Does your family struggle with eating healthy? Do your kids complain when you make or offer veggies for dinner? How can you get your kids to eat healthier? March is National Nutrition Month and an opportunity to get your family to eat healthy. Experts say it takes 21 days of the same activity to make it a habit. Spend the month of March eating healthy and you’ll be on the right track to living a healthier lifestyle as a family. There’s no question that it can be hard to eat healthy as a family. You’re inundated with commercials for fast food or frozen...
10 Signs You Know You’re Sleep Deprived
It’s been such a long week and I’m really tired. I’ve been walking around in a fog, forgetting things, and feeling like the easy tasks are taking longer than necessary. Lack of sleep can cause some really serious symptoms to your body that can result in serious side effects. Everything from headaches to moodiness and even weight gain. Depriving your body of good sleep too often can cause long term health problems. Sleep allows your body to repair itself so that all parts are working properly, or at least top performance. When you don’t get enough sleep, your overall quality...
5 Tips for Spending Quality Time with Your Child in a Busy Family
I recently read the book, The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively and discovered that one of my children’s love languages is quality time. With multiple children at home, it’s not always easy for parents to spend quality time with each child. Life is always moving fast and it seems like most of our time with our kids is about making sure they don’t fight, that everyone eats, homework is done, and everyone is happy. And when the kids outnumber the adults, it seems like its even harder to find some quiet time not only for...
Fairmont Mayakoba: Riviera Maya, Mexico
I feel like traveling. How about you? The Fairmont Mayakoba in Riviera Maya, Mexico sounds and looks like the perfect Mexico vacation. It was ranked by U.S. News as one of the Best Hotels in Mexico for 2017. As summer vacation planning takes place, I’m dreaming of a warm, tropical vacation where I can just relax, eat good food, and surround myself in luxury. Having been to the Riviera Maya once, I am hoping I can return again soon. I stayed at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya and had an amazing time. Mexico has a coastline of 10,000 km and offers more than 450 beaches overlooking...
Scream Free Parenting
Here I go again, reading another self-help book. This time the book is Scream Free Parenting: The Revolutionary Approach to Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool. The book had me at keeping your cool. With a teen and pre-teens in the house, I often and praying to keep my cool. One of my goals for this year is to catch up on some much needed reading. That much needed reading includes books that are on a plan to improve my parenting and communication skills. I bought this book a few years ago and started it but never finished it. Not because...
Should you have three kids?
Some of my friends are debating on whether to have three children or stick to two. As a mom of three, I have a lot of good stories to share and some pros and cons to having more than one or two. I’m a big advocate on more than one but if “one and done” is your cup of tea, that’s awesome. While three kids may seem a lot for some, it’s the perfect family size for us. We’ve had a lot of fun over the years and we stay busy. Now that the kids are ten, eleven, and fifteen, we’re...
5 Tips for Helping Kids Save Money
Teaching kids to save money is easy with some simple steps. Start them early and you’ll be sure to reinforce life long habits. Growing up, my parents always taught my brother and I to save our money. Saving money started first with collecting extra change and putting it in huge jar with our names on it. It was a family tradition. We would count all of our change and place friendly bets on who had saved the most. Afterwards, we would take our rolled up coins to the bank to exchange the coins for dollars. The first time I came home with...
5 Tips for Taking Family Photos
Tis the season! I love the holidays and I especially love the holiday card. This year I’m so excited to share our card. We did something totally different, took some photos of scenic Jacksonville! The downtown bridges make such a beautiful backdrop for photos. Each year we order our cards through Minted. I love the quality and the service. If you still have not ordered your cards, like me, no worries, you can use code SHIPNOW to get FREE rush shipping and have your cards delivered by 12/21!! There are so many great choices from Minted, you’ll find plenty to...
Recipe: Gluten Free Pumpkin Waffles With Candied Pecans
It’s pumpkin season. Oh, how I love pumpkin soup, pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin pancakes, and of course, pumpkin waffles. Pumpkin waffles are perfect this time of the year. The leaves are changing, the weather is cooling down. We’re all gearing up for holiday brunches and parties, family in town and everything that makes us love this time of the year. These pumpkin waffles remind me of everything fall. For this recipe, I used gluten free Kodiak Cakes mix so that the whole family could enjoy the waffles. (My youngest son has a wheat allergy.) However, if you don’t want to...
Our Prematurity Story: An Unexplained Miracle
Giving birth is supposed to be a happy occasion. You deliver a baby, people send flowers, you receive visitors, then you go home with your baby in a carefully selected outfit. Today you may document the moment on Facebook live or with tons of photos on Instagram for friends and followers to see. Twelve years ago, my daughter’s birth story was an intimate and private moment that was one of the saddest and scariest of my life. I went into labor November 17th, six weeks before her due date and coincidentally the same day as World Prematurity Day. My pregnancy was not the easiest...