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Helping Your Child Cope with the Loss of a Pet
2020 was difficult for a lot reasons, but the hardest part for our family was losing two pets. Both animals were young and their deaths were very sudden and unexpected. The most devastating loss was my daughter’s favorite cat, Henry. Up to that point, she had never experienced any sort of death in her life. While I’m grateful for that, it didn’t make Henry’s passing easier to bear. I’m not an expert in helping children through losing a pet by any means, but I wanted to share things that helped us work through grief. I was scouring the internet and asking Instagram friends for suggestions to help. I wished that…
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2020 Reading Recap
One of my favorite thing to do at the end of the year is look back on my reading. In 2020, my goal was to read 100 books. As of this blog post, I have completed 171 books! It was pretty fun to see my stats on Goodreads. Don’t be too impressed, as a lot of the books I completed were middle grade. Some of them were pre-reading for Claire, some of them were reading with Claire (yes, I count read alouds in my Goodreads) and some were just for my own enjoyment. I can normally knock out a middle grade novel in a day, so they’re fun palate cleansers…
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The Best Beachbody Programs for Beginners
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but with New Years approaching, the time felt right. Many people make New Years resolutions to exercise more and eat better. Whether you overindulged during the holidays, aren’t feeling great, want to take better care of yourself or want the healthy outlet of working out, it’s always a great decision to take better care of yourself. But it can feel so overwhelming to know where to start. Maybe you get a gym membership, but you feel self-conscious or don’t know how to use all the machines. I’ve always preferred at home workouts. I can exercise without feeling like anyone is…
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2020 Reading Recap – Read Aloud Edition
As 2020 is coming to a close, it’s always fun to assess our reading over the year. I keep a log of all the books Claire and I read together – whether it’s for school or just for fun. I tallied up the chapter books we read together in 2020. Our grand total was 34! Most of them fell into the classic or fantasy genre, but we also read some mysteries, contemporaries and funny books. Claire and I looked our list over and thought it would be fun to share our top 10 favorite read alouds of 2020. I’m including the books in the order we read them, rather than…
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The Ultimate List of Kids Chapter Books
It’s so exciting when your child starts reading independently! Before you know it, they’re on to beginner chapter books. But what about when beginner chapter books are too short or babyish? Check out our favorite beginner chapter books here. There’s another category of chapter books called middle grade. They’re supposed to be for ages 8-12, but many of them offer up more mature themes (divorce, loss, abuse, bullying) or an intensity that might not be appropriate for a child on the younger end of the spectrum. This post is a huge list of books for that in-between age. My daughter is an advanced reader, but she’s not ready for quite a…
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October Reading Wrap Up
These reading wrap ups are some of my favorite posts! I absolutely love talking about books (in case you haven’t noticed). I’ve been considering starting a booktube channel on YouTube solely to discuss books. For right now, though, I’m going to continue writing about them. Maybe someday I’ll do both. I read a ton of books this month (26!) and a huge reason for that is that I participated in my first reading challenge! The challenge was started by Chantel (you can check out her booktube channel here). Chantel has a free TBR random prompt website called Hey Reader! It helps you pick the next books to read. I’m including…
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10 Bible Verses When You’re Feeling Anxious
It feels like there are so many reasons to live in anxiety, especially in this day and age. But as Christians, God tells us not to fear or be anxious. He promises us that He is with us. How do we know what He has promised? We have the Bible – the God-breathed, inspired word of God. When the world is spinning out of control and everything seems gray, His word is black and white. Though it was written thousands of years ago, He still speaks to us through it today. If you’re struggling with fear or anxiety, I pray these verses encourage you and keep your eyes fixed on…
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The Best Vegan Soups
I don’t know what the weather is like where you live, but here we are fully in the chillier fall temperatures. Summer has had its last hurrah and now every day feels crisp and cool. Fall is my favorite season. Between the beautiful leaves, the cooler temperatures and the general cozy feeling, what’s not to love? If you’re anything like me, the cooler temperatures also signal a shift in the foods you eat. Cooler weather is soup season! Soups aren’t always known for being particularly healthy, but all of these soup recipes I’m sharing are plant based, so not only are they free of animal products, but they’re also packed…
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32 Birthday Goals
Last month I turned 32. It’s interesting to think about the fact that I’m (at least) already a third of the way through my life. In fact, it’s rather sobering. I was reflecting on whether or not I’d want my life to continue on the same trajectory. There are things I’d like to change going forward and things I would never want to change. I stumbled across this video from Chantel over at An Intentional Life. I thought it was a brilliant idea to set some birthday goals for myself. It’s almost like New Years Resolutions, only “goal” sounds less intimidating than “resolution.” In addition, when you’re making so many goals,…
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Our Favorite Ways to Eat Tempeh
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything plant based. I know you’ve been thinking about how much you miss it 😉 I used to post weekly plant based recipe round ups. As time has gone on, I’ve transitioned from frequently sharing about food to posting more about homeschooling and books. While I’m not 100% plant based (I eat farm fresh eggs and occasionally fish/seafood), I do primarily eat a whole foods plant based diet. If you’re interested in learning more about my food journey, you can read about that here. Today I wanted to talk about tempeh. Have you heard of tempeh? Most people are aware of tofu, a soy…
