Denim Daisies

 Hello, We made it to Friday!!! Grant is on his way home and the boys have an out of uniform day! Fridays are also the days that I focus on small things that “fill my cup”, outside of the zoo of course, so I am in a GREAT mood. I finished a really good book this week as well, A Drop in the Ocean by Jenni Ogden and I’m so excited to tell you about it! It’s a novel about a woman in her late forties who had been a loner and focused her life on medical research. Suddenly her life shifted when her research grant was not renewed and she had to pivot which took the form of moving to a remote island on the Great Barrier Reed in Australia to in theory write a book on her research and quickly morphing into joining in the field work of sea turtle research with the handsome love interest. There is joy, there is sadness, and there is real life in this wonderful story.  I convinced myself when reading through the summary of this book that it would be a very light chick lit novel and boy was...

 Hello, When I was in college I heard of this concept called the gray period. It’s essentially that time between Christmas and March when everything feels cold and gray. It’s also the perfect time to perfect coziness or winter hygge as I love the Scandinavian concept.  Here are five ways that I’m practicing hygge in this season: 1. Custom Candles. I love candles in general, but it was especially fun as a date over the holidays for Grant and I to customize our scents for candles at the candle lab. My favorite of our concoctions is a hazelnut and honey one with a hint of fresh bread for the kitchen. It is the epitome of cozy. 2. Coffee. There’s nothing like a cup of hot coffee, especially a latte, or even americano with some brown sugar oat milk creamer, to make you feel warm and happy inside.  3. Fireplace. Our fireplace in non-operational and so I found this electric stove to use as an insert for $20 that has a space heater feature as well. It’s safe around the kids which...

Hello, I’m going to try to keep up with this concept/challenge/link-up (seriously I need to figure out how to do that properly) from Mixandmatcama.com and alittlebitofeverythingblog.com for this year. It’s a once a month post about different things in each persons life and I love reading it on their blogs so it might be fun to look back on later in life about my own life. 🙂 I already shared my “resolutions” which are essentially these goals but here’s a recap a couple of weeks in of what is actually going to happen… I think. 1. Mailing a letter or card once a month to a friend I don’t talk to regularly. I still love this concept and it’s fun to try to keep connected with a couple of my sweet friends in a way that feels more personal but still doesn’t add too much to an already busy schedule. This will be the last week of the month and I can easily grab a card from the zoo or Trader Joe’s or just write a letter and it’ll still be fun. 2. Family Bible time. Originally I thought a nightl...

 Hello, Winter Market for the Hyde Park farmer’s market is an amazing resource. We go pretty much every week as that’s our compost drop off site but it’s also a great place to get fresh fancy bread or ravioli or even local winter or greenhouse produce! I didn’t even air any pictures this week as I was solo with the kids and needed both hands but winter market takes place in MadTree’s brewery annex and it’s absolutely amazing! (And would be totally worth grabbing a pint if we didn’t have two energetic kids. 🤪) Short post for today, now onto our morning school routine!!! 🥰🥰🥰 💛 Jessie

 Hello, So the kids are back in school today!!! 🥳 I’m so excited for them to see their friends and teachers and to have our normal school year routine back! Today I’m covering an insanely easy dinner, Trader Joe’s has veggie fried rice that if you heat up stove top with some olive oil, add a few eggs to scramble in it (and cook a bit longer to ensure the eggs are fully cooked, and then top with a salad is an absolute win! Jamie liked it, Grant and I liked it, and Arnis was unsure but I think he’ll eventually get behind it.  It was a great easy meal and we will do that again… often! That’s it for today, off to get ready for our morning school routine! 💛 Jessie

 Hello, So two things this week that I want to highlight that I’m grateful for. The first is that I had a very strange encounter yesterday that was full of barbs and just very mean comments that probably weren’t meant to be mean but frankly were. Unsoliticted advice is usually criticism and that’s what it felt like. I came away from that hot and angry that I hadn’t just walked a at at the start, but I was grateful that I had several friends and family who I could reach out to and work through why it upset me even though I knew everything rude was factually incorrect. I’m so grateful that I have my people and my community. Now for the fun thing, I’m also so grateful this week that I got to ski on Monday!!! Actually ski!!!! It was on the roads but my skate skis worked where the cars had been but the plows hadn’t reached. It felt like breathing clear air and I felt my body just relax into the rhythm. I’m so grateful for that opportunity and for Grant watching the kids as soon as he go...

