Walking Groups for Moms

April 15, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

Mom Walking Groups

Consistently working out and grabbing that endorphin rush is so key to having enough energy to face the day with your kids. I am in such a better mood when I am working out with a group at least 3-4 times per week.

My background and early morning workouts

My background is in competitive swimming, so I am on a Masters swimming team currently where I try to go at least three times a week.

I tell my husband if I can get to bed by 10:30pm, then I can make the 6am workout. If it gets past that 10:30pm time, then I am pretty much a no go for my workout the next morning. That 5:25am alarm sounds really loud, even though its my iphone’s beautiful tower bells ring. 🙂

Because my husband wants me to be in a good mood, he knows that working out is key for me and will not suggest to watch a Community or 30 Rock or Mad Men when it is 10:15pm. As tempting as it is to watch one of our favorite shows once we have FINALLY gotten all three kids down to bed, we both know its in our best interest to ensure my good mood.

Anyway, I digress a bit. On to the topic for today – the benefits of being part of a Mom Walking Group.

My Walking Group Experience

I started walking with a group of Moms about two years ago. We were very dedicated and met three times per week at 5:30 in the morning to conquer a 4.7mile walk that included many steep hills. I remember that after our first walk, I said I could never do that course again. The hills were a little too steep, I was a little too out of breath, and it was just all around painful.

But, two days later, I sent out the confirm email to the four other group members to meet the following morning. You see, once I got over the first walk and had a day of rest, I was actually looking forward to our next walk.

After the initial sore muscles and extreme fatigue, you realize that the endorphin rush and the feeling of accomplishment far outweighs any initial pain. Also, after the first week, and completing the walk three times, I wasn’t really sore anymore and felt quite a bit stronger.

When I push myself to the limit and really take consistent workouts seriously, my sleeps at night are of a much higher quality. My head hits the pillow like a ton of bricks and I sleep soundly for the whole night. No mid night wake ups or trouble going to sleep.

Group Walking is Therapy

When you get a group of Moms together with similar age children, the conversation topics are Endless. There are so many different issues to deal with while raising young children.

School and the state of our Educational System
Study Habits and how to improve them
Sports
Are we signing our kids up for too many activities?
College Planning
Home Care
Gardening
Fatigue
Kids Products
Best places to vacation
Where to find the best deals for everything

The list goes on and on……

I always found that I could come to the walk with an issue to work through, and in our hour and half together, it was either solved or I had been given a clear path for solving it. Sometimes just venting about something was all I needed from my group.

Laughter is the best medicine. Without exception, there were always a LOT of laughs. Get a group of Moms together to chat and extreme hilarity is a guarantee. 🙂

See Mommy Run

I love it when a group is started online to help a community. With See Mommy Run, their website is helping the community of Moms nationwide by providing a place to find other interested walkers in your neighborhood.

I am lucky enough to have a large group of Moms near me who have a strong interest in consistent workouts, but if you are having trouble forming a group, the See Mommy Run website will be a huge help to you.

The website has newsletters with very helpful information on staying in shape and keeps you up to date on different walking and running events. Many of the events support a valuable charity.

Walking Group Conclusion

My walking group lasted about a year and half. It was so much fun and truly beneficial to me in countless ways. I see the members around town and we share that bond of having walked many many miles together, helped work out each other’s issues and listened to many venting sessions.

I am now swimming three times a week and really enjoy the camaraderie with the other swimmers, but we do not get to chat during workout as much as with walking.

Time to start up my walking group again.

Set up your own group. I promise it is SO worth it. Even if its for once per week, just get it going. Have Fun!! 🙂

Sephora Retractable Waterproof Eyeliner

April 15, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

Sephora Waterproof Retractable Eyeliner

I love my new eyeliner. Finding the perfect eyeliner has not been easy for me.

Maybe I’m picky, but I think it is more that there are so many elements to creating the perfect eyelining experience. Every morning, I need to apply my eyeliner, so its a daily event and should be as easy as possible.

The eyeliner has to go on smooth and easy. There should not be any stickiness involved and it should last all day without the wearer having to worry about smearing or dissolving issues.

I used to use the Maybelline dark brown eyeliner in the red packaging for years and years, but was not always happy about how it went on dry – not very smooth.

