If you’ve been hanging with me for awhile, you may have heard me say a time or two that coffee wasn’t really my thing; I used to not drink it much and didn’t really get why people were so crazy about it. Then I decided to be home with my girls full-time and that all changed. It may sound surprising, but being home requires so much more energy than working in an office full-time did – at least for me. I’d like to say that I get more sleep now that I’m home but that doesn’t happen. So, the solution? Coffee. I don’t drink it every day but when I need coffee, I need it before I try to accomplish anything. Coffee has become my go-to, especially since there’s a McDonald’s conveniently located on the way to E’s school.

If you’ve been a reader of this little blog for awhile, you know our mornings can be a little crazy and I usually opt for convenience when it comes to breakfast for my girls. Convenience and routine, that is. The problem is that my girls are starting to get sick of the same ol’ same ol’ breakfast foods which has left me searching for options that are just as easy, just as affordable, and just as delicious. Enter, Pepperidge Farm Swirl Oatmeal Bread. As silly as it sounds, one of the things that seems to take forever for us in the mornings is waiting on the toaster (why does it feel like it takes so long?!) so one of my favorite parts of the Pepperidge Farm Swirl Oatmeal Bread is that it’s delicious without toasting since it comes in Apple Cinnamon Swirl Oatmeal or Maple & Brown Sugar Swirl Oatmeal flavors. Winning!

Are my kids the only ones who come home starving every afternoon like they haven’t eaten in months? Just mine? I’d like to say that I give my children an I-grew-it-myself-in-the-backyard-and-we-harvested-it-together-as-a-family-and-had-a-STEM-lesson-while-doing-so-snacks but that just isn’t our reality. Reality is that I give my girls snacks that are affordable, delicious, and better-for-you than the many junky alternatives out there. I recently shared how we prepared my daughter for Pre-K and what a day in our lives look like during the school year so today I want to share some of our favorite snacks for after school.

Have you ever been so overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done that you feel somewhat paralyzed and do nothing? If you saw my Instagram stories this week, you know that I was in that place. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes I get super overwhelmed. I think all moms do, right? The source of this week’s anxiety stems from our stuff being returned from our house fire and needing to be put away/organized plus deadlines, appointments, emails, and regular home-keeping things such as grocery shopping and whatnot. Life is crazy sometimes, am I right?! Thankfully, my mental paralysis didn’t last long and I was able to snap out of it. I’ve teamed up with Perrier to share how I deal with being overwhelmed.