 Hello, Here’s a weekly rolls up… news alert there’s a lot of snow related activities due to four snow days this week. 🥰🙄 Lisa borrowed Grant’s skis and came out with me for a tour of the neighborhood. We met so many of our further down neighbors because everyone was out shoveling and playing at the same time. It was so sweet! My little shoveler. Jamie love shoveling and breaking ice though we may have had to take the shovel away after a while so the boys didn’t decide to sword fight. 🙄 And my beautiful hibiscus glowered like crazy over the past couple of weeks!!! I’m so proud of her!!! 🥰🥰🥰 That’s it for this Saturday. More snow last night so I got up early to shovel while the kids were still asleep. Hopefully swim won’t be cancelled because we really need to get out and do something.  💛Jessie

 Hello! It’s snow day number 4 this week, the kids got to school yesterday which was wonderful and they both really enjoyed seeing all their friends and showing off the skills we’ve worked on over the break to their teachers. One of those big skills was our reading and sounding out words! The boys received several books from their favorite brother duo for Christmas and the Wild Kratts books do not disappoint! Jamie and I have started reading a story out of this or the other compilation book before bed every night since Christmas and now he’s in the rhythm and insisting on it which I LOVE! The books are perfect for his comprehension and reading abilities. I still read the majority but there are a lot of headline words in bold at the top of the page that he practices spelling and sounding out, mostly species names, and he is doing wonderfully. It’s also really fun to point out what Martin and Chris are doing on the pages and they use their taglines in the story which is great for sig...

 Hello, I, like so many others right now, am attempting to start the year from a productive place. For me that mostly looks like making my morning routine enjoyable because then I’ll want to keep it up and essentially forcing myself to be influenced by things that will help me in the long run. This means less HGTV and more minimalism influencers, less lifestyle and more conservation and wildlife on my news feed, less scrolling and more reading fun romance books from the library. That first point is my one for today. I’ve started following Simple Happy Zen on YouTube to help me to see less as normal and happy and it seems to be helping me to slowly work through all the unnecessary stuff that we’ve accumulated over the 11 moves in the 9 years we were on active duty in the military. Each living situation had its own challenges and benefits which usually meant things that were specific to one location but essentially useless at the next. However with the military who knew where we’d en...

 Hello! We’re onto snow day number 3 as the temps start to drop here in Cincy. I imagine we won’t be back in school for the boys at all this week and am enjoying the third week of winter break that feels very much like winter! Here are our top 5 snow day activities!  Hide and Seek. This is so much fun for the boys and results in endless giggles as well as moving our bodies. Bluey candy land! I love this one because it’s the right difficulty level for them and includes dance mode for us to get up and dance throughout. It is a little dysregulating so we definitely need breaks but it’s a lot of fun.  Play dough/magnet tiles. Both kids are really enjoying creating and so this has been a good regulating activity for both of them to have a little solo quiet time. Floor puzzles. Arnis especially loves these but Jamie has even made appearances to help! 🥰 Getting outside and having snow ball fights, shoveling everyone’s driveways, and skiing on the unplowed roads for mommy!!! 💛?...

 Hello, It’s snow day take 2 in Cincy and the boys just woke up as we had zero motivation to get up early when ever age temperatures are in the single digits to low teens and the roads are covered to the point that we will NOT drive anywhere today. Last week we focused on decluttering some more things that we’ve been hanging onto for way too long including multiple car seats. Thankfully “the hub” is a wonderful place to recycle anything, like car seats or even styrofoam containers that have been rinsed out, that can’t be reused and would otherwise go into landfills. It was a $5 fee per car seat and we got a large portion of our basement back and had the peace of mind that they were going into a landfill. #winning! Here’s the link to check it out!  Recycling and Reuse Hub Cincinnati Now off to make pancakes! 😋  💛Jess

