Just Your Everyday Mama Blog
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Birthday Post!
Hello friends! Today is my birthday! I never imagined this is where my life would be at 37, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We don’t really make a big deal out of our birthdays anymore. Except for Barrett and his friends birthdays. So it just ends up being a normal chill day for us. But I figured it would be a great opportunity to write a little bit on here!
I am feeling so grateful. Another year around the sun, and what a year it has been! If you told me at this time last year that I would be on here trying to learn how to be a blogger, I would have laughed in your face! HA! This is definitely not something I saw in my future, but it has already pushed me to learn a huge amount of new stuff that I never would have thought I would be trying to learn. I am so excited to see where this journey takes me.
This has also been a pretty cool experience for me to step wayyyyy outside of my comfort zone and put so much of myself on display. That’s usually the opposite of how I am until I really get to know people. This is a nice loophole to my social anxiety as well!
Thanks for checking out my page today and for following along with me on this awesome journey. I am learning and growing more and more everyday and I am so grateful and excited for what’s in store! Have an amazing day, friends!
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7 Ways to Give Back to the Community
Hello there, Friends! I hope you are having a wonderful day! I am so happy that you have found your way to my site and I hope, as always, you find some helpful stuff here. I am back to the grind of writing and focusing on the blog itself again and I am so happy about it!
Today, I wanted to share with you some awesome ways that you can give back to your community. This stems from our “kindness projects” that we try to incorporate into our weekly schedule. It is very important to Josh and me that we raise Barrett to be a helpful and kind little savage and these are some of the ways we try to accomplish that.
We try to make these appealing and fun to get Barrett interested in them, but also make sure that he understands the “Why” we do it as well. I think it’s important that he understands how important it is to be a kind and good person to those around him.
Some of these ideas do cost a little money, but some are free and easy as well. Let’s dive in!
- Around school time every year, I do at least one big school supply shopping trip to donate locally. I have done this for as long as I can remember and I look forward to it every year. We pick a place or places to donate to, look at their list of needs, and go shopping! Last year Barrett was old enough to really help and grasp the concept of what we were doing. We had so much fun. Barrett got such a kick out of filling up a cart for other kids. He was determined to make sure that everyone had enough crayons and glue lol! This is something that doesn’t have to be a huge amount of anything. A few packs of crayons or markers can be just a few dollars and can help out a lot.
- Food shopping for the local shelter or food drive is another that we love to do. This is usually something that we do around Christmas time and include it in our 25 days of Christmas activities list.
- Buy books for the Little Free Libraries in the area. Our local library system almost always has books on sale for pretty cheap, so during the summer months, we buy a bunch and drop them around at the little free libraries in our area. If you like this idea, check out their website and find one near you! https://littlefreelibrary.org/. We also usually give drop our old books off in these as well.
- Another type of donation shopping I try to do is for personal hygiene items for those in local shelters. We always put so much focus on food items that this type of thing can easily get overlooked as being needed. Deodorants, soaps, feminine hygiene products, shampoos, etc. are always a necessity.
- Spend a little extra time while you are out at the park or playground and pick up trash. We usually pick a day or two a month that we set aside time to just go walk around and pick up trash at the park (and play of course).
- Join a local “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook and donate items to neighbors. This has been a favorite of mine for the last few years. I really love the sense of community that can come from groups like these.
- Paint rocks and leave them around walking trails or playgrounds. I think this became a thing in our area during the COVID craziness. When we were locked down and trying to avoid other people, we spent a lot of time on our local walking trails. Barrett was pretty young at this time so I am sure he doesn’t remember this, but he would get such a kick out of finding the painted rocks that others had left around. I know how excited it made him so this is something we like to do and hopefully bring a smile to someone else’s face. We have done them a few different ways, some just painted, with stickers, little pictures painted on them, etc.
Our most recent rocks. We just seal them with Mod Podge now. There you have it, friends! Our favorite ways to give back to the community! There are tons of other ways to give back and be part of a community, but these are some of our favorites. I hope you enjoyed this article! I would love to hear about the different ways that you and your family give back to your local community! Jump on over to my Facebook page and join the discussion there, friends! Until next time, have a phenomenal day!
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I am Back…. Again!!
Alright, friends! I have finally gotten my site all settled and I am ready to rock and roll! Thank you all for your continued support and words of encouragement. Stay tuned for lots of fun coming your way soon!
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Goal Setting For the Year
Hello there, Friends!! Happy New Year!! 2023 is going to be our year, baby! And to kick it off, I am going to share with you how I am going to keep it on track to make sure it’s a great year.
I am a list maker and a planner to a fault haha. I have literally made a list of “lists I need to make”. And Josh is convinced that I am solely responsible for keeping the planner industry afloat! It is the only way I can keep everything straight. And like I always tell Josh before I go grocery shopping, “if it ain’t on the list, I’m not gonna remember it”. So I write EVERYTHING down.
Setting Up Goals For the Year
One list I always make at the end of each year, or in the first week of the new year, is a main goals list. Always. I sit down and reflect on the things this past year that maybe didn’t turn out that great and I want to fix them or things that are left unfinished. I write them all down. Then I look forward to the year ahead and write down all of the things I want to accomplish. I prefer to include everything from financial goals, family goals, business growth goals, things I want to try, etc in this main list. This main list ends up being broken down into smaller chunks so it is not so overwhelming to look at all the time.
When I am writing down all of these goals, I try to make sure I include a lot of varied personal things. I want to push myself in all areas of my life. I set fitness goals, new recipes that I want to try, and places to visit, books to read, etc. I like to keep the goals balanced so that I am not neglecting any one area of my life.
After I have the majority of the list completed, I go over it and refine it. By this, I mean really examining them and making sure they are achievable and realistic for my life currently. If they are not, I just mark them off or adjust them as needed. That is now my main goal list for the year that I will be adding to and checking off as the year progresses.
Breaking the Lists Down
The next step is I break the master list down. This can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. I like to set up main categories and then break them further down into monthly goals. When I have a smaller list of goals in front of me, things always feel way more achievable.
Once they are in those smaller chunks, I prioritize them. Now when I look at each list to see what is next, I can easily figure out what’s next to tackle.
For some types of goals, I like to make charts. It makes me way happy to get to fill in a space that shows gradual progress toward my goals. It can also help to keep me honest if I start to see a decline in progress. I keep these simple usually as I am not much of an artist. I do like to hand draw them though; it is way more satisfying! These can be charts, graphs, pictographs, etc. Whatever is going to help motivate you to achieve that goal.
For long-term goals, like saving a large sum of money, I like to break them down into smaller goals. So if I wanted to save $5,000 by the end of the year, I would set a monthly goal of setting aside $420 every month in savings. Doing this helps keep you on track for those larger goals that can seem overwhelming in the big picture.
Planning to Achieve
I love to sit with my planner on Sunday evenings and set up for the week ahead. I write out everything I need to remember or know for the week. If I don’t, it doesn’t exist ha!
During this time, I look at my various goals lists and decide what I can mark off this week. I try to make sure I mark a few off each week, but it depends on how busy we are and what I can fit in.
I do also try to keep it varied with what I am focusing on regularly. I tend to get bored easily, so if I keep it switched up, it helps to hold my interest. This way ensures that I’m keeping a good balance of things, as well. Keeps me well-rounded.
I do not focus too much on that master list at this point. However, once a month I update it with new goals and mark off any that have been achieved. I don’t like to look at it too often, especially early on when there is not much marked off. Once more things are marked off, it’s less intimidating to look at.
That’s it, friends! Now just mark ‘em off and celebrate your progress! I do this every year and it is such a fantastic tool to help keep me on track throughout the year. I hope you find this helpful! Have a great day, friends!!
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Felt Stocking Craft
Hello friends! My schedule has been a bit off lately, so I apologize for the lack of posting recently. It will probably be a bit wonky until the beginning of the year. I have kind of set my focus on the start of the New Year and have been planning for that instead of the upcoming weeks.
With that being said, I am still going to be sharing our crafts as I can. I wanted to share this cute little Christmas Stocking Craft that we did recently. It is Super easy and budget-friendly, my favorite! All of the supplies came from Dollar Tree.
Supplies
Felt Stockings– We found a pack of 12 from Dollar Tree. You could easily make your own, but I am not currently that patient of a person right now.
Felt Decorations– We totally cheated and found pre-made stocking decoration kits. I grabbed 2 of those.
Christmas Stickers– We found these super cute, puffy, glittery packs last year. I think I saw them there again a few weeks ago so they may still have some.
Any other various little decorations you have. DT also has a ton of little bows, other types of stickers, etc. These are pretty versatile.
Glue– we used both white school glue and stick glue. You could also use a glue gun if your child can do so safely. Always under adult supervision, of course.
Instructions
We just unwrapped everything and laid it out on the floor in front of us. Barrett got the glue stick and I got the school glue. We each grabbed a few stockings and started decorating. The little stocking decorating kits had a few pieces that I didn’t like the way they looked on the stockings, so we just turned them into extra decorations. They turned out super cute! To hang them up, I just put some scotch tape on the back and stuck them up.
We ended up with 12 stockings and 4 other felt decorations out of them all of this. We have a few supplies left over that we will use later on for another craft. Taking into consideration the couple of things we already had, we spent about $7 for all of this craft. Not too bad at all.
We enjoyed this quick little craft! I was able to add them to a couple of different places in our home to help add a little holiday cheer.
Thanks for stopping by today friends! I hope that you have a fantastic rest of your day!
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The Universe At Work
Do you ever have a time when you feel like there are all these pieces of things around you just waiting to fall into place? Like, you have so many things up in the air. They are all just hovering there. You’ve got these ideas swimming around in your brain. Ideas that are about to collide with each other and create this beautiful, wonderful, stupendous….thing.
I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m listening to my gut. It’s telling me something big is coming my way. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.
There is just something about the timing of this blog, how it just clicked in my head one day, that “Today is the day”.It fits so well into our family and some upcoming changes we will be having in the future. It all just kind of fits. Like it was always meant to be this way, but it just needed these other things to fall into place first.
I remember feeling this way when I decided to leave Arizona and drive back to my childhood home in New York. The idea had always bounced around in my head, but never seemed reasonable. Then one day, BAM! It clicked. The pieces just fell together and it was time to go. That ended up being one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Even something as simple as this blog post. I’ve had this topic written down to write about for weeks. Up until right now, it didn’t feel right. The words I wanted to articulate just wouldn’t come through. As I sat here tonight getting my stuff out of my bag to start writing, I was thinking about a few things I wanted to work on. All of a sudden, that made me think of this and the words started to flow. So crazy how that works.
My original thought had been about universal meetings. Like how you don’t meet people until you’re absolutely supposed to. Or people are put into your lives at a specific time. That was spurred on by a recent meeting with a new friend. We have literally lived right behind each other for years and somehow have never run into each other before. We both have boys the same age, we use the same walking trail near our homes, and we are active in similar circles. Yet somehow, we never connected before. When we finally did, we started seeing other everywhere! At the store, playgrounds, the library, and so on. We both even said that it must be the universe at work!
I have also recently had the pleasure of spending time with a few different moms that share a similar head space with me. It’s like somehow, we don’t meet these people until we are ready. Or they enter our lives at just the right time to help our growth.
Whatever it is, God or the Universe, it is such a crazy beautiful thing.
STORYTIME! Josh and I have been friends for almost 20 years (yikes!) We were best friends for a while, tried dating (a few times), didn’t work, stayed friends, and had a falling out, fast forward to 6 years ago. We hadn’t talked in like 3-4 years at that point. We had no idea where the other one lived. We knew nothing about each other’s lives. We didn’t have each other’s phone numbers anymore. You get the picture. I do an update on my phone and get a random Facebook message from Josh that had been sent like a year or so ago that I had never gotten. and He had since deleted his account. I was in a relationship at the time, so I deleted the message and moved on.
That relationship was coming to an end since my feelings were waning. I ended up spending an accidentally drunken night at a friend’s house when she was doing my hair. We sat on her back porch and talked and talked. It was a beautiful night. We talked about things just like this, actually. And we sang. Maybe that was just me? hehe. That night had a profound impact on my life.
One of the topics we talked about was Josh. I have no recollection of what we talked about, but I know it was about him. It set into motion a series of events that led to this warm, happy bubble that is my life. I let a few days go by, but couldn’t stop thinking that I should reach out to Josh. It actually kind of started to bother me. Almost like I was being nagged or pushed to reach out to him. I finally gave in and messaged one of his buddies that I was friends with on Facebook. I give him my number and ask him to have josh shoot me a message. He does and I get a message from josh a little while later. We briefly chatted and then said goodbye when I realized I had no real reason to reach out to him.
As it turns out though, he was in the same relationship boat that I was.
We both ended up with those relationships ending a short time later, within days of each other, actually. (Let me reiterate, we had no contact other than that short text exchange for like 4 years).
