Be the Chaperone

I've had some fun opportunities this summer to be the mom chaperone.

Olive knows that if she checks my calendar and we pick a date that works for us, I'm happy to chaperone plans she makes with her friends.

That looks like her coming up with a plan with her friends - the fair, the mall, movies or sleepovers - and then she'll ask me for dates that would work best.  They text to work out the details and I put it on our calendar.  It's been a really fun way to get to know her friends better and for her to ensure that she sees her friends outside of school.

They agreed upon plans ahead of time - amount of money to bring, goal to try to find something matching for back to school, time frame, as well as the pick up/drop off plan.

They strolled through their favorite stores.

Some shopped more than others.

They each had specific things they were looking to buy.

They tried on clothes and did a lot of laughing + window shopping.

I helped pick out a birthday gift for one of their moms.

We laughed at ridiculous items for sale.

Some paid in cash, card and Apple Pay.

We shopped at the candy store.

And I didn't lose a single girl!  The mall was crowded so that was a relief.  Lucky for me, they were an easy group to keep up with and they didn't mind me hanging out with them.  I think they appreciated my help calculating sale prices and then they'd run things by me since their mom wasn't there.

We headed up for a treat at our house and then the girls got picked up.  It was such a fun afternoon together.  I loved hearing about their excitement and anxious feeling about starting junior high.  They are sweet, responsible girls and I'm so thankful for their friendship.  Olive has been friends with some of the girls since we moved here in 3rd grade.

So my encouragement to you is - volunteer to be the mom chaperone when your kids want to make plans with their friends!

Only Buy What You LOVE

We have been trying something new that has been a game changer.

Only buy what you LOVE.

It is something that I started doing and then introduced it to Kevin and now the kids.

We apply it to everything - shoes, toys, home decor, thrifted items and Amazon purchases.

Think you purchase over, try it on and then only purchase it if you LOVE it.  If it's a little too tight, a little too short or the clothing doesn't fit you perfectly, then pass on it.

I adored this orange top from TJ Maxx.  I wanted to purchase it so badly, but it was pretty cropped and wasn't lined.  I was thinking of ways to layer it or alter it and no matter what adjustments I came up with, I realized that it just didn't work for me.  Now I'm inspired to be on the hunt for a similar citrus top that works for me without any changes.

I also really wanted to like the flowy pants in the background.  BUT they were both very see through and would require special underwear to make them work.  I passed on all of them even though I really liked the idea of each piece.

Kevin and I have been weeding out our closets to make sure we only hang on to things we love.  I have been consigning tons of stuff from all of our closets.

It's been great to see the kids thinking through this concept.  Do I love this toy?  Do I really love this book or this shirt?  If they do, then we will purchase it.  If it's just okay then we think about it.  They will add things to their own Amazon wish lists and think it over, read reviews and spend their money wisely.

You'll have to give this a try - only buy the things you love and then you'll be surrounded by things at home and in your closets that you LOVE.

Surprising the Kids

We are having a great Summer.  Sometimes the simplest things are my kid's favorite parts of our day.

1. I've been cashing in all of my rewards and gift cards to do fun things with the kids this Summer.  The kids had never tried Nothing Bundt Cakes before.  They noticed the s'mores flavor of the week... maybe month?... and wanted to try it.  One day we were in the area so I surprised them with getting to pick out their own flavor of bundlet.  I think the lemon was the yummiest, but we all enjoyed our flavors.

2. We don't eat out a ton so eating in a restaurant or trying a new restaurant is so fun for the kids.  Kevin was out of town for several days and I surprised them with a dinner at Hacienda.  They wanted to try their version of chicken on the beach (chicken, rice and white queso cheese).  I got guacamole for us to share and we had the best time eating out together.

3. Surprise them and let them each order their own thing.  We'll often times share or split fun treats, but this summer I have let the kids order their own thing.  This was delicious frozen hot chocolate in Santa Claus, IN.  They got a straw to share a sip with me and then they enjoyed the rest on their own.  Each of the kids got to pick out their own special candy treat from the Candy Castle, too.

4. I have also tried hard to just say YES to requests that are easy to grant.

Can I play fortnite with my school friends?

Can I go over to my friend's house this afternoon?

Can you play volleyball with me?

Can you play puzzles with me?

Can we make pumpkin cookies today?

Can we stay up a little later tonight?

Will you have a slumber party on the couch with us tonight?

Can I add a couple things to our grocery pick up list?

Can Olive babysit us?

Can we go to the library today?

YES!

I challenge you to surprise your kids with something fun this week!

