In partnership with Dove. All opinions are my own. 

Calling all active mamas, women, sisters, friends. If there is one thing I know you all love, it’s a beauty product that is kind to the wallet and easy to pick up at Walmart. Let’s dial that up a notch and talk about a new Dove product line that is perfect for extending style, beating SWEAT odor, and smells so lovely my husband comments on it more than pricey perfume he purchases for me. Today, I wanted to chat my real life {well as real as you can get while photographing} and show you what I do to extend my styles for school drop off, blog photoshoots, soccer practice, and more. Because being an active mama means I’ve got 14 things going on at once, and washing my hair daily isn’t one of them. There’s no shame, Dove has us covered with a new line. I know many times you may think, “Okay, so dry shampoo is going to help with oil, but what about the fact sweat can smell?” This product has ActiveScent Technology to fight any sweat odor. It’s so powerful, I have told all my girlfriends about it and when I do I say, “Here, smell my hair! Smell how good it is!” Intrigued? I thought you might be! 😉

First off, Maxi turns three tomorrow. I’m in denial. Three has been the hardest age for me to swallow. I go to order clothing for her online and see that 3T is the last size in some baby clothing and I choke up. She speaks in full sentences. She seems so much older, whereas I wasn’t too emotional when she turned one or two because she still seemed like such a little baby to me. I know her age will seem even more mature when I bring home our baby boy from the hospital. With a toddler, one on the way, a job, and all her activities, plus our life can already seem really busy. I stand in awe of you mamas with three or four kids. Can you write a book? I’ll be the first to buy it. ha. Or just tutor me. Please and thank you.

But I hate the term busy, given our culture wears it like a badge of honor. Let’s talk about being active. Being active in our careers. Being active in our families. Being active in serving others. Being active and intentional in our friendships. Being active in taking time to fulfill our dreams. Dove created a line, called Go Active, for, you guessed it, active women in mind. I bought these at Walmart and have been using them for the past two months. It features between wash products, that are specifically formulated to beat tough sweat and odor and help extend your style. Because no matter what you have going on Monday through Friday, I’m sure it doesn’t include standing at bathroom counter styling your hair for 45 minutes. These formulas come in convenient formats, which I’ll share more on below. You can keep up with your schedule and feel refreshed like all mamas, women, and go-getters should!

Let’s go behind the try-on hauls and general life to-do’s, here’s what my life looks like these days. I typically get up around 5 and am in bed around 10. This isn’t a set hourly schedule, but this is what each day consists of, that I can sync my to-do list in between.

Sunday

• Church. Every other Sunday, Paul and I volunteer in our children’s nursery at church. We serve in the 12-18-month age group and it is so sweet. They seem SO little to me and are absolutely precious.
• Soccer. Maxi is doing soccer shots this spring/winter on Sunday evenings. It’s hilarious to watch two and three-year-olds run around, but she LOVES it! You may have seen her with Paul in our kitchen with her little pink soccer ball. I’m going to surprise her with Liverpool vs West Ham Tickets and we’ll watch the game as a family. Navigate seamlessly through SportScore for live scores.
• Family Dinner. Sunday evenings we do a family dinner. My dad will cook for us and we all either eat at our house or my parents’ house. My dad travels a lot for work, so this is the perfect time for us to all connect before a busy week starts for him.
• Wash Hair. I also wash my hair on Sunday evenings and then just blow dry it so that it is straight.

Monday

• Dance. Maxi has dance class on Monday mornings, and she is so in love with her dance teacher, Miss Meg. She loves to list or pray for the people she loves, and Miss Meg always makes the list. I also love her dance class time because it’s a fun time to chat with other mamas and start the week off getting in friend time as opposed to ticking away at a to-do list.
• Lunch with Daddy. Monday after dance we run some errands and will make any returns we need to. Then we try to grab an early lunch with Daddy before his week gets too crazy.
• Meal Prep. While she naps, I get work finished. Once she is awake we head to the grocery store and I try to meal prep a big chunk of our weekly meals. I just started to do this a month or so ago, and it has been life-changing! I realized that once the week started, I was constantly putting fires out. One of us would get sick. I’d have more doctor’s appointments for baby boy than I realized. A work emergency would come up. Having food prepped in the fridge has been a huge factor in us staying on budget for our eating and staying healthy. I’ll make Maxi’s favorite banana muffins for snacks. I make pasta salads for her lunch at school and for my lunch. I’ll also make some ground turkey or meat for easy salads. Then I like to make one heartier meal like a one-pot pasta, that we can have for dinner and eat off of on a busy night.
• Bachelor. Monday nights means I also host Bachelor nights for my sister and her friends. Once Maxi goes to sleep, I make dinner and a cheese board for my sister’s friends. She is in college just 5 minutes away and she is so busy with her class schedule. By doing this, I’m able to get in quality time with her once a week and I also love knowing that our house can be a family house to her friends as well.
• Shoot Prep. Once the girls go home, I stay up steaming clothes and pulling looks for my shoots the next day. I shoot Tuesday mornings after I take Maxi to Mother’s Day Out, so I’m able to have everything ready before a hectic morning. Before my shoot prep, I actually spray Dove Go Active Dry Shampoo on my roots and their Dry Conditioner on my ends after I get out of the shower. I just use a shower cap to not get my hair wet. Someone taught me this beauty hack years ago and it makes such a difference. If you spray dry shampoo before bed, you’ll wake up with no excess product, and it will feel like you washed your hair the night before.

