Mom's Finding Balance - Laura's BIG Secret and My Ever Changing Balancing Act

{Welcome to our blog series of guest posts from other business-owning moms, to encourage all you other entrepreneurial moms who either already have your own business or those of you who wish you did! We want to inspire you to follow your dream and give you tips along the way for balancing motherhood, your business/creative passions, and the rest of your life! We certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, so that’s why we want to create a community of encouraging moms here on the Blue Ladybug Mamas blog!}


Sooo, I (Laura) have a BIG secret!

I’ve been dying to share it with you, and after the ultrasound today, I finally can!

 That’s right, the other Blue Ladybug Mama is expecting now too.  This will be baby #3 for our family.

I’m nearly 12 weeks along and closing in quickly on the first trimester.  Hallelujah!  Which leads me to some “splainin’” I need to do.  I’ve been sick.  Real sick.  And tired and grumpy and unmotivated.  You know, the usual drill for a pregnant woman in her first trimester.  Which has immensely affected The Blue Ladybug.  Perhaps you have placed and order and it seemed to take an extra long time, or you’ve wondered why the crickets seem to be chirping on our facebook and blog.  Or what happened to all those new designs we promised.  Well, making a new life kind of took precedence.  So I beg for your forgiveness if you’ve been left wondering, “what happened?”  I’m certainly hoping to be feeling more like myself very soon here. 

Which leads me right in to talking about how I balance my life as a mom, wife and business owner.   Like many other moms, I do a lot of morning emailing and communicating while the kids are eating breakfast and just getting themselves around.  I spend the morning playing with them, doing chores together, and doing our version of what we call Tot school.  Once I’ve put the kids down for a nap, I have an hour or two to check emails and convos again, and then start sewing!   And if we’ve been extra busy, I’ll sew in the evening for a bit, after the kids are in bed, if my husband is occupied with something else.   The hardest part for me is, trying to squeeze in the time for blogging, working on new items, creating new listings, taking and editing photos.

I won’t lie, when I first started The Blue Ladybug, I was still working another part time gig.  I was completely consumed with all the sewing and crafting.  My ideas were flooding out of me, and I was learning all the ropes of operating my own Etsy shop.  Constantly photographing, editing and listing all the new products I was making.  I had no rhythm or routine.  I worked every moment I was awake.  And I quickly learned how it was hurting my family, and turning me into a not-so-nice person.  When I finally developed a routine that worked for my family, it made such a difference for the kids and my husband.  And I felt a lot less stressed.  But it took time, and trial and error to discover what worked for us. 

I still come up with a lot of new ideas and products.  But I don’t always have time to turn them into a new creation, or photograph and edit them.  This used to frustrate me.  But I’ve recently come to a point where I know that my #1 most important job is the family that God has blessed me with.  They deserve the best from me.  Sure my family needs the extra income, but I have to ask myself sometimes, “at what expense am I willing to pay?”  That usually helps realign my thinking and my heart.

And my nice little routine will probably change in April when baby #3 arrives.  Newborns have a way of doing that.  I’ve also started babysitting my niece a few days a week, who is only 3 months old.  So she rearranges our schedule too.  Sometimes I have to remind myself, that my goal is not to be a powerful business woman.  My goal is to do a job that I enjoy, that helps my family financially.  And that yes, I have limits, I am not superwoman (shhhh…don’t tell anyone).  I used to feel bad for passing up a big new opportunity for The Blue Ladybug to grow and expand, but truthfully, we’re the perfect amount of busy for mamas of wee little ones.  And I wouldn’t trade that for all the money in the world.

I’m so looking forward to the rest of this series with our other guest bloggers.  I love to hear what works for others, get new ideas from moms in the trenches, and most importantly, that confirmation that we’re all in this together.  The best part of being a woman/mom is when I get together with other woman/moms and just chat over our lives.  I feel like I walk away with a new perspective, a tidbit of new information in my pocket, and the chance to have dropped a load off my shoulders.  I hope this blog can do that for you too this week.

Two Peas in a Pod Giveaway ends tomorrow night at 10pm est. You won't want to miss out on it- go back to Monday's post for one great mom's advice on balance, and the giveaway information!

Pregnancy Update + Baby projects!

So I'm already 1/2 way through with this pregnancy and feeling great! I just started going to the chiropractor this week because of some hip pain I've been having for several weeks, only to find out that my hips were out of alignment, probably from my last pregnancy. Not thrilled to have to go back regularly since insurance doesn't cover it, but it will be good to get my body where it needs to be for labor and delivery and to be pain-free. Plus I love my chiropractor, who's actually pregnant herself!

