mom
Life as a mom of 4
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Planning an at Home Fall Break
We do not have any trips plans until our beach trip for Thanksgiving but the boys have 4 days for a short fall break. I decided to keep the budget low but still have fun: we will make use of those yearly memberships we bought this summer! My brother and family will be spending 2 of the days with us before leaving for their new home. So some of the activities will include them. Friday: Zoo trip with my brother and family. I will bring a picnic so the cost will be only the gas to get there since I have a membership. The 3 older boys will be at…
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Back to School Thoughts
As the summer break ends and we start counting down the days till school starts (for us that is on the 11th), I wanted to reflect about this summer as well as look ahead. This summer has been a little different than the past couple of years where we traveled a lot including some trips to Europe and while I did miss the big trips, I really did enjoy this more quiet summer. We still managed a few long weekend vacations (Tybee Island and Arizona) and we will end the summer with an overnight weekend sans kids! Summer Highlights My brother’s wedding and our trip to Arizona weekend in Tybee…
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Fun Summer Yard Games
I added a few things to our outdoor games and activities this year. While we do not tend to spend large amounts of time outdoors in our yard in the summer (think bugs and humidity) we do enjoy the occasional game and fun in the shade! I made a stop at Walmart at the beginning of summer and we stopped at Five and Below one day and from there came our favorite activities this summer. Badminton Set I think I have shared it in a Friday Favorites post but this badminton set has been gold for us. It came in really handy on the 4th of July and the kids…
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Downtown Bike Ride
Our activities this summer have consisted of a lot free outdoors activities apart from two weekend trips. One of the new to us activities and riding our bikes downtown. We park at a nearby park as the hill to our neigborhood is not fun at all especially after biking and we typically pack some water and snacks or lunch. After doing it with just our oldest, we took all of the kids on our last expedition. From where we park, there are side walks the whole way as well as crosswalks which makes us feel safe. A large part of the ride is also in the shade so a late…
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Friday Favorites June Edition
I cannot believe the month of June is almost over.That means, we have been on summer break for practically a month already and that school will start in about 6 weeks. I have been enjoying time with the kids even though they sometimes drive me crazy and we have had a lot of quality time playing board games, going on outings and playing the Nintendo switch. Our Garden I have finally found a few plants that will survive my lack of care (actually, my mother in law has been watering them). But I am really enjoying the sunflowers I planted. We have a couple of lavender plants as well as…
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My Haircut: Low Maintenance and Easy
By now you all know how low maintenance I am as far as make up and hair goes: I rarely wear makeup and only use chapstick and gloss daily and I really don’t do much with my hair. I have had different haircuts over the years and have tried growing out my hair a few times but I always come back to this haircut. Short bob with a fun cut in the back. I only have to blow dry it after a wash and then just comb it every morning. In today’s post I include 2 sets of pictures taken after my haircuts, probably 5 months apart. Looking at these…
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Summer Plans
Well, the day has come, the school year is now officially over and 2 months of summer vacation looms ahead! While the boys and I love having a time with really fixed schedules, we do not function well with no directions or plans so we do have some plans for the summer even if they do not include any fun trips abroad. We will have days with structured plans but also days with nothing on the agenda. Summer Camps For the first time, every one will be involved in some type of camp for part of the summer. My oldest is doing a month long tennis camp, the 10 year…
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My Favorite Ways to Exercise Right Now
For the past month and a half I have been trying to exercise most days of the week in some manner or form. While it has been more of a struggle the past 10 days as I have been dealing with stress and lack of desire to eat, I am glad to say I am still on the exercise wagon train (and now my regular appetite is back). I usually give up about a couple of weeks so today I wanted to share some things that have worked for me since I have been at it for 40 + days. My Trampoline/Rebounder A couple years ago, I picked up a…
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Lifelong Friendship: My Friend Veronique
You may have noticed my new water color header and logo! My talented friend Veronique approached me a week and a half ago as she has returned to one of the passions from her youth: drawing and asked me if I would like her to use one of my recent blog/Instagram pictures for a watercolor drawing. Of course, I responded in the affirmative and from there we created this header and logo picture! I am in awe of her talent and not only can she draw, she also sews. So I wanted to dedicate a blog post in honor of her and our friendship (by the way her birthday was…
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Budget Recap February/March 2021
I am taking a little blogging break to devote a little more time to other things the next couple of week (I will still have my style posts on Mondays) but wanted to share one of my biggest money lessons I learned this past month. It is not a new lesson but hopefully this time, I will heed my own advice. Some of you may know, since I mentioned it a couple of times that I was doing a no spend month in March. That usually means I am trying to reset my budget because I overspent in an area. I also have mentioned before that I track my spending,…