Mom on a Budget

Toddlers, toddlers, toddlers…. You can ‘prepare’ as much as you want for the inevitable craziness raising these tiny humans will entail and you may think you’re prepared, you’re not….. Like everyone else with kids I’ve watched literally every single episode of Super Nanny there is. So when my almost 3 year old son started refusing to get out of his PJs into “normal” clothes for preschool, I channeled my inner super nanny. I was like “ok then you’re going in your PJs”. Did this work? No, not one bit, every morning the same thing would happen and off he went to school in his PJs. So I chat to all my mom friends about this and everyone’s going maybe he has sensory issues, etc so I’m googling that and trying to figure out what that is and what I should do. Then I mention it to my one friend (who isn’t a mom…. Yet) and she said to me “Laura his PJs sound so cool! Glow in the dark Jurassic Park PJs, Spider man PJs, if I was him I also wouldn’t want to get into “normal” clothes to go to presc...

Moms, let’s talk about baker baker. I don’t know about your schools but where my kiddos go, things have become competitive. In fact I’d equate it to the likes of The Hunger Games level of competitiveness. Without all the murder and stuff of course…. So we get the Friday before Halloween as our kids baker baker day. The only thing I could do, to make my kids cupcakes a halloween theme would be to actually bake them cupcakes myself, in which case, the entire school would end up with food poisoning or rock hard cupcakes to throw at each other…. So actually it would have been a real horror show. I needed to enlist some professional help and luckily I knew just who to call…. Zoë Fountain owner of Zoco Creations. If you haven’t heard of Zoë yet you’re in for a treat (see what I did there) she’s a mom of 2, an artist and thee best baker in Ballito! I honestly don’t know who was more excited between us to get these cupcakes made. Zoë made these amazing cupcakes for me (which I will of course b...

 Hi Everyone! If you're stuck on what to do with your  kiddos this weekend. Or tired of going to the same places every weekend. I have a treat for you! Have you heard of the Ballito Ski Park? If you haven't been there you're really missing out. And for the out of towners, this is a must add, to your to-do list when you next visit Durban! Ballito Ski Park has a variety of fun activities for the whole family, a fabulous restaurant and is budget friendly! Some of the activities include: A viking slide! Tube rides Archery  Paint ball Fishing (catch and release) Water skiing What a wonderful way to spend time with your family!  

One of my top tips for first time moms is to start your baby on vegetables before fruit when starting solids. I did this so well in fact, that my son still loves his vegetables, especially broccoli and peas. However the issue I had later on though was, he hated fruit! After consulting with my go-to mommy expert, I did the following things that did work. 1) Make fruit ice-lollies! They think its a treat and not "yucky fruit". Worked like a charm. 2) Fruit snacks! Checkers has the most amazing range that was actually designed by Gordon Ramsay and his daughter. They're healthy snacks but look like sweets and my son loves them, they're his during the week "treat". Genius! 3) This actually happened by accident, I can't eat breakfast, so instead, I have a morning smoothy every day, guess what, your kids want whatever you have. So now my son has some of my morning smoothy  (1 banana, 1 green Apple, 1 red Apple, a quarter cup of frozen blueberries and full fat d...

Here's a review for all of the parents out there, to better enable you to decide whether or not to let your little watch The Secret Life of Pets. After watching it once : this movie is so cute, it has everything, action, adventure, a love story, funny bald cats with dodgey accents, a crazy underworld, Kevin heart as a crazy bunny. This is the greatest kid movie ever. After the 10th time: at least it's not Jurrassic Park 💁 Review after watching the "dog" movie as my son calls it for the hundredth time: I'm going to cancel my Netflix account if I'm forced to watch this 1 more time.

I was having this issue with my toddler, constantly finding "junk food" and devouring it during the week, now I don't mind if he has treats over the weekend, but during the week its healthy food all-the-way!! I bought these containers from Crazy Plastics in Amanzimtoti for under R200.00 for 3, found the labels and chalk in my "mommy craft box". So I go about organizing our grocery cupboard like this, making it impossible for my son to get to the weekend treats, then I put fruit in the lower shelves in our fridge.  This has worked like a charm, however, what I didn't take into consideration was that I'm SHORT so now I cant even reach the snack containers at the top of the cupboard that are there for us (savoury and sweet boxes) I know what you're all thinking, just get a step ladder or chair and reach up there to get yourself a treat. Well the thought of the amount of energy this would actually take up is exhausting in itself, so now I also don't ...

As you all know by now, I love journaling. It's something I've only recently started doing and it really is life changing. I journal twice a day, at night it's my B.E.E.T journal and in the morning I do this, List 10 things I'm grateful for and really sit with each thing I list and feel that gratitude. Obviously top of my list every day, is my kids and I sit and visualise moments I've had with them. I do this with each thing I list. Second I write down the names of 3 people who are really aggravating me. And genuinely send them love. (This one's tough but it's good for your soul). And lastly I write down and review my goals for the day. 3 Professional Goals and 3 Personal goals. So lets break this down a bit, The list of 10 things to be grateful for, now if you're in a negative space right now, that's ok. You still need to think of 10 things to list. For example, you're reading this post that means you have a device to do so on, right? You're...