How To Use Role Playing In Discipline

Something you may not know about me is that I graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in Marriage and Family Studies.  Basically this means that I took a lot of classes about marriage, family, parenting, child development, family finance, family systems and a million others in preparation to become a counselor.  I loved (almost) all of them and they've been hugely helpful for me as a parent.  Obviously I know that what I learned in these classes is the ideal and isn't always achievable due to *ahem* human error.  But at the same time, I've also learned that many of the methods and techniques taught are useful even when circumstances aren't ideal.  The one I want to talk about today is role playing.

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5-Ingredient Chicken and Rice Casserole

Growing up, we had a lot of casseroles for dinner.  It was one of the fastest, easiest and most inexpensive ways to feed a family.  I danced and played other sports and had a high metabolism which was the perfect combination for needing to consume a lot of calories each day.  Forget boys, I was a growing girl!  *wink*  As a mom now, I totally understand why my mom made casseroles as often as she did.  I just don't have time to slave over a meal that takes hours to prepare.  The recipe I'm sharing today is perfect for an easy weekday dinner, a Sunday meal or when you need to feed a lot of people without spending a lot of money.

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You Know You're a Blogger When...

For as long as I can remember, I've always been interested in how people think and why they think the way they do, which in turn causes them to act a certain way.  I find it totally fascinating.  We each have different talents and abilities, likes and dislikes, interests and desires.  For example, I'm really glad that there are people out there who like accounting.  I hate accounting (and pretty much anything to do with math), but I am really grateful for them when tax season comes around. *wink*  There are also people out there who do this crazy thing called blogging.  And unless you are a blogger, you probably don't think like a blogger or even know what bloggers think about in the first place.  Well my friends, you're about to find out.

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The Best App for Organizing Kids Artwork and Schoolwork

When I was in 9th grade, my mom brought out a box of my old school papers, pictures I had drawn as a young child, lists of my first words and favorite foods to eat at different ages and so on.  She apologetically told me that she'd tried to keep as much as she could but couldn't hold onto everything and hoped I was okay with what she'd held onto.  I opened a box and it was like a walk down memory lane, except I didn't have memories of everything in the box.  I tried to organize everything by age and then school year but my mom couldn't remember all the dates and could only give me approximate time frames.  If I was lucky, I found a year or even a full date written on the back.  All those pictures and school assignments are now in a scrapbook of mine that I started on shortly after receiving this box of memories and I continued to add to it as the years progressed.  Now I have kids of my own and I find myself wanting to keep every single picture they draw or art project they make, but let's be real: there is no way I can physically hold onto everything.  So what's the solution?  I'll tell you: it's called Keepy.

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4 Ways To Style A Floral Skirt

Before I had kids, I dressed up a lot more.  I wore heels and my skirts and dresses had less spandex in them.  There were days I'd wake up and think, "I'll wear a skirt/dress today, just for fun!"  Fast forward to today and my daily wardrobe consists of jeans and a t-shirt with a cardigan thrown over the top with flats (nothing wrong with that).  Because when I'm chasing two kids around, running errands, playing on the ground or in the yard, I need to feel like what I'm wearing can keep up with my lifestyle.  At the same time, I want to look and feel put together and what I wear often affects how I feel.

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Using Natural Light In Your Photography (Plus a Giveaway!)

In today's world, cameras are only an arm length away (or less!).  Like many people, I keep my phone nearby during the day in order to check my texts or emails, but more than anything, I want a camera close by to capture pictures or videos of my kids.  But how many times have I taken a picture thinking it's going to turn out so great, only to be disappointed because of a lighting issue?  Let me tell you, the answer is a lot.  And it's frustrating!  But the good news is, using light to your advantage is a skill you can learn, especially with the help of a good teacher.

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Mermaid/Under the Sea Party

For my daughter's 5th birthday, she wanted a mermaid party.  Originally she had asked for a mermaid beach party but when I reminded her that mermaids live in the ocean, she came up with the idea to change it to a mermaid/under the sea party. *wink*  I had her help me look through Pinterest and pinned any ideas she liked to my party ideas board.  It was fun to have her help me plan it out and be involved but it also made me a little sad because it means she is growing up.

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Valentine's Heart Hair Tutorial

When I posted a few months back about time saving hairstyles for girls, a couple of people commented that they would have liked to see me include a video tutorial or do some hair tutorials in the future.  If you saw my teaser on Monday, I mentioned that I wanted to try and do more videos this year and that I would be posting one later this week.  Well, that day is here my friends!  Today you will get to see my very first video tutorial EVER.  It literally took me all week to put together because I had to learn an entirely new software, as well as just trying not to be overly critical at my beginner (read: nonexistent) skills at filming and video editing.  But I put a lot of heart (pun intended) into this and I hope you love it!

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Reader Survey Results + Plans for 2017

At the beginning of this year, I did something I haven't done before: I put out a reader survey.  While I would have loved to receive a few more responses, I'm so grateful for those of you who did respond and gave your feedback.  I always find the results of a survey interesting so I thought I'd share them with you, including how I plan on using them in the upcoming year!

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Conversation Heart Cookies

Growing up, one of my favorite candies to receive during Valentines were those little conversation hearts.  You know the ones.  They have all sorts of silly phrases or words on them and the only color that tastes good is the white.  When I was younger, my mom would buy a big bag of them so we could grab a few and put them in with our Valentine cards for our classes at school.  I was that kid who always had to sort through and find the hearts that matched the person I was giving them to.  My best friends got ones like: U R CUTE or 4EVER.  The cute boys in class or my crush got the ones that said: CALL ME or LOVE U.  (I doubt anyone actually read the hearts before they ate them, but it was still part of the fun to think that maybe they did.)  Now I've got a bigger, and better tasting, treat that I like to make around Valentine's Day: Conversation Heart Cookies.

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Medicine Cabinet Organization

When my husband and I first got married, we had a handful of medicine for basic things like headaches, sore muscles, allergies, a bag of cough drops and cold medicine.  A single box of band aids lasted us a year or more and a tube of Neosporin was barely used in the same amount of time.  Fast forward almost 9 years and the amount of medicine we have has at least tripled if not quadrupled and I'm buying a new box of band aids every other month (more in the summertime) and of course my kids insist on "girl ones" and "boy ones".  Trying to find the right medicine in the middle of the night was starting to become a problem because everything was all over the place.  Can you relate?

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