Category: Our Life

Let’s Look…At Our Biggest Comforts

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy Wednesday, friends!

It’s another edition of LET’S LOOK!

This is a little link-up where we “look” at different aspects of our lives. And today we’re looking at our biggest comforts in life.

My biggest comfort by far is my family and faith.

Having all of these people that have been entrusted to Nathan and me home, asleep in their beds, right where they belong safe and loved.

And faith…well, sometimes it’s felt like the only thing that has gotten me through some of my darkest days struggling with depression.

On a much lighter note, there are a few things that just comfort me whenever I’m feeling down or out of sorts…

To-do lists. And checking things off. It feels so good.

Love having an awesome candle burning day or night. It lifts my mood with the flickering of the flame and yummy smells.

A really long, super hot shower is one of the best comforts of life.

Followed by a huge bowl of Tonight Dough Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Time spent gardening. Planting, caring for, cutting flowers. So rewarding and comforting to create something beautiful in nature.

Re-watching Gilmore Girls for the thousand-eth time. Let me move to Stars Hollow, please…

Getting an area organized and purged so it’s functional AND pretty.

And last, but not least, my mom’s chocolate chip cookies. Forever a comfort.

A Kids Halloween Carnival

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Around Halloween, my sister and I plan a cousin Halloween carnival. It started during COVID. We weren’t comfortable with the kids going trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and we both had small little babies at the time. But we wanted the kids to be able to celebrate and have something fun to do for Halloween. And thus, the Cousin Halloween Carnival was born. I think my sister and I look forward to it as much as the kids.

The games change as the kids get older, but it’s been a fun way for the kids to get another wear out of their costumes and celebrate the holiday together.

Here’s a look at their first Cousin Halloween carnival…

I mean….those littles are so dang cute.

I’m sharing some of the games that we’ve done in the past with the kids today!

Zombie’s Laboratory

One game that we added last year was lovingly referred to as “Spooky Feels” primarily because we couldn’t remember what it was called from our elementary school days when we remember it at the school carnival. You could call it a bit of a haunted laboratory of sorts.

Here are the items we used as the different body parts that the lab had dissected…

Guts/intestines: Cold cooked spaghetti with olive oil
Teeth: Candy corn or popcorn kernels
Ears: Dried apricots
Eyeballs: Peeled grapes

Heart: Boiled tomato peeled
Brains: Boiled cauliflower head
Fingers: Cocktail sausages

I vividly remember as a kid that the ‘eyeballs’ felt so darn realistic, that the mere thought of it sent me over the edge. The kids absolutely loved this game….although, they were a bunch of cheaters trying to see in the back what they were actually feeling.

Mummy Wrap

Each child picks an adult to be their wrapper. The adult is given a roll of toilet paper, and it’s a race to see who can wrap their kid the fastest and best. Other plus side is that breaking out of a roll of toilet paper is a ton of fun!

Gone Fishin’ for Treats

The kids get to “cast their lines” into the sea. When they feel a tug on the string, bring it back up to see what treat you got from the ocean!

Cake Walk

I remember so clearly in my mind doing the cake walk at our elementary school Halloween carnival as a kid.

We cut out pumpkins and tape them to the ground, and the cake walk is just a good old round of musical chairs until there is one winner that earns themselves…a cupcake. 🙂

Spooks Hunt

During the days of COVID when we weren’t comfortable trick-or-treating with the babies, the kids did a Halloween Easter egg hunt for candy. They loooooved it. I don’t know any kid that doesn’t love a good old fashioned egg hunt.

Happy hauntings, ghouls and boys!

What’s Up Wednesday {10.25.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

How did we get to the last Wednesday in October? It flew. The whole month, absolutely flew by. The holidays are right around the corner, and it’s a mad dash until the end of the year. Again….how did we get here?!

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: So far this week, we were lucky enough to have my dad offer to smoke some brisket and give us a portion of it….which I absolutely never say no to when there’s smoked meats involved. And then we’ll round out the week with some spaghetti and meatballs and baked salmon.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Aidan is up on all fours and doing the rock back and forth. The precursor to full blown crawling. He’s going to put it together any day now. And given how close to the same time of year Aidan and Harrison were born, all of my memories showing up on TimeHop right now of this little one crawling for the first time…

Nathan and I were talking just the other night that watching some of these videos of baby Harrison crawling is like watching a video of Aidan.

3. WHAT I’M LOVING:

It took us awhile to get here, but the boys have been really into imaginative play lately. I loooooove listening to them craft stories, rules, come up with ideas. It’s the MOST FUN THING to overhear.