A short time later I get a text from Josh and we start catching up. And yes, I was all googly-eyed over him again just through text. We find out that we don’t actually live too far apart and he was going to be driving up my way in the next couple of weeks to visit family. We talk some more and he ends up driving up early to stay in town and hang out with me on his way to visit family. I bring my Xbox and a 6-pack to greet him at the hotel (it’s not as terrible as it sounds, it’s a very US thing). Everything fell right back into place; It was like we hadn’t spent a day apart. We faced some obstacles; long distance is a bitch, but we managed.
Now here we are, all because of some push from the universe. If I hadn’t moved to New York, we would have never been able to see each other. If we had been in different phases of our relationships when I reached out, would Josh have even saved my number? If I hadn’t had that drunken night with my girlfriend, would I have had that nagging feeling to reach out to Josh? I realize these are questions I will never have the answers to, but it’s just so crazy to think how different things could be if you don’t listen to your gut and have patience.
If you made it this far, you must know me personally and are already used to my ramblings! Thank you so much for taking the time today to read my post! I hope you have an amazing rest of your day, friend!
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Monday Musings
Feeling Out of Balance Lately
Hello there, Friends!! I hope you are well!! I find myself feeling a bit out of balance lately and I thought I would share my thoughts on that with you today. I know the cause, I know how to fix it and keep the balance, but wouldn’t ya know it? I find myself with zero motivation lately and it is bumming me out. So here’s to putting it out there and seeing if breathing life into it this way will help me get that motivation going.
Lately, I have engrossed myself in Social Media, YouTube videos, Masterclasses, how-to guides, you name it. This means I’ve had my face tied to a screen pretty much non-stop lately. I can always feel it when I do this. My brain almost starts to feel fuzzy and I have more trouble focusing. And Lord knows, I definitely don’t need any more trouble there! I need more time with my face in the sunshine or shoved in a good book. Without that balance, everything feels out of whack to me.
I also have not been as good to my body as I should be. Since Halloween trick or treating with our little guy, we’ve had an overload of sweets in the house. And, I am a sucker for fall-weather baked goods! So I haven’t been as good with “Moderation” as I should be lately. I also haven’t had any motivation to food prep so I haven’t been eating nearly as well as I should be. There is definitely a bag of carrots in my fridge that didn’t get touched AGAIN this week!
I know how gross I am gonna feel when I eat this way, but I always end up doing it to myself anyway. It’s so ridiculous that I know that I am doing it to myself as I am doing it. One Twix bar or Fun size Skittle pack at a time, but I just don’t stop. All the sugar and crap that goes into those types of things do more harm than good. But it’s so tasty!
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t usually tell myself “No” by any means, But I am usually much better with moderation. I’ve been extra bad about late-night snacks recently. I tell myself “YOLO” in the moment, but always feel gross right after. Especially when I know I may have overindulged earlier in the day!
Since the weather has turned cold, we have been indoors a lot more: being bums. That lack of physical activity really affects my mood. And I don’t know if I am just getting old, but I find that if I have too many lazy days, then I feel it all over. I know that I need some kind of activity. I know that I will feel SO MUCH better if I get up and work out. I know that if I head outside in the cold and take a quick walk, I will be so happy that I did. But man, getting up the motivation at the moment is so darn tough for some reason. Like, really, “just put your coat on and go outside already!”.
A lot of my problem is not being able to set up a routine that works for me to work out. Our schedule is so off the wall these days that it makes it hard to plan any specific set time for anything. I know a good solution would be to just get it in when I can, but I am better with a routine. Just need to find that balance, I guess.
These are all things that I one hundred percent have control over. There is absolutely no reason I should be sitting here typing about this instead of getting up and doing it, but yet, here I am. I know that even the smallest steps to fix some of these problems will help me get back on track and back in balance.
Thanks for reading, friends! I am going to read this over and over again so that hopefully it helps get my butt kicked into gear.
I want to hear from you! What helps you get motivated? What lights that fire under your butt to get things rolling? Come on over to my Facebook page, Just Your Everyday Mom Blog, and join the conversation! See you there!
Have a great day, friends!!
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Monday Musings
Hello there, friends! I hope you are having a great day so far! I wanted to take some time today and share some thoughts I have been pondering recently. I have spent a lot of time lately doing some inner reflection that has had an enormous impact on the way I see things and I thought others may find it interesting.
You only get one trip around the Sun.
I know that we all know this, but I feel like I have never really put enough thought into it. Like, really thought about what it means. But if this is my one trip, I want to make it a damn good one for sure! I do not want to find myself years later with nothing but regrets.
Over the years I have managed to talk myself out of some pretty terrific things and I refuse to continue to do that. I have spent so much time worrying about things that don’t matter in the long run and have no effect on my life. Thanks to overthinking and anxiety, I have let opportunities pass that would have been life-changing.
