing up we all can use a break from each other. for a few hours each day i am back to being a mommy of two. we cuddle and watch mickey mouse, we have stayed in pajamas much longer than normal and we have shared one-on-two time instead of one-on-five time. those moments of baby time are precious and, as the older kids go off school, i know how fleeting they are. 

so, for now, the dance party music is still playing. i have successfully made it through another summer. i have raised three great kids who are embarking on another year of elementary school. i am enjoying the return of a routine. the very best part of back to school? i have two little boys who are dancing it up with me...thrilled to be the two remaining kiddos reigning the roost. their sippy cups are full of leftover juice from my mimosas and our glasses are clinking together. cheers to all my babies, big and small.

cheers!

no mom is an island...

there is a saying that we all know well, "it takes a village." we've all heard it and we know what it means. it takes a village of people to raise children. the phrase was said often in decades past. however, somewhere along the line, the saying became less popular. moms say it today and laugh, somehow feeling uncomfortable at the thought of other people helping to raise their children. we have gotten to the place where we are often offended when others try to help us with any sort of parenting. in so doing, we have completely isolated ourselves from others and we've determined that, to be a good parent, we have to be a "supermom." we have to raise amazing children, keep a perfect home, have a solid marriage, be inspiring in the work place and then in our spare time create pinterest inspired crafts to fill our home. it's exhausting.

it's time to be real. this mothering business is hard work. no mom was meant to be an island. we are not in this by ourselves. mothering is an instant bond that bridges all races, all socio-economic statuses, and all walks of life. we are all connected and if we could somehow set aside the pressure we put on ourselves to do everything perfectly, all on our own, we would be so much happier.

people tell me all the time, "i don't know how you do it with five kids." let me be perfectly clear. i don't do it...not alone. i have a network of amazing people in my life who can see me when i'm drowning and jump in to help out. when i was pregnant with my fourth born, i was horribly sick for six months. an unsuspecting neighbor knocked on my door one day and was greeted by me in my pajamas, crying and barely able to hold myself together. my kids were in their pajamas with soaked diapers and i had been throwing up all morning. without a word she walked into my house, cleared the breakfast dishes and washed them out, the smell of cheerios being more than i could handle. she helped me get my kids dressed and then she got my children settled. she then headed to the grocery store and bought a bunch of different breakfast cereals for my kids, a scented candle for me, and plenty of protein filled pregnancy foods. she piled them on my counter and helped me put them away. she was my angel for the day.

last week, a friend called me up to say she was at the store and was picking me up a rotisserie chicken for dinner. she dropped it off with some pasta to cook up as a side. dinner for one night was covered. when my dryer broke this last week, friends have not only dried loads of laundry, but they have folded them and had them ready to pick up later that day. my friends are amazing.

again, let me be clear. i don't do this mothering business on my own. i have a team of people behind me, a team of people ready to support me when i am willing to admit that i can't do everything on my own, a team of people who know me well enough to read between the lines when i'm not ready to admit my need to anyone.

what if we got in the habit of doing little things for each other? what if we recognized that mothering was never meant to be done alone? what if, even once a week, we all took the time to do something small for someone else, even when they say the ever popular words, "you don't have to do that?" what if we made it a practice to stand in the gap for someone else, to pick up the load and help someone carry it, to become the village that it takes to raise a child? knowing that i have people in my corner makes this parenting road manageable. seeing the look of embarrassment on mother's faces when i do something kind for someone else tells me repeatedly that we are doing this all wrong. let's all just admit that we need each other. let's all admit that we could really use some extra people in our corner. let's get rid of the embarrassment that we somehow feel when someone does something to help us out. let's step out there and help a friend, or even an acquaintance, even if we have to be pushy, until we all come to see how much better parenting can be when done with friends.

admitting we need each other is half the battle. removing our own expectations of perfection is the other half. what do you say? are you willing to jump into the lives of someone else today? it really does take a village...and no mom was ever meant to be an island.

