14 Empowering Quotes To Help You Harness Your Inner Wonder Woman

About a week ago, I was talking to my husband about how I was both sad and relieved that summer was over.  I was lamenting the fact that I felt like I'd kind of failed my older two kids in the summer fun department because so much of my time was spent in three hour blocks due to our new baby.  As a result, they mostly played together inside, watched shows or were out in the backyard.  Sure, I still planned some activities and we crossed a few things off our bucket list but as a whole, I felt the summer wasn't all that memorable.  I crave routine and predictability and with the start of a new school year, as well as a baby who's schedule is emerging, I finally have both of those things.  And that's when that old enemy "mom guilt" started creeping in big time and I felt bad for looking forward to my kids being gone at school.  If you have kids, I'm guessing you've felt this way too at least a few times in your life.  It can be so easy to let that voice tell us that we didn't do enough or what we did do wasn't good enough.

Learning How To Speak Your Partner's Love Language

When my husband and I were first married, I made the (silly) assumption that my husband should be able to read my mind.  "I shouldn't have to tell him how I feel or what I want.  He should just know."  (Cue the laughter.)  Ten and a half years into marriage and my husband and I are still learning how to better communicate with each other, but we try to take the guesswork out of it by actually telling each other what we want or need from the other.  When I was in 7th grade, I decided to take French class to learn how to speak the language.  I stuck with it for five years and by the time I made it to my junior year of high school, I could carry on a decent conversation and felt fairly confident that if I ever made it to a French speaking country that I'd be able to get by.  But just like learning a foreign language takes time and practice, so does learning how to speak your partner's love language.

Back To School Questionnaire {Free Printable}

As we move into another school year, I'm realizing more and more that time just passes by so quickly.  I think about when I was the same age as my daughter is now and while I have some clear memories of that time, I don't remember many seemingly small things that would have been fun to know, like what did I want to be when I grew up?, or what was my favorite subject in school?.  That's why I'm glad that there were teachers who recorded these things for me, which I then took home to my mom, who turned around and saved it in a giant box for me to look at when I was older.  I plan on doing the same thing for my kids as they progress through school.  However, I also like the idea of being able to see how they change from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year, which is why I created this fun and simple back to school questionnaire.

Kids Night In Box: Mind Your Manners

As a parent, teaching my kids to be thoughtful, kind and respectful of others is important to me.  Something we've worked on from a young age is manners, such as saying please and thank you, waiting their turn to talk and not chewing with their mouth open.  But sometimes it feels like the things I say go in one ear and out the other.  That's why I'm thankful for the different resources available to help me teach them.  Having the lesson come from someone (or something) other than me can create an environment where my kids are more willing to listen.

Kids Fiesta Birthday Party

For my son's birthday party this year, we decided to go with a fiesta themed party.  Truthfully, there was no other reason for this besides the fact that we had planned it on Cinco de Mayo.  It was a fun and simple party and the kids all loved it!  I loved that it was so easy to put together and besides a quick run to the dollar store and Walmart, I was able to use items I already had at home!

Easy Rapunzel Braid

I learned how to braid when I was about seven or eight and would practice on my mom's hair all the time.  Now that I have a little girl of my own, it's been fun to try out different hairstyles on her.  Braids are an easy ways to keep her hair back and add a little style and this Rapunzel braid might be one of my new favorite hairstyles for her.

Ocean In A Bottle

In an attempt to keep my kids entertained and engaged this summer as well as retain some of my sanity, I'm trying to stick with simple activities and projects that don't take too much time to prep.  This ocean in a bottle experiment completely fascinated my kids and they kept coming back to it throughout the day to shake their bottle up and watch the glitter swirl and the water and oil separate.  It took me less than five minutes to gather the supplies and five minutes more to help each of them create their own ocean in a bottle.