This Product Is Like the Miracle Blanket for Big Kids!

Whew Summer is here!  Spring time was rough at our house.  Largely, because spring brought lots of thunderstorms, which terrify both of our children.  That of course, resulted in sleep deprivation for mom and dad and for the kids.  A double whammy.  But in addition to just the typical thunderstorm issue, our 3 year old son (who had historically been a fantastic sleeper) decided he couldn't stay in his bed to save his life.  It didn't matter what was going on in the atmosphere, it was taking us 1-2 hours every night to get him to stay in his bed.  This literally drove mom (referring to myself in 3rd person here) to the brink of insanity.  No amount of Super Nanny tactics worked.  No amount of comforting, checking in, etc. worked.  He repeatedly said he was scared, but we couldn't identify a cause of what was making him scared...so to be honest, I didn't believe him.  I thought that was an excuse to get out of bed.  He didn't act scared.  He acted like he wanted to party.  But just like other challenging periods in our life, "necessity is the mother of invention."

I should mention that during this time period, we decided to get our son evaluated for Sensory Processing Disorder.  He had shown signs of this in the past, but it wasn't clear to me if he was just a typical boy or if there was something else going on.  (I'll write more about this in the future.) More specifically, we learned in his diagnosis that his vestibular system isn't functioning and developing properly.  What's a vestibular system you might ask?  The vestibular system is the sensory system that provides the leading contribution about sense of balance and spatial orientation for the purpose of coordinating movement with balance.  As the occupational therapist describes it, he doesn't have a good sense of where his body is in space.  Therefore, he always feels off balance.

Well, this explained so many things!  Why he runs into walls and furniture, why he is scared to walk down stairs by himself, why he can't sit still in a chair (he feels like he's falling out), and it turns out...why he can't stay in his bed.  When he lays down in a big kid bed (not a crib or toddler bed), he feels like he could fall out of the bed.  He's 3.5, so he's really too old for baby beds, so how do I solve this problem?  Therapists typically recommend using weighted blankets.  We have a weighted blanket but have been unsuccessful getting our son to use it.  He prefers his fuzzy blanket, and he understandably thinks using both blankets is too hot.  So I was at a loss.

One afternoon after trying to get him to nap for over an hour, he asked me to lay down with him.  I said, "Your twin bed is too small for both of us and all of your pillows (which he prefers to line the wall on the side of his bed.)"  He insisted.  I was exhausted, so I agreed.  We squished into the bed and in 30 seconds, he was asleep.  Interesting.

So I pondered how could I replicate this "squished" feeling for him.  That evening I suggested he sleep in his sleeping bag on his bed.  He loved the idea!  Bedtime was significantly easier.  However, his sleeping bag fell out of the bed in the middle of the night, which was not good for a child who is afraid of falling out of the bed.  So the next day, I took his bed sheet and flipped it.  I tucked it into the mattress around the sleeping bag to hold the sleeping bag in the bed.  Our son loved the idea!  Bed time again was easier, not great but better.  It only took 30 minutes instead of 1-2 hours to keep him in his bed.

But the perfectionist in me said surely, I can improve this some more.  Low and behold I found the SnugBug.  A mom in North Carolina makes these, and it's genius.  It's a spandex sheet/sleeve that fits around the mattress.  The result is basically a swaddle for child.  Our son LOVES this thing!  He is so happy to get in bed.  He stays in bed.  AND he goes to sleep in 20 minutes.  He has literally never done that in his life.  It has always taken him at least 30-60 minutes to go to sleep even when he was a baby.  He's sleeping 11-11.5 hours a night instead of the 10 hours he was getting previously.

This isn't the bedtime solution for every child who doesn't want to go to bed.  But if you have a "clumsy" child or a child with SPD or vestibular issues, this might be an idea you want to consider.  Totally life changing!

What ONE Thing Do You Want To Teach Your Children?

You always hear people say things like, "My mother always told me..." or "The one thing I learned from my dad is..."  That has always stuck with me for some reason.  While I learned a lot from my parents, I really can't think of one thing that my parents told me repeatedly.  So maybe that's why I have found the idea that some people have sort of a life motto to fall back on to be interesting and kind of comforting.

Now that I'm a parent, I have given this idea of a "life motto" more and more thought.  As a marketer, I can certainly appreciate the value of communicating one clear, concise message.  Humans aren't good at remembering much more than that.  So if I had just one thing I wanted my kids to learn from me what would it be?  Obviously, there are so many things to consider - be kind, give back, follow your heart, never give up.  The list goes on.  But oddly, it was watching The Martian that finally gave me my A-ha.