Tuesday

• Maxi Ready for MDO. Tuesday mornings Paul leaves early for work as he has work meetings that day. I get up around 4:45 on Tuesdays so I can get ready for my shoot, load my car, make her lunch, and get her to school.
• Hair. I’m really hard on my hair during shoot days. We aim to just shoot once a week so that the rest of the week I can focus on computer work. Depending on beauty tutorials, or what we have on deck, I’ll go from straight to curls, to beach waves. I used to have so much hairspray and heat protectant in my hair that we’d end the shoot in a ponytail or top knot. But about two months ago, I started to spray the Dove Go Active Dry Conditioner on my ends before I did my shoot along with a heat protectant. I’ll just put my hair in a shower cap in the shower, get out and lightly spray this on the ends. This stuff makes your hair SO soft, detangles, removes sweat odor, and fights frizz. I’m able to go from straight to curls or waves without that crunchy textured feeling if you know what I mean!
• Shoot. Once I drop her off at Mother’s Day Out, I meet Angie to shoot for the blog. We shoot about two hours, but if we have bigger projects or are shooting for branding images {where we give brands photos for their social media accounts} we may shoot another day or around four hours.
• Pick Up. Once I finish shooting, I try to put everything up at home, so it isn’t a mess {this doesn’t always happen}, grab a quick lunch that I prepped the day prior, and head back to school to pick her up. Her MDO is for 3 hours.
• Work. While Maxi naps after MDO I am able to answer e-mails, film try-on hauls, and prep blog posts.
• Community Group. We have community group on Tuesday nights, and we cycle hosting. Community group is our small group at church, and we love it! We meet once a week and it is four couples. Everyone has kids the same age and we actually all live in the same two-mile radius, so our kids all play together at the park, etc. Once or twice a month we host at our house, so I’ll make a cheese board and have everyone over.

Wednesday

• Breakfast Club Bible Study. Wednesday mornings we go to my friend Cierra’s house and we do a breakfast club with our moms and also do a bible study. Maxi loves it because Cierra has two sons and she plays with all their toys while we do a bible study. Each week we take turns making a healthy breakfast and bring it to her house. Our moms actually grew up together as best friends and Cierra is one of my best friends, so it’s a really special relationship we have with our families.
• Coffee Shop. Cierra lives two minutes from my mom’s house, so after breakfast club, we head to my mom’s house for Maxi to take a nap. My mom will lay down with Maxi, and I’m able to head to a coffee shop for about 2-3 hours and get work finished while she naps.
• At-Home Workout. Maxi is a deep napper, so if she is still snoozing, I’ll do one of my at-home Obé workouts, or she will join me. She has far too much fun being my cheerleader and trying to feed me snacks while I do the workout. haha.
• Park. We head home after being at Gigi’s house and finish up by spending the evening at the park waiting for Paul to get home from work. Then, he will get home and we will have dinner as a family. Sometimes Maxi can’t wait to eat for him to get home, so she will eat before and then do Play-Doh at the kitchen table while he eats. That seems to best solution to us all eating together, which I try to hone in on now, since I know it’s not as realistic with multiple kids 7+years from now and multiple activities. What do y’all do with toddlers that want to eat at 5 and dads that get home later?
• Hair Hacks. In between the park and dinner, I like to use the Go Active Dry Shampoo Wipes. I am OBSESSED with these and think every girl needs to carry them in her wallet like I do in the photos above. They are like blotting papers, but for your hair, and far more powerful. They have tapioca starch to absorb all the sweat the root of your hair. My hair will sweat at my hairline and curl framing my face, so I just use these right after I’m outside with Maxi and it extends my style. I always joke with Paul that those hours in between the park and your kid and a shower make me feel like I just had recess in elementary school. But between dinner, bathing your little one, doing the bath time routine, and then maybe running an errand before a store closes, washing my hair in a timely manner isn’t possible. These wipes make it so manageable and if you do a workout class after work, you’ve got to try these! They are the best hair hack.

