There's a particular kind of chaos that arrives with the holidays. The decorations come down from the attic, the school calendar fills with celebrations, packages begin appearing at the door and somehow, the toys already scattered across the living room are about to multiply. And that's before anyone asks who's hosting Thanksgiving.

For moms, preparing for the holidays often means managing more than the house. There's the shopping, scheduling, decorating, cooking and coordinating, not to mention the pressure to make it all feel magical. But getting your home holiday-ready doesn't have to mean a top-to-bottom cleaning marathon or an entirely new organizational system. Sometimes, the most meaningful preparation is simply creating a little breathing room.

Before the first gifts are wrapped, take inventory of what's already occupying your home. Start with the places where holiday clutter tends to accumulate: playrooms, closets, entryways and kitchen counters. Rather than tackling the entire house, focus on one area at a time.

For families with young children, the toy collection is an obvious starting point. Sort through broken toys, incomplete puzzles and games that haven't been touched in months. Set aside items in good condition for donation and recycle what you can. Consider involving your children in the process by asking which toys they've outgrown or might want to share with another family. For younger children, offering a few choices can make the experience less overwhelming.

And don't feel obligated to get rid of everything. A toy rotation system, where some items are stored out of sight and brought back later, can make familiar toys feel new again. The goal isn't an empty playroom. It's making space for what's coming without adding to the clutter that's already there.

While you're clearing space, think about how your family actually uses your home during the holidays. Where do guests leave their coats? Where do incoming packages pile up? Where will new toys go once the wrapping paper is gone?

A few practical adjustments now can prevent frustration later. Clear a shelf or basket for incoming gifts. Create a designated spot for winter accessories. Make room in the pantry and refrigerator before holiday groceries arrive. If you're hosting, think beyond the dining table. A basket of activities for younger guests, a designated play area and an accessible place for extra coats can make gatherings easier for everyone. And remember, organizing doesn't require a shopping trip. Repurpose baskets, bins and containers you already own before investing in more storage.

Of course, the excitement of new toys can quickly turn into a logistical challenge, especially when grandparents, relatives and friends are eager to give. Before the holidays, take stock of what your children actually need and enjoy. Consider sharing gift ideas that encourage experiences, creativity or activities rather than simply adding more things.

For families with children of different ages, think about where new toys will be used and stored. Small pieces from an older sibling's games can easily find their way into a toddler's hands. It's also worth keeping batteries on hand, checking that new toys are age-appropriate and identifying where larger gifts will live before they arrive. After gifts are opened, remove packaging, gather instructions and find homes for the new arrivals. Not every toy needs to be assembled or played with immediately.

But preparing your home isn't just about finding places for things. It's also about creating the feeling you want your family to experience.

There's something comforting about a home that feels ready for the season. The soft glow of lights, a familiar holiday playlist or the smell of something baking can signal that it's time to slow down. Creating that feeling doesn't require elaborate decorations or a picture-perfect home. Choose a few traditions that make your family happy and let those lead the way. Maybe it's decorating the tree together, making pancakes on a Saturday morning or watching the same holiday movie every year.

If decorating every room feels exhausting, don't. Focus on the spaces where your family spends the most time. The atmosphere you're creating matters more than the amount of effort it takes to create it.

The same philosophy applies to the family calendar. School programs, family gatherings, shopping trips, community events and seasonal traditions can fill it before December even begins. Take a look at what's already planned and decide which commitments genuinely matter to your family. Ask everyone what they're most looking forward to. Their answers might surprise you.

Children may remember an evening spent decorating cookies more fondly than an elaborate outing that required hours of preparation. Build in unstructured time, especially around busy weekends. A quiet morning at home can be just as valuable as another festive activity. And when possible, share the responsibility. Holiday preparation doesn't have to fall on one person simply because that's how it's always been done.

Even with the best preparation, someone will spill something. A decoration will break. A child may melt down during an event you've been planning for weeks. The house probably won't stay clean. None of that means you've failed to create a wonderful holiday.

