Category: Uplift & Motivate!

Posted on

Hilarious Mom Memes You NEED to Share with Your Friends!

Not every day feels like Mother’s Day.

Motherhood can be fun. And it can be tough. Motherhood can be filled with surprises. But it can also be overwhelming. Motherhood can be rewarding. Motherhood can be a million different things. All in one day sometimes!

But what we Mums all need and appreciate is LAUGHTER. And often. You know the saying, “if you don’t laugh you’ll cry”, don’t you?

There are days when being able to laugh out loud is the only thing that gets us through to bedtime, right?!?

Which is why I have put together a bunch of totally relatable, hilarious, laugh-out-loud memes for Mamas.

Read, smirk, laugh, nod knowingly, smile, share with your Mom friends, whatever!

I just want you to enjoy having your funny bone tickled 🤣.

Keep scrolling and enjoy giggling at the good, bad and ugly reality of being a Mom!

Continue reading “Hilarious Mom Memes You NEED to Share with Your Friends!”
Posted on

37 Simple Ways for Busy Moms to Practice Self Care

Valentine’s Day. All over social media there’s love in the air and chatter about what nice things we can should do (and buy!) for the people that we love. But behind all the lovey-dovey talk, there’s a very important person we keep forgetting about.

Ourself.

The mothers of the world work so hard to care for their families 24/7 yet all too often forget to plan in anything nice for themselves. Even just to take a breather.

Quite a while back I touched on why moms should take a time out. It’s definitely time for a recap and to fill you in a little more about practicing self care.

But wait! Isn’t self care really just being selfish?!?

In case you’re a little unsure, keep reading to find out about what self care means, why it is so important- yes, YOU TOO should be practicing self care- and a list of simple, yet beneficial, ways you too can take a time out to care for yourself.

Continue reading “37 Simple Ways for Busy Moms to Practice Self Care”
Posted on

Get Ready, Set Goals & Go into the New Year!

pin, pinterest, goal-setting, motivation

Christmas is over and New Year’s Day is upon us. People the world over are reflecting on the past year, preparing celebrations for New Year’s Eve and dreaming up New Year’s resolutions and goals for the coming 12 months.

Not only will this be the start of a new year, 2020. But it is also the start of a new decade! Wowsers! Can you remember what you were doing 10 years ago? A helluva lot can happen in 10 years!!! Can you remember even 20 years ago, when it was a new year, a new decade and a new millennium all wrapped up in one fateful night? (Remember the much-feared Y2K bug that was surely going to bring the world to it’s knees… but then didn’t?!?).

New Year’s resolutions are always seen as being this big thing. Another 12 months full of endless possibilities! New year, new beginnings, new habits…

You know, like signing up for a gym membership and then going hard at it for about, um, 3 weeks. And then quitting ☹. Did you know, in December 2018, “exercising more” was the New Year’s resolution for 2019 for 59% of surveyed Americans? And how many then go out and pay for gym memberships that they don’t end up using? Over 5 million! That’s about $1.8 BILLION wasted on wonderful, dreamy, unfulfilled resolutions! **gasp** That really is a insane amount of money! SO many big dreams and cool hard cash wasted.

fitness, gym, gym membership, motivation, exercise

I find the idea of New Year’s resolutions to be a little bit wishy-washy. Sort of, “I am sure I want to go to the gym more this year” or “I really want to stress less this year”. Admirable ideas? Absolutely! But with no plan behind those vague statements to support your resolutions, it’s no shock when you can’t actually say with clarity at the end of the year that you succeeded. Perhaps making an entire year dependent on some well-meaning resolutions made whilst tipsy on the last day of the year is not the best way to go about reaching your goals in the next one…

Continue reading “Get Ready, Set Goals & Go into the New Year!”
Posted on

No More Being Afraid. Face Your Fears.

pin, pinterest, motivation, inspiration, face your fears

How do you feel about spiders? Hmm, not a fan? What about dentists’ drills? Eww! What about signing up for a jogging group when you’ve never run anything in your life? A little intimidated?

Everyone has got fears, ranging from freaking out over multi-legged creepy crawlies to avoiding the doctor’s reminder for your next check-up to feeling like a fool in lycra at the gym.

But is there a difference between the types of fears you feel and the level of importance you allow them to have on your life? What if there are things you wish you could try, that you dream of being able to achieve? IF ONLY you weren’t scared. IF ONLY you weren’t too nervous. IF ONLY you weren’t comparing yourself to someone else who has tried it before you.

WHAT is it you are actually afraid of? WHAT IF you faced your fears?

Continue reading “No More Being Afraid. Face Your Fears.”
Posted on

Back to School Time

Here we go for another round of Everything’s Famtastic, with your happy host, Jenny!! How were things in your part of the world this past week?

We’re doing OK here. School holidays finished. Early school mornings have started again. It’s going to take some getting used to. We need some time to find our “groove” again. It was only a 3-day school week to start the school year off with. You know, the type that everyone likes, where you don’t have to face a full 5-day uphill battle of re-resetting your circadian rhythms after a 6-week hiatus 😉.

But seriously, these past few days of school and kindergarten [preschool] actually flowed surprisingly well. Not once did the kids complain about being woken up. No grumbling during breakfast time. No grouchy faces when it came time to walk out the door. Even no protesting when it was homework time in the afternoon.

**High fives all round dear family!**

What happened to my kids?!?

Continue reading “Back to School Time”
Posted on

5 Ways to Help Cope With Grief

grief, coping with grief, pinterest, pin

A big hello to my fantastic Famtastic fans! Wherever you are in the world, I hope that you have had a good week. We are well and truly back to everyday life after our brilliant adventures in Croatia. Our holiday was certainly memorable and like I said last week, all 5 of us remained sane along the way. (Read here for my tips on packing for a long road trip with kids!!) It’s nice to just be around home again after such a long road trip.