We decided to find out this time what we're having, so on Monday we had our 20 week ultrasound and found out that we're having a GIRL! :) I so excited to know so that I can start creating beautiful things for her while I have the time! Our little girl is very active and had us all laughing several times throughout the ultrasound with her yawns, flips and movements! The tech gave me lots of pictures and said, "Wow! I don't think I've ever given this many pictures to someone before- you have a very photogenic baby!" Of course, I would agree!

I loved comparing Titus' ultrasound pictures with Baby Girl's! :) So many similarities... I wanna make a huge picture collage of them now! Of course I think the only person who would appreciate it is me- and their grandmas! :)

After my chiropractic appointment this morning, I decided not to go straight home, but to stop by Quilt Something, our local fabric/quilt shop that I don't visit enough! Living in a small town, I feel very fortunate to have a shop of this kind right downtown- it's seriously 2 blocks from my house! Titus and I browsed through fabric and patterns a while. I had only one thing in mind- girly fabrics!!! Having only a boy, I've only ever looked for good boy fabrics. Having a girl is going to open a whole new world of crafting for me... ready or not, here I come! :) I walked out with several fabric scraps, fat quarters and a remnant peice... I'm excited to see what I'll come up with!

I also got some adorable striped fabric I just couldn't pass up!

One project I have in mind are these reversible baby shoes that I bought a pattern for and have been waiting for the right time to start making them! I hope to add them to the shop too, so keep your eyes open for them! And of course, I'll offer them for boys too! :)

photo credit

So I can officially say now that I'm buying PINK! :) I'm so excited for Titus to have a little sister and I'm anxious to see how I will grow and how my crafting will evolve by having a girl!

What do you love about having a girl?

{don't miss the wristlet giveaway going on for our Facebook fans right now!!! Head over to our FB page for the details}

Guess which one of us is pregnant!?

So, The Blue Ladybug will be growing this Christmas!!! For those of you who don't already know, I (Mary Beth) will be having our second child, due at Christmas time! We are so excited! So I've been busy this past month figuring out a short list of things we will need for our family when the time comes- double stoller, extra freezer, toddler bed, more cloth diapers, etc... It's a little easier this time around because we've just recently done this, and have most everything we need. But the things on our short list also seem to be bigger items... And I'm so bad about getting out garage saling- I'm just hoping that the few people I've mentioned a few items to will come through for me! :) Otherwise, I'll just be going through Craigslist- which I also have never done!

Any recommendations or advice on double strollers, and kids sharing rooms? I need any help I can get!

I've been so fortunate that I, once again, have not been sick! However, I've been having more aversions to food, and to most cooking in general! Fast food has been my craving so far! Some food and smells have made me slightly queasy. After ruining my enjoyment for several regular dishes I make by forcing myself to eat them, I've started to plan our menu around what sounds good to ME. I know this sounds terribly selfish, but I'm finding that I'm eating better and feeling better about food too! (Don't worry, it's all stuff that my family likes too!) Tonight's dinner will be Chicken Noodle Soup, with enough leftover for tomorrow's lunch! Yum!


Titus sipping his smoothie! He loves these new treats!



 I've also been wanting more cold foods, probably because of the lack of smell most cold food produce, and they just seem to be more refreshing to me! My friend, Leah, of Priceless Memories, loves smoothies and suggested some of her own recipes to me! So the past two days, I've made Titus and myself smoothies for breakfast. I used her chocolate and strawberry recipe because it was so easy and had so few ingredients (2, to be exact!). She likes to use Silk, and I found chocolate soy milk at Aldi for 2.39! That made this healthy smoothie that much cheaper! I used frozen raspberries instead, because that's what I had on hand. SO delicious! Today I made another recipe she gave me using frozen mixed berries, juice, yogurt, and a banana. (Maybe she'll post that one someday!) I loved that as I was drinking this smoothies, I knew it was not just delicious, but also so healthy for me! I'm looking forward to trying more of her recipes, and finding out what ingredients I like best in smoothies! Leah just posted a recipe for a Mint Mojito smoothie that I've got to try! It's very pregnancy-friendly as it has lots of folic acid in it, but it's a sneaky way to get your kids to get some green veggies! Can't wait to make this one!
Check out Leah's Blog!

Who likes smoothies!? Have any good smoothie recipes for me to try?