Our family is currently moving from Fort Worth, Texas, to just outside Greenville, South Carolina.  Soon after we decided to put our Texas house on the market, the process went very quickly (just over two weeks between the offer and closing). We were incredibly thankful for this—especially in the current housing market—but we had to work fast. This also meant that we had 24 days between the time we needed to be out of our Texas house until we could move into our South Carolina house. We had to get creative about how we would spend that time! We decided to see it as an ..read more

Our family moved from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Fort Worth, Texas, in January 2020. We've lived here for four and a half years, and I want to share some of our favorite spots for those coming in from out of town or locals looking for something new. Since we live in north Fort Worth, we only visit Dallas occasionally, but I'll also include a few Dallas recommendations.. Our family enjoys spending as much time outdoors as possible, savoring fresh, local food, and exploring farmer's markets. If this resonates with your family, keep reading! Favorite downtown Fort Worth activities:  Sunda ..read more

We're wrapping up our sixth official homeschool year as a family, and I want to share how things went. If you're curious what we used this past year, you can find everything in this post: 2023/2024 Curriculum Choices And if you'd like to read about every curriculum we've used in our first five years, year by year, you can find that in this post: Curriculum Choices for First Five Years of Homeschool Our family schools year-round and I record how many days we’ve homeschooled until we reach at least 180 days of schooling per year. This is not required by the state of Texas, but is helpful f ..read more

“Spending time in God’s Word is the best way you can spend your time. Before you start to feel guilty, let me explain that I am not talking about spending time in God’s Word because you should. I am saying, if someone handed you a simple key to unlock wisdom and virtue and a glimpse of the loving Creator who made you, a key that would change every room you entered for the better, would you ask them if you had to use it?” - Cindy Rollins, Beyond Mere Motherhood Finding time in early motherhood to have a “quiet time”—when life is rarely quiet—can be challenging! It seems that as soon as yo ..read more

With Mother's Day approaching, I know the weight of expectations, grief, and joy that can accompany this day. If you are a mother, your calling itself IS weighty. But the good news is that God has promised to equip you for it and to sustain you every step of the way. Over the past 11+ years of being a mom, I've come to realize the power of our thoughts. Asking the Lord to help us shift our perspective from "I have to" to "I get to," from "I can't" to "He can," can lift us out of a pit of worry, guilt, and despair on even our hardest days. As you celebrate, grieve, pray, and ponder all that m ..read more

I've combined my favorite homemade play dough recipe with an easy, natural way to dye it green. It's just in time for St. Patrick's Day! Here's what you need: 1 cup all-purpose flour* 1/4 cup salt 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 tablespoon matcha powder** 1 cup water 1 tablespoon coconut oil or avocado oil Optional: Essential oil (we used sweet orange) Instructions:  1. Stir together flour, salt, cream of tartar, and matcha powder in a pot. 2. Add water and oil and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a ball and is no longer sticking to the sides of the pot, abou ..read more

  I am thrilled to share our family's choices for this year's March Book Madness! This has become one of our favorite yearly traditions to encourage a love of reading. My children and I have carefully selected 16 picture books from various genres that we hope you'll love, and we've put them into brackets in a printable format. Here's how it works: Download a bracket here. Print it out, then during the month of March, read the books aloud at your own pace. Let your children vote on their favorites, and add each favorite to the line in the next round. Keep reading and v ..read more

Do you need a simple, meaningful way to show your child love this Valentine's Day? Let me show you how to create a special Valentine's Day photo keepsake that your child will love.  Here's how! Go to Canva.com and create a new 8.5 x 11 document. (Or use this template that I created.) Upload a photo of your child. I just screenshotted a favorite photo of each child and dragged it right into the document. Go to "edit photo," then click "BG Remover" to remove the background. Adjust the photo size to your liking. Add a text box and type in your child's name. Add the year, if you'd li ..read more

For the last two years, I've been making trips to a local nail salon every 2-3 weeks to have my nails "dipped." While I have loved the results (and the 2-3 weeks I'm able to wear these nail colors without chipping), I haven't loved my dependence on the salon or the need to return in order to remove them.  So I've been looking for a more natural nail color option that I can do from home that lasts. I'm not interested in re-painting my nails every 2-3 days or wearing chipped polish. I asked my Instagram community for recommendations, and here were the top 3:  Dazzle Dry Bubble Pop Cl ..read more

Salted Caramel Cookie Crumble Bars from the Paleo Baking at Home cookbook Sugar is everywhere, hiding in places you'd never think to look (like bone broth, bread, savory sauces). Sugar is a known neurotoxin, linked to anxiety, weight gain, heart disease, and even cancer. If a food or drink is processed at all, it likely contains sugar. If you read labels, refined sugar can masquerade by many different names including white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and sweeteneres ending in "-ose" (including fructose, maltose, sucrose, dextrose).  When ..read more