I’ve always been a huge fan of letting my kids make their own school lunches.  I think it teaches them independence, and gives them a little more control about what they are bringing to school to eat.

When they were younger the kids would select a lot of ‘grab and go’ type foods, more like a collection of snacks than an actual lunch, but now that they are older, they are interested in bringing more ‘lunch like’ meals in their lunchboxes.

So I recently set up a sandwich making station to make it easier for them to find everything they need (and not tear up my fridge or kitchen drawers looking for everything.)

They say there are only two sure things in life: Death and Taxes, but I disagree.  In our house there are at least two more sure things: Love and Laundry.

If you have children in your household, you know the struggle that is laundry day.  It seems as though once you get through one load of laundry, the next is already sitting there waiting to be washed. In our house, the clean clothes don’t make it out of the laundry basket, let alone put away properly.

If I had a penny for every time someone has asked me "How do you do it?" well.. I would have a lot of pennies. People, especially other moms of young kids, always want to know where I find time to run a blog, remodel my house, and decorate for every holiday.

And the truth is that it has taken me a lot of trial and error to find the right balance.. and it is still a work-in-progress. As the kids grow up and their needs change, so does the way I deal with balancing home improvement, craft projects, my blog and my family. But over the five+ years I've written this blog, I have learned a lot of tricks for finding where the balance lies, what works and what doesn't (at least for me) and by now I'm acutely aware of the pitfalls to watch out for.

If you have children at home and just can't figure out how to get any crafting, decorating or DIY projects done I want to share some advice with you. Since you don't need to put off DIY projects until your kids are "older." You may not be as efficient as someone without little ones under foot, but you still *CAN* accomplish a lot, with these strategies.




5 Do's and Don'ts for Balancing Family and DIY'ing

Every spring since I first started blogging I have written a reflective mother’s day post.  It is the one day where I reflect on my role as a mother and I think about all the other mothers in my life.  What I have learned from them, why I admire them, and how they have changed me.

Every year the subject is slightly different (from advice to new moms to the difference between working parenthood and staying at home) but the SPIRIT of the posts is always the same: Being a mom is amazing.  Challenging, heartbreaking, frustrating and even infuriating.. but also AMAZING.

So, once again this year, the blogosphere is all aflutter with this whole “Word Of The Year” thing. This is where you choose a word which symbolizes your goals and hopes for the coming year.  Sort of an alternative to a resolution.. a yearly motto.

Now this is not to be confused with the Oxford Dictonary’s Word of the Year, which was recently selected at the end of 2014. Every year the dictionary people choose a word or phrase that has gained popularity and become more common in public usage over the past 12 months.  They aren't the same words of the year.

You will understand why you don’t want to mix these two up when I tell you the Oxford folks chose “Vape” as their 2014 word of the year. As much as I’m sure “quitting smoking” makes quite a few resolution lists every year.. I can’t imagine the type of person who would choose “Vape” as their annual mantra.
Well.. maybe I can...

image source

Merry Christmas!  I know it is Christmas Eve, but I wanted to give you a quick update on all the charitable projects I’ve been working on.

This past weekend I finally installed the silver and gold Christmas tree for the Christmas in the Community campaign. I posted about the tree earlier, and the install was a wonderful experience. 
On behalf of ChristmasTreeMarket.com I donated the tree to the Mary Isaak Center, a shelter for homeless children and their families.  You can visit the COTS' website to learn more about the program and the people they serve.

image courtesy of COTS

So for today's Flashback Friday post, I thought I would share a bit of advice as an ‘experienced’ mom who has gotten through the baby stages three times and lived to tell about it.

This isn’t going to be a preachy “spare the rod, spoil the child” open-letter kind of advice post, since I hate those.  Instead I want to share ONE thing I learned about motherhood after my first child was about two years old, and it has changed my perspective about EVERYTHING.

Ready?  Here it is:

January was a whirlwind month for me.  I am going to do a round up of all my projects at the end of this post.. so if you are looking for projects, feel free to scroll on down.  But first I wanted to take a little time to write about some things that have been weighing on me lately.

There is a lot of noise in my life that detracts from the joy of blogging. Each new person I follow on Twitter or Instagram, each blog that I add to my reader, deflects my attention from what is already there. We live in a society where more is better. Where more subscribers makes you a more successful blogger and more Facebook fans makes you more influential.

But we know the numbers are not the whole truth - even if the social media marketers and brand sponsors try to convince us otherwise.

Heather Lynne from Raising Memories really struck a nerve with me when she re-focused her blog and re-prioritized her blogging career. She wanted to limit the amount of time she was spending on her blog vs. spending with her family... and I definitely understand that. Ultimately, Heather Lynne didn't feel successful, and decided to completely step away from her blog for the month of February.  (A move I completely understand and respect. I applaud her for doing it, since it is quite courageous to do so.)  She took drastic action in hopes of getting a dramatic result and I truly hope that it works for her and she can come back to find the right balance.

I have begun to find that my blog is defining me.  I look at the world though the lens of my blog.. "Wow! That would be a great project for the blog" or "This recipe is really good, I wonder if I should blog about it.."  I see something cool and immediately take a photo for instagram, or tweet about it.  People are now immediately associating me with my blog.  My friends and family are constantly giving me ideas, and I love to share my successes with them.

But when is it all too much?  When do you start losing who you are and start being nothing but "that blogger"? That is a hard line to define sometimes, which is why I am in awe of Heather Lynne and  her ability to pull the plug and step away.  I feel like if I did that, I would be missing an actual piece of myself.  But I do think I need to work on my moderation.  I know like I am constantly saying that (and have been since 2010) but I still haven't gotten a handle on it.

Which leads me to: