Set Free

**TODDLER INTERVIEW - No coaching..** This is pretty funny. Asked Jayden on 1/4/2019 Some questions he didnt understand. Usually when we ask him a question we ask how old he is.... What’s your name?  Jayden How old are you? 2 How old is your mommy? 2 What’s your favorite color? umm Mommy! What’s your favorite food? Buh-ranch (sandwich) Who’s your best friend? Max (cousin) What’s your favorite song? No! What do you like to watch on tv? McQueen (Cars) What’s your favorite animal? 2 What are you scared of? WAAAH! What makes you happy? 😄 (showing me his happy face) Where’s your favorite place to go? Hmmm EAT What do you want to be when you grow up? Wanna eat What is love? Laughs. Who loves you the most? Mommy! Daddy!

As a Mom I have really had to take a step back and acknowledge who I am versus what the world tells me I should be.  It's so easy to start feeling guilty for not being who your kids want you to be in reality it's impossible to be everything for everyone.  I decided to sit down and ponder what I am versus what I am not to remind myself to take note of the blessings I have to offer as a parent. You probably wont find me hiking five miles with my little kids for the fun of it, BUT You can find me more often than not playing for hours of the same game to bring joy to my daughter during a toddler nap. You are more than likely never going to find me building something as a DIY. BUT I can turn a closet into an organized space and make it look pretty while doing it. It's very rare to find me in the kitchen making something I've never heard of or made before BUT You can usually find me using my laundry system that best fits my style. You will rarely ever find m...

Life happened and we didnt do family pictures this fall. I'm hoping to figure out a better plan next year. Ellies 6th birthday  Looking back the year is kind of a whirlwind.  Jayden turned two. We invited family to celebrate at Perfect Games for some arcade games and bowling.  Ellie finished preschool, I turned 30, took kids to the zoo on our anniversary,  found out we had headlice (blogpost about that experience), Ellie took a summer hip hop class, and we attended weddings. Jon and I had a weekend at hotel for my birthday and I ended up getting sick. We went to the Iowa State Fair with Jon's mom and Ellie started Kindergarten.  That would have to be the biggest change of our year. It's been very good to bring routine into her day.  I also signed Jayden up for Kindermusik.  He's been enjoying it and appreciates it more than Ellie did.  Ellie and I both take a dance class. You can watch the recital June 2019. Jon turned 34. In Octobe...

This day is always confusing for me on how to approach it, process, and be cautious on how I word things. I wouldn't want to deepen the pain for someone else. Do I share posts from my past to allow others to not feel alone? Do I open up to offer a safe space for others to learn from my own experiences? Where do I even begin? Everyone mourns differently. Everyone grieves in a different way. What one might want your response to be might hurt someone else. Take with caution and just listen is my best advice. Today I can listen to your story. Open to hearing what breaks your heart. What makes you have to leave a store due to a trigger? What days do you need to step away from social media? Who is someone you can't communicate with because they don't understand?  I'm here to listen and empathize with you as you attend baby showers and have to force a smile on your face. I can relate with asking yourself endless questions of what could of been or countless what if. My tw...

Today I realized I never did a post for Jayden's two year old birthday.  I'm just four months behind. 😂😂 Jayden has changed so much this year and Jon and I are constantly telling each other how much we adore him.  Ellie started to become really hard at this stage of her life, while life has become easier for him. He still has typical toddler stuff but he's so fun! A few words to sum him up are: vehicles, pretend play, cute, loving, sensitive The siblings either love each other or are screaming and crying at each other. Rarely is there anything in between. Even after a huge fight scene Jay still goes back to find her to play but not until getting affection from me first. He's a lot better at playing independently than Ellie ever has been. That has been a huge blessing. I'm hoping it continues when she goes back to school.  I usually find him playing with his cars or looking at books. The best example is I can set out toys for Jayden to play ...

For the last few weeks I've been going back and forth if I wanted to share with everyone what we've been dealing with. But when this hit our home I googled everything for any advice I could get. I was tired of contradictions and wished there was just somewhere I could go with personal experience.  It brought me to the conclusion of wanting a link I could send others to facing this same issue from my own experience.  I'm obviously not a medical professional, but I've lived through it and starting to see life slowly getting back to normal. I can officially say my family has dealt with headlice.  My daughter got it and I got it from her before we caught it. The first thing you should know about headlice is it doesn't take a day or two to get rid of. It takes weeks. There's some ways to help prevent, which I now know about and will use from now until I die. You can find it at Target or Amazon. You can also put some tea tree oil drops in your Shampoo....