Do you have a hard time thinking of gift ideas for YOU?! I know, as moms we can often go through the entire list of getting gifts for others and yet, when someone asks us what we want, we are stumped, feel guilty, or don’t want to ask for what we really want or need. That’s why in this episode, I am going to tell you 10 of my favorite gift ideas. Many of these will be on sale over the holiday season, so whether you are gifted money to buy something you enjoy or have someone else shopping on your behalf, these are 10 ideas to consider adding to your list!

In this episode, we chat about 10 of the best gifts I have ever received:

1. Vitamix

You know the last thing on most people’s mind at the end of the year? Sustainability.

Not in the environmental sense, but rather in how we eat, move, and nourish our bodies. The weight loss industry is expecting millions of people to failed at sustaining their goals from 2022, so you know what they will do? Try to sell you again.

That’s why, in this episode, we chat about:

1. What are sustainable habits for feeding your family

We are halfway through Muffin Club and have already seen what a microcosm it is for using simple meal and snack ideas, setting up healthy systems, and operating in a sustainable way. Let this be the impetus to finding how you can start small yet make BIG strides in the upcoming year.

Looking for gift ideas that combine fun with function? You are in the right place! I am a very practical mom, at times to a fault. But when it comes to Christmas time, I leverage this to come up with gift ideas that are fun fillers for stockings and functional items around our home and in our lives that the kids also light up to unwrap and get to enjoy. Use the upcoming holiday sales to shop some of my favorites and my kid's top picks from over the years.

In this episode, we chat about:

• 10 of my favorite food-related stocking stuffer ideas

For each of the items listed (or to search ones similar), be sure to check out the links below.

SHOWNOTES:

Please note: I am an Amazon affiliate. While it doesn't cost you any extra to use these links, I may receive a small commission from items purchased with these links. Thank you for supporting the work of Veggies & Virtue through using affiliate links!

Food-related Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Kids

1. Kid-safe knives

Food-related Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids

1. Kitchen Helper Stool

The Best Christmas Gifts for Kids (ages 2-10)

1. Zoo pass

Ever heard of or used a capsule wardrobe? Well, just as that can serve really well without a closet, check this out for an easy visual that parallels the systems you need to have set up in your kitchen. You will learn how to streamline your efforts and organize your ideas so that feeding your family healthy meal and snack ideas doesn't feel quite so overwhelming.

That's why, in this episode we are chatting about what systems you have set-up in your home to:

• Remove the confusion of coming up with what to offer

With Muffin Club running right now, you might think that I am going to suggest that that is the answer. However, on today's episode, I talk about how Muffin Club is simply a microcosm of a system set-up to function for my family and me and hopefully you and yours too. 

When routines are off and relatives are around, parents often stress over holiday feeding for their kids. Whether it be because you have a selective eater who may struggle to eat holiday fare or an outspoken family member who speaks their unsolicited opinion about that at the table, I hear from parents each year about how hard it is to handle feeding and family over the holidays.

In this episode, we chat about how you and your family can do a "dress rehearsal" of the actual gathering, family dinner, or holiday meal and how this can set you and your child up for a more enjoyable time - mealtime included!

Feeding our family can feel really hard, especially when we are in a season when we have less capacity to meal plan or prep, cook or clean. So, although Muffin Club filled that gap for me amidst my third pregnancy and postpartum, what I see to matter most to the thousands of moms signed up is the fact that it simplifies alllllll the ideas.

In this episode, we chat about how we can:

• Save ourselves from the countless hours spent scrolling social media

You can still sign up for Muffin Club to get your hands on one, actionable recipe each week. Join us here!

Have more questions about Muffin Club? Get them answered here.

Welcome to the launch week for Muffin Club!

Knowing that some of you have done this every year with me since 2018 and others of you might be new to it and wondering what all the hype is about and having a little bit of FOMO about this random thing called Muffin Club, I am going to do a quick rundown on what Muffin Club for Moms even is.

In this episode, we chat about:

• How it started

If you want to review some of the FAQs from the past few years of running this free club, you can check those out here.

This can be a busy time of year. Going from Halloween right into the holidays, it seems like there is so much demand for our attention. That’s why, in this episode I am going to tell you one of the most common mistakes I have made as a mom, and how I wish I would’ve avoided it sooner. You can use this as part of your holiday planning, but also, I will share how it applies to annual events throughout the year to minimize my mental clutter, eliminate confusion, and save my future-self hours of planning and can for you too…

In this episode, we chat about:

1. What one thing you need to start doing now

Shownotes:

Have a question you want answered on the show? Leave me a voicemail.

One of the best times to begin neutralizing sweets and treats in our homes is following Halloween. While our kids already have candy top of mind, take the opportunity to role model an intuitive eating approach through regular opportunities to enjoy candy, including having it as dessert with dinner. By reinforcing food freedom over arbitrary food rules, we learn to better trust our children’s ability to self-regulate and in doing so, encourage them to do the same.

In this episode, we chat about:

1. Why, as parents, we assume dessert should be served after dinner

SHOWNOTES:

• Sign up for Muffin Club here.

Well, if the summer phrase is, “when life throws you lemons, make lemonade,” I am going to go ahead and make up my version for fall.

When life throws you pumpkins, make pumpkin pie!

On the day of this recording, I had two of my three kids home from school sick. Recovering but still needing to make sure she didn't spread any unwanted illness, my oldest came down into the office while my youngest napped.

Together, we decided we would go ahead and take the content I had planned to record for this episode day (sans kids at home) and create it together!

And you know what? I think the episode is SO much better this way.

Because instead of you just hearing my take on how we handle Halloween in my home, you get to hear it from my oldest daughter.

She is eight years old and since a very young age, she has been my child who has the biggest sweet tooth in the family. As I mentioned in a former episode how uncomfortable and insecure this used to make me as a first time mom, it was fun for me to hear her take on how we handle sugar in our home - particularly because this is something that year after year, Halloween after Halloween, we have tried to neutralize and normalize as a family.

So, hear how my daughter talks about:

• Reframing “how much is too much” with “how much is enough”

Tune in for this honest, open-book episode with my 8-year-old!

SHOWLINKS:

Join Mealtimes Made Easy: www.mealtimesmadeeasy.com

Schedule a session to chat one-on-one with Ashley: www.veggiesandvirtue.com/schedule

Leave Ashley a voicemail: www.veggiesandvirtue.com/ask