Just for mom Archives - The Joys of Boys

Monday Motivation: Mother’s Day Stories

May 6, 2013 By Kara Leave a Comment

Can you believe that this week marks 1 year that I started my blog? Well, maybe you can, but I can’t. That means 1 year of Monday Motivations (minus a few missed weeks when life got in the way).

Since Mother’s Day is this weekend I thought it would be fun to go back over the Monday Motivations from this past year and put some of the most popular posts about mothers together in one spot. To read these Mother’s Day stories, just click on the link or accompanying picture to take you to the post. I hope all of you mothers out there feel extra loved this week and realize what a great blessing it is to be a mom.

10 Motivational Mother’s Day Stories

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Finding the Mother in Me

March 26, 2013 By Kara Leave a Comment

I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was terrified, confused, terrified, anxious, terrified, overwhelmed, terrified, exhausted, and did I mention TERRIFIED? I remember sitting and crying and wondering “what now?” But wasn’t this supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life? Why weren’t my tears actually tears of joy? I had just brought a beautiful, perfect baby boy home from the hospital, something I had always wanted to do, so why wasn’t I excited? I didn’t feel like a mother and I was worried that I would have a hard time finding the mother in me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Just for Mom, Monday Motivation Tagged With: inspirational quotes, Just for mom, Monday Motivation, motivation for moms

How You Can “Happify” Your Life

March 11, 2013 By Kara 9 Comments

A few weeks ago I posted a Monday Motivation titled How to be Happy which was basically saying that we need to stop trying to be perfect and enjoy the life that we have, not the one we think we want and we need to stop waiting for some future date or accomplishment to allow ourselves to be happy.

Since that post I’ve had an eye-opening experience in regards to finding daily happiness. I was invited to be a pioneer for a website called Happify. Basically Happify is a new website based on the science behind what makes people happy. It provides daily activities that allow you to stop and focus on the things in your life that bring you happiness and it helps you to savor the daily experiences that you have and then share those with other people who are also sharing their happy moments as well. It is so nice to not see all of the negativity that you find on other social networks. Happify is currently invite-only but read to the bottom and I have a little gift for a few people.

How to be Happy

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Filed Under: Just for Mom, Monday Motivation Tagged With: inspirational quotes, Just for mom, Monday Motivation

Monday Motivation: It’s Just What Moms Do

February 25, 2013 By Kara 2 Comments

It’s Just What Moms Do

Last night I was startled awake by a horrible coughing sound coming from my boys’ room. I was almost instantly on my feet and into their room to see who was sick. It’s just what moms do.

If you are a mom, you know what it feels like to be able to go from peacefully dreaming to wide awake and ready to take action in less than 1.3 seconds while your husband could sleep through a hurricane. Or is that just me? ha!

I went into their room and found my 4-year-old coughing so hard his little body was practically folding in half but somehow he was still asleep. So I went to work and did as any mom would do. I gave him some cough medicine and a drink, got the humidifier going in his room and rubbed him up with mentholatum, all while he stayed asleep. (He must get that from his dad ) And then I rubbed his back and I waited. I waited for the coughing to subside and I waited for his little body to finally relax so that I could relax.

And while I was lying there waiting to make sure the coughing went away, I thought of all of the other moms all over the world who were doing the exact same thing as I was for their babies. Sitting up, even if it meant all night, to make sure their kids are safe and healthy and then the thought came to me, “That’s just what moms do”. And it is. It’s just what moms do.

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Filed Under: Just for Mom, Monday Motivation Tagged With: Just for mom, Monday Motivation, motivation for moms, parenting, Raising boys

How to Reach a Goal : 10 tips for Busy Parents

February 4, 2013 By Kara 16 Comments

How to Reach a Goal

If you’re anything like me you may have some goals or dreams that you had to push to the back burner because you have kids. As parents to busy kids, it may seem that we don’t have time to even think about setting and especially don’t have time to worry about how to reach a goal that we’ve set. Our biggest “goals” for the day may be showering before noon or making sure the kids have matching, clean clothes. It’s the first week of February and sadly statistics show that 92% of New Years resolutions have probably already failed. That’s sad!

So as a busy parent, how can we set and actually reach real goals? Do you even remember what your goals/dreams were before you had kids?

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to teach a class to the ladies at church on setting and reaching goals. I was a little surprised when they asked be, because, well my life is complete chaos most of the time but there are a few things I’ve learned over the years that can make reaching goals a bit easier and setting goals has always been important to me.