Stuff Parents Need - Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

5 Minute Workout: Quick Toning Bursts for New Moms

October 7, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

I hope you enjoy today’s guest post from Samantha Clayton,Senior Director of Fitness Education at Herbalife. I’m about to do my 5 minute workout right now! 🙂

If you are busy but want to squeeze a few toning and strengthening moves into your day at home, aim to perform the following exercises when you have time. The best results come when you are dedicated to eating a nutrient dense diet combined with performing a minimum of 30 minutes of activity on 5 days of the week. You can accumulate your 30 minutes with quick 5 minute routines.

1.) Bent Over Row – This Exercise is for your mid back and shoulders.

How To: Get into the starting position by keeping your back straight and slight athletic bend at the knees. Let the dumbbells slide down your thighs until they’re just below knee height. Execute by pulling the dumbbells up under your chest as far as possible. Pause, and then slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.

Repeat for 10-12 reps.

Tips: Like all bent over rowing exercises, you must keep your back straight throughout the whole set. Keep your head up and eyes facing forward. Squeeze your back and hold the weight for a count of 1-2 at the contracted position.

2.) Bicep Curls – For your biceps and triceps muscles

How To: Your feet can be together or at hip distance apart, hold the dumbbells by your side. Your palms should facing upwards. Take up the slack by bending the elbows slightly. Tension should be on the biceps, then slowly curl the dumbbells up as far as possible. Hold for a second then slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position. Repeat for 10-12 reps.

3.) Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch – Total body move: Works legs, butt, abs and arms

How To: Hold a dumbbell in one hand with your feet slightly wider than hip distance apart. Get into a squat position with the weight resting on the floor. Pull the dumbbell up toward the ceiling as you simultaneously extend your knees and hips into a standing position. Keep the weight as close to your body as you can and ensure you start the movement with your palm facing the body and end with the palm facing away. It takes a little practice to master this move but it is a great total body power strengthening exercise.

4.) Plank – Total body move especially the core

How To: Place the forearms on the ground with the elbows aligned below the shoulders, and arms parallel to the body at about shoulder-width distance. If flat palms bother your wrists, clasp your hands together. Hold for 30 seconds.

Socks By Mail? A Closer Look at Foot Cardigan Sock Subscription Service

October 6, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Complimentary socks provided for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

If I can get something delivered to me and avoid having to make a trip to the store, (ESPECIALLY if that store is actually the mall) then I’m game to give it a try.

If getting that something delivered regularly can help me solve a problem, even better!

Friends, meet my problem:

This is the contents of our “lonely sock” bag. We try to go through it at least twice a month to make matches. Ok, in truth we go through it at 7:50 am on school mornings when we are supposed to already be in the car but can’t get out the door because our kids are sock-less. Can anyone out there feel my pain? Why can’t socks seem to stick together? They are loners at heart, I suppose.

Enter a fun subscription service called Foot Cardigan. There are subscriptions available for men and women, but we chose to review the options for the kids, or as Foot Cardigan refers to them, Whippersnappers.

By signing up for a Foot Cardigan Whippersnappers subscription, you can get 2 random pairs of socks delivered to your door each month. You are seeing two example subscriptions above, one in size medium (for ages 6-9) and one in size small (for ages 3-6). The socks are random in their assortment, but rest assured that you don’t get 4 random individual socks! You get 2 pairs. 🙂

But of course that doesn’t mean that your little ones won’t want to wear them in a random fashion! 🙂 The socks were instant hits with my girls, and I was pleased with the fun patterns that were sent our way. A monthly subscription is $11 (plus $2 shipping) or if you spring for the year subscription, you get one month free.

For me, $13 is a bit steep for 2 pairs of socks, cute though they may be. To be fair, this is in line with the prices I have seen at places like Gymboree that also offer super cute socks. And you don’t have to brave the mall to get them.

I think Foot Cardigan is a super cute gift idea for the young fashion hound or fashionista on your shopping list. I have noticed that kids in my oldest daughter’s class seem to care quite a bit about how original their socks are, so if your kid feels similarly, then this is a great way to get some great styles that classmates probably won’t have.

For more detailed information about Foot Cardigan subscriptions, click here.

On the Importance of Daily Ritual: A Peek at My Afternoon Coffee Break

October 6, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by General Mills through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Fiber One’s® Brownies & Bars, all opinions are my own.

Friends, today I want to give you a peek into a very special part of my day. I would even go so far as to call it sacred. Every afternoon, right around 1pm, I claim 20 minutes as my own, and I use that time to treat myself, to be quiet, and to recharge. I want to show you exactly how I manage to make that happen every single day, even though I have a rambunctious 3-year-old (who no longer naps!) home with me in the afternoons.