Nevertheless, this week I have found myself in a real funk. And no, I don’t mean funk and jive and groovy ‘60s music. I mean, I’m in a lousy mood. And I am not here to bring you all down with me. But I gotta speak what’s on my mind. Saddened, flat, down and grieving.

In the last weeks, within our wider circle of family and friends there have been not 1, not 2, but 3 members pass away. Three! Old, young, sick, healthy, foreseeable, shocking. Whatever. All of the above. And each one has been so intensely sad in their own way. In the same time period there has been some major setbacks for a number of other family and friends with life-threatening health conditions. In addition, several of these people live back in Australia, so it’s impossible for me to attend funerals or speak with loved ones face-to-face. All of which makes it even harder for this grieving expat to work through her feelings.

Really, it’s all just a bit too much. ☹ How does one even begin to deal with so much grief?

Continue reading “5 Ways to Help Cope With Grief”
Posted on

6 Must-Haves for Road Trips with Kids (and How to Survive Them)

Hellooooo! It’s me! I am back in the land of Everything’s Famtastic after being AWOL these past 2 weeks. I do have a perfectly valid excuse: we were on our family summer holiday!

As alluded to a few weeks back in my list of super summer activities and “Bring on Summer Holidays!” I said that we were planning our summer holidays trip. We had such a famtastic time in Croatia! I can HIGHLY recommend a visit. All of the people we encountered were lovely, friendly, helpful… we had a new language to try out (“hvala!”)… the weather was sunny and hot… views are stunning… gorgeous beaches… icecream every day… What more could you want for a summer holiday?!?

Hubby and I knew that we had to prepare well for the trip. Nobody wants to have 3 kids whining “Are we there yet?” 30 minutes into the drive, right? Am I the only one who has ever fantasised about having one of those glass partitions installed in the family car? You know what I mean? Between the driver and the backseat passengers. Like, in fancy-pants limousines and such. After a few rounds of “Are we there yet?”, just press the magic button and the upwards gliding of a pane of soundproof glass is the last thing you’ll hear for the next hours 😉.

Oh OK, of course we would never actually DO that. But don’t pop my daydream bubble, alright?!?

tips, how-to, roadtrip, parenting, road trip with kids

So, big trips with children call for military-precision planning. And plan is what we did. Today I’m here to help you out by sharing with you the items we packed for the kids (and us grown-ups) to make the journey as bearable, er, entertaining as possible.

Continue reading “6 Must-Haves for Road Trips with Kids (and How to Survive Them)”
Posted on

Get Outdoors and Savour the Summertime

Hey! Just like I promised last week. Here I am, back again! For a multitude of reasons I really needed that week’s break. But it was good for me. Now I can share with you all the good stuff that has been keeping me so busy these past weeks!

The sun has been shining here, with a few gorgeously puffy clouds gently sweeping across the blue skies. And we have been having lovely summery temperatures which I have been hankering for for months now (well, except for the 5 week break in Australia over Christmas 😉). But not counting that…

Now, I don’t know about you, but all this amazing weather makes me want to skip and twirl and grin wildly in the sunshine. Of course there are always the complainers who bemoan that at 25 degrees is it already “too hot”. Me? I’m just getting started!

I thought that it could be fun to share a few of the things that we have been doing around here these past couple of weeks. Perhaps you will find a couple of ideas that you and your family could try out now that the warmer weather and longer daylight hours are here (in the northern hemisphere at least). Or maybe it will inspire you to get outside and discover your own adventures!

So, summer days, here we go…

Continue reading “Get Outdoors and Savour the Summertime”
Posted on

Mothers are Monumental

Hello Everybody! Last week I celebrated my 40-something birthday and I am not sure where in the world you are reading this from, but for me, today is Mother’s Day! Lucky for me, the sun is shining here, the kids are behaving, and all is good in my world 😊.

I know that Mother’s Day is not celebrated by every country on the same day. I know that my friends in England already had their Mother’s Day for the year. But plenty of other countries are celebrating today too. And making it completely convenient for expat me, is the fact that both Australia and Germany celebrate Mother’s Day today, the second Sunday in May. That means no mix-ups within our family and no excuses like “Ohhhh, I thought we were celebrating on the German Mother’s Day not the Australian one…” 😉.

Not only have my 3 beautiful, energetic and sweet children been extra lovely today and made it a special day. My dear Hubby too, of course (thank you very much for that massage gift voucher. I’ll happily take care of that!!). I also have another reason to smile today. I have some new babies in my life…

Continue reading “Mothers are Monumental”
Posted on

Why Women Should Go Out with Their Girlfriends

Hi there! How has your week been? Did you try out those sewing instructions I shared last week? How did it go? Our week here has been a bit of a mixed bag. Master 5 has a nasty cold which has left him with a mild temperature, a few meltdowns and a helluva lot of snot. Our ambitions to tidy our household a’la KonMari have temporarily stalled. Hello! Lack of time! BUT we did make a trip to IKEA and stocked up on approximately 1000 storage tubs to assist us as we sort through the rumble that exists in a few corners of our house.

One thing that I have been getting excited about this coming week is an upcoming girls’ night. Huzzah! Catching up with friends is one thing that I DEFINITELY wish would happen more often. If only it could happy more often. Once again: Hello! Lack of time!

One of the lovely ladies I am actually meeting up with recently came across an article (in a German magazine) about why women should meet up with their friends more often. And since I, of course, agree 100%, I thought I would look into this some more and share some thoughts with you all today.

I mean, what could be better than being told that you SHOULD go out with friends more often?!?

Continue reading “Why Women Should Go Out with Their Girlfriends”
error: