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How to Stop Social Media from Ruining Your Friendships
Recently I was listening to a podcast and heard this, “75 percent of women say that they want better friendships. 75 percent of us are disappointed with the friendships we have and we don’t feel as close to the friends we want.” In our socially connected world, it seems unlikely that so many women out there are feeling lost, lonely, and unsatisfied with the level of friendship in their life. Or does it? When I really started thinking about the friendships in my life, it made me start to wonder if social media is creating a false sense of friendship and belonging that is missing the deep level of friendship…
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First Day of School Sign – Free Printable!
It’s that time again! Summer is ending, and it’s time to start preparing for the first day of school. I am always surprised when the start of the school year rolls around. Didn’t summer start a few days ago? There’s no way we are already doing this again! One of my favorite back to school traditions is taking a picture of each kid on the first day. And while I might tear up a little bit thinking about how quickly my kids are growing, I love looking back over all of our first day of school pictures. They love it too! While I would like to believe that I will…
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8 Things You Should Never Ask Adoptive Parents
Remember that Friends episode where Rachel tells Joey that her boss wants to buy her baby? Everyone is completely flabbergasted that someone would be so insensitive and ridiculous. No one actually asks if they can buy your baby! Right?! Well, as a mom of four kids with two adopted from China, I must say that I have been asked some equally ridiculous questions about adoption. When my kids were younger, it didn’t matter if people asked questions. They were too little to understand or care what I was talking about. But now that they are older, unsolicited questions that highlight their differences or make them feel like they are not…
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How to Create a Chore System that Actually Works!
If the goal of parenting is to raise self-sufficient, independent humans who will one day grow up and live on their own, then when that day comes I want my kids to know how to cook something other than Ramen noodles, keep their home relatively clean, and have an idea of how to take care of another living being. To accomplish this, I developed a chore system that actually works to teach them these skills. Our chore system has two parts – Weekly Jobs and Weekend Chore Roulette. Here’s how it works: Weekly Jobs Every week my kids have one job that they are responsible for over the entire week.…
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Stop the Nagging With This (Free!) Summer Screen Time Checklist
Ahh, summer. The time of year where life slows down a little bit and your kids are free to play and be kids. Except all they want to do is play on their screens! I am totally fine with my kids enjoying screen time. It gives me a break, and it allows them time to relax. What I am not fine with is the incessant nagging about when they can have screens, or the way they can turn into monsters when the screens go off! A few summers ago I created a Summer Screen Time Checklist. It has been a wonderful addition to our summer routine! It sets up my…
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5 Secrets Only Running Moms Know (And You Should Too!)
A few years ago my family took a trip to Washington, D.C. for a long weekend. Hands down, my absolute favorite part of the trip was running through our nation’s capitol. I basked in the elegance of the White House, gazed up at the Washington Monument as I passed by, and scaled the steps to the Lincoln Memorial. Then, on an adventurous whim, I decided to follow the signs to Arlington National Cemetery. I had no idea how far it was or even how to get there. But that’s what made it fun! I breezed over the Memorial Bridge spanning the Potomac and arrived at Arlington a mile later completely…
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6 Things You Need to Do to Create Authentic Friendships
Want to create authentic friendships? Get Naked. If you’re wondering how removing your clothes could possibly help you create authentic friendships, let me explain. My kids are pretty much half naked all the time. They sleep in their underwear, their shirts come off as soon as they walk in the door, and I have countless funny videos and photos on my phone that I can’t post due to indecent exposure. To them, being naked is the most comfortable way to live. It’s so bad, that when my youngest son started school I was seriously concerned that he was going to start stripping off his clothes whenever he had to use…
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Quarantine Survival: Three Small Tips That Make a Big Difference
In a matter of days, our entire world has turned upside down. We are all trying to figure out how to cope with living our lives apart from one another. It’s overwhelming, scary, sad, and just plain weird. In our house, we just completed week 1 of home school. Some things went well, and others didn’t. Overall, we survived, we learned a few things, and we are ready to tackle week 2 of quarantine survival. Heading into this week, I am doing three small things that made a big difference during our quarantine. Quarantine Survival Tip 1 Create a Simple Weekly Plan I never realized how much I relied upon…
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Turn Your Reading Into Action in 4 Easy Steps
Every year I make a New Year’s reading list filled with life-changing books about all kinds of topics. Each time I finish a book, I close it filled with inspiration to try everything the author suggested, and motivated to make big changes. I can see the vision of where I want to be, but I quickly realize that I’m not entirely sure how to get there, and I feel overwhelmed by where to start. I want to take big gulps out of the fire hose, but in reality I need a sprinkler. Last year, everything changed. I developed a simple process that helped me turn the things I read into…
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Simple Advent Celebrations for Families
Every year on December 1st I have these grand plans of how our family is going to celebrate Advent during the Christmas season. I have printed out advent devotionals, created an interactive Jesse tree, bought supplies to make ornaments, planned ways for our family to serve in the community – you name it, I’ve probably tried it. But by December 7th, life has gotten in the way and most of my ideas have fallen by the wayside. I mean, it’s a struggle to even remember the darn elf every night! This year as December 1st approached, I sat down and thought about what we could realistically handle as a family.…