The most recent concoction was a full blown construction site in Jonathan’s room. Jonathan kept coming downstairs asking me to put his drill back in his back jeans pocket.

And getting some fresh fall flowers with the boys has been bringing me so much joy on dreary days.

4. WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO:

Soooo busy. Lots and lots of fun things!

Harrison finished up his fall soccer season.

Nathan and I celebrated our nine year anniversary!

Of course, I went to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie, which was so much fun to get to see the concert again!

I was able to skip out from work one morning to get to go on Harrison’s first school field trip to the apple orchard with him.

Aidan started solids. Seriously, almost seven months have gone by in a flash….how did we get here?!

And then last weekend, we cheered Nathan on as he finished his first half marathon!

And we went pumpkin patchin’ with the cousins.

5. WHAT I’M DREADING:

Nothing at the moment.

6. WHAT I’M WORKING ON:

At the moment, I’m working on our laundry for the week. Ha!

7. WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT:

I’m so excited for Halloween with the boys. Harrison & Jonathan both really get it, are so into it, and these holidays with little kids are just something special. Look at these cuties from last year!

Jonathan would have been thrilled to dress up in his lawn mowing costume again. He’s still VERY into lawn mowing.

And Harrison is still into superheroes.

8. WHAT I’M WATCHING & READING: I’m watching all of my typical Bravo shows. But I’ve been particularly pleased with this season of Southern Charm. Last season was….meh.

Much more entertaining this season!

I just started My Sister’s Keeper audio book based on my Mom’s recommendation. I’m still very much behind on doing a new book review. Maybe next month!

9. WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Taylor. Taylor. Taylor.

10. WHAT I’M WEARING:

I’m a 100% obsessed with this new pullover from Target. I got an XL based on reading the reviews….because sizing was….weird.

Still love this dress for fall.

11. WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND: It’s going to be cold. And rainy. With no plans. Ahhhhhh. We’ll have to find something to do out of the house! Definitely carving our pumpkins for Halloween!

12: FAVORITE AMAZON FIND THIS MONTH:

Few things have brought me more joy of things I’ve purchased lately than these gigantic spiders…

13. WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH: Thanksgiving. Of course. It’s almost annual biscuits and gravy time in the Lane house.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Friday Favorites {10.13.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy Friday the 13th!! If you saw my post earlier this week about my biggest fears, you know that I kind of like Friday the 13th. But I failed to mention one of my biggest fears. Like the most obvious fear that I have. A fear of having my blood drawn or getting an IV. And this past weekend, we survived flu shots for the family, and little Aidan was due for FIVE shots yesterday at his six month appointment. We are immunized out over here. But happy to have the heavy fall shot time behind us!

I’ve rounded up some of my favorites from the past week!

Speaking of shots…when we went to get our flu shots as a family, the pediatrician had this buzzing little bee that she put on the boys’ leg while she was doing the injection and on my arm and I literally felt nothing. The boys didn’t cry at all. And I immediately went home and ordered one to keep in my diaper bag for all future shots. Ha!

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Let’s Look…At Our Biggest Fears

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Did you know that Friday is Friday the 13th? I’ve always kind of liked the number 13. Harrison was born on a Friday the 13th. And that kind of cemented it for me as being a good number. So, while there’s no triskaidekaphobia over here, there are plenty of other rational and irrational fears.

And that’s what we’re sharing today in this “Let’s Look” link up! So, let’s jump in!

I spiral if I don’t hear from you. And this mostly pertains to my immediate family. But if I text Nathan and know he’s out with friends, and then I don’t hear anything for an extended period of time…I spiral. Down into a deep dark hole of irrational thoughts about what happened to him. What if he got in a car crash and nobody knew how to get ahold of me? What if he got robbed and someone took all of his stuff and he had no way to reach me? What if he’s lying dead in a gutter….? It’s not a pretty place…and it’s grounded in….absolutely nothing that has ever happened to me.

I have a fear of cockroaches. I can handle a lot of bugs. Cockroaches I just can’t. When I lived in North Carolina during my masters program, I found a cockroach in my kitchen, and nearly died of panic. Stood on my kitchen counters and called my parents in a panic. Expected them ideally to jump on a plane and come kill the bug for me. And only came off the kitchen counter once it ran under my dishwasher where I taped the little gap between the bottom of the dishwasher and the floor shut so that in theory…it couldn’t get out. I removed the tape when I moved out of the apartment.

