Your morning routine is going to vary based on what you want to do with your time and what you need to do in the morning. A mother’s morning routine is going to look much different than a single person’s – just like a professional’s morning routine will look different from a student’s. However, there are some universal steps you can take to optimize your own morning routine:

Take A Probiotic

Taking a probiotic is a good way to ensure that your mornings start off on a good note. It may seem unlikely, but probiotics help with a lot of things. For one, they can help you to feel better at night, ensuring that you get enough sleep and feel prepared for the day. Hitting that snooze button will only make your morning routine worse.

Of course, probiotics also help with digestion, which means that you will be regular. When you know what time you use the bathroom, you can better plan for your time there. IF you are the type of person who needs time, you can plan an extra 10 or 15 minutes to just sit there.

For more information about some of the best probiotic brands, see more information from BiOptimizers.com.

Put Your Phone In A Different Room

One of the best things you can do to ensure that you get a good night’s sleep, you get up on time, and you don’t waste precious time exploring Twitter is to put your phone in a different room when you sleep. This will cut down on the number of disturbances you get (even if you put your phone on silent, it still lights up). It will also ensure that you get up and get to your morning routine right away. If possible, try not to look at your phone until a certain point in your morning (like when you are eating breakfast).

If you cannot keep your phone in a different room, at least put it across the room in a place where you will have to get up to get to it.

Meditate

Meditation is a great thing to do if you find yourself getting stressed out in the morning. Taking even five or ten minutes to just meditate and feel your feelings will help you. You don’t need to do something too high level or spiritual. Instead, just try to focus on your thoughts and allow them to come to you. Maybe you will remember something that you would have forgotten otherwise, you’ll figure out how to tackle something big going on in your day, or you will just start with a bit more perspective.

Even if nothing comes from meditation, taking a few minutes to breathe has immense health benefits.

Eat Breakfast

The one thing you absolutely need to have in your morning routine is a spot for breakfast. Whether you drink a smoothie while you are watching the news, eat a bar before you get to the gym, or you cook a huge breakfast and eat with your family, it doesn’t matter. This is the one thing you absolutely should not cut to save time. 

Instead, think about what fits into your morning routine. Not everyone can make a huge breakfast, but we can all blend smoothies that we’ve premade and kept in the freezer. Or you can make overnight oats and grab them. If not, think about buying yogurts or something you can eat quickly.

Set A Schedule – And Keep It

If you set a schedule, it is going to take you a few days to get used to it. In fact, it could take a few weeks if you tinker with it and determine what the perfect morning routine is for you. Just stick with it, even if it is hard at times. A morning routine isn’t meant to be something that you fall into easily, it is something that ensures you have the best start to your day. Do not give up.

If something isn’t working, you can change it. Maybe you want to move something to the nighttime or you want to cut something altogether – maybe you had every intention to gratitude journal in the morning and it just doesn’t work for you. That is fine! Feel free to eliminate what just isn’t working for you.

This is because every step is equally important to attain success. An important part of becoming a surrogate after making your initial decision as well as meeting with an agency is taking a psychological evaluation. This is a must-process on any surrogacy agencies, like Surrogate Parenting (surrogateparenting.com), which one of the most trusted surrogacy agency. Therefore, it is a very important step and a necessary one before moving forward with the entire process as well as matching with the intended parents.

Importance of A Psychological Evaluation for Surrogate Mothers

Psychological evaluation for surrogate mothers is a crucial step in the surrogacy process as a whole because it increases the level of confidence. The purpose of this evaluation is to ensure that you are an excellent fit for both surrogates as well as the potential intended parents, which might you might be matched with.

It is important to note that not everybody may not be a surrogate or ready to become one regardless of whether they feel it is the right choice or not. This means that the psychological evaluation is meant to reassure the potential surrogate and to make them feel very confident and comfortable with the remaining processes.

It helps the potential surrogate to decide whether surrogacy is good for you. It also helps to show surrogacy agencies that they are serious with regard to the next steps.

How Psychological Evaluations for Surrogate Mothers Works

Most times the psychological evaluation follows the process of initial screening as well as the home visit. This means that it is the final step prior to proceeding to meet the intended parents. It is good practice to use the services of a psychologist that is trusted by a particular organization.

