This or That: Fall Edition

If you were reading blogs a decade ago, you will remember that surveys used to be a common thing on blogs! They were so much fun, both for the reader and the blogger (at least for me)! My friend, Callie, posted this survey recently on her blog and I had a lot of fun reading her answers and wanted to fill it out on mine, too! 

This or That: Fall Edition!

Pumpkin spice latte or peppermint mocha?

Between the two, I would choose a peppermint mocha. I don't really care for the PSL (gasp!) or many pumpkin flavored drinks in general....please don't hate me. My absolute favorite fall drink though, is a caramel apple spice from Starbucks....SO GOOD!

Pumpkin bread or pumpkin pie?

I'd be inclined to choose pie. But I really only eat pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. We really love pumpkin bars in our house!

Thanksgiving dinner or Thanksgiving leftovers?

Thanksgiving dinner 100%. I like some leftovers, but after about a day I start to get kind of sick of them. I really love Thanksgiving dinner though. After smelling the food cooking all day and finally getting to sit down and dig in, well, there's just no meal quite so satisfying and delicious! 

Candy corn or tootsie rolls? 

Neither of those would be candies I would choose, but if I have to pick between the two, I would go with tootsie rolls. I don't love candy corn. I'd much rather have a chocolate candy bar ;) 

Haunted house or pumpkin patch? 

Pumpkin patch! I definitely would have chosen haunted house from about ages 13-23 but I don't have much desire to set foot in one now! My oldest was actually asking me about haunted houses recently and I was explaining kind of what they are like and how she is definitely not old enough to go to one, and she asked me why I used to like them if they are so scary. I really don't know! I guess it was more about the fun of going with friends and doing something different, plus I'm sure there was a surge of adrenaline that was enjoyable. Now I'd much prefer a nice quiet night at home than being scared out of my mind!

Corn maze or hayride?

Hayride! Corn mazes can be fun but not with kids. I just lose them every time! 

Caramel apple or candy apple? 

Probably caramel. I don't know if I've ever had a true candy apple, but they sure look delicious!

Boots or scarves? 

This is another one of those where I would have always said scarves in the past but I think it would be boots for me now. I do still love a good scarf, I just don't wear them as much as I used to. In high school I wore them ALL.THE.TIME. Like seriously, all the time! I had gobs of scarves and would wear them pretty much daily in the fall/winter/early spring months. Probably honestly even wore some light ones in spring and summer. I really loved them! 

Holiday movies or holiday music? 

I think holiday movies! Though if we're going by my actual exposure to them, I hear way more Christmas music than I see Christmas movies, but there is just nothing like snuggling up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and the fire roaring, watching a Christmas movie. One of my favorite things to do in the Christmas season! 

Tire swings or jumping in leaves? 

I think I would rather swing on a tire swing. As a kid I probably would have chosen jumping in leaves! My kids love to jump in our leaf piles every year now and I love raking up a huge pile for them to go crazy with! So that's a fun memory for sure! 

{ugh, my babies!! Can't believe this was 3 years ago! They all look so tiny.}

Blogtober

I have had the itch lately to WRITE! 

I'm not sure what it is exactly. I have ideas coming out my ears, though. There's a lot I want to say about our family, since I've had to keep so much under wraps for the last 2 or so years. There are also a lot of random things I just want to talk about! 

SO, I decided (which I really hope I can keep up with and not regret a month from now!) to blog every day for the month of October! 

I have over 20 ideas already, and hopefully I can come up with a few more to round out the month. If there's anything specific you want me to write about, let me know and I'll try to accommodate! 

Some of the things I'm planning to share about are: recipes, adoption/foster care, traveling, homeschool plans, CHRISTMAS posts, life/kid updates, decor, health, outfit ideas, gift ideas, and more. 

Join me back here tomorrow for a little "get to know you" with one of my sons! 

Goals for 2017

New Years Goals. I never used to set goals/resolutions because I felt like it was setting myself up for failure. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, or maybe it's because I need more accountability, but I have been setting goals the last few years. A lot of times I make goals for a day, week or month, but these goals are more long term things, and things I want to be working at/towards throughout this entire year. Last year, I basically only had 2 goals. 1. Read through the Bible chronologically in one year. I met, or rather will meet, this goal as I started it a few days into 2017, but I am almost done! Yay! 2. Read 50 books. I had recently rediscovered my passion for reading and loved how relaxing it was, and wanted to commit to reading a lot more last year. However, when I set the goal, I had 2 kids, and a little over a week into the start of 2016, I unexpectedly had 4 all of a sudden. Needless to say, I did not meet that goal, but I don't feel bad about it. I did read 28 books, have 2 more partially finished, and started 2 or 3 that I didn't like about 50-100 pages in and stopped. So overall, I think it was a pretty good effort considering the year we had! With all that being said, here are my goals for 2017! 
Complete another Bible reading plan As soon as I finish up my chronological plan (in just a few days!) I am planning to start a new one. I really enjoyed reading through the Bible chronologically over the last year, especially because I had gotten a new study Bible the Christmas prior so it really helped me get more context and really learn the Bible! But I did really miss reading in the New Testament. I missed learning from Jesus' life directly, and I missed a lot of that application in the NT. Because of the way my plan was laid out, I didn't start reading in the New Testament until October, so I spent 9 whole months in the Old Testament. It was a great learning experience, but I am so excited this year to slow down a little bit and really relish in the New Testament! Last year was A LOT of reading every day, which was great for what it was, but like I said, I want to slow down a little bit this year and really focus on certain passages. I chose a plan on the YouVersion app called OWNit365 New Testament (NT)+ Plan. It is 6 days a week and each day you read a chapter from the New Testament and on the 6th day of the week, you read a chapter from the OT that was referenced during that week's reading to help with context. I think it'll be perfect for what I'm looking for this year, and I am excited to dig in! 

