CorporetteMoms

A Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Part-Time, Work-at-Home Attorney

07/27/2017 by Guest Poster 15 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Mindy B., who lives in a suburb of Detroit and is a work-at-home attorney mom with a teenage daughter. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics…

Name: Mindy B.
Lives: A Detroit suburb
Job: Work at home (part time) for a boutique law firm
Age: 49
Home Situation: I live in a Tudor home in a community-oriented small town with my husband who travels frequently for work, our 14-year-old daughter who’s in all honors classes (plus band) in 8th grade and swims competitively 20+ hours per week, and two 2-year-old CRAZY pups.
Childcare Situation: Because I work from home, I only need babysitters when we will be out past the time our daughter goes to sleep (i.e., theater, etc.) but I do need “chauffeurs” to drive our daughter to/from activities when I have afternoon or evening commitments and my husband is traveling/working late.

Mindy pointed out how her schedule may be different from other Week in the Life moms we feature:

(1) we only have one child (I have NO idea how parents juggle more than one child!), (2) she’s more responsible than most adults I know, and (3) my husband’s office is an hour away from home and he also travels out of town 1–2 nights a week, 2–3 weeks per month.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Week in the Life of a Working Mom Tagged With: lawyer, lawyer mom, part, posts

Make My Life Easier Thursday: Philips Hue Lights

07/27/2017 by Kat 87 Comments

I’ve written before about my love of our nursery light bulb, which emits a soft yellow/orange glow designed to get your little one in the mood for bedtime — but we’re recently getting into smart lights like Philips Hue at Casa Griffin, and I’m in love — especially for a small space like a child’s bedroom, where you may not have the luxury of having space for a dedicated nursery light. If you get one of these, you can have it as a regular white light during playtime — then turn it to an orangier twilight glow at bedtime that fades away to a nightlight. If your little one has problems waking up, you can turn it on slowly (like over the course of 30 minutes) to an energizing light — and you can amuse your little one with blue lights and more. There are apparently apps where you can also sync it to work with the music, but I haven’t gotten into those. (Oh, and if you forget to turn it off and don’t want to creep back into baby’s room? You can turn the light off with your phone or iPad.) The dimmable colored light (pictured) is only $50, but note that the smart bridge (necessary to connect the lights to your WiFi) starts at around $65 depending on which kit you get (we started with the lightstrip kit for undercabinet lighting). Philips Hue Dimmable Color Lights

This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Recent Recs Tagged With: nursery decor

How to Find Time to Work Out As a Mom

07/26/2017 by Kat 30 Comments

Ladies, what are your best tips for how to find time to work out as a mom? In our survey I noticed that a lot of women, like me, were struggling to find time to work out. For my $.02, I know that I tend to have an all-or-nothing approach to exercise, and it isn’t doing me any favors! In addition to it being a bad idea from a calorie/consistency/crazy perspective (I like to do cardio to “keep the crazies away”), it turns out my mom body really does not like to do nothing for weeks and then try to do a kickboxing workout or a dead lift. I have a few ideas on how to find time to work out as a mom (below), but I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

In just the past few weeks, I’ve made a huge shift in my thinking. I’ve always thought of exercise as something to do to help my mood and to look better in clothes — I liked high intensity things like running, kickboxing, spinning, swinging kettlebells, lifting heavy weights, and more. Since getting pregnant with my second son I’ve been in and out of PT for years — first to mitigate my SPD pain while pregnant with H, then postpartum PT for my hip flexors, then PT again after my ACL surgery for general knee rehabilitation. I’ve now found myself back in PT because of lower back pain, which turned out to be because of weak transverse abs. (I also kept making my hip flexors angry after I tried to go running, possibly because one knee is still weaker than the other.)

I’m now realizing my core, trunk, and back are huge priorities for me just for general health and happiness — not something to think about as a “last 10 pounds bikini body push” — and I’m making sure I do exercises every day to support those. (I’m also hoping it will help improve my posture.) I know that as I get older, weight-bearing exercises like walking are more important (and, dare to dream, maybe one day I can get back to running), and I also know that strong muscles are very important, so I’m going to be trying to work in bodyweight exercises like squats and pushups since I don’t trust myself with weights right now. In theory, I have time for all this, but forming the habits (like planking after I brush my teeth, or doing wall squats while I’m waiting for water to boil) is tricky.

If you’re already feeling great postpartum (or you have older kids) and are just struggling with a timing issue, know that there are a ton of short but GREAT workouts you can do in under 20 minutes. I know readers have noted that even Peloton has classes that are 5–20 minutes! (Just be careful not to overdo it as a newbie.)

Some of the short workouts that I’ve looked into include:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: exercise, posts, workouts

Washable Workwear Wednesday: Adele Knit City Wrap Dress

07/26/2017 by Kat 105 Comments

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — if you’re looking for a professional, polished option while you’re getting back in your pre-baby clothes, a wrap dress is great. We just rounded up some of our favorite wrap dresses for work over at Corporette (including some plus size picks), and this Adele dress is one of them. I like the subdued colors, the pattern — always great for hiding stains! — and the fact that it’s washable. This particular dress is $198, but you can find other prints and patterns as low as $54 at Amazon. (Whoa, there’s even a maternity option left in lucky sizes.) BCBGMax Azria Women’s Adele Knit City Wrap Dress

Looking for other washable workwear? See all of our recent recommendations for washable clothes for work, or check out our roundup of the best brands for washable workwear.

This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Filed Under: Machine-Washable

Nursing & Pumping Tuesday: Wrap Tee

07/25/2017 by Kat 95 Comments

A wrap top — either worn by itself or layered with your favorite nursing camisole — can be a great option for pumping and nursing moms. Easy access — and you can reclose it entirely after each nursing or pumping session, the fabric won’t get too loose. Nice! This pretty gray one is only $21 at Nordstrom, avaliable in gray and pink (down from $35). Wrap Tee

Psst: Looking for more info about nursing clothes for working moms, or tips for pumping at the office? We’ve got them both…

This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Filed Under: Nursing, Recent Recs

Beauty and Makeup Monday: Lip Lock Pencil

07/24/2017 by Kat 121 Comments

I used to be able to put on red lipstick without even looking in the mirror and it was fine, and now if I put on even just nude lipstick without paying close attention to lip liner and everything else, it ends up all over my face. For those of you who seem to be suffering from the same problem, I’ve tried a lot of these invisible liners that help your lipstick stay on your lips, and my favorite is this one from e.l.f. that you can get from Amazon. I prefer this to Sephora‘s and Milani’s versions, as well as MAC’s Prep & Prime (which isn’t really good for lining purposes but definitely does extend the life of my lipstick). Oh, and of course the e.l.f. lip lock pencil costs less ($3) at elfcosmetics.com, but do note that you need to buy $25 worth of stuff to get free shipping. I ordered a bunch of stuff a while ago and wasn’t too impressed with any of it (it wasn’t bad, just nothing was quite right) — those of you who’ve tried e.l.f.’s affordable cosmetics, what are your go-tos? e.l.f. Lip Lock Pencil

Psst: There are so many great sales going on! Of course the 2017 Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is still going on (and it’s now open to the public — no rewards cards required!); Tahari is having a warehouse sale with prices starting at $15, and Ann Taylor’s semi-annual sale is on with some seriously crazy deals. Have you found any great deals, readers?

This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Filed Under: Recent Recs