Family Stories Archives - girl. Inspired.

For Every Introvert and Extrovert

April 16, 2020 by girlinspired Leave a Comment

Ok, I don’t know know how many hours I’ve spent watching ridiculous videos and laughing at the memes and skits people are creating while we are all spending lots of quality time at home, but Trey Kennedy‘s “Extrovert vs. Introverts in Quarantine” routine took the cake this week.

Left to our own resources, I actually find it incredible and inspiring to see grandmas and grandpas making goofy videos for their grandkids or ladies having a go at chopping off their own hair so that we can all have a laugh. Who knew that so many people would turn to creativity when left to only their own resources and the people in their homes.

Trey Kennedy has been making us laugh well beyond our current circumstances, though, his most recent skits have me laughing so hard my family comes running to see WHAT is so funny. I loved his “Girls during Quarantine be like” routine and I could not relate more to this Introvert vs. Extrovert number. In fact, I have never been so convinced I am an introvert as I was watching his interpretation.

I am an introvert through and through, and you know it’s always when the jokes speak the truth that you laugh the hardest. You guys!!!! The bit about having happy hour in the bathtub with a book?? That’s my dream world! I’m just missing a bathtub to make this stay at home time be true bliss.

Not only that, but I definitely live with extroverts and so the contrast between these two personality types makes the whole thing even funnier. We can ALL relate to this.

When you’ve stopped laughing and you can catch your breath, let’s discuss. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? How many of each live in your house and do you see each other in this video? Which part made you laugh the hardest? Was it the journaling bit? C’mon, tell the truth….

Need some more laughs? Check out the funniest face mask sewing video ever and this girl eating a “corn dog” she found in the wild!

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Christmas Eve Traditions

December 15, 2016 by girlinspired 2 Comments

I just love this time of year. Our days are busy and full as we try to pack in old traditions and new. I think the traditions are what make this my favorite season. Every Christmas Eve, we set out cookies and hot cocoa for Santa and open Christmas pajamas, but we also take this extra moment to reflect on what Christmas means in our family – a birthday celebration! It is so special to light a candle and sing “Happy Birthday, baby Jesus.”

My girls adore this tradition and it’s even more special because their Grandma showed us how she remembered doing it as a little girl. We make a big round scoop of ice cream and toss it in coconut to make a snowball, then put a candle in the top. My mom’s version had little plastic holly leaves, so we piped some on our snowballs and they turned out so pretty!

These are super easy to make and really don’t take much time at all!

Begin by forming your big scoops of ice cream. I used a rounded ice cream scooper and ran it under hot water; then blotted it on a paper towel before scooping into the ice cream bucket. Quickly place the scoop back into the freezer by setting them into extra cupcake cups, a muffin tin, or on waxed paper. I got the best results by then taking the re-frozen ball of ice cream and rolling it into a ball with my hands, rolling it through a pile of unsweetened coconut (which comes in smaller, “fluffier” pieces than the long strands of sweetened coconut) and then quickly placing it into a ruffled baking cup. Place them back into the freezer to harden.

If you’d like to add a holly wreath to your snowball, it’s easy enough for anyone to do! Color about 1/2 cup of icing red and color another 1/2 cup of icing leaf green. If you’re only doing a few snowballs (e.g., I just make them for our immediate family), you can just color a couple spoonfuls of icing. Place the red icing in a piping bag fitted with a coupler and a small round tip, like Tip #2 or #3 and the green icing in a bag fitted with a leaf tip, like Tip #67. Remove the hardened “snowball” from the freezer and pipe a ring of leaves in a wreath pattern around the top. You may want to use a circular object like a cookie cutter or a clean cap to make a slight circular indentation in the ice cream to follow. The leaves should be fairly small and facing in different directions to give the holly wreath some texture. Finish the wreath by piping several clusters of three small red “berries.” Place a candle in the center of the wreath and return to freezer until you’re ready to sing Happy Birthday!

Do you sing Happy Birthday baby Jesus on Christmas Eve? What Christmas Eve traditions do you celebrate in your family? I hope your Christmas is truly merry and bright! See you in the new year!

