Let me tell you how cold it is right outside my patio door right now:

It’s so cold that I refuse to go outside.

It’s so cold that I helped the hubs re-organize the garage this afternoon so that he could fit his truck inside.

It’s so cold that I’m pretty sure Bruno may have partially gotten his tongue stuck to the grill when he went out to pee and decided that frozen grills are fun to lick instead of coming inside when your mom is standing inside with the patio door open pleading with you to come in. Annnd that happened.

It’s currently minus thirty-two with the windchill. It is supposed to be minus sixty – yes, you read that correctly – with the windchill tomorrow.

Hubs says that this is a good test of whether or not we could live in Alaska. Apparently they see these kinds of temps all the time. I’m thinking that it’s not such a good fit.

Especially if he wants all of those animals someday.

So, what does one do when it’s freezing beyond belief outside? Well, you start dreaming of vacationing somewhere warm. And then you realize that you have a family to entertain. So you make sure you’re already stocked up on lots of snacks and goodies. And you play upstairs. And downstairs. And you make french toast. And you take naps. And then you make soup. And watch movies. And eat Twizzlers.

As you can see, extreme cold is no good for my figure. Which means a definite “no” to Alaska.

And that, my friends, was my weekend in a nutshell.

Oh…and before you ask, yes, I’d rather have twelve inches of snow once a week for the winter than this kind of weather. This is brutal.

Over and out from the land of the cold.

Well, it’s officially 2014. Like I’ve said before, I’m not the girl who makes a bunch of resolutions at the start of the new year. But with that being said, one thing that I do do is set goals for myself. Especially when it comes to my blog. But being a total activator achiever, I can’t just set goals. I have to determine how I’m going to achieve them before I even get started. And let me tell you – having a plan set up in advance certainly makes attaining your goals – be they blog related, personal, professional, what have you – much easier. So I give you – my plan for my three biggest

Goal one: Grow my blog by 100 percent in 2014.

How I’m going to do it:

• Start writing in advance on the weekends: One thing that I need to do is get back to a consistent posting schedule. I also need to create at least seven pieces of content per week (on average). So I need to heed a little of my own blogging advice and use not only an editorial calendar, but also by pre-writing content so that weekdays go a little easier in the content realm.

Goal two: Get back on my workout game.

How I’m going to do it:

• Well, the first step was getting Ricky’s new playroom set up on the other side of our office/workout room. And I’m setting myself up for success by alternating my elliptical, Barre videos and squats/weights for three weekly thirty minute workouts. And I’m going to hold myself accountable on social media. Because that’s just how this mama rolls.

Goal three: Work regular date nights into every month.

How I’mwe’re going to do it:

• We’re going to actually put our relationship on the front burner and plan out one date night a month in advance. By the first day of the month, we need to have a date picked out. And we need to stick to it. Rick and I have been really neglectful of actually having grown up dinners (as in, without our little pal tagging along) since we became parents. Now that we have a fifteen month old, we realize how important that time together really is. So that’s our plan, Stan.

So tell me in the comments: what are YOUR big plans for 2014?

So yes, my little man had a fabulous Christmas. So did mommy and daddy. But on this bitterly cold Monday morning, there’s someone else who had a pretty fab Christmas, too: Bruno. And the photos were just so cute, I had to share…

As you can tell…he’s got a pretty rough life. Sleep all day, nap all night. Oh – and I had to throw in a little shot of nana Lucy. Who oversees everything that goes on in my house. Can you tell that I’ve been overtaken by my real AND furry children?

We had a fabulous Christmas. It was pretty calm, laid back and full of good food and entertainment (by my little fifteen month old). Ricky was absolutely spoiled – the kid now has not one, but TWO cars of his own: the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe AND the Little Tikes Cozy Truck – both my parents and Rick’s parents were certainly thinking on the same page this year! He also got a ride on CAT excavator from Santa – which distracted him from ANY of the presents mommy and daddy got him!

He got lots of trucks and cars and books, a baseball game, bath toys, movies, blocks and more. I’d say that this kid is pretty much SET for the next year in terms of toys! That being said, his favorite thing was getting to play with all of his new toys with our extended family. My child would not be living up to his ham status if he didn’t get some time to keep everyone entertained!

I can’t imagine a better Christmas than the one my little man had this year!

Tell me in the comments: what was YOUR favorite part about Christmas this year?

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The baby was sleeping, the puppies tucked in tight
With dreams that giant rawhides would soon be in sight.

