What not to Google

Last week my husband and I were just sitting on the couch talking and he asked me if I knew what those little hanging balls were inside of your throat. Not the uvula that hangs down at the back, but the balls inside your throat.  He had just had a scope because he was having some health issues and while the doctor was telling him all these things, he couldn't remember what that particular piece of anatomy was.

I didn't know either so I told him I wasn't sure.

He responded with "that's too bad because I was going to Google it but I didn't think "googling" balls in your throat would get me the results I was looking for."

I posted our little quip on Facebook because we are hilarious that's why. And the responses from my friends on what not to Google was hilarious.  I am sharing a few of those today and hope that you have some that you can add too because we could all use a good laugh. Plus also we are helping the fellow man from seeing things they cannot un-see on the interwebs. It's like a public service really. 

So here we go.  What not to Google...

The Honda Odyssey mini van review

I am not one of those moms who thinks she's too cool for a mini van. I've owned a mini van for nearly two decades and I am unapologetic about it. I love my mini van. I even wrote a little love note to my mini van.

It's practical and to be honest, I don't think my three kids could have survived childhood had they all had to be squeezed in together in a backseat row. And now as they are getting bigger with gangly legs and big feet we need the room that a mini van provides.  I've tried to pretend that we don't. I've tried out sporty sedans and cute SUV's in hopes that maybe just maybe I could break free from the chains of a mini but I just can't. I am a die hard and will be a die hard until my dying day!

Heck, how else am I supposed to load up all of my garage sale treasures every weekend if I didn't have a mini van? And as we prepare to launch our oldest son off to college in the fall, I can see vans full of college crap loaded up for years to come as our kids trickle out of the house.

After I tried out {and loved} the Kia Sedona  I begged to try the 2016 Honda Odyssey. In my head, it's been the most logical replacement for our current 2005 Honda Odyssey that is lacking all of the bells and whistles {and vacuums} that the newer version has. And so, for a week, I gave the Odyssey a try to see what I would think of the much more sophisticated updated version of my current van that I am driving would be like.  

You might be surprised to see what I thought. And as always, my 17 year old son is writing the nuts and bolts review to let you know what he thought.

A letter to the guy who smashed my car window and stole my purse

I feel like I need to give a little background to this post. A few weeks ago, I was parked in the evening in a Starbucks parking lot working on my blog. I had worked all day at the middle school at my other job as a substitute teacher.  So while my daughter was at cheer practice, I took the opportunity to get some of the work on the blog done that I had neglected that day.  I had Pandora pumping on my phone and was sipping on some decaf tea and was generally enjoying my evening.
This evening at Starbucks had become a sort of tradition on the two days a week that my daughter had cheer. I was getting to know the baristas and I had my refillable drink order down. In fact, one of the baristas had just offered me a snack platter for free {my favorite price!} since it was nearing it's expiration and had to be tossed out that night.  All was well with my world.
As I prepared to depart the Starbucks at their 8 pm closing time, I thanked the baristas and wished them well, before heading into the dark rainy night to retrieve my daughter from cheer practice. When I got to my car, my feet crunched on the ground. I climbed into the front seat and realized that something wasn't right. There was wind and rain rushing in from behind me and I turned around to see that my back car window had been smashed in and my car had been riffled through. My purse, that I had tucked under my middle console, had been taken, a bag full of DVD's that we had borrowed from a friend that I was on my way to return to them, were missing and the backpack that I had bought from Target on clearance and planned to craft on for an upcoming craft bazaar had been snatched from the front seat.  
In hindsight, it was the perfect car for a car prowl and the thieves hit the jackpot.  I wrote a little letter to the thief to let them know some of my thoughts.

Gift ideas for those that are hard to shop for plus a giveaway!

We all fall into the trap of having someone near and dear to us on our Christmas gift list that we just aren't sure what to buy for them. Instead of getting sucked into the trap of just buying something to buy for them, I've rounded up a few gift ideas for those hard to shop for friends and family.

