The Basic Ranch Mom

 Alright y'all, if you follow me on social media, you know that ticks are my arch nemesis and I absolutely CANNOT handle how much they've invaded my life lately. I don't know if it brings me comfort or just more misery to know that so many of you feel exactly the same way, but the simple fact is we are all in the same boat. That being said, I asked what you do to repel the little demons and, as you always do, you guys delivered with some really great repellent options. I've compiled a list below so we can all have less phantom crawling nightmares in the months ahead. 1) Chickens and guineas Well I was already teetering on the "let's get chickens" fence and you guys knocked me right over into the PRO side with this little fact. Apparently chickens can eat up to 80 ticks per hour, and some research shows guineas can consume close to 4000 PER DAY. Holy guacamole that sounds like a win to me.  That being said, this option also comes with a lot of extra work (t...

  Alright y’all, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard at least once or twice about the cold water exposure hype. That, or my algorithm is extremely tailored to health and wellness and I’m the one living under a rock. A crunchy-ish health rock. Either one is extremely possible. Either way, if you haven’t heard about it before now, you’re about to. I’ve been taking a three minute cold shower every day for the last six weeks and I’m ready to give you my thoughts on the trend. First things first though - what’s the process and what do the experts say? Because I don’t have access to an actual cold plunge (YET), I’ve taken the advice of bio hacker Gary Brecka and started with cold showers instead. I turn the water on as cold as it goes, start my timer, take a deep breath, and then step under the water. I spend ten deep breaths per side and continue this spin until my timer goes off three minutes later. The key is to get as much of your skin exposed to the cold wa...

You ever heard the phrase, "it's never too late to start over?" It’s a romantic idea, to start fresh. It gives us hope that tomorrow will be different, and that all the baggage we are carrying around can somehow just fall away with the simple flip of a calendar or the start of new day. In reality, that’s not how it works. The baggage is still there, the problems still need to be solved, and the changes are still waiting to be made. Which is why I tend not to subscribe to the idea of resolutions during any part of the year. BUT, I do believe every day can be a new beginning if we want it to be. That being said, here is my list of resolutions you can and should make during any part of the year: 1) Find your discipline (NOT your motivation) Too many people focus on motivation as the key factor in making goals and sticking with them. But the truth is, motivation is temporary. Nobody wakes up every day feeling motivated to accomplish their goals. It’s simply not in our nature...

S hortly after baby Merp arrived, I started doing a little thing I liked to call “Nap Time Chats” with all of you on my social media channels. I had mamas submit pieces of advice - about motherhood and life in general - and at each chat I would share one. Well Princess Merp now gives me the stink eye if I make even the smallest noise while she’s settling down for nap time, so I decided I would share my fave pieces of advice here in a blog post for everyone to use! An extra big thank you to everyone who submitted their advice. I never really understood what the phrase “it takes a village” meant until I had kids of my own, and the Basic Ranch Mom community sure has helped me find the best village of fellow ranch moms there is. So without further ado, here’s your list! 1) When you pick up kids from daycare or the babysitter, always greet the older children first. Samantha’s mom was a daycare provider, and she said that whenever parents would greet their baby before their older kids, she ...

  A few days ago on my social media channels I asked my community to describe motherhood in only one word. Thankfully, those ladies came in clutch as they always do and gave me ALL KINDS of words. Some I was expecting and some I wasn’t, interestingly enough. When I threw that question out there, I knew I’d get the usual responses that truly do encompass how it feels to be a mom in such a positive way. Words like fulfilling, empowering, blessed, and strong were some that I expected to see come through. And they did. But they weren’t alone. The vast majority of you actually gave me a very different vibe: words like wild, whirlwind, tired, chaos, relentless, exhausting, overwhelmed. I have to be honest you guys, I wasn’t expecting that at all. Not because it isn’t true, but because we as mothers are really good at focusing only on the positive when describing our journey in motherhood to the people around us. When someone asks us how we’re doing, we tell them we are getting by just fi...

I have a confession to make: I haven’t been very kind to myself lately. Life has been busy. The kids have been busy. The ranch has been busy. And I’ve been going full speed ahead, juggling 20 things at a time when my plate technically only fits 10. It’s part of my personality, to take on too much and smile while I do it. And sometimes that works. But sometimes it doesn’t. When I do this - expect way more from myself than I have the capacity for - it almost always comes crashing down at one point or another. And lately, I’ve been dropping balls left and right. Instead of recognizing what’s happening, I’ve resorted to belittling. With the target being myself. We’ve all done it - negative self talk. We place our expectations at an unattainable level, and when we fall short at any point, we come down on ourselves harder than anyone else ever could. We look in the mirror and pick apart everything we don’t like. We yell at our kids and tell ourselves we are the worst parents in the world. We...