Daddy was dreaming of big diesel trucks
And gifting his wife a new pet that says, “cluck.”
We all dressed in flannel to stay nice and warm
While daddy made up stories of why we needed a farm.

When suddenly upstairs there arose such a clatter,
I jumped off of the couch to see what was the matter.
Up to the baby’s room, I threw open the door
And realized he just threw his paci on the floor.

But then I realized I wasn’t getting away quick
My baby had seen me and was laying it on quite thick.
The crocodile tears made mommy give in
So I rocked him to sleep, my baby sure did win.

And finally just when his eyes started to close
I felt myself beginning to dose.
An hour went by, I awoke with a start
And looked down to a beautiful sleeping baby…be still, my heart.

Off to bed for mommy, try to get some sleep
Because it’s only so long til you do this on repeat.
After five trips at five thirty am
I thought to myself, “here we go again.”

While making a baba and preppy my coffee
I realized one thing – it was Christmas morning!
Back up the stairs to wake up the hubs
I couldn’t wait to open presents up with our little bubs.

And what did we see from our dear little boy?
Why, that he cared more for the balled up wrapping paper and boxes than his stash of new toys!
Merry Christmas to you and all of your kin
And a lovely reminder that it’s not the gift that counts – it’s the sturdiness of the box it came in.

Sometimes, on a less hectic Saturday like today, I start to think about all the ways our life has changed since we had a baby. It’s been over a year – meaning there are lots of things that have changed: we don’t go out to eat as often, we go to bed earlier, we get up earlier. Our priorities are certainly different. But I think the thing that’s most certainly affected me the most is…well….I hate to admit it. But I just don’t care as much about my appearance as I used to. Sure, I still put in an effort. But to some extent I just don’t have time for all of the little personal luxuries that I used to.

Now, some of these things aren’t going to sound like luxuries unless you have a child(ren). Because it is pretty darn near impossible to understand why you can’t just make time to do them if you really wanted to. At least, it was for me prior to having Ricky. But with that being said, I’m really (REALLY!) going to try to make an effort on these things. Seriously. I am.

1. Pedicures. I was the girl who ALWAYS had her toes done prior to getting pregnant. Then I started giving myself pedis while pregnant and was pretty darn proud of the money I was saving. Then I had a baby and I tried to keep up. Every three months or so I would re-paint my nails. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it worked. To an extent. And now, I think I’ve actually gone two months without putting polish back ON my toes after taking it off. I’m trying to get back on track here ladies, I really am. But time…well, it hasn’t been my bff lately.

2. Shaving. I do actually make a halfway effort to shave in the summer. But in the winter…well, my leg hair is pretty faint in color. So does it really matter if I shave every week? Ok, I just gave myself the shudders. Yes, it matters. I hear you. Shave yo’ dang legs, girl! I’ll get on that one.

3. Wearing my hair down. Ugh. Do you know how much earlier I have to get up to actually wear my hair down? Fifteen minutes. That’s fifteen minutes of much needed sleep! But I’m hearing my own point. Since I’ve made Kate Middleton my 2014 style inspiration, I really need to get on the hair train. Goal: to actually style my hair three days during the week.

4. Organizing my closet. I used to be a closet organization freak. Seriously – everything was categorized by type, style and color. I would re-organize and re-organize and re-organize. Know how long it’s been since I did that? About three months. Know why I had to do it then? Because Ricky decided to pull half of my clothes off of their hangers. I realize how much easier getting ready is when your closet is super organized. But today, mama needs her energy for wrapping Christmas presents!

5. Getting dressed up and going out. Rick and I used to get dressed up (to an extent) and go meet up with our friends all the time prior to baby. After getting pregnant, that slowed down. After baby arrived, it pretty much stopped. Sure, we have friends over to have dinner and hang out. We go out for dinner from time to time. But I can’t remember the last time I actually got dressed up to leave my house. That actually makes me a little sad – we need to get our butts in gear and have a date night!

So tell me in the comments: what fell off YOUR radar after having a baby?

Lately, my little man has decided that 5:15 is an appropriate time to wake up on a regular basis. As in…daily. Now I have to say that I’ve gotten pretty used to the 5:15 wake up call – and I’ve even come to enjoy getting a little jump start on my day. But what I don’t love so much is when that 5:15 baby alarm gets pushed back to 4:30 am. Yeah. That doesn’t really work for mama. Which is exactly what happened this morning.