Original 1970s Home, Our new home

September 30, 2015 by girlinspired 10 Comments

It’s Fall!! My favorite time of year. I’m anxious to start decorating, but we’re still swimming through boxes. Our family is slooooowly getting moved in and settled into our new home and community. It’s a huge adjustment, friends, with plenty of roller coasters along the way. Fortunately, the girls LOVE their new school and neighborhood and I can see how life-changing and wonderful this move will be for our family. When I start thinking that we’ve bitten off more than we can chew by choosing a home that was immaculately maintained by its original owner from the early 70s, I remind myself that HOUSE PROJECTS has always been our favorite activity and this house provides endless opportunities for doing what we love. ha! So without further ado, I present a glimpse into our “before” – our new home.

We chose the school and neighborhood first and, as you know, moved down into an apartment so that we could find the right home for us. The neighborhood is well established with huge trees and beautifully maintained homes. It is primarily ranch-style homes built between the 50s and 70s. The house came on the market as we finished moving out of our last house and we opened escrow here the same day we closed escrow on our last home. It seemed serendipitous and just so right.

You gotta love the orange carpet! It’s original and looks in perfect condition. Not enough reason for it to stay 😉 but I do appreciate how well it represents the way the previous owners lived in this house. The living room/dining room is large and has great windows, and of course, I fell in love with the chandelier. Update: Did you see the floors that we eventually put in this space? GORGEOUS!

So pretty, right? We took the dining room chandelier from our last house because it was really special and we did hang it here in the dining room. This chandelier, though, has a new home in the foyer and it’s looking mighty gorgeous!

Lots of wallpaper, of course, but the bathrooms have pretty neutral cabinets and tile in perfect condition, so we’re going to love them for awhile before we think about remodeling.

Some things had to go immediately. We tore off the wood paneling and that whole bank of cabinets over the peninsula the day after we got the keys. It’s just too dark and dated and we thought it would be easiest to have the drywall patched and walls textured before we even moved in. That was a long week of dust and chaos, but the whole room is improved a hundred fold.

My new laundry room makes me happy every day. It’s huge for this neighborhood and it has doors to the backyard and garage. I have big plans for storage/pantry/mudroom in this space. Finally a place to put in bead board and benches and lockers! Or at least someplace to throw the backpacks on the floor in the meantime. Update: See our laundry room makeover here – I did put in beadboard!

Many more progress pictures to come, I hope! We’re excited, the kids are happy, and the home improvement bug has moved in! Now if we could just stop trying to do projects and, instead, unpack the boxes!

Family Travel Memories – Then and Now

August 6, 2014 by girlinspired 2 Comments

Summer vacations provide opportunity for some of the BEST family memories. I have such vivid memories of my family vacations when I was a child. We camped. All summer long, all over California and the West. When I tell my girls about my childhood, the stories almost always relate back to summer vacations. A few weeks ago, Graham and I braved our first solo camping trip with the girls. We’ve taken them camping a couple times before, with a group of friends, but we wanted to see if we could pull it off with just our family. We took a trip up to the very north coast of California, to a place that is special to both of us. Graham grew up in Humboldt County, mostly Eureka, and we spent some time driving around the city. He showed the girls his elementary school, one of the houses where he lived, and the park where he played as a kid. The Eureka City Park, by the way, is one of the most incredible city parks I’ve ever seen. All the usual play equipment and picnic tables, but complete with slides coming out of the trees and the most stunning redwood forest trail area. The girls were elated to visit the same places their dad grew up. They remembered stories he’d told, like when his dog followed him to school one day (no joke!), and he got to show them the very path he and the dog had taken – the girls just ate it up! We camped for four days at Patrick’s Point State Park. When I was a child, we camped all over, but every single year, we camped with cousins at Patrick’s Point. I had shared specific memories with Graham and the girls and we recreated our own special memories by engaging in the same things I did as a child. We played at and scoured the seashore at Agate Beach. We hiked the fern-and moss-laden trails. We ate the same “camping” dinners that I remember from my childhood and roasted marshmallows around the campfire. So many wonderful, happy memories. I have to say, my girls were not nearly as thrilled with the discovery of banana slugs as my siblings and I seem to be in that first picture above. They did not wish to pose with this slug we found. Ah well, they’ll remember other things. I love this picture of my mom holding me on a camping trip when I was just a tiny thing. It reminds me to get out there and explore with my family. Travel near, travel far, revisit the places that made me happy as a child, find new places to create memories for my girls that they can take into their families someday. Sitting at home being scared of all the work involved, or getting wrapped up in the overwhelming number of unfinished chores, doesn’t get us anywhere. And it doesn’t facilitate that unmatched feeling of family togetherness that I want so desperately for my family.

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Keeping it All Together

July 2, 2014 by girlinspired 79 Comments

I’ve rewritten this post too many times to count. It’s a tricky topic – and a subject that I think so many of us struggle with on a daily basis. There’s this idea in our society that if we, as parents, just try hard enough, or read enough articles, or poll all the moms we know, that we’ll figure it out – how to do it all, how to keep all the plates balanced in the air (with a pretty cupcake on top). This idea is based on some common misunderstanding that what we’re already doing isn’t enough. We observe others that we deem “similar” to ourselves and collect a database of all the things that we think we should be doing. We see the mom at school who not only is the PTA president, but also volunteers countless hours in her child’s classroom and serves at the food bank every Wednesday. We see the mom as we drive by the park who sits happily watching her children play while handing out carrot sticks and whole-grain, freshly baked muffins. We see the mom at the gym or the mom in a snazzy business suit, and it goes on and on. We take from what we observe and desire about each of them and add it to the list. And then we look at this extensive, impossible, comprehensive list and decide that we’re not doing enough. It’s time that we let go of this impossible quest and learn to be truly happy with ourselves, be satisfied that we’re doing enough. For me, this will always be a struggle, but if I keep a check on my priorities and stay focused on what’s important to me, to my family, I can go to bed at the end of the day feeling like it was enough. I read something once about friendships. The gist of the article was that our friends each play different roles in our lives. One friend might make us laugh, another lends advice, and another reminds us how to play. Can we view our roles in our families the same way? Instead of comparing ourselves to each other, let’s accept that we each play an important, different role in life. Take care of yourself in the way that you need it. Take care of your family in the way that you feel comfortable. Work to make sure that the basics are taken care of – nourishment, shelter, nurturing. Figure out how to meet the basics of day-to-day life – driving the kids to school, paying bills, getting groceries. Tell your family how much you love them every single day. And focus on who you are and what your role is and just do your best. Adapt as life changes, because it always changes. The truth is, there’s not one answer to making it all work because it’s not a one size fits all quest. Do what works for you and your lifestyle, and know that you’re doing just fine.

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The Best Part…Part 3

December 24, 2013 by girlinspired 1 Comment

As the holiday season approaches, the level of spoiling that goes on in my house reaches record heights. I get swept away in the decorating, the celebrating, the baking, and the shopping. I want to make a million lasting memories for my girls. This year, we are making an extra effort to step away from complete self-indulgence and bring some holiday magic and hope into the lives of others who don’t necessarily have the same privileges that we are afforded. Recently, after a morning of Nutcracker rehearsal, we hopped into the car and headed to the store with one purpose – to purchase a toy for a child in need. I didn’t give the girls any parameters except that they should take their time choosing a gift and they should consider what another child their same age might be excited to receive. Of course the girls found many toys to write down on their wish lists and they spent ample time studying and playing with many of the toys across the aisles. But without further instruction from me, they each selected a single toy on their own and were confident in their choice. They remembered why they were there. We purchased the toys and brought them home. The girls filled out blank notecards to the unknown recipient of their gift. I encouraged them to write “dear friend,” and something that would make the other child feel special. The best part was watching Olivia quietly fill her notecard with kind words, stars, balloons and beautiful drawings, and then seal it up for no one to see but her “friend.” Buying a toy and giving it to someone they would never know wasn’t the easiest thing for my kids to do, but I think our recent super secret smile mission in the bakery helped them to imagine the connection to another girl they’ve never met. I hope they imagine the happiness that would come with receiving a hand-chosen gift and a “you are special” note. I hope that they are learning the intrinsic joy that we feel when we do something selfless and thoughtful for others. The Best Part is an online community that’s dedicated to brightening your day—every day. How? By spreading optimism, one share at a time. The Best Part posts inspirational stories, encouraging quotes, good news and other upbeat items on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—and encourages fans and followers to share that optimism with their friends. Because when optimism is shared, it grows, making an even more positive impact on our world. Check out what others are sharing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.