Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 67

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© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Giveaway: Phoenix Community Coffee Sample Collection

Several years ago, I started researching “fair trade” chocolate and coffee. At that time, our family made the decision to only purchase these optional products (although whether chocolate and coffee are really optional is up for debate, I know) from fair trade companies since conventional chocolate actually comes from child slave labor — let’s pause there for a second and let that sink in — and conventionally sold coffee takes advantage of poor farmers in some of the poorest nations in the world in order to increase profit margin.

And that’s where Phoenix Community Coffee comes in.

They purchase all of their coffee direct from the coffee farm at a price substantially more than the “fair-trade” minimum. Purchasing direct ensures maximum compensation to the farmers and their workers, resulting in daily wages over 300% more than other farms.

On the front end, each bag of Phoenix Community Coffee sold also resources domestic relief projects such as ending the commercial exploitation of children, ending homelessness, restoring abuse victims, supporting single mothers, and much more. And that’s what they call The Cycle of Relief.

But here’s what I really love. They have a simple motto: “No cause is worth drinking a bad cup of coffee.”

To keep people coming back, they’re committed to selling high-quality, delicious coffee! They start with 100% Arabica coffee, grown and rated as specialty coffee, from a single source. Then they roast the coffee beans fresh in their facility, using a micro-roast system to ensure the quality of each batch.

And with a variety of specialty coffees, you’re sure to find one you love!

Enter to Win

This week, Phoenix Community Coffee is giving one lucky Life Your Way reader a collection of coffee so you can try it yourself:

one 12 oz. bag of Mid-City (medium roast)
seven fractional packages (1.5 oz. each):

caramel
chocolate
decaf
french vanilla
half-caff
hazelnut
peppermint chocolate

To enter, fill out the form below:

The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, 1/24. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well. Unfortunately, due to the international laws governing sweepstakes and lotteries, we’re only able to offer these giveaways to U.S. residents 18 years and older.

Giveaway: Phoenix Community Coffee Sample Collection

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Weekend Reading: January 18, 2014

source: Mandi Ehman

Although my husband might not agree with this assessment, I really do try not to complain a lot, especially online. Not because I want to appear like I have the perfect life but because I think sometimes when we verbalize or write down the negatives, they become even bigger and harder in our hearts and minds. I prefer, instead, to focus on the beauty of this crazy, imperfect life.

That said, I don’t want to contribute to Superwoman-itis, this idea that some women “do it all” and the rest of us should live up to their standards. So it’s important to me to be honest too.

And that’s why there are a few more posts on the blog and social media these days about my struggle to balance life with a newborn with homeschooling and my role as the breadwinner of our family. It has certainly not been an easy transition, despite having Sean home full time, and I’m working hard to maintain a good attitude as the days tick by without any noticeable progress on projects (like the new site!). I’m also focusing on being intentional about my choices because it would be too easy to simply cancel school day after day or pass off the baby so I can get work done. Instead of focusing on the frustration, I’ve been writing “His mercies are new every day” a lot in my new planner, and I am taking it day-by-day as I try to figure out what works!

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading and what I’m pinning to see the other posts that make me stop and think (or, you know, drool…). You’ll find new posts all week long!

But first, I hope you’ll take a minute to read about this exciting project. To celebrate her site’s 10th anniversary, Amy of Mom Advice is raising funds to build two wells in Burkina Faso (in addition to the well her family has already committed to sponsoring!). You can make a donation in any amount, even just a dollar or two, to help them make this a reality! Join me in helping them build these wells?

Education {A Love for Learning}

Ten Ways to Raise Writers by Julie Falatko | Nerdy Book Club


Tablets Make It Nearly Impossible for Kids to Get Lost in a Story | The Atlantic


Is the American School System Damaging Our Kids? | Reader’s Digest

Green {Health & Nutrition}


The Dark Side of Healthy Eating: Diagnosing ‘Orthorexia’ Eating Disorders | Christianitytoday.com



10 Reasons Why Low Fat is NOT High Nutrition | Empowered Sustenance


How to keep a stomach virus from spreading through your house | Examiner.com

Family {Married with Children}

7 Perks of Getting Married Young | Early Mama


200 Ways to Bless your Children with a Happy Childhood | Little Hearts


15 new year’s resolutions for the introverted homeschool mom | Simple Homeschool

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Weekend Reading: January 18, 2014

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesWeekend Reading: January 11, 2014Weekend Reading: January 4, 2014Weekend Reading: December 28, 2013

My Secret Blogging Weapon: The Blog Break

source: Mandi Ehman

Burnout is a slow process.

