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Ask before you take. Never open someone else’s fridge. Say “please” and “thank you”. Take care of your things. Don’t scream. Don’t fight. No jumping on the furniture. Look at people when they address you. And, “no” means “no”. When it comes to family rules, there is black and white, and a very vast grey area. But, once an individual steps into parenthood, they often find themselves in need of a solid set of guidelines—pronto. Since babies quickly become kids who are smarter than they seem, one might find themselves feeling captive to those kids, who will rule the roost if they don’t get some strict boundaries fast. Below, we asked five righteous mamas to share some hard, fast, and loving family rules, and we’re amazed by their honesty and dedication. “By the time my twin nine-year-old girls get home from their after school activities, there isn’t a ton of time for homework. I don’t want them to rush through their schoolwork just to get to the TV, iPad, or phone, which I find pretty mindless and difficult to monitor. So, we have a ‘no screens of any kind on a school night’ rule. If they have schoolwork that requires the computer, they do it in a room with me or my husband present, so we know what they’re up to. If I let the girls have free reign with the screens, they turn into zombies that struggle to listen, and their overall behavior goes rapidly downhill. For the sake of harmony in our house, I limit screens. This rule was instituted in first grade, and my girls didn’t really argue about it for long. It just became part of the routine, and now I can use screens as a reward for exceptional behavior. We told them that school is our family priority. Our motto is, ‘we do what we have to do, so we can do what we want to do.'” – Kelly, Freelance Editor “I tell my kids the best medicine is what we feed our bodies. You want to be stronger, taller, and healthier? You need to put the right foods into your body every day. It’s ultimately your decision. I can’t force you to make healthy choices, but it’s what I will serve in our house. Food made from scratch is what I try to stick to. There’s even a sign hanging in our kitchen that says, ‘Dinner choices: One, take it. Two, leave it.” - Jen, Speech Therapist “I like the rule that states, ‘a little dessert after every meal, as long as they eat the meal’. This even applies to breakfast—no judgments please. I’m okay with one chocolate chip cookie in the morning, as long as breakfast is eaten. It can make for a happy kid, which makes for a happy mom. And, if we can start our day off happy, then all is right by me.” - Amy, Manager at CNN “We have a strict rule about showing private parts, and talk a lot about who can see and touch our ‘privates’. It’s a part of our everyday dialogue, and whenever private parts are shown out of the norm, I make a point to say that it’s out of the norm. We are also very careful with our words. I am on a pretty strict, healthy diet due to a huge weight gain with my second pregnancy. I never want my daughter to deprive herself, so I don’t use words like ‘skinny’ or ‘fat’. I only discuss health. I explain to my daughter that she is always running, jumping, and playing, so she can have sweet treats and carbohydrates that I cannot have because I am not as active as she is. I only bring this up when she asks why I’m not having ice cream or a bowl of pasta with her.” - Ashley, Psychotherapist “Family mealtime was sacred—no phones, no television, no profanities. Any off-color word spoken at the table required a $1 donation to the cursing jar, and all the collected funds were mom’s to keep. I also always cooked more than enough food, so that unexpected guests could join us at the spur of the moment. I wanted my children to know that their friends were always welcome and that we enjoyed their company. When our son was in high school, he often invited a friend for dinner who ate with his hands. Since then, I have taught my children to have good table manners and respect for everyone around our table.” – Karyn, Grandmother and Retired Social Worker Along with loving children comes great responsibly to shape, guide, and teach them how to be healthy, upstanding citizens, and there’s no manual for this. It’s the best job there is, and sometimes the hardest. We have to show tough love from time to time, whether that’s letting our kids cry it out or having them finish every bite on their plate, we must remind them how much we love them every step of the way. However one chooses to spin their family rules, the best success seems to come from keeping consistent. When rules are rules, kids know what to expect and how to act. What are some of the rules in your household?

Sometimes creating balance requires a little room for imbalance. Sounds crazy, right? Allow me to explain my point of view. We spend so much time as women, as parents, as worker-bees, as people (this actually applies to the male species as well), trying to get it all right and be so efficient and witty and worldly and wonderful and successful and the list goes on and on… We kick butt every day. Make it all happen! Every little thing can seem worthy of our time in the pursuit of perfect balance, but often at our own expense, or at the expense of our family, our partners and our intrinsic sense of “true” balance. When pandering to perfection and “perfect” balance, there is a loss that can occur spiritually, that is. There’s a feeling that we get when we realize we have been trying so hard to be the best version of ourselves that we might actually be missing out on the best things about ourselves. And to that end, we may be depriving those around us from basking in our true wonder. “Total” and “Perfect” balance can be boring. It’s nearly unattainable and practically impossible. We go to such lengths to be so fine requiring an unrelenting focus that often deflects our gaze from that which we are most attracted. Whether “that” is a cookie, a night out on our butts binge watching something totally un-binge worthy or listening to a song that we wouldn’t want to share on social media. We are all entitled to tip the scale a little in the seemingly wrong direction from time to time. It could be swearing like a sailor when you must (hopefully not in front of the kids), dialing up take-out when you have perfectly beautiful greens in your fridge awaiting a sauté, engaging in a little harmless retail therapy when you really should be paying a bill, or just praising your incredible body, instead of cursing it for not yoga-ing enough or showing up at the gym that day. I used to overthink, over-list-write over-agonize my failings. I still do sometimes, (just ask my husband). It’s easy to freak out about anything that takes you off your game in creating balance. But the more we judge ourselves and fight and push and pull and cajole our own psyches in the name of “perfect” balance. The less balance we will ever really experience. After all it’s about Yin and Yang. Chocolate and Vanilla, Night and Day…No one can be Beyoncé or Gwyneth every minute. Okay, no one but Beyoncé or Gwyneth can be Beyoncé or Gwyneth, ever. Why try!? Who knows how balanced their lives are anyway? Everyone is fronting balance. Everyone is selling balance. We shouldn’t buy into everything! We must only compare ourselves to… ourselves. Do you get everything done (or almost everything) and leave no time for downtime? Do you balance your bank accounts, and everything from A-Z and leave less than a scrap of time for XXX’ s and OOO’s and all the saucy stuff with your so-called “significant” other? Or do you get all the balanced goods under your belt and leave no time to even find a significant other? Balance takes a little grit! It takes a little confidence at times to just let things go! You feel more balanced when you feel fulfilled, true to yourself and understood-don’t ya? I know I do. Sometimes I have eaten like a Buddhist monk, done some yoga, cared for my family in the best way I know how, studied, written a song, worked with a client, made the beds, made my deadlines, done the dishes, a load of laundry, meditated for 10 minutes, took my supplements and I do not feel balanced!!!! Sometimes I do. But other times I have missed out on things that did not seem like they were contributing to my “perfect” sense of balance like chit-chatting with a friend, or rearranging the furniture, doodling, or lazily reading something of no particular importance. I guess it all boils down to what balance means to you. If drinking 10 glasses of water a day does the trick, than do it. (Actually water is quite balancing, I highly recommend H20-ing it up). But if you must blow off a workout in favor of wondering around aimlessly for an hour because it does your mind some good then just walk briskly. There! Workout completed! Be resourceful. Be free. Be easy on yourself. Be honest about what balance to YOU actually looks like. Don’t believe the hype. There’s no wrong and no right. It’s your life. It’s your job to take care of you and not get caught up in a balancing act of perfection that could leave you feeling anything but balanced! As long as you are walking your talk (most of the time), keeping your heart open (in general) and moving forward in your life some slight deviations along the road to that coveted balance might actually take you somewhere you need to go. You owe it to yourself to be you, to love yourself and pardon your imbalances. Breathe easy. It comes with practice, it comes with patience and it comes with putting our cruel self-judgment where it belongs. So stick it where the sun don’t shine. Get on with it! Tomorrow is another day. There’s always another way. You can rock the balance of your life one day at a time in your own uniquely crazy way! After all you are only human. And that is a perfectly beautiful thing!! With much Love! xo-Stacie

Spring has sprung....baseball has begun, kids get to play outside and we get to roll down our windows shed some layers and revel in a few more hours of sunlight! This time of year is so intoxicating, but allergies, not so much! Things are sprouting, pollen is flying and the the itchy eyes, runny nose, scratchy throat ensemble... Not fun! Many people experience other strange symptoms that may actually be food related, BUT have a direct connection to seasonal allergies like pollen and hay fever. OAS or Oral Allergy Syndrome can be sneaky and hard to diagnose. Often people feel as though they are reacting to different foods, yet nothing shows up in standard allergy testing, and it's hard to figure out what's going on!? It could be an apple, a berry, a handful of nuts that never offended before but is making a mouthful of trouble now. The key to the mystery might literally be on the tip of your tongue. This article (link below) is pretty comprehensive. I suffer from seasonal allergies myself, and also from OAS. There are only a handful of foods that cause these reactions. But identifying the culprits and being mindful of your food choices can make a huge difference. People with Oral Allergy Syndrome often find that symptoms worsen during pollen season. If you are one of em, you may wish to avoid trigger foods at the peak of that season. Click and Read for more fun..or not so fun facts that can help you enjoy an allergy-easy Spring!! http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/316521.php