Little man wouldn’t go back to sleep, but he would rest quietly in mama and dada’s bed. I decided to take what I could get – even if that meant a half hour of half sleep. Around five, he decided that this just wasn’t happening anymore. Attempting to grab just five more minutes of quiet space in my own head (well, as quiet as it gets with a fifteen month old), I turned on a little Chuggington. Ten minutes of distracted bliss. Le sigh.

But then, he was over it. And he was (is?) CRABBY. Earlier than usual morning wake up calls don’t work so well with little ones, at least not this early. So what did we do? Well, we started our regular morning routine.

Ricky got a baba…

And then a banana, a mini blueberry muffin and another baba. The kid was hungry, what can I say? He must be feeling better. Slash this might be part of the reason why he’s in the 95th percentile for height for his age group…

And then mama got a coffee. Glorious, glorious morning sustenance. Because getting up this early ain’t easy.

And then the puppies…well, they know where to go for scraps. It’s like two little lions, waiting to pounce on their prey. Except for their prey is discarded bananas and blueberry muffins that fall on the floor. Slash get hand fed to them from my child.

Yeah, a pretty typical morning in the Galster house. Just a bit of an…earlier start…than usual.

Tell me in the comments: what do YOUR mornings typically look like with little ones?

Months ago – like seriously, months, because I haven’t seen lots of my mommy friends IN months – my friend Sarah, who has two beautiful daughters, told me a little mommy secret: the terrible twos come early. They start way before they actually turn two.

Now, like most pieces of advice like this, I kind of took it in stride. After all, my darling little baby wasn’t even one yet! I had plenty of time to prepare for the terrible twos. Right? Well, I thought so. And now – looking back – I probably should have started gathering answers to my terrible twos questions back then – because she sure was right!

Suddenly, about the time the he became really confident in his ability to walk, he started to test his limits. Small things – like trying to get into cupboards he knew he wasn’t supposed to, taking out mommy’s hairdryer in the bathroom (after being told no), turning on and off the satellite dish. Each time, he’d turn around with this mischievous little smile on his face. Each time, we’d tell him no. And each time, he’d turn around, do what he wasn’t supposed to and laugh It was HILARIOUS. So Rick and I hid our laughter by covering our faces with our hands and let it continue. Everything’s just a phase, right? Well, yes. But there’s a little bit of qualifying to do for that: how LONG does a phase actually last?

That’s a question I don’t have the answer to. All I know is that in our house, it went from cute little disobediences to full fledged temper tantrums in a matter of weeks. Anything that he knows he’s not supposed to be into, he wants. And if we tell him no, he throws a temper tantrum – it’s like I told him that his favorite toy got thrown in the garbage and he’s never going to see it again. Don’t get me wrong – most of the time he’s the most adorable little toddler in the world. He’s sweet, loving, funny, and super fun to hang out with. But when he gets mad, man – watch out. It is an experience in and of itself.

Being the parents that refuse to allow our children to cry to get their way, we’re trying some age appropriate methods of adjusting his behavior. Obviously, time outs aren’t going to work that great with a 15 month old. So we try to explain why he can’t play with something in toddler terms, like that’s not safe or not for babies – and I’m pretty sure he understands. We re-direct, which works for the most part. And when all else fails, we try to give a hug and tell him that he’s ok, without making the behavior ok.

Is it working? Meh, I really don’t have concrete answers yet. But we’re trying. And it does seem to be getting at least the teeniest bit better. Or maybe we’re just getting used to it. I don’t know. But with that being said, I’d LOVE to hear your terrible twos advice in the comments – when they started, how long they lasted, what your remedies were…so share, please!

This weekend feels like a total and complete bur. I can’t believe that it’s already over, to be completely honest with you. Between the cooking and the baking and the cleaning and the shopping and more, I literally fell asleep at 8 o’clock last night. So instead of me just telling you what I did this weekend – let me just put Instagram to work. With some minor text additions included.

Thursday night was not my favorite night in the world. My little man literally couldn’t sleep. I tried everything – milk, a banana, rocking, singing, and more. Finally – after my third time up in an hour – I realized that he was only crying when I laid him down. And if you’ve been through this with your own babes, you know exactly what that means: an ear infection. I got him to sleep til five, got online to chat with our clinic and set up an appointment for 8:15 – I have to admit, although I hate seeing my little man under the weather, it was pretty slick to be able to jump online and have a little chat and get things scheduled that early in the morning!

Needless to say, he spent most of the next 24 hours cuddled up and comfy.

