Sweeping Through Life

I just love Halloween. The idea of being someone else for 24 hours, eating all the candy you want without judgement and decorating the house in creepy things is always fun. What I really like about Halloween, it is the official kick off to the holiday season. Not only can you shop for all of the Trick or Treat items you need but you can also pick out your stuffed turkey for Thanksgiving and your new Christmas decorations. You also watch a horror movie and then flip to another channel and watch a Christmas movie. No really, I love the holidays but I want to enjoy one holiday at a time. Yes, I have been on Pintrest gathering all of my intel for Thanksgiving and Christmas decor and watching a few of the Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel,  for the most part I have not been mashing all the holidays together.  Mashing all of the holidays together, just speeds up the ending of the year.  I want to enjoy being with family, baking cookies with my daughter, decorating the ...

Well.... lets start off with that my husband hates taking pictures, but I love them. I have had some photos done for my daughter but none of our family since she was 2 and I thought it was time. I wanted something that we could use for our Christmas card as well as chronicle that my little one is now 5. I really do not like the Olan Mills look of pics and really enjoy photos that reflect more of us a individuals and as a family. To prepare for the shoot I found two chalkboard signs at Target in the Dollar Spot and used a chalk pen and wrote our name on one and Merry Christmas on the other to use a props. I also found these cute t-shirts that we wore as well.   Of course, my daughter and I had the same shoes one. I think they turned out great and I can not wait to start creating our Christmas card. Thanks Jesssica Bouman Photography for the get pics. Here are just a few..... After the photo session, we went  our to dinner enjoyed some good food and ...

Have you started dreaming about the holidays? Of course the kids have, but have you thought about what you want this season to be. I love this time of year and I get so excited for whats to come. I love the decorate and every year for either Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas I look for something new to add to my decor. I have started looking on Pintrest to for ideas. It's a shame, but some of the stores in my area have already put the Christmas lights and trees in one aisle and all the fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations in another aisle. My wheels are turning on thinking on what I want to add. I am always looking for a deal or what I can make. I am trying to put a plan in place on how to execute this master plan of mine. I cannot wait to share what I come up with. Do you enjoy the holidays? What do you do for your home?

 On this past Saturday, my little one and I went to the 2017 National Girl Scout conference. When I say wow, I mean it. There was so much to do and see.  I was happy to see all the girls there, from  different cities and races that only cared about nothing else but that the other girl was a Girl Scout and how patches she had. It gave me a chance to really see what Girl Scouts is really all about especially now that the Miss G is a Daisy. We explored all that there was to offer from the S.T.E.M programs that they had to all ages to participate in. There was also a service project that all the attendees could help with from stuff hygiene bags to writing  a cheerful note for the families at the YMCA family center. Miss G was so excited and could not wait to go from thing to thing. She enjoyed spending time at the NASA and the COSI exhibits and interacting with all of the science experiments and technology present that she could work on. Including all...

As mom's we want our children to have all the experiences they can have in life. Exploring those activities also involves moms being the taxi, the banker and snack machine for them. Not only are we wanting them to explore the activities, we also explore them by participating in the activity, socializing with the other parents or providing the snacks for the team. I really do not think that is the intent of the activity. I know that children need parent involvement, but sometimes it is too much, between work and home. To be honest, at times I want to be that parent who drops the kid off  at the activity and sometimes socializes with the other parents but gets to enjoy 45 minutes of "me" time. At times, that 45 minutes is needed  to refresh especially with the 50 minutes of prep time used to get to the activity. I have thought about limiting the number of activities she participated in, but I have also thought with doing that, that I was limiting her.  I do not want to ...

I am excited about fall. Besides the fact that it means that my favorite holiday, Christmas, is not to far away, there is so much to do during the fall season. I look forward to going apple picking, drinking apple cider, carving pumpkins, bonfires, football and bike rides and hikes with all of the beautiful fall colors. The coolness of the weather is great for exploring outside or leaving the windows open for a cool breeze to sleep to. It is great for  nice fluffy blankets and cool leather jackets. I love Autumn for the change in the season and for daylight savings time. I look forward to fall for the all the holidays off from work and all of the cardigans I love to wear. Autumn is for wearing crazy socks and fashionable hats. Autumn is for a refreshing of the home in preparation of welcoming of family and friends for gathering and celebrating football, food and thankfulness. It seems like such a busy time of year,, and it is, but I look forward to every moment of it. Do have any...