Blog Posts by Parentables

Kale SmoothieI don't believe you have to hide vegetables in order to get your kids to eat them -- although, once in awhile you might need to entice them to try something new. This kale smoothie is just the ticket. Most kids love to eat fruit because it is naturally sweet, but are less likely to eat green vegetables which can taste bitter on their still-developing taste buds.

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Although not always popular with kids, dark leafy green vegetables are the highest rated food on the ANDI nutrient density scale, scoring 1000 points (the maximum amount). Drinking a green smoothie is practically like taking a multi-vitamin. One cup of kale contains the daily required amount of:

• beta carotene
• vitamins C, E and K
• calcium
• magnesium
• iron
• potassium
• phosphorus
• zinc

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The fresh flavor of raw kale is highlighted in this easy smoothie that is naturally sweetened with orange

Hey, that looks like MY to-do list.As parents we tend to run ourselves ragged trying to get everything accomplished in one day that should be tackled over the course of a week. There's always something lurking on the ever-growing to-do list and time just slips away. In an effort to get more done, I used to wake up before my daughter and continue to work once she went to bed. I felt like I was on an endless treadmill of taking care of household chores, staying on top of emails and work, and doing all the other stuff moms are responsible for.

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To top off my hectic schedule, I've been sick with colds and flus for most of the year. I chalked it up to being a sleep-deprived mom (being woken up every 3 hours at night for 17 long months), who has been exposed to a lot of kiddie germs. Except it was taking me about 4 -6 weeks to get over a cold, when the rest of my family was recovering in a few days. I had seen my doctor for these

Movie night!With school in full force again, we like to have Friday night movie time and watch movies like "Flywheel," the original "Cheaper by the Dozen," and for the younger kids, "Bambi. And, it's actually an earned privilege. We'll pick out a movie for that Friday, and everybody knows their checklist has to be accomplished by the end of the week.

Read More: Michelle Duggar's Clever Strategy for Motivating Kids

This includes their chores, their jurisdictions, all their schoolwork and their music practice. If something happens during the week and their schedule gets bumped, or they're not able to catch up, then we try to help them catch up.

Read More: Homeschooling: How Michelle Duggar Approaches Learning Difficulties

But if they've been lazy and they slacked off and they didn't really focus on getting all their checklist items done, they may miss out on that movie time because -- and I know this sounds really hard -- but it's all about "you work hard and then you play." And

Stats. Blurg.I feel like one of those politicians who bows out of the race to spend more time with family. Even though there was no sketchy hotel room and this announcement will never make it to the newspapers, I do have something in common with that public figure. I realized that I'd veered off track and lost touch with myself.

Read More: How Ditching Technology Helped Me Get Things Done

When I started my blog three years ago, I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write essays, the kind where you dig deeper into an experience or idea and try to find a lesson. But everyone wants to write deep thoughts about their lives, and there are only a few magazines (whoops, make that very few magazines) with a spot in the back for personal ramblings.

To get an essay published, I was told you had to already be a published writer, ideally a book author or some other expert. I did know something about raising kids on a tight budget, and yes, I needed to develop my voice. So I started a blog.

Should we go with Kaisley or Bajango? Oh wait, how about Muffet?Besides my severe case of poop-o-phobia, one of the things I stressed most about prior to becoming a parent was finding a decent name for our kid.

We absolutely had to pick the perfect name. Right?

I actually think we couldn't have had it more wrong. Naming a child does not have to be a big stressfest. Besides thinking up a few strategies for baby naming, the single most important thing you need to understand is what a name does.

And that's very little.

Read More: America's Most Popular Baby Names

As someone who works in good-for-the-world branding for a living, I am constantly struck by how little great logos and great brand names say about the companies they belong to. Mercedes is not called The Expensive Quality Car Company for a very good reason. Names and logos don't define a company. They don't explain it. They simply represent it. And by representing a brand over time, they become associated with what that company does. And that's how they become

Make Time for What's Important in Your LifeI have a confession to make: I'm terrible at managing my time. Well, when left to my own devices, anyway. I've not been blessed with an internal timekeeper. It's strange but true: in my mind, the time is always what it was since the last time I looked at my watch.

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That said, it's very difficult for me to use my time efficiently unless I use timers. If I'm going to tidy up the house, I need to designate about 5 or 10 minutes per room and hustle my buns off until the timer beeps and I can move to the next room. If I don't do it this way, I'll plod around the kitchen (I always start with the kitchen) for an unlimited amount of time. I'll finally look up at the clock once the stove has been taken apart and I've completely scrubbed every square inch of the inside of the refrigerator. (Or more realistically, made a sandwich and forgot why I walked into the kitchen in the first place.) And then

A storm is brewing.I often say that the emotional traumas that kids go through in life aren't a matter of if but when -- kids are going to encounter trials; they're going to feel discouraged. And then how will they handle it? I encourage my kids to talk and think about it, take it to the Lord because he said, "Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

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We all have different things that weigh us down. And sometimes it's tough, especially when it's grief, fear or sorrow or painful, hurtful things -- devastating things.

Read More: What the Duggars Can Teach You About Going with the Flow

I say to my children, "It's not a matter of if you're going to encounter a crisis of your faith some time in your life. Believe me, you will. It is going to happen. You're going to come up against a wall. And you're going to say, 'There is absolutely no way I can go on. I can't figure this out. I can't even know

Numbers!I like to think about budgeting as goal-setting, not limit-setting. A budget helps us align our day-to-day actions with our long-term hopes and dreams. It's about living purposefully, not carelessly. A budget is a plan, which can be adjusted as we go along, that helps move us toward the life we really want.

Read More: Creating a Budget in 3 Easy Steps | Step One: Track Your Spending

Before we start budgeting it's essential to figure out where our money is going, and what our priorities are. I suggest about three months of tracking spending (step one) to get a good idea of what a year of spending might look like. In the meantime, it's important to think about, talk about, and write down what we really want in life: defining our dreams (step two).

For some reason, what we do and what we really want usually don't line up. Maybe we're spending hundreds of dollars on eating out, yet we're feeling stressed because we have no savings to pay for emergency house