mom
Life as a mom of 4
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Promoting Friendships for Your Children
Lately, the social and spiritual health of my children has been weighing on me. As parents, we guide our children as they grow from needing us for everything as babies, then growing into young children who need guidance and support and then into teenagers and young adults who crave independence but still need that guidance and support but maybe in a less obvious way. I have made many mistakes over the years, starting by being an impatient mom, giving too much independence, not enough, and expecting my kids to do certain things on their own but not realizing that they still need some scaffolding from me to become their own…
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Friday Favorites
I almost didn’t post today but then I decided to share things that made me happy this month. They were not purchases even though those were fun but they were moments and time spent doing things that I love! Outdoors Fire with the Family We’ve been making fires on Sunday nights as hubby is usually finishing work on Friday and we are at church part of Saturday evening. We love this time hanging out by the fire, eating treats, playing games (sometimes) and just hanging out. This past one was even nicer has the weather has cooled off in the evenings. Running Ran my 2nd 5K in 2 months and…
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Come Grocery Shopping with Me
I haven’t been making an effort at budgeting in the past few months and one of the ways that I notice that is that our grocery bill keeps increasing. Yes, the prices of food might be going up but most of what I buy seems to be about the same price and I should not see the large increases in my bill. I shared with my teen how high by grocery bill was last week (before this one I am sharing) and he asked me : “Remember when you were trying to keep your grocery bill at $75 to $100 a week?”. I spent $300 that week and barely bought…
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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…