Summer is for Vacations!

Summer Fun For Children

Can you believe that July is already half way over? And for us, in my part of Arizona, school is starting for the kiddos in less than a month. Where did all our time go? That went by so fast!

Since our computer forced us to take a break a couple of weeks ago, I have discovered it is hard to get back on it again. So, I am here to break my no posting streak and hopefully just making a post will help make it easier to get back into posting again. We are still alive, just busy with swimming, family visits, friends, movie days, naps, books, splash pads, more sleep for this mom and lots of coloring. It is more summer fun than we originally intended and we are loving it!

I‘ll be back soon to post more fun, but until then…

What has been your family’s (or your own) favorite summer activity so far this summer?

 

 

Super cute photo courtesy of: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

P.S. If you like entering giveaways, check out HappyFreebie. They have easy entries (not a huge time consuming list of entries) and some great giveaways for men, women and children. One of this month’s giveaways is some yummy looking fudge!

 

Fun and Exciting Times!

 

A couple of weeks ago I promised, mainly myself, to post my plan to get me motivated and then we had a fun and crazy week that interrupted that plan! HA! Is that not how it always happens? You start to make a plan and all of a sudden you find yourself sidetracked!…Well, last week’s sidetrack was definitely a new adventure and a lot of fun. We were invited to show off some inexpensive Mother’s Day ideas on a local morning news show. Since most of the ideas were food, there was a lot of prep the night before and then getting up super early so we could be on the set at 5 AM. We did three different segments between 5:15 AM and 7 Am, splitting up the 5 projects and talking about each.What a great experience!

 

Here is a clip below of the first segment. I am a little bummed that the network did not post the other two segments, though. My daughter warmed up a lot more in the other two and the chocolate dipping video was probably the best one of all. Thank goodness for modern technology and the ability to schedule your TV to record or we would have missed it. There were so many things my daughter was saying to the news anchor that I did not hear at the time. Gotta love a girl who knows her chocolate dipping. (click here if you cannot see the video)

 

My Mom was able to join us on our adventure to help work the behind the scenes. She helped me prep the display and was there just in case Little Miss decided to going running around while filming, which she never did. Yes! And the only reason I look cute is because my mom found that shirt! AND another thank goodness to family, my Mom and Debra (SIL), who have cute decorations and let me borrow them! Someday I will have my own stash, but until then I am so glad they let me borrow from their cute stuff.

 

My daughter still talks about this “House” that she had lots of fun showing how to make chocolates. As you can see, she warmed up… a lot!!!

how to chocolate dip with kids

 

All these Mother’s Day ideas I shared can be used for Father’s Day, too. So make sure you check them out!

Burned Out

 

Mom Burn Out

I don’t normally get personal on this site. I try to make this more of a place to inspire you rather than all about ME, but I feel like I need to get this out there…I have been on the edge of a blogging burn out for the good first few months of the year. I was debating on quitting, handing the site over to someone else or something crazy. From September up until the middle of December I had been able to keep up with a regular weekday posting schedule. That’s 4-5 times a week. A first for me!  I was pretty dang proud of my consistency. Then the year started with a preschooler who refused to nap, a less than ideally healthy me and our family life started getting really busy. So after talking to the Hubster, we decided to slow down my posting to 3 days a week and with the help of friends and many guest bloggers I was able to prep the site to run on its own for 2+ months. It was crazy to prep, but it was amazing the relief I felt and my ability to focus on my little family. And boy, oh boy am I glad I had that time because we had a lot of really good changes happen all at once!

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We had an amazing opportunity to purchase our first house, which equals  no more renting. We are very excited about that! The Hubby had a change in his work schedule which allows us to have a more consistent schedule and spend weekends together as a family. Both of these things pretty much were wrapped up/happened all at the same time. We were hoping to close a couple weeks early on the house and have 1 or 2 weekends to transition between homes. Our closing was pretty smooth, but as most closings go, it got crazy towards the end. Because of some small paperwork delays, we closed later than our original close date on a week day (not a weekend as we hoped) and the seller, determined not to extend a 2nd time, ended up closing in the last few hours of the final day. Good thing, too, because we were packing the truck that day not sure what we were going to do with all our stuff and a 24 hour rental truck! lol But it all worked out!  The only bad part was that we were not able to do basic prep  to our new home before we moved in and only had 2 days to clean our rental out. (The house had been vacant for many months and needed a good vacuum, carpet cleaning, extreme wipe down of everything and paint job. I did not realize how bad/dirty it was until much later….something I’m going to give the blame to higher powers because that was a serious blessing not to notice! lol) With some extreme help of my mom and sister we were able to extreme clean the rental the remaining 2 days of our contract (I am cheap and wanted our full deposit back, which we got!). Then it was back to our new home for me to start the deep cleaning. I think I made it only one more day, Friday, and vacuumed the house like crazy before we had the carpet cleaned that Saturday. The next few weeks are a blur. We soon figured out that we had more good news, hopefully, on the way! My body was exhausted from everything I had been doing (and I was terrified to push it any more for fear of another miscarriage) that I listened to my body and let myself rest… a lot! The couch became my good friend during that time. =) I am officially past that 3 month mark and feel a little better about sharing the news. So, YES, we are expecting a new addition to the family late Fall!

See, I told you…Lots of good things happening, but oh so crazy times! I am so glad I had the time to focus on my family and the amazing thing is, is that my site actually did better with all my pre-planning, post less and on “auto pilot” than it did when I wrote a daily post 4+ times a week. Now that I almost have no other distractions, it is time for me to get back. I am making a plan to help me get my motivation back in all departments and I’ll share that with you soon….hopefully, Thursday.

Until then, share with me:

How do you keep everything in order or plan your day as a mom and stay motivated?

Life has Messy Moments

Spending time with friends and family can lead to fun and memorable moments, but also some very messy ones. Tell us about the messiest moments that you’ll always remember!

My children have taught me some great lessons through some of the messiest moments. I have learned that they may be small, but they are capable of doing great things and really want to help out. Once, they started cleaning out the fridge on their own because they thought we were moving. I have learned to take joy in the small moments and look at things in a new way. Like, Cocoa Powder does look like dirt and could be really fun to throw! lol And I have learned their hearts are big. My son was so excited to be in our new house that I woke up early one morning only to find him downstairs hand mopping the kitchen floor with his own creation of a water bucket.

I have also learned that when you think you have hidden something really good, it is never enough, especially if they are determined to find it!

I swear this all happened in under a minute!

When I look at all these messes, I realize that they are doing just what they see me doing…just messier. lol What a burden and a joy I have to be responsible for teaching these two kiddos by my example. They help me want to be a better me. They also help me realize that practice makes perfect and sometimes messes are necessary!

P.S. In case you are wondering, lipstick is difficult to get off the walls of the shower. Chemicals helpful! =)

 

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