My kitchen is messy on a daily basis. At any given time throughout the day there is some mess in the kitchen. It might be dishes, food, arts and crafts, lists, books or more that are cluttering my kitchen. There is always something to be cleaned in the kitchen. When I take photos on my kitchen counter, don't be fooled -- I am working around messes and purposely not showing them in my photos. Does this sound like your kitchen too? Honestly, I don't mind the messy kitchen. We eat almost all … [Read more...]
5 Things Happy Families Do
Somewhere along the lines of 50 hour weeks, carpools, soccer, and the struggle to get out of bed on Sunday to actually spend some free time with my family, I learned that there were five recurring things that most of the happy families I knew were doing together. Part of my New Year's resolution for 2014 was to implement some of these changes into our household, and I have to say - with over half the year being gone - that it was a rousing success. So much of a success that I wanted to share … [Read more...]
7 Perfect Candy Gifts for Grandpa
Last year, I had the honor of planning an 80th birthday party for my grandpa with my mom and sister. Now that August is here again, we are celebrating another year with this awesome man. My grandpa loves candy, especially chocolate. Each year someone in my family heads to the our local Costco where we buy See's Candies gift certificates at a great price. My grandpa loves getting See's Candies - especially the chocolates for a gift. Really, who doesn't love getting candy as a gift? {crazy … [Read more...]
When Your Husband Gets a New Job (and he’s so much busier)
You know when you have two Bible studies to finish, three books started, an overflowing Netflix queue, ten days left of homeschool kindergarten, every intention of getting some kind of extra curricular activity scheduled for your child, and some very essential housecleaning to be done? {Don't even bring up blogging, which has now become a part time job.} Oh and those Amazon reviews that were due a month ago... Yep, that's what life is looking like right now. Can you relate? In June, I … [Read more...]
Backyard Camping
One thing my daughter loves about the summer in Washington is the chance to go backyard camping. I know, vacations are awesome and trips to the local Six Flags water park are beyond fun. But the simple family activities like a movie night, s'mores over a fire, game night and backyard camping honestly make her summer great. Those great mellow family times are so exciting for us all. I know she will cherish them as she gets older. {I can remember when I camped out back with my own dad when I was … [Read more...]
My Toddler is Hitting!
My sweet baby boy is a bully. He is only 19 months old but he makes his 6 year old sister cry at least once a day. He is hitting her and scratching her pretty often. And she is scared of him now. Have you dealt with a rough, bully of a boy before? Is your toddler hitting everyone in the family? It is so foreign for us. Our daughter has always been sweet and gentle too. Many times our toddler is hitting out of frustration. He can't communicate well. I get that. But, hitting and scratching? No … [Read more...]
Over the Edge for Brain Cancer
Brain cancer has affected our family in a way that none of us could have predicted. When we got the call that my husband's sister had a seizure and a CAT SCAN showed a brain tumor, we were floored. I mean, this happened to other families sure, but not ours. My sister-in-law, had a husband and four children. She went to church and was a good person. We couldn't help but question God, and say "Why?" When they initially gave her only mere months to live (an uniformed nurse) we could barely contain … [Read more...]