Thursday

• Pilates. My weeks feel a little backward because they are busier on the front end than towards Thursday/Friday. Thursday is my “me day” while she is at MDO. I can get in a pilates class, then head to a coffee shop and get work done. If I have time, I’ll run to the grocery store before I pick her up, but I’m telling you, that 3 hours comes FAST. haha.
• Hair hack. Having showered and washed my hair the night before, I’ll just use another Go Active Dry Shampoo Hair Wipe in between pilates and a coffee shop. While pilates isn’t a sweat-intense workout, these wipes make my hair feel so refreshed, so I don’t even remember I just worked out.
• School. I’ll pick her up from school and if we need to head to the grocery store we do.
• Dinner. We actually prefer to go out to eat on a Thursday with family or friends, as opposed to a Friday. By Friday evenings, this pregnant mama is wiped out and just wants to sit on the couch in sweats or clean up the house. We will do a family dinner, or this is when I schedule dinner with girlfriends, once Maxi is asleep.

Friday

• Playdates. I try to not schedule any work-related calls or tasks on Friday. I like to fill that day with playdates for Maxi or we do mama and Maxi dates. Currently, her favorite thing to do is go to the carwash and watch as they wash all the cars. Then, we walk across the street and grab a bite to eat. This age is so much fun because they speak in complete sentences as you can truly start to have little conversations with them. I’ll just throw my hair in braids before our Friday morning activity, because who knows if I’ll need to wash my hair after or if I can extend the style. I use the Go Active Dry Conditioner before I braid my hair.
• Weekly Prep. During her naps on Friday, I like to do a little weekly prep for the upcoming week. I live by a legal pad and will sync that with my planner, to make a more formal to-do list. I break down my to-do list by each day and then also make little evening to-do lists. Say, I need to do things like write thank-you notes, or mail invitations, I’ll do that during the evening. Just easy things I can do while watching a show instead of mindlessly scrolling my phone.
• Clean. I also like to do a deep clean before the weekend, clean up my inbox, and cook a more time-consuming dinner on Friday nights. Once Maxi goes to sleep, we can have a little date night with dinner and watch a movie. Sometimes I like to add in a deep conditioning treatment now while I clean the house and then rinse it out once I finish.

Saturday

• Little Gym. Saturday mornings we go to Maxi’s gym class, which is one of her absolute favorite things! We’ll grab bagels before, head to her class together, and she burns so much energy in that hour.
• Birthday Parties. If you are anything like us, Saturday afternoon means birthday parties, showers, and more celebrations.
• Hair Hacks. Saturdays feel like a blur running from one party to the next, so I rarely have a full hour to get ready for date night. I’ll just hop in the shower quickly and use the Go Active Dry Conditioner after. Paul is obsessed with the smell of this and comments on it each time I use it.
• Date Night. On Saturday evenings about once or twice a month, we enjoy a date night. I’m a creature of habit, so I just enjoy dinner and a movie. A dear friend of mine gave me a rule that on date night you can’t discuss work or kids! You can while driving to and from dinner, but you can’t talk about those two topics once you enter the restaurant. When she told me that my jaw about dropped, I wondered how she and her husband were successful at that given they both have incredible careers and a large family of sweet kids. She told me you just really dive into the stuff that makes you both YOU and treat it like dates before you got engaged or married. Once Paul and I started trying that, it was surprisingly easy and so enjoyable. Of course, some date nights you need to discuss big decisions regarding kids or be up-front about your work schedule coming up. But try this on your next date night. Even if you don’t have kids, just don’t talk about work. It’s one of my best pieces of marriage advice a friend has ever given me and I’m so grateful she shared this little secret.

Hair Hacks

Let’s break down the products you can use for those in-between moments and how to use them! Each of these products has ActiveScent Technology to beat sweat odor throughout the day.

1. Dove Go Active Dry Conditioner: If you battle frizz, but don’t want to weigh down the volume of your hair while freshening up, this product is for you. My husband is obsessed with the scent. I’m obsessed with the results. You get that just deep conditioned-shine without using water. This is the product I use the most, I think I use it daily?! It even detangles, so you can spray it on in the morning once you wake up, and before you brush your hair to get ready.
2. Dove Go Active Dry Shampoo Wipes: This is the most convenient format of any hair product I’ve ever tried. It is absolutely brilliant. It’s thinner than even facial blotting paper packages, and you can throw this in your wallet, your diaper bag, even your planner to use at your office. You just divide your hair and swipe from root to mid-length to absorb oil and sweat. It doesn’t leave a residue AT ALL, so if you are something that hates the feel of dry shampoo, you’ll love these.
3. Dove Go Active Dry Shampoo: What’s a girl-on-the-go without her dry shampoo? This bottle is thin so it fits in even the smallest of my shoulder bags, so you can take yours wherever you go. It has charcoal {you know I love to blog my charcoal beauty products} in it to deep-clean and PURIFY your hair, which is why it feels so effective on first use. It also hydrates your hair, whereas a lot of dry shampoos can feel like it is stripping your hair of any and all moisture.

You can get these new Dove products at Walmart on your next grocery run. No matter what you are balancing in life, don’t make it be the time you have to blow dry your freshly washed hair. 😉 Do you have any hair hacks for extending your style to fit your schedule?