The most useful preparation might be deciding ahead of time what you're willing to let go of. Maybe the guest room doesn't need to be perfect. Maybe the cookies come from a bakery. Maybe you skip an event because everyone needs an evening at home.

A holiday-ready home isn't one where everything is organized, decorated and perfectly planned. It's one where your family has room to gather, play, rest and enjoy being together. Because the magic was never supposed to be another thing on your to-do list.

Making Room to Give

Give gently used belongings a second life while supporting your community.

Holiday decluttering offers an opportunity to help others and introduce children to the importance of giving.

• Find a local need. Contact shelters, schools, churches or community organizations to ask what they're accepting. Some welcome gently used items, while holiday drives may request new toys or specific supplies.

• Give thoughtfully. Check donation guidelines before dropping off clothing, toys or household goods. Consider winter essentials, diapers and hygiene products, too.

• Get the kids involved. Invite children to select toys to donate, shop for a giving-tree recipient or help deliver donations.

• Research organizations. Use resources such as Charity Navigator or the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search to evaluate charitable organizations before making financial contributions.

Remember, the need for community support doesn't end when the decorations come down.

Weekend mornings are meant for slowing down, not spending hours in the kitchen. But between hungry kids, picky eaters and the desire to put something special on the table, brunch can quickly become another chore.

The inspiration behind these recipes is simple: make something filling, beautiful and delicious without sacrificing precious family time. Both dishes can be customized to satisfy even the pickiest eaters.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Pancake Loaf

All the comfort of pancakes without standing over a hot griddle. This oven-baked loaf combines sweet cherries and rich chocolate for a breakfast treat that's easy to slice and share.

Ingredients

• 2 cups pancake mix

• 1⅓ cups water

• 1 cup cherries, pitted and halved

• ½ cup dark chocolate chips

• Coconut oil or other cooking oil, for greasing

• Optional topping: 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a loaf pan.

2. Whisk pancake mix and water in a large bowl until combined. Allow the batter to rest while preparing the cherries.

3. Fold cherries and chocolate chips into the batter. Pour into the prepared loaf pan.

4. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until the center is cooked through.

5. For an optional sweet topping, spread butter over the loaf during the final five minutes of baking and sprinkle with brown sugar.

6. Allow to cool for at least five minutes before slicing.

Make it your own: Swap cherries and chocolate chips for blueberries, bananas, peanut butter chips or even sprinkles. The possibilities are endless!

Easy Veggie Quiche

This crustless, potato-based quiche makes a hearty, colorful addition to the brunch table. With customizable toppings, everyone can enjoy their favorite combination without preparing separate dishes.

Ingredients

• 1 bag frozen breakfast potatoes, such as O'Brien-style potatoes

• Butter or cooking oil

• 6 eggs

• Salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, to taste

• Shredded cheese, to taste

• Vegetables of choice, such as cherry tomatoes and green onions

• Optional: Water or vegetable broth

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Whisk eggs and seasonings in a large bowl. Wash and chop desired vegetables.

3. Heat butter or oil in an oven-safe skillet. Add frozen potatoes and cook until fork-tender.

4. Pour whisked eggs evenly over the potatoes. Add cheese and vegetables as desired.

5. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the eggs are completely set in the center, approximately 15–25 minutes depending on skillet size and depth.

6. Serve warm.

Make it your own: Customize different sections of the quiche with your family's favorite toppings. Leave off cheese, onions or tomatoes wherever needed to keep everyone happy.

More Than a Meal: Feed the Region

For Feed the Region, food is about more than nourishment. The Northwest Indiana organization works to strengthen community connections by ensuring neighbors are not only fed, but fed well.

Each week, Feed the Region prepares wholesome, comforting meals for individuals and families navigating difficult circumstances. Whether someone is experiencing hunger, illness, grief, caregiving fatigue or another challenge, a free meal offers both practical support and a reminder that their community cares.

Residents can pick up a free, family-sized meal for themselves or deliver one to a neighbor in need.

Meal pickup: Thursdays at Nana Clare's Kitchen, 3907 Calumet Avenue, Valparaiso, Ind.

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Steph Talarek, known as Chef Steph, is a family-taught chef who focuses on creating flavorful, comforting meals. She prepares and sells pierogi, stuffed mushrooms and other frozen foods to help fund Feed the Region, a Northwest Indiana initiative providing free, family-sized meals to neighbors experiencing hardship. Through her cooking, Steph supports the organization's mission of nourishing individuals and families while fostering meaningful community connections.

For generations, children have been taught to beware of strangers. That warning often brought to mind a menacing man in a trench coat lurking in a dark alley. But what we know about child safety has changed considerably. We now understand that threats are not limited to unfamiliar people or places. They can emerge in environments children consider safe, including their own homes.

Today, children and teens face risks that previous generations could not have imagined. Online predators, digital exploitation and sextortion have introduced new challenges for families, educators and organizations working to protect children.

At Dunebrook, we believe education is one of the most important tools we have to help children recognize unsafe situations and know when and how to seek help.

Through our Body Safety program, we bring age-appropriate prevention education to thousands of children across Northwest Indiana each year. Our live, school-based presentations equip students with self-protection strategies, helping them recognize risks, establish boundaries, trust their instincts and identify adults they can turn to for support.

Building Body Safety Awareness Early

Our Body Safety education begins as early as pre-kindergarten. For 4- and 5-year-olds, we introduce the concept of a safe adult and teach the proper anatomical names for body parts.

Children need to develop a healthy sense of body ownership. They also need the language to communicate clearly if they are sick, hurt or harmed.

As children grow, our presentations evolve to reflect the situations they are more likely to encounter. From pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, we address topics such as personal boundaries, safe adults, dating, healthy relationships, sexting and online safety.

Digital communication and social media offer young people opportunities to connect, learn and build relationships. Unfortunately, these same platforms can expose them to manipulation and exploitation.

Understanding the Risks of Online Exploitation

Online predators may contact children through social media, gaming platforms, messaging apps and other digital spaces. They may pretend to be someone close to the child's age, express similar interests or develop what appears to be a romantic relationship.

These interactions can escalate quickly, sometimes without a parent or caregiver realizing what is happening.

A 2021 Psychology Today article attributed to E. Jeglic, Ph.D., reported that one in five children had experienced online sexual solicitation. Additionally, according to figures cited in 2021, federal investigators believed more than 500,000 predators were active online each day.

Predators may manipulate young people into sharing personal information or explicit images. They may also steal online accounts, misuse existing photographs or use artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit or suggestive images. This means a child can become a target of exploitation even without creating or willingly sharing an explicit image.

One particularly concerning form of online exploitation is sextortion.

Sextortion occurs when someone threatens to distribute compromising images or content unless the victim meets certain demands. Those demands may include money, gift cards, additional images or other actions.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) identifies sextortion as a form of online exploitation and blackmail. Victims may experience intense fear, shame and uncertainty about what to do next.

We want children and families to understand something especially important: A young person is not responsible for another person's decision to exploit, threaten or blackmail them, even if the child initially shared an image willingly.

The responsibility for the abuse belongs to the person committing it.

Every Child Needs a Trusted Adult

One of the most important messages we share through Body Safety is that every child needs a trusted adult.

That person may be a parent or caregiver, but it could also be a teacher, coach, relative or family friend. Some children, particularly teenagers, may feel more comfortable approaching someone outside their immediate household.

What matters is that children know there is someone who will listen, take their concerns seriously and help them find a safe way forward.

When a child discloses that they have been threatened, exploited or harmed, our response matters.

We encourage adults to remain calm, listen carefully and thank the child for speaking up. Reassure them that they are not to blame and that help is available.

Anger, judgment or blame can make an already frightening experience more difficult.

Repeated or leading questions may also complicate a subsequent investigation. Instead, focus on listening, addressing immediate safety concerns and seeking guidance from appropriate professionals and authorities.

If a child expresses suicidal thoughts or engages in self-harm, seek immediate assistance. Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or call 911 if there is immediate danger to the child's safety.

Start the Conversation Before a Crisis

We encourage parents and caregivers to talk about personal safety and online risks long before a problem occurs.

These conversations do not need to be frightening or complicated. They should be ongoing, age-appropriate and grounded in the understanding that children can ask questions or disclose difficult experiences without fear of being blamed.

A simple message can make a difference:

"If someone threatens you online, please tell me, even if you sent something you wish you hadn't. We can get help together."

Children and teens who experience sextortion may be terrified of getting in trouble with their parents, losing friends or embarrassing their families. Some become so overwhelmed by fear that they struggle to see a way out of the situation. We never want a young person to believe that facing exploitation means facing it alone.

By maintaining open lines of communication and responding with compassion, adults can help children feel safer asking for help. Because exploitation can have serious emotional effects, professional support may also be important for children and their families. NCMEC provides resources to help parents understand online exploitation, respond to sextortion, report abuse and seek the removal of explicit images from digital platforms.

Keeping Prevention Education Ahead of the Risks

When Dunebrook introduced its Body Safety program in 2004, the dangers of human trafficking and online exploitation were not as widely recognized as they are today. Social media was only beginning to emerge as a major form of communication.

Since then, technology has changed dramatically.

Cyberbullying, sexting, online exploitation, exposure to pornographic content and the misuse of artificial intelligence have introduced challenges that require continued attention. Digital platforms evolve rapidly, and those seeking to exploit children continue to find new ways to make contact and circumvent safeguards. Our prevention education must evolve alongside these risks.

We have made significant progress in reaching more children with lessons about self-protection, trusted adults and how to get help. We have also helped countless educators understand how to respond when a child discloses abuse and how to make a report to Indiana's Child Abuse Hotline.

But our work is not done.

Protecting children requires an ongoing commitment from families, schools and communities. It requires us to recognize emerging threats, have difficult conversations and make sure children know where to turn when something feels wrong.

We have to stay a step ahead of the risks to keep children safe.

Resources for Families and Caregivers

For more information about Dunebrook's Abuse Prevention Education and other programs, visit Dunebrook.org.

• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children — Sextortion Resources: https://ncmec.org/sextortion

• Take It Down — Help with the Removal of Explicit Images: https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/

• Stop Sextortion: https://www.stopsextortion.com/

• CyberTipline — Report Online Child Exploitation: https://report.cybertip.org/

• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: https://www.missingkids.org/home

• Indiana Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline: 800-800-5556

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988. For immediate danger, call 911.

Sara Hoyt is the Public Education Director at Dunebrook, where she has provided abuse prevention education to Northwest Indiana schools for more than a decade. She has trained more than 500 adults through the Stewards of Children program and presents body safety education to more than 40,000 students annually. Sara also serves on Indiana’s Prevention Roundtable and Steering Committee, coordinated by the kNot Foundation, working to raise awareness, advance prevention strategies and support restorative services aimed at ending child sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking across Indiana.

“I don’t feel like myself anymore.”

I’ve heard some version of that sentence more times than I can count. She’s tired but wired. She’s snapping at the people she loves, then lying awake feeling guilty about it. She’s doing everything right, and her body won’t cooperate. And almost every time, someone has already told her it’s stress, age or just life.

I don’t buy that, and I don’t want you to either.

I know that dismissal firsthand. After my pregnancy, my hair came out in handfuls. I knew some postpartum shedding was normal, but this was obscene. At my next appointment, I brought a bag full of hair from the shower and my brush. They tested my thyroid, and that was it. Looks good, you’re fine. I left with no answers.

Here’s what I know now. Your hormones aren’t against you. They’re tiny messengers, and your symptoms play a key role in relaying messages that you’re simply not OK.

