Last summer my friend Lisa and I went to Memphis I have always wanted to visit Graceland and it was the last chance to stay in the Heart Break Hotel before they tore it down.  I almost cancelled as circumstances around the trip had changed but luckily Lisa was able to come with me.  Our super fab trip post will come later 🙂

But while we were there we saw The Elvis Sandwich or The Elvis Special everywhere.  We were going to get one to try but ran out of time so I bought the postcard and the girls & I made them.

Smoosh two banana’s and a cup of peanut butter together…….

Normally when I make grilled cheeses I put the nutter right on the bread then grill…..NOT here NOPE this is so much better but not healthier I’m sure LOL~ 

You put the butter in the pan first  then melt and put the sandwich in….seriously genius!~ 

Who taught me to butter the bread first??? 

They were so good ….. BUT one out of two peas approved 🙂  One thinks they are the most disgusting thing she’s ever smelled … she’s wrong but she’s only 8 so…..bahahaha! 

You should try this here’s the postcard if you do let us know what you think! 

Look at all those boxes!   Surely there is something clever we can do with those…..   This year as you know we added two Daisies to our troop, we started to work on Journey books at our mee…

Source: Using Resources Wisely – Cookie Cases – Re-Blogged

Hello! I’m Sommer. I like to write things. Drink coffee. Ponder. Write more things. I am a practitioner of mindfulness. And I write about it. I am a mother. And I write about that too. I was also dealt quite the hand. A Royal Flush, with Anxiety and Depression as my Ace and King. I’ve managed, through exhaustive practice, to pull them out of the deck. I still have the cards though. I’ve accepted that. I also write about that. Enjoy the read, stop over at the blog if you dig it! I will go put on a pot of coffee!

They are Watching Us

By Sommer, TheGreenGlasses.com

I’m taking a cultural communications class. If we just focus on the amount of work associated with it then it would be an absolute nightmare. The content itself is intriguing though. Especially the content centered around ‘self’. Or rather family. The epicenter of culture is family. This is where we get the tools needed to go out in the world and build a house. Our values, our beliefs, our behaviors. If you think globally then you’re like “duh, Sommer” but what if you pull out your mega magnifying glass and really look at what you do, when you do it, and how you do it. It comes from family. My preferred choice of peanut butter, the way I fold laundry, make a bed, prepare a meal. At the very center of me is my family. I could examine myself for days; peering into my values, beliefs and behaviors.

But what I am really thinking about are my kids. I am their family. I am their center. What I do now will carry forth into their adulthood. It might not manifest into a peanut butter choice. But it will manifest into how they view the world and its people. And it’s exciting! When I set off to have children this was NOT at the forefront of my mind. And honestly I don’t know what was driving that boat. I only knew I wanted to be a mother. But here I am. I have two growing minds at my fingertips. Every action and reaction is being cataloged by them. And to some, and even myself at times, this may seem like a massive and scary responsibility. But to me, it seems fun, an opportunity to help create two amazing adults who will navigate the world. I am not their only influence and I know that. But I am their mother.

I’ve touched on it before. Do as I do rather than do as I say. They are watching us. They need to see us succeed and fail, be happy and sad, overcome challenges, have bad days and good. They need the full spectrum. They need to know we aren’t perfect. Because they aren’t perfect. And neither of us ever will be. They need to see us having a bad day but still being courteous to the cashier at the grocery store. They need to see us mad at them but still comforting them with affection. How we treat them and others will be the foundation for how they treat themselves and those they encounter.

Now would be a good time to step back, pause, and take a good long look at how you behave. How you speak of other people, of other religions, races, cultures, political beliefs. How you generalize. How you treat the janitor versus how you treat the CEO. Are you condemning those that are different than you? Or are you respecting the differences? Are you really listening to them while looking at your phone? Are you teaching them to learn by words or by actions? Are you placing value on possessions or moments? Are you allowing them to experience music that is different from your preference? Books? People? Are you trying new things together?

What will be their view of family? What does their cornerstone look like?  If you take a snapshot of today and examine it, what does it really look like? Do you need to adjust the sails? I know I do.

Are you fully aware of your audience when you rise upon your soapbox at the dinner table or while watching the news? If you are the epicenter of your children then know they are soaking it all up. All of it. Even your peanut butter choice.

I hope you enjoyed this post I reached out to Sommer to guest post as I read her blog constantly and resonate with so much that she talks about. Life is hard sometimes we just need to see (read) that we aren’t alone and how other humans handle it. So do yourselves a favor and follow https://thegreenglasses.com/  …… and thank you Sommer you can guest post any time you want! 

It was out first day without Volleyball practice or a game.  So I decided I would grab the girls after work, get a pizza and go to one of the parks we wanted to check off our list!  It was only 20 minutes away so why not we had a few hours before it got dark.

The plan was to eat, play a little and get a short hike in….well we ate and then drove to the other side of the park we were at Tall Tree area where it was trails upon trails BUT the play area was on the other side the Buckeye area….  http://www.metroparks.net/parks-and-trails/walnut-woods/

Someone thought she would reenact the Lion King sans Simba ( I wouldn’t let her hold the Pheebs up that would have been a disaster!) 

So the one thing I noticed is that if I don’t get the hike in first….we don’t go…well we went a whopping 50 feet maybe …. 

See the littlest I’m so excited to hike face back there? 

All the newer parks like this have the best dog parks ….the kids would love a dog maybe some day.

Yep 50 feet when it was decided we couldn’t walk without hiking boots….really? It’s a paved path…..and this is why we hike first. 

She just wanted back here! 

There is our times up sign….a beautiful sunset.

So yeah, we have hit 5 out of 18 of the Central Ohio parks we started late and have Hocking Hills in there a couple times.  This week we hit another one yet to be decided~