(Laughing at Gabe who was doing his best monkey impersonation.)
The summer as a parent + business owner is a complete marathon! We did the majority of our traveling in June so July we have tried to settle into a somewhat lose routine for the sake of everyone’s sanity. We seem to have a revolving door of kids in and out of our front and backyard from dawn till dusk, and this simple schedule has helped remind our kids that mom and dad aren’t able to be their live entertainment every hour of every day;) Below is a lose breakdown of what our days look like right now!
With a new baby on the way, a domino effect of shifting rooms and closets has commenced! Our bedroom closets are pretty simple in size, but I think they could be used more efficiently with a few changes. If you follow us on instagram you can check out instagram stories all week for the step by step process of our girls’ closet makeover! In the meantime, here are a few kids’ closet storage ideas that may come in handy for you, as well as some before pics.
I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July:) We hosted a family backyard bash this year potluck style. Everyone brought a dish, we played yard games, and lit up the sky with quite a fireworks series! It was a good option for our toddlers who are still find the noise of fireworks petrifying, and could watch from the safety of the living room windows.
We have tried to spend a weekend away together once or twice a year since we got married. It isn’t ever easy to arrange the more children we have, but it also has never seemed more needed and appreciated! When debating where to spend an anniversary/babymoon weekend, we decided we just had to go back to our favorite city….Charleston, SC. It is a city rich in history, sights, and some of the best food you can find in the south. Here’s a quick re-cap of some new places we visited.
We have slowly updated our deck and patio spaces over the last three summers, and it has become a place where we spend the most time Spring, Summer, and Fall! (For instance, this post shows what the deck looked like back when we moved in and here is the patio makeover. ) Today I wanted to share a few tips for outdoor patio care and keeping outdoor furniture clean as well as how to clean those outdoor rugs! It’s actually simpler than you may think.
I asked my husband Gabe to write today’s post in honor of all the fathers and father figures out there fighting the good fight….
Early on in my career as an educator and mentor, I saw how an alarming number of kids lacked confidence. Not the type of confidence that comes with the belief in their ability to succeed at a given task, but the type of fundamental confidence that is rooted in security.
It became clear how adolescents more than anything need to feel secure and safe, so that when challenges arise in their lives, (ie: family challenges, peer challenges, school challenges, financial challenges, and so on) they have an internal foundation of security they can pull from. The type of security that can allow their personal identity to gradually develop with a confidence in their own self worth. Now, as a father of girls, I see the experience I gained as a mentor and teacher to these young ladies with priceless value as I raise my own girls. Here are a few main actions I am practicing to positively instill self worth and confidence in my daughters….
Our family was able to head back to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge,TN for a mini family vacation a few weeks ago which was a prime time to visit! You may remember our last visit a few years ago, and you might have spotted the commercial we made there that aired in the midwest and southeast through this year. I wanted to share some of our favorite places to visit in this area that our kids loved, and you can watch the commercial our family made (with Dolly herself!).