Read 25 books I am going to set a reading goal again this year, because I do love reading so much and want to make sure I still take time for it this year, even though I imagine it will be another full and crazy year! I think a goal of 25 books this year will be more realistic and will give freedom on crazy weeks to take a break! I have a whole list of books I have been wanting to read and haven't gotten to yet, so I am really excited to get started on this goal, as well. 
Health and Fitness  I know I need/want to set some health goals for this year, but I'm not 100% sure what they are going to be yet. This weekend, I made some plans for meals for the month, and what I'm going to do for prep. I know this'll help me to set myself up for success! We have made a lot of healthful changes over the last few years, but we still have a long ways to go. I think this will be a big health year for us-mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. We have high hopes for the healthiest year we've had for all 6 of us! 
Blog once per week Over the course of many years, I have let my blog fall by the wayside. It is usually one of the first things to get neglected when life gets busy, and it seems to really ebb and flow with certain seasons. This year, I am going to try for consistency and blog at least once per week. I love having blogging as a creative outlet and for "me time" so I think it will be nice if I set aside a little time each week to make it happen! 
Daily memory journal Quite some time ago, I thought it would be nice if I could just remember every single day. My kids do and say the funniest things sometimes and I know it will be hard to remember all of those things one day (it already is sometimes)! I decided to just take a notebook and each night before bed, write down something from the day. This might be something hilarious one of the kids did, it might be something I'm thankful for, it might be an event from the day, or even something I struggled with that day. I want to be better about memory keeping, and I think if I kept this up year after year, it would be really cool to look back on some day. It will probably just be a few sentences (or less) every day, but I know I will treasure it in the future, and it would be so fun to show to my kids decades from now! 

Christ likeness Of course, my most important goal this year is to be more like Jesus by December 31 than I am today. I learned SO MUCH about God last year (which I am still hoping to get a chance to share about soon), both through reading and through my own trials and life, and I am excited to apply all that I learned this year to my life, my actions, my personality, and my relationships. I am thankful for the opportunity for growth and change and am looking forward to what God does in me this year. 
{ This is the first year that I have come up with a word for my year, and if you want to read more about that, you can here! I think a lot of my year, and my week to week goals will center around that :) }  

Blog Changes & Survey Results

Hi friends!  I wanted to say "thank you!" to everyone who took the time to fill out my reader survey! It has really helped me evaluate the blog and where I want it to head in 2015! I wanted to share those results with you (because it's always fun to see what people think, right?!) as well as some changes that you may have noticed around the blog! 

I have definitely been working on my photography skills! I am not a photographer, but I am trying to get better and have learned a few things here and there. Hopefully I can keep improving! As far as size, I make them as big as the blog allows! 

I think the category suggestion was referring to having all the posts of each type laid out on one page so that you don't have to click on the label and scroll through tons of posts. I definitely get that! I will start looking into what would be the best way to organize and have this available! 

I got a few comments about color scheme early on. I did all the blog design on my laptop and almost always post from there and the color was pretty mild on that screen. I did notice on our desk top that the pink was REALLY bright, so after getting this suggestion once again, I decided it was time for a different scheme. I chose a mint, coral and navy combo! Hopefully you like it and it is easier on the eyes!!

So apparently I need to talk a lot more about marriage! I can definitely do that!! I have a few fun ideas for marriage related posts that I hope you will all enjoy. Marriage is one of my greatest passions so I'm happy to talk more about it! I am even thinking I might have to get my husband in on the action...what do you think?! 

I have several recipes in the making,and I will continue to talk about all of these other things as well! I'm glad to see what you all enjoy reading about! 