How to survive when you hand your keys over to your teen driver

We did it. We survived teaching and driving with a 15 year old.  Our oldest son Aidan was dying to drive for years and as a parent who has navigated the waters, we get asked often what some of our best tips are.
I won't say that we have all of the answers, but we do have some experience. These are a few of the ways that we survived teaching our son to drive.

Put the screen down: How to unplug your plugged in family

This post has been rattling around in my mind for the better part of a year. I have felt convicted and then felt judgey.  I have felt all the feels and so I always went back to just not writing it, but here I am again, revisiting this because a Facebook friend inspired me with this post she wrote on her personal page this morning.

"We showed up early for an appointment yesterday. Another family was in the same room. The boy, about 8, on his DS. Each parent on their phones. To kill time, I taught the Ewok how to make a "cootie catcher" and we spent 20 minutes counting, spelling, reading "you get to vacuum your room!", "You are smart!", "You are a good friend" etc. Mainly we laughed. He kept looking over at the other family, trying to catch their eyes and engage them. None of them looked up, at him or each other.

I wanted to tell them to come out here with us. Be curious. Engage. Have fun. But I also know that if we had a kid that could have screens, we could've been them, at that moment."

This. It was this. I will say that I tend to fall in the camp of the more conservative when it comes to screen time. I have a background in child development and I truly believe that children learn what they live.

Special mornings at our house come from a can and some other confessions

There is nothing better than long lazy mornings sipping coffee, sitting in front of the fireplace and enjoying good company. We don't host a lot of out of town guests, mostly because right now, all of our beds and rooms are filled with actual people that reside in our home full time, but on the occasions that we do host friends or family, we like to make our time with them special.  

Fall is here and before you know it, winter will be upon us. Imagine yourself wrapped in your favorite blanket with a warm mug of something yummy sitting in front of the fire with the smells of breakfast wafting through the house. But before you get all comfortable, let me rewind a bit. I have a few confessions.
Confession one. I'm not a morning person. Sure, I wake up early and head to the gym most days but I can't seem to utter a single word until I've been up for at least a few hours.  My brain just doesn't seem to form coherent sentences before the sun is up.   Confession two. My husband and I wish that we were more hospitable people, but as much as we try, we just aren't. We are extroverted introverts and we like our space and our time and our routine. We've even taken one of those personality quizzes and hospitality was so low on both of our lists that it barely registered! I stress out like it's nobody's business when I am hosting something or someone at my house. I set this unbelievably high standard that is so hard to attain, especially with three kids living in my house {they still make messes faster than I can clean them up and they are so far from the toddler years, I didn't think that was possible!}, that I just don't get excited about hosting. I wish it was easy for me, but we all have our gifts.  So all that said, if you are invited to be a guest in my home, it's because we love you so much that the stress and change in our routine is worth it. Next year, all I can think about is how my oldest son will be like a guest in our home when he comes home for the holidays from college. I'm getting all nostalgic about the time that we have with him but I'm not kidding myself that the dynamics in our family are going to change when we launch a kiddo off to college next fall. Don't get me wrong, our home is still his home, but being independent changes you.  So why am I getting all sappy and making confessions?  Well...it's because through the years, I have learned a few things. 
I have learned that I won't get up at 5 am to make my guests a homemade Martha Stewart breakfast spread, even though I wish that I could totally pull it off. I've tried and trust me, no one wants me to start my day like that. 
One Christmas when my parents were visiting I found this recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls that took me four hours to make. FOUR HOURS! Hours I won't get back to spend with the people who I love and who I would have rather spent time with than four hours {can you tell I'm bitter!} in the kitchen. And you know what all of my kids said when we dug into those cinnamon rolls that morning? They thought they were OK but they wanted to know what happened to our "normal" cinnamon rolls.  

OK, last confession.  Want to know what those "normal" cinnamon rolls were? They were Pillsbury™  Grands! Cinnamon Rolls right out of the refrigerated section. They take me two minutes to put in a pan and twenty five minutes to cook. And you know what? We all like them better than the ones that I made from scratch that took me four long grueling hours to make. 
I love how the house smells all warm and cozy with the Pillsbury™ Grands! Cinnamon Rolls cooking. It's like the official mark of the holidays, without all of the work that goes into making rolls from scratch. It's really a win win. I get to spend more time with the people I love, and less time in the kitchen and everyone gets to enjoy the special treat. 
This time of year, I always have a can of Pillsbury ™ Grands! Cinnamon Rolls in my fridge for those rare weekends when there is nothing on the schedule and we are enjoying a long lazy morning at home just our family. Our time as a family of five at home like we know it is nearing an end, so I want to make those moments special when I can. If I'm expecting guests, Pillsbury™ Grands!  Cinnamon Rolls always make my grocery list because nothing says good morning to your guests like waking up with hot cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven.

The best part? I save hours. I get to sit back, release the unrealistically high Pinterest-perfect standards and actually enjoy my guests. We can actually curl up by the fire and enjoy a long lazy morning. Lazy is the key here because all I had to do was pop open a can! There is nothing more perfect than that. Disclosure: This post was sponsored by General Mills through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Pillsbury™ Grands! Cinnamon Rolls, all opinions are my own.

I am thankful for...a free printable paper chain

I'm a sucker for a beautifully set table.  Though I have a confession. This is the first time I've taken out my great aunt's silver since I've had it and I only have one of these place settings, though I do love this pattern on the plate don't you? I also don't have enough matching glasses for our whole family. Hostess extraordinaire I am not!

Though if I could, I would set the dining room table like this and leave it. But right now it looks silly with only one place set. I digress...

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to set a fancy table complete with napkin rings. I love taking the time to reflect on the things that we are thankful for. I created a free printable for you that can double as a napkin ring for your fancy table and that can later on be made into a paper chain to display all of the things that you and your family are thankful for.

How we budget for the holidays

The date never changes. I think I knew that Christmas was on December 25, long before I knew what day my birthday was on. And yet, every year, I hear that the holiday sneaks up on some people and they are left wondering how they are going to make those gift lists that their children create a reality.

We do our very best to not make Christmas about the presents or the gift lists. Our children have everything that they need. We are beyond grateful to have a roof over our heads, a warm bed to sleep in, food that fills the pantry and clean water that comes out of the tap.

As parents, we decided very early on {out of necessity mostly} that we wouldn't indulge our children's every want. We don't buy new toys at the store, heck, we rarely buy any new books {thank you library!}. The kids never beg for candy or gum in the grocery aisle because they know they won't get it.

Because we exercise restraint most of the year, we do like to have our children receive at least one item that we know they really want at Christmas.

I've been asked multiple times throughout the years, how we stick to a budget for the holidays. Well, I'm spilling our secrets!



Several weeks ago, I wrote a post about the benefits of buying used gifts for Christmas. I shared with you that we budget $50 for each of our kids' gifts for Christmas.  This is far below the national average and we are totally o.k. with that.

This budget allows us to be more generous in other areas of our life. We are able to give to those in need, not just to those in want.

So, the million dollar question is, where does our money for Christmas spending come from? Well, my friends, just yesterday, we requested to cash out our Chase rewards card and by early next week a shiny new check will be in our mailbox earmarked for Christmas spending.
When we use our Chase card {it's the only one we use}, we receive points on every purchase and those points then can be redeemed for cash. Well, other stuff too like travel, experiences, merchandise and gift cards, but we almost always choose cash.  Because cash. Duh. 
After I deposit that shiny new check, I will be buying things with the money I deposited  and I will be collecting more points. The glorious cycle continues! 

I'm stretching my dollar and saving money all at the same time! {cue hallelujah chorus}

Your first step in budgeting for the holidays is to know how much you want to spend on each person and do your best to stick to that limit. I have talked to friends who don't do this and start buying from their children's wish list instead. Before they know it, they have hundreds of dollars worth of gifts set aside for their children who already have shelves full of toys and electronics.

If you buy family gifts {for your parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents}, try to set a limit for that as well. I try to shop all year long in anticipation of Christmas and buy gifts for friends and family members when they are deeply discounted.

The key is knowing your number and doing your best to be creative to stay in that budget.
Once you start buying gifts, keep track of what you bought and your spending. Because I shop all year long, sometimes I forget about the toy I set aside for my 10 year old that I picked up on major clearance in January. I take inventory of those items before I do any major shopping.

Finally, allow yourselves to be generous. I would much rather give to someone who really needed, rather than just to someone who wanted, however, there is joy in giving regardless.

Our family has two children through child sponsorship with World Vision living in Uganda. I've seen the needs in that area and I know those children can benefit from the savings I create from sticking to our budget. They have basic needs that aren't always being met. Because we are able to stretch our dollar, shop smart and use our credit card to get rewards on anything we want, we can be generous to the real needs of those living on the other side of the world!

There is no magic budget solution, but there is a magic card that will allow you to put money back into your pocket when you spend all year round. I would love to hear your tips on how you budget for the holidays.

7 Tips for How to Take Your Own Family Christmas Pictures for a Photo Christmas Card

It's closing in on my favorite time of the year...Christmas card season! I love love love Christmas, but my favorite part by far is the steady influx of Christmas cards in my mailbox. It usually starts on the first day of December {some loyal college friends are known for being card number one every.single.year} and it lasts until the start of the new year.

As a family, we get excited to get those cards.  We pray over every one of them at the dinner table, we use their Christmas letters {and Facebook} to fill in the details of that family’s life over the past year, and we proudly display those cards on our walls and on our mantels. The kids anxiously fight over who gets the mail and they tear into the envelopes with reckless abandon. We then pray over the cards we receive that day at the dinner table and we usually share a story or a detail or two about that family before we proudly display those cards on our walls or on our mantel.

Because I so very much cherish every single one of the cards from friends and family near and far, I take great care in making sure I send out a Christmas card that is one to cherish. 

I don't know when the switch happened but it did. When we were first married a zillion years ago, I would go to the store and pick up a few boxes of those stock Christmas cards. I would write a personal message inside each one and we would include our family Christmas letter.  About ten years ago though things started to change. At first we just got a few photo cards at Christmas, and then it was more like half and half and then last year, BAM! Getting a card with no photo was a rarity.

Ten years ago, I sent out our first family photo card. Our youngest son was a newborn and we dressed up our two other kids to look like Mary and Joseph. How adorably cute are they?! That first picture started a new tradition.  My husband would be in charge of writing the Christmas letter {ours doesn't suck} and I would take on the task of getting a photo for the Christmas card.

Some years it was a no brainer. There were a few years that we had professional photos taken, so I included those images, but professional photos are expensive, and well, I just didn't have it in the budget to hire a photographer every year.  But I loved the look of a professional photo.

About three years ago, I got smart. Perhaps I'm the only one that hadn't had the ah ha moment yet, but I thought, we have a camera and that camera has a self timer, lets just go to the park and take a family picture. 

There was no scheduled day or time. No hoping that the weather would cooperate on the day that we had scheduled, no long drawn out posing session with a stranger.  We set our own day and made up our own time. We showed up. And you know what? It's worked out great for us.  So I have a few tips for you in case you want to try taking your own family pictures for your Christmas card.

Trying out the 2016 Kia Sedona mini van my thoughts for review

In case you are new here,  for the past few months, I have been preemptively test driving new cars in an effort to be prepared to make a selection when my current 2004 Honda Odyssey mini van bites the dust.  I love Thelma {the name of our mini van} and have never been one of those people that has been staunchly against driving a "swagger wagon".  

However, my three kids are no longer lined up in car seats in the back, so I have been opening up the options for consideration.  I tried out the Mitsubishi Outlander {an SUV crossover} and while the sound system was amazing, the practicality of driving all five of us in this car at once wasn't realistic. My son and I road tripped to Walla Walla in the Mazda 6 and while it was the perfect car for a road trip for just the two of us, I just couldn't see my three kids sitting thigh to thigh in the back seat.

The benefit of trying out all kinds of different cars is that I am able to try out all kinds of different new features.  My 2004, though it's the high end model, can't really compete with the features of cars today. I've learned that I love adaptive cruise control and the blind spot detector, though I could totally do without the lane departure warnings.  

During my time with the Sedona, I took the kids to the local pumpkin patch and drove a team of six missionaries from all over the globe {the Russian's weren't as impressed with the Sedona's camera system as the American's were!} to Seattle to be a tourist for the day.

The 5 love languages for dogs

I'm a dog lover. I know there are cat people and dog people in this world. I am a dog person. Our golden retriever Sophie came into our lives almost five years ago. We adopted her as a 12 week old puppy the week after we moved into our new home. Our kids were all switching schools mid year and we all had to make the transition to a new home and to a new town. I had no idea how much it would help to have Sophie as an ice breaker.

We moved less than a mile from the elementary school, so when classes resumed after the Christmas break holiday, the kids and I started walking to school. People stopped to ooh and ahh over how darn cute she was, and we had a chance to meet so many new friends because of her.

Sophie continues to make friends everywhere she goes because of her constant smile and her sweet personality. She is such a treasured loyal companion to all of us which is why we like to do what we can as her dog family to speak her love language.

Back a zillion years ago when my husband and I were first married, we did a book study by Gary Chapman together called The 5 Love Languages.  It was a fantastic book for us as newlyweds.  One I have referenced many times in our nearly two decades of marriage. The author went on to write a book that looked at the 5 love languages as they relate to children. 

We all know how our sweet fur babies become like one of our children {though Sophie keeps me up far less and is the most low maintenance of all the ladies in our home} so I thought I would write a spin off myself and create the 5 love languages for dogs.

It's my birthday! 30 things I learned in my 30's

It's my birthday today! I'm 37 and am happy to enter into my late 30's. I've actually really loved being 30. I spent my 20's having babies and generally making the sacrifices that come with parenting young children. I feel like once I hit my 30's I finally had time to focus on me and start figuring out who I really am. 

Today, I'm sharing with you 30 things that I have learned in my 30's.

Road trip in the 2016 Mazda 6

I'm a proud mini van driving mama but our current mini van is nearing it's end of days with nearly 150,000 miles and at the ripe old age of 12 years old.  
I like to joke that large money decisions usually take my husband 1 month for every $1,000 that is involved.  It took us three years to replace our last mini van {yep, my previous ride was a mini van we called the pickle because of it's awesome 90's hunter green color.  Be jealous.}.  Sadly, I'm anticipating the same long process as we prepare to replace my current van and since technology has quickly progressed and there are so many new features on cars {holy cow it's like The Jetson's!  I had no idea you could start a car with a push button!} I've started test driving cars to find out what features are important to me and deciding if now that my kids are all car seat free if my options have opened to allow for an SUV or a sedan. You can read our review from last month of the Mitsubishi Outlander here.
This month, my oldest son Aidan and I test drove a 2016 Mazda 6 {zoom zoom} on a road trip {what better way to break in a car than on a road trip!} to Walla Walla, Washington for The Gentleman of the Road music festival {Foofighters and Mumford and Sons...the perfect mother/son bonding!}.

Because I care less about the nitty gritty of how a car works and more on how easy a car is to drive, Aidan will be writing up his thoughts on the cars features. I will be giving my two cents on what I loved and what I didn't love about this classy sedan after driving it for a week so that you can use our insights in case you find yourself car shopping.  

