I am super picky about what sort of beauty products I use.  Since having children, my hormones have been a mess.  My thyroid is out of whack and my estrogen doesn’t know when to stop.  The sunny side of all this, is that it forces a person to start researching.  I dug deep into the matters of my health, and I can say I’ve learned a lot that I wouldn’t have.  While I learned many things, what I want to talk about today is beauty products.  What we put on our bodies is SO important.  This is how I found the world of green beauty.  And I can tell you… I’m never saying goodbye to the world of green beauty.  But I don’t just want products that are marketed as “natural” or “green.”  I want the companies to be honest and forth-coming and totally transparent.  I want honest, green beauty.

Having kids will change you.  Do you believe that?  Here’s my story.

Is there anything as earth-shaking as the moment your first child is born?  I remember getting ready to leave the hospital after the birth of my first child, and all I could think was, “They’re letting me take him home?”  Although I knew he was our child (so of course we should take him home), I also couldn’t help feeling that the hospital staff was making a big mistake trusting me with this sweet, little life.

Everything about who I was shifted when that little boy was put in my arms.  I began to shrivel in big ways.  I lost part of who I was for a time, just as most mothers do. Finding ourselves again, as mothers, is so important.  But in that time when motherhood was breaking me down… When I felt beat and exhausted… Motherhood began to grow me.  After some time passed, what I found was this: I changed when I had kids.  Thank goodness.  Having kids made me a better person.  And I believe having kids will change you as well.

Here’s the thing.  Momming is hard.  And homeschool can be pretty hard, too.  When we started homeschooling, I had to convince myself that if we were going to do this big, awesome, feels-kind-of-scary-thing, then I needed the right tools and homeschool supplies to make each day easier.  There’s no point making hard things harder.  Am I right? So, here are my absolutely essential homeschool supplies!

Reading is important.

Remember the days before you had kids when you could lay in bed in the morning and read a good book?  Or before you fell asleep at night.  Or in the middle of the day!

Well, it seems motherhood has a way of filling up our time.  Our time is filled up with all sorts of good things like smushy kisses, dinosaur tails, endless snacks, and answering a gazillion questions.  And I wouldn’t trade all that for anything.

However, reading is something we should always make time for.  Why?  That’s what we’re here to discuss.  While I believe there are countless benefits to reading, right now I’m going to explain the top 5 reasons why reading is important for busy moms.  Make sure you read number five.  That’s the big one.