If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

I thought I'd honor the first day of school with a word problem: Jamie has 5 kids.  It is the first day of school and the afternoon looks intimidating. Jamie needs to allow 20 minutes to get from her house to town.  Here are the times her kids have to be places after noon today:      Hays 12:00 School Starts, 2:25 School Ends, 5:30-6:30 Golf      Maggie  2:20 School Ends, 4:00-5:30 Volleyball      Tiki  1:30 School Ends, 5:15-7:30 Football      Dax 3:35 School Ends, 5:15-7:30 Football      Gabby  1:30 School Ends, 2:30-4:30 Tap How can Jamie and the kids spend the least time in the car this afternoon? Hehehehe.  That was fun.  I (heart) math!

I am a chore chart failure.  I really am.  Each year I come up with a great plan for chores.  I come up with a great reminder system and a great payment system and we're lucky if we make it until October until it all falls apart. So this year I have another one in place.  Yea me!  We'll see. My kids have "rent" chores.  These are daily chores they have to do and their payment is their room and board and insurance and such.  These are just chores they get to do as a member of the Braner Family.  Then they have new nightly chores that they will rotate throughout the week.  And they have a "big" chore they will do on the weekend.  These night and weekend chores are their "allowance" chores. Where I struggle the most is the check and pay part (my chore).  My kids do pretty great with their chores, but I do pretty crummy with my chore (check and pay).  So, I'm going to work on that this year.  What is your system for pay...

This morning we rolled out of bed and headed to school to meet the teachers (the three littles).  School starts on Monday and I cannot believe that I will have a Sophomore, an 8th grader, two 4th graders and a 2nd grader.  Wow.  Each of these grades, for me, were very memorable.  When I was a Sophomore I got my license; as an 8th grader I "went out" with my first boy (what does that even mean) and got dumped by that same boy; 4th grade was wonderful with Mrs. Frazier and it was the first grade where I didn't feel like a little kid because she made us feel responsible and fun; and in 2nd grade I had Mrs. Orth and that is when I realized that I was smart and I really liked it!  So, here my kids go--their own adventures in the even grades. I'm excited for what they get to bring to school with them this year.  I'm excited that when they have to do a writing exercise about "what I did this summer" it will be full of adventures and stories!  I hope they n...

Normally this is how I roll.  I can spin multiple plates at once and I do it well.  I love high stress and emergency situations.  I love to have a ton going on.  I love that I'm good at spinning many plates at once. However, I am feeling a little more like this these days.  I crawled into bed the other night and told Andy that I felt like I had one too many things going on and he couldn't even believe that those words came out of my mouth.  Me neither! I'm a tad overwhelmed with all I have going on!  I have my jobs (yes, plural), my kids (5) and their schools (3) and their activities (5--we only let them do one activity per "season"--thank goodness), my husband, my Masters. . . .  And then on top of those biggies, I have tons of emotional stuff going on and that alone seems like several dozen plates all by itself. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, sometimes I feel exhausted (mentally and emotionally), sometimes I feel like nothing is going t...

I just returned from Vegas where I got to dive into new information about these health and wellness products I am using and sharing.  It was a super weekend with fun friends, great information and the tools to make my dreams come true.  I really want to share with you all! 1.  The company.  It is amazing!  The priorities are right on target.  God first.  Family second.  And so on.  The people are amazing.  They are genuine.  I was blown away by the people from corporate I got to meet and the executives I got to know.  I love this company! 2.  The products.  I already know that I love the products.  My life is completely different because of them and my family is on a path to health that I could not have gotten them on before.  (I'll post my story at the end of this post in case anyone doesn't know it.)  This weekend they introduced a new product for rest, relaxation, calming, anti-anxiety, insom...

. . . the parents will play. Yesterday was so much fun!  Andy and I had a date day with no kids and it was the best!  We rented a jeep and went all over the mountains.  We made it to Telluride--Andy had never been there--and had a great lunch.  We explored the mountains, saw waterfalls, I may or may not (may) have had a panic attack at one point on the crazy mountain roads.  We laughed.  We enjoyed one another.  It was much needed and I loved the day with my man!  I'm so thankful for this time without the kids this week! Timer pic gone wrong when my camera fell off the jeep! Andy didn't want "another normal" picture.

Maggie, Tiki, Dax and Gabby are all at K1.  They're having a great time (it looks like they are).  I dropped them off after flying straight there from Kigali and I'm sure they were exhausted.  But I know they are having the best time ever and I'm not the least bit worried that jet lag is getting them down. I love this group of pictures because Tiki is with his cousin from Arizona, Peyton.  Those two have the greatest relationship!  They love each moment they get to be together and they get to be together for four weeks now! I love the middle picture.  It is Tiki, Dax and Gabby with their cousin, LillyAnne.  I love that they all four found each other the first night.  The pic isn't great (couldn't the photographer have said, "hey you four, look at me and smile!"  Oh well.) but I love that they are all together! This may be my favorite group of pictures.  This is Maggie truly happy.  Her smile is so genuine (especial...