Working Mom

Moms Getting Through the Day – Dinner and Bedtime

April 5, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

I’m really paying attention to what makes my days easier because I want to share that with you. So, I’m going to tell you what I’m doing to make it through the day.

We had an early start today. The baby started waking up at 4:30 this morning. We let her cry for a little while and she quieted down. When we were finally back asleep, she started crying again. Eventually she quieted back down. When it started up again at 5:30, we figured it was time to get up.

So how did I make it through dinner today? The crockpot.

Working Moms Getting Through the Day - Crockpot - Just Getting Things Done

I know, everyone else is all about the Instant Pot and here I am still using the crockpot, but that’s what I know. I don’t do recipes in the crockpot, I just take my protein and a veg philosophy and let the crockpot do the cooking. I don’t brown the meat or anything either. Who does that?!

The crockpot, simplified.

Grocery Delivery is the Best Thing Ever

February 17, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

Yes, grocery delivery is the best thing ever. Instead of spending an hour or more at the grocery store, I can be watching Netflix while the kids are napping and the grocery store employee stops by to drop off my groceries and carry them into the kitchen (if my husband lets them).

I’m not going to lie, it took me a long time to even give this a try. You know, I had the usual excuses. I like to pick out my produce. I like to see what looks good. Basically, I like to be in control.

First, I tried a service where I could order my groceries online and then go to the store and they would bring them out to my car. It was ok. They did a good job with the meat and the produce. It took me longer than I wanted to actually order all the stuff for the first time, but it was kind of nice.

The problem was I still had to go to the store and pick them up.

If we had activities on the weekend that I knew would bring us to the store, this wouldn’t have been a problem. But we don’t. So I still had to go out of my way to make a trip to the store.

I decided to find out who would actually bring groceries to me and found that our local Safeway (Albertson’s) would deliver. Not only that, they had a code for $25 off and free delivery for your first order. How could I pass that up? [Read more…] about Grocery Delivery is the Best Thing Ever

When Your Toddler Sleeps Good at Night, What Happens in the Morning?

February 2, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

Our soon-to-be 3 year old, Ivy, was not in a great mood last night. When I was putting the girls to bed she did the usual 2 year old thing of crying and getting upset about me doing what she asked me to do. She wasn’t happy with any of the choices I gave her. Nothing was right. She didn’t want the pillows there. I didn’t set them up right. Her water bottle didn’t go there. I couldn’t even decipher most of the requests. But in the end, Ivy and Emma went to sleep really fast and no one besides Ivy got upset.

It was a pretty big deal for me. I didn’t lose my cool. I didn’t threaten. I just gave them choices. It was going much better than what I wrote about in this post. And they did good, even though there was some crying and yelling (mostly directed at me).

Then, we only got woken up one time last night (by the baby). This was also a big deal, since we’ve been woken up probably four times a night for the past several nights.

I woke up on my own this morning. No one was crying. It was awesome.

I was in a great mood. I thought everyone else would be too.

I was wrong, of course.

Toddler Struggles – Sleep and Frustration

January 31, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

We have been struggling lately with a couple of related issues: sleep and frustration/attitude. My husband and I are having a hard time staying calm with the children because we have just lost all of our patience. One of the reasons we currently have such a bad attitude is because we are not getting enough sleeping. Sound familiar?

The sleep struggle is about more than just us not sleeping enough, though. Sleep became an issue when our two older daughters started sharing a room. This, in and of itself, caused a ton of frustration.

For several weeks our entire evening was consumed with the struggle and frustration of getting the girls to sleep. For 2-3 hours, we would just get more and more frustrated until one of us lost our cool and then the girls would finally go to sleep.

My husband and I were going to bed later than usual because we needed at least a little bit of time to recover before we actually felt like sleeping. And of course, we have a baby that still wakes up during the night.

It was not fun. It felt like it would never end.

Take Me to Church or, How to Turn Words into Action

January 24, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

This Christmas Eve I went to church with my older girls, and something interesting happened.

The pastor was a woman who shared a story about her 6 year old son.

She talked about how he didn’t want to be in the play the church was doing. It was kind of funny because he was the pastor’s son, so she had to explain why he should do it without really pushing him to do it.

Then, in the end he was really excited about it because he got a different part that he really wanted to play.

The best part of the story wasn’t the story itself, it was how the pastor delivered it.

Spectra Baby USA S2 Pump Review – Spectra vs Medela

January 23, 2018 by Rachel Bowman Leave a Comment

Are you thinking about buying a Spectra pump? Had a Medela and want to know how it compares? Just looking for your first pump? I wrote this review of the Spectra S2 pump so I could answer all the questions I think are important, but if you have more just let me know. I also posted a video review here: Spectra S2 Pump video review but I’m going to break it down for you below.

First, a little background. I’m using this as my primary pump with my third child. I work full-time so I use this 5 days a week. I’ve been back to work for two and a half months. At the time of writing, my baby is almost 6 months old. I have no supply issues and have never had any issues with pumping. Except that I don’t really love to do it so I pretty much only do it at work. With my first two children I used Medela Pump in Style (PISA) pumps.

Spectra Baby USA S2 Pump Review - Spectra vs Medela at Just Getting Things Done

Best thing about the Spectra?

Spoiler alert, the best thing about it is that it’s gentle. Their tagline is awesome, “Our pumps don’t suck, they suckle.” Of course it’s not the same as actually feeding your baby (assuming everything is going well and you’re not in pain), but it’s so much gentler than the Medela pumps I’ve used in the past. [Read more…] about Spectra Baby USA S2 Pump Review – Spectra vs Medela

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