Top 5 reasons why you should volunteer as a family and ideas on where to start

There's a quote that I heard when I was early on in this parenting gig that says "more is caught than taught" and I think that is true of so many things. Most importantly, I think being a good example for our kids when it comes to how we spend our time is a great model to our children of what is most important to us.

We all have the same amount of time in a day.  The most important decision you make is what you choose to do with your time.

My husband and I think it's so very important to model and engage our children in volunteering in our community and here are five reasons why and some tips on how you can get your whole family involved in helping in the community.

Anything but basic {but oh so easy!} turkey cranberry and swiss panini

We have a few more weeks to soak up every last bit of summer and then the long warm days are going to start to be filled with short crisp falls afternoons, homework and, oh yes, a return to the classroom.

I started substitute teaching last year in my kids school district and I love it.  But that means, not only am I packing the kids lunches, I am usually packing mine as well!  I do live fairly close to the school so some afternoons I come home, let the dog out and eat lunch in silence.  Regardless, I need to start thinking of some back to school lunch ideas for myself.

Not one to procrastinate, I wanted to start coming up with some yummy sandwich ideas that I could pack for lunch before life got overwhelmingly busy again!  I whipped up this anything but basic {but oh so easy!} turkey, cranberry and swiss panini.  I can make it in less than 5 minutes and either reheat it at school, or enjoy it warm and toasty straight from my panini maker at home.

Gifts to make for Mother's day {no macaroni included!}

Mother's day is the perfect day to sit down with your kids and make something for their Grandma or Nana. I love to get and give handmade gifts, so I put together a collection of my favorite Mother's day handmade gifts to give and I have divided them into easy to find categories with links directly to their tutorials.

Improve your child's reading skills and self confidence

I have always loved reading.  One summer as a young teenager, I picked up a hammock at a garage sale for a few dollars, recruited help from one of the toddlers that I babysat and cleared out a spot between two trees in my backyard and spent my summer reading The Babysitters Club book series.

Once I had children of my own, that love of reading continued and some of the best memories I have of my three kids are of them on my lap reading book after book after book before naptime.

We have always had a house full of books {thank you local library!} and a never ending supply of reading material. I'm thankful that all of my children love reading and almost always have a good book or two that they are knee deep into.

Great new tween girl show

Life was easier when my kids all liked watching the same TV show. Arthur on PBS was quite captivating to all three of them far longer than my older son {who is now 16} would probably like to admit.  We were a one TV family, and haven't had cable for decades {though we do have Netflix streaming now and absolutely love it!}.  You can check out this post on how we are able to survive life without cable. My husband and I are quite strict about television viewing {garbage in, garbage out} and we do our best to monitor our children's TV watching.  Netflix streaming makes this really easy with custom profiles for each member of the family.  Plus, sometimes the kids watch a show that we hadn't discussed and Netflix does a great job of ratting them out with their recently watched episodes! My tween daughter Isabella has recently stared venturing out of the public broadcast shows and has been looking for a series that will keep her interest.  There are lots of shows out there, but my husband and I like the ones that are clean and don't have story lines that deal with more mature content than we are ready for just yet!

Isabella recently discovered Mako Mermaids.  A second season of this Netflix original series was just released a few weeks ago.  Isabella has been watching episode after episode and the series has captivated her attention.  But don't take my word for it!  Let me take a second to introduce to you my daughter Isabella with her review.

Popcorn snack mix

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Universal Pictures, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #BoxtrollsFamilyNite http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV
One of our family's favorite things to do during our long wet winter is to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie together.  It's the only time the kids are able to eat in the living room and they take full advantage of it!
The Boxtrolls was just released so while I was out shopping at WalMart , I picked up the DVD {while supplies last!} and got some goodies to create the perfect family movie night.