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Simple as That

Making Everyday Beautiful

Why Time Moves So Quickly And How To Slow It Down

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Living life at full speed only brought illness, stress and heartache. It was only when I opened the gift my daughter gave me - the gift to slow down time - that I began to be present and participate fully in my life. Last week, the baby of our family started school. And as I sat on the floor playing with her, after her first two days, I felt a simultaneous sense of loss and gratitude. Loss for the baby, who was no longer a baby. And ...

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  • #AD Building lasting connections as a family is harder than ever in this digital age. Work, school commitments, and extracurriculars have us headed in separate directions on any given weekday. Factor in the distractions of technology and it’s so easy to allow disconnection to take center stage in our family relationships. ⁣ ⁣ Finding screen-free ways to bring our family together is a priority for me as a mom. I know that setting aside time where we put our screens away and make an intentional effort to talk together, play, have fun & give each other our undivided attention is so needed.⁣ ⁣ Getting away from the pressure to respond to a text or check a status update allows us to foster stronger family bonds. One simple yet effective way we've found to disconnect from our screens and reconnect as a family is to play games together. We’re big fans of simple games without many pieces so card games are our go-to! Playing a quick card game always get the kids laughing and the conversation flowing.⁣ ⁣ If you love UNO as much as we do then you’ll love this latest version of the classic card game – UNO Flip™! We’ve had so much fun together playing it – even the teenagers think it’s a blast! The double-sided deck featuring the new light and dark sides are so dang cool...but that’s all I’m going to say about that! You’ll have to check out the game for yourselves to see how fun the creative “flip” in this game really is! @Target -> http://bit.ly/2UNvn5p⁣ ⁣ #UNOFlip @uno @mattel
  • Watching my children catch the spirit of family history is a bittersweet blessing that’s come since the passing of my sweet Grannie. She poured so much time and effort into knowing her ancestors and preserving their stories and now it’s our turn.⁣ ⁣ I’m talking about the experience my girls and I had helping my Mom go through my Grannie’s things in the days following her funeral in my stories today. Scanning precious photos, sorting boxes full of letters and finding precious notes left in her beautiful cursive handwriting. It was a tender time for all of us.⁣ ⁣ I came home from Canada with a plastic bin full of genealogy research that my Grannie had done throughout her life. I’m at a loss of where to begin sorting, organizing and documenting everything but I am honored to carry on the work that she started.⁣ #familyhistory #ancestors #familysearch I shot this short video thanks to all of the helpful advice I got from my friend @heathercluffvideo and it was so much fun you guys! You all know how much I love preserving memories through photos…but video…video just brings all of those memories to life in a way photos can’t.⁣ ⁣ I’m determined to get better at documenting our family stories through video and am excited to play some more! You should check out some of the videos Heather has shared in her feed all capturing the everyday stuff that makes up our lives…they’re magical! ⁣
  • I’ve been MIA around here lately. I haven’t felt like there’s been anything big to share here on Instagram these days, yet I find myself in a place of complete contentment in the smallness that is this season of my life right now.⁣ ⁣ It hasn’t always been this way. Embracing the ordinary, feeling whole in living a slow, quiet life wasn’t something I was able to do. ⁣ I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking that I needed to “go bigger” or “reach for more” in order to be happy many times before. ⁣ I’ve shared some thoughts on living the small life in my stories and how I will never, ever regret choosing small. And neither will you.⁣ ❤️
  • My husband finishes his family medicine residency in June and I don’t think I can convey exactly how excited we are to be at this stage of the whole medical school journey.⁣ ⁣ ⁣ We’re headed into the next few months with a lot of anticipation and some nervousness as we prepare for yet another move but we’re feeling so grateful to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣ We wanted to plan a big family trip to commemorate the completion of this 8 year undertaking and had hopes of going somewhere exotic. Turns out, when you’re applying for a visa (the immigration kind) extension you can’t leave the country so we’re heading to Kauai in a few months. ⁣⁣☀️🌴🍍 ⁣⁣ ⁣ Randal and I went to Oahu a couple of years ago together and loved it so we’re really looking forward to exploring Kauai with the kids! I know it’ll be right up our alley with all kinds of things to do outdoors and plenty of hiking trails to explore.⁣⁣ ⁣ ⁣⁣ I’ve been doing some research but would love to hear from you if you’ve been to the island. What do we need to see and do? With my dietary restrictions in mind can you recommend some places to eat? We want to go on one excursion...what have you done that was totally worth the money?
  • #sponsored I could see the mix of excitement and uncertainty on her face as we rode the chair lift up the mountain. ⁣ ⁣ And I couldn't blame her, because strapping a board on your feet and trying to get down a slick, snow-covered hill? That's intimidating!⁣ ⁣ But this wasn't the first time she'd tried something that stretched her. She's rappelled down cliff faces, mountain biked some challenging terrain, and hiked more miles than most people twice her age.⁣ ⁣ But still, new things are rarely easy, and neither of us were pretending that this particular adventure would be.⁣ ⁣ But I have to tell you: A couple of hours later, she was gliding down the snow looking more natural on that board than I did! :)⁣ ⁣ I thought, as I watched her snowboarding in front of me, about much I love that she's so willing to try something new. I love that she's willing leave a warm, comfortable home and brave frigid Montana temperatures. And I love that she's willing to fall and to get discouraged—and to try again and again until she's overcome her fear. ⁣ ⁣ Because stumbling is a part of the process. We're all going to fall; it's a given. But it's the getting back up and trying again that matters most.⁣ ⁣ Thank you to @speckproducts for the phone case that allowed me to capture so many special moments from this weekend—without fear that I'd drop my phone while riding the chair lift or while pausing, mid-descent, to catch a shot of the newest snowboarder in our family. ;) #speckmoments https://izea.it/arwZHPN
  • We’re headed out on an adventure this weekend. Winter road trip here we come! ❄️⁣ ⁣ We’re going to log at least 16 hours in the car and I want to bring an audiobook (or two) along to listen to as a family. ⁣ ⁣ The trick is finding something that’ll keep everyone engaged from the youngest (age 9) all the way up to the teenagers. ⁣ ⁣ I’d love some recommendations! ⁣ ⁣ One book that’s on our list of possibilities is The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.⁣ ⁣ #familytravel #wintersdventures #goexplore #getoutside ⁣