Then, a few months ago, I ventured into my local Sephora and asked what their most popular crayon type of eyeliner was at the moment.

The sales associate directed me to the Sephora Retractable Waterproof Eyeliner. I tried a bit on my hand and it went on very soft and smooth. Very impressive. I decided to take home the “brown” color. Its a dark brown with the slightest bit of shimmer to it. I am finally completely happy with my eyeliner!! ( 🙂 )

Stocking up on my new favorite eyeliner

A few days ago, I went back to Sephora and purchased three more of these little babies.

I felt like I was storing up for a long winter. Its a good sign that I felt the need to stock up. If you start to irrationally worry that a product is going to be discontinued for some reason, you know you’ve found a keeper.

I now have one eyeliner at home, one in my workout bag, and one in my car. Although, I don’t think I need the one in my car, since this eyeliner really does not need any touch up during the day.

Before this eyeliner, I had tried Loreal, Almay, Cover Girl, and Maybelline. Really none of those brands even come close to comparing to this Sephora eyeliner and this product only costs $12. Over the years, I have always tried to find drugstore brand make-up that I will be happy with so that I can save money. Twelve dollars, in my opinion, is more than worth it for a solid eyeliner.

Eyeliner Makes Eyes Pop

Side note: I mentioned the brand, Almay earlier- I will say that their make-up remover pads are the best on the market. This is another product I stock up on, because I don’t know what I would do without it.

Sephora Eyeliner colors

I love it when a make-up product offers a broad color palette, since there are many different tastes and styles to accommodate. This Sephora Eyeliner comes in many great colors including the following:

Blue
Black
Purple
Silver
Green
Olive
Brown
Glitter Black
Matte Brown Black
Matte Charcoal
Glitter Copper
Glitter Purple
Matte Moss
Slate
Teal
Turquoise
Glitter Green
Shimmer Navy
Shimmer Electric Purple
Matte Deep Plum
Glitter Grey
Shimmer Bronze

My Next Beauty Project: Finding a great creamy eyeshadow

Now I need to start my research for a creamy eyeshadow that won’t crease or flake off during the day. I’ll keep you posted with my findings.

If you have any suggestions for me, please leave a comment below to help steer me in the right direction. ( 🙂 )

Mrs. Meyers – Aromatherapy for your house

April 13, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

Mrs. Meyer’s Geranium Counter Spray

I love having a fresh smelling house, but I do not enjoy scents that are more like perfume rather than a natural scent like a fresh ocean breeze, for example.

Well, I have finally found the best cleaning product line with the best scents around. Mrs. Meyers Cleaning products are wonderfully fresh and natural and truly make wiping down my kitchen counter a delight. 🙂

My First Discovery of Mrs. Meyer’s Cleaning products

My family and I were at a dinner party at a friend’s house and we noticed a fresh scent in the air that really was like no other. It was not filled with chemicals, it was natural and it seemed to pervade throughout the whole house. The scent was from the geranium soap that was in the bathrooms and kitchen.

I remember that the next day, I went to my local ACE hardware store and purchased the geranium soap and kitchen counter spray, and the rest is history. I simply cannot go back to traditional stinky cleaners.

Different Scents to try

Currently, my favorite scents in the line are geranium and apple. I started out with the counter spray in geranium and used it for at least a year, until my local store decided to not carry that scent anymore. I tried basil, another fresh scent in their aromatherapy line. The basil is nice, but, in my opinion, not as great as geranium. Still, it is very refreshing. There’s just something about that geranium…..

After the basil, I tried the lavender which is nice as well, but I think better for the bathrooms than the kitchen. My kitchen is in the center of my house, so when I started using these aromatherapy cleaners, I focused on my kitchen spray first. The smell seems to permeate throughout the whole house. For my kitchen, I enjoy the geranium, basil and apple.

My 10 year old daughter loves the apple scented pump soap in her bathroom. When we ran out last week, she put the empty bottle in my purse to remind me this was a priority purchase for the day. 🙂 When you walk into the kids bathroom, it smells like an apple orchard. Very natural and fresh. Love the Apple!

In a nutshell, we are currently using geranium and apple for both the kitchen and the bathrooms and love it.

How Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Products Began

It is not really a surprise that these wonderful products were inspired by a Mom. This Mom, Thelma Meyer, is an Iowa Mom of nine children!

One of Thelma’s daughters, Monica, was walking down the cleaning aisle at a grocery store and she noticed that the products were all filled with foul smelling chemicals. The harsh chemicals in a home with young children is rather startling to a young mother, when you consider that the scene could be so much different. It occurred to Monica that she could create tough cleaners that smelled like fresh botanicals and herbs, instead of chemicals. She wanted to name her creations after her Mom, Mrs. Meyer, to honor her old fashioned values. You see, these cleaners are honest and straight forward goodness from nature that is tough on dirt as well.

Thelma wishes she had access to these cleaners when she was raising nine children. She says that having an aromatherapy experience every day while you are cleaning is a dream come true and would have helped her greatly when raising her kids.

I know I am very thankful for Monica’s diligence in creating these products. My house smells like a botanical garden and apple orchard and I just LOVE it. In fact, my whole family loves it.

The Scent List

Below is a list of the current scents offered by Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Products. Looks like a still have quite a few to test out in my humble abode. Will report back to you when I’ve tried out some new ones. Honeysuckle sounds particularly interesting…..

Basil
Lavender
Lemon Verbana
Geranium
Rosemary
Blue Bell
Honeysuckle
Apple
Parsley
Rhubarb
Baby Blossom

Hope you enjoy these wonderful products as much as I do!

Friends with Kids is a Ridiculously Funny Movie

April 10, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

Friends with Kids

Finally, a movie that does not star Will Ferrell that made me laugh so hard I practically fell out of my chair!

This movie caught me by surprise, because I was not expecting anything. A few weeks ago, it was raining heavily and my Mom was taking me out to lunch for my birthday. Afterwards, she mentioned that her favorite movie reviewer on her local radio station was raving about “Friends with Kids”. Since it was raining and we were close to a movie theater, we purchased matinee tickets.

I went in expecting nothing, because I had not heard anyone talking about this supposedly fantastic movie. The low expectations might have contributed to my high praise of this movie, but I think it is much more than that. I can tell you that from two minutes into the movie, I was laughing and I really do not think that three minutes went by in the rest of the movie where I was not cracking up along with the rest of the theater.

The Movie Begins

The movie begins with a group of six friends (two couples and two singles) having dinner at a fancy New York restaurant. These six friends have been good friends for at least a decade with several of them having known each other since high school.

There are some kids crying at the table next to them and they all roll their eyes at the parents for bringing their young kids to such a nice restaurant. Within seconds, Maya Rudolph and Chris O’Dowd announce that they are having a baby, and the hilarity begins.

Four years after the dinner

After Maya and Chris announce their impending parenthood, the movie cuts to four years down the road where the main characters played by Jennifer Westfeldt (Jules) and Adam Scott (Jason) are visiting Maya and Chris’ family in Brooklyn to celebrate Jason’s birthday.

When Maya answers the door in complete disarray with screaming kids behind her, the complete hilarity of this scene begins and symbolizes how things have changed in a BIG way from four years earlier.

Anyone who has had kids in the past decade, especially, will be cracking up at this scene just due to the fact that a lot of the events hit a bit too close to home. 🙂

Jon Hamm (who I love from Mad Men) and Kristen Wiig play a couple who have a two year old at this point and are not happy.

In a nutshell, Maya and Chris play the solid couple, Jon and Kristen play the unstable, unhappy couple and Adam and Jennifer play the best friends who realize they might actually really love each other.

Adam and Jennifer after much hilarious discussion, decide to have a child together and maintain a 50%/50% custody arrangement. As you can imagine, it does not play out as nip and tidy as they had planned when they devised this plan.

So many subtle moments

This is one of those movies that you go home afterwards and keep thinking of all of the individual moments throughout the movie that made you laugh very, very hard.

One of the moments that comes to mind is when Maya Rudolph pushes Jennifer Westfeldt into Ed Burns at a parent night at her kid’s school. Ed Burns is recently divorced and a great catch, so being the good friend that Maya is, she literally shoves Jennifer into Ed and pretends to have “lost her footing”. Really hilarious and something many of us would do for our good friends.

