Some Places to Explore if your Kids (Or YOU!) are Obsessed with Animals…

One of my hopes this year with the theme of explore was that I would discover things I’d been missing in my own (relative) backyard. I am looking forward to talking about traveling new places later in the year, but I am thrilled with the little places in the metro Phoenix area where we’ve been exploring the past month, so I wanted to share a few today. Continue reading

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Cultivating Memories

As we head into the holiday season, I’ve been reflecting how best to intentionally spend my time. It feels like there’s extra pressure this year to make it special as it’s the last Christmas my son will be an only child and that makes it tempting to try and do ALL THE THINGS. But I don’t want to do all the things and feel the consequences of an already difficult pregnancy under the added stress of exhaustion. And for that matter, I don’t just want the holidays to be the time we’re consciously choosing ways to make memories with our kids.  Continue reading

Cooking: Chili Mac

Here’s my problem with Pinterest inspired projects: They often don’t align with my end goal. One of the reasons I wanted to focus on cooking this year was to learn a few more go-to recipes for menu planning so we can cook ahead and/or take advantage of smart grocery shopping and sales. However, it seems that whenever I want to try a new recipe, I go to my Pinterest board or one of my few cookbooks I’ve kept and I end up asking my husband to go to the store for all kinds of ingredients we either wouldn’t usually cook with, or would enjoy cooking with but would never keep as part of our weekly menu! Not time or budget friendly at all! Continue reading