Suddely, about mid-Saturday he seemed to be feeling better. So we bundled up and went outside to experience the snow (for ten minutes). Despite the indifferent expression on his face, he actually loved it – although we still don’t quite have the hang of walking through the snow.

The dogs lounged. Nothing new about that – except for the fact that I fell asleep on Lucy on the couch last night. It was pretty amazing.

So despite my seemingly loungey weekend, it really wasn’t. Because mama was SUPER productive. On top of cleaning my entire house (EVEN THE BASEMENT), I basically finished our Christmas shopping (I say basically because I still have a couple of things left…), cooked an entire TURKEY and started baking cookies. Started, because the rest of the dough is chillin’ in my fridge. Mama got a little burnt out.

And I also made some super cute homemade teacher gifts – so simple and easy, and pretty inexpensive! I bought these mugs at Target and popped some cellophane bags inside (SANTA BAGS!!!). Then added lots of holiday themed candy, individual hot cocoa packets (in sea salt caramel and peppermint, sounds delish!) tied them off and added these cute little gift tags. Then I added some candy canes – but that was post-photo. Each one cost about five bucks – what a steal!

So: tell me in the comments, did you get a ton done on this weekend before the weekend before Christmas? Tell me in the comments – and link up to your own Instagram pics!

I have a lot of friends who blog. I probably have a lot more friends than I actually know about who have a blog. By that basic statement – and the title of this post – you’re probably thinking that the former is simply better at branding themselves. And yes, to some extent that’s true. Here’s the thing about blogs: they’re really easy to start. They are NOT so easy to maintain on a regular basis. They’re even harder to get a strong following on. And if you want to take your blog seriously – and you want brands to take your blog seriously – then you need to be intentional about creating a brand for yourself.

Now, let’s clear something up right away. Your blog is not your brand. Your blog is your vehicle for communicating your brand. People don’t come to your blog because they like…it – they come to your blog because they like YOU. YOU are your own brand. So you need to get clear about what the “you” (in terms of your blog) really is. Everything else on your site – your site design, your blog header, your widgets – they’re supplemental to what you’re trying to convey: yourself. So choose wisely, my friends. Pick themes for your site that don’t just represent something cool or a couple of posts you once wrote: pick themes that actually represent who you are, what you’re communicating and what you stand for.

The nice thing about branding yourself is that, in some ways, it’s a lot easier than branding a company or a product. Ideally, you already know what you stand for. You already know what you want to communicate to the world. You already know what you like and don’t like in terms of style and design. For me, my personal brand stands for a few things – which I try to articulate in the way I write, the topics I write about and the way my sense of humor comes across in my posts. I try to encompass a few things every time I create content on my blog:

• Authenticity. I only write about things that communicate – truly – who I am, what I like and dislike, true life experience in my own words. I’ve seen lots and lots of blogs never go anywhere because the voice behind them isn’t authentic. And really, that’s on both the side of the writer and the reader: after all, the true essence of a blog is to share a story from your own life. If you create content that isn’t true to who you are, how long are you truly going to be interested in posting? How often are you really going to post? Conversely, readers know if you’re not authentic. And they’ll move onto the next site faster than you can say a monkey’s uncle.
• Values. At least, I communicate my own values. Basically Rick and I have built our life around
  • Standing for something, even if you’re standing alone.
  • Being real, grounded, normal people.
  • Our family means everything.

  These aren’t just the values I communicate here on The Mommyhood Project, they’re values that we really do live by. They’re the values we want to instill in our children. And basically, it all comes right back to authenticity: if you’re willing to share the life you really live on your blog, you’ll be creating an authentic blog that readers will actually want to come back to – and isn’t that the end goal of this whole blogging thing?

• I am who I am. I’m not interested in sugarcoating who I am. I know that I’m not perfect – but I also know that there are a lot of things that I’m really good at. I’m willing to try new things. I’m stylish but quirky. I’m a huge extrovert but love time at my house with my little family on the weekends – to be honest I would hole up in my house pretty much every weekend to spend time with these guys if it were actually practical. I don’t pretend to be something I’m not – and that’s how I write. If people don’t like it, they don’t have to visit my site, it’s as simple as that.

Again – everything really does come back to authenticity. Be real. You’ll be happier with the content you produce, you’ll have a better readership and you’ll be much more loved by brands looking for online ambassadors.

Tell me in the comments: how do you communicate YOUR personal brand in your blog?

Read more blogging tips here.