Monday, March 18, 2024

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I hope you had a great weekend!  We had fun celebrating St Patrick's Day all weekend long!  One day we'll make it to a big city to see the river dyed green, but until then we'll be enjoying all the festivities from home.

Lucky to love them!  They all wore their new St Patrick's Day t-shirts to church Sunday morning.  Matching kids always and forever.


These pot of gold glasses were such a fun Dollar Tree find!

I love festive fun, but I don't want to pay boutique prices for it.  Walmart usually has the cutest holiday t-shirts for $6.98.  I love that I can get them in toddler to tween sizes.  I like to do one fun gift like these glasses and then something practical - light up basketballs!!  The kids were so excited about them.  Once they play with them for a few days, I'll come back with a real review of them.

A sink full of dirty Crocs was an unexpected rainbow.  I know I'll be sad one day when I'm no longer washing dirty kid shoes so I'm thankful for the sink full of color.  I noticed this time that the shoes are getting biggger and filling up my sink fast.

The easiest lucky breakfast.  I don't buy these often so it was a treat.

The rainbow treat cups were a big hit at our house and with our friends.  We enjoyed the leftover rainbow candy all weekend.

The kids were big enough to help me make some festive food.  Rainbow jello was a team effort this year and the kids are old enough now that they are genuinely helpful.

A new neighbor friend baked me the most beautiful loaf of bread!  I baked her welcome desserts when they moved in and she's returning the favor with homemade bread.  I like this friendship already!

Our backyard was the prettiest colors of spring this weekend - green grass, purple fields, blue skies, clouds and sunshine.

My parents came over for a St Patrick's Day dinner and it's always one of my favorite meals.  I made a berry salad, homemade bread, rainbow jello, Irish stew, Keilbasa and bacon wrapped smokies.  Then lemon bundt cake and Rice Krispie treats for dessert.  Yum!

And my favorite tradition: Rainbow Jello!!  It takes hours to make - 20 minutes per layer - but the kids helped and we were all proud of those 12 layers.  


I'm determined to look for the rainbows in my days this week and have a great week!

Friday, March 15, 2024

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you've had a nice week.  Our week was funky.  Lots of weird or stressful things that just kind of added up to a week that we're ready to say goodbye to. Does that ever happen to you?  Did you catch my blog posts this week?

High End Items on a Budget - my favorite places to shop!

Creating Margin in My Life - this feels SO GOOD!

Preteen Parenting: Practice Gives Confidence


Now onto my favorite moments of the week:

1. Happy St Patrick's Day weekend!!  It's one of my favorite holidays thanks to our love of all things Irish and Notre Dame.  I put together these rainbow candy cups for my kids and our friends.  It was so much fun to add all the rainbow candy to my grocery pick up order and assemble them.  They were a big hit!  I found the gold coins at Dollar Tree and saw them at Hobby Lobby.  It's not too late to grab the supplies to make them this weekend.




Or you could put together a rainbow treat board for your family!!  My crew loved this!!  I added Keebler Thin Mints, Lucky Charms and all the rainbow candy from the rainbow cups.  


2. Can I help?  That's Leo's new favorite phrase in the kitchen.  It melts my heart!  He helped with smoothies, rice krispy treats and dinner.

3. Excused from jury duty!!  I got called for jury duty for the second time this year.  I was really hoping to get called off, but no such luck.  I had to report early Monday morning only to find out that they were selecting the jury for a big murder trial.  Yikes!  It was so interesting and I knew it would be a major time commitment.  Thankfully for me, I knew a police officer involved in the case and my Dad being a retired Sheriff, State Policeman and such for 40+ years meant the judge knew him and I couldn't be a fair and unbiased juror.  I was dismissed and relieved.  I've enjoyed following the news reports all week.  I have a new appreciation for people who are serving on juries for a long period of time.  One morning was stressful!!

4. Rainy day fun.  Leo is in charge of his own umbrella and loved it.  Friends invited us to play and that always feels good!

5. Spring flowers!  I really thought it would get cold again, but it seems as though Spring is here to stay.  We don't have any daffodils in our yard.  I love the white ones with orange centers.

6. Crumbl Cookies.  I celebrated being kicked out of the jury selection process by getting Crumbl cookies for everyone.  They were delicious.

7. Freckles are popping!  I always wished that I could have freckles and my dream came true with Fletcher.  All this time outside means that his freckles are popping up everywhere.  I gave the boys haircuts mideweek just in time for Spring pictures at school.

8. Leo is always doing the silliest things.  This is his latest trick which is actually a pretty impressive balancing act.