It doesn’t happen overnight; it happens one blog post, one stressful day, one hurtful comment, one moment at a time.

It happens to writers and creatives and entrepreneurs.

And it can kill a blog, a business, even a family.

Honestly, the formula for avoiding burnout is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy: you have to stay filled.

Let me show you what I mean:

My parents recently moved to South Florida, where they have an outdoor swimming pool they can enjoy year-round. But they have to keep the pool filled, which requires a careful dance. You see, the water level has to stay above the filters in order for them to work properly, but they don’t want to waste water by overflowing the pool just to have the water go down the drains in the patio. Thankfully, there are a few inches of leeway to allow for the natural evaporation and rain cycle.

Sometimes — during the heat of the summer or when certain grandchildren are splashing in the pool several times a day — the water level gets low enough that they have to fill it with the hose, which can get expensive. So as it starts to get low, they start watching the forecast: Will it rain? How long can they hold out before they have to fill it? On the other hand, sometimes they get monsoon-like storms that cause the pool to overflow. That’s great news…except when it happens the day after they’ve spent the money to fill the pool from the hose!

So they look for ways to strike a balance, to keep it full enough so that everything works as it should without wasting money on filling it with too much water.

Similarly, in order to keep creating, running a blog, writing, etc., you need to stay filled — emotionally, spiritually, physically. That means spending time with your family, reading a good book, listening to music that feeds your soul, exercising your body, appreciating the beauty around you. It doesn’t mean you spend all your time consuming, but it does mean making room to breathe and think and dream, to let your heart and mind form connections and fill you up.

That’s why the best ideas often happen in the shower, where you’re relaxed and alone, if only for five minutes. Or why inspiration strikes when you’re not at your computer but out hiking with your family or sipping coffee with a friend.

In the five years since I started blogging professionally, I’ve taken four significant blogging breaks (most recently as part of my maternity leave), and the result is always the same: a few days in, inspiration strikes. My vision and dreams for the future become clearer, unclouded by the stress of daily pressures. The post ideas begin to flow as I focus on living my life rather than writing about it. And by the end, I’m usually itching to dive back in and start creating once more.

We tend to think that we don’t have time to take a break, that it’s too hard to work ahead or that our readers will simply disappear if we stop writing. But a week or two away (or even a month) really won’t kill your blog, and it’s worth preparing a few posts in advance if posting regular content is important for you.

To be honest, at the beginning of every break my fear isn’t that my blog won’t survive but that I’ll never want to return. And it’s true: I love not having to-do lists and projects and just being able to read and spend time with my kids and go do things…for a few days. But I also really enjoy working, and it doesn’t take long before I’m itching to jump back in.

If you haven’t taken a blog break in the last year — or ever — now’s the time to get one on the calendar for 2014. It’s worth it. I promise!

Ways to prepare for a break:

Schedule reposts of your most popular posts for while you’re gone. Be sure to include a day or two on each end of the break, especially if you’ll be traveling, so that you have time to get in the mindset of your break and ease back into work.


Collect guest posts from other bloggers you respect and schedule those ahead of time.


If you prefer to post fresh content from yourself, write a few posts ahead of time.


Or, simply announce that you’re taking a break and don’t worry about scheduling posts ahead of time.

While on your break, be sure to have a notebook handy. Don’t try to force the ideas to flow (that defeats the purpose of a break), but you’ll want to be ready to write them down once they start to flow!

And in between your regular breaks, look for ways to unplug every day:

Make time for a daily cup of coffee or cup of tea away from the computer
Read a book
Read a magazine
Go for a walk with your family
Listen to a podcast
Put music on while you clean/cook/whatever
Play a game
Commit to unplugging for a certain period of time every day

While the idea of making time away from the computer can cause its own kind of stress, the benefits of making it happen outweigh the stress every time!

How often do you intentionally unplug? When was the last time you took a blogging break?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

My Secret Blogging Weapon: The Blog Break

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Snowman Soap Bottle Kid Craft

The following post is from Kristina of Toddler Approved:

source: Kristina Buskirk

During the winter lots of germs are passed around and we are constantly washing our hands. I thought it would be fun to make some snowman decorated soap bottles with my kids to give out to our neighbors for the holidays and all winter long.

After many weeks with sick kids, I’ve decided that you can never have too much soap and it needs to be easily accessible! Making soap bottles cute helps them get used more often too.