The screening test requires the potential surrogate to be very honest and display their authentic self. The evaluation generally takes about 3 to 4 hours. This tests the following two things:

•  Personality test. The aim of this is to know the kind of person that the surrogate is.
•  Interview.

The psychologist will then create a comprehensive report. The parents will then review the psychologist’s information and if they are prepared to move forward the psychologist will organize for a meeting between the two parties.

The information above might not be exhaustive as different agencies conduct evaluations differently, but it gives an accurate general idea as to what happens in the process.

Start the process

To become a surrogate needs dedication and time. Confidence in the process comes from having a complete understanding of every stage. This means bringing up any questions that you might be having. It is worthwhile to take your time to undergo all the important steps and this includes the psychological evaluation.

Conclusion

The above insightful information shows the process of psychological evaluation of surrogate mothers. It is very useful as it ensures that the surrogate’s family and the intended parents are in mutual agreement to result in a good surrogacy experience. Therefore, ensure you are proactive by undergoing this evaluation.

If you are interested to be a surrogate, click here and check this company that offers surrogacy services.

Surrogacy is experiencing a sharp increase and this is due to the fact that most patients who have undergone the process have been successfully treated. This is a great scientific achievement that has enabled a couple without children to have their baby. Claims transfer is defined as the process by which a woman agrees to conceive and give birth to the child of another child. Check more information about surrogate mother requirements facts if you are interested to do so. 

The woman who gives birth is unrelated to the woman whose child she has. The child’s genetic mother or the child’s pregnancy carrier has a contract to carry the pregnancy until the baby’s birth. This happens when the embryo is implanted in the woman’s ovary.

Traditional surrogacy involves a replacement wearer carrying a child of sperm from the male partner and the executing carrier conceiving eggs or donated eggs. In this form of surrogacy, intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization is used. In this case, the child is biologically related to the substitute carrier, unless donated eggs are used. This type of subrogation can be used if the couple has no eggs or unhealthy eggs. Gay couples can also find this procedure helpful.

However, today, most surrogacy procedures use eggs from the female partner and sperm from the male partner to form an embryo that is transferred to the uterus of a surrogate carrier. In vitro fertilization is used to perform this procedure. In this case, the replacement carrier is not biologically related to the child. This form of subrogation is called pregnancy surrogacy.

Candidates for surrogacy are considered to be women who have difficulty conceiving or conceiving a pregnancy, women with an abnormality in the uterine lining, women who have undergone a hysterectomy, women over 45, women with cardiovascular disease, or nephropathy that can cause difficult pregnancy and couples with unexplained infertility.

The first step in this process is that the couple will find a replacement that can pass through fertility clinics, websites, lawyers, private agencies, etc. Then they must design all legal documents before the start of the procedure. This is intended to protect the rights and responsibilities of both the replacement provider and the parent. The reviews should then be done for the couple and the deputy.

Fertility medications may be prescribed to increase egg production. Once the eggs are removed and fertilized, they are transferred to the replacement patient’s uterus. In some countries, it is illegal to use this procedure and even pass laws that state that a woman giving birth is her legal mother. This law must be changed in the case of a surrogate mother. Nowadays, with the advancement of technology, one can try surrogate motherhood without having many complications.

The carrier is monitored during pregnancy and the costs associated with pregnancy are usually paid by the parents. This information will be included in the

legal documents.

I took a walk with Annie this evening and we discussed why Heidi got an iPad and Annie did not – we simply couldn’t afford to buy one ourselves. Annie asked how we had gotten the money for Heidi’s and I explained about the Helping Children with Autism funding and how it ended when the child turned 7yo, but that Annie had never received it because she got her diagnosis after the age of 6.

Annie was very upset, not that Heidi recieved an iPad (although she is a little envious, as are we all), but at the unfairness of the system. She asked me to record this short video and put it on YouTube to explain her feelings on the matter.

The party has a Mickey Mouse theme and I stayed up late one evening googling and designing Mickey Mouse invitations, I didn’t show the girls the next morning because I wanted to have the invitations all finished first, that afternoon Annie came home from school with a Mickey Mouse invitation she and her friends had designed in class.

I was really impressed with the text inside and the idea for a hot dog party as I had been pondering what sort of food to make.

How awesome is that! Annie and her friends worked together to design the picture on the front and her teacher helped them brainstorm the text for the inside.

Now I spent so much time the night before making up my invitation that I decided to go ahead and finish it off and write the tutorial, even though I think Annie’s invitation is so much more awesome…. you may notice I decided to use her text in my invitation.

Step 1.  we’re going to have lots of fun

Click here to download a editable MS Word copy of the Mickey Mouse Party Invitation Template

Click here to download .pdf of the Mickey Mouse Party Invitation Template.

Step 2.

Print out your templates on white printer paper and cut them out.

Step 3.

Trace templates onto cardboard – I used scrapbooking cardboard purchased in a bulk pack from K-Mart many years ago. The mouse head shape goes onto black cardboard. The circle with a line through it gets cut in half and used on red cardboard.

Step Four.

Fill in the invitation text circle and paste it onto the Mickey Mouse head shape.

Step Five.

Glue the red half circles together – make sure you only glue the circle sides and leave the straight edge unglued so you can slip the invitation in.

Step Six.

Glue the white buttons onto the front of the red card and slide your Mickey Mouse head invitation in.

Step Seven.

Deliver your invitations.  Annie and I decided to send both the invitations we had made

Mickey Mouse Fonts can be found here.

A couple of nights ago Annie came out very excitedly to tell us that she had lost a tooth, we made all the appropriate ‘ooooh’ noises and Annie rushed off to get her tooth fairy basket.

Later on that evening Annie confided to me that she had not really lost a tooth, instead it was a piece of corn carefully tucked away inside her tooth fairy basket. Annie had a great plan to trick the tooth fairy in order to

A) Get more money
B) See if the tooth fairy was real

See lots of kids in her class have been discussing if Santa and the Tooth Fairy are real, the class is made up of children ranging from age 7-9yo and some have figured out the truth.

We’ve always been honest about Santa and I’ve tried to be honest about the Tooth Fairy and fairies in general, but Annie is not having a bar of my assertion that Fairies are not real, insisting there are fairies and I am lying.

This has proved to be a fantastic teaching tool for us as I’ve been able to talk to Annie about how ‘Sometimes people believe in different things’ – some people believe in Santa, some don’t, some people believe in fairies, some don’t, some people believe in God, some don’t. That so long as the persons belief is causing no harm then it is best to let them believe.

Annie gets teased for her strong belief in fairies, mostly by the boys, the girls at school seem to believe in fairies too. I worry that the teasing will get worse as she gets older.

I hope at least by teaching Annie now that it is okay for others to believe in something different to you, that she will be more accepting of these different beliefs.

Anyway, back to the Tooth Fairy – someone had suggested that the Tooth Fairy was just your Mum and I had further reinforced this by saying ‘oh the tooth fairy might be out of coins’ when Annie first announced she had lost a tooth. So there we were snuggled up about to start reading Anne of Green Gables and Annie is asking if I am the Tooth Fairy.

So I turned the question back to her ‘Do you think Mummy is the Tooth Fairy’ and Annie said I couldn’t possibly be because her teacher had seen the Tooth Fairy as a child and how could I be the Tooth Fairy when I couldn’t have been born when her teacher was a child.

YES! Logic for the win.

I’m still in two minds about the whole belief in fairy thing, it makes Annie so happy and brings magic to her world and I’ve got adult friends who believe in fairies, also she is only 8 and can’t she just enjoy the magic of fairies for now. I can’t prove they are *not* real. But it will single Annie out for teasing and I don’t like that. I also fear what will happen if she ever finds out that fairies are not real – will she hate me forever for ‘lying’ to her?

As for Annie wanting to make more money – we are discussing a chore chart, the more chores she does the more pocket money she can earn.

So when I received a wonderful pamper pack in the mail from Pauls Milk I was thrilled to bits because some time out for me was just what I needed. One quick clean of the bathtub later and I was ready for this…

Pauls Milk Body Scrub / Body Bath

What you’ll need

• 2 tablespoons Pauls Skinny Milk (I used Rev)
• 1/3 cup of salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 drops of vanilla essential oil

Method

• Add all ingredients into jar and shake or stir with a small spoon until combined.

• When in the shower, run the water to dampen your skin and then turn it off. Gently massage the scrub into yoru skin and turn the water back on when covered, to rinse off.

• Store the milk scrub, with the lid tightened, in the fridge for 2-3 days.

• You can also add this entire mixture to your bath for the ultimate in relaxation.