9. My mom found some cool rocks for Fletcher and one was a geode!

10. Hands and feet out the windows as we enjoy the sunshine this week.

11. We got to have dinner with Grandma at her favorite spot.  She chose the restaurant and the kids enjoyed their first Chinese buffet.  They loved trying new foods and finding new favorites.  Leo only liked the almond cookies.  I think he ate 4 for dinner.

12. The 5th grade celebrated Pi Day this week with their Spring Party.  I was glad my dad could watch Leo so that I could go celebrate with her.  She was hoping for pie party, but they had Pi cookies instead.

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Preteen Parenting: Practice Gives Confidence

Has your preteen or teen every declared they just weren't good at something?  Maybe they tried something new, weren't great at it and gave up?  Or maybe they admired a skill someone else had and wished they could do the same thing?

I'd encourage you to give your older kids time and space to practice to build their confidence.

Find things they are interested in, but aren't yet good at, and give them opportunities to practice doing those things in a safe place like home.  Sometimes that means pointing out things they are naturally good at and suggesting things that they could do with those skills.  For us it's things like fishing, riding a bike, painting nails on their own, doing their own hair, studying for tests, writing, crocheting, learning a new craft or hobby or talking to their friends on FaceTime.


Olive mentioned that she loved cute nails, but just was not good at painting her nails herself.  I told her we should practice.  No pressure.  Nowhere to go.  Just working on the art of nail painting at home.  We had fun together.  She picked out the design and we painted.  She was happy with the result and I know that she will be a little better at it the next time we paint nails.  I gave her tips along the way and helped if she needed it, but she was the leading the way.


Here are some more examples:

1. Help create a dinner menu so that they'll know how to meal plan when they are living on their own.  

2. Practice learning how to ride a bike in the grass so that you feel confident when it comes time to riding on the street.  Or roller blade on your patio before you head out to the streets.

3. Communicate your hair style preferences with whoever does your hair.  That goes for hair cuts and for daily styling.  Figure out how you like to wear your hair and ask for help making that happen.  Olive will skip cuts for a trim.  The boys will ask for a scissor trim on top to keep it longer and clippers on the side.  I cut everyone's hair so it's been fun to see them get better at this skill.

4. Your teens might be wanting a new swim suit and want to shop online.  Have them practice browsing and searching favorite shopping sites, pick out their favorites and present them to their parents.  Olive loved this task!!  She found 3 great swim suit options.  We ordered them all, tried them on and she ended up with two swim suits that she is SO excited about.  I wasn't sure she could find them on her own, but she did it.  And next year she'll be ready to do this on her own (with the help of our credit card :).

5. You have a kid that wants to learn how to fish.  He asks for fishing supplies for holidays and then practices fishing a lot.  He's learning new skills and building confidence to become a better fisherman.

6. Practice talking on the phone, Face Timing and texting with friends on your parent's phone so that when you have your own phone, you will feel confident in communicating with people.  We have had a lot of conversations about phone etiquette, talking to parents vs friends and texting.

7. If your kids need something at school or are having an issue, let them practice communicating with their teachers.  Talk things through with them and then send them off to email or talk to their teachers to resolve the issue.  This is a super important life skill.

8. One of our kids loves pocket knives.  He's been learning how to store the, handle them and collect them safely.  His confidence has grown and he has been so responsible with them.  It's fun to see his hobby build confidence.

9. Travel together!  Give the kids a map, point out landmarks along the way, have them make count downs, pack their own suitcases, plan intineraries and watch their travel confidence grow.  My older kids love to pack for trips.  I give them a check list or talk through our trip and they pack.  They present their suitcases to me and we double check that they ar ready to travel.  It makes trip prep so much easier for me and then they are confident that they are ready for the trip.

10. Share opportunities that come up and see if your kids are interested - church choir, tennis lessons, chess club, school choir, rec leagues, softball try outs, roller skating, archery, etc.  Talk through what the commitment would mean and see if it is something that they would like to try.  I've emailed coaches to ask questions and gathered more information.  All those new experiences can bring confidence.


How do you help your older kids build confidence?

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Creating Margin in Your Life

I have been working hard to create margin in our lives.  

It's taken a lot of work on my part, but my whole family is starting to see proof around the house.  Many areas around our house are no longer filled to the max.  We have empty spaces on shelves, free space in closets and it feels like our house has breathing room.  I still have a ways to go - I'm talking to my garage, holiday closet and cabinets.  But I wanted to document my progress in the hopes of inspiring you to reorganize, declutter and claim back some free space in your home.

