Mommin' It Up!

March 25, 2015

Fifteen

We were just kids who thought they were adults. We had been dating four years, friends for 10, and we THOUGHT we knew each other. We THOUGHT we knew what marriage was all about.

Heh.

Despite our human-ness, Bobby and I are celebrating fifteen years of happy marriage today. FIFTEEEN! How are we even OLD enough for that? It seems impossible.

I am so thankful that God has given us grace, kids, love, and patience to work through what life throws our way – and what we sometimes put in our own way.

I love you, Bobby. Fifteen! Our marriage is almost old enough to get its temps!

Thanks for being in it to win it with me.

March 23, 2015March 22, 2015

Two days after my paternal grandmother passed away last month, on Valentine’s Day, we moved my maternal grandmother, mine and Emily’s Grandma Burns, into an assisted living apartment, because she has Alzheimer’s and can no longer live alone safely.

This all happened very fast, and started with her having a fall on Christmas Eve brought about by dehydration. She wasn’t remembering to drink and her brain wasn’t telling her body that it needed hydration. So, from Christmas Day to Valentine’s Day we had a ton of changes in our family, the end result of which is, that we still have our Grandma to love but we no longer have her house to go to. I mean it’s there, but if she’s not in it, it’s just a building.

Grandma’s house was where I met my first friends – my cousins, Emily and Anna. It was where we went for Sunday comfort food and family. Where we had the very best sleepovers. Where the supply of Oreos, ice cream. home-baked goodies, cheese curls, games of hide-and-seek, and LOVE was truly limitless.

Grandma’s house was the happiest place on earth.

Last Sunday all the grandchildren gathered at Grandma’s house to divide up her possessions that she can no longer use and enjoy, even though she is still alive.

Having done this recently with my Grandma Brads’ things after her funeral, I can tell you that it sucks so much more dividing up the things of a loving grandparent who is still alive. It. Was. Rough.

The rooms we spent such happy times in were all laid out with the articles of a quiet collector’s life. Grandma did her best to never get rid of a thing.

We all took what we could.

It will help one day, to know that I have something she enjoyed.

But right now the things are pretty hard to look at.

I’d give anything to go back for one more day at Grandma’s House, just the way it was.

March 20, 2015

Prevent Summer Melt with Brain Chase!

Summer vacation is a great time for kids to relax and unwind. But sometimes there’s a little too much relaxing and unwinding, which can result in some of the hard work they did during the school year going down the drain. In fact, a 2011 RAND study found that by the end of summer, students perform, on average, one to two months behind where they left off in the spring.

That’s a depressing thing to hear… and I can only imagine how I’d feel about that statistic if I were an elementary school teacher, working hard day in and day out to feed knowledge into those little minds!

One way to reduce some of the Summer Brain Melt (that’s the technical term) experienced by kids everywhere is to participate in enriching activities over the summer. And a fun way to do that is by participating in Brain Chase.

Brain Chase, a five-week online summer learning challenge for second through eighth graders, is a massive global treasure hunt powered by reading, writing and math. The prize? A golden mechanical treasure – and a $10,000 college scholarship.

Here’s a video that shows how it works:

Pretty cool, huh?

Brain Chase includes:
– 5 weeks of structured challenges on external reading and math websites

– Weekly writing exercises with feedback from credentialed teachers

– Weekly progress reports emailed to parents

– Exclusive access to an original animated adventure series loaded with hidden puzzles and clues

– 3 adventure tools mailed to your home to help solve special bonus challenges

– Participation in a massive global treasure hunt for a golden trophy containing the key to a safe deposit box holding $10,000.

We’ve got a special offer for Mommin’ It Up readers! Brain Chase would like to give you all 15% off your total purchase. Just use code MOMMINITUP15. Visit BrainChase.com for more information!

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This post was written in partnership with Brain Chase and The Motherhood.