Blog - It's Simply Lindsay

02/13/20

Best baby food for busy, health-conscious moms

This post is sponsored by Gerber and all opinions are my own.

During my first pregnancy, I had visions of making my own baby food, blissfully mashing all the delicious, nutritious foods while singing nursery rhymes as my daughter clapped and giggled, cheering me on.

Fast forward to baby number three – I’m a working mom, business owner, and have three kids ages 5 and under. I drive back and forth 4-6 times from preschool to home before even going to work, trying to sneak in the baby’s naps and housework while I can.

Translation: my blissful baby food making visions are not always possible.

That’s why I’m so excited about the new Gerber® Freshful Start™ line, perfect for all busy moms (which is every mom) – whether making it at home in seconds or having my babysitter make it for my babe, this is the smart choice for health-conscious moms.

01/10/20

Cold remedies that work for kids

This post is sponsored by Dr. Brown’s.

Sniffles. Runny nose. Sad little barking cough. Tiny stuffed up noses with congestion. When your baby or child has a cold, your heart breaks for them. As a parent, all you want to do is take the discomfort away, but with a cold, you cannot simply give your child medicine and make them feel better.

Tip: Do not give your baby or toddler cough or cold medicine; it has not been proven effective in treating the symptoms of the common cold, and in fact, can be fatal.

While you can’t cure the common cold, there are certainly things you can do to alleviate the symptoms that are safe and effective for the whole family.

These work great for everything from ear infections and pneumonia to strep throat and the flu to manage symptoms.

12/20/19

The problem with ‘everyone is beautiful’

Stop calling everyone beautiful.

There, I said it. I’ll say it again because we all need to hear it again. Stop. Calling. Everyone. Beautiful.

While I find it admirable that many mainstream brands, ads, and influencers have expanded the typical media’s standard of beauty – thin, young, white girl – to include all body shapes, sizes, colors, and ages, I still have a problem with the overarching message – there is a clear problem with everyone is beautiful. Yes, women of all kinds are beautiful, but so what? Why do women have to be minimized or validated by the qualification of being beautiful?

This stamp of approval on our physical appearance is meant to empower women for their individuality, but it’s actually just objectifying us more.

I realize many of these campaigns are just trying to reverse the horrifying, unrealistic depiction of what it means to be a beautiful woman, which is a real problem in our society, with issues such as depression and eating disorders starting as early as 10-years-old, but instead of asserting that now ALL women can be EQUALLY objectified, we should change the message of these campaigns.

12/2/19

Easy DIY painted ornaments

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase, at no cost to you, I’ll receive a tiny commission. Thanks for your support!

While I’m not a particularly artistic or crafty person, a few of my girlfriends and I have started to get together for little craft nights, and let me tell you, it is SO. MUCH. FUN. Seriously. Last year, we worked on some DIY painted ornaments, and while we all used different colors and have different aesthetics, they all came out adorable. Plus we had a blast.

We used wooden disks that were pre-drilled to make it simple for hanging, but you could also paint directly on glass or plastic ball ornaments too.

How do you normally decorate your tree? Is it the same each year? Do you change it up? Do you decorate with specific color schemes? The past two years we’ve gravitated more towards pinks and pastels, so those are the colors I used.

11/14/19

How to decorate a Christmas tree

Growing up, decorating the Christmas tree was one of my favorite traditions – we’d put on Perry Como Christmas music, eat gingerbread cookies, and help my mom sort through our hundreds of ornaments. My parents always get an enormous tree, and the time, care, and decorating skills my mom puts into her tree is enough to rival the Rockerfeller Center’s tree!

Even though my mom has hundreds of ornaments, each one has a special meaning or memory – the nostalgia surrounding the holidays is so powerful, isn’t it?

While I can never come close to my mom’s tree, I do have some skills up my sleeve that I’d love to share with you. There are a few key elements that most people often overlook, so just follow my simple steps to add some “wow” factor to your tree.

While we only used about half of the ornaments we have, and we only put a couple of our most special delicate ones out (2 kids, 1 baby, 2 kittens…), you can still make a great impact with non-breakables!

Check out: DIY gift wrap | DIY painted ornaments | Gift guide for kids and toddlers

11/5/19

Gift guide for kids and toddlers

This post contains affiliate links.

This year, my family is making a big push away from flashy, one-trick-pony toys – you know, the ones on commercials and in catalogs that every kid has to have because it’s so wildly publicized and commercialized. These are usually toys with batteries and these are the toys that pretty much do the work for you. There really isn’t a need for imagination, and there’s only one way to use the toy.

We spent last week purging our toy room away from these toys and donated them to a local up and coming daycare center. Now, we’re purposefully keeping items that are multi-use, spark imagination, and can be used over and over again for years to come.

Check out my top picks for toddler and children gifts this year, and let me know what’s on your kids’ wish lists!