“I participated in an Ambassador Program on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Anheuser-Busch’s Family Talk About Drinking program. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.”

In my opinion, being a parent can be one of the toughest jobs. I am a mother of four children and there are many days of the month or even week that can be full of chaos where I want to pull my hair out. I am also one of Anheusar-Bush’s “Family Talk About Drinking” Ambassadors with information to share about talking to your teens about drinking.

Of my four children, my two oldest are my daughters that are teens in high school. With having children in high school comes a whole new world of problems that can be stressful to not only your children but to parents as well. Not only will you have to make your that your child is keeping up with their grades in their classes because we know if they want to look well for college, they need to have good grades, there is the social aspect of high school. No matter what crowd of friends your child hangs out with, there are always risks that you need to try to be prepared for.

My oldest daughter just had junior prom this past weekend. While many of the kids at her school went to parties after the dance, my daughter chose to come home instead of even trying to go out. For days before the dance she talked with her sister about all the different parties that were supposed to be happening. Luckily my husband and I have explained on multiple occasions what can happen at parties. Luckily my daughter isn’t so much of a risk taker, she didn’t even ask to go out and was happy to grab some good food with mom when I picked her up.

This was just one night I was lucky with though. There are many more I will have to face with just her. My second oldest is a freshman that also loves to dress up and go to dances and hang out with her friends. As a mom of four children, I definitely have my hands full!

The first step in talking to our kids about drinking doesn’t involve our kids at all. Instead, it’s about sitting ourselves down and asking ourselves some tough questions. Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself:

• What do we really think about alcohol and underage drinking?
• What rules do we want to communicate? Are we prepared to back up our advice with
• our own actions?
• When it comes to conversations with our kids, what are we really trying to achieve?
• Are we trying to protect our kids from the world, or are we trying to give them the skills
• they need to make smart decisions?

Did you realize there are three different stages of parenting with each stage having a very important impact on your child’s future.

Three Stages Of Parenting

1. Teacher (ages 1-7)
2. Facilitator (ages 8-13)
3. Coach (14-21+)

Although all of these stages are difficult, I have found Stage 3 as one of the hardest that I have yet to deal with. For more information on each of these stages and to download the Parent Guide, visit: https://www.facebook.com/ABFamilyTalk

In addition to the FREE Parent Guide, be sure to visit the Anheuser-Busch website for helpful information on talking with your teens about drinking…

Last night was Junior Prom for my oldest daughter. It wasn’t easy picking a dress but I think we did a good job! She didn’t have a date so her sister and I were her dinner date but that is okay…

I think she looks amazing for doing her own hair, makeup and nails! I can’t believe next year will be senior ball.

Kids grow so fast! Enjoy each day to the fullest!

Here are some quotes about life that I thought some of you might enjoy.

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Millennial Central for Seventh Generation. I received a promotional item and product samples as a thank you for participating”.

When I was pregnant with my daughter Hannah who is now almost 10 I was involved with a health & wellness home business opportunity where  I learned about all the bad chemicals and toxins that were in many of the products that I was buying regularly in my home. I threw away all those yucky cleaners and vowed to never buy anything with harmful chemicals and bad toxins again.

Will you believe my mom and my mother-in-law both have brought cleaning chemicals with bleach over to my house because they realized I didn’t have any good products to clean with. I had to let them know that I hate the smell of bleach and never buy those kind of products. I won’t buy any chemical with warnings for directions for contacting poison control. I buy products that are safe for the environment and safe for my family to use, like products from Seventh Generation. I remember trying their products for the first time when you could only buy them online. I was so happy when they started selling the Seventh Generation products at Target.

Did you know this…

This is one of the reasons that I don’t use those toxic chemicals in my house. Here are some facts that I want to share just in case you didn’t know…

• More than 80,000 chemicals available in the United States have never been fully tested for their toxic effects on our health and environment.
• Scientists have linked exposure to toxic chemicals to many health risks, such as Cancer, Alzheimer’s, learning disabilities, asthma, birth defects, and various reproductive problems.
• The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed in 1976, and unlike other major environmental laws, has never been updated. As it currently stands, tens of thousands of potentially harmful chemicals continue to be used in the marketplace since the 1970’s without proper testing and without disclosure by the companies that produce them.

Stand up for safer chemicals and become a Toxin Freedom Fighter! You can become a Toxin Freedom Fighter by signing Seventh Generation’s petition to urge Congress to reevaluate the Toxic Substances Control Act for the first time since 1976. The original goal of 100,000 has been reached but the more signatures, the better impact the petition will have on Congress!

I have teamed up with Seventh Generation as a Toxin Freedom Fighter and made sure that I signed the petition…

Are you going to sign the petition?

Follow the Action Against Toxins chat by following the hashtag #FightToxins on Twitter.

I received Peeps products in exchange for this post. No monetary compensation has been received and all thoughts are my own.
Every year since I was a kid I have always looked forward to Peeps around Easter time. My Nana would make us grandkids an Easter basket and we always knew we could count on Nana to have a package of Peeps in our basket. Although I know these things are loaded with SUGAR, I still continue the Peeps tradition with my kids and they always know mom is going to have a package of Peeps in their basket.

(My cousins and I at my Nana’s house on Easter 1983)

This year I am having some fun with the Peeps products. Not anymore are Peeps just boring colored marshmallow chicks and bunnies, the Peeps brand has some fun and exciting new products, flavors and colors this year.

For those of you that like chocolate, you are going to love these Peeps. They have Peeps that are dipped in milk chocolate and Peeps that are dipped in dark chocolate. I am liking the Chocolate Mouse Peeps that are dipped in milk chocolate. The ones in the pink package below.

I still like the traditional Peeps and this year they have some pretty colors. I LOVE these green Peeps.

For those of you chocolate fans that prefer the bunnies over the chicks, don’t worry because Peeps has you covered.

For those that like their Peeps pretty, you might want to grab a package of the Party Cake Peeps.

I think I like the Peeps Marshmallow Bunny. For those that don’t like chocolate bunnies, this might be a great replacement. I think I would like mine dipped in chocolate!

Then again, I have my dark chocolate dipped Peeps on hand too!

In my possession is a bag of Peepsters. I don’t know if I should share these on Easter or hide them in one of my drawers and keep them to myself.

At last is my FAVORITE Peeps item this year, the Peeps Milk Chocolate Egg. This is a hollow egg with a a Peeps Marshmallow Chick inside.

I LOVE this idea…

For those of you Peeps fans, what is your favorite Peeps product?