A Mom Blog

CARS 3 Free Activity Sheets and New “Rivalry” Trailer

May 10, 2017 By: Nanette

Excited for CARS 3? Let’s just get you a little more excited shall we? I’ve got the latest trailer ready for you to view and some CARS 3 Free Activity Sheets! We saw a clip at the CARS 3 Road to the Races Tour when it came to town and it just made us even more excited than we already were.

Here’s the latest Cars 3 “Rivalry” official trailer for you! After you watch the video you can read on and find those free CARS 3 activity sheets.

CARS 3 Activity Sheets

Here are those CARS 3 Activity Sheets I promised you. Click on the image to download and print.

Have fun and don’t forget to:

Like CARS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PixarCars/

Follow CARS 3 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixarcars

Follow CARS 3 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pixarcars/

Subscribe to the Disney/Pixar YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyPixar

Visit the official CARS 3 website here: http://movies.disney.com/cars-3

See CARS 3 in theaters June 16th!

Take Time for You Without the Mommy Guilt

May 10, 2017 By: Nanette

Recently I attended the Disney on the Road Houston event. It was of course magical! The speakers were fantastic as expected. I saw so many blogging friends I hadn’t seen in years. It was great to reconnect and to meet new friends. Events like that are so much fun, but they are more than just fun, they are educational and inspiring.

Most of the event was educational and believe me when I say I learned a lot! So much information about blogging, planning, social media and how to use it to benefit not just our blogs but our lives as well. I guess I just never realized how “planning” things out or rather a lack of it can really impact your days, your life, your health. But one speaker spoke right to us moms, not all in attendance were moms but this one speech was directed right at us. In fact, I felt like she was talking right to me.

Mommy Balance

Andrea Minski of mujerbalance.com shared her thoughts on balancing life as a working mom. She shared how she balances work and family life. She is one very busy mom, blogger and television personality. I struggle just to fill the mom and blogger shoes. I couldn’t imagine taking on a time-consuming profession like being on T.V. and how that would affect your schedule and family life.

But one of the things she said really stuck with me. She said, “Try to find time for yourself and don’t feel guilty about it.” Oh, my gosh, how many of us moms suffer from mommy guilt? We don’t go shopping ’cause we feel guilty, the kids need this or that instead. We don’t take a night out or a weekend trip away because we convince ourselves that that is selfish and we should take our kids and husbands with us. We don’t take time to do something we enjoy because well the kids need that time or the housework needs to be done or some other excuse we come up with. We shove this huge mommy guilt trip on ourselves and don’t do anything for ourselves.

Stop the mommy guilt!

It’s ok to take a night out with friends or heck even stay home and send hubby and the kids out for an hour or so so you can sit in a bubble bath and read a book uninterrupted. When was the last time you did that?

Was there something you used to love but don’t do anymore? A hobby, a craft? When was the last time you gave yourself permission to take some time and work on those things?

Maybe you feel out of shape and frumpy, I know I do some days but what do we do? We tell ourselves we don’t have time, we don’t make time to take care of us. We have to take care of ourselves not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. We can all make time to make ourselves feel better.

Benefits of letting go of mommy guilt

Yes, there are benefits to letting go of this mommy guilt. Benefits not just for ourselves but for our families. They just don’t realize it yet.

Refresh and Recharge Yourself

We all need a recharge now and then. I don’t care who you are every once in a while you need to stop and recharge yourself. If you give yourself some time to do something you love without feeling guilty about it you’ll get that recharge you need. A recharged refreshed mom is a happier mom. A happy and refreshed mom is a good mom and wife.

Give the kids a break

Yes, taking a break for you gives your kids a break too. They may not see it as that but it is. I homeschool my son. He is with me 24/7/365 a year. I love him to the ends of the earth and would keep him by my side forever if I could. But I know there are times when he needs a break from me. It recharges us both and we come back together renewed and ready to get to work.

Gives Dad Bonding Time

I don’t know about you but I am really bad about letting go of control when it comes to our routines and house rules, you know, like no candy, school work needs done before XXX or bedtime time. So it’s good when the kids get to stay with Dad while mom is out of town or away for an hour or two. It gives them a chance to bond with Dad without mom around. And that’s a good thing, actually, it’s a great thing.

I’m sharing this with you because I never thought I needed a break. In fact, I don’t think I gave myself even the smallest amount of time to recharge until my kids hit their pre-teen years. But once I did, I can’t even tell you how refreshed and recharged and ready to take on the world I felt. I want you to feel that too.

You need to feel that recharge feeling. Even if all you take is a little time everyone once in a while and you do it WITHOUT feeling guilty, you’ll feel a whole lot better.

Flowers #PhotographyChallenge

April 30, 2017 By: Nanette

Flowers, that’s the challenge. Ok, so how do you make flowers any more beautiful than they naturally are? I love flowers, who doesn’t but how do you to take a typical garden flower and make it look like something more?

There are these really pretty and unique looking pink flowers climbing over my backyard fence and in the morning they are just shimmering with dew drops as the sun shines on them. So I thought ok, these are the flowers I’m going to take photographs of for this challenge.

That meant getting the step ladder, trying not to fall off of it while trying to get the shots I want without blocking the direct sunlight or I’d lose the shine off the morning dew. All this while standing on a ladder on wet soggy grass. The things we do for the perfect shot.

Well not exactly. I took photo after photo hoping that one of them would at least be good enough to use. Let’s just say I’m glad I took so many. That’s the great thing about digital photography, you can take a million shots to get one good one. Much cheaper than film. Do any of you even remember film? Ooops, showing my age. It’s ok I love film. I admit it.

So I’ve got my shots and go inside and upload them so I can take a better look. Umm, ok I don’t love any of them. I just couldn’t capture what my eyes saw. But there are some I think I can work with. This is probably one of my favorites though it’s not as nice as I’d like. The best of what I had I guess.

Hmm? It’s ok looking but it just doesn’t have that, oh I’m not even sure how to describe it, feel to it. What to do, what to do?

Is black and white an option?

I love black and white. I always have and I say it a lot. Trust me. But do I risk it and change the colors? Changing it to black and white is really going to change the feel of the photo which is bright and friendly right now. There’s only one way to find out if it’s going to work or not so let’s do it and see what we come up with. I’ve cropped it in a bit for a tighter shot and turned it black and white.

I’m torn. What do you think? I like the black and white one because you can see the dew drops better but I like the pink in the color photo. Asking your opinion now? Which one should I post as my Flower Photography Challenge photo? Maybe I should just start this challenge again? Practice is always a good thing.