I was a little surprised to see that high of a number on DIY posts, since those are some of my most viewed and popular posts! I thought that was really interesting! I will keep trying to balance them out with other content :) 

Other things: 

• 82% said it would be EASIER to comment using Disqus. You'll be happy to see that I made the switch! If you don't have a Disqus account, you just register once, and it keeps you signed in! It's totally easy! This also gives me a chance to reply to comments directly on the post, so that if people have the same questions, they can see the answer. Also, many commenters don't have their email addresses linked, so prior to Disqus I couldn't respond to a lot of people's comments. 
• When asked the question "What keeps you coming back?" 64% of people gave some type of answer regarding my family, kids, or my personality. Everyone's answers were so sweet!
• 27% of people said they don't comment because it is hard on their phone (it is, and I totally get that). 27% said that it is because they have nothing to say. Other responses included laziness, time, and because they read in a feed, not directly on the blog. I understand all of those and only asked because I was curious. I am not the best at commenting either, but I'm trying to get better!
• Other suggestions--I was asked to talk more about our Downsize (I am planning to!), and to do a home tour and talk about organizing a small home. I am planning to get to talking about these things, but decorating the house and finishing the basement is taking a lot longer than I planned! 

 Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback! It has helped me so much!

Now, for some of the changes here on the blog! 

The first one is the sticky navigation bar at the top. Man, this was a labor of love. None of the tutorials worked correctly for me for whatever reason and my husband and I were up until the wee hours of the morning in the code trying to figure out what needed to be changed. We got it to work, but not 100% how I want it. I hope to figure out how to add a bar behind it rather than just transparent, but so far we haven't been able to increase the width of the bar so it doesn't go across the whole page, which looks weird. But anyway, hopefully it will make navigation a lot easier! Everything I write about is up there and in one of those categories and the best part: drop downs!! Sub categories within the categories! Hooray! 

The other biggest change is the sidebar. I cleaned it up a lot. I took out the little about me blurb, and now you can click on my photo to just go to my about me page, since they pretty much said the same things! I added new social media buttons (including Twitter, which I am going to try reaaaallllly hard to start liking), a widget to take you directly to my Facebook page, and a Pinterest gadget that shows you my lastest pins! I also added a link to our adoption page under those. 

There are several other changes, but I think these are the things that affect you readers the most! Hopefully it cleaned up my site some and makes it even better for you all! 

I also updated the pin it button for a cleaner look, added a new signature, some new fonts, etc. I have a few things yet that I would like to do, including adding popular posts on the sidebar, so stick with me for even more! 

Thank you all for reading and for the support! I am looking forward to growing my blog and making it even better this year! 

Best Of {2014}

On the blogging front, this year has been a really fun one. I have really enjoyed getting back into blogging after somewhat of a hiatus on my old blog. I have enjoyed writing about things that I love and that are important to me, connecting with other people, and just having this space!  I thought I would recap the most pinned/viewed posts from this year (starting in July because that is when this blog began) for anyone who may have missed some of the best ones!  July

3 Applicable Bible Verses for Young Children 

Why We Are Homeschooling 

Ombre Dresser Makeover

Welcome to the Neighborhood {Free Printable}

How to Date Your Spouse...When You Can't Afford It

August

Easy Sun Tea

Implementing a Family Night 

First Ice Cream Truck Treat

You Can't Start Over

I Don't Believe in Soul Mates

September

Clothing Your Mom Bod

10 {Free or Cheap} Family Night Ideas

We Are Adopting!

Adoption Details

This Is Our Heart 

October

Freezer Meal List

Tips for Working Out in the Morning {Guest Post}

Pumpkin Patch Party

Adoption Benefit Giveaway (The reason I'm including this one is because I still want to help promote all of the amazing women who donated and their shops! Check them out!!)

November

Christmas Countdown Chain Printable

So...What Exactly ARE You Paying For?

Downsizing in a World of Up-Sizing

December

Day in the Life

Adoption Thoughts

Why We Use Biblical Words With Our Toddlers

Essential Oils-Oily Testimonies

Here's to another great year of blogging! I have some big goals for the blog for 2015 and hope you will continue to pop in and read along the way! 

How I Got Started Blogging

Ahhhh blogging. Today's prompt in the blogtember challenge is to share about how you got started blogging. Well, you may or may not know that I have actually been blogging for 5 or so years. I had another blog prior to this one where I shared mostly family stuff. It documented my pregnancies, my children's babyhoods, family trips, etc. It was mostly for sharing stuff like that. I started it as a semi-newlywed just for fun. Someone I knew had started a blog and I really knew nothing about blogging. I loved to write and thought it looked like fun, so I just opened up a blog one night and that was that! I actually ended up making so many friends around the country and had such good experiences come from that blog over the last several years.  I kind of took an unintentional break from that blog when we were moving (I hadn't really been posting too consistently since getting pregnant the second time, anyway) and thought a lot about the direction I wanted it to go. The more I thought about it, the more I decided that I didn't want to keep publicly blogging about my kid's lives. Not that there is anything wrong with it, and I loved doing it, there were just some things that I felt like it might be better to keep on a smaller scale. I am so thankful for that blog because it was basically their baby books! I kept everything they were doing on the blog and I'm thankful to have those memories and details. I, of course still post some things about my kids on here, but not in as much detail.  I started this blog because I wanted something for myself. I wanted a place where I could go to relax (writing is relaxing for me) and it could be my own little space. I love having this blog to write about things that are important to me! It's a nice little hobby I can pursue from home, during nap time :)  What about you? Do you have a blog, and if so, why did you start it?!