Parenting

*This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company, Kellogg Company, J.M. Smucker Company, and The HERSHEY’S Company. All opinions are mine alone. #StartSchoolLikeAChampion *#CollectiveBias

Back to School time has arrived already! Like always, we are anxiously awaiting the first day of school. But this year, there may be a few more first-day jitters than usual as the boys are starting a new school.

I’ve thought about ways we can calm their nerves (and mine too!) in this new situation. I don’t want it to be stressful for them and I’d love to share a few tips for anyone starting a new school this year.

Moving from a brand new house to an older house has been interesting, to say the least. We knew there were problems before we moved in. We made the owners buy us a home warranty and we knew we would probably be using it! Which we have – two times already!

First, the master shower leaked to the media room below. And the drain backed up and flooded our basement leaving the carpet useless. We’re guessing the main drain had never been cleaned out . . . ever. That was when we decided to upgrade the warranty. Because it sounds like they’ll probably be back!

It might come as a shock to some of my loyal readers. I mean, I know it came as a shock to me…

We recently moved to a new house.

I wrote this post in March and selling our house was basically the big change I was referring to. I just didn’t want to say it. Maybe because I thought I would jinx it and our house wouldn’t sell.

But I was wrong. We had our first offer within 48 hours of putting it on the market!

Fourth of July is my favorite holiday! I love fireworks, BBQ’s and being with family in the summer heat. It’s going to be a great weekend, as always! Here are a few photos of our little All-American Sweetie in her new red, white & blue dress. She still loves Minnie Mouse so I knew she would love it! The boys had shirts to wear too but did not cooperate with my photo session :)

I have to admit it – I am not a planner. I never have been. In my 37 years I have never used a paper planner to keep track of anything. I’m not really sure how I’ve survived this long. But my memory was always good enough for me to remember things. Until it wasn’t.

I’ve tried to use a calendar app on my phone and until recently it had been working pretty well. I would set up reminders to pop up a day before an appointment or assignment was due. And my husband was able to put in his work schedule so I would always know where he was for that day. But for some reason the app started randomly logging me out and I was missing things right and left!

I just love summer, don’t you? I feel much happier and more relaxed during this season. Since the weather is warm it’s so nice to spend time outside soaking in some sun. With each new summer season I always want to spruce up our patio so we can enjoy it as an outdoor living room.

I’m sure you’ve seen photos of amazing outdoor living rooms. I drool over them daily and finally decided to bring the indoors outside where we spend so much time. Here are three things I did to create an inviting outdoor living room.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with my blog. I’ve only written a handful of blog posts this year and I seriously considered shutting it down for good.

But, as I mentioned before, my husband and my best friend encouraged me to open up and to keep going. This blog is 9.5 years old and it would be a damn shame to stop something that I still love.

When Landon was two-years-old he became obsessed with Thomas the Train. This caused a chain reaction of Naaman and I to buy all the Thomas things available at Toys R Us. We also bought a lot of Thomas books to read. It really was his favorite thing. Thomas and reading. Of course Brigham went through a Thomas phase and now Sawyer loves the choo-choo too.

One of the books we bought was called Thomas and the Big Big Bridge. I just read it to Sawyer the other night.

By the time Brigham was six-months-old, we had already been to Children’s Mercy urgent care/emergency room so many times we’d lost count. We didn’t understand why our baby was so sick all the time. We were frustrated, exhausted and didn’t know what to do.

Severe double ear infections from the time he was one-month-old. Scary vomiting episodes, respiratory illnesses that included bronchitis and pneumonia, which required nightly breathing treatments. We were told he probably had reactive airway disease. This, because they don’t diagnosis it as asthma until children are older.

This week on the happy list . . .

• 16 Things You Need to Say Goodbye to in 2016: If you read anything this week – let it be this! So good and I relate to so many of them!

• Peanut Butter Pie: I mean, does it need an explanation? I am sooo making this!

• Why is My Daughter Aggressive at Home and an Angel Everywhere Else?: Another great article that I relate to very much.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of ProPharma USA. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you’re a mom you’ve probably noticed your memory is not as good as it used to be before you had kids. The term “mom brain” has been coined to describe this struggle and it couldn’t be more true for me. And it might be for you too!

Maybe it’s because we have so many things to remember and our mind is trying to process multiple things at one time. Maybe it’s because we are constantly interrupted mid-thought. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because we’re tired :)

I’m not sure exactly when it happened – but I changed. I changed for the better.

I’ve worked so hard the past two months to think positive thoughts instead of the negativity that often filled my mind.

I’ve gone to doctor’s appointments. I’ve practiced self-care. I’ve focused on my family. I’ve even taken a vacation with my husband to an amazingly beautiful island, which allowed us to relax and roboot after a couple hard years. It allowed us time to look each other in the eye and say, yes, I love you. Oh man, do I ever love you.