When my youngest gave up her afternoon nap, I was borderline horrified. I had come to count on that 45 minute stretch of time every afternoon to get some work done. What I realized after losing that chunk of time, was that the time it gave me to work wasn’t even the most important thing: it was the time it gave me to recharge that I so desperately needed.

So I took a note from marketing professionals, and rather than do away with the now-unpopular naptime, I re-branded it. Yes, indeed, I conducted an intense marketing campaign with my children to turn the time into something new: quiet time!

Just as my children had to compromise and agree to spend a portion of time quietly playing in their rooms by themselves, I also had to compromise. I reduced the amount of time down to 20 minutes, which is what I discovered through trial and error that I really needed in order to get through the rest of the day without being grumpy.

Now every afternoon (yes, even on weekends if we aren’t out and about!), I set this precious timer. My children are well trained to know when it has gone off and not to come out of their rooms until they hear that ding.

I have even learned to put all of my afternoon coffee break items in a basket. This helps me make the most out of my 20 minutes and not spend the time searching the house for the book I want to read, or searching the pantry for the right snack. It also is a powerful visual demonstration of the importance of this quiet time for mommy. I have dedicated intentional space in our (small) home to the items that help me recharge. By doing so, I am giving this ritual importance and a bit of reverence.

In my basket, I keep coffee beans and a coffee grinder. Only my afternoon coffee gets this royal treatment, as I’m just too tired in the morning to grind coffee (and I also don’t want to wake anyone!). But freshly ground coffee is THE BEST! I also keep a clean mug and a reusable straw, as well as the book I’m currently reading (right now it’s SherylSandburg’s Lean In). My timer is in the basket, and last but not least, my special snacks. These are off limits to little hands and are exclusively reserved for mama’s afternoon quiet time.

My favorite snack to keep in my basket is from Fiber One®. I have previously told you all about their amazing cheesecake bars, which I HIGHLY recommend, but I also want to show you their strawberry streusel bar.

This, my friends, is where it’s at. Such an incredible, delicious treat, just waiting for me every afternoon. A Fiber One® streusel bar is a little pick me up that feel completely indulgent but that is also quite sensible. It’s the perfect choice for me during my special quiet time.

In the midst of the work I am called to do for my business, for my family and for my home, it is SO critical that I take a slice of time during the day just for me. I firmly believe that I am a better version after myself when I practice self-care.

I hope you have a daily ritual of some sort that brings happiness back into focus for you. If not, give my 1pm coffee break ritual a try and see what you think!

Six Flags Over Georgia Fright Fest (with Small Children)

October 6, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Complimentary tickets to Fright Fest provided by Six Flags Over Georgia. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably noticed over the weekend that my family was enjoying a trip to Six Flags Over Georgia (SFOG). October may seem like a strange time of year to visit a place well known for its summer fun, but SFOG has a lot to offer over the holidays, including Fright Fest, happening every weekend through the end of the month.

I will be the first to tell you that I do NOT like to be scared. You couldn’t pay me enough to go to a haunted house, much less to walk about an entire theme park where folks can jump out and scare me at any given moment. If you are the type of person who loves that type of thing, though, the night time activities at SFOG are right for you. The haunts come out at 6pm and will absolutely terrorize you!

We left the park at 5:55pm, no joke. We soaked up every second of fun that we could right until the mood was about to turn ghoulish. And I saw plenty of families with younger kids who planned to stay in the park once things took on a decidedly scary vibe. SFOG actually offers special “ghoul be gone” rings to any child who wants the spooky characters to leave him or her alone, and I have been told that they are trained to do exactly that, and even run away from the sight of those rings. So if you have a little one who thinks getting frightened is cool, but who at the same time is still just a kid and might get a bit too frightened, the complimentary rings are the way to go. six flags over georgia fright fest 1

But during the day at Fright Fest, there is so much fun to be had and the thrills are much more gentle. We enjoyed complimentary pumpkin painting, as well as checking out all the great decorations all over the partk (some were super scary, and some were just a little spooky!).

In the Looney Toons section of the park, which is designed just for the kids, we found different characters handing out candy! SCORE!!! Kids are actually encouraged to wear their costumes to the park, but we had to forgo that option since it was really rainy the day we visited.

We also discovered story time happening in this part of the park. New spooky stories were shared every hour by a really great story teller. It was a very simple concept, but it was one of my girls’ very favorite things all day long! We actually attended story time twice per their request.