Have you seen The Martian?  If you're like us, you either haven't seen it or you saw it two years after it came out.  Either way, it's about an astronaut (Matt Damon) who is in an accident during a mission to Mars.  His team believes he's dead and leaves him behind on Mars as they make their miraculous escape.  But Matt Damon is not dead.  He awakes, realizes he's alone on Mars, and it will take months if not years for anyone to rescue him...so he has to figure out how to live on Mars.  After that, it's basically a series of problems occurring which Matt Damon must continue to solve in order to live another day.  During which he says some great lines like, "Yes, of course duct tape works in a vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere.  Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped."  And "I don't want to come off arrogant here, but I'm the best botanist on the planet (planet being Mars)." LOL.

Okay, I digressed.  So back to my point.  At the end of the movie, he is rescued and returns to earth to become a teacher at NASA.  And at the end he tells his students who are training to be astronauts his one piece of advice,

"At some point, everything's going to go south on you.  You're going to say, 'This is it.  This is how I end.'  Now, you can either accept that, or you can get to work.  You solve one problem, and then you solve the next problem, and the next, and if you solve enough problems, you get to go home."

It occurred to me that if I could only teach my kids one thing it's that the secret to navigating life is to look at life as a series of challenges.  The more challenges you overcome, the better you will do.  

Growing up, I certainly dealt with perfectionism and the fear of failure.  This approach to life made me fear problems and challenges.  Problems were a sign of failure.  This fear really held me back.  There were so many things I didn't try or do, because I feared not having immediate success.  I didn't think I could handle the feelings of disappointment or failure.  If I had just looked at life the other way - That of course problems occur.  Everyone faces challenges, problems and failure.  Even with the best planning and future-thinking in the world, you will still encounter problems.  Therefore, just expect problems, expect challenges.  And when the problems occur (because they will), you aren't defeated, helpless or angry.  You just see it as the next challenge the world or God or whatever you believe in has presented to you.  And when you solve the problem, you will be better and more successful than you were yesterday.  And if you are goal oriented (which my daughter is), consider that the person who solves the most problems is the winner!:)

In fact, we had our motto printed on a canvas and it hangs on the wall where we walk into our house, so we can see it and be reminded of it everyday.

This life approach might not speak to you or be your family's philosophy.  But just my two cents as a mom and a marketer - I think a life motto is a pretty cool gift to give your kids.  We want to teach our kids lots of things, but during confusing and hard times when they are older, our kids may lose track of the 1,236 things we've taught them through the years.  But if they have a life motto, it gives your child an easy-to-remember philosophy to fall back on.  It lets your voice be heard in their heads even when you aren't there.  And what parent of an 18 year old doesn't want that?

8 Things Mom Is Taking a Vaca From This Summer

I never thought I would look forward to summers, especially in Texas.  It's hot.  It's hot.  Oh, and did I mention it's hot.  But now that I have a child in school who has to be at school everyday by 7:45 or mom faces the embarrassment of walking into the school office to fill out a tardy slip, I have finally reached the day where I appreciate the point of summer vacation.  Yes, I'm sure the kids like having a break from school but let's face it MOM likes having a break from school...and activities...and strict schedules.  You know the drill.  So to celebrate, I made a list of the 8 (surprisingly, I couldn't swear off 10 things) things I'm not going to do for the next 2.5 months -

1.  Set the alarm - Yes, I still have to work, so it's not like I'm totally on vacation.  BUT my kids are still early risers, so if we get up at 7:15 instead of 6:45, we will all survive.  In fact, hopefully we will do more than survive.  It's amazing how much happier 30 minutes of extra sleep can make a 3 year old.

2.   Be a drill sergeant in the morning - Oh, I hate this role.  Every morning, I'm in constant motion getting breakfast on the table, giving kids time warnings, getting tooth brushes prepared, brushing hair, giving more time warnings, cleaning syrup out of hair, giving one more time warning....all before we hurriedly hop in the car with quick kisses and I love yous...mostly in hopes that they forgive me for being a drill sergeant every morning.