And trying new things? You could spend your entire life trying new things and there would still be so many things that you would miss out on. How terrible is it that so many of us spend our lives in a bubble? We sleep, eat the same foods over and over, work, stare at our electronics, and repeat. We don’t go on adventures nearly enough! Or try a new food that is way out of our comfort zones. Or even do something spontaneous. I want to try as many new things as possible in this life. I have spent part of my life in that bubble, but not anymore!Who cares if I have cellulite or rolls when I bend over? NO ONE
I am screaming this to myself over and over again for the last few months. I have always been self-conscious about my body and its features. My cellulite, my stretch marks, my wonky eye. The list goes on. I tend to wear baggy clothing to hide my tummy roll and up until this summer, I NEVER wore shorts. Well, not anymore, bitchachos. I bought new shorts this year and absolutely loved wearing them, jiggly cellulite and all. Heck, I even bought a 2 piece bathing suit as well. I always had this idea that I needed to look a particular way to feel attractive. Be skinnier, dye my hair, always wear make-up, etc. All the things I thought were necessary to feel good about myself. I never achieved this, though. And I am so thankful for that.
I realized that it’s not me that needs to change, just how I think about myself. My cellulite- it’s genetic. I can’t do a darn thing about it. My tummy- carried and gave life to the coolest dude around. And, of course, my wonky eye- HA! Good luck winning a staring contest against me! A little switch to positive thinking has gone a long way for me.
As far as worrying that someone will look at my outfit and think “oh, she looks fat and frumpy” or whatever it is I feel like people think. It all comes down to this. Does it really matter? The answer is super simple.
NOPE! It doesn’t matter, not even a little bit. I am focusing more on the things that actually do matter. Am I comfortable? Is my kid happy? Check and check.Be More Kind
There has been a lot of “kindness” talk lately, and I love it! We should all be more kind. Kind to ourselves, kind to our neighbors, kind to animals. If we all truly only get one trip around the Sun, why be anything but kind?
Thanks for stopping by today, friends! I hope you enjoyed my little musings for the day. Have a wonderful rest of the day and week!
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Kids Christmas Ornament Crafts
2 Easy and Budget Friendly Kids Christmas Ornament Crafts
Good morning friends! I hope you are doing well this morning! We are starting to gear up for the holidays here in my home and I am so excited!. I never thought I would be the type of person to want to start decorating my home in early November, but after having a kid, I just can’t help but get into the spirit! We start December with a full list of activities to really kick off the Christmas season. I will be sharing our current list for 2022 Christmas in another post since it’s still in rough draft form at this point.
For this post, I am going to highlight some of our favorite previous holiday ornament crafts with you. I will include supply lists, where we purchased materials, instructions, and pictures if I can find some that we have taken. Most of the materials we use come from Dollar Tree so they are really affordable.
Popsicle Stick Stars:
These are super easy and so fun to make. They are also very versatile so you are not limited to only stars. We’ve done little trees, characters, etc. and there are a ton of ideas out there to take these to the next level. This year we are going to try little red trucks. I will post those as soon as I can because I am so excited!
There are so many different ways to set these up depending on your child’s ability level. For us, I use a hot glue gun and make the shapes beforehand, then let Barrett decorate. It could also be done the other way though and they could decorate them before they are assembled.
When it comes to decorating these, the sky is the limit. Crayons, markers, paints, stickers, etc. can all be used. Dollar Tree is our go-to for most of these items as well. There are so many small decorations and embellishments that you can get for these!
These also make GREAT Christmas gifts from the kiddos. You can thank me later haha.
Supplies:
Popsicle sticks– Dollar tree or Walmart. We usually use a mix of plain ones and multicolored ones. Each bag contains a lot so you will probably have some leftovers for other stuff.
Glue- Regular school glue works fine if you don’t mind waiting for them to dry, but I usually just use the hot glue gun.
Twine or string- This is needed to make a loop to hang it on the tree.
Embellishments- Whatever you have to use.
Hanging Snow Globe:
We made these for the first time last year and will be doing them again. And again. We had such a blast picking out the inside decorations for these and making them. They are super versatile so they can be made to fit any style or decor. And they can be as budget-friendly or as fancy as you want to make them.
We buy our supplies for these from….you guessed it! Dollar Tree! I will note that it’s probably better to shop for these supplies a little earlier in the season since they tend to run out later on. I usually start picking up these supplies in early to middle of November to ensure we have a good variety.
