Category: Tip Jar

Sharing our Summer Routine and Schedule

It’s the day before the first OFFICIAL day of summer and I am so excited to share some summer fun posts with you! A month ago, the kids and I sat down to chat about our new summer routine and what we wanted our summer to look like this year! I am the type of Mom that NEEDS a structured plan in order to get something accomplished. If I don’t have a game plan, we can fly through a day and look back and ask ourselves, what the heck did we even do today?!

In an effort to make summer fun and memorable (we get limited summer with these kiddos – especially these ages), we put together a summer schedule to encourage us to have the most amazing summer! I’m also sharing a very loose summer routine that I try to follow if I can! It helps give some form to our days and the structure is truly helpful for all of us!

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June 2023 Garden Update

Well, it’s been a bit since I’ve shared a garden update with you! I was working super hard over the past couple weeks to flip some beds and get the summer annuals seeded ASAP as I feel I’m really behind! Some things have hit the ground running (hey, hey weeds….) and others are slowly but surely getting established! It is hard to be patient this time of the season because June is truly a TWEENER month. The end of July is when all the action happens so, it can be tough to be patient!

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Let’s Look: Our Best Travel Tips

Good morning and happy Wednesday! I hope you are having an amazing week! Today, I’m linking up with Shay from Mix and Match Mama blog and Erica from A Little Bit of Everything blog to chat this month’s “Let’s Look” blog prompt – best travel tips.

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Spring Cleaning – Favorite Products

There has been so much “tidying up” going on around here and I thought I would share what happens around the house when spring hits since we are going through it!

In honor of SPRING, I want to share some of my favorite spring cleaning items! Again, we don’t have a cleaning service, so I do all the heavy lifting myself!

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Let’s Look: All time favorite Amazon Finds

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Good morning and happy Wednesday! Today is a Let’s Look prompt where we link up with Shay from Mix and Match Mama blog and Erica from A Little Bit of Everything blog. I’m super excited about all the topics this year – they are just so creative and fun! So kind of them to do these link up parties!

Today’s topic is, all time favorite Amazon finds – my gosh that’s a tricky one! I have SO many favorites, but I’ll try my best to narrow it down to my tops in the following categories:

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Let’s Look: What’s in our Medicine Cabinet

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Good morning and happy Wednesday! Today is a Let’s Look prompt where we link up with Shay from Mix and Match Mama blog and Erica from A Little Bit of Everything blog. I’m super excited about all the topics this year – they are just so creative and fun! So kind of them to do these link up parties!

Today’s topic is, what’s in our medicine cabinet. We have TWO “medicine cabinets” – one that keeps my vitamins and natural supplements, which I like to try natural remedies before going to meds (particularly for myself), fever reducers, allergy meds, etc.

Our other “medicine cabinet” houses all the things needed for first aid, cuts, band-aids, thermometers, essential oils, vapor bath supplies, etc.

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What I’m making Wednesday – Lemon Butter Chicken

Hey, hey, hey and happy Wednesday! These weeks are just flying right on by! I laughed with the kiddos – I feel winter break has just extended into January! The kids had a four day week last week and now another one this week! We’re basically part time school over here!

Anyway, today I am sharing a family favorite around here – lemon butter chicken. It is so simple and very tasty!

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Let’s Look: Scheduling/Organizing a Busy Family

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I am so excited for today’s post – today is the first Let’s Look prompt where we link up with Shay from Mix and Match Mama blog and Erica from A Little Bit of Everything blog. I’m super excited about all the topics this year – they are just so creative and fun! So kind of them to do these link up parties!

Today’s topic is, scheduling/organizing a busy family. I’m laughing because I realize how boring this one might be as I just wrote about limiting what my kiddos are involved in. We still do SOME things and seem to be running around in some sense, so I’ll share some of the things I do to try and make things run smoother.

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Motherhood Monday: Craving Traditional Motherhood & Homemaking in a Modern Day World

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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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Thrifty Thursday: 2023 – No Spend January Challenge

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It’s that time of year again! A time that I actually love – looking ahead to a new year and setting goals and realistic expectations for our household. Budgeting is something we rely HEAVY on! When things fall off the rails, we look back and see what went wrong and how we can improve it as best we can.

Coming off a holiday break and Christmas can be a tough way to end the year in the budgeting department. That’s why I’ve decided to jump on the NO SPEND JANUARY train again this year.

If you missed it, I blogged about it last year – it was a huge success and a great reset for us!

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Happy New Year! Winter Break Recap

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Good morning and happy 2023! I hope you had an amazing holiday season and you are feeling energized and recharged heading into the new year! First and foremost, thank you so much for coming to my blog and following along! I’m so appreciative and am trying my best to stay consistent in this space! Here’s to another year of blogging in the books!

Today, I’m assuming most of you are like us, heading back to school and getting back into routine once again. I have to say – it’s super bittersweet. I found myself crying yesterday. Yes, crying. I always get like this. I really love the slow, easy, free days with us being all together. I love the magic of the holiday season and their ages are just perfect! The pure innocence, joy and awe over the smallest little things during break just made my heart so happy. It also breaks my heart – I just wish it would last forever.

At the same time, I’m craving the routine. I feel wildly overstimulated from the past couple weeks (as I’m sure we all do!) and could use the structure back in our daily life! Ugh, it is such a weird thing, isn’t it! Wanting the kiddos around all the time, but then in the same breath, wanting some separation and peace!

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Holiday Gift Guides 2022: girls 6-10

Happy Thursday everyone! I can’t believe we are just 10 days away until Christmas! The kiddos are so excited – especially for Christmas break! Today, I’m sharing my girls gift guide with you in hopes to alleviate any shopping issues you might have! It’s hard to shop for people, so I’m hoping this guide based on what my daughter loves can help you!

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Let’s Look: Hosting Holiday Parties

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Happy hump day everyone! It’s a Let’s Look link up, and today the topic is hosting holiday parties. This one is tricky because it is generally our parents having everyone over for the holidays. We joke – our house is the summer party house. Indoor parties are tough in our house because we have a choppy set up and not the best family room for everyone to gather together.

With that being said we have hosted a couple holidays so I will reflect on those!

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