3.  Be at every practice or class - For the most part, we don't do lots of activities during the summer.  But my daughter wanted to take gymnastics this summer, and our son is taking swimming lessons.  During the school year, I'm a stickler for going to every practice or class and being on time.  I feel like it's a commitment the child made, and they need to keep it unless they are sick or it's a special circumstance.  But you know what?  If we don't make to everything this summer, I just don't care.  Wasting my money hurts a bit, but the freedom it allows us more than makes up for it.

4.  Making lunches that embody health everyday - My son goes to Montessori school, so I can only slide on his lunch a little or it's frowned upon.  And I hate to be frowned upon.  But my daughter's summer camp won't give a flying flip.  So if Lunchables (which she loves) go to camp this summer, we will all survive.

5.  Live by our routine and schedule everyday - This is a tough one, because kids behave better when they have routine and schedule.  Our children (a toddler and a child with anxiety) definitely behave better with a routine, so often, we live by the same schedule for purely selfish motives.  We don't want to deal with tantrums and arguments.  But I will be the first to admit that mom and dad get woefully tired of living in Ground Hog Day.  We want to say, "Screw it.  Let's go get ice cream for dinner."  Well, we are going to do a lot more of that this summer!

6.  Check school folders - Okay.  This is a given.  Kids don't have school folders and homework during the summer, but I just wanted to highlight and celebrate that it's one less thing mom has to do everyday.  Woohoo!

7.  Do the same stuff over and over again - Refer to my comment about Ground Hog Day above.  We are usually so tired from the week that we tend to do the same things over and over again on the weekend.  This summer we are going to new restaurants (ones that don't have play grounds) and new places.  There may not be napping every weekend, but my 3 year old will live.

8.  Read the news - Okay, I may not swear it off completely.  But let's face it, almost everything in the news is sad, scary, or useless.  And in an era where the biggest news cycle centers around Donald Trump, I think my happiness could be at least 5% happier everyday by not knowing what's going on in the world.  I'll take that 5% for the summer.

So that's my plan, and I'm sticking to it.  Here's to enjoying a more carefree few months!  Hope you enjoy your summer, too.

I Don't Want to Be a Helicopter Parent...But Sometimes I Am

When we were kids, we rode our bike to our friends' houses...to the store...maybe even further.  I rode my bike on a busy street.  I walked down a busy street to go to the dime store (remember that?)...and I bought candy, not organic juice.  I would go to multiple friends' houses and all my mom knew was that I promised to be home by dinner time.  Oh the sacrilege.  But I have to admit, when I think about letting my child do those things now, I get nervous.  I get very nervous.

Our daughter is 6 now, and she is definitely spreading her independence wings.  And so it has made me question myself and how much freedom I should give her, how much she needs, and how to deal with my discomfort of letting go.

We live in a very safe neighborhood.  If you look at the sex offender website, there isn't a sex offender within 5 miles of us.  I think we have prepared our child for interacting with strangers.  We have taught her how to cross the street.  She is very mature and cautious for her age, and yet, I still feel nervous about letting her go out in to the world (the world being...our street).

Why is this?  I think it comes down to two things - too much information and too much judgment.  I'm not sure the world is really more dangerous today than it was 25 years ago.  I think we just have way more knowledge than we used to.  And we judge those who don't have the same knowledge.  For example, a couple of weeks ago, there was a post by the police on a local Facebook page letting everyone know an adult in a truck and attempted (albeit unsuccessfully) to lure a child into his truck after getting off the bus.  There's one part of me who says, "Awesome!  Thank you for letting me know.  Now my child is safer."   Then, there's the other part of me that thinks, "25 years ago I would have never had that piece of information and thus, ignorance would have given me peace of mind today."

Now let's just say I chose to let my daughter walk over to her friend's house after school by herself even though I knew there might be a creep in a 10 mile radius of our home.  And then, let's assume she did encounter the creep.  I am to blame, right?  Because I was made aware of the creep via my Facebook news feed, and I chose to still allow her to walk by herself in our neighborhood.

As parents, we all try to reassure each other that we should parent the best way we know how and not worry about judgment.  That's very easy to say when we are talking about kids throwing tantrums or watching TV or eating organic vs. non-organic.  When we start talking about child safety, judgment is a whole different ballgame.  You see as humans, when we see danger, we instinctively want to be able to rule out the possibility of that danger affecting us.  "My child would never have been approached by that creep, because I'm member of the right FB page, and I monitor that page, and I would have driven my child to her friend's house to ensure she was protected."  Whew.  I'm a better mom, and my child is safe.  But really what I also did there was say that any other mom who would have done it differently (and thus put her child at risk) is not a good mom.  And we all want to be a "good mom."

