Eggnog Espresso Martini This is the part where I bore you with a long backstory you absolutely do not care about while simultaneously making it difficult for you to find the actual recipe I’m sharing. But I’m not going to do that today. All I’m going to say is that we are big fans of… Continue reading eggnog espresso martini
So, what’s the plan? The four words I have come to loathe more than any other, and the fastest way to earn an immediate no from me. I’m tired of making all the plans. I’m tired of organizing everything. I’m tired of always being the go-to for planning all the things in life. Every holiday,… Continue reading so…what’s the plan?
Spooky and Scary With goblins and ghosts running rampant over the next week, it’s obvious that Halloween is in the air. Halloween parties, Trunk or Treat events, fall festivals, and pumpkin patches galore…and So. Much. Sugary. Candy. I adore Halloween, but I don’t adore the abundance of Halloween candy that comes with it. Our kids… Continue reading halloween gift basket ideas
Happy National Pancake Day! Every weekday morning, while my husband is off taking our middle schooler and our high schooler to their respective schools, I’m at home with our nine-year-old twins inhaling my first cup of coffee and wondering why these kids have such abundant energy at such an ungodly hour. All right, so 7:30… Continue reading national pancake day giveaway
Back-to-school Today is the eighth day of school for our kids. The first week was great because they went to school twice, and then it was weekend. Last week was their first full week back to school, and today marks the first day of their second full week. We are exhausted. It happens every year… Continue reading back to school organization
Self-Care. The concept brings to mind images of spa days, champagne flutes and fully white robes, facials, massages, and quiet. Lovely as all of those are, and as much as I do enjoy a quality spa day with all of the above, this is not the kind of self-care I want to talk about today.… Continue reading self-care
Dear Husband and Children, I love you. I picked you. My sweet husband, I chose to spend my life with you when I was 18 years old, and I chose to have these babies with you because I never doubted you are the most amazing husband and father imaginable. From day one, you made it… Continue reading dear husband,
August Today is August first, meaning it’s back to nonstop living for us. Any other year, I’m over the moon excited about August. The kids going back to school, the end of the single worst season of the year is upon us (Fall officially begins for me on September 1), the beginning of the most… Continue reading boundaries.
Regret If I have one regret in life, it’s that I never thought to ask my grandmother for her recipe books prior to her death. Though, in my defense, she reunited with my grandfather in Heaven two weeks shy of the second anniversary of her 100th birthday (forever the inside joke we share), and I… Continue reading Chicken Piccata
Summer The season of doing all the things, doing nothing, and making a lot of last second plans. It’s also the season in which I find myself ordering last-minute outfits I need on my doorstep…yesterday. That means ordering from Amazon because nothing else will get here fast enough. Let’s be honest, it’s not like we… Continue reading Amazon Summer Fashion Must-Haves Under $40
Forty It’s on the horizon…three months away. I’m not nervous about aging. I enjoy it. Total transparency? I look great – I don’t look 40 at all, and I rather enjoy when people are shocked when they learn how old I am. So, of course, I don’t mind aging! One thing that I didn’t expect,… Continue reading Style At Almost 40
French Toast Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. No, that’s a lie. It is not. Brunch is my favorite meal of the day. I don’t eat breakfast (I know, I know, don’t come at me health and fitness gurus…I’m not hungry in the morning, I never have been, and I’m not forcing myself… Continue reading french toast.
Scent. The first thing I notice when I walk into someone’s home is the scent (second is the dust on your floor trim...). After all, everyone’s home has a particular scent of its own, does it not? Scent is a funny thing…my kids can smell a certain laundry detergent and recognize it smells like their… Continue reading home fragrance
Together. It’s my favorite place to be. As I sit here on my own pool deck enjoying the sunshine and the quiet, I cannot help but reflect on the past week. Our little (ha!) family spent the kids’ Spring Break at their favorite resort. It’s become something of a tradition for us to head to… Continue reading together.
Thirteen. That’s the number of books I read in January. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t make New Year's Resolutions. I make goals. My goal for 2023 is to read a minimum of three books per month. I already like myself (a lot). My life is good. I’ve exceeded my expectations and goals for… Continue reading january books
January 2023. It’s been a slow month for my family. We started the year hosting a decadent dinner with friends and all the kids, and we spent the first enjoying the Bucs game against the North Carolina Panthers in a luxury corner suite with 34 of our friends and family members – what a day.… Continue reading january
I struggle with anxiety. I often fear the worst (for example, that the elementary school is calling right now to tell me my son is having another seizure despite the fact that it’s been three years and nine months since he had his one and only seizure). I overthink and overanalyze every single thing. All… Continue reading Peace.
Grief It’s such a complex emotion, and it’s one no two people handle in the same manner. I’m not even convinced the same person handles grief in the same manner on different occasions. When I lost my grandmother last year, my grief was profound. It also turns out that it’s prolonged. Even after almost a… Continue reading Grief
I struggle with anxiety. I think I have struggled with it my entire life, but I didn’t know I struggled with it until a few years ago. I thought I was obsessive-compulsive (how many people do you know who get out of their car and immediately vacuum the car after every drive and how many… Continue reading anxiety.
Moments There are moments in life that are just a little more special than others, and spring break 2022 was one filled with moments. We may travel often, but we rarely travel as just a family of six. We often have our friends and their kids with us. We have our extended family with us.… Continue reading moments.
Simplicity Maybe it’s because in six months I celebrate my last birthday in my 30s. Maybe it’s because I live such a busy life between four kids, a husband, my business, home, travel, and everyone’s activities that I crave something the simple. Maybe I miss my grandmother so much that I find myself channeling her… Continue reading simplicity.
Traveling with kids. My husband and I travel often, and we take the kids with us on 90% of our trips. We have four kids (and we’ve had four kids for 8 years now, so I will go say we are pretty good at knowing how to travel well as a family of six). I… Continue reading favorite florida family hotels
Priorities “That one simple word holds the key to either chaos or calm,” is a quote I came across on social media recently, and it resonated strongly. I don’t deal well with chaos – though it’s easy to assume that my life might closely resemble that being the mother of four kids, wife, and business… Continue reading priorities
There are no experts when it pertains to parenting, but there are many who have been there, done that, and who certainly have plenty to say about it. Being parents is the most fun my husband and I have ever had, but it’s also challenging. Oddly enough, it’s not been challenging in the way ‘everyone’… Continue reading for my kids.
Love It’s such a lovely thing to be in love. To love someone so much who loves you back. To be blessed with a forever kind of love is a beautiful thing, and it is always my hope that those who have it don’t take it for granted. Because February is the month of love… Continue reading love.
39. Tomorrow, the man I love turns 39. For eight entire months, I’ll be married to an older man, and I certainly won’t let him forget how fortunate he is to have a young wife. And, after my own birthday later this year, I won’t mention his young wife again until he turns 40. It’s… Continue reading thirty-nine.
Choices. Everyone has choices. Everyone makes decisions. Some are good, some are bad, some are boring, some are exciting; some are not the choices we want to make so much as those we need to make for the greater good. Let’s take a moment to flashback to this past weekend. My husband and I made… Continue reading choices.
Perspective. Patience. One thing I have an abundance of, and one thing I would adore having an ounce of. If you know me in real life, you know my patience level is below sea level. It’s below the grandest depths of the deepest oceans in the world’s most remote areas where life may or may… Continue reading patience
Happy Thursday! Or, as I like to call today, happy day the kids go back to school after 16 days of Christmas break. If you’re wondering what I’m doing this morning, just know I’ll be hitting snooze too many times, showering, dragging myself into the office in my robe with a mug of hot coffee… Continue reading no introductions necessary
Five years – January 2017 is when I launched my blog. Six months – June 2021 is the last time I published a blog post. Why? Because I was uninspired. I spent most of 2021 uninspired. It was a weird year, and it wasn’t one I cared much for while simultaneously feeling as if it’s… Continue reading twenty twenty one
Happy Father’s Day A great dad is one whose simple presence makes a child feel safe, loved, and happy, and today is the day we celebrate the dads who did this every single day like it’s their job – because it is their job. Much like being a mother is the greatest and most rewarding… Continue reading Happy Father’s Day
Working out means something different to everyone. No two people will have the same answer if you ask them why they work out. Some may tell you that they’re afraid of being unhealthy, some may fear being fat, some may love to work out because they love to see what their bodies can do, others… Continue reading obe Fitness: My Favorite Classes and Instructors
Happy Summer Vacation! School’s out for summer. The kids are home. The house is a little lot louder, a little lot messy, and your patience is already wearing thin…and it’s only the first day. We counted down the days until school ended for the summer, and now we are three minutes into it and already… Continue reading Summer Exhaustion: Why Are We So Tired During the Most Relaxing Time of Year?
Through self-discipline comes freedom Aristotle When you take a moment to let that sink in, it really hits hard because it’s about so much more than the usual things that come to mind. When you ask someone about self-discipline, they often joke that they have no self-control (um, yeah, I said that last night as… Continue reading Monday Motivation: Learning to Master Self-Discipline
That Friday feeling is a good one. Time to rest, relax, recharge, and re-energize our bodies, and time to un-do all the good we did this week (hello, red wine and less than stellar meals). There. I said it. While I’m not a fan of dieting, I do live a relatively healthy lifestyle, but it’s… Continue reading Weekend Check-in Challenge: Your Diet is About More Than What You Eat
Three years ago, anyone who knows me would have laughed hysterically if I said I was wearing sneakers anywhere other than to work out. Honestly, I was the Manolos-to-the-grocery-store, always dressed up, never casual kind of gal (and there is nothing wrong with that!). But, in the past few years, I’ve become a little more… Continue reading Best Casual Sneakers Worth the Splurge
What will people say about me when I’m gone? Morbid, I know; but also such a deep question I’ve been asking myself often over the course of the past 5ish weeks. I lost my grandmother in January just two weeks shy of hopping on a plane for Texas to celebrate her 100th birthday for the… Continue reading How will the world remember you when you’re gone?
Happy Wednesday! We are well into our second week of a brand-new year, and it seems that 2021 has taken on a ‘hold my beer,’ persona. You know what? It’s fine. We are all fine. You know why? Because the only person who can make or break your day is you. If you’re focused on… Continue reading Living Your Best Life in 2021 Part Two: Make Time Each Day for Simple Pleasures
Happy Thursday! Scrolling through social media is eye-opening. I have so many thoughts as I scroll through my feed and read the posts of those around me. While it can be fun and enjoyable, a fun way to connect with loved ones far away and to keep in touch with people who were part of… Continue reading Living Your Best Life in 2021 Part One: Learning to Recognize and Minimize Your Fears
Happy New Year! It’s the first week of a brand-new year, and I think I speak for many (if the statuses I saw all morning on social media are any indication of how people feel) when I say that it was nice to begin the new year on a Thursday evening so that it all… Continue reading Living Your Best Life in 2021 Part One: No More Living in Fear
Happy Tuesday! It’s election day in the United States, and it’s the day millions of people will flock to the polls to cast their vote…and it’s a day that will go down in history. This is one of the most important presidential elections in history – and I mean all of history. It’s a big… Continue reading Happiness Does Start at Home
Happy Wednesday, loves! It’s been three long, lovely months since my last post, and it was a much-needed break for me and my creative mind. The truth is that sometimes I feel relatively uninspired, and I don’t have much to say. If you want to dig further down to the root of that truth –… Continue reading Life Update
Happy Wednesday! Being a parent is hard work, y’all. Hard work. I can’t think of one thing – other than the actual loving them part – that is effortless and easy. My husband and I have been doing this parenting thing now for over 12 years, and we still don’t have a clue what we… Continue reading “She Makes It Look So Easy…”
Happy Wednesday! We all make mistakes, and it’s okay to make the wrong decision. We all do it. We make mistakes, we do the wrong thing, we wish we could change our minds. The great news, thankfully, is that most situations allow us to do just that; change our minds. We did it, and we… Continue reading It’s Okay to Make Mistakes
Happy Wednesday, loves! How many negative thoughts have you had this morning? Hazard a guess. I’ve probably had dozens already, and it’s first thing in the morning. Honestly, it’s so hard not to find negative thoughts creeping in these days. Any day, really, but these days it’s almost impossible not to feel negative more often… Continue reading Bye, Negativity
Confidence is not “They will like me,” Confidence is “I’ll be fine if they don’t,” – Pinterest I’m sure someone more important or interesting said that, but it’s all over Pinterest without a direct attribute to the person who said it, so…(if you know to whom this belongs, please shoot me a quick email so… Continue reading What is Confidence?
Happy Friday, loves! Do you ever find yourself in a total funk? It’s like a weird place where you’re present in life, but you feel almost as if you’re looking at your life unfolding before you from up above; almost like a dream, if I’m putting it into a tangible concept. You can’t put your… Continue reading Quick Tips When You’re In A Funk
Happy Friday, loves! This is one of those days that’s just so sweet. Who doesn’t love a Friday? I make sure I have all my deadlines met prior to Fridays so that I can sleep a little late, linger a little longer over my morning cup (cups…who am I trying to kid?) of coffee, and… Continue reading A Big Announcement Following a Difficult Decision
Happy Tuesday! It’s been a while since I’ve done a post linking my outfits. I wasn’t sure it was the right tone during the Pandemic when no one was going anywhere, and no one needed to shop for things to wear nowhere, right? But, still, that didn’t stop the questions from rolling in on social… Continue reading Favorite 2020 Purchases So Far
Sooo…I’m behind with my gratitude posts for the month. Honestly, I cannot believe I allowed two weeks to go by without a post! No excuses. I dropped the ball there, and today I’m catching up in a big way (with the remainder of the month). Can we just talk about how great I did the… Continue reading Gratitude Prompts Days 15 to 31 (oops)
Tiffany Raiford 