Yes, the first year of motherhood is hard. When you hear other parents venting about it, they are not exaggerating. It pretty much goes that as soon as you think you have one issue under control, a slew of new difficulties will follow. There is so much to learn and master for both you and your baby, that there really is no respite. Nevermind the intense bouts of teething, ear infections, colds, and other problems that you're likely to experience in this short span of time.

Despite how physically and emotionally taxing it can be, it is incredibly rewarding and humbling in the best of ways.

Doing laundry is one of those never ending chores. It doesn't matter how much laundry you do, there will always be more to come. I rarely see the bottom of my laundry hamper and even when I do, it's only visible for the briefest amount of time before someone goes and puts some dirty clothes in there. I don't like doing laundry. I'd rather be shopping for new clothes than cleaning the ones I already own, but until they make self-cleaning clothes or I can regularly outsource my laundry duties all I can do is make the best of a dirty situation.

I'll tell you what, MacGyver, known for his ability to come up with clever solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems, has got nothing on parents. Anyone who has been an active and participating parent for a minute or more has come up with some clever solutions to all kinds of situations. Parents are master hackers. Parenting hacks should be passed on because they really do make life so much easier.

Dear mom,

Not everyone can say that they have a really good relationship with their mom. I know we may not always see eye-to-eye when it comes to certain things (like religion and politics), but in the end I always know that I can count on you no matter what. You're not just an exceptional mother to my siblings and I, but also my best friend.  I'm so grateful to have been blessed with a mom like you and with Mother's Day just a few days away I thought I'd take this time to thank you for all the amazing things you've done for me.

A new report by Save the Children ranks the top 20 places to be a mother and the U.S. came in 30th place out of 176 countries. Boo!!! I would say that means there is a lot of room for improvement. True there are WAY worse places to be a mother, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't improve the conditions where we live.

Okay, I think it's safe to say that when you have children--whether babies or teenagers--it's as difficult if not more so to feed yourself healthy and nutritious meals as it is to feed them. In the early days of motherhood I would often forget to eat all day and come early evening (you know, during the newborn witching hour), I would be famished and had no energy at all.

Within a few weeks it became very clear that I needed to eat well throughout the day, but how I was supposed to achieve that was still a mystery, especially once all of the casseroles and meals from friends and family ran out. These days, my husband works second shift and my son eats mostly table food, so I'm once again finding myself a little crazed during our morning and afternoon meals, but there are a few things I like to do and some recipes I turn to regularly to make it a bit easier.

As babies transition from infancy to toddlerhood and their mobility increases, every parent has to broach the footwear dilemma. I actually feel kind of ridiculous making that statement, you know, because they are babies and worrying about what to put on their feet definitely feels like a first-world problem, but it's a problem that my mommy friends and I have been trying to figure out for a couple of months now. My son isn't quite walking yet, so most of the time I can still get away with bare feet or socks when we go out, but as he moves closer and closer to the one-year mark it's starting to feel less and less socially acceptable.