Every hormone is a chemical message sent from one part of your body to another. Thyroid hormones tell your cells how fast to run (and much more). Insulin tells them what to do with sugar. Cortisol signals urgency: Get ready. Estrogen, progesterone and testosterone shape your cycle, your mood, your skin, your sleep and your drive. When a message is too loud, too quiet or never delivered, you really feel it.

Here’s the part nobody explains. Hormones don’t work alone. Your brain, thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, pancreas, liver and gut are in constant conversation, and when one voice changes, the whole room shifts. That’s why chasing a single hormone rarely fixes anything. The good news is that the fixes are often simpler than you’d expect, and they start with the basics.

Stress is usually where I start because it can make or break your health. Cortisol is built for short bursts. When life keeps the alarm ringing — deadlines, kids, caregiving, no sleep — your body keeps choosing survival over everything else. Over time, that interferes with ovulation, thyroid function, blood sugar and sleep. Cortisol should be highest in the morning and drift down through the day. Many women experience the opposite. They drag at 7 a.m. and feel wired at 10 p.m. If that sounds like you, your rhythm may be off, and that is something you can work on.

That rhythm leads straight into blood sugar. Every time glucose spikes, insulin answers. Spike and crash all day, and cortisol steps in to pick you back up. Over the years, that pattern is linked to stubborn weight around the middle, worse PMS and insulin resistance. The simplest first move is protein at breakfast. It’s rarely the change anyone expects, and it often makes the biggest difference in how your afternoon feels.

Once your hormones have delivered their messages, they have to leave your body, and that’s the job of your liver and gut. Your liver works harder than almost any organ you have. It breaks hormones down so they can be cleared, and your gut bacteria help determine whether estrogen gets escorted out or reabsorbed. Constipation, low fiber, heavy alcohol use and an overloaded liver can all affect how estrogen is cleared. So when a woman tells me her gut is a mess and her hormones are chaos, I’m never surprised. It’s one conversation.

Underneath all of it sits your body’s clock. Melatonin and cortisol follow the sun, which is why morning light and a dark bedroom matter so much. They’re free, and they can do more for your rhythm than many supplements. Short sleep also increases hunger hormones and makes your cells less responsive to insulin, which is why one bad week of sleep can leave you craving everything in the kitchen.

And then life keeps changing the rules. Perimenopause can begin in the late 30s or 40s, years before periods stop, and progesterone levels often begin to fluctuate and decline. That’s why so many women feel anxious, wired and sleepless long before a hot flash ever shows up.

Nobody warns you. I wish they did.

That’s also why one thing makes me protective. “Normal” on a lab report only means you fall inside a reference range. It doesn’t necessarily mean you feel well. If your labs come back normal and you feel awful, that is not in your head. It’s a reason to look closer, ask more questions and find someone who will listen to the whole picture.

So where do you start this week? You don’t need to overhaul your life. Eat a healthy breakfast full of good protein and get outside for morning light. Keep a steady bedtime in a dark bedroom, and add more fiber and water. Then keep a simple log of your cycle, sleep, energy and mood for the next two to three months. That record is worth more than any guess, and it gives you something special: data. When your symptoms have a pattern on paper, they’re much harder to dismiss. Bring the log to your appointment and ask what was tested and what “normal” means for you specifically.

You know your body better than anyone. If something feels off, pay attention. Keep listening, and keep asking. You will always be your own best advocate.

Angela Bruszewski is a certified functional and holistic health practitioner, facial analyst, health coach and founder of Holistically Well LLC in Northwest Indiana. Her personal health journey, including congenital heart disease, multiple heart surgeries and struggles with insomnia and fatigue, inspired her passion for holistic wellness. Today, Angela helps women better understand their bodies through individualized consultations that incorporate functional testing, traditional Chinese medicine techniques and practical guidance on nutrition, lifestyle and supplementation. As a mother herself, she is particularly passionate about empowering women to prioritize their well-being while navigating the demands of everyday life.

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