I will never fall into the catergory of a minimalist.  That is not my goal.  I just hope to have a house filled with things we love and use.  Not a storage unit for clutter and chaos.

This cozy corner of our primary bedroom makes me smile.  The two books that I have read this year are on my nightstand and no clutter.  No toy baskets or junk.  Just the prettiest essentials.


Olive mentioned that it would be fun to have a cozy reading spot in her closet.  I worked hard to clear out the clutter and give her a cozy spot to hang out if she wanted to.  Kids and cats really do like cozy little spots to snuggle up in.

When the boys saw that Olive's closet had been cleaned out, they requested the same for their closet.  I spent the weekend reorganizing boy clothes that get passed down from Fletcher to Leo and now they have a cozy spot to enjoy in their closet.  It really is a breath of fresh air to open the kid's closets and have plenty of room to grow.

After adding some shelves in all of our downstairs closets, we have been able to reorganize and get things up off of the floor.  I love seeing the clean and clear pantry floor when I go into our walk in pantry.  I bake a ton and love a good cake plate.  That means my shelves are full of things that I love.

And lastly, this table tends to attract clutter of games and toys on the bottom shelf.  We reorganized a bit and only kept a few games in the baskets.  This space feels much friendly and easier to access for us.  The shelf could hold a lot more, but we tend to avoid using any of the games if we have to dig through layers and layers of clutter.

Disclaimer: I do want to acknowledge that you might find yourself in a season of life where space is tight and every inch of your home is being used.  That's okay.  We lived that way for a lot of years.  We loved our 900 sq ft one bedroom apartment when we lived in Utah, but it was packed to the brim.  There wasn't a lot of breathing room.  It was fine.  We survived.  If I could go back in time, I'd probably try to declutter as much as I could and enjoy my home.  We were just doing our best!

So do what you need to do, and see if there is anything you could donate, sell, consign or gift to free up some space in your home!!  

Let me know if you have any questions about making margin in your home.  

I do have one warning.  Once you start freeing up space, you'll probably be motivated to work on making margin in your whole home! It just feels so good!

Monday, March 11, 2024

High End Items on a Budget

Do you have a favorite spot to shop for high end items on a budget?

I do!  I have found some name brand treasures for a fraction of their original price at stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods.  Here are a few examples of what to look for in case you are wanting some high end items without the high price tags.

1. Clothing

I talked about this Tommy Hilfiger Classic Band jacket a few weeks ago.  It's so cute and comfy.  The best part was that I got it for a super deal at Marshalls.  The original tag said $109.50 and I grabbed it for $22!!  What a deal!  Each color is a different price in store and on Amazon so if you find a higher end item that you love, keep an eye on the prices.  I linked the jackets in this post.

I also love to pick up higher end shoes at stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx.  These Cynthia Rowley flats were marked down to around $10 in the Fall.  They're nice shoes at a great price.

I try to always glance at the clearance sections just in case I can spot a treasure like these!



2. Lamps

Did you see this lamp on my Friday post?

I'm in love!

I've been on the lookout for the perfect statement lamp for this corner of my kitchen since we moved in over two years ago.  I just couldn't find the right one.  I waited and shopped.  Shopped and waited.  Then finally found it last week!

I have a knack for spotting and loving the most expensive lamps.  It's my gift :)  Same thing with rugs.  But this time I just knew this blue and white Ralph Lauren lamp would be perfect.  It's tall, beautiful, makes a statement and I love the mix of wood, floral base and a pretty shaped shade.  And after looking for 2 years, I knew that pretty lamps don't last.  You have to grab things that catch your eye because they go quick and aren't restocked. 

The original Ralph Lauren tag said $215 and the HomeGoods tag was $129.99.  It was a splurge, but I knew it was perfect!

I love that you get to see the lamps plugged in at HomeGoods and most come with a light bulb.  You get an idea for the type of light it will give in your space.  And they are easy to return if you take it home and don't love it.

3. If you can find any character items at stores like these, grab them!  Olive loves Stitch and the Stitch merchandise is so much cheaper here versus online.  I have found a Stitch backpack, plates, stuffed animals and coffee cups for really affordable prices compared to online.


Mom tip: If you are shopping with your kids at stores likes HomeGoods, grab a ruler for them to measure with while you shop.  They're hanging all over the store.  Just tear one off and have your kid measure and practice counting while you browse.  Leo loved it!  Also pack lots of snacks so they can snack in the cart while you shop.  

