We lead a crazy life. With four kids under the age of six, we have a lot of hands to hold, songs to sing, butts to wipe, mouths to feed, and noses to clean. When we get your invitation to a Halloween party that doesn’t start until 7 p.m. or a Christmas cookie swap in the middle of our two year old’s nap time we have to politely decline.
How to Plan a Fun-Filled Family Vacation on a Budget
Family vacations offer a wonderful opportunity to relax with your kids as well as experience new adventures. Vacations are also a great way to learn about different cultures and bond with your children. Unfortunately, vacations can also be very expensive. But with a little flexibility and research, you can plan a fun-filled family vacation without busting your budget.
The autism diagnosis that set me free
As a parent, I never know if I’m doing a good job or not. And I won’t know until my kids grow up and leave the nest. For someone that suffers with anxiety and depression it can feel like so much pressure to try and do everything right. Did they eat enough vegetables? Am I teaching them the right things? Are they social? Did I let them watch too much television? Was I too hard on them? As a result, I constantly fear that what I do and say to my kids may or may not be “the right thing.”
We had a "fiver party" and you should too!
Our oldest celebrated his fifth birthday this month and we decided to throw him a “fiver party”. So what’s a fiver party? I’m so glad you asked. A fiver party is where you ask everyone that attends to bring $5 in lieu of a gift. The parents of the birthday child purchase one big gift in advance and all the money received goes towards one big gift chosen by the child.
Love me until I’m “me” again
How do you eat an elephant?
We kicked Murphy out of our lives - Best. Decision. Ever
We decided to kick Murphy out of our lives starting last year. Many of you know Murphy, right? Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong, it will.” We, like so many other people, were using credit cards to fund our emergencies and living paycheck to paycheck. I was tired of feeling like we could never get ahead. So in my infinite Googling on how I was going to make it through another financially stressful month I stumbled upon Dave Ramsey. From there, it was on!
Last night as a family of five
Why knowing your audience is important when planning menus
I had an event in early May for about 75 banking professionals. The age range of this group was broad from participants with their first job, to the more experienced professionals with 5-8 years of experience, to our seasoned instructors, some of the retirement age. In addition, the students came from Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. One participant traveled from as far away as Oklahoma. Having such a wide variety of age ranges and locations can make it difficult to please when it comes to food.
Mom-sense
My husband offered to sleep on the other side of the bed one night last week to allow me to get a more peaceful rest. This way, when the kids came into the bedroom in the middle of the night they would automatically go to the closer side of the bed and he would be there instead of me. I actually took him up on the offer. So off I went to dreamland… or so I thought.
Sometimes you don't realize that depression is stealing your joy
Navigating the early kindergarten registration process
I posted online a while back asking for advice from anyone that had gone through the process to admit their child early to kindergarten in North Carolina. I didn’t find anyone that had done it. In addition to that, as a whole, people are not excited about this idea at all and most of the advice was “don’t do it.”
On-Site Badge Printing... I'll never go back to pre-printed name badges (if I can help it)
I recently ran a large conference. The largest I’ve ever organized. There were just over 900 people in attendance. Because this conference was so large, we were afforded some flexibility with our funds to be able to properly support the conference. Of course, for me this meant getting fun toys! And fun toys meant technology! Not only did we have a conference app, but we were able to get on-site badge printing. Let me tell you, check-in has never been smoother.
We Made A... Hurricane Baby! (An "Ice Ice Baby" Pregnancy Parody)
We're pregnant again and this time Hurricane Florence is to blame (well, maybe we had a hand in this too). You obviously can't leave us alone for long. Yes... this will make 4 kids under 5. Yes... we know how this happened. But to celebrate and set the record straight we've made a video to the tune of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby".