Oh The Places You'll Go... An amazing tribute to your child's education!

"I graduated High School this week. When my dad said he had a present for me I thought I was getting some cheesy graduation card. But what I received was something truly priceless. Following the ceremony he handed me a bag with a copy of "Oh The Places You'll Go" by Doctor Seuss inside. At first I just smiled and said that it meant a lot and that I loved that book. But then he told me, 'No, open it up.'

On the first page I see a short paragraph written by none other than my kindergarten teacher. I start tearing up but I'm still confused. He tells me, 'Every year, for the past 13 years, since the day you started kindergarten I've gotten every teacher, coach and principal to write a little something about you inside this book.'

"My early teachers mention my "pigtails and giggles" while my high school teachers mention my "wit and sharp thinking." But they all mention my humor and love for life. It is astounding to receive something this moving, touching nostalgic and thoughtful."

I found this post on Facebook and I have to say that this is such a great idea! Half of my kids are already in school, but I am going to start it right now for all of them. There are so many teachers and leaders in life that can make a huge difference in a child's life and to have something like this to look back on would be a great treasure!

Facebook post found here... Love What Matters

7 Tips To Organize Your Home Using the KonMari Method

I want to share with you a book that has absolutely changed my life. It’s called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way To Banish Clutter Forever by Marie Kondo, the creator of the KonMari Method. As the title says, this is a very simple (though not easy) way to get to the root of your clutter problem and help you to resolve it once and for all: If you don’t love it, don’t keep it!

Piles of stuff in our homes are one of the greatest stress triggers. Clutter literally increases your cortisol level! When we have a lot of clutter in our homes, it has the affect of distracting us and can even cause chronic restlessness. When you reduce the noise of the things around you, you can focus on creating your life.

For most of us, clutter accumulates over time. We don’t notice how much stuff we are accumulating until we hit a breaking point. Sometimes it’s a major life event — such as a move, death, marriage or divorce, or even changing jobs – that forces us to declutter so that we can move on free from the weight of objects that have outlived their usefulness to us.

What Does Your Clutter Symbolize?

Everyone’s tolerance for clutter is different. But, like imagery in dreams, there is a psychology to clutter. Where your clutter is located in your home says a lot about you. Here are some examples of what cluttered rooms may mean in your life:

• Living and Dining Rooms: These are your main entertaining rooms. Clutter here may mean you are hiding your true self from the world
• Kitchen: The kitchen is often where we dump everything from our daily lives — mail, electronics on chargers, from purses and school bags to dog bowls, vitamins and many other items from our daily lives. All of this clutter in the kitchen can make it difficult to truly nourish yourself and your family
• Hallways: These are the connectors between rooms and represent your ability to flow. Cluttered hallways may mean your life’s path is not clearly defined or thought out
• Bedroom: Clutter in your boudoir may make you feel “wired and tired” and may inhibit intimacy with your partner
• Bathroom: The bathroom is where we pamper ourselves and prepare to face the world. Think about all the products under your sink that you never use. Clutter in this room may mean you lack self worth
• Closets: Closets represent that which is hidden from view. If we stuff our closets we block our ability to use our insight and intuition to “see into” ourselves and situations
• Attic: Attics are typically where we squirrel stuff away that we no longer use or are “saving” for someone or a future event. These things are potentially the most complicated. Attics symbolize our connection to the past and families or ancestors, and also to our higher selves. When you fill your attic with unwanted items, you literally have “stuff hanging over your head” that can make it difficult to resolve issues from your past and grow
• Basement: Like attics, we often look to basements for storage of unwanted or unused items. As in dreams, basements represent the subconscious mind. A cluttered basement can blunt your intuition
• Garage: Cars represent our independence and ability to get around. If there is so much clutter in your garage that you can’t get your car in and out easily, you may feel difficulty moving forward in life

Read the full article here... 7 Tips To Organize Your Home Using the KonMari Method

What We Know About Diastasis Recti in 2015

If you are like me and you had no idea that this was something that can happen when you are pregnant, and you have suffered physically and emotionally for years because people are constantly asking you how far along you are or when you are due, then you will enjoy reading this article.

Diastasis Recti is a Real Problem!



What is Diastasis Recti?
Diastasis recti (also known as abdominal muscle separation) is when the left and right sides of the abdominal muscles are separated. This is commonly seen in pregnant and postpartum women, but can also be found in children and other adults. For our purposes, we’re going to discuss diastasis recti in pre and postnatal women.
In a pre-pregnancy body (assuming it’s a healthy, functioning body), the abdominal muscles are usually held closely together by connective tissue (linea alba), which runs down the midline of the body from sternum to pubic bone. In the case of diastasis recti, the linea alba has become stretched and lax so the abdominal muscles are no longer being held tightly together. You can feel this when you do a diastasis recti self-check. The connective tissue along your abdominal wall will feel weak and squishy when you press on it and you’ll be able to measure the distance between the left and right sides of your abdominal muscles.


Diastasis Recti is Not About Your Abs
Say what?

All this talk about abdominal muscle separation, yet diastasis recti doesn’t have much to do with your abdominal muscles at all! Diastasis recti is about the connective tissue, and it’s loss of tension and ability to transfer loads. We use the abdominal muscles as a measuring tool to check the width of the connective tissue. This distance is called the inter-recti distance (IRD).
We used to think that you had to close the gap between the abdominal muscles to heal a diastasis. Today we know that the space between your abdominal muscles is less important than the quality of the connective tissue. We now consider a diastasis recti healed when the connective tissue can generate tension, with or without a space present. Some postpartum women may always have a small space between her abdominal muscles but as long as she has healthy connective tissue it will not affect her health or function (or ability to achieve a flat stomach for that matter!).
Takeaway Notes: it’s not about the size of the space between your abs, it’s about the quality of the connective tissue!
Why Do Women Develop Diastasis Recti?
Read the full article here... Your Diastasis Recti Questions Answered

RASPBERRY ZINGER CAKE

If you love the popular snack cake, you’ll love this Raspberry Zinger Cake!! Sturdy yellow sponge cake is coated in raspberry and coconut and filled with marshmallow frosting.

Please tell me I’m not the only grown person obsessed with snack cakes.

Someone really needs to make a perfume that smells like the bread and snack cake aisle at the grocery store.  It’s seriously my favorite.  Sugar, carbs, does it even get better?

Sometimes I hide the good Twinkies and save the Little Debbies for the kids.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Little Debbies, but we all know they’re B Tier.

You know you have a junk food problem when you’ve invented a snack cake hierarchy. The bad things about snack cakes is that they’re not really acceptable for parties.  If you show up with a box of Twinkies or Zingers, it’s honestly a little tacky.  People will still eat them, and stick them in their coat pocket for later, but no one wants to be seen eating the packaged stuff when there are homemade treats all around.

Soooo…I’ve kind of found a loophole.

Read the rest of the article here... RASPBERRY ZINGER CAKE

Spring to Summer Wreath

This has to be one of my favorite Spring wreath of all time. Ann from On Sutton Place made the easiest and cutest tutorial on how to make one yourself! The first thing she did was cut apart the bushes of flowers. Just fan them out and use wire cutters to cut the stems off as close to the end as possible. You want single stems that can be easily inserted into the grapevine.

Read the rest of the tutorial here.... Spring to Summer Wreath

Spring Printable!

I thought that I would whip up this cute little printable for spring. You can get it for free here!

Thyroid Patients: 7 Keys to Successfully Restoring and Revitalizing Your Health

The day I stumbled upon New York Times bestselling author Mary Shomon’s book Living Well with Hypothyroidism: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You…That You Need to Know changed my life.

Written by Mary Shomon, About.com’s Thyroid Disease Guide

When it comes to having a thyroid condition, it’s easy to focus on the obvious details like blood tests, lab results and medications. But after two decades as a thyroid patient advocate — and as a thyroid patient myself all these years — I have realized that finding the right medication for you at the right dose is just one part of the complete picture of health and wellness. In the past twenty years as a thyroid patient and advocate, I got pregnant and had a daughter (who is now 18…let’s talk about time flying!) (I know many of you can relate!) At one point, I lost so much hair I had a ponytail the thickness of a pencil. (How many ways can you wear your hair in a scrunchie?) I suffered a miscarriage, but went on to adopt my son, who is now a thriving 11 year old. I rode the roller coaster of perimenopause, and went through menopause — and found it surprisingly easy with the help of some surprising things I learned along the way.

In the end, I have learned a great deal, through trial and error, and by trusting some truly inspiring wellness experts, a group of people I now consider my personal guiding stars of wellness. Thanks to their wisdom and support, I have discovered seven keys to successfully restoring and revitalizing my health. Each of these keys is absolutely crucial to not only my thyroid health and management of symptoms, but to the bigger picture: my overall energy, attitude, peace of mind, and happiness! I didn’t learn about them all at once when I was first diagnosed — it’s been a long and winding road at times. But hopefully, wherever you are on your thyroid journey — whether you are newly diagnosed, or a veteran patient — you may find that many of the things that have worked for me can help you fast-forward on your own road to optimal health!

Read the rest of the article here.... Thyroid Patients: 7 Keys to Successfully Restoring and Revitalizing Your Health