So what's the solution?  Our children clearly need freedom and independence to grow.  It's required to ensure our children leave home one day and support themselves (that should be motivation!).  I think as a society we need to be more supportive of parents who give their kids independence.  We should reserve judgment for those who abused their children not for those who simply encouraged independence.  And when bad things happen (because they do happen and they will happen), we should focus more on compassion for the parents and less on why it wouldn't happen to us.

But let's face it, changing society is a little out of our control.  So what can we do as parents to overcome this societal trend?  I think the best thing we can do is remember the adage - Don't remove the rocks in their path.  Teach them to navigate the rocks.  Sometimes this is really hard to apply as a parent.  It's easier to protect than to teach in the moment.  But if we are doing the best thing for our children, we really need to take all of our new-found FB knowledge and turn it into ways to prepare our children rather than protect our children.  I will be the first to admit I don't always do this, but I'm making a resolution to focus more on the preparation and less on the protecting.  And to maybe stay off Facebook occasionally too!

Men, Here's What We Really Want for Mother's Day

So it's May 4th and you still have a whole 4 days before Mother's Day, so if you are like my husband, you still have at least 3 days left before you need to think about Mother's Day.  But humor me and pay attention...just in case you want to plan ahead.  If you want to be an amazing husband, here's what you need to do on Mother's Day.  Be Mom.

Yep, that's it.  Now, making her breakfast, buying her flowers, and getting the kids to make something for mom would be amazing, too.  But really, the core of the gift is to be mom for the day.  Many of you may feel confused by what this really entails, so I'll be specific about your duties for the day.

1.  Get up with the kids and take care of them while mom sleeps in.
This step probably needs some additional direction (if you are anything like my husband).  Getting up with the kids doesn't mean getting out of bed, handing the kids a bag of Lucky Charms and then falling asleep again on the couch and secretly hoping the kids forget you are there.  It means you feed them something relatively nutritious (to avoid unnecessary sugar highs).  You make sure they take vitamins, medicines, etc....the things that are a part of the daily routine that you likely believe are mom's job to enforce.  Make sure breakfast is cleaned up - very important part of the process.  And then, supervise.  Yep, that means you referee, manage messes, generally engage with the kids while mom rests.

2.  Take care of the daily chores
This includes unloading the dishwasher, feeding the pets, running a load of laundry, making sure you have food to make lunches for Monday, etc.  These are very thankless jobs that it's easy to assume "someone" will take care of.  But if you want to be mom for the day, you should assume you are the "someone."

3.  Make sure the kids are dressed and ready for the day
Despite popular belief, young children don't usually initiate putting their clothes on or brushing their teeth.  They have to be given clothes, asked (often repeatedly) to put on given clothes, and then, supervised to ensure they complete the hair and teeth brushing process.  One of the favorite parts of moms' days is being the "bad cop" and managing this grueling process.  So dad, you will be a hero by being the "bad cop" for a day.

4.  Plan the day
This one is critical.  We need you to decide what we are doing that day.  Are we going to church?  Are we going to brunch (did you make a reservation)?  Are you cooking?  Are we going somewhere else?  Being the leader and decision maker is a tough job - lots of critics, few helpers.  So dad - give mom the gift of letting her be the critic for the day.

5.  Manage the children
Now this one may sound confusing.  You may be thinking - don't I always do that?  I'm the dad.  But to be specific, this one includes making the kids pick up their toys, enforcing rules about TV and tablets, refereeing sibling fights, making sure children make it through parking lots safely, etc.  Basically, think about what the kids are doing or need all day and worry about what you want to do after the kids are in bed.  That will cover it.

6.  Prepare for the next day
Last but not least, prepare for tomorrow.  A popular misconception is the day is over when the kids are in bed.  But no, Monday morning will come fast and furious and if you aren't prepared, the day could unravel early.  So Sunday night includes making sure homework is complete, backpacks are packed, the right clothes are laid out (is it a PE day?), and lunches are made.

There you go - 6 simple things that require no money or even pre-planning that will make the mom in your house the happiest mom in the neighborhood on Mother's Day!

Are the Normal "Aging" Symptoms Really Normal?