There are also serious moments filled with reflection and “aha” moments that help to make this movie a well rounded piece.

Seen the movie three times

Ten minutes into seeing this movie, I was already thinking that I just had to see this movie with my husband. I was also thinking what a fun movie it would be for a girls night out with other Moms.

So, the following week, I organized a group of 5 Moms to go see this movie and everyone was in hysterics. One of my friends had a kleenex in both hands, wiping tears from her eyes most of the movie from laughing too hard. Yes, it is that good.

It was also funny to see the audience that arrived that night. It was other groups of Moms and Moms with their daughters. So, I could see that people were finding out about the movie, but I still don’t think enough people know about it, which is why I really felt the need to share on my blog.

Then, two days later, I took my husband, who found it equally as funny, but in typical guy mode, thought the ending was unrealistic. Who cares? Its a feel good movie and I always want the perfect ending, so I was happy. 🙂

Our Disneyland Trip 2012

April 9, 2012 by Mom on the Make 2 Comments

Disney Castle and Characters

We were two weeks away from our kid’s spring break week. The thought of no school for a whole week with no plans was not an uplifting feeling ( 🙂 ), so my husband and I decided to plan a getaway.

Our kids are finally ALL at a good age for Disney, so we decided to look into a Disneyland (Anaheim) trip. We had not been there in two years and it seemed like a good time to visit again.

We decided to visit our AAA office and find out the details about booking a Disneyland package for our family of five. We have three kids under the age of 11, so we have some very particular needs. These needs included, to name a few, a three day hopper pass to both parks (Disneyland and California Adventure), a hotel with suites, early entry to the park, and an affordable price.

We were pleasantly surprised to book a reasonably priced package ($1700) that included three nights at the Embassy Suites (a mile away from the park) and five 3 day hopper passes. I really believe in the multi day passes when you have young kids. It completely takes the pressure off having to hit all of the rides and shows in a short time frame. The kids were excited when AAA handed us our Disney envelope a week later that included cute luggage tags with Maeder from the The Cars movie on them. 🙂 Disneyland is opening its Cars ride this summer, so there is major promotion of the Cars characters going on right now with all of the Disney knick knacks.

Our Three Days at Disneyland and California Adventure

We were visiting the park from Tuesday to Thursday. We drove down to Anaheim early Tuesday morning and checked into our hotel. Everybody was anxious to get to the park, so we immediately headed to the Donald/Goofy parking lot to leave our car for the day. One aspect of the AAA package that is nice is free parking at any of the Disneyland lots all day every day during your stay. This is a huge savings in itself as it costs $15 to park your car in one of these lots for the day.

The good part about visiting Disneyland during a more popular time is that the shuttle buses are running constantly. A shuttle bus was there for us within moments of parking our car.

So, the talk on the shuttle was, of course, “which ride should we hit first?” It was decided to check out Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland first for my four year old son. He could not wait and we were all excited to see his reaction to meeting Buzz in person. Luckily, my husband had found a very helpful app, MouseWait, for our iphones that will tell you how long the wait is for each ride. Buzz appeared to only be 10 minutes, so we went for it.

While we were in line, my husband grabbed fast passes for Autopia. This strategy works really well – stand

Autopia and the Matterhorn

in line with your family for a ride, while one member of your family runs off to grab a fast pass for another ride. This simple strategy worked really well for us and saved us hours of time.

Buzz Lightyear was a great way to start the day as everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. My husband loves video games, so any ride that includes the video game aspect of shooting for a target and earning points is always a big hit with him.

Immediately afterwards, we headed to Autopia and waited maybe 10 minutes due to our fast passes. Without them, it would have been at least a 40 minute wait.

Autopia was again, a huge hit, so we were off to a great start!

Our Disneyland Schedule of Rides

Disney’s Goofy

I thought it would be fun to document the order of rides and attractions that we visited while at Disney. I love hearing what other families visit while at the park. There are so many awesome attractions, its neat to see what other families consider to be important.

