MuTu System Final Review
MuTu System Final Review

The "mummy tummy." The "pooch." The C-section "shelf stomach." 

Honestly, all of these phrases make me shudder, and if you're a momma who can't figure out how to get rid of that post baby belly, you understand! It's super frustrating to lose all the baby weight and still look 4 or 5 months pregnant. It's disheartening to exercise your hardest only to make your stomach look even more bloated than before. It's emotional to get dressed every day avoiding half of your closet because it highlights your stomach pooch.

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Health, MotherhoodEmily Krausereview, fitness, diastasis recti Comments
October Favorites
October Favorites

Happy November! Hope everyone had a fun week celebrating Reformation (it's a Lutheran thing)/Halloween/All Saints Day/Día de los Muertos or any other celebration that I missed. 

It's been a hot second since I've written any posts for the ol' blog. Baby Lewis hasn't been sleeping much, so I try to go to bed shortly after he falls asleep at night. This cuts down drastically on my work time, and nap times (when I can get the boys' naps to synch) are spent helping people get started on their nutritional rebalancing systems or working on freelance writing. 

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Emily Krausemonthly favorites, FamilyComment
sacrificing creativity at the feet of motherhood
sacrificing creativity at the feet of motherhood

I vividly remember reading in Stephen King's memoir On Writing about how when he and his wife, Tabitha, were first married and struggling financially, he would lock himself in the laundry room to write whenever he had free time. I was 15, maybe 16 years old when I read that book, but the image has always stuck with me. I suppose it's because I found it incredibly romantic - the aspiring author dedicated to his craft, sacrificing everything to get the words out on paper. I wanted that. 

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Emily Krausemotherhood Comments
7 tips for getting a breastfed baby to take a bottle
7 tips for getting a breastfed baby to take a bottle

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SimplyBonding #CollectiveBias

The funny thing about parenting is that the longer you do it, the more you realize how little you know. Breastfeeding my first two babies came with its share of struggles, but bottle-feeding was one thing I had down pat. I started out nursing each of them, but ended up needing to supplement with formula around the 6-month mark both times because of weight gain issues. Both took a bottle with ease. We didn’t need to try different brands or warm up the bottle, and I scoffed when I saw parents going to great lengths to make the bottle just right for their baby.

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Emily Krausemotherhood Comments
6 foods to energize sleep deprived moms
6 foods to energize sleep deprived moms

Let me begin by saying that before I had my third child, I was the mom you wanted to punch in the face. Babies 1 and 2 were excellent sleepers right from the start. They were both sleeping through the night by 3 months, and never experienced any regressions. I couldn't necessarily relate to the fatigue other new moms were experiencing. 

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Emily Krausehealth, motherhoodComment
Pipisms - things my 4-year-old says
Pipisms - things my 4-year-old says

Oh, you guys. We are so blessed to have a chatterbox for our first child. This sweet girl could talk your ear off, and never even notice that your eyes glazed over 10 minutes ago. She's precocious and gregarious -  a deadly and hilarious combination in a 4 year old. Pippa has never met a stranger, and we love her for it. 

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Emily KrausefamilyComment
easy meal prep for busy families
easy meal prep for busy families

Research shows that we are much more likely to form a habit if it's convenient. The less time, effort, and decision-making we have to do, the easier it is to stick with an activity we know is good for us. Never have I found this to be more true for me than in the kitchen. If I make a pan of cookie bars and they're sitting on the counter, I won't give it a second thought: I'm cutting off a square and eating it immediately. If, instead, I have fruit neatly cut up in containers or a basket of crisp red apples on the counter, I'm having a much healthier snack.

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Emily Krausehealth Comments
Healing Diastasis Recti - Reviewing the MuTu System 6 weeks in
Healing Diastasis Recti - Reviewing the MuTu System 6 weeks in

I first discovered I had diastasis recti about 8 months after I had my second child. I had just finished nursing him, and was already back to my pre pregnancy weight, but noticed I still looked a few months pregnant. I figured I would be able to work off the belly fat through more strenuous workout, clean eating, and nutritional cleansing. 

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Motherhood, HealthEmily Krausefitness, diastasis recti, health Comments
friday favorites #26
friday favorites #26

Happy Friday, party people! We've got some crazy plans this weekend, like working on getting Lewis to take a bottle and probably watching the movie Sing 7 more times before Monday rolls around. It's a good life, you guys.

This week has been very routine and average in our neck of the woods, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The kids and I have been enjoying our slow mornings together at home, though we really are looking forward to the weather cooling off a tiny bit so we can play outside. But other than that, I feel like we're in a sweet spot right now with Pippa enjoying preschool, Teddy loving his afternoons home with mommy, Lewis continuing to be the world's happiest baby, and me savoring the long afternoon naps the boys are currently coordinating on. So much to be thankful for!