We were originally going to just make these snowman soap bottles we found over at Crafts and Crap but after lots of looking, we never found soap bottles that were as perfect (and I was too lazy to remove all the labels completely). Instead we decided to use some paper and use it to jazz up our soap bottles a bit.

Supplies:

soap bottles
white paper
tape
tacky glue
ribbon
scissors
sequins (or other embellishments)
buttons (varied sizes/colors)
orange felt

Directions:

For this project we started off by making a snowman template that would fit the size of the soap bottles we purchased. Then, we used the template to help us make a paper snowman for each bottle.

Once the snowmen were drawn, we cut them out. Then we pulled off the soap labels and used the remaining sticky residue to help us stick the paper snowmen onto the bottles. You can reinforce with tape if the residue doesn’t keep your paper snowman in place.

source: Kristina Buskirk

Next, we added sequin eyes, buttons, and felt carrot noses using tacky glue. Tacky glue will adhere to fabric and felt, so it is essential.

After everything dried, we tied a piece of ribbon around the snowman’s neck to create a scarf, and then the snowman soap bottles were ready to be distributed!

source: Kristina Buskirk

Before we dropped them off we added a little note that wished our friends a happy and healthy New Year!

I think if you were to ask my kids, their favorite part of this project was sorting through the buttons and sequins and picking their favorites for the snowmen to wear!

Here are a few other snowman themed crafts or activities we are loving right now…

Indoor Snowman Toss game via Toddler Approved
Snowman Potato Printing via Growing a Jeweled Rose
Snowman Stitched Greeting Card via Make and Takes
Snowman Thank You Cards via Toddler Approved

Do you have any other favorite snowman themed crafts or activities?

Kristina is a mom of 3 and a former Special Ed teacher for children with communication disabilities. She blogs at Toddler Approved as she looks for ways to make life a little more fun and creative with her kids while embedding learning into everything that she does. Kristina tweets as @ToddlerApproved and can be found on FB and Pinterest.

Snowman Soap Bottle Kid Craft

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

A Peek Inside My Current Planner {Plus a New Printable Daily Action Planner!}

After enjoying two-and-a-half months of focusing on my family and our new baby boy, I am slowly trying to rediscover my mojo and get back in the groove of working. Needless to say, I’m not nearly as productive as I used to be, but I’m working hard to create new habits — habits that allow me to be focused and productive during certain work hours without sacrificing the girls’ school or time with our little guy.

The first week of the year, I focused on work, and it went fairly well. But the girls were still off school. Last week, we added school back into our schedule, and it went really well. But I didn’t get any work done.

So this weekend, I spent some time reading Crystal Paine’s new book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, reviewing the various daily planners that other bloggers have shared, and revamping our Daily Action Planner. While my Invite.l planner had been working really well before Jackson — and I hope to return to that system in the future  — I need a more detailed planning tool for this season.

Here’s what I came up with:

Daily Action Planner {New & Improved}

The new Daily Action Planner {full size} or {half-sheet} includes several important sections:

Today’s Focus: This area is right at the top of the planner as a place for my One Word for the year, a quote or a verse I want to live by each day. Taking the time to choose a focus for each day helps me live more intentionally and evaluate the things on my to-do list in light of this focus, which I hope will help me choose the best rather than trying to do everything that’s good.


Three Projects: There are a million projects on my to-do list right now as I attempt to finish the Life Your Way redesign, homeschool the girls, release new Life Your Way projects, etc. But trying to do everything at once leaves me unfocused and overwhelmed. Instead, I’m following the Storyline method of selecting three projects per day to focus on, And in all honesty, mine will actually be two projects — one for the early morning and one for the afternoon — plus homeschooling midday.


Appointments: This section gives me a place to list any appointments so I can plan my other activities around those time-sensitive commitments.


Have-Tos: Because there are a ton of things on my to-do list besides actual projects, the have-to list allows me to list small to-do items that don’t fit under a project heading but still need to be done. The limited space forces me to evaluate those and pick the most important. (And “shower” is definitely a have-to!)


Get-Tos: I stole the idea for this section from the Storyline planner as well, as a place where I can list things like exercise, reading goals, movie night, etc. This helps me stay on track with my goals (and reminds me not to waste time zoning out on social media when I could be reading instead) without making those fun items feel like drudgery. It also lets me make time for them without feeling guilty.


Meals & Water Intake: And finally, taking a few minutes in the morning to decide on meals helps me actually prep ingredients ahead of time so we can stick to the plan. I also haven’t been drinking enough water lately either, so I added 8 circles to remind me to drink 8 glasses of water.

Other Planning Printables

But a daily planner wasn’t enough. I also added my 2014 Monthly Calendars {full size} or {half-sheet} so that I can see all of our commitments and appointments for the month in one place, the Weekly Overview {full size} or {half-sheet} where I can write down appointments, blog posts and other time-sensitive projects, and a blank page for a weekly brain dump.

I then made myself a cute little cover with my word of the year (Live) and a verse (Galatians 2:20).

However, depending on your needs, you might want to pick and choose from these printables instead:

Daily To-Do List {full size} or {half-sheet}
Master To-Do List {full size} or {half-sheet}
Weekly Meal Planner {full size} or {half-sheet}
Weekly Action Planner {full size only}

How do you keep track of your daily commitments, goals and to-do lists?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

A Peek Inside My Current Planner {Plus a New Printable Daily Action Planner!}

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

How to Use Castor Oil to Induce Labor {and Not Be Miserable}

The thing about being a blogger is that the best inspiration usually strikes as you’re going about your day and not when you’re sitting with a blog planner trying to come up with things to write about. That’s exactly what happened in the weeks after Jackson’s birth as I thought of a dozen things I wanted to share with you about the newborn stage. The only problems? One, I was on maternity leave and determined to protect that time as much as possible. And two, it was Christmas time and the blog calendar was already very full with seasonal posts.

So instead I made lists of the things I wanted to share, and I’m excited to introduce a new series: Notes from the Newborn Daze. Because I know not all of our readers are at this stage or interested in reading baby tips, I’ll be sharing those just once a week over the next couple of months, with plenty of tips, stories and encouragement for other  stages in between.

source: Mandi Ehman

As I mentioned in Jackson’s birth story, after 10 days of prodomal labor — and with my doctor’s permission — I used castor oil to naturally induce labor. Despite all the horror stories I’d heard and read, it actually worked pretty perfectly for me, so I thought I’d kick off this series by sharing how I used it and what I learned from the experience:

Please note, however, that I am not a licensed medical professional, and this is just my experience, not medical advice. You should consult with your doctor or midwife before using castor oil (or any other natural induction techniques, for that matter!). It’s also worth noting that the definition of full-term has been moved from 37 weeks to 38 weeks of pregnancy, and you shouldn’t attempt to induce labor before then!

Castor oil is a stimulant laxative that causes contractions in the bowels, which in turn stimulates uterine contractions. Like most natural induction methods, this only leads to labor if your body is ready for labor — full term, cervix soft and dilating, etc. While there is always speculation that castor oil also causes the baby to pass meconium, it’s my understanding that castor oil does not cross the placenta, so the slight increase in meconium with castor oil-induced births may instead be linked to its popularity after 40 weeks of pregnancy.

As I researched castor oil doses and experiences myself, a common theme emerged: women were taking large doses of castor oil out of desperation for it to work and then having terrible reactions to it. Castor oil actually comes in a 4-ounce bottle, and many women reportedly downed the whole bottle at one time. Not only is that gross going down, but it causes major diarrhea and can also cause nausea and vomiting. This can also lead to dehydration and other complications that really don’t make for a smooth labor and delivery.

As desperate as I was to kick things into high gear, my desire to not be throwing up or stuck in the bathroom during labor was stronger, so instead of a large dose, I went with two smaller doses.

But first, I tried my best to get a good night’s sleep ahead of time, and I drank plenty of water to help keep dehydration at bay.

When I woke up at 5am the next morning, I mixed 1 tablespoon of castor oil with 4 ounces of orange juice in a half-pint mason jar. I put the lid on and shook it vigorously and then downed the mixture. (The oil and juice don’t really mix, but shaking vigorously makes it frothy and mixes them together temporarily.) Because taste is actually linked to your sense of smell, I held my breath as I drank it so that I didn’t have to taste it at all.

I needed to use the bathroom almost immediately, but it wasn’t too bad (all things considered). I had to go a few more times, and at 8am I repeated the dose.

Around 11am I started having regular contractions, but eventually they died out (as they had been doing for 10 days).

Feeling somewhat discouraged, I took a nap on the couch after lunch, waking up with a pretty strong contraction, which I honestly didn’t think meant anything. I had to use the bathroom one more time, and then I realized the contractions were still coming and there seemed to be a noticeable difference in their intensity. My mom and I walked laps in the house (just to be sure they weren’t going to stop again), and I was having to stop walking and concentrate through them. After about 45 minutes, with contractions coming every 3-4 minutes, we decided to head to the hospital.

Five hours later, Jackson was born. And the best part was that I didn’t experience any diarrhea, nausea or vomiting during labor itself. I was still slightly dehydrated when we reached the hospital, though. If I had planned better, I would have had an electrolyte drink on hand as well to help prevent dehydration from the diarrhea.

In summary:

Take castor oil in the morning after a good night’s sleep.
Take several small doses (1-1.5 tablespoons) of castor oil 3-4 hours apart rather than one big dose.
Add to orange juice in a mason jar and shake vigorously.
Hold your breath or pinch your nose while drinking.
Drink plenty of water and an electrolyte drink to keep you hydrated.
Eat several small snacks.
You might not think you’ll need it, but take the colace the hospital gives you anyway!

Have you ever used castor oil? What other natural induction methods have you tried?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

How to Use Castor Oil to Induce Labor {and Not Be Miserable}

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Daily Audio Bible {iOS App of the Week}

Kelly from Faithful Provisions mentioned the Daily Audio Bible on Instagram last week, and I immediately downloaded the app.

While I’ve resolved to read through the entire Bible multiple times, I still haven’t successfully done it, but I love the idea of listening to the Bible each day, and the Daily Audio Bible is divided into short 15-minute (ish) chunks, which is totally doable. And I especially love that there’s also a children’s version with a 3-4 minute reading that our girls can listen to each morning.

The Daily Audio Bible podcast began in 2006, and Brian Hardin has recorded daily podcasts every year since. As I mentioned, the readings themselves are fairly short, with passages from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs each day, but Daily Audio Bible founder Brian Hardin — who has since attended and graduated from seminary — also includes commentary if you’re looking for more.

Note: You will need an internet connection or data plan in order to download the daily readings.

Download for your iPhone, iPod or iPad: Daily Audio Bible ($0.99)

P.S. This app is available for Android or your computer as well!

See all of our featured apps here.

Daily Audio Bible {iOS App of the Week}

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

When We Stop Making It Complicated

The following post is from Rachel of The Minimalist Mom:

source: Yuma Hori

If you can’t explain it to a six year-old, you don’t understand it yourself. – Albert Einstein

January is a wonderful time for change.

You can see it in yourself and others. The big plans and the resolutions. I will run this much, I will eat this little.

I will do more of this and less of that. I will use that organizational program for housework and tracking finances.

I love the excitement and the enthusiasm of January, but I have often made my method to achieving goals for the year overly complicated. 

Father Christmas (as they say in the UK) brought me a FitBit this year, and I started using it to track my sleep. This is a terrible thing to do if you have young children that aren’t solid sleepers yet.

After four days of seeing mostly underwhelming statistics about the quality and duration of my sleep, I decided to take the FitBit off at night.

My new goal: get to bed by ten.

Simple Works

If you’re struggling to keep up with some grand and complicated plans or resolutions you made for the year, step back and simplify them. Revise that 35 item daily routine down to a dozen or a half dozen points. Boil that long winded home business plan into three clear actions you can take this month. Set the meal standard to home cooked rather than meal planning seven breakfasts, seven lunches and seven dinners a week.

Un-Complicate Your Goals For The Year

Like everyone else, I need to shed a few things from my home. We let things slide a bit last year with the addition of our second baby and the boy’s clothing and some household goods continue to be our hot spots for too much stuff. Late in the fall I did a mini-purge but there’s still work to be done. Plus, I need to get back into the habit of giving away or recycling things we aren’t using more regularly.

In 2013 I’ve committed to letting go of two things for every new item that comes into my house.

There won’t be a lot of immediate gratification in this plan or a feeling of being done. Just slow steady simple progress.

It’s progress and a plan that I can easily explain to my four year-old.

So how are my FitBit stats?

While you can do a lot with the FitBit, all of the data it provides and that you can manually enter, I’ve decided that for now I’ll just track my steps per day. If I can get into the habit of 10,000 steps a day I’ll look at setting a goal with one of the other barometers of health (but probably not the sleep one!).

Anything more right now feels too complicated.

Have you made any goals or resolutions for the year? Are they complicated or is there a clear action to take and metric for success?

Rachel Jonat is a former world medalist rower turned marketing professional turned SAHM/writer. At The Minimalist Mom, Rachel writes about living a rich life with less stuff. Currently living on a windswept island in the middle of the Irish Sea, Rachel owns two pairs of jeans, lives without a car and is attempting to become a tea drinker.