The other thing I noticed about visiting the park during the fall, ESPECIALLY on a rainy day, was the low crowds. We did not encounter a wait line all day long (though keep in mind my family wasn’t riding any roller coasters…I did see lines there, though they were very short!). Can I just tell you how much fun it is to visit a theme park and to just hop right on any ride you choose? It was AWESOME!!!

So low crowds, lots of thrills and lots of fun await folks who head to Six Flags Over Georgia for Fright Fest. My family had a ton of fun, and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend it to others!

Six Flags Over Georgia is open for Fright Fest Friday nights, as well as all day and into the night on Saturdays and Sundays. Detailed information about park hours and ticket prices can be found here.

Flaky Crust Butternut Squash Pot Pie (Just 6 Ingredients!)

October 5, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

When I find a particular food (especially veggies) that my girls will both happily eat, I try to figure out as many ways as humanly possible to offer it to them. Today’s super yummy recipe is inspired by the fact that both of my girls seem to enjoy butternut squash, both love pot pies, and both love bacon (but then again, who doesn’t love bacon?!). And as the chef, I like to keep my ingredient list to a minimum, so you’ll only find 6 ingredients in this recipe for a Flaky Crust Butternut Squash Pot Pie. Six ingredients is crazy, because pot pies I’ve made before have easily had 15 ingredients in them. Nobody has time for that mess during the holiday season which has most definitely begun, like it or not!

Let’s put this awesome dish together so you can see how to make it for your crew. It’s absolutely perfect for some of those first chilly nights that are starting to happen all over the country.

Ingredients

2 small butternut squash
1 small container sliced mushrooms
1 package sliced bacon
1 large container Cream of Mushroom Soup (roughly 2 1/2 cups)
1 package Pillsbury Pie Crust
1 package Pillsbury Crescents

I found all the ingredients I needed all thanks to one stop at Walmart.

To begin, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line 2 baking trays with aluminum foil. Add your bacon to the 2 trays, and once the oven is preheated, pop the trays in the oven for 15-17 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel your butternut squash and cut into bite-size pieces. If you are wondering about quantity, mine totaled right around 6 cups once diced.

I chose to steam my cubed butternut squash on the stove top in two batches for 7 minutes per batch. You could also steam your squash in the microwave if you prefer.

While your squash is steaming, your bacon should be cooked. Once you are able to safely touch the slices, move them to a plate lined with paper towels to help remove excess grease.

As for the bacon grease on the trays, let’s use it to add some awesome flavor to the veggies! Pour it into a large saute pan and turn the burner on to medium heat.

Now it’s time to cut the mushrooms to your liking. I put heaping 2 cups worth of diced mushrooms into this recipe. Once your bacon greased is warmed up, add your mushrooms and let them cook for 1 minute before adding all of your steamed squash. Cook the two veggies together in the bacon grease for another 2 minutes.

While your veggies are cooking, chop up your bacon. I use a pair of kitchen shears to get them cut into small pieces fast.

Now it’s time to add the cream of mushroom soup and the bacon to your sauteed vegetables. Go ahead and turn off the heat on the stove but leave the pan on the eye after you’ve mixed everything together.

Give your deep dish pie pan (or your cake pan, which is what I used!) a quick spritz with cooking spray and add the Pillsbury pie crust. Pour the contents of your saute pan on top.

Now for the fun part! Open your Pillsbury Crescents and add them to the top, piece by piece. Remember, pot pies are meant to have a rustic look, so don’t stress out trying to make everything look perfect!

Put your pot pie on a lower rack of your oven an bake it at 375 for 15-20 minutes, depending on how brown you’d like for your crust to be. Once it is done allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

For my family, this recipe was a huge winner because it contained elements that everyone loved. My girls are notorious for asking for a completely different food item for their second helping at dinner (cereal, a pbj sandwich, etc.) so when they both asked for seconds of this pot pie, I knew I hit it out of the park!

I hope your family might really enjoy it, too! I also love that you can work on elements of the dish throughout the day if you are home, or you can even make some of it the night before or the morning of, depending on when you have the time. If you have your bacon and veggies already cooked and chopped and waiting for you in the fridge, then putting this meal together in the evening will go VERY quickly! 🙂

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. The opinions and text are all mine.

(Giveaway!) A Fun Fall Family Adventure Awaits in Gulf County, Florida

October 2, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

This post brought to you by Visit Gulf County. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Stuff Parents Need.

In May my family decided to take a risk and try out a new (to us) part of Florida for our summer vacation: Gulf County.

We loved it so much that we have plans to return every year. It’s now our go-to place for an amazing retreat and a fun way to get rejuvinated.

