Tag: family

Bringing Family Together with Starbucks Holiday Blend {Giveaway}

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

I was provided a bag of Starbucks Holiday Blend ground coffee and a mug in return for my participation in this campaign with Modern Moms and Starbucks. Any and all opinions shared are my own.

During our holiday trip last week, we bounced from house to house spending a night or two here and then a night or two there. Some mornings there were big family breakfasts and some mornings every one fended for themselves depending on their plans for the day.

But the one constant at every house – there was always coffee brewing.  And it was more than just a jolt of caffeine or something to warm to drink on a cold Michigan morning.

It’s a common thread among households, families, people at all ages and stages of life.

It breeds togetherness as folks gather by the coffee maker waiting for the last drip to fall so they can fill their mug.

It’s an excuse to slow down from the hustle of holiday plans and chores and check in with each other.

For the holiday season, Starbucks offers its Holiday Blend.

The holidays are full of surprises—especially this reimagined Starbucks® Holiday Blend. Our newest creation is crafted with vibrant Latin American and smooth Indonesian coffees. The result is complex yet approachable, elegant yet versatile, hearty yet smooth. It’s a balance of herbal and sweet maple notes that pairs beautifully with everything your holiday season has in store for you.

Before I even brewed the coffee, I thought the aroma was amazing. The flavor is quite mild so I might experiment with an extra scoop or two next time. I’m typically a flavored creamer or milk kind of girl but I enjoyed the Holiday Blend black as well.

Starbucks was gracious enough to provide another bag of Holiday Blend ground coffee and mug to one of my readers! To enter, leave a comment below telling me what activities bring your family together at the holidays – cookie decorating, movies, driving around looking for lights????

I will pick a winner on Monday, January 6th.

Five

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

{With the transition of getting back to work, I wasn’t able to get a post up for Brooke’s birthday last Wednesday. Five is a big birthday though and I didn’t want to let it pass without giving Miss Brooke a shout-out.}

To my sweet girl in celebration of your fifth birthday,
I give you a list of 5 of my favorite things about you today:

1. Your stream of consciousness song and dance routines. I’d get video of them more often but they go on so so so long!

2. The way you call your sister “Sweetheart” and make her laugh by spelling her name to her. “Where’s my L-E-A-H?”

3. You ask me to tell you the author when I read books to you before bed. Something I’m guessing you discovered since being in Kindergarten.

4. When you’re going to bed and Leah’s asleep you ask me to give her a hug & kiss and tell her you love her when she wakes up.

5. You recognize Phil Mickelson in commercials on TV and get so excited to tell your daddy…what 5 year old recognizes a golfer?

Happy Birthday sweetheart!! Thank you for making me a Mommy! I love you!

Too Much and Not Enough

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

Last week was an exhausting week for me. I had a big project due at school on top of other work for another class. We registered Brooke for gymnastics and stayed afterwards to take advantage of open gym on Monday. Tuesday we had long standing dinner plans to be there for opening night of Chuy’s. The 45 minutes we waited outside was worth it…the food was a amazeballs. I also went to the gym two of those nights and met a blog deadline.

By the time 11:55 Friday night, the moment my assignments and homework were due, rolled around I was exhausted.

And I missed my family. Yeah, I saw them every night…for awhile. But no sooner had the dinner dishes been taken to the kitchen, to be cleaned by my saint of a husband, I’d be off. On the nights I wasn’t stationed at the dining room table with a textbook, I was at the gym working on my Couch to 5K training. I felt like I was constantly rushing Brooke around and pushing her away and by the end of the week, her behavior reflected it.

I began to wonder if it was worth it. Yes, getting this degree in Early Ed is the first step to working in a field I am actually passionate about. Yes, for my health and sanity, I needed to get physically active.

Everyone says to moms, “You have to do something for yourself”.

“Make sure you get Me Time.”

“Get out of the house once in awhile”

I always thought that maybe I was doing it wrong by not spending more time doing things like girl’s night outs and days at the spa. But one week of doing things for me and I’m exhausted.

I’m hoping it will get easier. I think it will. My class load this fall will be smaller so there won’t be as much schoolwork to juggle. I’ve recommitted myself to menu planning so the period between me walking in the door after work and out the door to the gym doesn’t have to so hectic. Brooke will get used to Daddy putting her to bed by himself sometimes and I’ll get used to missing a bedtime here and there.

And I’ll have to remember in the long run…it will be worth it.