Free Christmas Printable
I made this Christmas printable back in November and promptly forgot about it until now!
Better late than never, right?
- Home
- Blog
Why I Don’t Get Up Early
Read any book or blog post on time management and productivity, and chances are pretty good you will be told to get up early.
I agree – getting up early helps my days run more smoothly and helps me be more productive.
But I don't get up early, and I have a very good reason.
Right now is not the right season of life for me to be getting up early.
I have a 3 week old baby. She's doing really well with sleeping, but nonetheless I am still running on too little sleep.
A lack of sleep is a large contributor to imbalanced hormones. Imbalanced hormones are almost a surefire way to send me right back into chronic fatigue. I don't want to go there.
I could beat myself up for not toughing it out and getting up and getting going on my day. Or I could recognize that there are seasons of life and get the proper rest until this season passes.
What season are you in? Are you feeling guilty because other moms seem to do so much more than you do? Do you need to recognize the season of life you are currently in, and do what's right for you at this time?
You're not them, and they're not you. It's okay to sleep in. In fact, it may be more than okay – it may be good.
Do you have little ones who won't sleep in? Sleep as long as you can in the morning and take a nap in the afternoon.
There will be a time and a place to get lots done. Maybe now is not that time and place.
For more information on sleep and other factors which can help you overcome fatigue, check out my new ebook, Farewell, Fatigue: How I Overcame Chronic Fatigue the Natural Way.
How much sleep do you get? Did you realize sleep plays such a vital role in keeping your hormones balanced?
How to Practice Safe Babywearing
Taking 4 kids to the grocery store, to the park, etc. is a little challenging, and it is definitely nice to have my hands free while still cuddling my newborn.
But there are some things about safe babywearing that I didn't realize, and perhaps some of you didn't know these things either. Boba is helping to spread awareness of how to practice safe babywearing.
Because an infant's hip socket is still developing, wearing baby incorrectly can cause a condition known as hip dysplasia. This condition occurs when the baby's hips become dislocated or misaligned.
Hip dysplasia has several different causes, and therefore cannot be 100% prevented; however, wearing your baby in the correct position can go a long way toward reducing your child's risk of developing it.
To carry baby correctly, he should be facing toward you and his knees should be higher than his rear. When a baby's legs are left to dangle or when his knees are at a lower level than his bum, his spine and hips are unsupported and can be injured.
An outward facing position is not good for mom's spine either as it throws the weight of the baby forward, leaving your spine to compensate.
This article at bobafamily.com explains the consequences that outward facing baby carriers have on baby's spine and hips a lot more in-depth.
You can also find a lot of information on hip dysplasia in general at hipdysplasia.org.
I've also created a Pinterest board dedicated to safe babywearing that you can check out:
I think I would be inclined to wear my babies a lot more often now that I know how much better an inward facing carrier is for their development and for my aching back! Boba is the only company that exclusively sells products that leave baby facing inward. I sure have been enjoying lots of sweet snuggle time with my 2 week old, but an inward facing carrier would make it a little easier. Â
To learn more and connect with Boba, “Like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Boba. The opinions and text are all mine.
Why You NEED to Be Using Affiliate Links as a Blogger
If you missed the last post about my favorite affiliate companies – the ones I've found to be easy to promote and high-paying – you really should check that out.
But in this post I want to explain why every blogger who's trying to maximize their time NEEDS to be promoting affiliate links.
1. Quick posts on social media (takes maybe a minute to grab a link from Amazon?) perform really well. A brand new blogger might earn 50 cents from that link. If you have a large social media following, you can earn $10 or more. For 1 minute of work people! If that's not maximizing your time I don't know what is! I shoot for 1 – 2 product links on my page per day. As long as I'm posting other high-quality content throughout the day, no one is going to care. Honestly, people like it because I'm helping them get a great deal on something that is relevant to them.
2. Blog posts with affiliate links in them provide passive income. Make your posts evergreen – something that can be revisited and re-shared until the end of time – and include relevant affiliate links. Do you blog about fun kids' activities? Tell people where you got the supplies, or link to your favorite brand of markers, or whatever. Every time that post gets re-shared on social media, you've got a whole new set of potential clickers on your affiliate links. Passive income is the most time-efficient way to earn that I know of!
