Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 3

7 things saving my sanity as a work-at-homeschooling mom

I don’t care what anyone says, life as a work-at-homeschooling mom isn’t easy, no matter how good at it you are. It takes, well, work to juggle work (whether it’s a full-time job or a business of your own) plus homeschooling, and there just aren’t a ton of extra hours in the day when you’re doing both.

But there are things that make it easier. For me, these change depending on the season (of the year and of my life), but right now these are the ones saving my sanity:

1. Evening showers

My personal care routine varies widely. Sometimes I shower in the mornings, sometimes in the evening; I’ve even had seasons where I showered at midday every day. In some seasons (hello, summer!), I wear a tank top and jogging shorts; in others I prefer to “dress up” to feel more put together.

Right now, evening showers are a cornerstone of my routine. I especially love to turn on an audiobook while I shower, blocking out the chaos in the rest of the house while I relax in the steamy water and make progress on my reading list at the same time. It also allows me to wake up in the morning and get ready in 15-20 minutes, even on the days when I do my makeup, which I’ve been doing more often this winter.

2. My Kindle

I get the appeal of “real” books, and I really do understand wanting to hold books made of paper in your hand. As a teenager, I was a voracious reader, but it became harder to juggle reading once I became a mother, with babies and toddlers in my arms during the day (who am I kidding…and at night) and much of my available reading time being after dark.

In the years since I got my first Kindle, it has become a permanent and well-loved companion. I have an older Paperwhite (with a skin decal to pretty it up), and I love that I can read one handed, that I can read in the dark with an adjustable light that mimics a book light more than a computer screen, that I rarely lose my page to curious toddlers, and that I can switch between multiple books easily. I am confident that my reading goals would be much smaller without it by my side.

3. My (generic) Instant pot

Several months ago I finally gave in and purchased an Elite pressure cooker. I wanted an Instant Pot since that brand has become the face of this trend, but I felt like our crew would need an 8-quart and the bigger Instant Pot was just way too expensive to justify.

When my pot arrived, we quickly unpacked it…and then it sat on my counter for a good three months untouched! I was just plain scared of the thing, not so much of it blowing up on me as ruining good food in the process of learning how to use it.

That all changed a couple of weeks ago, and I have used it almost every single day since. Roasted chicken and homemade stock in under two hours from start to clean up, oatmeal in 3 minutes, sweet potatoes in 25 minutes, spaghetti squash in 7…when I’m limited on time, it delivers! Now that I’ve gotten to know it a little bit, I’m excited to learn how to do even more.

4. Biweekly meal planning & shopping

Because we live so far from town, grocery shopping has always been a big to do on Sundays after church. I discovered Aldi a couple of years ago, and last fall I got serious about making it my main grocery stop each week. We started going after our homeschool group on Friday afternoons, but grocery shopping for 8 people on a weekly basis is exhausting no matter which day of the week you go.

I decided to try biweekly meal planning and shopping instead, and it has been a lifesaver. It turns out that it doesn’t take that much work to shop for twice as much, and less visits to the store saves us money as well! Although I do often need more produce or a forgotten item on the off week, that ends up being a 15-minute stop rather than a big shopping trip. We’ve gotten pretty good at the whole routine with practice, and now I can’t imagine doing it any other way.

5. Sling naps

For the first year of his life, Lucas would only sleep in someone’s arms, and toward the end of that year, that someone was me and only me. But he wasn’t a snuggler like Jackson was as a baby, and I found myself held hostage in a very specific position (with him half perched on my shoulder), barely able to move a muscle without waking him up. Needless to say, it was exhausting and unproductive.

He daytime weaned while we were in Disney without much prompting from me at all (hallelujah!), and he also discovered a new favorite nap spot as we toured the parks: on my back in the Boba. It’s not the most convenient way to do nap, but it does allow me to get stuff done now that we’re home, whether it’s making a meal, folding a load of laundry, working with my laptop on the breakfast bar, or doing a project with Jackson or the girls. I’ve also come to really love the feeling of him back there sound asleep, and I especially love that moment when he drops off into a deep sleep and suddenly melts on my back!

6. Hubble contacts

I also saw an ad for a two-week trial of daily contact lenses from Hubble Contacts on Facebook while we were in Disney, and I placed my order right away, trying not to get my hopes up too much. I’ve been dying to switch to daily lenses so I can just throw them away each night, but they’re normally so expensive that I just couldn’t justify it.

Unlike the brand name daily contacts, these contacts are only $30/month (or $22/month if you order for the full year) because you buy straight from the manufacturer, and I love them even more than I dared to hope!

(The only problem is now I have to make myself use up my monthlies!)

7. My bullet journal

In 2015 I discovered the Planner Pad, and it was such a good fit with its carefully designed layout, large pages, and unique features. Unfortunately, the size and format because unwieldy with a needy baby in the house, and I stopped using a planner altogether for almost a year, jotting down to-do lists on my computer, phone, or scrap paper as needed instead.

Last fall I decided to finally give bullet journaling a try, and I fell in love from the start. The beauty of this system is how easily customizable it is. Try one format one day, another the next. Decorate the page when you have time, scratch out a list of to-dos when you don’t.

My bullet journal has become my living brain, the place where I record to-do lists and calendar reminders, quotes and Bible verses, prayers and meal plans. I started a fresh journal for 2017, and I’m still having just as much fun as I did in the beginning.

***

Get my free ebook: 7 Lies Work-at-Homeschooling Moms Believe…and the Truths That Will Set You Free. Whether you’re just starting out or discouraged because it feels so hard, I hope this guide will encourage and inspire you to keep going!

The post 7 things saving my sanity as a work-at-homeschooling mom appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
The one-pile cleaning method for kids
When the clutter is getting to you…
Chores and allowance for keeping the house clean AND building character
Because it doesn’t have to be boring to be functional



     

Weekend reading: January 7, 2017

From Instagram: Swollen but happy! 

We first noticed the bump on Lucas’ eyebrow when he was 2 weeks old and everyone felt pretty confident that it was a dermoid cyst that would need to be removed by a plastic surgeon in a fairly-simple-but-still-terrifying surgery. I’ve pretty much dreaded that surgery for the past year, but this Wednesday was the big day, and I’m so thankful that everything went even better than expected!

After the surgery, the surgeon told us that he thought it might actually be a sebaceous cyst instead since it was just under the skin rather than under the muscle as a dermoid cyst should be. That means that while his eyelid swelled up significantly and he’s sporting a pretty gnarly black eye, we avoided any of the possibilities of nerve damage, etc.

During pre-op they also told us to expect that he would sleep anywhere from 30-60 minutes following the surgery before we got to see him, and because we’d gotten up at 4:30am to make the drive to UVA and surgery was at nap time, we assumed it would be on the longer end. However, he woke up and reached for a nurse just as soon as they turned off the anesthesia, which meant we were able to go down right away (they were waiting to take us down when we left the consult with the surgeon!) and I got to snuggle him for a good hour and a half before I decided it was probably time to gently wake him up, nurse him, and get on the road home.

He has been exceptionally happy since surgery except when I go longer than 4 hours between his Tylenol doses, which I’m so, so thankful for. In about a week, the steri-strips will fall off (if they last that long with all the rubbing he’s doing!), and we’ll attempt to pull out the single external stitch, which the surgeon said we could do at home rather than making the 2.5 hour drive back down to UVA.

He’ll likely have a red scar for a little bit before it fades and is covered by his eyebrow, and we’re still waiting the official word from the pathology lab, but that should really be it before this all fades into our memory banks!

What I’m reading: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling and Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction by Asheritah Ciuciu

What I cooked: prosciutto egg cups, whole chicken & chicken stock in my pressure cooker, paleo pumpkin pancakes, crockpot chicken fajitas, and my mom made me us ham, cabbage & potato soup while she was here

What I’m thinking about:

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

Two things you don’t want to miss

Adore Your Wardrobe is open again, but only through Tuesday! (Click here for the free Rule of Four training.)


The Winsome Retreat was one of the highlights of 2016 for me, and earlybird tickets are available for just one more week!

Kicking off the new year

17 Ways to Usher Fresh Air into Your Heart and Home in 2017 | Chasing Blue Skies


5 Habits of a Happy Family | No Sidebar


7 Smart Decisions to Make When You Crave Simple Sanity | Wellermomma Blog

Encouragement for your homeschool

Five Keys to Working with Teens | Brave Writer


3 things I’m quitting in our homeschool this year | Simple Homeschool


Are you practicing sustainable homeschooling? | Simple Homeschool

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Are you registered for our weekly newsletters? I share recipes, tips, printables, deals, and blogging tips {almost} every week!

 

The post Weekend reading: January 7, 2017 appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
Weekend reading: January 9, 2016
Weekend reading: January 23, 2015
Weekend reading: June 25, 2016
Weekend reading: September 24, 2016



    Related StoriesWeekend reading: January 7, 2015

Setting unreasonable reading goals, and my 2017 Reading Challenge picks

I’ve been setting reading goals for 4 or 5 years now, and only once have I ever hit one. That was the year that I finally lowered my reading goal to 75 books (from 100), and even then I still didn’t complete my Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge.

It’s probably no surprise that I didn’t hit my goal in 2016 (or that it was my “worst” reading year in a while), but the reality is that I still read a lot of really great books!

For 2017, I decided to keep my goal at a lofty 100, and I’m once again participating in the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge. In fact, because I like to go all in, I’m not just choosing books from one path from the challenge, but from both.

So why do I do it?

While it could be discouraging to “fail” year after year, I’ve actually found the striving for a lofty reading goal to be more motivating than hitting a lower goal. And I love the reading challenges that Anne puts together because they force me to search through books and consider them in new ways. I’ve found favorite books through each challenge (like The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared!) that I definitely wouldn’t have read otherwise.

It could be said that it’s not really a goal if I don’t plan to meet it, but I convince myself every year that this will be the year that I finally do read 100 books and every book for the challenge, and 2017 is no different.

I’m also going to do something a little bit differently this year. While I selected books I think fit within each category, I’m going to keep track of the books I actually read to see if I can complete the challenge that way!

With all of those caveats (and caveats to my caveats!), here’s what my 2017 Reading Challenge looks like:

Reading for Fun: Putting the Oomph Back in Your Reading Life

A book you chose for the cover:

At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider

A book with a reputation for being un-put-down-able:

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

A book set somewhere you’ve never been but would like to visit:

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

A book you’ve already read:

Coming Clean by Seth Haines (currently $1.99!)

A juicy memoir:

Troublemaker by Leah Remini

A book about books or reading:

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society by Mary Anne Shaffer & Annie Barrows

A book in a genre you usually avoid:

Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction  by Asheritah Ciuciu

A book you don’t want to admit you’re dying to read:

Distant Shores , Fly Away , Night Road  & True Colors  by Kristin Hannah (Distant Shores is currently $1.99!)

A book in the backlist of a new favorite author:

Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes (currently $1.99!)

A book recommended by someone with great taste:

Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny

A book you were excited to buy or borrow but haven’t read yet:

No-Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

A book about a topic or subject you already love:

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Reading for Growth: Stretch Yourself in 2017

A Newbery Award winner or Honor book:

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

A book in translation:

The Happy Marriage by Tahar Ben Jelloun

A book that’s more than 600 pages:

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader

A book of poetry, a play, or an essay collection:

Harry Potter & The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Tiffany & John Thorne
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

A book of any genre that addresses current events:

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
One: Unity in a Divided World by Deidra Riggs

An immigrant story:

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

A book published before you were born:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Three books by the same author:

Louise Penny
Kristin Hannah
J.K. Rowling

A book by an #ownvoices or #diversebooks author:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

A book with an unreliable narrator or ambiguous ending:

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

A book nominated for an award in 2017:

TBD

A Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award winner:

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

In addition to tracking my books on Goodreads, I’m also going to keep track on this cute bookshelf page that I copied off of Pinterest. Most of my layouts are pretty simple, but I couldn’t resist this one (and it’s SO easy to do!).

***

What are your reading goals for 2017?

The post Setting unreasonable reading goals, and my 2017 Reading Challenge picks appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
My 2016 reading goals {and this year’s Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge}
10 books to inspire you to take back your life
How to find Kindle deals on the books you actually want to read
How do you feel about memoirs? {Plus 6 memoirs I loved!}



     
CommentsA friend sent me a challenge from her library that has a ... by Nancy 

My word for 2017: it’s time to THRIVE!

I refuse to think about the New Year before Christmas, and I always worry that I won’t have enough time to properly review the past year and think about my hopes and dreams for the new one. But as has happened every year, the week after Christmas makes me reflective, and I enjoyed taking some time last week to contemplate all that 2016 held and my vision for 2017.

Like many people, 2016 was a hard year for us. We didn’t face tragedy or heartbreak, and I don’t want to minimize the really wonderful, beautiful things that happened. But with a high needs, non-sleeping baby and a call to circle the wagons around our family, we spent most of the year in survival mode, just putting one foot in front of the other, getting the next thing done, and hoping we didn’t fall apart in the process.

My goal for 2016 was to capture my girls’ hearts. I’m far from a perfect mother, and being exhausted for most of the year left me cranky and snappy more often than I’d like to admit. But I do think I regained my footing—seeing each of them as individuals, connecting with them heart to heart even in the midst of adolescent battles, stopping to see who they really are.

At the same time, we watched more TV, ate more junk food (and less homemade meals), left clean laundry unfolded more often, and just generally focused on survival.

As I was reflecting on the year and the things that did or didn’t go the way I’d hoped last January, my word for 2017 found me, and it felt right the moment it popped into my head.

While we survived in 2016, my word for 2017 is THRIVE.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. ~Maya Angelou

I took some time to think about what exactly thrive means in my life, but before I share the details with you, it’s important to note that I don’t follow the rules for goal setting here. I don’t want to be calculating and precise when it comes to my vision for my life; focusing on specific measurements and achievements is exhausting to me.

So instead of setting a goal to achieve XYZ by ABC, these goals are subjective and based on the feelings I hope to capture. They may not be measurable or time-based, but my plan is to review them each month, and I’ll know in my heart whether I’ve accomplished them or not. That’s good enough for me!

Faith

a growing relationship with Christ
consistent prayer, worship & study
regular family devotions

Relationships

continue winning my girls’ hearts
invest in my marriage
be a better friend

Blog

not measured in numbers or dollars
post consistently & find my voice
feel good about the rhythm & content

Finances

pay off all debt (cars, land, etc.)
continue streamlining our budget
increase residual income

Health

develop a healthy movement routine
complete a Whole30
get consistent sleep

Personal

read 100 books
discover my personal style & wear clothes that look AND feel good
create a healthy relationship with food

Homeschool

pursue consistency in our routines
read 12 complete chapter books as a family
create a plan for middle school that we’re all happy with

Work (at Ultimate Bundles)

stick to regular work hours
avoid distractions and improve my focus during those hours
stop checking my phone constantly

It’s true: none of these are groundbreaking goals or things haven’t always been important to me. But after a year of letting go of my plans and focusing just on meeting everyone’s needs, it feels good to put them in writing and commit to pursuing them once again. Choosing my word for the year has given me hope that this will be my year to thrive!

The post My word for 2017: it’s time to THRIVE! appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
The gift of perspective
On recognizing & accepting limits and living my priorities
The best laid plans of a planner
Finding confidence when things don’t go the way you expect



     

Weekend reading: December 17, 2017

From Instagram: That’s the angel from the top of our 12′ tree. And the “angel” that somehow got her down.

This past week we had a company Christmas party at Ultimate Bundles, and I was reminded of just how lucky I am to work from home with such an amazing group of people. With two countries, three nationalities, and four time zones represented, it was so much fun to get together on Zoom to laugh, open Secret Santa gifts, and play a competitive game of Family Feud, (My team won, just saying!)

Christmas preparations are in full swing here with cookie baking, family get-togethers, and traditions, and I hope the same is true for each and every one of you! But reflecting on the good in my life also makes me keenly aware of those who are facing painful situations or grieving this Christmas. If that’s you, please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you.

What I’m reading: Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, Curious Faith by Logan Wolfram

What I cooked: crockpot chicken fajitas, 10-minute lasagna, sloppy joes, hawaiian BBQ chicken, baked oatmeal

What I’m thinking about:

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

Looking forward to 2017

One (unsexy) word that will make 2017 your best year ever | Kelly Exeter


3 Ways to Change Your Perspective on Living Simply | Smallish


Let Go of What Makes You Sad | Be More with Less

Because there’s no such thing as too many books

The 2017 Reading Challenge | Modern Mrs. Darcy


16 Books From 2016 That All Global Citizens Should Read | Global Ciitizen


10 Children’s Books to Inspire Simplicity in Kids | Becoming Minimalist


Must-Have STEAM Books | Raising Lifelong Learners

Hope for your homeschool

How do you want your homeschool to feel? | Simple Homeschool


Overwhelmed: How to Do Less and Be More Happy | Wellermomma


4 Arguments Homeschoolers Need to Stop Having | Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I’m taking the last two weeks of the year off from the blog, as is my annual tradition. Have a wonderful Christmas, and I’ll see you in 2017!

The post Weekend reading: December 17, 2017 appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
Weekend reading: January 16, 2015
Weekend reading: April 30, 2016
Weekend reading: May 28, 2016
Weekend reading: June 18, 2016



     

When your Christmas plans & hormones collide

After a whirlwind of a road trip in the weeks before and following Thanksgiving, I was anxious to get home and settled so that we could focus on advent and Christmas and enjoy all of our annual traditions. I know myself well enough to be realistic, and I held my plans for our Christmas countdown loosely. But I was still hopeful that we could jump into all the glitter and sugar of the season with both feet!

And sure enough, last week started out just as I’d hoped: we had fun with the simple advent activities I had planned for each day, and our excitement for the countdown to Christmas was infectious.

But as the week went on, my holiday spirit was quickly replaced by a distinctly Grinch-like spirit, and it didn’t seem like normal holiday stress stealing my joy.

By Thursday I found myself frustrated and snapping at everyone. When we came home from our annual Polar Express viewing with friends on Friday and found that the dog had eaten all of our graham cracker houses, it was really the last straw. I wanted to cry…and quit.

I woke up Saturday determined to turn things around but found myself getting frustrated at the way the kids were rolling out their gingerbread dough, dipping their pretzel rods, and pouring on their sprinkles. These can be stressful activities (“Whyyyyyyyyy are you dumping the entire bottle of sprinkles on that tiny pretzel?!”), but the strength of my emotions was just not logical.

And then it hit me.

We’d just spent 3 weeks on the road, and with a little simple math I confirmed my fear: my PMS and my advent plans had collided.

When I was planning my wedding 14 years ago, the gynecologist gave me instructions for using my birth control pills to make sure I wasn’t on my period on our wedding night or honeymoon. I think she forgot to mention that I might need to use this same method to avoid PMSing during the holiday season, and unfortunately, natural family planning doesn’t offer anything in this regard!

If you’ve found yourself struggling with hormones—whether from PMS, perimenopause, pregnancy, or postpartum—this holiday season, let me offer you some free advice (bonus points if you catch the Hamilton reference!):

1. Acknowledge it.

I don’t know why this works, but it consistently makes a difference for me. Acknowledging that I’m struggling and naming my anger, frustration, short-temperedness, or sadness loosens its grip on my emotions and helps me to make better choices. And I don’t mean just acknowledging them to myself. While that’s the first step, it’s not until I say it out loud (or text it to a friend) that it really loses its power.

2. Adjust your plans.

As much as we hate to admit that we can’t do it all, sometimes you just need to adjust your plans to keep from biting everyone’s head off. On Saturday night as I was rolling out the gingerbread dough for a second batch of cookies, I was honest with our 9 year old: “I’m sorry, but I’m feeling frustrated and I don’t want to get frustrated at you when you’ve done nothing wrong, so I just need to do this by myself. You can help on the next batch.”

3. Take a deep breath.

Perhaps the hardest part of corralling our hormones and emotions during the holidays is the frenetic pace that tends to accompany this season. There are things we feel like we need to get done and things that we want to get done, and juggling them both keeps us packed to the gills. That’s why adjusting your plans (see above) and then using the margin that buys you to take a deep breath, eat some chocolate, and reset is so important. If you don’t, it’s likely to continue spinning out of control rather than get better on its own.

4. Make healthy choices.

When I’m tired I crave sugar, and our home is full of sugar right now. But that sugar isn’t just bad for my health and the numbers on the scale; I also know with certainty that the things I eat impact how wildly my hormones spin out of control during that time of month. So when I binge on too many cookies or sweet treats, I’m more likely to snap at or lose patience with my family. This week I’m reminding myself that I really do love the taste of a sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon as much as a peanut butter blossom. And I’m doing my best to choose the former more often!

With just 8 days until Christmas, the stress alone might be enough to make you snappy. But if you have the added bad luck of dealing with hormones, I hope these tips will help you recapture the joy and focus on the goodness of the holiday season!

The post When your Christmas plans & hormones collide appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
What a red dye sensitivity means for our family
The gift of perspective
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Making the perfect cappuccino at home

I’m not really a coffee snob.

I really, really love coffee, and I have strong opinions about what I do or don’t like, but I don’t know all of the terms or processes for making good coffee, and I’m not sure any of my opinions are the “right” ones.

Despite my lack of expertise, when Braun and De’Longhi offered to send me a Dedico Pump Espresso Machine and Dedica Grinder to review, you can bet I gave them an enthusiastic yes!

While we were in Florida, the girls learned how to make delicious cappucinos with their Pop, so they were almost as excited as I was when the boxes arrived.

And let’s get right to the point, these machines are gorgeous!

They’re appliances you can feel good about leaving out on your counter, which is good because you’re going to want to use them often!

De’Longhi Dedica Pump Espresso Machine

This traditional espresso machine offers a sleek 6″ wide design that’s both beautiful and powerful so that you can make 1 or 2 espressos at a time.

It delivers a rich, thick, long-lasting foam whether you’re brewing 1 or 2 shots at once or brewing from a premeasured espresso pod.

And while it’s crafted to provide an authentic Italian espresso with the push of a button, it also has adjustable controls so that you can modify various settings for your personal taste preferences!

De’Longhi Dedica Burr Grinder

The perfect coffee starts with freshly ground beans, and this grinder offers 18 variable settings so that you can make the perfect grounds for espresso, drip coffee or pour over, and French press. Grind a single serving or grind up to 14 cups at once into the keep fresh storage container.

De’Longhi Days of Giving and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer

This holiday season, De’Longhi, Kenwood, and Braun have launched the “De’Longhi Days of Giving” to support Cookies for Kids’ Cancer!

From now through December 20th, 10% of all sales at delonghi.us will be donated to this charity, which is dedicated to funding research for safer, more effective treatments for pediatric cancer. (And to make that even better, through the Challenge Gift Campaign, all donations to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer through the end of the year will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $250,000!)

PLUS, use coupon code cookies at checkout to receive an extra 30% off your purchase through December 20th.

Make someone in your life very happy this Christmas AND support this great organization at the same time!

Visiting delonghi.us to browse and purchase products or cookiesforkidscancer.org to learn more about CFKC.

P.S. Follow De’Longhi on Facebook and Instagram and Braun on Facebook for more product tips and special offers!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of De’Longhi and Braun. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post Making the perfect cappuccino at home appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
6 lessons I’ve learned about kids in the kitchen



  

Weekend reading: December 10, 2016

From Instagram: Next up: string art ornaments.

Have you ever had one of those weeks that started out so beautifully that it felt like everything was right in the world…and then came crashing down so hard that you just wanted to throw your hands in the air?

There haven’t been any big crises or anything…just a series of things like fighting kids, graham cracker houses that were eaten by the dog before we got to decorate them, a broken bowl, etc. But after the sweet start to our advent at the beginning of the week, it feels even more disappointing.

But I’m trying anyway because I really do love this time of year and I don’t want to get stuck in Grinch mode. I made a second set of graham cracker houses and we decorated them last night, and today we’re making gingerbread men. Our plan is to bake, bake, bake this week to prepare tins of cookies for friends and neighbors, and I’m reminding myself of something that I say often to the kids when things don’t quite go their way: “You have two choices: you can be upset right now or you can choose to be happy!”

What I’m reading: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

What I cooked: blue ribbon chili, slow cooker beef roast and carrots, orange-ginger chicken and fried rice (on the menu tonight)

What I’m thinking about:

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

Inspiration for your closet

10 Must-Have Wardrobe Items to Fight the Frump | Life as Mom


Everyday Style December | One Little Momma


5 Outfits with a Grey Cardigan | Putting Me Together

Breathe deep this holiday season

Permission to slow down | The Art of Simple


To You-Who-Would-Be-Fine-with-Skipping-Christmas-Altogether | (in)courage


70 stocking stuffers that will actually be appreciated… | Modern Mrs. Darcy

Food for Christmas morning

I shared more about our Christmas menu in this week’s Easy Homemade newsletter (to get this newsletter each week, adjust your subscription here), but I thought I’d share some other ideas for Christmas morning today as well:

Overnight Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake | Lil’ Luna


Biscuits and Gravy with Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole | Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom


Christmas Morning Breakfast Wreath | Infarrantly Creative

Have a great weekend!

The post Weekend reading: December 10, 2016 appeared first on Life Your Way.

Related posts:
Weekend reading: January 16, 2015
Weekend reading: April 30, 2016
Weekend reading: May 28, 2016
Weekend reading: June 18, 2016



     

Four Disney World tips for regular families on a regular budget

While we were in Disney I got a few emails and messages about the logistics of our trip—how we saved money, what tips we’d share, etc.

It’s important to note that we’ve only done Disney a few times, so I don’t at all consider myself an expert, and I can’t guarantee that any of these are the best way to do things. But here’s what worked for us, a regular family without a ton of time to coordinate the details ahead of time!

1. Stay offsite

I’ve run the numbers again and again, and staying on Disney property just doesn’t make sense for our family. Even with a free dining plan, we’d need two rooms, and it’s just too spendy. (I’ve stayed onsite for the Disney Social Media Moms conference, and it was an amazing experience, so if it is in your budget, it might be worth it for you!)

Instead, Sean found an offsite house on Home Away for under $1,500 that slept all of us plus my parents for 6 nights. It was more than 3,000 square feet and there was an extra bedroom and a pull out sofa as well, so it would have been even less split three ways instead of two. Plus we had a pool in the backyard and a laundry room.

Sean says to make sure the house you choose has enough reviews to give you a good idea of both the good and the bad about that particular house. We skipped over a gorgeous house because a few of the reviews mentioned ants!

2. Take meals into the park with you

One of the things I love about Disney is that there are no restrictions on bringing outside food into the park. Instead of spending a ton of money on food, we ate breakfast at home and packed a lunch each day (Lunchables two of the days and Uncrustables the third). We also took a ton of snacks with us in the bottom of the stroller. This left room in our budget to eat dinner out a couple of times. We still spent our fair share on popcorn, cotton candy, funnel cakes and ice cream (ha!), but a quick trip to Aldi on the first night saved us so much money!

Side note: When our youngest daughter was 2, she was on a dairy-free, gluten-free diet, and I was SO impressed by Disney’s accommodations for her food restrictions. They really do an amazing job, even creating a special dessert just for her at one dinner that had all of her sisters drooling!

3. Use your FastPasses

It had been a while since we’d been to Disney, and the last time we went, you manually requested each FastPass right at the ride and then returned at the designated time. Now you download the official Disney World app, which allows you to book 3 FastPasses for each day of your visit up to 30 days in advance. Once we figured it out, we booked our top rides at each park to avoid those long lines.

Other than those three rides, I held all of our plans loosely. It would be too easy for me to get so caught up in a checklist or schedule and ruin the trip for everyone, so we chose to identify only our top picks and simply wander in between.

Even with this laid back approach we were able to ride almost all of the roller coasters (and several of them many times) and see everything we wanted to see. This time none of our kids really wanted to meet the characters (and I wanted to die when Jackson stomped right on Donald’s foot at one of our only character meet ups!), but it would have been a little tougher to balance if they’d wanted to ride all the rides AND meet all the characters!

4. Plan an off day

We didn’t plan a day off this time, even though I knew how important it was, and we were all beat by the last day. In fact, we actually only stayed at Hollywood Studios for a couple of hours because the babies were falling apart. Fortunately we did have a good part of Tuesday off since we went to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party that night, but ideally we should have done one less day and taken Wednesday off altogether! It’s tempting to pack it in since adding “one more day” at the parks is so inexpensive, but it’s really not worth it. (Writing this for my future self as well!)

5. Give the kids the camera

If you have older kids, I highly recommend handing off the camera to them. We still need to go through the hundreds of pictures our girls took at the parks, but it was so much fun to watch them try to capture everything. Thankfully I have an older Sony DSLR that I felt comfortable handing over, and I can’t wait to see their pictures and create a photo book of our trip.

We did have our Photo Pass scanned at a few places—roller coaster ride photos and the few character meetups we did—and there’s one photo I’ve asked my husband to have printed for me for Christmas, but for the most part the Photo Passes seem way to expensive to me. If you were doing a big trip focused solely on character meetups (which we’ve done in the past), then it might be worth paying the $169 to be able to download all of your photos!

Overall it was a fun—but exhausting trip—and I’m glad we did it. I love taking tinies to Disney because of the wonder of it all (although Jack was not as easily impressed as his sisters were at his age!), but it was also really fun to go back with big kids this time and ride rides together.

What’s your best Disney World tip for families?

The post Four Disney World tips for regular families on a regular budget appeared first on Life Your Way.

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Get my 101 Days of Christmas ebooks FREE!

While I know it would be completely unrealistic at this stage of life, I really miss doing our 101 Days of Christmas series, so I thought I’d do something fun instead:

This week only (through Friday, 12/9), download free copies of both 101 Days of Christmas ebooks from Amazon. (If you don’t have a Kindle, you can still view these on your computer with the Kindle Reader.)

These ebooks feature my favorite recipes, crafts, traditions and printables for the Christmas season, and they’re all family friendly and easy enough that I could do them.