I documented this list as we went through Disney on my Evernote app:

Tuesday

Entered Disneyland at 1pm

1. Buzz Lightyear

2. Autopia

3. Jedi Show

4. Disneyland Train to New Orleans Square from Tomorrowland

5. Cafe Orleans for lunch – the Monte Cristo is to die for! Highly recommend.

6. Haunted Mansion

7. Winnie the Pooh

8. Tarzan’s Treehouse

9. Jungle Cruise

10. Its a Small World

11. Wilderness Park at California Adventure

Left California Adventure at 9pm

Wednesday

Entered CA Adventure at 10am

1. Soaring California

2. Grizzly rapids

3. Toy story

4. Goofy flight school

5. Soft ice cream cones at Paradise Pier

6. Kebab lunch and Greek salad at Paradise Pier

7. Bugs life- bumper cars

8. Ariel underwater adventure

9. California screaming

10. Wilderness play area

11. Heimlichs search for food ride

12. Jazz cafe for Dinner at Downtown Disney- highly recommend the Drunken Chicken dish and the cheesy bread!

Went Back to Hotel at 8pm

Thursday

Early Entry to Disneyland at 7:15am

1. Mr toad

2. Pinocchio

3. Dumbo

4. Nemo Submarine Cruise

5. Autopia

6. Haunted mansion twice

7. Winnie the pooh

8. Casey jr

9. Storybook cruise

10. Roger Rabbit car ride at Toontown

11. Disneyland train to new Orleans square

12. Canoe Ride – really funny captain on our canoe!

13. Lunch at River Belle Terrace with Jazz Band playing lovely tunes for us

14. Golden horseshoe revue with billy and the hillbillies- root beer float and sundaes

15. Disneyland Main Street Parade

16. Autopia

17. Fantasmic at 9pm and Fireworks at 9:30

18. Alice and wonderland at 11pm

Left Park at 11:15 (Yes, it was a 16 hour day)

Disneyland was easier for us this time

So, I noticed two things on this trip to Disney including how much easier it is without a stroller and how apps make our lives so much easier.

1. First time without a stroller – YAY!! My husband and I felt so unencumbered, it was amazing. For the last ten years, we had a stroller at Disney – not anymore! Freedom! Our littlest is four years old and way past the stroller stage. Although, my husband did have to carry our little guy a bit. 🙂 Disney can be tiring and an afternoon nap is almost always going to happen with a four year old. The naps took place on my husband’s shoulder.

2. Apps are wonderful – Our Mousewait app and my Evernote app really helped cut down on our wait times and helped to keep us organized.

I used my Evernote app on my iphone, making it so easy to keep track of everything. If you have not tried Evernote yet, drop everything and download this free app. It seriously rocks. Whenever I need to jot down a reminder, or a note for one of my blogs, or just a random idea, I put the information on a note in Evernote. My Evernote then synchs with the Evernote app on my laptop at home as well as my desktop at home. I seriously do not know how I functioned without this app and its FREE!! Highly recommend.

Also, while in line, my iphone helped keep me and my kids entertained and the time flew by.

The walking around Disney without a stroller did not occur to my husband and I until we were in the park for several hours and we noticed hundreds of strollers parked everywhere, and we felt surprisingly not tired and in good spirits and it hit us like a ton of bricks. We do not have a stroller with us – wow. I don’t mean to rub this in, but rather to let Moms know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Your baby gear will diminish eventually and you will feel lighter and have more energy soon. I promise. 🙂

Highlights

We really enjoyed our three day visit to Disney. Several rides and shows stood out for us including the following:

Rides:

1. Buzz Lightyear

2. Autopia

3. Haunted Mansion

4. Canoes

5. California Screaming (awesome roller coaster!)

6. Lunch at Cafe Orleans – the Monte Cristo Sandwich is a must have

7. Wilderness Play area at California Adventure – the zip line in particular

8. Riding Alice in Wonderland for our last ride at 11:00pm with smiles on every family member’s face ( 🙂 )

Suggestions

1. Go for the two or three day hopper for a more relaxing visit

2. Use the Mousewait app to schedule when to visit rides

3. Use Fast Passes as much as possible

4. AAA has really great vacation packages to take advantage of, so looking into them would be smart

Conclusion

Disneyland is just so much fun and a perfect family vacation.

From this trip, I learned that the age of four is when kids really start to get it (the magic of Disneyland) and they thoroughly enjoy every aspect of this very special getaway. 🙂

Mom on the Make

Finding fun amidst the chaos of Motherhood