Happy 2016 my friends!! Just like many of you, I was so ready for a new year to begin! There’s something exciting about the chance to start fresh. As 2015 came to a close, I spent time thinking back over the year and really wanted to set some new goals. Then one day shortly after…
Happy October my friends! It’s Veronica and I’m back with a fun and super easy Halloween Family Night! What is Family Night you ask? 🙂 We choose one day a week to spend time with our family. There is typically a lesson, activitiy or game and ALWAYS a treat. It’s the best way I know to reconnect as a family and to teach my kids valuable lessons in a fun and creative way. If you’ve never tried it, you should give it a go! You’ll love it!
For me personally, I love to give. I love to serve and help and be busy doing good things. I love taking care of my family and making sure they have what they need. Those things are important to me because they are important things! BUT…we must be willing to stop and take care of ourselves as well. When we get so wrapped up in taking care of everyone but ourselves, eventually what we will have to give may not be enough.
This is a fun activity that you can play any time, but because Father’s Day is coming, I thought I’d put a fun spin on it. It’s a game that is typically called “Don’t Eat Pete”, and we love it. It’s a great game for ALL AGES, which is always a huge bonus. For Father’s Day we’ve changed the name to “Don’t Eat Dad”.
Hello again, it’s Veronica! Can you tell Father’s Day is one of my favorite holidays? I love celebrating dads! One of my dad’s strengths has always been expressing love for us. Some of my sweetest memories of Father’s Day were the moments when my dad let us know why HE was thankful to BE OUR DAD.
So, I thought I’d make a fun printable for any dad’s out there who would like to take a minute to let their kids know why he loves being their dad!
Hello! It’s Veronica and I’m so happy to be here this month! Since Father’s Day is coming, I thought I’d share some ideas for Family Night with DAD! Why?! Because they are so very important, and so very awesome!! I’ve had a ton of fun ideas swimming around in my little brain, so it was hard to whittle it down. There are a lot of ideas, so just choose what would work the best for your family. I’m also sensitive to the fact that not everyone may have a father in their home, so feel free to adapt it for a grandfather or close friend. They could be your guest of honor for the night!
Even though Valentine’s Day is over, the month of love is still going strong!! I thought it would be fun to share a quick and easy Family Night about love. Of course we love our families, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded! There is great power in loving each other. When love is shown, there tends to be more patience, forgiveness comes more easily and there will always be more joy in our home. Just by loving each other. SO EASY…yet so hard sometimes. I thought it would be fun to explain how contagious it is when we choose to love. It rubs off on everyone. Even your cranky teenagers can’t escape the effects of love. So…on to our Family Night!
Hello my friends!! I’m so happy to be back this year as a contributor for “Or so she says…”. For those who don’t know me yet, I thought I’d briefly introduce myself. My name is Veronica and I’m married to Ricky…AKA Big Daddy, a good ol’ southern boy. I’m the mom of 9 amazing kids. We are literally a “his, hers and ours” family, which is never the ideal situation, but we are proof that it CAN work! I live in the south…which I love! By day, I can ALWAYS be found at my little table making bow ties for my Etsy shop. I’m also over the teenage girls at church, who keep me crazy busy, but I love them! I have many favorite things (my kids being #1), but with 9 kids, my favorite things are simple. Like the fact that Big Daddy was able to fix my 10 year old washing machine this weekend, or how happy I was to sit in a house of sleeping creatures and watch the episode of Downton Abbey that was recorded. Then there’s always the day last week when I found a forgotten hidden stash of chocolate in my t-shirt drawer. Now THOSE are my favorite things…
Anyhoooo…
I’m not your typical blogger. Actually I’m not a blogger at all.
But, I once was.
I knew exactly what I wanted to share this month, and it made me think of my old blog. I really wanted to do the “blog” thing a couple years ago, with the intention of keeping a better record of the little moments in our lives. And I loved it more than I can tell you! I was constantly writing things down, taking pictures, planning what I was going to do for what day, etc. I found myself sitting at my computer more and more. I could easily justify it, because I was being a good mom and recording our lives. Future generations would LOVE me!!!
One day, everything changed. It was a day when I was “BUSY”. Busy with life. Busy with little things…that seemed like big things. Not busy with bad things, just not the best things. I won’t share the whole post, but you can read it here if you would like.
Have you heard about the HOLIDAY HOT LIST of 2014?! If not, you are in for a treat! It’s a digital coupon book, filled with incredible deals from your favorite online shops. I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of my favorite finds to get you going for the holidays! First up…prep your house…
Hello friends! It’s Veronica and I’m so happy to be back sharing another fun Family Night Activity. I’m always looking for fun new ideas on how to strengthen my family.
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we’ve been talking a lot about gratitude. It’s very hard sometimes when I realize my children are growing up in a world of “entitlement.” I think it’s easier than ever before to be ungrateful and to not recognize all the amazing things in our lives.
Happy October! It’s Veronica and it’s so fun to be back this month with another fun Family Night idea for you. For anyone new to Family Night, we basically gather our family once a week, have a short lesson, play some sort of game and then have a treat at the end. I love it because it gives us a time The best advice I can give them for overcoming challenges in life is to be humble, teachable and always willing to adapt.that’s set aside each week for us to learn together as a family and to have fun together.
This month, I thought I’d put a fun Halloween spin on it.
Lately, we’ve had different children who have been struggling with different things. So, I wanted to do a Family Night that would help them in some way as they face these challenges. Although their challenges seem very small in some ways, to them they are huge.
Moving on to Family Night…
Hello everyone! It’s Veronica and I’m so excited to be here this month sharing a fun Family Night idea with you: teaching kids not to gossip. I know Mariel has explained the concept of Family Night before, but for anyone new to this idea, we basically gather our family once a week, we have a short lesson, play some sort of game and then have a treat at the end. It’s such a great way to reconnect as a family, but also a great time to teach your children in a fun and uplifting way.
When school gets back in session, I always feel a bit nervous for my kids. I want them to learn new things, make new friends and be happy as they go through their school year. But, it doesn’t seem so easy anymore. The world seems to be a lot harder to navigate than it was for me as a child. They deal with so much pressure, beginning at very young ages. Friendships seem a bit trickier at times and it feels like more kids struggle with a good solid sense of who they are. And with the awesome tool of social media, these things seem to be magnified. One of the other struggles they face is gossiping. It’s been around forever, and always will be, unfortunately. It can be so damaging and destructive to anyone involved. Recently I’ve seen the effects gossip can have, so I wanted to take the opportunity to teach my kids about it. I think it’s a great reminder for ALL of us, regardless of our age.