filling up the bucket

a few days ago, my one and only girl was home sick from her first grade class. as i was trying to rush her and her brother to get dressed so we could head to the doctor, she kept asking for me to "hold on" for just a minute more. i could see she was coloring something and was busy getting the two little boys ready to head out the door so i gave her a couple of extra moments. as i was about to get after her again, she ran over, put a paper on the counter and then ran up to her room to get her clothes on. 

i was so busy getting everyone in the car that i didn't take the time to look at what she had drawn. after snapping everyone in, i ran back inside to grab some food for the baby and stopped on my way back outside. the paper i found was addressed to me. as i opened it, this is what i found inside.

my heart melted. i walked back outside, got her attention in the car and told her how much i loved her note. i told her how much i loved her and that the words she had written made my day. she looked at me and her face lit up. she then said something that i had to process for a minute. with a big smile on her face she said, "i'm filling up your bucket."

now, i'm the first to admit genius when i see or hear it and this was child rearing genius. apparently the school psychologist had been into her classroom. using the bucket analogy, she talked about how kind words fill up a person's heart bucket. in the same way, unkind words dump people's bucket out. the word picture resonated with my six year old and so she has been working to "fill up my bucket."

i've heard other people use the same concept saying that kind words and actions and quick obedience gives mommies energy while the opposite makes mommy energy run out. i've seen this work but i personally love the bucket. it is ageless, goes beyond childhood, fits every walk of life and every human interaction. from this moment on, every person my kids encounter will be seen as someone with a bucket that can be filled. my goal is to try to teach them ways to fill those buckets no matter who the person may be.

so, thank you, school psychologist, for your simple brilliance. i will take your idea, steal it and make it my own. and today, i will read this card again and walk around with a very full bucket.

mother of the year

about a week ago, i sent my two year old to school in pajamas for his pajama day...only, i had my days wrong and he was the only child in his class dressed up that day. luckily for him, he's two and his pajamas pretty much look similar to what i've seen other kids wearing in his class on normal days. still, i pretty much felt like i definitely deserved the "mother of the year" button for that one. there are days when i feel i deserve the free t-shirt, the pageant sash, the button and the tiara for my mothering skills. still, i know i'm not alone.

one of my girlfriends made the same mistake with her son...only he was in an upper primary grade. nothing screams years of therapy like sending your nine year old son to school in pajamas on the wrong day.

over christmas the stories multiplied. one of my mom friends put her child's backpack away for the christmas break and took it out the night before school started only to discover that it was full of a "fun" family project that was supposed to be completed over the break. oops. another friend got her girls ready to head back to school after the break and then was informed that christmas break had ended the day before. oh well, what's one more day off?

my best parenting moment came last year as i busily tried to get my son and daughter into preschool one morning. normally there is a drive-up drop off but this time i had snacks and other extras to bring in so had to park and walk them into their classes. i finally got them settled inside and then walked back to my car, sat down, and about jumped out of my skin as someone made a noise behind me. i thought some evil intruder had managed to hide in my backseat, ready to pounce, until i realized, nope, that is the baby...the one i totally forgot about as i was dropping off my other two. there was my one year old smiling in his pajamas with his pacifier, ready for the rest of the day. try to top that one!

what about you? i know i'm not the only one out there who's accidentally made some less than stellar mommy moves. it's time to bust out your best stories...

top 15 must-have *PAID* iphone apps for parents

this post is part three in a series of four posts about the top paid and free apps for parents and kids. if you happened to miss out on the previous two, here are the links:

the top 25 *free* iphone apps for parents

the top 15 *free* iphone apps for kids of all ages 

we hope that you are enjoying finding out about new apps as much as we are. if we happened to miss your favorite, please leave a comment and let us know. we would love to hear about them.

enjoy!

one:

real simple recipes--no time to cook--$4.99

Looking for quick and easy dinner ideas? this is for you! there are nearly 850 easy recipes for dinner that you can make—start to finish—in 40 minutes or less.

