MamaManagement

This post is as much for me as it is for you. I am just beginning my journey into the land of Body Positivity and #BellyLove is my next big step. As many of you saw in my last post about diet culture, I've recently been inspired by a #BodyPositivity movement that came to my attention through Instagram. This movement is all about loving our bodies just as they are, in whatever shape they are in. It's about ditching the pervasive diet culture and body shaming, and seeing the beauty in every body...especially our own. This Body Positivity movement is connected to another movement called # HealthatEverySize . Which focuses on being healthy and doing the best for your body regardless of what size you are. Not worrying about what the scale says or whether of not you have washboard abs and a thigh gap, and instead focusing on eating foods that make your body feel good and doing movement that promotes good mental and physical health AND feels good...without caring at all abo...

I have subscribed to the pervasive diet culture that exists in the United States for my entire adolescent and adult life. As a one hundred and fifteen pound teenager, I believed myself fat. My body, though I see now in the rearview mirror of age, was beautiful even by society's standards, became a loathsome enemy very early on. I compared myself to magazines and movies and friends. Everyone was always thinner and more beautiful. Everyone had clearer skin and a skinnier waist and thinner thighs. I was an attractive enough girl...and then woman. I wasn't "ugly" per se, but I was less than. Within each decade of my life, there seemed to be some magical (and unattainable) number on the scale that held the holy grail of "enough". If I could just get to that number...120, 125, 130, 135...then everything would be great. I'd be thin enough, pretty enough, fashionable enough... I'd be enough. As I got older, especially once I had kids, that "...

Happy New Year!! Welcome 2014!  Okay, so I'm almost three weeks late on this, but cut me a little slack. (Please.) I intended to take two weeks off from the blog for the holidays, but two weeks turned into three weeks and then started knocking on the door of four, and here we are: twelve days into January and I'm just now getting to it. That doesn't mean I haven't thought about blogging. Oh, I have. It means I haven't had much alone time to write. Which means that I haven't worked on the novel since November, and I haven't written a blog post since before Christmas. Sigh. But that's what the new year is for…new beginnings, just when you need it!! However, before I get into the new things for 2014 (I'll be talking new year's resolutions later this week), I want to go back a bit... 2013 has come to an end and 2014 blossoms before us, all shiny and new. I'm feeling pretty good about moving on from 2013. It was a big year for my family. A ...

I love yummy smells. The freshly mowed grass of summer. Orange blossoms in the spring. The burning leaves of fall. Cookies baking on a winter afternoon. Coffee brewing on a chilly Sunday morning. Laundry warm and fresh from the dryer. Mmmmmmmm. I am drawn to yummy smells, which makes me a sucker for things like scented candles and perfumes. But I'm very picky about the scents I surround myself with. Nothing too strong. Nothing too far from nature. Nothing thick or cloying. Nothing "perfume-y." In that vein, I have recently come across some scents that I really enjoy...and in a form that I am currently loving: the rollerball perfume-- small, inexpensive, portable, and easy to apply without ever accidentally overdoing it. So, I thought I'd share... These are my newest finds. I came across them in a cute little shop in Sutton's Bay, MI, called The Happy Woman, while on vacation. They are by The Beehive . My current everyday favorite is Lulu Lemondrop . It is...

One of the things I love to do is share with others the great things that I find. Great recipes. Great books. Great services. Great products. Whatever. Need a fabulous carpet cleaner in the Cleveland-Akron area? Let me know, because I have a fantastic one! Need a good dip to bring to a party? I've got a recipe for you. Need something to read on vacation? Tell me what you like and I can recommend a good read. That being said, I thought I'd periodically share some products with you that I think are wonderful and that you might enjoy as well. So, I thought I'd do just that today...think of me as Oprah, and these are a few of my favorite things...except that most of my favorite things are relatively cheap and can be found at places like Target or Amazon...and, except that I'm not really even close to being like Oprah...but, I still have favorite things too. (Oh, and don't get too excited. I am not giving away free stuff at the end of this post. Yet another way I am no...