Stephanie

About Stephanie

Stephanie Langford has a passion for encouraging homemakers who want to make healthy changes, and carefully steward all that they've been given. She has written three books geared to helping families live more naturally and eat real, whole foods, without being overwhelmed, without going broke, and (her newest!) through successful meal planning. She is the editor and author of Keeper of the Home.

Managing your wardrobe: pregnancy, post-partum and all those sizes in between

The following guest post is written by my friend Stephanie Langford of Keeper of the Home.

I‘ve read plenty of good advice on wardrobe management and how to purge your closet, but there’s one piece of advice that doesn’t jive with this mama of four: get rid of anything that doesn’t fit or that you haven’t worn in the last year.

If I followed their advice, I would have to dispose of the four different sizes of clothing I rotate through to accomodate my various seasons of motherhood… skinny pre-pregnancy, early pregnancy (not showing, but nothing fits), full-on maternity, and post-baby (how did my hips spread this wide?).

It’s a fact of life. When you are in the midst of bearing sweet babies, your pant size goes up. And then down. And then back up again.

Being nine weeks out of having my fourth baby, I know this full well. The maternity clothes are now baggy and frumpy, yet the skinny clothes barely get over my hips. I’m lost somewhere in the middle. Fellow mothers, I know you feel my pain. Purging my closet fully isn’t an option, but I still needed a way to make peace with my wardrobe in the meantime.
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Simplifying Babyhood: Top Items for Baby’s First Year and Beyond

I’m on maternity leave from June 11 to July 16: The following is a guest post from Simple Organic contributor Stephanie Langford of Keeper of the Home.

Last summer I was blessed with my third baby. It was a truly beautiful time, as I found it so much easier to relax, follow my mothering instincts and care for my baby in a simpler way than I did with the birth of my first two children.

This relaxed approach wove its way not only into my interactions with my baby, but also into the way that I began to view baby paraphernalia. Store displays, pregnancy magazines and mothering websites would have us believe that with a new baby must come a load of stuff to care for all of their specific needs.

I have found this just isn’t true. Less has been more for us this time around, and I expect it will continue to be should our family be blessed again.

I’m going to share my thoughts on some of our personal baby essentials throughout the first year or two (once you’re past the early newborn stage). You may agree or disagree with various things I mention, but my goal isn’t to have you agree with me.

I share merely to demonstrate what simplifying babyhood has looked like in our home, and to help you evaluate what will actually be essential for your own family. Cutting down on clutter and making do with less “stuff” is always a valuable exercise, even if your essentials ultimately look different than mine or your sister’s or your best friend’s.

Here are the baby essentials in our home.
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