Since the birth of my daughter 6 years ago, my body has changed.  But really I thought that's normal - everyone's body changes after child birth, right?  I was constantly tired.  I couldn't think clearly.  Sleep was much harder than it had once been.  I was easily irritated.  And sex, what's that?  And of course I'm nearing 40 and I have 2 kids (and a husband) and I work.  So this is just part of life, right? Well, about 18 months ago, it was like a switch flipped.  And then the worst thing happened - I could no longer maintain my weight.  Okay, I know that's very vain.  All of the other symptoms should have prompted me to make changes, but sadly, it was vanity that prompted me to figure out what was going on.

So I started Googling all of my symptoms and guess what I found out?  There was something out of balance.  That's about it.  Turns out my symptoms can indicate lots of things -Estrogen Dominance, Low Estrogen, Low Progesterone, Low Testosterone, Protein Deficiency, Hypothyroid, Poor Adrenal Function.  So really all I learned was something was out of balance.  It's basically what is termed now as perimenopause or perithyroid.  I tried talking to my doctors about it, which resulted in very little help, too.  Their perspective was my blood work looked great, my weight was fine, I showed no signs of cancer or heart disease - So they were very unconcerned.  They basically said, "Yeah, you are getting older and this is normal."  

So I looked further, and I did find there were some differentiating symptoms:

This certainly gave me a few more clues.  But why did so many of the symptoms point to so many different issues?  It turns out your thyroid, sex hormones, and adrenal glands are all very connected.  Therefore, if one is out of balance, it can throw everything off.  I created another little chart to better explain the relationships.

As you can see if one piece of the puzzle is off, everything can be affected.  So understanding these other symptoms and relationships helped me start putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

I started with protein.  I was 100% sure I had protein deficiency and had probably had protein deficiency my whole life.  I started having brittle, peeling nails in my 20's.  I had always felt light-headed when I was hungry (didn't have enough protein to regulate my blood sugar).  I had chicken-skin (bumps) on the back of my arms and legs, which actually was a result of the sugar.  And in the past couple of years, I noticed I was losing muscle tone despite exercising regularly.  Once I increased my protein intake to 80 grams a day and reduced my sugar/processed food intake, all of these symptoms improved.  My nails are perfect now.  I don't get light-headed any more.  My skin is smooth.  And I instantly started building muscle again.  I had so much more muscle in my abs than I had had in years!  Amazing.

So protein helped some, but...I still kept gaining weight.  And I was still fatigued.  And I sure didn't have a libido.  I even occasionally had night sweats and hot flashes.  What?  And I wasn't sleeping well either.  I knew I had low ferritin (iron stores) despite my protein-intake and iron supplementation.  So I continued down the investigation path.  It seemed highly likely that I didn't have enough Vitamin B-12, iodine (helps with iron absorption), and selenium in my diet.  I felt like my diet or current supplementation covered magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin C.  So I added vitamin B complex, kelp (for iodine), and selenium supplements to my routine.  Within a week, I could tell I had more energy and the weight gain seemed to stop...but still no weight loss.

So I continued.  I had another data point.  I was diagnosed with low ovarian reserve when I was 34.  While my fertility doctor didn't address this at the time, I now know that indicates my ovaries haven't been producing adequate estrogen and progesterone for some time.  So I added a natural progesterone cream to my routine.  In two days, I was sleeping like a baby.  Oh, and my boobs started in inflate.  Seriously.  I had no idea fixing my hormones could fix the sagging.  I thought that was from being pregnant, and only a surgeon could make improvements.  Okay, one more known problem solved and one great additional perk.

But still no weight loss, no libido and not as much energy as I had hoped.  It seemed that estrogen was likely my last problem.  The imbalance between estrogen and progesterone would explain the weight gain in my thighs.  I had lots of other symptoms on the low estrogen list, too.  But oddly, my cycles were normal.  So why?  Well, it occurred to me that when I increased my protein, I increased my intake of all of the hormones the food industry puts in our food.  So after all of these years of resisting organic, my vanity finally pushed me over the edge.  Well, the next month my cycle was 37 days long.  Ridiculous.  And I knew it was because I had a very long follicular phase (oh the things you learn in fertility treatment) and that was likely a result of low estrogen.  It seemed that now that I had eliminated all of the foods mimicking estrogen, I could see what was really going on in my body.  I added a supplement called maca root.  It's like ginseng but found in Latin America.  And it's known to help your body produce estrogen and balance your hormones.  In two days, I felt like a million bucks.  My runs were great - so full of energy.  I was more relaxed.  I was nicer to my kids.  I was more affectionate with my husband.  And despite eating chocolate for 3 days straight, I lost 3 pounds in a week.  Absolutely amazing.