When We Stop Making It Complicated

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

{Baby} Favorites: Baby Products I Love

Although it’s “only” been four years since our youngest daughter was born, it seems like there’s a whole new world of baby items available.

I’ve never been a fan of gadgets like wipe warmers or tons of different baby gear, and I’d like to think I’m fairly minimalist as a new mom, but I have made a few discoveries this time around that I rave about constantly and wanted to share with you as well.

Here are my favorites:

1. Rock ‘n Play Sleeper from Fisher Price

All of our girls had reflux as infants, and they all slept on their tummies. This time, however, we were hopeful that eliminating dairy from my diet would prevent the reflux for Jackson. For a while it seemed like that might work, and by the time Jackson began to show symptoms of reflux and have trouble sleeping, he had no interest in sleeping on his tummy.

Enter the Rock ‘n Play Sleeper. I have several friends who had mentioned how much they love this sleeper — from the incline to the vibration to the rocking motion — and when I saw a lightning deal on Amazon, we decided to give it a try. Honestly, Jackson has slept better from the moment we put him in it. And while I think he would probably be a good sleeper anyway now that his reflux is under control, I credit the Rock ‘n Play with him sleeping through the nighton a regular basis!

2. Floor/Crib Mirror from Sassy

We had a baby mirror when our oldest was a baby, and she loved it, but I don’t remember any of our other kids using one. However, Jackson loves to lay and stare at this mirror — not just at his own reflection (or Mommy’s in the background), but at the geometric patterns and colorful bugs as well. I’m sure any mirror would be great for an infant, but we really like this one!

3. Leg Warmers from JuDanzy

My girls have always worn BabyLegs, and they still use our collection as leg warmers, wrist guards and more. However, when I started searching for leg warmers for Jackson (who hates to be cold!), I didn’t love the selection of boy styles from BabyLegs. I did a second search on Amazon and was excited to find the juDanzy brand leg warmers in a ton of great styles, including these cool football leg warmers, which he’s sported throughout football season (Hail to the Redskins!).

4. Swaddling Blankets from aden + anais

When we were in Disney last year, Amy had one of these swaddling blankets for her son, Cam. She raved about their versatility — as swaddling blankets, lovies, nursing covers, changing pads, etc. — and I knew we’d be adding some to our baby gear. aden + anais sent me a pack of the cotton muslin blankets for review during our Baby Week, and my mom bought us a set of the bamboo ones. I love both styles for different uses: the cotton muslin is perfect for swaddling. It gets softer and thicker with each wash, and it’s got enough structure to really swaddle him tightly without overheating. On the other hand, I love the bamboo muslin for nursing in public because the material is actually cool against my skin rather than making me hot while we nurse. The bamboo is very, very soft and almost silky, though, so I don’t like it as much for swaddling.

5. Burpy Bibs from aden + anais

Another aden + anais product I love are these burpy bibs. I also received a review set of these, but we’ve purchased additional sets as well. Not only are these thick burp cloths that are shaped perfectly for maximum shoulder coverage, but the unique design also lets you snap the ends together for a thick, full-coverage bib as baby gets older. Like the blankets, these are made from cotton muslin, and they get thicker and softer every time we wash them!

6. Monkey Pacifier from Wubbanub

I had been seeing the Wubbanub pacifiers a lot, and I started asking friends what they thought about them. Without fail, every mom I asked said they were great for keeping track of the paci and making it easier for baby to put it back in themselves. Although Jackson doesn’t yet have the hand control to insert his own paci, we love to use the Wubbanub at night  so that I can find his paci without even opening my eyes, and in the car since it’s so much easier to grab onto it. We still have several regular pacis for when I’m holding him or have him in the sling, but when he’s in his bed or carseat, the Wubbanub is a lifesaver!

7. Wrap Baby Carrier from Boba

And finally, the Boba Wrap has been my absolute favorite baby carrier so far! I had a wrap when our second daughter was a baby, but I just didn’t use it very often. This time, however, I use the Boba several times a day and whenever we’re out and about. It holds Jackson nice and snug so that he drifts right off to sleep while I homeschool the girls, grocery shop, etc. Because it’s so snug, it also keeps both of us really warm, and we attended our city’s Christmas parade and our church’s live outdoor nativity on cold nights without any issues! Although I have received other baby carriers from Boba as a Boba Ambassador, I am going to be really sad when he grows out of this one!

What are your favorite baby products?

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

{Baby} Favorites: Baby Products I Love

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