If you're trying to earn blog income on a minimal amount of time, you NEED to be using affiliate links!
What would you add? Are there any other ways you've found to earn with affiliate links AND maximize your time?
Healthy Christmas Treats
We all like to bake goodies at Christmas time, but actually making Healthy Christmas Treats can be a little more challenging.
I'll be honest and say I am not the recipe expert at all. I can make them, but I'm not usually the one coming up with them. When one of my readers asked for some ideas for healthy Christmas treats, I sent out a mayday to some of my fellow bloggers asking them for their recipes.
This is what came in. I am so excited to try out some of these recipes!
 
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
No Bake Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
Almost Healthy Jam Cookies.
Raw Pecan Pie
Gluten Free Lemon Bars
Coconut Macaroons
Peppermint Carob Truffles
Healthy Chocolate Date Balls
Raw Caramel Slice
Crispy Nut Chocolate Brittle
Images used with permission from their respective owners.
What is your favorite healthy Christmas treat? Please leave a comment and tell us!
Healthy Baking Substitutions
Many of you are likely doing quite a bit of baking this time of year. Here are some Healthy Baking Substitutions you can use to make your goodies more healthy!
Sugar
Replace white sugar with the following:
- Organic pure cane sugar (rapadura) or sucanat (1:1 ratio. Also, you can gradually reduce the amount of sugar the recipe calls for until you get used to less sugar. You should be able to get used to the total amount of sugar being cut by as much as half.)
- Honey (Use 1/2 to 3/4 cup for every cup of sugar. Reduce liquids by 1/4 cup for each cup of honey used.)
- Maple Syrup (Use 3/4 cup for every cup of sugar. Reduce liquids by 3 tablespoons for each cup of maple syrup.)
- Applesauce (Cut the sugar in half, then replace the missing half with applesauce plus another 1/3 the amount. Example: if the recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, use 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of applesauce plus another 1/3 cup of applesauce. Reduce liquids by 1/4 cup for every cup of applesauce you add.)
Butter
Although real butter is not an unhealthy fat, you may want to replace up to half the butter in your baking recipes. I use these substitutions often for cost savings or to add a bigger variety of nutrition. (You can also use these substitutions if you can't have dairy.) You can use the following substitutions:
- Applesauce
- Plain Yogurt
- Coconut Oil
- Mashed Avocado
Vegetable Oil, Crisco, or Margarine
Please, please do not bake with these products! These are trans fats, and your body does not even recognize them as food, but will store them as toxins instead! Use the following substitutions:
- Real butter
- Applesauce
- Plain Yogurt
- Coconut Oil
Chocolate Chips
Most chocolate chips are made with GMO sugar and soy lecithin, which are both harmful to your body. Instead, use homemade chocolate chips, an organic chocolate bar cut into chunks or Enjoy Life's chocolate chips (I find them cheapest at Vitacost.)
Milk
This one is a little bit of an advanced step if you're not used to it. I do not drink store-bought milk, but instead use raw milk and the cream off it for any recipes that use milk, cream, evaporated milk, buttermilk, etc. If you're not ready to use raw milk/can't afford it, etc., at least try to purchase milk that is antibiotic and hormone free. (If you can't have dairy, you can substitute almond milk or rice milk. Soy milk is not the best option – here's why.)
Eggs
Another advanced step is to make sure you are using farm fresh eggs. The nutritional content is about 1000% higher than store-bought eggs, and in fact you may be harming your system with GMO's when you eat eggs from commercial chickens. If you're out of eggs or have allergies, you can substitute ground flax seed and water. All you need to do is finely grind some flax seeds in a heavy-duty blender and use 1 Tbsp. ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tbsp. of water for each egg you need to replace.
Flour
Today's flour (even whole wheat flour) is a completely different product than it was years ago. It is basically devoid of nutrition, and actually contains phytic acid which steals nutrients from your body. So in a way it has negative nutrition. If you can find a resource for heirloom wheat (such as Tropical Traditions) you will be getting a product that has not been altered through hybridization. If you cannot get quality heirloom wheat, try to avoid recipes with wheat as much as possible. Instead opt for gluten-free recipes using oat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, bean flour, etc.