Category : Create

Our Fall Traditions: Simple yet Meaningful

a box full of medium sized orange pumpkins

The air has cooled and the leaves are beginning to fall. Football season is in full force and I’ve unpacked our jackets. It is so nice to see the changing of seasons. A new start, a fresh wind of possibilities before us.

I love decoring for fall, drinking apple cider, and spotting pumpkins. Some of the best parts of fall or any season are the traditions that we create in our homes.

Early on in my mom life, I realized if we wanted to create traditions I was the one who needed to do the work to make them happen. I guess before I relied on my mom, aunts, and grandmothers to make the holidays special. Since I was now a mom it was my job to make the holidays special for my own kids. I’m not saying my husband doesn’t play a part in all this, but I’m the one that drives it. He has his own areas of responsibilities in our home, the holidays are an area I tend to lead in.

White mantle with a few pumpkins, books, a plant and a quote board.

How we Celebrate Fall

We try to keep things as simple and cost-effective as possible. One of the first things I do is buy this candle. It is fairly inexpensive and smells just like fall should smell, a mix of pumpkin pie, strong cinnamon, and some other magical smells that will forever remind me of autumn.

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How to Bring Back the Kindness: Have a Kindness Contest

Brown poster size of paper on a blue wall. Paper says "Kindness Chart" on top and lists names and tally marks.

I don’t know if your family struggles with this, but we’ve been having a horrible time being kind to one another. Not just the boys, me too. Not sure of the reason. Maybe it’s because we’re not really settled yet in our new home or we’re all still adjusting to a new life in Tennessee.

Perhaps its due to poor sleep since we’re camping on air mattresses. We moved into our house mid-August but are trying to paint the walls before we move all our furniture from storage. I know it is crazy but it is the way we like to do it. What I do know is the lack of kindness HAS TO STOP!

How to have a Kindness Contest

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10 Healthy Sack Lunch Ideas for Kids

10: Healthy Sack lunch Ideas: Peanut butter and jelly between two tortillas, cubed watermelon and sliced cucumbers.

This is our third year to pack school lunches. Our oldest, Grant, eats in the school cafeteria once a week (he calls it “eating out”) and takes his lunch from home the remaining days. We look at the school menu monthly, then he picks which days to buy a school lunch and marks those days on his calendar.

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