Saying ‘Goodbye’ to Being a Stay-at-Home Mom

When we moved to Germany, I knew I would eventually be giving up my paid gig and my days would be filled with taking care of my son and the majority of the housework.  I completed the switch-over two years ago and became a full time time parent.  I was so excited that I would have the time to entertain my little guy and not have deadlines to face, conference calls to be on or external stress to bring home.  We had a blast.  He was my best friend and we went everywhere.  My husband would come home from work, interrupting our play, and tell us we were the ‘biggest goofballs,’ that we had a bond like no other. 

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Overnight Remedies for Dry Skin

Overnight Remedies for Dry Skin by monkeysmiles

Believe me when I say that I am an expert at having dry skin. It always tends to sneak up on me when I least expect it too. I can usually stay moisturized by applying lotion two times a day and drinking a ton of water but every once in a while, I’ll get a patch of crazy dry skin. I’ve tried everything to prevent it, including special lotions, sugar and oil scrubs, coconut oil and more but nothing seemed to work.  

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Mommy-hood Conclusions

I turned into a mom a little over four years ago.  Before my initiation, I would have never given any of these things a second thought but alas, mommy-hood has enlightened me and so I thought I’d share my findings.

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5 Things I’ve Learned About Myself While Living in Germany

Almost 3 years ago, we made the decision to pack up our life in the US and move our little family to Germany. I had never been out of North America and we wanted to give our son the experience of living in a different culture.  We knew it would be hard to leave family and friends but we weren’t prepared for the toll it would take on Monkey whenever we had to say goodbye after video chatting or having someone visit. It seemed to take forever to feel like we “fit in” and then all of a sudden, time flew.  Now it’s almost time to leave and return back to our life in the States. During our time here, I’ve grown a lot and learned so much about myself.

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Cleaning House

It’s almost time for us to say goodbye to these floor-to-ceiling  windows and our gorgeous view.  We are a little less than 6 months out from PCSing (Permanent Change of Station/Moving) back to the States and we need to get rid of a bunch of stuff before we leave.  Hooray! I love getting rid of junk (but not necessarily the process of).  We’re allotted a certain amount of weight we can ship back and going over that limit is not an option for us.  Below is my plan on getting myself organized and purging what we don’t need and although these are tips for moving, they also work for a big Spring Cleaning.

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