School Day in the Life: PreK, K, 3rd and 6th

We juggled a lot this year!  We all had to make changes to our routines and schedules and day to day life to make life work with two working parents.  Many of you know the juggling and scheduling required!  I wanted to document a school day in our life with us at three different schools mostly so I could remember what life was like my first year back to teaching.

A PBJ for me on the days when I just couldn't handle packing one more lunch or fixing one more meal.

5:45am My alarm goes off.  This is easily the worst part of going back to work :)  My night owl tendencies struggled to adjust to this early morning wake up call.  Time for me to get ready.

6:00am Fletcher's alarm goes off and he's ready to tackle the day.  He gets ready fast and is downstairs quick every day.  No wake up call necessary.

6:15am I'm done getting ready for the day.  Time to start breakfast for everyone - usually oatmeal - then wake up the house by opening curtains and turning on lights.  Fill 8 water bottles and assemble 4 lunch boxes.

6:30am Wake up Leo.  He is not a fan of any wake up plan.  Mornings were easier on the days he woke up on his own.  That only happened about half the time.  We all eat, the kids have some screen time and then we get ready to leave for the day.

6:50am Wake up Olive.  She prefers a mom wake up vs an alarm.  We said goodbye to her and to Kevin and we headed to school.

7:20am I eat a protein bar in the car and chat with the boys.  We arrive at school with the boys.  Drop off Leo to before school care to play with his buddies and head into school with Fletcher.  Turn on lamps, lights, log into all the things and be ready to greet my students at the door.

7:30am School starts!  Fletcher helps out in my classroom for a few minutes, chat with my students and then heads to his class.

7:30-3:05 TEACH non stop.  I did everything from morning meeting, read alouds, phonics and check class work.  Then my kids go to specials and I plan.  I tried to get as much work as possible done during my plan, my recess breaks and my lunch every single day.  We're lucky to have two recesses and a full time assistant to keep life in K running smoothly.  Then I handle dismissal for my class and walk to pick up Fletcher at his class.

3:10pm Close down my classroom for the day.  I'd wrap up and tidy up all the things.  Fletcher would pass out morning work for the following day, put up the question of the day and eat a little snack.  Once my room and desk were all clean, we'd head out.

3:30pm Pick up Leo.  We'd walk in and grab him from after care.

4:00pm We got home to Olive!  Some days we were early enough to meet her at the bus stop, some days Kevin met her at the bus stop and other days she handled drop off on her own.  Every day was different.  That was true for most things in our life.

4:15pm Smoothie and snacks for everyone!  I'd grab an iced coffee for myself and catch up on socials, emails and any last minute work things that needed attention before tomorrow.

4:45pm Prep dinner, work on homework, let the kids play

5:30pm Dinner time.  We eat dinner together most every night.

6:00pm Clean up dinner, pack 4 lunches for the following day and tidy up the downstairs.  More time for the kids to play upstairs, outside or with friends.

7:00pm Hit the showers, finish the homework, watch a show and relax.

7:30pm A little snack for everyone before bed.

7:45pm Start bedtime routine!  Bible with Kevin.  Snuggles with mom.

8:30/9pm Kevin and I hang out and chat about our days.  Finish all the things that didn't get done earlier - dry dishes, pack snacks in backpacks for 3 kids, lay out backpacks and every single thing we need to walk out the door in the morning.  Each kid gets a pile.  Shoes, backpacks, jackets, homework, important items, etc.  Different pile of lunch boxes and water bottles on the counter so that I can fill them in the morning.  Sometimes the kids help with laying everything out and sometimes I do it all after they go to bed.

Kevin heads to bed.  I work on blog things and enjoy the quiet house for a minute.  The house gets picked up and cleaned up every night before bed.  The kids help with their stuff and their zones.

11pm-ish I head to bed.  Always wishing it was earlier, but that never happens.  5:45am always came too early.  

We did it!  We all learned to do new things and new skills this year.  Yay for us :)

Weekend in Louisville Favorites

Kevin planned a fun Mother's Day getaway for our family to Louisville, KY.  It's 90 minutes from home and we had never spent any time there.  We had a busy weekend - baby shower, Kevin's student's graduating, restaurant grand opening and a trip out of town!  I'm glad he puts the fun in our family.

We grabbed all the touristy brochures when we arrived at our hotel.  We quickly realized there was a lot ot do in Louisville!  We did plenty of fun things and have a long list of things to do on our next trips.

We had Mother's Day brunch at Wild Eggs.  The wait was an hour which felt about right for a holiday.  We ran an errand or two while we waited for a table.  The food was so good!  Everyone ordered something different and loved it.  The french toast was outstanding, omelets and pancakes were so good, we all loved our bacon and the staff kept the place running so smoothly.  It was perfect for families of all sizes.  We will go back!

