Let Them Wear Pink! {a mother’s thoughts on encouraging our children’s unique selves}

This blog post isn’t about crafting or cooking or decorating your home.  It is about allowing your kids to be who they are, not who society tells them they SHOULD be. 

My ten year old son likes pink.  Yup, pink.  He loves it, actually.  This is a boy who isn’t a typical “boy”.  He is a very creative, sensitive child.  He doesn’t much care for ball sports, though he does like the outdoors and more solitary activities like rock climbing, running, swimming, etc.  Because of his dislike of team sports, I have been worried that he will have a hard time fitting in with other boys.  I have tried to encourage him to at least play sports recreationally, but he hasn’t been too keen on it.  He really isn’t all that coordinated.  He is NOT a natural, if you know what I mean.  Well, recently he came to me and said he wanted to play soccer.  I was shocked, but also happy that he was warming up to sports a little.  I quickly registered him for a soccer camp that starts next week.  He is excited about it.  I doubt he will ever be great at soccer, but I think it is great that he is willing to give it a go and have fun doing it. 

Well, he needed soccer cleats and socks and shin guards.  Saturday, my husband took him out to the store to get some.  I was not too pleased with my husband when they came home with these:

Would you like to become an Orange Rhino with me??

I came across a pin on Pinterest recently that was linked to THIS blog post about what one mother learned when she stopped yelling at her children.  Actually, before I came across it my sister had told me about it.  I went to read the post and thought it was great.  I was intrigued by the blog.  It is called

The Orange Rhino Challenge. 

This mom realized she needed to stop yelling at her kids and challenged herself to go one whole year without yelling!  Sounds impossible, right? Well, she has now gone well over a year.  449 days, I believe.  She has recommitted to another full year as well.  I spent some time reading through her blog and finding out how she has accomplished the impossible.  And I found it she did it one day, or one moment, at a time.

I have five crazy, energetic, messy, strong-willed sons and I have to confess I am a yeller.  I always have been, even since childhood.  I am a loud person.  And I yell at my kids.  Way too much.  I have decided to become an Orange Rhino as well.  I want to stop yelling.  And I want the rest of my family to stop yelling as well.  I decided to take the Orange Rhino Challenge.  I printed off Orange Rhino signs and posted them all over my house.  I told my kids and husband what I am trying to do.  I have definitely improved and even had days where I haven’t yelled at all. 

But I haven’t been able to keep the challenge at the forefront of my mind all the time.  I need to find a way to stay focused on it.  I need to track my yell-free days.  I haven’t yet figured out how I want to do that.  But I know I want our home to be yell-free.  I want peace and love to abound.  I want my kids to learn to deal with problems and disagreements in a new way…without yelling.  So, we are working on it. 

I wanted to share this with you.  If you are a yeller I encourage you to take the challenge with me!  What more important thing could you do for your family than provide a peaceful, loving home?  Our children are so precious.  They don’t deserve to be yelled at. 

I do so many things to try to make my home a better place for my family.

But the real truth is that a home with a mom who doesn’t yell will be the most ReMarkable Home of all!

Independence Day Plates using Vinyl {and a Silhouette America Promo Code!}

First I want to wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to TWO of my younger sisters!  They were born on the same day, 3 years apart, and consider each other their best b-day present ever!  Happy Birthday, Amanda and Jennifer! I love you!

I recently contacted Silhouette America about becoming an affiliate with them.  I have had my Silhouette SD craft cutter for several years now and absolutely love it! I have made so many different things with it, from home décor to party decorations to kids’ school projects.  It is incredibly handy to have on hand. 

Silhouette made me a product affiliate.  This month they sent me a roll of their Strawberry colored premium vinyl to play around with and use to promote their products on my blog.  I have been racking my brain for awhile as to what I wanted to do with red vinyl.  Well, today I realized that the promo code they gave me for my readers to get 25% off their premium vinyl as well as a substantial discount on their craft cutters starts tomorrow!! 

So, this afternoon I realized I had to put the red vinyl to good use in a fast project!  Here is what I came up with!

I have this hutch from Ballard Designs that I absolutely love.  It’s a great place to keep bowls and platters and pitchers.  I try to change it up a little with the seasons and holidays.  I bought those blue plates at

Super Summer Schedule Re-Post {FREE Printable}

IF YOU LIKE THIS, PLEASE CONSIDER PINNING IT! THANKS!

I’ve noticed this is very popular on Pinterest right now so I thought I’d repost it for my readers who are new since last year.  Hope you like it!

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I’ve been working hard trying to figure out how to make this summer work.  With all the packing and things I need to do to prepare for our move, I don’t want my kids sitting in front of the TV all day, bored out of their minds.  I REALLY want them to get to have a fun summer, despite the move.

I’ve been looking for ideas and will be compiling some different things to make a fun summer for my kids.  I came across this

 “Do It Yourself Summer Camp” from Power of Moms.

I loved some of their ideas.  I am up in the mountains at my sister’s cabin and I decided to work out our summer plans while I am up here.  Today I came up with theme days for our week days.  I made this cute printable to share with my readers.  I haven’t printed it yet, so if you print it and the colors are awful, please tell me.  I have no printer up here to try it out on.

To get this FREE printable, please click the button below.  You will just need to share it for me in exchange. Do NOT click the pin button that will come up when you hover over the button.  Click the right side of the swap for a Social Whisper bar. Thanks!

I’ll keep you posted on what else I come up with for our summer plans!

COOKIE OF THE WEEK: No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies {Recipe}

I love no-bake cookies.  They remind me of my childhood.  My oldest sister used to make them for us.  I love peanut butter, and oats, and crunchy nuts.  I love their fudge-like consistency.  Awhile back I saw a pin for blueberry no-bake cookies.  But when I went to the recipe it was made with healthy ingredients and she said that the cookies were very crumbly and had to be refrigerated.  That didn’t sound too good to me.  So, I read a bunch of other no-bake cookies recipes and came up with this recipe.  I thought these were good and my family seemed to really like them.  I think next time I would add some chopped almonds for some crunch and maybe even a couple spoonfuls of blueberry jam. 

This is a great recipe for people who have a peanut allergy in the family.  It doesn’t call for peanut butter.  It is flavored with pudding mix.  You could use any flavor of pudding mix you want and change up the add-ins.  Banana and walnut would be yummy.  Or chocolate and dried cherries.  I thought blueberry cheesecake sounded good so that is what I went for.  If you’re not using cheesecake flavored pudding then there’s really no reason to add the cream cheese.  Just omit it.

Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Graduation is coming up! STAR WARS Graduation Party

My oldest son graduated from High School last year.  He is a die-hard Star Wars fan.  His room is packed with Star Wars memorabilia.  He has loved the movies since he was a little boy.  One day I was surfing the web when I came across THESE Star Wars Cupcake Topper Printables from Living Locurto.  I knew I HAD to do a Star Wars graduation party for my son.  It was the perfect theme!

I created this invitation and sent it to all our friends.

I had a great time creating this party.  It was a TON of work….themed food always is!  I was also planning my sister's big Little Princess Baby Shower as well as our Relief Society Birthday Party at the same time.  That was definitely party planning overload!  Word to the wise: Stick to one party at a time! 

I found THESE printable labels for some of the food at Sandy Toes and Popsicles.   The others I created myself. 

Ok, there are a million pictures from this party.  Here is the overall food table.  I created this banner using all my son’s school pictures and a few professional photos from before he started school.  I loved the way it turned out and it was SO fun to see his transformation over the years.  The guests really enjoyed looking at it, too!