Cinderella’s Etsy Shop.

My daughter, Cinderella has opened her very own Etsy Shop. She is a most talented baker, crafter, and a great mom. She made some awesomely cute headbands, placemats, and fabric flower arrangements. She is also former army and created an American Flag placemat.

Please check out her wonderful creations and let me know what you plan to buy. Feel free to link to this post and help this stay-at-home mom get her personal business off the ground.

Busy Moms Need Relaxing Too!

It seems like there is no rest of the weary.  And, the weary person is usually mom.  Moms take care of family and home, but who takes care of her?  If you are a busy mom, learn to value yourself as a person and schedule personal time.

Personal time is a right of being a person.  Each of us has the capacity to nurture others but that type of care takes its toll.

A car is filled with gas to make it run.  Eventually the gas runs out and your car won’t move unless the car is replenished with fuel.  The same goes for you.  Emotional issues can develop when you don’t take the time to take care of your emotional well-being, not to mention the physical results of emotional neglect.

Mom time refuels the tank so that you can give to your family as well as yourself in equal measure.  Don’t be ashamed to sit for fifteen minutes doing nothing.  In the springtime, relaxing in a hammock under a tree is the perfect getaway from the pressures of the day.  Reading a book for 30 minutes can also seem like heaven to many moms.

Here are a few tips to help you fit in much needed “mom” time:

1. Get up early if you have to.  When you have kids, the day begins at a hurried pace.  Once you hit the ground running, there is no stopping you.  Waking 30 minutes to an hour ahead of time means quiet solitude to drink your coffee, read a book, meditate or listen to music.

2. Turn ordinary experiences into major events.  When you take a bath, add candles, bubble bath, quiet music and/or an inflatable bath pillow.  Your regular bath has now become a spa level experience.  If you watch a movie, turn out the lights, pop a bag of microwave popcorn and curl up on the couch.

3. Ask your significant other for help.  Kids love their mothers but time spent with dad is important too.  Let them bond with dad while you go shopping for a new outfit or root around in the garden.  Since the time is yours, do whatever you like.

4. Use the Boy Scout motto.  Always be prepared and you can spend more time in a relaxed mode.  Fix lunches the night before.  Iron clothes for the next day and place backpacks by the front door so kids can grab them on their way out.  The fewer things you have to do throughout the day, the calmer you will be with your family and not experience burnout.

5. Take exercise breaks.  When you get a few minutes the last thing you want to do is exercise but getting a little physical activity in your day has far-reaching implications.  Exercise helps you to think clearly and stretches the muscles.  Also, stress will drain away as powerful endorphins are released into your system.  Do jumping jacks during a television commercial or jog to the bus stop to pick up the kids.

6. Laugh at regular intervals.  Keep a funny calendar cube on your desk or subscribe to a daily joke site.  Laughing releases stress and can lift your spirits significantly.  It also keeps the abs tight.

Moms, take care of you.  Your family would miss you if you were not around to love and care for them.  You owe it to yourself and you deserve a break from the daily hustle and bustle.

Ultimate Blog Party 2010 Post

Hi everyone! My name is juliannah. No, not my real name but sort of. Anyway, I have been married to Corvette for thirty-one years. Yea, I know, that is a long time! We have three grown children and four grandchildren.

My oldest son, Cpl Honda, is an active duty US Marine and is currently deployed. Thankfully, the deployment is almost over and I am getting ready to go to homecoming. If you want to read some crazy, funny even nerve wracking then visit my other blog, Life’s Like a Box of Chocolates.

My daughter, Cinderella was married recently to Tango and it was a beautiful wedding. You can go and look at her wedding pictures to see why I call here Cinderella. She is an Army veteran who was serving out country on 911. Butterfly, my granddaughter is her first-born and will soon be nine years old. She is also a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed at the age of four and then for two years she waged a brave battle and won! She is fine now and the most precious young lady. Lolly Pop Kid, my first grandson is an angel in Heaven. We lost him last year after a short illness. We still miss him so much and always will. We know we will see him again one day. Until then, he remains in our hearts and minds.

My youngest son, Hippie Guy is married to his sweetheart Flower Child. They have twin boys, Fuzzy and Wuzzy, that are almost eight months old. The boys are just starting to crawl and are becoming very vocal. Also, they are huge! One is twenty-three pound and the other is nineteen pounds!

My hobbies are blogging of course and tweeting. I am working on making blogging a work-at-home job. I currently work for an advertising research company. Some other hobbies are gardening. I heart growing anything. I have it all from cacti to spices to flowers and everything in-between. My newest hobby is going to be photography. I am about to purchase a DSLR camera in the near future and I cannot wait to get started. I have a degree in Graphic Design that will come in handy when I take on photo retouching

We all live in the Desert Southwest and for the most part, love it. Yes, it does get hot here, but I would rather sweat than shovel snow. We just built a new house a year and a half ago and we are enjoying living in it.

Please feel free to enter my giveaway to win a $25 Safeway gift card and a awesome Betty Crocker bake set. I decided to extend it just for the Ultimate Blog Party!

Well, thanks so much for stopping by and I look forward to meeting many new moms and hopefully some grandmoms too.

Ultimate Blog Party 2010

I am excited to participate in the Ultimate Blog Party 2010 this year. I was surfing around one day and I ran into 5 Minutes for Mom. This is a blog dedicated to bringing blogging moms together.

So what is Ultimate Blog Party? It is several days of blog hopping, giveaways and meeting other moms in blogosphere! It is a chance to gain more readers and grow your blog! But, you do not have to have a blog to participate.

There are lots of great prizes and the grand prize is a Toshiba Satellite L505D-ES5025 laptop. Who could not use a new laptop. Can not have too many computers in my opinion!

All you have to do is write a party post introducing yourself and then link it on the 5 Minutes for Mom site and then visit all the great blogs that will be linked on the site.

So, join me and thousands of other Moms, April 9 to April 16 for the Ultimate Blog Party 2010.