Feeling a Little Salty? You’re Not Alone!
We’re Christine and Jaymi, two salty mamas with seven kids between us. We’re happy to be your virtual mom squad!
With lazy-mom approved kids activities, snarky playdate chatter, and little ways to make your life more fun, we’re here to make your momlife a little sweeter.
Even when you’re feeling salty.
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About a year ago, my daughter asked me why my hair was turning white. I proudly told her that my hair had sparkles, and that I was proud of my silver. But increasingly, I began to feel that my hair was just looking dull. The ratio of brown-to-grey was just not working for me, and I decided that I needed to color my hair.
I consider myself to be a frugal mama, so I was not about to start dropping hundreds in a salon on a regular basis (let alone find child care while I went). So I partnered with eSalon, and received the full diva treatment in their studio. They have the best semi-permanent hair dye, and I was thrilled to receive in-studio advice about which color to choose. While I was initially a little shocked by the transformation, I soon grew to love it. I WAS thrilled with how the hair color held up, and the self-confidence boost the change brought.
And then the time came- I was gonna need to color it myself. My eSalon shipment came right one time, but me? I stalled. I’ve heard so many horror stories about at-home hair dye– tales of women spending hundreds to fix their color, and unintentional light or dark streaks, and poor coverage. I’ve heard of girls who have had their hair turn orange and girls who have had their scalps stained black. So do you really blame me for being nervous to do it on my own? Well I am proud to say that I freaking NAILED it in the at home hair dye department. It was nowhere near as scary as I’d thought, and the in-studio lesson at eSalon really did teach me everything I needed to know to get the job done. So if you find yourself as scared as I am, I’m here to tell you- I know you can do this. And here’s how.
I’ve got a Mother’s Day hangover. And not the good kind that implies that I spent the entire day relaxing and drinking too much champagne. No, I’ve got the kind where I find myself asking, “What happened yesterday??” Now, I’m not the kind of person that traditionally builds up holidays. I’ve never had high expectations for a life changing New Year’s Eve. I’ve never thought that Valentine’s Day was going to be the most romantic day of the year. But somewhere along the line I saw one too many Mother’s Day commercials with happy kids showering their Moms with love, crafts, coffee and breakfast – even if it was poorly, yet comically, made with egg shells hidden in the omelet.
That was not my Mother’s Day. And as I scrolled through Facebook, I started to think maybe I was the only Mom that didn’t have that picture perfect Mother’s Day….crafts everywhere, Moms thanking their families for the outpouring of love, and me feeling more and more empty. Then I remembered I was on Facebook and decided to go to Twitter, where complaining is more accepted. And I found my people.
But you might be my people too. So here’s what I fantasized for Mother’s Day, and how my day differed dramatically.
Momguilt has become a hallmark of modern motherhood. But if you’re wondering how to know if you’re a good mom- and how to be a better mom- we want you to know, in no uncertain terms- you.are.enough.
First of all, let us be clear- YOU ROCK ALREADY. Your kids don’t care whether you made homemade brownies for the bake sale or whether you spent 1,110 hours creating cut-out dinosaurs on the Cricut for their birthday party. You keep your kids fed. You keep your kids safe. You kiss them and hug them and love them and sometimes they eat candy and sometimes they eat kale and THAT IS ENOUGH.
So if you’re asking yourself how to be a better mom, lady, we’ve got news for you- you are the best mom your kids could ever have. Period.
We asked a lot of amazing mommies just like you to tell us about the mothers in their lives- their mamas, their friends, their kids’ aunties and the random mommies they pass in Target who are keeping their cool while their child goes feral.
And we were so, so happy to see that it isn’t always the BIG things that are the signs of a good mom. It’s the little things, done sweetly (or even begrudgingly!), on a regular basis that shows your kids that you are there for them. And if your kids don’t notice it? Well, WE notice it, and odds are, the other people in your life do, too.
So keep on keeping on, Mama. Stop wondering how to be a better mom, and start embracing the kind of mom you already are. You are doing an AMAZING job. Here are ten ways that you are probably rocking this #momlife without even knowing it. 
Does your son want to do ballet? Good for him- and more power to him! Here are 5 important tips for a boy who wants to do ballet.
Part of parenting is realizing that there are 43,000 potential activities you can enroll your child in. The next critical part is realizing that time is finite and you really need to pick two or three of them and say no to everything else.
As such, we’ve spent the last five years having discussions with our kids about what interests them, where their talents lie, and how they want to spend their time. Last year, our then 2 year old proudly declared that she wanted to do “ballallet.” Inside, my heart SOARED with joy as I pictured her following in my less-than-comfortable toe-shoed footsteps. Outside, I kept it simple, “Sounds good baby!” And so we waited for her to turn three to enroll in the nearby ballet studio.
Fast forward to last month, as we drove by the studio and my son said sheepishly, “I wish boys could do ballet.” I nearly slammed on the brakes as I found his sullen face in my rear view mirror and said, “Well of course boys can do ballet!”
Still quietly, but with a tremor of hope, he replied, “Really?” I assured him they could, which prompted a follow-up question: “Okay, but do they have to wear pink?” Which is when I realized this was going to be a very long conversation. Over the next several days we discussed boys and ballet from lots of different angles.
So if you have a boy that’s interested in ballet, you may have to tackle some of these as well. Here are the top five things we had to address before my son was comfortable with signing up for ballet.
Looking for an edible finger paint recipe for babies? Find out how to make yogurt finger paint in this easy art project for babies and toddler featuring our two ingredient edible fingerpaint recipe.
I spent some time as a preschool art teacher, so you better BELIEVE I was bound and determined to get my kids excited about art from an early age. I had big ambitions about art projects for babies, and I expected I would spend much of my time coming up with cute crafts for toddlers. I even pictured them with little paint brushes in their chubby little hands.
And then the day came when I handed Lila her first paintbrush, lovingly dipped in non-toxic red paint- and she stuck it right in her mouth. We THINK these things are going to be amazing. But when it comes to art projects for babies, sometimes we need to tone down our expectations just a little. Or, at the very least, come up with edible finger paint alternatives that won’t have our toddlers spitting red paint all over the living room floor.
One of the easiest compromises to make is by swapping out typical paints with edible finger paint for toddlers. Pinterest abounds with plenty of non-toxic options to make your own paint (often involving flour, corn-starch, and the like).
We wanted to move beyond paint that simply won’t hurt them. We’re bringing you an art activity for babies that integrates sensory play, taste exploration, and color experimentation in a truly edible fashion.
Our yogurt fingerpaint recipe is sure to fill some time with yummy fun for your littlest Picassos. It’s a process-based art project your babies will love.