Oh my gosh! It was lovely, the vanilla scent was divine and I was able to lie back with my copy of The Help and read and relax until the bath water got cold. Bliss.

Once I was fully relaxed I read the rest of the info in the Pamper Package – Pauls Full Cream, Rev and Skinny Milk varieties have been given a packaging revamp – the first Australian packaging innovation in fresh white milk in more than ten years!

No more crying over spilled milk, seriously I didn’t even spill the milk pouring my first coffee of the day, which happens more often than not.

Second best bit about the new packaging – check out how flat the box is after you squash it for recycling. I don’t know about you, but my recycling bin is always full to overflowing so anything that I can flatten right down gets big two thumbs up from me.

Disclaimer: I received the Pauls Milk Pamper Pack to enjoy and test the new Pauls Milk packaging, all opinions are my own.

Early Tuesday morning, and I mean early, Annie woke me around 4am with a wet bed, I blame karma for this because I’d commented on Amanda’s post the day before… where was I going with this thought???

Oh yes, early Tuesday morning, I was greeted by an email that I had sent to myself, around midnight that night (anyone else here sleep email themselves?) The subject line was “green magic cookies” and the body of the email was empty… this left me to ponder what my sleeping self found so important about green magic cookies, or if perhaps auto-correct had helpfully decided to assist with my sleep emailing – don’t laugh its been known to happen.

Several cups of coffee later I had a light bulb moment, helped along by picking up Heidi’s ‘Magic Words’ folder to put in her school bag. Heidi is currently learning her Green Words and has been struggling a little, sleeping me had woken briefly when husband came to bed and thought ..

“How about making cookies in the shape of letters and decorating them with green icing and writing her magic words with the letters”

This seemed like a brilliant idea to now awake me – not only was it literacy, but it was fun and the combination of tactile, tasty, hopefully yummy smelling cookies may help her remember the words that she was struggling with on the page.

Annie was full of woe (woe, woe, woe your boat – thank you Mumstrosity) about being required to wear both socks AND shoes to school, so I asked her to get the cookie making ingredients out of the fridge whilst I had a shower, seemed a good distraction plan.

Once clean again I venture out of my bedroom, only to find the corridor covered in flour, it seems Heidi decided to ‘make snow’ oh joy.

Finally mess cleaned up, children at school, I decided to make the darn cookies, while I was making pasta bake for hubby’s work lunches and mainlining vitamin C to fight off a head cold.

Things went really well to start with…

I chilled the cut out cookie dough to help stop it spreading in the oven – I really wanted my letters to keep their shape… which they did. Unfortunately I had not factored in how crumbly the finished cookies would be, thinking the dough was too crumbly I had added more butter which was a mistake.

We had a cookie survival rate of about 50% as I transferred them from cookie tray to cooling racks.

Thankfully they were still yummy, and the girls enjoyed them for afternoon tea (sans icing as I don’t think they would have surived more handling).

1. Eat Something Different

• Heidi tried fruit cups (fruit in juice) and enjoyed them!
• Heidi has also progressed from eating carrot whole to trying it grated on her cheese, cheese, sour cream and cheese wrap
• I was even able to make her a Bento style lunch with grated carrot touching the rice, and there was no complaint :: faints in shock :: Although she did not like the Kewpie Mayo at all.

2. Do Something Different

• Heidi had her very first sleepover at a friends house.
• We slept in a tent, at the zoo!
• Annie had her school sleepover and got stitches (I’d rather we don’t try that last again).

3. Go Somewhere Different

• We’ve been to the MSO which was wonderful.
• I also pushed my girls well outside their comfort zones and took them to the Sandown Leisurefest. It was a great success, although my dreams of purchasing a caravan were kind of shattered.  Husband just didn’t feel comfortable in any of them, perhaps it was his height causing him to feel claustrophobic… or the shower toilet room.

4. Make a Difference

• The girls agreed to give away some of their boardgames and puzzles to school – almost brand new, games with all the pieces there and only played a couple of times before they lost interest.
• We donated more towels and old blankets to the cat protection society.

Because for that moment in time I have his undivided attention… well aside from that which is concentrating on the actual driving of vehicle without crashing (somewhat important that).

No TV, no iPhone, no headphones plugged in, we have an actual conversation for extended periods of time.

I’d blame technology but I expect that before the electronic age it would have been books and newspapers.