The first step is to decide on an ornament to use. DT has pre-made clear ones that open at the bottom to make it easy peasy to make these. Once you have the ornament picked out, you can pick out what will go inside of them. You are limited by what will comfortably fit inside and still look the way you want it. With that being said, there is still a humungous number of possibilities for these. We usually just walk all throughout DT and see what we can find in the different aisles. Last year we decided on the small figurines that go with the Christmas villages. These are a perfect size and have a great base for gluing. You can also use small action figures, ornaments, pictures, etc. The possibilities are pretty endless with these.
Next, pick out what kind of filler you want to use. We use the small styrofoam balls from DT. Add some glitter and it creates a beautiful effect. We also like to grab ribbon to cover the bottom portion of the ornament and some string or twine to hang it with. The hard part is done!
To Assemble:
Lay the inside decorations how you want them to look inside the snow globe. Once you get them just right, glue them down to the inside portion of the bottom of the ornament. Make sure the globe can comfortably close with a little room to spare. Let it dry.
Take the clear globe part and pour in your filler. Fill it to your liking. Then screw in the bottom part of the globe that has your decorations glued to it, ensuring everything fits comfortably. If it is too tight, take out some of the filler. Once you get it all to fit just right, apply some glue to the outside threads and screw both pieces together.
If you like the look of it as is, no need to add anything else. But you can add some ribbon to hide the bottom portion of the ornament and some bows to it as well if you would like. Then just get some string or twine and attach it to the top. Done and Done.
Note: I do not add water to these. You can, but I choose to avoid the hassle of potential leaks that could happen.
Supplies:
Globe Ornament- Dollar Tree is my go-to for these, but Joanns, Michaels, and Amazon all have them available as well. They may be a different style than what I have been discussing, but the process should be about the same.
Miniature decorations– Whatever you can find that you like and will fit.
Filler– Styrofoam balls, glitter, confetti, etc. Pretty widely available as well.
Ribbon– We use DT ribbon for this usually.
Glue and String
These are some of our favorites so far. And they are so versatile! I will be posting more in the coming weeks! Until then, be well, friends!
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My Amazing Community
Hi, there friends!! I hope you are well today! I am feeling very full today. Full of appreciation for the wonderful community I live in. There are so many amazing things in our area. I was just chatting with another mom the other day about how nice it is to be able to drive ten minutes and have every store you could need, but there are still plenty of wooded areas and beautiful natural parks to enjoy. Plus, some awesome farms and orchards.
Every time our lease comes up, we always debate moving somewhere new (we both get the moving bug from time to time). But when we sit down and weigh it out, this place has won 3 times so far. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect place for us.
We spend a lot of time at our local libraries. Barrett LOVES books!! It is my dream come true! We read about 2-4 books a night most of the time. Sometimes during the day he will grab a stack of them and sit down on my lap to read. He is such a smart kid, too. At three and a half, he is already able to read quite a large amount of 3-5 letter words. Now, we are careful what we spell out in front of him! His current favorite pretend play is “library”. He sets up the books in the couch creases and pretends I am the patron and he is the librarian. I ask him for books based on different things on the covers, like certain words, an animal, a color, etc. Then he picks out that book for me and checks it out to me. It’s super cute and his idea, but I totally run with it. It makes my mama’s heart all warm and fuzzy that he loves his local library and books so much.
We also have an abundance of parks, playgrounds, and hiking and walking trails. We recently joined a local family hiking group and have gotten to explore some new areas with them. We have also gotten to meet some awesome people as well! And the playgrounds are all so convenient to get the kiddos to blow off some steam. We are lucky to have quite a few choices very close to us. It’s always nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air.
Additionally, we are blessed to live in an area with many locally owned, small businesses. All of the small business owners I have met here have turned out to be some of the most supportive and uplifting people I have ever met. I love the sense of community that this creates. Neighbors helping neighbors. It’s a wonderful thing. If you haven’t already, check out my post here, highlighting a fantastic little boutique in Sykesville, Md.
Through these activities and places, I have had the pleasure of meeting so many nice people in the area. Through some local groups, I’ve met some AMAZING women. I’m happy to say I have made some pretty phenomenal friends here!
I never imagined I would be the play date hosting, park-going every other day, stay-at-home mom. But I am so happy to be doing it in a such wonderful place.
Thanks for stopping by the page and reading my random ramblings about my awesome community! Have a great day, friends!