two:

nike+ gps--$1.99

map runs, track progress, link with favorite itunes playlist, get motivation. i am borderline obsessed with this app. 

three:

pac-man or ms. pac-man $4.99

this app needs no explanation, really. does it? the classic arcade game now in your iphone. brilliant. 

four:

white noise--$1.99

great for traveling. period. amazing for drowning out the ice machine that your hotel room is next to, or the crazy bachelorette party down the hall. also wonderful for helping your kiddos fall asleep while away from home. we use a noise machine for both of our little ones at home and it helps using this app and having one less thing to pack on trips. 

five:

my kids info--$0.99

this app is a family information manager for parents that helps you keep track of your kids day-to-day activities, medical information, important contacts such as teachers or doctors and all other information relevant for your children. we all have these lists, but now they can be in one place. so easy. 



six:

baby brain: your baby log--$2.99

i remember going to our first peditritions appointment with our newborn and we were asked a ton of questions ranging from how many poop & pee diapers the little one had produced to exact hours of sleep and feeding times and frequency. really?! i had barely slept myself and didn't even know what day it was! i truly wish i had app back then. track it all easily with this app. if you are expecting or know someone who is, get this! 

seven:

hipstamatic--$1.99

go retro with your digital photos! this app adds old school character by turning your phone into a customizable work of art. there are hundreds of different effects that can be created by swapping out lenses, flashes and film. i am loving the look that i can easily create with this app!

eight:

ihomeopathy--$3.99
an easy to use guide for treating first-aid emergencies, childhood ailments and common illnesses with homeopathy. everything from treating bruises to bug bites, burns and allergic reactions. 




nine:

two hundred sit-ups--$1.99 
it sounds crazy, right? this app provides a 6 week training program that will soon have you on your way to completing 200 crunches. all it takes is this app and about 30 minutes a week. (note: there is also a hundred push-ups app if you are feeling really crazy.)






ten:

postale--$0.99
easily create custom postcards using your own photos and personal message and then share them via email, facebook or twitter. there are different theme and layout options as well as multiple postal stamp designs to choose from. when you are ready to send, the app will create a unique poststamp on your card that shows the date and location that your card was sent from. it is so much fun!




eleven:

couch to 5k--$2.99
ever dreamed of running a 5k but don't know where to start? this app is your built-in trainer to get you to where you need to be to race. you can do it! we do so much for our kids--it's time to do something for yourself too. you deserve it!


twelve:

pack & go deluxe--family to do, tasks and travel packing list--$1.99
my family is not that large (there are only four of us). however, when we go on vacation, i always seem to forget something! life just gets busy and this app provides me with a great reminder of what to pack for a local trip to the farmers market or a theme park to packing for a big trip (like our upcoming cruise). create 100% custom lists for each member of your family using their bank of over 800 items or add your own. i have never been more organized or ready for a trip. 




thirteen:

martha's everyday food recipes--$2.99
whether you love martha or hate her, you can probably agree that she makes some dang good food! this app provides great, easy recipes along with the integration of a shopping list and fun video tutorials. i love that they provide you with great images so that i know what  i am making is supposed to look like! 




fourteen:

chore bank--$1.99
this app is the ultimate parents tool to keep track of your child's allowance, completion of chores and spending money. say "hello" to you own bank of mom or dad. this app allows you to create a virtual bank account for each child. you set up a chore list and assign a monetary value to the chore and then when he/she completes the core you simple check it off and the dollar value assigned to the chore is added to their "bank account". you can even set an interest rate. i think it is a fabulous way to keep mom/dad organized while teaching your child great lessons in the value of money.






fifteen:

craigs list pro--$0.99
quite possibly the easiest way to search and post items to craigslist. super easy to search for items and i love that it uses gps so you can find out which items really are located closest to you. 




what are your favorite paid apps for your iphone? leave us a comment and let us know!