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Motherhood, Sponsored
My Reusable Snapfish Tote and Travel Mug + Discount Code
- 4:38 pm
- 0 comments
- by Adanna Dill
This post is sponsored by Snapfish. As always, all opinions expressed are my own. ‘

Ummm, I’m a little ashamed to admit this but I have some not so impressive habits. I drink my coffee or tea in disposable cups almost every day (face palm) and although I’m at the grocery store almost every day but I do not have a reusable tote. Urgh, I can just imagine you shaking your head at me and my million plastic bags, they come in handy to line wastebaskets around the house but I have to admit that I realized on Earth Day that I need to do better.

See, the kids and I took to Forest Park exploring off the beaten part trails and taking in the fresh air of the urban oasis. No matter where we went in the park, there were volunteers cleaning up and I was really impressed their commitment to making a change for the earth. They inspired me and I started to think of ways that I could do better not just for myself but to set an example for my kiddos.

They’re learning from me and as I thought about the supermarket trip I was making right after the park, I couldn’t help but feel bad that once again I will be going home with more plastic bags.

We took ended up taking a bunch of photos that day and instead of saving them in my camera until I ran into an old friend to show off my babies as I usually do, I decided to make reusable products with them. I love using Snapfish to make photo products because the quality of the products is always impressive. You may remember we made my hubby a book and some cute magnets last Father’s Day.

So instead of wasting all those cups of coffee and tea on the go, I’m going to be using this travel tumbler. I’ve had for about 3 weeks now and it’s just perfect for when I am rushing around in the morning to get the kids out of the house. I love that it’s spill proof so I could drop it in my bag without worrying.

Also, I’ve been passing up on the plastic bags at the grocery store with my canvas tote and having the kids photo on it makes a great conversation starter. I’m definitely going to make another mug for my husband and bags for the kids grandmas.

I know that I’m not the only mama needing a new reusable bag and travel mug so if you need one, take advantage of Snapfish’s exclusive coupon code for Rattles and Heels readers, ADANNAEARTH and enjoy 60% off Everyday Canvas Totes and Travel Tumblers (15oz). Yes, 60% off is a really nice deal, just place your order before June 30, 2017, when it discount expires.

Do you use earth friendly reusable products?
Activities, Motherhood, Sponsored
My Plan To Prevent Summer Slide
- 6:43 pm
- 0 comments
- by Adanna Dill
This post is sponsored by Flocabulary. As usual, all opinions expressed are my own.

If you know me, you know that I LOVE summer so I am at my happiest when those warm months roll around. We’re going to start our summer in sunny Orlando and I imagine we will be spending lots of time outdoors as The Princess Fairy mastered bike riding earlier this week. But before we get into all of that, I wanted to make a plan to ensure that my kids do not summer slide. If you’ve never heard the term “summer slide” before, it basically refers to kids regressing academically because they forgot everything they learned the previous school year. I wrote about my fear of falling behind in the past and I think it’s safe to say that no parent wants their kids to summer slide. So, I wanted to share a few things that I plan to do to prevent summer slide in our home:

Ask Teachers For Tips

I am not an education expert, I am a mom trying my best to help my kids learn and grow so I like to ask the professionals for help. My first step this summer is to talk to my daughter’s new teacher for advice on how to prepare her for the next grade level during the summer. Even my son who is headed to Pre-K will be prepping by practicing to write his full name, draw shapes and some sensory activities.

Pinterest Activities

Pinterest is a gold mine for educational activities for kids, you can find everything from art and craft projects to science experiments. I plan to create a board with educational summer activities for my little ones to fit their interests and educational levels.

Flocabulary App

There isn’t a kid who doesn’t enjoy playing on smartphones and tablets so this summer instead of asking them to come off, let’s embrace digital tools for learning. I downloaded the Flocabulary app for my daughter last week and she is already hooked. I was talking to my girlfriend who is a teacher and she told me that they have the subscription in her classroom and her students love the educational hip hop videos. I can totally attest to that because my daughter also loves the videos, which I think are creative and catchy. Her favorite is the “End Punctuation” video but there are over 800 videos so she’s not going to bored. After watching the videos, kids can take challenges to test how much they learned.

One of the perks of this app that works for our family is that Flocabulary is also Common Core aligned. Flocabulary is available on iOS and Android. It’s been selected by Apple as #1 “New Apps We Love” on the Apple Store which is a huge deal because there are approximately 14,000 new apps launched every week. You can follow them over on Twitter and Facebook.

Join A Reading Club

There are many different reading clubs that provide incentives for kids to read during the summer. You can find them locally (our library have a summer club) or virtually. This will really encourage your kids to read more and to find books on their interests.

Visit Museums

It’s no secret that the kids and I love to visit museums, we’ve visited many throughout the East Coast and MidWest and we’re not about to slow down this summer. There are still many on our list that we haven’t made it to yet. We love doing tours when we visit as we learn so much amazing bit of information and the tour guides make the experience fun.

How do you plan to prevent summer slide?
Breastfeeding, Motherhood, Sponsored
Let’s Stop Mom Shaming and Turn The Labels Around
- 10:08 am
- 0 comments
- by Adanna Dill
I partnered with Beech-nut to share my feelings and experience with mom shaming. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own.

Mom-shaming is the grown-up equivalent to childhood bullying but sometimes it’s worse. We all have that “friend” who doesn’t shut up about how perfect her kid’s French is and in the same sentence observes that our kid doesn’t pronounce “French Fries” correctly. Boo! Listen, I’ve sat in the mom shame chair many, many, many times. I’ve sat there because I decided to exclusively breastfeed, because my kid has food allergies or because my son refused to say hi to someone. Oh, it’s been a long road of mom-shaming thanks to all these labels we carry as modern mamas. Frankly, I’m over it and that’s why I am happy to partner with Beech-Nut for their Turn The Labels Around campaign. The goal of this awesome campaign is to get us to support each other and stop the labeling.

In a recent study, Beech-Nut found that 82% of moms are aware of mom-shaming and nearly 80% of us have felt judged by someone who we know personally. That’s almost every mom at your kid’s dance practice. But if you’re one of the few lucky mamas who has never dealt with this let me tell you, I didn’t even have to leave the hospital before having my first mom shaming episode. After giving birth to my daughter, I was only allowed to breastfeed her for about five minutes before she was whisked away from me for testing. Imagine, my sweet baby girl wrapped up like a burrito, gone. I worried the entire time she was in the nursery that she was crying for mommy and hungry. I worried that the nurses who seemed unbothered about my wish to exclusively breastfeed would feed her formula if she did cry and worse—I worried that less than an hour into motherhood, I had failed her. I remember at one point, a nurse came into my room and I asked for my baby and she slickly responded: “Oh you’re a breastfeeding one, huh?” Her tone and the look she gave me made me feel ashamed.

I remember going on a play date with an old friend and we were talking about our parenting styles and she would say something negative in response to almost anything I shared. She bragged that her kid didn’t do *insert long list* and her kid did *insert long list* and made a point to lecture me on why her way was better. Honestly, I was so surprised I could barely say a word. My daughter must have noticed the embarrassment on my face because she came over a few times to ask what’s wrong. Soon as I got myself together, I hightailed out of there. That was the end of the playdate and our “friendship”. Why? Because my 6-year-old could feel that something was wrong and I could only imagine how much worse the judgment would get down the line. It’s not just in real life though, I’ve even found myself hitting the “leave group” button in many mommy social media groups. I would see a mom posting a question or frustration and others under the guise of helping, mom shame her for whatever she was facing. This hurt really bad especially when the question was an issue that I was struggling with too. Actually, the Beech-Nut study found that more than 50% of moms have hesitated to post online in fear of internet trolling mamas.

But please don’t think that I am innocent of mom shaming because I am no saint. I’ve judged other moms for more reasons than I care to admit. We all need to turn the labels around and celebrate each other on this very hard journey called motherhood. This new video for the Turn The Labels Around campaign by Beech-Nut is a perfect illustration of that.

I’m excited to share that next week, on May 4th we will learn more about the experiences of moms who have been mom shamed and how we can Turn The Labels Around at the HuffPost Beech-Nut Mom Shaming Summit. I will be a panelist and I would love for you to join us. The summit will be live on the HuffPost Parents Facebook page at 10:00 am EST. Set your alerts so you wouldn’t miss it!

Reach out to a mom who you admire via social media and tell her that she is doing a great job. Don’t forget to use the hashtag, #ShowMomsLove

ETA: You can watch the video recap of the panel on mom-shaming below!