Every couple of years, we buy a new fire pit as ours get worn out with weather and use. For a couple of years now, I have been wanting to make a stone fire pit. We enjoy fires in the summer, fall and winter, roasting marshmallows and just enjoying the delight of looking at a fire. So I finally looked at a YouTube video and decided that last weekend was the weekend to make it. I listed my supplies and headed to Home Depot. I hesitated between a brick that was $1.98 per brick and one that was $2.38. And the $2.38 won out. For only a little over 13…

I thought is would be fun to do one of these posts since my last one was when life was more normal and I wanted to document a day in the days of the easing of the lockdown in our state. 6:00 Woke up but didn’t get up till 6:55 7:30 – 8:00 Ran 2 miles with neighbor: we ran a 9:50ish min/mile and a 10:50 mile. We are planning to run 3 times a week and increase our distance. With the heat though, we will need to start going earlier. 8:00-8:45 Shower, fed kids breakfast, posted my daily instagram pictures and spent a little time liking and commenting on…

While I haven’t shopped for clothes for a couple of weeks apart from updating one of my bathing suit, but I have been working on updating some things in my kitchen. I am constantly reevaluating which tools I use, how I am organizing things and how my cleaning works for me or not. Well the cleaning was not very exciting and here is where my first favorite comes in. Mrs Meyer’s Multipurpose Spray I bought a 3 pack on Amazon but I do not see it it there right now but am linking the Lemon Verbana scent that you can find at Target. I wanted a 3 pack in case…

My kids don’t like to hike! My kids won’t play outside! My kids never play board games! Many a time, I have heard parents make that statement about their children when I share what we do. Yes, my children do grumble sometimes when I announce a hike or they whine when I tell them that it is time to play outside. They do not always jump at the chance to play board games with me. However they usually do all of these things and they enjoy them. How have we arrived at that point? By creating habits and expectations. Start Young! Do not wait till your children are 5 or…

Today is the last day of school work for my children. The school year ends on the 22nd but no new work will be assigned giving students time to catch up on past assignments if they need to. Our routine will not change much this month as we stay close to home and kept our social distance. We will continue to enjoy the outdoors as weather permits and figure out later on how June and July will look like. Will the neighborhood pool open this summer? Will we visit our friends on our usual road trip to Missouri? And will we have our long weekend in the mountains with my…

Well, I sure haven’t been the best about curbing my shopping this month but I also was able to stay on track with saving too, so April was a good month. After the first couple weeks at the end of March adapting to our new routines, we all settled into a school, play and eat routine. State Park and Natures Top of my list of favorites has to be the weather we have had and the opportunities for outdoor walks, picnic (only one so far) and blog picture in pretty locations. If you missed Wednesday’s blog with part 1 of a 3 part series featuring the beauty in nature we…

This is not the first time that I share an outing to the Etowah Indian Mounds. After 6 weeks of walking around our neighborhood, I decided it was time to walk at the nearby state parks. Our neighbor told me that the mounds were open and that that while the building/museum was closed, this historical site was open to the public free of charge. We have been once or twice as a family but we usually walk at the state park because it is free apart from a minimal parking free while the Indian Mounds charges admission. So I told my boys we were going for a walk somewhere different,…

Christ is Risen! Each year, the week prior to Pascha, I prepare different items to add to our Pascha Easter basket. Hop on over to last year’s post to see what our basket looked like (similar but different: I forgot which basket I had used then!). This year, the date of Pascha fell one week after western Easter. We typically add items we did not eat during lent in our baskets: meat, dairy and eggs. We do not gorge ourselves once lent is over but do enjoy these treats in moderation in the weeks following lent. Cheese Paskha I usually make cheese Paskha with a couple of my friends but…