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Emily Krausefriday favorites Comments
the transition from two to three kids
the transition from two to three kids

If you were to poll a group of moms about what the toughest transition was for their family, I'm confident each women would give a different answer, or at least a different reasoning for their answer. Some find having their first baby to be the hardest, others struggle going from 1 to 2 kids, while still others maintain that having their third truly threw them for a loop. I think so much of this depends on your stage of life, the ages of your kids, and the temperament of each baby. 

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Emily KrauseFamilyComment
friday favorites #25
friday favorites #25

Here we are, wrapping up our first full week of school. Can I just say I absolutely love the routine we're starting? I'm only teaching two afternoons a week, and I'm soaking in the joy of having nothing on the schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Teaching Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays has been a blast, and just the break I need from my babies to get dressed up and join the adult world. After a crazier schedule last year and being pregnant while doing it, I'm waking up so happy at the ease of this school year. Well...as "easy" as life can be with a preschooler, toddler, and infant. Now I just need to get better at fitting housework in my day. I've been playing with my kids, working on my business and blog during nap time, and building outings into our day, and pretty much completely ignoring dishes and laundry. Así es la vida, right friends?

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Emily KrauseComment
how do you do weekends?
how do you do weekends?

When Justin and I first got married, I remember being surprised by how hard it was to adjust to living together. There were plenty of petty arguments about things like who would do the dishes or how to spend our money. After a few months and lots of communication, we began to hit our stride.

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Emily KrauseFamily Comments
no I'm not pregnant...I just had a baby.
no I'm not pregnant...I just had a baby.

I had been feeling empowered. Proud of my effort and discipline to get back in shape after having the baby. It’s my third baby, third C-section, I’m 29, and I have diastasis recti (separated abdominal muscles), so I had no delusions about sliding into my skinny jeans or having a flat belly mere weeks after giving birth. I knew it would take lots of time, hard work, and good nutrition to help me stomach get back to “normal,” but I felt I had made incredible progress in the past few weeks. I had just started the MuTu System (affiliate link) to begin healing my core, and I had also been taking my nutrition very seriously, going so far as to cut out the creamer in my morning coffee - the ultimate sacrifice. I was feeling strong and confident, content with how far I had come.

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Emily Krausemotherhood, fitness Comments
friday favorites #24
friday favorites #24

Happy first Friday in August! I can't believe school already starts next week for us! I'm kind of in disbelief, but also ready to get back to routine I guess? I'm already brainstorming ways to get out of the house with my kids during the week, since I'll be home with them a lot more. We used to have one of us (usually me) go grocery shopping on Saturdays while the other stayed home with the kids. However, I'm considering switching grocery shopping to Mondays and dragging all 3 kids with me, so that we can enjoy some family time on Saturdays. How does everyone else do it?

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Emily Krausefriday favorites Comments
wisconsin vacation, part 1
wisconsin vacation, part 1

We've been back from our family vacation in Wisconsin for 2 weeks now, and I've finally gotten around to sorting through the myriad photos and videos taken on the trip. I realized how much there was to share, so I decided to break our vacation recap up into two separate posts, one for each week of the trip! 

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Emily Krausetravel, family vacation Comments
packing for a road trip with young kids
packing for a road trip with young kids

Just over two years ago, my husband, my daughter, and I packed up everything we owned and moved from Minnesota to Florida. Since that move, we have added two more little boys to the family, and have made the drive back to the midwest 3 times. We opt to drive straight through, because we usually have our dog with us, and because unpacking multiple children, suitcases, and bags for a few hours of sleep in an unfamiliar hotel seems like a waste of time and money. The drive would be around 18 hours with no stops, but often ends up being closer to 20 or 21. Yes, you read that right. Almost a full day in the car with an infant, a toddler, and a preschooler. Yikes.

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TravelEmily Krausetravel, travel tips, road tripComment
friday favorites #23
friday favorites #23

Hey! Long time no see! It's the July slump over here in blogland! Ok, not really a slump... more like summer travels and activities have kept us plenty busy! An 18+ hour drive to Wisconsin and back, preparing lesson plans for the upcoming school year, a birthday celebration, and just generally getting into the rhythm of caring for three children ages 4 and under have made the summer absolutely fly by.

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Emily Krausefriday favoritesComment
theodore's second birthday
theodore's second birthday

Theodore Scott

You are two years old! In some ways it feels like you've been two for so long. You're big in stature, big in personality, and now a big brother! I wrote in your first birthday post that you light up every room you enter. That holds true today! There is something about your curly blond hair and your goofy grin that attracts attention wherever we go. At the grocery store, Target, TJ Maxx, the beach, or the library, people stop us just to tell us how cute you are. You've got that je ne sais quoi!

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Emily Krausefamily, TeddyComment