Month: October 2020

Ramblings

Halloween

ann marie

So Halloween 2020 wasn’t our typical holiday. Everyone wasn’t sure if we should even follow the usual tradition of trick or treating or stay home. Then came the choice to wear a mask while doing this as well and we all know the kids aren’t all to happy wearing them for long periods of time. The closer we got to the holiday the more I, like many parents, had to decide what we wanted to do.

I, along with my wonderful girls, decided we wanted to be as safe as possible and chose to stay home. They still chose costumes which I got to help create using some craftiness, but we changed up the rest of the day. Thankfully since it was on a Saturday I was able to make it a whole day of fun for the kids.

First of all let’s talk food!!!! We went to Krispy Kreme for monster donuts for breakfast, lunch we chose Papa John’s pumpkin shaped pizza and then dinner the girls and I made Mummy dogs. They also ate candy throughout the day that I’d let them each pick a bag of favorite candy blends at the grocery the other day. I mean you can’t have Halloween without a bucket of candy to munch on, so we still did that just with candy we bought on our own ahead of time.

In between snacking and Halloween themed foods we had some fun times decorating pumpkins and watching movies. First, we watched the newest episode of The Mandalorin on Disney+, because we just had to see the first episode of the new season!!!! Then, because the girls chose Harry Potter themed costumes you can guess what movies we watched the rest of the day!

This more low key version made us all feel safer and honestly my middle girlie told us today that it’s the best Halloween she’s ever had!!!! She didn’t even miss the trick or treating part at all. To me that’s a big win!!! We may have to adjust how we do things these days, but we can still make memories and have fun!!! As parents we set the tone and I’m so happy that my children enjoyed the day despite us doing things a little differently.

Ramblings

Truly not light reading….

ann marie

So I was asked to take a devotional journey with an amazing friend of mine and blindly I agreed to join her. At the time the book was free to download in the Kindle store so I had no arguments. I also like daily devotionals and one that’s only 90 days I could get behind as well.

Let me just say WOW we are only on day 28, but it’s SOOOOO GOOD!!! Honestly we are both taking the journey slowly sometimes taking a few days to make it through one devotional because we need to read it several times and absorb it’s guidance before moving on. So it’s taking us more then 90 days which is fine we both want to stay on the same days reading and discuss them together.

The book is Woman, Thou Art Healed and Whole: A 90 Day Devotional Journey by T. D. Jakes. And let me tell you it’s an emotional roller coaster!!! Anyone who’s had past struggles, current struggles any kind of them this book is amazing! My friend and I have similar but also hugely different struggles we are coping with and this is helping us both tremendously!

Today, as I mentioned we are on day 28. Well, this one hit hard for where I am in my stage of life!!! It’s opening title is “open up and receive your healing” and boy do I need to do just this. Without giving away much it said not to hold things back and to open up to others so that you can heal by releasing what your holding onto. The Bible verse they mentioned just hit hard too….. “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed” (James 5:16 MSG).

Please if you are in need of any kind of emotional healing grab this book and start reading! We’ve even read two in a day because the next title was one we needed to hear and pray on too. It’s just so good and I hope and pray me writing about it will help it reach someone else in need of the journey it will take you on!

Ramblings

Don’t forget about yourself!!!!

ann marie

I just wanted to jump on and make a quick post reminding anyone reading this to take care of yourself too! Especially right now while most of us are coping with the current pandemic it’s hard to focus on things especially self care. So I wanted to give a reminder to not forget to do anything big or small for yourself daily if possible!

I woke up and laced up my shoes this morning to get a much needed work out in. We’ve been quarantined for so long I let my work outs sort of slide to the back burner. It’s been hard to do them when we all have a casual wake up time and definitely don’t wake up early for anything because we go no where. So now my plan is to reset my focus and not let this get in my way working out always brings me joy as crazy as it sounds and I need that joy and the health benefits of it as well.

Maybe you don’t want or need the work outs, maybe you need to dress up and get that mascara on, maybe you need a daily devotional, whatever you need that brings joy and helps you feel a little better about how your day goes is a great idea! We all need to remember ourselves and our joys too! How do you plan to reset or to focus on again in order to feel better about yourself?