I love to find lamps, picture frames, wreaths, wrapping paper, holiday decor, kitchen items, pillows, rugs and gifts at these kind of stores.  You can get a great deal!  I do think their furniture is almost always over priced.  They have cute furniture, but $500/chair doesn't feel like a HomeGoods deal to me.

Where do you have the best luck finding high end items on a budget?

Friday, March 8, 2024

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, Friends!  I hope this week has been a good one for you!  It feels like Spring in the Midwest and we are enjoying the sunshine and warm temps.

Did you catch my blog posts this week?

Rainbow Charcuterie Dinner Board - this would be so fun for St. Patrick's Day!

2 Tips to Make Your Salads Extra Delicious - they are easy!

15 Easter Amazon Favorites for Toddlers to Tweens - art supplies, Squishmallows, egg crayons, moon shoes and more.  Let me help you build your Easter baskets!


Now onto my favorite moments of the week:

1. Look at these Easter cuties!!  My kids love Squishmallows and I can't wait to give them their baskets.  I think they're going to be excited about their color changing markers, new rolls of art paper, kites and books.  I linked everything in my Amazon post this Wednesday.



2. Dreamy lamp!  I've been on the hunt for probably 2 years for a statement lamp for my kitchen.  I finally found one.  This dreamy Ralph Lauren lamp was splurge and I smile every time I walk into my kitchen and see it.  It was totally worth the wait.  More on this later!

3. Happy Spring.  I picked up these darling bunny towels for my kid's teachers this week at HomeGoods.  It's a two pack.  The front towel has a bunny head and the back towel has a bunny bottom.  Wouldn't these be so cute in anyone's kitchen for Spring!?  I can't wait to put a cute plaid bow on them and send them to school for our teachers.  They were just $9.99 and seem like great quality.

4. I bought myself some clovers.  I love to grab these at the grocery stores in the Spring.  They bloom the cutest little white flowers and will be perfect for my table for St. Patrick's Day next week.

I'm not sure what I'm fixing for our St. Patrick's Day dinner, but I know that this rainbow charcuterie board would be perfect!!  I linked my blog post at the top of this post if you want to know more about my boards.


5. This is my favorite jean jacket!!  I love the little puff sleeve and I'm wearing it as often as possible.

6. Visiting Great Grandma.  We popped by with a treat to see our favorite Grandma this week.  The kids loved catching up with her and we all had a nice time.

7. I made the yummiest lemon bundt cake!  I tried out my favorite new bundt cake pan that I got for Christmas and it made the prettiest cake.  I'm making another one ASAP because it was so good.

8. The kids got invited to a skating party for a friend.  We went, they skated and Fletcher can't wait to go back.  He loved it.  Olive loved the skating playlists and we all had a good time.



9. Backyard boys.  These two would live outside if they could.  They built a hut and are proud to say that it's still standing after a week.

10. Off to church.  I got the church by myself last weekend which felt like a big accomlishment.  The older two fight over who loves Leo the most.  They always want to hold his hand and for him to call them their favorite person.  I hope they're always best buds.

11. If you need a fun, Eastery meal to serve your kids, try this one.  My kids love an egg carton lunch.  I put lots of bites of lots of things and add in some Easter candy.  They think it's the best and it's so easy to assemble.

12. My favorite salad of the week included thick cut bacon and grilled chicken.  It made my regular lunch salad so much more delicious!

13. Leo's favorite thing is having control of his window and opening it to enjoy the nice weather.  I love seeing his little hand out in the sunshine.

14. Kevin had a fun trip to Las Vegas this week with some family.  They golfed, gambled and made some good memories.  He loved his first visit to Top Golf, saw a magic show, ate delicious food and he bumped into his all time favorite professor/mentor from his days at University of Utah.  They were at the same hotel, the same time frame for totally different things and it was a wonderful surprise reunion in the elevator.  I love those kind of surprises so much.  It's a good reminder that God cares about every little detail of our lives and that great teachers are so important!!  



He brought back Las Vegas souvenirs for all of us!

15. Hot Wheels cars are definitely Leo's favorite.  Any grocery store trip is better when you get a new car or two.  It's the best $2 I spend all week.

16. Pretty Pearl.  She doesn't get as much air time as the other cats, but she's so sweet.  She loves me the most, is my shadow all day long and loves to sleep on my side at night.  You'll likely never see her if you come to my house because she's shy, but she perfectly friendly and sweet when it's just us.


Have a wonderful weekend!!  I'll see you back here on Monday!

Linking up with Momfessionals