I'm not sure I have everything figured out.  After all, you can certainly have too much supplementation (as my husband coincidentally figured out during this period which explained his fatigue).  But after 18 months of research, I am armed with a lot more information and hope now.  I will be taking my two handy charts above, along with my list of symptoms and currents supplements to my primary care physician when I have my physical in August.  I want him to test my ferritin (because I know what it was previously), my T3 and reverse T3 (much better indicators of thyroid function than just TSH) and each of my hormones.  He might not do it, of course, but hopefully when he sees my list of supplementation, he will be somewhat persuaded.

If or when you start feeling these mysterious aging symptoms that seem to be going around these days, don't buy into it and accept that you are just aging.  Yes, it's true that your body can no longer deal with imbalances and nutrition deficiencies like it could in your 20's or even 30's.  But if you make some simple diet or supplement adjustments, you could go back to feeling like you did in your 20's or 30's.

I Found the Answer to my Food Delivery Prayers!

Yes, I finally found a great food delivery service.  Okay, it might sound extreme, but here's why it's so amazing.  I hate cooking.  My kids hate eating.  My husband gets very stressed when he has to cook every night.  We want to remain relatively healthy, non-obese people.  So you can clearly see our dilemma.

Ever since the launch of food services like Blue Apron, I have been in awe.  Brilliant I thought!  I have always wanted a personal chef.  But sadly, none of the "learn to cook" food services met our needs.  I mean I think Blue Apron would have been cool before we had kids or once our kids are older, but right now...I don't need someone to send me recipes and ingredients.  I need ready-to-eat food I can get on the table in between screaming and fighting and all of the other pleasantries that occur at that 5:00 PM hour everyday.  I also want something that doesn't make me want to kill my children when after working on it for 30 minutes and getting it to the table amidst the chaos to hear both of my children say, "Ewww...that's gross.  I don't like that.  I don't know what it is, but I'm sure I don't like it."

So automatically, that narrowed down the field for me.  I wanted prepared dishes that just needed to be heated up - but were a step above frozen dinners.  There are a few out there, but I found they didn't work for us.  Either, it turned out they really did need some additional prep time.  Or we had to order family style, which meant my husband and I constantly had to eat meatloaf (one of the only things our kids agree on).  Or they didn't offer anything I thought I could get my kids to eat.  Or they just didn't taste good.

I was ready to give up.  But then, a little ad came across my Facebook page one day for a service called Freshly.  "Chef prepared, healthy meals delivered weekly."  It looked like it had potential.  So I explored further.  They had 25 meals to choose from each week - that is amazing!  Way more than any other food service I've looked at.  Meals are individual servings, so every member of the family could eat something different each night if you so desired.  But this is great, because I can buy meatloaf for the kids, salmon for me, and pork for my husband and everyone is happy!  The meals are completely prepared - including meat and vegetables.  All you have to do is heat them up for 2 minutes and serve (and all of the meals come in BPA-free containers, so I don't feel bad about microwaving).  My husband (who is always skeptical) was even willing to give it a try.  And so we placed our first order.  Because the real test is the taste.

And the result?  Fan-freaking-tastic!  We have tried the turkey chili, meatloaf, chicken rustica, grilled chicken fajita, coconut lime salmon, Moroccan chicken, BBQ pork chop, the frittata, and the quiche.  It has all been great!  Not a complaint about any of it - and that's microwaving chicken and salmon, which to say the least, is risky.  My husband even commented that the black-eyed peas and collard greens, which he thought would be awful, were one of the best things he had ever tasted.

So how much does it cost?  Well, it's not super cheap, but it's also not super expensive.  Our kids share one meal, which is plenty, so we need 3 meals/day.  We order 9 meals/week, which is $99/week.  If you buy more meals, it gets cheaper.  If we bought food at the grocery store to make 3 meals, we would probably spend $60-70/week.  So it is an increase, but totally worth it.  No stress, no planning, no dishes, and hey, I'm sure we save money by not making impulse purchases in the grocery store!

And why am I promoting Freshly?  Because we love it, and want it to stay in business.  And because it has been a game changer for us at dinner time.  So go try it...now...go...you will love it!:)

Check out Freshly here