 Hello! So it’s the first school day of 2025 and we’ve started off with a snow day! ❄️ I’m taking this as a great sign of fun family times for this year! Last night as the snow was falling we made vegetarian tikka masala as a warm comfort food and used tofu instead of chicken and added some chopped green peppers with the rice, sauce, and garlic naan. It was absolutely delicious and 10/10 recommend. Honestly I preferred it to chicken because the tofu wasn’t as chewy and soaked up the flavor much better.  I hope that you have a wonderful day filled with fun and joy! (I can’t wait for the boys to be fully up for the day to get them in their snow suits and throw them out the back door to have another snow Angel contest or snow ball fight! 🥰) 💛 Jessie

 Hello, Every Sunday this year, and hopefully this just becomes a habit, I plan to post something or someone that I am grateful for. Obviously I am grateful for my family and so I don’t plan to just say my spouse and children every week. More likely it will be something small or even silly. This Sunday I am grateful for my quiet time in all aspects. I am grateful that an influencer I admire introduced me to The Bible Recap, thank you Mix and Match Mama, I am grateful that we have an adorable house that has room for me to have this little cozy nook, I am grateful for my spouse for knowing this is important and giving me this time every morning, and I am grateful for my oat milk latte for being a happy warm or cold drink as needed throughout the year. This is a habit that I love and makes me happy to wake up and enjoy the start of my day. Have a wonderful day! 💛Jessie

 Hello, Here are some highlights from this week. Unfortunately I caught another bug yesterday and therefore will be alternating between sleep and feeding the adorable gremlins today. 🤪 Jamie is starting to enjoy reading with me again before bed. Wild Krats books are our top choice and I’m so excited about this!!! He’s also in a card making phase, I just need to mail out the many thank you cards from Christmas to our friends and family! Thank you Jamie for making them so cute. New Year’s Day hike up some of the Alms park trails. The top is a great payout view and a playground and even bathrooms in the summer. The boys decided that Grant needed to carry both of them before we headed back down the trails! 😂 Legos… need I say more. Both kids joined me for quiet time earlier this week. I love how seeet they were and that they’re showing an interest in this and their personal friendships with God. I decided that pushing them for a mile uphill to a playground would be a great workout fo...

 Hello! So we don’t really do formal/committed resolutions anymore, but it’s fun to think about all the little things that we want to do throughout the year so these are some fun/small/simple ideas. 🙂 Drink a glass of water before every cup of coffee… I know my skin with thank me for this though it might require bladder training. 😂 Floss every night before bed… my dentist would be proud!  Do one “no spend week” a month where only food groceries are purchased. Send a letter/card to someone on our Christmas card list once a month. No rearranging decorations/furniture (outside of perishable stuff… I’m looking at you pumpkins) for three months after putting it up. 😳 this will be my hardest yet I think as I love to rearrange everything every time Grant goes away and he’s going to travel quite a bit in the next few months.  I want to put in silly fun things like learn to do a front handspring or actually dive into the pool once a month or dance in the kitchen while making di...

 Hello! I love the podcast and books by Kendra Adachi, the Lazy Genius. She is all about productivity but in a loving and gentle way. This is a far cry from my history of posting papers all over my room where I would see them as soon as I woke up saying things like, “make your own luck”, “no regrets”, and “you can push harder”. Those were great for my former Army over achieving self, but they didn’t necessarily lead to happiness. Success in my career, absolutely, having a beautiful home and family, yeah. Happiness and enjoyment of all of this though… not so much. All that said, my former self was big on goals and the bucket list mentality. Many people review their bucket list and goals at the start of the year. I like this tempo, but I like Kendra’s approach better of a “someday” list instead of a bucket list. Slight change in words and it becomes less “do or die” and less dramatic. Here are the things on my someday list now, this will change, but it’s allowing me to have my dreams...

 Happy New Year!!! It is 2025 and I am ready to get into it! I think that it will be a fun year for us as a family. We have a lot of fun things planned with a spring break trip for all the guys birthdays (Grant, Arnis, and Jamie are all within a couple of weeks surrounding spring break) and a summer 4th of July trip to the lake on top of wonderful camps, school fun, and the activities that fill our days with memories. There will definitely be some hard times and some disappointments. To be completely honest we miscarried three times last year which has been hard emotionally on me but we are so grateful for all the good things in our lives and know that God has a plan even if we don’t understand it. That brings us to the word of the year this year and gratitude. Originally we had thought content again but talking with Dustin and Lisa for our annual New Year’s Eve meet up a few different words seemed more fitting like fulfilled and gratitude. I like gratitude the best because it give...