We found a park nearby - Brown Park that was just lovely.  The weather was perfect.  There were walking trails, goose food dispensers (bring quarters!) and a really fun playground.  It was such a nice, clean park in the middle of the city.

Olive made me a new bracelet stack in my school colors with my favorite things - smiley faces!  She was so sweet to sneakily make them at home, wrap her gift at home and then pack it in her suitcase for me to open on the trip.

We checked out the outlet malls.  Every store you could think of was there.  The mall is huge and we had a great time checking out the horse art, play spaces and shopping options.  We found fun things at Simply Southern, Vineyard Vines, GAP and more.  There were still Kentucky Derby themed things at every turn.  Leo loved spotting these painted horses.

We had Starbucks on the patio.  The kids insisted I tried a Strawberry Lemonade Refresher.  It was really good.  I rarely splurge on fancy coffee drinks so it was a treat to try a few new drinks this weekend.  The weather was just perfect.  We enjoyed murals around town and loved seeing all the sights - cool bridges, the Ohio River, murals, baseball stadiums and more.

We found a Trader Joes.  We don't have one in our city so we brought a cooler to stock up on favorites!  We spent $100 and came home with tons of yummy food for the week.  We can't wait to go back there again soon.  Stay tuned for a Trader Joes round up post!  Leo was worn out after a long day and insisted on riding in the cart.

We headed downtown for dinner at a Brazillian Steakhouse called Brazeiros.  It was fancy and kind of disappointing.  We loved trying a new kind of restaurant with the kids, but Mother's Day crazy price hikes, not very flavorful meat + a sparce buffet of food options for the kids left us feeling bummed.  We would not recommend going back on a holiday or with kids.  The kids were troopers trying all the meats and sides.  Kevin would tell you that the highlight of our very pricey meal was his Kentucky Bourbon flight.  Our family would recommend finding a different restaurant to try if you are downtown.

Leo ate carrots and ranch and loved the meat tongs.  He played with those and kept asking for french fries.  We should have come home with the tongs since he definitely did not eat enough to cover his bill.

The art downtown was neat to see.  The kids often call Leo "Fishy" so this was cute.

We had hoped to do more, but we ran out of time.  Lousiville quickly became a favorite spot for us!  We are excited to go back to see the zoo, do some more shopping, go see a baseball game, walk on the pedestrian bridge, watch the trains and try some new restaurants.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Best Mom

I hope you had a Happy Mother's Day celebrating the favorite women in your lives!

I got to celebrate a little early with my mom.

And in true mom fashion she fixed lunch for us and celebrated me.

She's the best.

My mom is the one who taught me everything I know about hosting.  She hosted family and friends nonstop when we were growing up.  If I need to throw a party and need supplies, she's the first one I call. She's got everything to throw a fiesta, wedding or baby shower.

She taught me that it was possible to be a stay at home mom, a working mom, go to college out of town, get your masters, do a job that you love and still be a great mom.  I held all of those titles because she did, too.

She never shows up empty handed.  She picks up things she knows we'll like.  Like when she picks up Leo from school and has a new car waiting for him in his car seat.  Or she'll come over to hang out with the kids and make us a fresh batch of homemade carmel corn.  She knows what we likes and enjoys cooking for us.

My mom is a great baker.  Her specialities include sourdough bread, sourdough cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, caramel corn, Christmas candies and everything in between.  She was always baking and continues to bake.  When we were little she'd wake up early to make cinnamon rolls for our teachers.  We'd come to school with bags of warm cinnamon rolls and deliver them to our favorite teachers.  At Christmas time, she'd make trays of Christmas sugar cookies for our teachers.

She loves accessories.

She sent photo Christmas cards our entire lives.  She'd take the pictures (we'd rarely cooperate) and send off the film hoping and praying for one good shot of the three of us.  She did all the Pinterest mom things before Pinterest was even a thing.  She's crafty and did arts and crafts shows when we were little.  Etsy and Pinterest having nothing on her.

The kids love hanging out with Mimi.  They don't love being sick, but if it means taking it easy at home with Mimi, they are on board with it.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  We love you!

Enjoy the View

My kids are about to turn 12, 9 and 5 which leaves me feeling so sentimental about how quickly the years are flying by.  I'm working hard to slow down and enjoy the view as much as possible.  That seems to be the easiest at bedtime and on the weekends.

I snapped this picture on Sunday.

A real life moment in time.  

A very familiar for a Sunday afternoon.

The kids were working on birthday wish lists.  Olive was helping Leo.  Fletcher was doing his own and they were all scouting out some fun gifts for their Spring birthdays.  They were having the best time.

Kevin was getting caught up on work and watching golf.  And taking the big kids out for coffee.

I was folding a zillion loads of laundry, doing dishes, doing our calendar for the week, planning our menu, ordering groceries and working on my own kindergarten plans.  We had divided up plenty of chores all day long to get ourselves ready for the week.

Leo's dreamy weekend day includes wearing pjs as much as possible.

I'm trying hard to enjoy the view.  Be where my feet are.  Be thankful for the chores and tasks that come my way to take care of the people that I love most.

Olive loves to remind me of how tall she's getting, how I will be planning her high school graduation party six years from now and it won't be long before she's driving.  I'm not quite ready for all of that so I'm praying I will be when those big milestones hit.

I am so excited for what's to come for all of us.  

But I would like to hit the parenting slow-mo button and enjoy the view a little more each day.

Take the Sick Days

Is anyone at your house sick right now?

We have lots of friends that are sick.  Our boys had the flu a couple of weeks ago and we are trying hard to stay healthy.  That isn't easy when you teach kindergarten and it's the germiest time of year.

A teacher mom of older kids reminded me the importance of being a mom first and taking sick days when you need them.  She assured me school would be just fine without me while I took care of my family.  I took three sick days when the boys were sick.  As a teacher, it is so much work to be gone for a day.  You have to map out a detailed plan for the entire school day, remember all the things for all the kids and it's just a lot to be gone.  But my class was just fine without me.  Everything went mostly okay and we're back to our regular routine.  None of my students remember those days now that they're behind us.  Yes, they missed me and were so glad to have me back, but it was fine to be gone.  

Do you know who really appreciated me being home?

My boys.

Leo kept telling me, "Thanks for being home with me!" when he was feeling terrible.  I loved being home with them and got a lot done around the house.  Kevin and I tag teamed the whole week and we both worked on the days we couldn't miss and divided up our sick/work from home days.

I'm glad I picked my family when I had the chance.  I'm replacable at school (greatly missed, but replacable :), but there's no other mom to fill in for me at home.

I have a few sick day tips to share with you that made our sick days a little bit easier.

1. Grocery delivery.  It really is the best thing.  We don't live close to grocery picks up so this saves me so much time.

2. We had super chapped lips and Leo was refusing any chapstick.  I found this tiny pot of vasaline, gave him his own chapstick to put on by himself and he was SOLD.  No more chapped lips.  I think I'll buy a couple extra to have on hand just in case.

3. Comfy blanket beds everywhere.  Sleep on the couch, on our floor or in the recliner.  Just rest!

4. We also hit a wall with medicine.  Leo started refusing and medicine.  This tiny straw in a medicine cup made taking medicine a little easier for him.  I just cut down a regular straw.  Anything to get him to take his medicine.

5. Extra showers, baths with toys, if it'll make you smile, I will probably say yes.

6. Homemade soup, popsicles, jello, Capri suns, etc.  Stay hydrated.  Eat anything you can.

I also ordered all the Emergen-C drinks, chewables and flu meds for the rest of us just in case.  We are prepared if we need any medicine.  We also got extra sleep and rest.  With a ton of hand washing.  Stay healthy!

Quality Time 5 Different Ways

I have been working hard to spend quality time with every member of my family.  

This was easier when I was a stay at home mom.  I had much more free time to devote to taking care of everyone.  Now that I'm teaching full time it is trickier.  I have to be very intentional to notice what is important to each person in my family and then make it a priority to make them feel loved and special when we are together.  That means doing things when I'm tired.  Making after work to do lists and packing my weekend with quality time opportunities.  Not getting as much sleep as I should and asking for help when I need it.

Here are a few examples of quality time with my crew:

1. Bedtime chats and snuggles

2. Stocking the pantry with their favorite foods

3. Quality time together running errands - sometimes my errands and sometimes theirs

4. Errands to pick up favorite treats

5. Snuggles while we watch their favorite show

6. Having mom nearby

7. Fixing their favorite meals

8. Date nights

9. Keeping up with laundry so they have all the clothing options

10. Reading a book together

11. Paying attention to the Amazon links they send me and their shopping needs

12. Keeping close tabs on their school calendars to make sure we don't miss anything

13. Helping organize their bedrooms

14. Picking out their clothes for the week so that there is no thought required each morning

15. Helping out in my classroom

16. Strolling around the mall

17. One on one time with me

18. Bike rides

19. Cooking together

20. Saying YES to spontaneous requests - sleep overs, play dates, outings and plans.

It has been a fun challenge to figure out what each person in my family loves and needs in this season of having two busy working parents and kids ages 11, 8 and 4.  I challenge you to do the same!