It’s not a fear, but I don’t like even numbers. I wake up on odd numbers, will choose an odd number any day of the week when asked to pick a random number. It pains me slightly that some of my children will graduate high school in even years. So while it’s not a fear…it’s definitely an irk.

I have a fear of running out of money in life. I squirrel bits and pieces of money away with the best of them for a rainy day.

I have an irrational fear of not knowing something and everybody else being in the know…like it’s obvious and I’m the only idiot left out. I’m not built for surprise parties. It absolutely killlllls me internally if I know something is being kept from me. I am way too afraid of looking dumb.

And lastly, I’m terrified of running out of gas or having any car trouble at all. I refill my tank when there’s a quarter of a tank left, without fail…in case I need to make a surprise 100 mile journey and don’t have time to get gas. And other rational thoughts like that.

So those are my fears! Please tell me I’m not alone!

How I Do Laundry for Our Family of 5

Posted on by Lauren Lane

The truth is, I don’t mind the actual doing of laundry. When I have the time, I don’t mind the sorting and the folding. It’s the putting away laundry that’s the particularly icky part of this chore. And because I don’t mind laundry…and I would never trust my husband to do my or the kids’ laundry (hello….we’d end up with stains on everything because he’d never check them before throwing them into the wash)…I’m Chief Laundry Attendant.

Let me tell you, though, something in the laundry universe shifted when we went from a four person family to a five person family. It started to feel like a MASSIVE undertaking each week. And pile on that certain kids needing certain uniforms washed by certain days…you sports parents know what I’m talking about…and I was DONE. And annoyed.

So I switched up how I do laundry, annnnnd, I’m back to really kind of liking laundry day now.

I’m going to take you back, though. Back to the way I used to laundry. I designated one day every other week as laundry day. It usually took me realistically two days to get through, but I did EVERYONE’s laundry at the same time.

The pendulum shifted with that fifth kid, though. And the folding of clothes and getting all five people’s clothes back to the right spot became too much. It was like a part-time job for two days straight.

So, I changed what I was doing over the past six months. And now, I do laundry by person.

Adults get their laundry done every other week. Nathan has a day of laundry. Everything gets sorted, washed, and folded for him to put away.

I get a day of just my laundry. Sort, wash, fold, and put away.

And then there’s one day each week that I do all of the kids laundry together. Does it result in more loads of laundry? Maybe. But it makes the pieces much more manageable.

Laundering of linens and bath towels happens every other week, and the off weeks of adult laundry.

And that, friends, has truly made a difference in my sanity and enjoyment.

You didn’t even realize you could enjoy a whole post about laundry, did you?

What’s Up Wednesday {09.27.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy WUW post. You guys know I love this post. A little bit of everything from our life lately.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: It’s still pretty hot here, so I haven’t switched over to more fall and winter type dishes. We’re eating grilled chicken, sausage pot pie, and homemade carnitas burrito bowls this week.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Lately, the videos of Jonathan popping up on my phone from a year ago have me marveling at how much has changed for him in a year.

He was still a big talker even last year, but his language has just exploded in the past year.

Remembering the way their little voices used to sound is the hardest part for me to keep in my memories. You can see them physically grow, as they grow out of clothes. You see their face shape changing and their hair. But their voice…that’s just harder to remember. And I’m endlessly thankful for the videos I took of these boys. And reminded to keep recording them now!

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Our Fall 2023 Bucket List

Posted on by Lauren Lane

If you missed my posts last week, yesterday was my big “back to work” day. And in the scope of things, I’m feeling pretty good. Focusing instead on all of the fun things we want to do coming up, and how lucky we are that Aidan’s grandparents are helping to take care of him for a few weeks here while we wait for a spot to open up at our daycare.

I sat down with Harrison on Friday while he was out of school, and we made and decorated our Fall Bucket List for this year. And Jonathan later approved it. 🙂

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Let’s Look…At Our Evening Routine

Posted on by Lauren Lane

If there is any time of day that is the biggest $h!t show of the day around the Lane house, it’s the evening. It feels like constant chaos to get kids (and adults) fed, food put away, clean up the kitchen, bathed, and down for bed.

Which has to explain why I kept forgetting in this whirlwind of our “evening routine” to take any pictures document what we usually do. It’s just survival, folks. Pure survival. And hoping that my children aren’t hangry when they come home from school…which also happens to coincide with my only hangriness…WHILE trying to cook dinner. And waffling between just letting them have the dang snack so they stop whining and wanting them to actually eat the meal I’m making. But I digress…

Here we go…our evening routine, lately…

Aidan takes a catnap around 4:00 – so I like to think of our evening starting then.

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