Good morning and Happy Wednesday! Today’s post is part of my “What/how I’m _____ …Wednesday” series. Last week we saw a recipe for these and could not wait to try them. My kids LOVE cake pops, so anything we can recreate, we’re game for!

What I love, is these can be customized in so many ways! We decided to make some Valentine’s cake pops! Giving props to the initial recipe found here!

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Happy Monday to you! I’m sure all my Northeast Ohio friends & even Midwesterners enjoyed the beautiful sunshine this past weekend. My gosh, did it feel so good! I honestly think a gained a tinge of sun tan from laying in the sun in our front room! I can’t tell you what that sun does for my mood though!

Today is Motherhood Monday where I share a bunch of randomness related to motherhood, parenting. Today, I’m sharing something that has come up A LOT in our home recently with Audrey in particular. That is one on one time.

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Happy Monday my friends! I hope you had a nice and relaxing weekend! We had some plans cancel on Saturday, so it turned into a relaxing weekend, which I LOVE!

Today’s post is about something I feel super drawn to – that being a more traditional way of living in our household. Sometimes I sit back and reflect on my childhood and compare it to my kids. The amount of times I’ve told them, “when I was a kid, I used my imagination a TON and didn’t need guidance or instructions to play” – recently are too numerous to count.

Don’t get me wrong, modern day technology and living is pretty amazing. We’re able to get almost any items we need on our doorstep the next day, we can order groceries online and pick them up at the store or have them delivered within hours, we have access to countless food choices and can also have them delivered at our doorstep, we can access information at our fingertips and be aware of what is going on with family, friends and the world around us on a minute-by-minute basis. All that sounds amazing until you really think about it.

Technology and those modern day conveniences without limitations are negatively affecting us parents, our children and home structure sometimes we don’t even realize it.

I’ve already witnessed the addiction YouTube has on kids. Opening surprise toys and watching others play has become all the rage – messing with a child’s psyche and their own way of play. Tik tok (which I refuse to have) is another addicting platform that is awful for kids self esteem, their youth, mental well-being and should be banned entirely in my opinion.

The fast food convenience craze upsets me a bit. Now, obviously I love a good McDonalds Coke or Burger King fry once in a while, but constantly eating out just makes it easy for our children to form bad habits (I.e. what they want they get right then and home food is boring) and doesn’t give them the real nourishment they need. They will no longer want the “bland” (I.e regular fruits and veggies) and will crave all the processed sugars, sweets and junk they normally receive. Being able to cook and eat at home allows me to control what’s in my food, have my kids try things (even if they don’t like it) and enforce healthy eating habits and emphasis on such for my kids.

If there is no limit to technology and modern day conveniences – the core fundamentals of being a kid (using imagination, building self esteem and confidence, patience, exploring outdoors, enjoying the simple things in life) and a family unit will slowly be destroyed and our children will have a lack of understanding of how important these core values truly are. It’s my job as mom (and obviously Andrew as Dad) to show them, share with them and be the example.

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Good morning and Happy Wednesday! Today’s post is part of my “What/how I’m _____ …Wednesday” series. Today also happens to be National Stress Awareness Day. When I was mapping out the month I noticed this fell on today’s date, so I figured, why not open up and share how I have been trying to manage stress and anxiety in my life.

I didn’t think I was a super stressful/anxious person, but add family, constant chatter and serving as the referee to your kiddos day in and day out, it can wear on you! I’ve spent a lot of time thinking how I’ve become so tightly wound and found it actually is literally just that. Along with those things there are also physical and hormonal issues that contribute to this.

I’m sharing these issues in detail below because so many of us are dealing with the same things. We all have different factors causing stress and anxieties in our lives, some way more serious than others, but I’ve been determined to self sort it out as I never thought I could be affected by it so much. I have found different ways that help me tackle and handle stress. I have also discovered when I’m feeling triggered and how to avoid it. And obviously, I am working on improving areas of my life where stress can be easily eliminated.

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Happy Monday!! This weekend flew by and unfortunately – the kiddos were dealing with some sickies so we had to cancel some of our plans for the weekend. Total bummer BUT at least 2 out of 3 kiddos are feeling better. This morning Audrey and JP are off to vacation bible school for day one of the week, which will be a nice little break for me (particularly not having to listen to bickering!)

Speaking of all the kiddos, I’ve been meaning to introduce our newest family member, Nellie! I figured I would do a Q&A about our sweet little girl as we do get LOTS of questions when we are out and about! Sharing and answering the most common questions we receive in case you want to learn more about this sweetheart of a breed!

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