Mompreneur Next Door

I was recently traveling alone with my three kids, and since they're tween/teens, this does not seem like such a Herculean effort as it did a few years ago. As we were exiting the shuttle from the rental car place to the airport, a guy looked at me and said "Hey, Mom! Has anyone told you lately you're doing a great job?" My face lit up, I felt a huge glow inside and thanked him profusely. He may as well have told me I had won the lottery.😁 This got me to thinking, why was this such a big deal? Probably for the one truth that most moms I know live. We think we suck at this parenting thing every single day. We beat ourselves up for every little thing. We read social media and play the compare game. We are not enough insert whatever crapola thing comes to our mind or is hot in the media at any given moment. And here's what the truth looks like. Most of us are doing a pretty amazing job. Our kids are loved, fed, clothed and housed. They feel secure enough to ha...

Sugar and tech time does not make you a bad mom! Gasp! My younger-soon-to-be-mom-self would have been shocked that I was writing this and likely would have thought, "Well maybe for you, but I'm going to follow the guidelines." Remember when you felt the same way?😜 For those of you who are working hard to be an amazing mom but may need self care once in a while (read - all of you), I'm sharing a great gift with you today - perspective. My eldest is now almost 17, so I have plenty of it! Max when he was 2 - happy as can be. When Max, my first son was born, I was working full time and followed the books' and doctor's recommendations as closely as humanly possible. I'm a first born, a rule follower, and type A. I followed the rules of no bottle feeding until six weeks (what a nightmare when I needed to give Max a bottle), no solids until whatever time frame it was then (I was exhausted and Max was hungry), feeding on demand (see prior parenthesis), and...

Since I have become a Mompreneur, I also have become a dog mom. Princess Terra, as I lovingly call our dog, has taught me more than I ever could have imagined - as a business owner, mom, wife and friend. Me and Princess Terra! In all transparency, I never wanted a dog - I didn’t grow up with a pet (unless you count the snail I had for a few weeks), so I just didn't get it. When my husband, John, started sprinkling how great it would be to have a dog in our nightly dinner conversations, I was so against it. My thought - smells, responsibility, poop, and I had enough of that with our kids. Plus, I remember being chased by a black dog when I was younger and was frightened of dogs in general. Fast forward to a couple of years ago, a family trip to the SPCA, and Princess Terra is part of our family and my heart. I love her, I get you pet people, and I now realize that dog chasing me probably wanted to play. And Terra has taught me so much! The following three are certainly no...