Anyone else have a love hate relationship with winter? Though I love the beauty and coziness of it (at times), I am longing for warmer weather – to be back outside again playing with the kids, swimming, gardening – you name it!
Our winter in Cleveland has not been too bad at all. I sometimes feel bad complaining at all, but here is life lately, winter edition!
more
Happy Friday! It has been absolute craziness over here the past couple weeks and we are ready for a weekend to enjoy now that the kids are starting to feel better! I’m hoping you and your family are staying healthy during this sicky season!
Today, I’m linking up and sharing some Friday Favorites with you all!
My, my, my…what a crazy end of the year it was. I am so happy to start “fresh” in this new year! Routines have been out of wack for the the last quarter of 2019 and I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get things back in order around the house!
My main goals around the house this year: maintain a clean kitchen EVERY DAY, keep up with the house in terms of de-cluttering and reorganization and stick to my cleaning checklist. At the beginning of last year – I pulled together multiple cleaning checklists and used them to put together a thorough home maintenance schedule that worked!
more
I never decorated my kitchen for Christmas – I’m not sure if it was because our kitchen was super cluttered and small at our old house, but I am now having fun with some of the extra space we have at our new house.
This year, I wanted to add a little something Christmas-y to our kitchen – I love when people hang wreaths from ribbons on their windows outside, so I decided to get a little creative and do one for our kitchen window that would match the indoor theme we have going on! This wreath was a super easy and inexpensive DIY
Continue reading
These flatbreads.
I cannot express how amazing these turned out, you need to try them for yourself! My husband can vouch too – he is a total pizza connoisseur and thought these tasted delicious!
This was another super easy recipe that was put together in 15 minutes. Serve with a salad – voila, dinner is served!
Continue readingI wanted to start documenting a little more about my daughter’s eye condition – Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. First off, I want to note we are EXTREMELY fortunate with the hand she’s been dealt. I will get into the details further along, but while I have your attention – you are your child’s ADVOCATE. If you feel something is not right or you aren’t satisfied with a diagnosis – it is YOU who is the voice of your child. Push to get the answers you need and don’t be afraid to ask questions, take advice from others, research the heck out of something and/or get a second opinion. At the end of the day, you could be the difference between treating your child correctly for something before it is too late.
more
Sharing some thrifty Thursday finds that I highlighted in my Instagram stories!
My house during the Christmas season is my favorite! The lights, the greenery, the glitter – I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I sometimes wonder why I don’t and why it is socially unacceptable to leave the decor out year round!
Continue reading
Happy Friday everyone! I love seeing when other bloggers do these posts, so I figured I would jump in and do one myself!
Continue reading
Thanksgiving and the holidays are fast approaching and so is all the TRAVEL associated with this time of the year. We happen to be driving 5+ hours to our holiday destination and while the drive is somewhat manageable, there will be a need to keep the two bigger kiddos occupied during our trip. I’m already foreshadowing our daughter asking “are we there yet” 5 minutes into our drive for hours on end…
This year the kids are big enough where they might not be sleeping as much during the drive, so I decided to pack a “travel activities bin” for them both to look forward to! They have already been asking if they can start playing with some of the toys and I keep hyping up the trip, telling them they have to wait – which is key! These items have to be new and something they are looking forward to!
Continue reading
Though we will not be hosting Thanksgiving this year, I still wanted to have the dining room looking festive (and I’m a nerd and love decorating tables) – so I pulled out the China and got to work with what I had around the house to create an easy, elegant and festive tablescape.
Continue reading
It’s that time of year where we start to transition inside as the cooler temps and snow start to make their way into our every day lives. Weeks before becoming a SAHM about two years ago, I was searching all sorts of blogs to find inspiration of what to do with my kids during cold fall/winter days. Honestly, that was one of my main concerns prior to being at home with the kids. I made thorough lists and pinned all sorts of activities on Pinterest, only to find that I dropped the ball on doing many of those things. What I did find, is that I needed to be creative and start using my own imagination in terms of how to teach and play with my kids!
Continue reading
Tis’ the season for sickness – it is just inevitable. After dealing with two kiddos under the weather for the past week, I thought now would be the perfect time to share some things I do when the kids are sick to make them feel better, make it easier for myself and get them back at it as soon as possible!
Emotionally, I am never prepared for this, I hate when the kids are sick! Vomiting, yea, no thank you – not good with that at all, but nevertheless as Moms we find ourselves stepping up to the plate to handle the sickies! Over the past couple years – experiencing all sorts of interesting illness – I have made it an effort to ALWAYS have these items stocked and ready to go in case the kiddos are under the weather.
Continue reading
I’m continuing to share the details of how I planned my cut flower garden – in case you missed Part I – Planning and Preparing your Cut Flower Garden, feel free to check that out!
In today’s post, I am sharing the flowers I selected and why. There are so many flower varieties out there, but my main “must-haves” were easy maintenance, stems that were long enough, continual blooming and LOTS of vibrant colors!
As I mentioned previously in my Postpartum expectations post – setting up all types of “baby stations” around the house has been so helpful for me. This way if I have an emergency or need to get something with the two bigs, I can put baby down right near us!
I’ve had several people ask which ones to put on their registry and I will share the main ones that were either gifted to myself or recommended by other Mom friends!
more
Fall has arrived and summer has come to a close. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the change in seasons, but I am totally going to miss being outside all the time. I mean, we practically live out there. The other thing I will miss…this right here:
more
I love pulling out my seasonal decor bins! I sometimes forget what exactly I have and enjoy being surprised by items I purchased on clearance last season. I always like to do that each year – gradually adding to my decor collections. I also personally love to find items that I can utilize alongside my staple decor pieces.
Continue reading
I was NEVER one who was into reading. Growing up, spark notes were my life to make it out of English class alive…It was when I was going to join my husband on a work trip about a year and a half ago that I had the thought, what should I do with my spare time? I would have a lot of time to myself on my flight and at the hotel, so I decided why not read a book. I had seen a review on The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, which sounded like it was right up my alley and BOOM, I have been reading books of all kinds ever since.
I figured I would share some SUSPENSE/THRILLER books I have read recently that would be perfect for this month with Halloween right around the corner!
more
THIS. DINNER…ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS – so easy, super fresh and healthy! The longest part was cooking the quinoa. If you were really on the ball, you could do make your quinoa the night before and pull it out when ready!
Continue readingI cannot believe it has been nearly six weeks since the birth of our baby boy! First off, you forget just how teeny tiny those little babes are and how dependent they are of you. I’m not going to lie, these times are tiring and can be all kinds of different for everyone out there, but I figured I would share some things I have experienced postpartum this time around and some tips and tricks I have found useful over the past month and even after my other pregnancies.
I want to note – by no means am I an expert or saying that these pieces of advice are the end all be all! These are just things that have worked and helped me manage postpartum. After having our daughter, I had no clue what to expect so after dealing with this once again, I feel third time is (somewhat) the charm!
more
We celebrated my daughter’s 4th birthday with family a couple weekends ago and I am now starting to plan my son’s 2nd birthday party, so I figured why not share some tips and thrifty tricks I use for every party/celebration. These are things I do pretty much every party we have and they have helped me keep things cute yet very budget friendly because seriously you could drop quite a bit of dough on throwing a kids party!
more