What I really love about Gulf County, Florida is the relaxed vibe and the focus on nature. You won’t find tower after tower of condos or a crowded beach strip full of souvenir shops. But you will find some really cool stuff there, especially as it relates to nature.

My oldest, for example, spent an entire day playing with a tiny little clam she named Clammo. She used her pails to build him a little ecosystem, and even gave him a teary-eyed goodbye when the sun was setting and it was time to return him to the wet sand.

Fall may not seem like the best time of year to head back to the beach, but I actually think it’s a glorious time of year there. And Gulf County has a few fun adventures that I think would be just perfect for the month of October.

If I could go back this month, I’d be sure to go for a kayak ride on the Dead Lakes. Just look at how amazing (and yeah, spooky!) they look, especially when the fog comes off the water in the early morning!

Another “gentle thrills” option would be to go shark fishing. Fish’N Xpress offers a 3 hour experience with all the logistics handled for you, including the equipment, bait and licenses. You can snare a tiger shark and get your photo taken with it before releasing it back into the water. Just imagine how your kids will love to tell the story of the time they caught a shark! 🙂

Finally, we’d head over to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park to see some wildlife. Deer, bobcats, squirrels, raccoons, Kingfishers, owls and otters call the park home and can be spotted by the watchful eye.

Take a moment to check out the Gulf County Adventure Guide to see what fun fall adventures might be right for your family, as I’ve barely scratched the surface with my ideas. There’s really something for everyone there, and I can tell you from experience that if relaxation is on your list, it doesn’t get any better than this place.

Giveaway!

From now through 10/25, ten winners each week will win a $50 Visa gift card! You can put it toward a family adventure in your own community, or save it for your next trip to Gulf County! Be sure to share this great giveaway with your friends to spread the love around (and to give yourself a little good karma!).

Talking #WithMalala about Secondary Education as a Right for All Girls

September 30, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

Last week I had one of the most awesome opportunities that has ever come my way as a blogger (and that’s saying something, becasue this job is one big adventure!). I got to spend half an hour on a conference with Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. She’s a bright and energetic 18-year-old girl who, 3 years ago, saw an injustice in her community and spoke out against it. She did a very hard thing, and she almost lost her life by standing up for what was right because the Taliban shot her in the head in the attempt to silence her forever. But she didn’t back down and she didn’t stop speaking out for the need for education to be a RIGHT, not a privelage, for every single child, no matter their gender, race or economic status.

Friends it was such a moving phone call! Malala is very clear about the fact that she is just one person, and she can only do so much, but that if others will join her, the collective power can topple over centuries-old institutions and traditions that exclude certain children and deny them opportunities to receive an education. She challenged us all to imagine for just a moment what this world would look like if every single child could receive k-12 education, which is something I admit that I take for granted here in the United States. That image of an entire generations and all the generations that follow being educated blew my mind, an in a really good way. It felt SO right.

In the next week, a new film will be released in theaters all over the nation called He Named Me Malala. This film is about Malala’s story, and more broadly, it’s about the importance of girls’ education. Take a moment to check out this quick trailer:

I mean…woah. I CANNOT WAIT to go see this. And I am really excited about sharing Malala’s story with my girls. My children already have access to k-12 education, but if they had been born in a different part of the world their options could be SO much more limited. And in those places, right now, there are mothers and fathers with precious little girls who are being denied that opportunity. And in other places in the world, boys and girls alike are being denied education based on their family’s income (or lack of sufficient income). I try to put myself in the position of those parents who aren’t allowed or just aren’t able to give their little ones something that is so critical for success in life.

This is heartbreaking. And it’s wrong. And it doesn’t have to be this way.

Please be watching out for when He Named Me Malala will be released in your community and gather up a group of your friends to go see it together! And if you want to have some great discussions with your kids about the issues Malala is fighting for, stay tuned because I’ll be posting soon about some ways you can engage your kids in thoughtful discussion.

Follow Malala’s work on social media by searching for #HeNamedMeMalala and #withMalala. You can find her on instagram at @malalafund, and on Facebook, too!

Creating Some New Fall Routines (and Drinking Awesome Coffee While I Do Them!)

September 28, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Thanks to Starbucks for sending along some seasonal flavors and products. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. My girls have been back in school for over a month now, and yet I am continuing to struggle with the hours of 3-5pm everyday, trying to fit in preparing a healthy meal for my family, making sure all Darah’s homework gets finished (including 20 minutes of me reading to her…we are loving all the Disney Fairies chapter books), and dealing with the emails that seem to pour in during the late afternoons when marketing and PR folks are trying to wrap up their to do lists at work.

I seem to get it all done, but I also seem to completely wear myself out, so that by the time Tim walks through the front door at about 5:15, I am ready to take my plate of food upstairs and go hide in my room. Which I often do. And this is not how I want my dinners to go, friends. Burning the candle at both ends of the stick just isn’t working.

So…I decided to get that whole “once a month cooking” thing a try. I spent a little bit of time each day last week physically and mentally preparing. And to help me keep my mood elevated and not give up before I started, I enlisted a little help from my Starbucks friends.

Isn’t that Starbucks fall tumbler just the cutest? It was my constant companion, filled with the fall blend K cups, as I selected recipes an created my shopping list and cooking strategy. I treated myself to a Starbucks VIA Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) as soon as I got home and unloaded my once a month ingredient haul. And it certainly was a haul; you’re only seeing about half of it in the shot!

In order to make the very most out of my tiny kitchen counter space, everything that ordinarily lives there had to be removed, including my precious coffee maker. But I knew that was going to be the case, and I was prepared, with some Starbucks Iced Espresso waiting for me in the fridge. Have you seen these in grocery stores? You can find them right next to the cold coffees. I reached for it frequently through the morning, early afternoon and yes, even the evening, as the slog of this work continued on.

In the end, two of the recipes were ruined by the wrong ingredient being used and one recipe couldn’t be made due to a shopping list oversight. I’m not going to lie, you guys…it was hard, sort of awful, incredibly time consuming (they aren’t kidding when they tell you that you will be cooking ALL DAY LONG) and at this point, I’m not really sure it was worth it. With that said, though, I did make a heck of a lot of food that is now waiting to simply be thawed and reheated, and as I make use of these dishes during those crazy busy weekdays, I may start to feel as though the pain was actually worth it.

I’m glad I tried a new thing. I’m still not sure that I’ll ever do it again. But I do think trying out this system has pointed me to a routine I DO want to get into this year: finding one freeze ahead recipe each week to make for my family. We can eat half of it on the day that I make it, and enjoy the other half of it on a busy weekday later on. Making one freeze ahead meal each weekend is totally doable and I can see how it will make a difference. And maybe, just maybe, once a month I might be willing to make 4 recipes at once. But not 10 or 12.

My weekend was rough, friends. But the coffee was on point. Gotta find those silver linings (or in this case, pumpkin spiced linings). 😉

Have you tried once a month cooking before? I’d love to hear about your experience! And what are you rockin’ in your coffee cup during this most wonderful time of the year? Is it pumpkin flavored or do you have a different #coffeepassion?

Scooby Doo Costume for Kids: Layah’s Halloween Pick (Zoinks!)

September 25, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Thanks to Costume SuperCenter for providing Layah’s Scooby Doo costume. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Last month I sat my girls down and we had a brainstorming session on Halloween costumes. Darah flipped through a costume catalog, cut out ideas, and created an entire vision board full of possibilities.

Layah’s brainstorming session, on the other hand, took 8 seconds. She thought for 6 of those seconds and then yelled, “Scooby Doo!” and marched right up to her room without so much as another word on the subject.

I asked her again a week later and she promptly said, “Mom you already know! Scooby Doo!”

There was a time when Layah was interested in Scooby Doo, but that was maybe a year ago, so this request really did seem random to me. And yet, she was quite decided about her choice! So I found a Scooby Doo costume at Costume Super Center and I was really pleased to see the price point (currently $23.99 AND an additional 20% off with a coupon code!). Last year Layah wanted to be Jasmine, which was just as random. I paid $50 for that costume, which she wore on Halloween night, but has NEVER worn since (despite the fact that my girls play dress up all the time). I’ve been down this road before, so I was really happy to see that her choice this year wouldn’t be nearly as expensive.

The costume is not one I would expect to endure constant play for too many months, which I think you can expect based on the price. I was a little disappointed to see that the entire back is open. Layah will need to wear some sort of brown shirt underneath, but it’s a very hard color to match, so we’ll also be safety pinning her into the costume.

We will also have to do a little safety pinning to help the Scooby Doo mask stay in the correct position. Both of these fixes are totally workable, but I wanted to point them out just in case you are looking for something that doesn’t need any adjustments.

Layah seems quite happy with the costume, and unlike last year’s costume, she’s asking to get to dress up in it frequently. I’m not allowing too much play with it, though, until after Halloween to ensure that we don’t find ourselves with a stained or torn Scooby Doo costume before the big night.

If you want to get more information (and learn about deals) from Costume Super Center, like them on Facebook. And if you have a little Scooby Doo in your house and you want to dress up, too, know that the Costumer Super Center also has Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred costumes!