Bread Crumbs

Happy Wednesday ya'll! I wanted to hop on here and share a quick review of the last book I read. It's a really wonderful and funny book. I think this year especially most parents can relate. Most parenting books I've read seem to have great advice, but it's not practical at all. It doesn't take in to account for strong-willed children or children that have emotions. They don't into account for real-life. This book is the complete opposite of that. It gives you all the real-life stuff we as parents deal with and some practical ideas that might help. The book comes out on December 8th and you can pre-order it here . "They have super-good leadership skills, aka they are belligerent a-holes." I knew after reading that line that this was going to be my type of book. I've read a variety of parenting books over the last eight years and this has been my favorite so far. It's filled with real-life, sometimes messy stories. It's filled with practical...

Front Closet Refresh This probably seems like a boring post, but I'm super excited about it. My front closet while great has just sorta bugged me since we moved in two years ago. I've tried to redo it so many times and nothing really worked. Thanks to the MOPS Magazine and an article on, "Aesthetics of Joy" it gave me a creative boost. The article is an interview of Ingrid Fetell Lee who created the website The Aesthetics of Joy . Ingrid gives some fun and creative ideas on how to add joy into your home. Follow along to find out what tip I used in my house! Before Let's get the ugly before picture done and over with. See ugly and boring. A little dirty looking with little to no storage. This is where our shoes, coats, and bookbags live. We also had board games at the top, but they were becoming too much so I moved some downstairs to the basement.  What I was wanting was a bright, fresh closet with ample storage. What I got was that and JOY! After First step was ne...

Today has been hard. Just hard. I'm exhausted and just need a normal routine down, but that doesn't seem possibly anytime soon. This is frustrating and heart-breaking all at the same time. I'm trying to be strong for my kids, but they are exhausting and just too much for me right now. I need them to go to regular in person school so I can have a break. Just a small break to recharge and have quiet for once in the last 6 months. I'm not the kind of mom cut out to be with her kids 24-7 or really anyone at all. I need space and just some time for me to breathe. The gym use to give me that, but lately it's just been so stressful even getting there that I'm not enjoying it as much. It's not filling my tank like it use too. It's making me sad that it can't seem to fill my tank. No amount of working out seems to be helping right.  I just want to go back to my life, not this alternative weird place I live in. I want to wake-up, send my kids to sc...

Today has been an awfully hard day for me and it started bright and early at midnight when my four-year old decided he was done sleeping for the night. After trying everything that normally works, I gave up. Gave him the TV, some food he wanted, and tried to fall back asleep on the couch. According to my Garmin I got some brief moments of sleep, but nothing restful. Between the bright light of the TV, my talkative son, and him jumping on me at random times it was terrible. Even laying around and having many cups of coffee, I was still unmotivated to move until almost 9am. Today is an off day for me, but it is something worse. My mental health is bad today. I have no interest in doing much of anything. I wish my children would go away and leave me alone. I am not even pushing my first grader to do any of her work because I do not care, and I cannot fake caring anymore. I wish I could fake it for and my kids longer, but I just cannot. Ohio has been under a stay-at-home order fo...

Hello it's me again. I have a quick post for you guys on something that I was struggling with last year: Closet Organization. This mostly focuses on the hall and bathroom closets. I also have some tips on under the sink organization. These areas have been a struggle for me the last few years and I now have a good system in place. Let me take you back to early 2018. We had decided that in the Spring that we were going to look at houses to see about moving. We had clearly outgrown our old house and no matter how much purging or organizing I did help. Fast forward to beginning of March and we randomly found our forever home way earlier than anticipated.  During this time, I started learning about minimalism. This was an amazing and awesome concept to someone who hates stuff just laying around. Stuff gives me anxiety, still does to this day. As I started packing, I started taking some of the minimalism ideas and using them before we got to our new house. Once we were settled...

This blog has been a long time coming, but I've entered a new phase of life where one kid is at school all day and another is gone two mornings of the week. I've been trying to figure out besides running and basic household stuff what to do with all this time! I'm gonna give this blog thing another shot. I miss writing and interacting with people a lot online. So if you are planning a trip to Maui soon or dreaming of one, I hope this helps you. A Guide to Maui with Kids I know what your probably thinking, "You took your kids to Maui why?" I get this question a lot. The main reason was we had a family wedding that we wanted to go to. Also, why not take your kids to Maui? It's a beautiful place with many things for families. I also love to travel with my kids and have them experience new places.  Basic information of our trip: Duration: 12 Days including travel Airline: United out of Cleveland with a connecting in San Francisco. Home was also U...

Bolthouse Farms may not be a name you're familiar with, but it should be if you use alternative dairy products. Established in 1915 when The Bolthouse family started farming carrots they have grown all the way to California's Central Valley. There belief is to make better soil health choices, which is why they use compost to better the soil. Bolthouse Farms also makes it a priority to reduce food waste by using all of the carrot. They also have a strong belief in renewable energy. Bolthouse Farms carries many products from beverages (cafe, fruit, milk, veggie, etc) to dressings and of course carrots. Bolthouse Farms Plant Protein Milk Bolthouse Farms is probably best known for their juices and salad dressing, but they just launched into plant protein milk this Fall. Unlike the other non-dairy milks this one is made of pea protein. It provides 50% more calcium than dairy milk with 10 grams of protein per serving. It's also vegan, non-gmo, and free of dairy, lactose, nuts...