Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 21

Weekend reading: July 4, 2015

From Instagram: Summer on a plate! {Are you a fan of tomato & cheese sandwiches?!}

Happy 4th of July! (And happy belated Canada Day to all of our Canadian readers!)

I’ve always said that Independence Day is my favorite holiday because it’s the one that comes with lots of food and fun but without the family pressures of other holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving) or the solemnity of others (Memorial Day). It’s just about celebrating!

We’re in North Carolina (again!) at my parent’s house. and their neighborhood is having a massive block party here in their cul-de-sac. The girls are beyond excited to enjoy water games and a bike parades and fireworks with their friends.

What I’m reading: Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates and How to Use a Runaway Truck Ramp by Shaun and Maile Smucker

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

On loving our kids

Inside Out Can Help Parents Avoid This Big Mistake | Crosswalk
Did I Love You Enough Today? | When At Home
8 Things Our Teenagers Want Us to Know About Them | From Dates to Diapers

When your perspective changes

Racism Begins – And Ends – In The Home: Why I’m Speaking Up Now | The Happiest Home
How wide is your circle? | Alysa Bajenaru

The power of play

Let the Kids Learn Through Play | The New York Times
The Unsafe Child: Less Outdoor Play is Causing More Harm than Good | Children & Nature Network
Let Kids Run Wild, Build Forts, and Pick Flowers. Nature Can Take It. | Slate

Have a great weekend!

Weekend reading: July 4, 2015

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Related posts:
Weekend reading: August 16, 2014
Weekend reading: September 13, 2014
Weekend reading: November 22, 2014
Weekend reading: April 25, 2015



     

How we’re using spiral notebooks to simplify

I’ve shared this a few times on Instagram and Facebook already, but it’s made such a big difference to our family that I can’t help but give it its own blog post. You should know that this is not an original idea of mine, though; I’m really just passing it along!

A few months ago, Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things shared that their family has been using spiral notebooks for handwritten, daily checklists for each of the kids. At the time, I’m sorry to admit, I scoffed at the idea. Who has time for that? And besides, our printed checklists were working just fine.

Except they weren’t really.

We ran into a few problems again and again with printed checklists:

1) They’re too inflexible. You make them once and keep printing them over and over again, but no week is the same as the next. We tried a few different methods to combat this (like using Days 1-4 in a week rather than labeling the days, to give us one day off as needed), but it just didn’t work.

2) You can’t anticipate the needs at the end of the week before it’s even started. I’d try to look at our calendar and schedule chores and assignments based on what we had on the calendar, but something would inevitably change…an appointment or playdate, an extra chore that needed done, etc.

3) It’s too easy to overload kids with a printed checklist. The type is so small and you have a whole page, so why not fill it up? How else will you fit everything in? A written checklist lets me look at each day realistically and plan out assignments. If it’s too light one day, I know I can add more the next day. If something doesn’t get done, it’s easy to carry it over. And so on.

As Sarah promised, I love using spiral notebooks not only because of the flexibility it gives us and the hands-on touch each day, but also because it makes it easy for us to keep everything together. We use ours for daily checklists as well as for packing lists when we travel, time sheets for their “jobs” around the house, and book lists. We don’t tear pages out (except when someone does their copywork or writing assignment in one by accident), which means I can flip back to remember what previous days have looked like. After realizing I’d left science (a new “formal” topic for us) off the list a few days in a row, I just recently added a master to-do list to each notebook as well so that I can look back at it to make sure we’re covering everything over time.

And, because we have one daughter who tries to cut corners—a character issue we’re working to address—the rule is that everybody has to get their checklist signed by mom before they can go outside or watch TV. I like to write down the page or assignment numbers they’ve completed as well so that I can make sure we’re actually moving forward.

Overall, I’m not exaggerating when I say these notebooks are saving my life. Our girls are doing more chores more regularly (and earning more allowance as well), our home is running more smoothly, and I feel better about the amount of school work we’re getting done each week.

And the really crazy part is the girls like the system too. They ask me for their checklists first thing each morning, work through them quickly, and giggle when I add something like “do a jig” or “draw a picture of an elephant” to their assignments. Even the 5-year-old pre-reader is in on the game with her picture checklist.

If I previously convinced you that printed checklists are the way to go and they’re not working for your family, promise me you’ll at least try this system. I can’t say enough good things about it!

P.S. Just a few more weeks until Walmart and other retailers stock their $0.10 spiral notebooks for back-to-school season. I’ll be the crazy lady with a cart full…I can’t wait!

How we’re using spiral notebooks to simplify

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Related posts:
On letting go of mommy guilt
Why it’s okay to believe your way is the best way
Confessions of a Kindle hypocrite
Worry is not our benchmark



     

Why I no longer set an alarm in the morning

Confession: I am a firm believer in the value of getting up early, getting your day started before your kids wake up, and taking control of your day.

So it might surprise you to hear that I no longer set an alarm 99% of the time.

The reason is simple: While I highly value and need those morning hours to myself, I also know that I need enough sleep or I’m grumpy, impatient and unproductive.

I also know that there’s nothing worse than getting woken up in the wrong part of your sleep cycle.

When I set an alarm, I inevitably get woken up right in the middle of my REM cycle, and my alarm has no idea whether the baby was up 17 times, I suffered with insomnia, or my body just happens to need more rest on any given morning. (And changing the alarm in the middle of the night involves turning on my iPhone screen—since we don’t use a regular alarm clock in our room—which inevitably gives me insomnia because of the bright, artificial light!)

Letting myself wake up naturally means I wake up during the best part of my sleep cycle—usually as soon as it starts to get light out these days—and I’m less groggy. Sometimes it means I sleep a couple extra hours in the morning, but I’m willing to trust that my body knows best on those days!

Obviously this approach isn’t for everyone, and if you’re a natural night owl, have early morning commitments or school buses to catch, an alarm is probably a safe bet.

My approach will probably shift as we head into the fall and winter months, when I can no longer count on the morning light to wake me up, but I’m considering an alarm like ZenAwake or Progressive Alarm Clock that wakes you up with gentle, progressively louder sounds so that your body isn’t jarred out of sleep like with a traditional alarm. (Although soon enough I’ll have a newborn who could care less about which part of my sleep cycle I’m in anyway!)

These days, getting enough sleep is a high priority for me even when the to-do list is full, and an alarm clock just isn’t smart enough to know when I really need to get up and when I need to sleep, so—for now—I’m skipping it.

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Do you wake up to an alarm?

Why I no longer set an alarm in the morning

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Related posts:
Happy 4th {And Finding Freedom from Other People’s Expectations}
When It’s Time to Reevaluate Your Life, Passion & Purpose
Have you bought new underwear this year?
Today is your day to start over



     
CommentsI haven't set an alarm since having kids. All of them have an ... by KatherineInstead of the progressive sound ones… look into the sunrise ... by Clover SI am a firm believer that my body knows how much sleep I need. ... by Carol GrahamAn alarm on days I have to be somewhere or really need to get a ... by Lisa 

{REMINDER} Don’t miss this deal!

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Happy photo-taking!

{REMINDER} Don’t miss this deal!

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

On toddlers and the terrific twos

When we were at the beach in April, I posted this picture of Jackson pointing out into the water after spotting a seagull or a buoy or something equally exciting.

To me it captures the very essence of toddlerhood, and it’s one of my favorites.

While I’m one of those people who loves the newborn stage, my next favorite stage is older toddlers. I’ve never quite understood why anyone called it “the terrible twos,” and the thing I mourned the most when we decided our family was complete was never having a two year old again!

Don’t get me wrong: This stage is exhausting. Even with two parents and four big kids around pretty much all of the time, we still spend all day chasing him, cleaning up after him, and repeating things like, “Where’s Jackson? Put that down, Jackson. Jackson did it!”

We sometimes call him Destructo, and he lives up to it daily.

But I love it anyway.

He’s saying new words every day, learning the sounds that animals and vehicles make, and generally enthralled by life.

Even though he’s only talking a little bit, he has an amazing grasp of language (more so then most of my girls have at this stage), and when he doesn’t understand something we say, he cocks his head to the side and says, “Hmm?”

But it’s his enthusiasm for life and learning new things that I love most. It makes me see the world in a new way, to celebrate the smallest milestones, to stop and observe what’s happening around us.

He’s not afraid to try new things, to get right in the middle of the big kids (and adults!) and do whatever they’re doing. And while he can be cautious about new things and definitely knows his limits, he’s not afraid to push them—climbing higher, running faster, carrying heavier things.

He’s calmer than everyone warned me a boy would be (unlike the little boy in my womb who flips and rolls and kicks and moves all day long!), but he’s always taking in the world around him, ready to explore and discover!

And that inspires me to do the same.

Three year olds on the other hand? Now that’s the stage that no one warns you about ahead of time! (At least with girls…we’ll see how it goes this time around!)

On toddlers and the terrific twos

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Take better photos by the end of today

I’ve never kept a baby book for any of my babies, but with the advent of digital photography, and now camera phones, I feel like their childhoods are well documented nonetheless!

Unfortunately, that collection includes all of the shots—the good, the bad and the just plain ugly—and I often wish that I had the skills to capture the moment the way it really looks to me rather than through the camera lens.

Enter the Ultimate Digital Photography Bundle.

For the past 4 months, as part of my role at Ultimate Bundles, I have been immersed in the world of photography, chatting with top photographers, combing through digital photography products and putting together a collection of the very best resources.

The end result is a collection like no other. Worth almost $2,500 altogether, this bundle is actually divided into three tiers to make it affordable for everyone.

And if, like me, your goal is simply to capture those special moments—a funny child, a memorable occasion, a beautiful sunset—than the beginner tier is for you.

At just $37, this collection includes over $555 worth of training handpicked to help you take better photos without having to dig through tutorials on the internet, sign up for extra classes or spend hours trying to figure out what different terms mean.

It includes the $199 Photography Masterclass from Phil Ebiner, with step-by-step tutorials and videos to show you how to use your camera.

…and Chantel Klassen’s Shoot in Manual Mode ecourse, which breaks down manual mode into bite-size, easy-to-understand pieces.

…and Katie Evans The Key to Taking Pictures Like a Professional Photographer, which not only provides camera tips, but tips on composition, getting your kids to act natural and editing photos afterward to make them picture perfect.

…and The Unexpected Everyday from Courtney Slazinick, which includes 30 easy-to-implement tips and accompanying prompts to get you capturing those moments today.

For someone like me—a busy mom who shoots most often with my phone (because who wants to wrangle a big DSLR while also wrangling 5 kids?!)—I’m especially excited about the tips and information that David Molnar includes in his popular iPhone Only Photography ebook.

And it continues from there, with a total of 13 ebooks and 5 ecourses to help you improve your photography quickly and with advice straight from the pros.

This collection is only available through Monday, June 29th, so you don’t want to wait! If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to use your fancy camera, or you fear that you’re missing out on the chance to capture precious moments, grab this bundle today:

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P.P.S. Not sure if the bundle is really for you? You can still get a sneak peek with this FREE guide to composition and start taking better pictures right away!

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Take better photos by the end of today

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Confessions of an online shopper {what I *really* buy online}

Despite the stereotypes, I am not a woman who loves shopping. In fact, I pretty much despise shopping, and that was true long before running errands involved dragging five kids through the store!

I don’t mind heading to the mall to browse with my mom and sister a couple times a year, but looking for specific items makes me crazy, especially if it involves having to stop at more than one store.

Add to that our distance from “town” (about 30-45 minutes), and it’s probably not surprising that I do as much of our shopping as possible online. If I could do it all that way, I would!

I’ve had a few people ask me about both Amazon Subscribe & Save and ePantry lately, so I thought I would share my June orders from both companies as well as the other random things I’ve bought online this month:

1. Amazon Subscribe & Save

We use Amazon for a lot of our purchases, both for convenience and saving, but the strategy that saves us the most money is the Subscribe & Save program. Because we’re Prime members (hello, free 2-day shipping!), we can save 15% off our Subscribe & Save orders each month, so we buy a lot of our household items this way.

This month, I was stocking up on snacks for summer days on the go as well as a few “convenience” cleaning supplies so that the girls can do more chores. Here’s what I ended up with:

McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract (16-ounce), $6.78
Tide Pods Laundry Detergent Packs Tub, Spring Meadow (81 Count), $17.48
Biore Pore Unclogging Scrub (2 Count), $8.54
Thinkbaby Safe Sunscreen SPF 50+ (2 Count), $19.39
Clorox ToiletWand Disposable Toilet Cleaning System, $7.64
Clorox ToiletWand Disinfecting Refills (30 Count), $7.41
Larabar Gluten Free Fruit & Nut Food Bar, Apple Pie (16 Bars), $13.56
KIND Nuts & Spices, Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt (12 Bars), $9.96
Annie’s Homegrown Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks Variety Pack 0.8 Oz (24 Count), $12.89

Other months, my Subscribe & Save order might include diapers and wipes, toilet paper or paper towels, coconut sugar or coconut oil, various teas, organic and fair-trade baking ingredients, and so on. This month didn’t include a lot of bulk products, but many of the things I buy are huge packages that last for several months, so my order changes every month.

By the way, my mom shares hot Subscribe & Save deals every day at our Amazon deal blog, Jungle Deals & Steals!

2. ePantry

While I love Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program, one thing it doesn’t offer is a lot of single-count products from brands like Mrs. Meyers or Method. I first tried out ePantry several months ago, and I’ve been hooked every since for regular deliveries of these products at an affordable price.

This month’s order included:

Method Smarty Dish Tabs (20 Count), $5.99
Method Moisturizing Body Wash, $4.99 (I love this stuff!)
Method Minnie Shampoo & Body Wash, $5.29 (My kids love this stuff!)
Method Laundry Detergent (50 Loads), $15.49*
Natracare Maxi Pads, Regular (14 Count), $5.35
Natracare Maxi Pads, Overnight (10 Count), $5.35
Natracare Organic Intimate Wipes, $5.45

*We keep trying natural laundry detergents in the hopes of finding one that works with our well water and that my husband likes, which is why I ordered both Tide from Amazon and this laundry detergent this month!

I also get Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap, foaming hand soap, multi-surface spray and tub & tile cleaner (all in Lemon Verbena), Gillette razor refills, toothpaste, and Seventh Generation paper products, depending on what I need in any given month.

Save $10 off your first order when you click through this link!

3. StitchFix

I’ve been raving about StitchFix lately because it’s become one of my very favorite things! I was almost giddy waiting for my fix this month, and it’s always so fun to open it up and see what’s inside.

And I’m really loving their maternity selection, as shown above!

Although opinions were split on Facebook and Instagram, I ended up keeping the chevron dress ($88) and the navy/white shirt ($68). My husband just wasn’t a fan of the bow on the middle shirt, and I love both the eyelet material and the scoop back of the one on the right. I had some credit so that I didn’t have to pay for both completely out of pocket, but the thing I’m finding with my StitchFix clothes is that I wear them and enjoy them more than the $15 shirts I buy at Old Navy anyway, so I am willing to pay more per piece.

Click here to complete your style profile and schedule your first fix!

4. Twice

I have a love-hate relationship with Twice. It can be completely overwhelming to sort through their stock of clothes to find ones you might like, but I’ve had some really good finds. And their return process is super straightforward and easy when you get a dud.

This month, I’ve been on the hunt for a summery purse that can hold a couple diapers for Jackson, my MacBook, wallet and a few snacks, and while the Kenneth Cole purse wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, I decide it was close enough. I couldn’t help but add the American Eagle tote to use as a pool bag, and that one is just perfect.

I’ve also been looking to replace my very old, worn Gap flip-flops/sandals. The Banana Republic ones ended up being too small (maybe just because I’m pregnant, but I’m going to send them back anyway) and the Bamboo sandals were cheap enough that I’m going to keep them even though they weren’t exactly what I was looking for.

I have a ton of Twice credit from referrals and selling clothes, so all of these were basically free, which makes shopping that much more fun!

Click here to get $10 toward your first order!

5. Coleman Furniture

This month marked a new experience for us as we ordered furniture online for the first time!

Most of the furniture in our home is from Ikea, and we’ve started feeling like it’s time to upgrade and become real adults (ha!), so Sean spent a ton of time looking at both couches and bed frames to decide what we wanted. We actually stopped by quite a few furniture stores before realizing that we could get the exact same furniture via a dropship company like Coleman Furniture…at half the price.

And so we ordered both our couch and bed frame from there at the beginning of the month, and we couldn’t be happier with them!

***

Do you prefer online or in-store shopping?

Confessions of an online shopper {what I *really* buy online}

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Two kids is easy…and two kids is hard!

It’s a universal parenting truth: when you find yourself with even one less child than normal for a few days (whether they’re at camp or the grandparents or whatever), it feels a whole lot easier than normal. It’s not that you’ve forgotten how hard that number felt when it was your normal; it’s that changing the dynamics of your home changes, well, everything.

For the past week we’ve had just two kids at home. Even though Sean was also out of town for four days, on Saturday I realized that my house was actually clean and had stayed that way for more than 5 minutes.

Two kids is easy, y’all!

There was no sibling rivalry. No fighting. Our oldest and youngest were simply delighted by each other 90% of the time.

The baby played with his toys, and we cleaned them up each evening. The 10-year-old played, and I reminded her to pick up after herself, which she did.

It was easy.

I didn’t have to listen to four girls vying for attention at once or try to make sense of all of the bodies swirling around me as they bounced from one activity to the next.

We were able to wash dishes by hand after each and every meal, and chores took less time because there just wasn’t a huge mess.

Piece of cake.

On the other hand, I became our oldest’s outlet for all 250,000 of her daily words. When she was tired of entertaining herself, I became her source of entertainment. There was no one else for her to share stories and ideas and play games with.

Two kids is hard, y’all.

I no longer had four helpers to help entertain and watch the baby. I could only ask my oldest to watch him so often without feeling like I was taking advantage of her, and so there were a lot of times when I became his only source of entertainment too!

Not so easy after all.

Even though some of our chores were easier to take care of, some of them still took as much effort—taking care of the pets, watering the garden, putting away groceries and so on. Only now it was just me and the 10-year-old taking care of them all.

I miss my helpers!

Two kids is easy in a lot of respects and harder than five in others. It’s not about competition or comparison, just perspective.

Hopefully by this time next year, 5 will seem easy to me and 6 will just be normal. Right now it doesn’t feel like that is even possible, but I’m holding out hope anyway!

How do the dynamics change in your home when one or more of your kids is away for a few days?

Two kids is easy…and two kids is hard!

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

      CommentsYes! My two oldest are off camping with their dad and it's just ... by LisaThis is so true. When two of my girls are gone and just one is ... by The Frugal Girl 

How we approach makeup with our girls

Our oldest (10) has been obsessed with Caboodles lately. This is a fun obsession since I still fondly remember my own pink Caboodle, and I’ve enjoyed watching her plot and plan to get one and fill it with all kinds of fun makeup. They’re not super expensive, so she saved up the spending portion of her May allowance plus some spending money Nona and Pop gave her to finally get it last week. When I shared the picture above, a friend asked if I was prepared for the fight about makeup to follow, and I was thankful to realize that this may be one area where we don’t have any big fights.

Before I share our approach, let me clarify: There are a lot of areas of parenthood where we feel overwhelmed trying to decide how to best handle the situation. There are a lot of areas where our girls fight against the limits we’ve set. There are a lot of areas where we end up making the wrong decision and have to backpedal. Thankfully, this just doesn’t seem to be one of them.

***

I still remember hiding out in the bathroom at school during “after care” with another girl’s Caboodle, trying on makeup and then frantically wiping it off before my mom arrived to pick me up. I was obsessed with makeup, and I would do the same thing before a shower, both in my mom’s bathroom and my grandma’s—wanting to experiment especially with eyeliner but knowing I wouldn’t be allowed.

These days, I wear makeup a couple times a week—if that—usually only when we leave the house (and not always then). I like the way I feel when I take the time to apply my makeup carefully (especially the coveted eyeliner!) and my husband always appreciates it as well, but I don’t feel like I need makeup, an approach I hope to pass on to these girls of mine.

Because of my own sneakiness in this area (which was born out of general curiosity about how makeup worked, not rebellion), I’ve always been pretty laid back about it as a parent.

In fact, we’re very laid back about nail polish. I can’t think of a time when I’ve ever said no to a specific color, and the girls often have multiple colors, patterns or designs on their fingers or toes. It’s just color, and to me painting nails is the stuff that little girls are made of, not a sign of growing up too fast or trying to be something they’re not.

Similarly, while we don’t let our girls “wear makeup” as a general rule, they do have plenty of makeup around to play with—a set of eyeshadow they’ve bought with their own money, a palette of tinted lip glosses, an old blush that I no longer use—and they love to play dress up with it at home. Part of this love of makeup for them comes from having two young aunts (both of our sisters are in their early 20s), one of whom is a hair stylist and was in cosmetology school when they were littler. But I think part of it is just natural, part of how we’re made. In cultures around the world, women and men alike use makeup or body decoration to “dress up” or to signal their place in a tribe or community.

The thing is, this tween of mine is actually fairly talented at fashion and makeup. Even at 10, she applies makeup to her sisters’ faces like a pro, and she’s also learned to sew clothes for both her dolls and herself. (Her real hidden talent is taking a pile of blankets and scarves and weaving them into various outfits—a sari one day, a cape the next, and an elegant evening gown after that, adding makeup to complete the look. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what that talent exactly gets her in life, but it’s pretty fun to see anyway!)

I’m excited to see how her skill and style grow in the coming years, and I want her to be able to embrace those things, not feel like she has to hide them from us.

Here’s the caveat: While our approach is to let them play with it freely at home to avoid the forbidden fruit phenomenon, the girls know they have to take off any makeup (besides a light lip gloss and maybe some sparkles on a special occasion) before we leave the house. Because they do have plenty of time to play and experiment with it at home, and because we homeschool and they don’t face the peer pressure of what “everybody else” is doing at school, they rarely argue or complain about that rule.

For them, makeup isn’t about their self-esteem or trying to fit in—it’s just about the art and the fun and the dressing up. And I hope that’s what it’s always about for them. In the coming years we’ll relax the rules about wearing it out of the house, but no matter how much they choose to wear, I don’t want them to find their worth in “painting their faces.”

But I do think it’s okay for them to enjoy makeup, and it’s not a hill I want to die on as we enter these tougher years of parenthood!

How does your family approach things like makeup, funky hairstyles and fashion?

How we approach makeup with our girls

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Weekend reading: June 6, 2015

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you probably already know that yesterday was our “big” mid-pregnancy ultrasound. While the main purpose of this ultrasound is to check on the baby and make sure everything is forming correctly, we were beyond excited to get a sneak peek at the baby’s gender too. Beforehand, our youngest daughter and I both guessed boy while Sean and the rest of the girls thought for sure it was another girl. As soon as the ultrasound tech moved in for the “money shot,” it was very obvious that we are expecting our second son, Lucas Isaiah.

Really, I would have been happy either way, but we’re all really excited that Jackson will have a little brother. Of course, it also makes our bedroom situation a lot simpler, and all of the baby stuff I have left is for a boy, so that’s a relief too! We had been talking about names for the entire pregnancy and were pretty set on both our boy and girl names, and it’s been fun to adjust to calling him Lucas rather than “the baby.”

We also discovered at the ultrasound that this little guy is super active, but the reason I haven’t been feeling his movements very regularly is because I have an anterior placenta (on the front of my uterus). I’m looking forward to feeling more movements as the placenta continues to move higher, because that is by far my favorite part of pregnancy.

What I’m reading: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (and why I am reading it as quickly as I possibly can)

What I’m thinking about:

{Follow my personal Facebook feed for the things I’m thinking about and talking about all week!}

Parenting with the end in mind How to Ruin Your Relationship With Your Teenager | The Mid To Build (Or Break) A Child’s Spirit | HuffPo Love your life Constant Outrage is All the Rage | Slow Your Home Create a morning routine | Shalom Mama 33 Things I Do Almost Every Day That Make My Day So Much Better | Money Saving Mom® For your summer How we make family roadtripping sane(r) & cheap(er) | The Art of Simple Entertaining and Educational YouTube Channels for Kids | Live Renewed

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Join us this month as we talk about the importance of having an explorer’s mindset for creating a life you love!

Weekend reading: June 6, 2015

© 2010-2015 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved