family Archives - Pea of Sweetness

How to Manage (and Use) all Those Pictures of Your Kids

June 29, 2019 by Emilee Evans

Is your phone full of pictures of your most prized possessions—those gorgeous kids of yours? Do you need ideas on how to manage pictures of your kids? Currently, my “All Photos” album on my iPhone has 9,618 pictures. About 96 percent of those pictures are of my two boys. Yes, I have to pay for extra storage, and I desperately need to pick my favorites and delete the duplicates. Are you like me and don’t want all those pictures to just sit there on your phone or Facebook timeline never to be seen again? Do you need a better way to manage pictures of your kids? If so, this article was written for you.
Let me start off with a warning: it won’t be easy. The job of organizing and using all the incredible pictures of your kids will take time. But those amazing shots you got of them climbing at the park, wearing an outfit they picked out, braving the waves at the beach, their firsts you don’t ever want to forget . . . first steps, first haircut, first time riding a bike, first loose tooth, first day of school etc., those pictures should be seen again and enjoyed. If you take the time to do something with them now, they will be cherished for many, many years to come. Your kids will thank you for all the pictures they have to look back on and remember favorite moments from their childhood that will one day feel like a lifetime ago.
I know your time is super limited, and you’re probably like me with thousands of photos that you need to stop ignoring. So, let’s dive into seven steps you need to start taking to manage pictures of your kids NOW!

How to Manage Pictures of Your Kids

Stay Connected with UnPlugNPlay

May 26, 2016 by Emilee Evans

Summer is almost here. As year-round homeschoolers, we still work through the summer with occasional breaks when needed, and they are definitely needed! We constantly have technology in our face. Not only do we use a lot of it in our homeschool, but we’re also a family of gamers, so we all spend a lot of time on electronics. It’s not uncommon to have everyone on some device whether it be the computer, smart phones, game consoles, tablets, handheld game systems, etc.
We are definitely a “tech family,” but it is so very important to unplug regularly to stay connected as a family. Technology definitely doesn’t take the place of connecting, though. It can be so easy to fall into that trap, though, when these distractions are so easily accessed. We definitely have to make a conscious effort to unplug, and we do so regularly.
Here are just a few ways we unplug:

Going boating and fishing. Although we do go fishing without boating, we definitely always fish when we go boating!
Going to parks and playgrounds. Whether it’s playing on the swings or jungle gyms or just taking a walk on the trail, we love to spend time at the parks and playgrounds.
Playing board games. Now that the kids are getting older, our board game library has been growing. We love to play board games together as a family.
Playing active games. Playing games like ping pong, croquet, kickball, soccer, etc.

Disclosure: We received complimentary products to facilitate our review. Regardless, all opinions are my own and those of my family.
Recently, we were introduced to the UnPlugNPlay initiative by Killerspin. They want to encourage families to put down all their devices and connect! They know how important it is to enjoy family time!
Additionally, we had the opportunity to add to our list of fun physical activities with the MyT Lee mini ping pong table as well as the equipment needed to play including a JET800 Paddle, JET600 Paddle, and 4 Star Ping Pong Balls. When we received it, we were ready to UnPlugNPlay!

The MyT Lee Mini is absolutely perfect for our family! It’s incredibly portable. We have a small house, but when it’s a rainy day, we would love to be more active indoors. The MyT Lee Mini can be easily stored and taken out and set up when we’re ready to play! We’ll just set it up in the living room and play! We could easily keep the TV on, but that definitely defeats the whole purpose of connecting. We make sure we are completely unplugged and focus on fun time together!
The best part is we can easily have fun with others as well! The MyT Lee Mini is so portable we can take it outside when the weather allows or even take it to a friend’s or family member’s house to not only connect with each other, but others as well! It has a handle for easy portability. Plus, I love that it encourages them to unplug as well!

The MyT Lee Mini is, of course, smaller than we are used to, and though the kids quickly picked up playing with the size, the adults have to get used to it, and it has been a BLAST! Sometimes we keep score, and other times we just have fun and laugh together. It’s right there to easily set up whenever we’re ready!
The JET Paddles are amazing. The grip is so comfortable, and the quality is fantastic. The net and stakes for the net were neatly packed in a little bag that was strapped to the frame, and we found that was a great place to store the ping pong balls as well.
I know this has been a great way for our family to unplug and just have so much fun together. We love that it’s an activity we can do indoors or outdoors. I love that Killerspin is encouraging families to connect through UnPlugNPlay, and you should definitely check out UnPlugNPlay to learn more!

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We Made It! Our Moving Adventure

December 28, 2014 by Emilee Evans

I didn’t have a chance to post my “Merry Christmas!” message on here, but I do hope you had a blessed Christmas! So we finally made it to Ohio. We arrived on Christmas Eve. If you saw my announcement about moving you may be thinking it took a little longer than you’d expect. You would be right! I’m pretty sure most moves don’t go as planned, but this one was particularly an adventure – not the good kind of adventure, though! The good news is, though, we made it! We finished unloading the truck today and are excited for our new adventure – the good kind of adventure!

One thing is for sure – the weather was totally against us. I said we were leaving on the 21st, but we didn’t. The day we got the moving truck it rained – ALL DAY. We got a few things on, but just a few. It gave us an opportunity to spend more time with our families before we left, though I am sad I didn’t get to see my grandma because she was in the hospital and not feeling up to company.
We did get to see my other family, and while we’re visiting our youngest, who had a cold at the time, started coughing so hard it made him sick to his stomach. I feared he wouldn’t be well enough for the move, but it was just a one time thing!
Upon returning to the house to load more stuff on to the truck so we could at least leave the next day, we discover our dog had gotten out, and I had to go find her. She’s not typically a runner, but since we weren’t home she decided not to go back. *Sigh*
We still weren’t finished that night, so we woke up and got right to work. It took much longer than I imagined finishing up all the little stuff and picking up and vacuuming the floors. Finally, though we’d be on our way!
It was almost dinner time when we left, so we talked about a more realistic goal for where we’d stop for the night because originally we planned on only one stop in Tennessee. We knew we’d have to stop in Arkansas but were hopeful we could drive straight through from there.
My husband’s alarm didn’t go off, so we left much later than expected, but we were off again! It was raining – and raining and raining and raining. By the time it was getting dark visibility wasn’t ideal. Since I fought a migraine the day before and was fighting fatigue that day, we just decided it would be best to stop again – in Tennessee where we planned to stop the first time! I felt like we’d never make it!
I bathed the dog and cat at the hotel because even though our cat did much better than I expected he still made a mess on himself, and the dog just plain smelled! Ha! So we had clean pets and a chance to get more sleep, though it was probably the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed, but this post is long enough, so I’ll spare the details. 😉
We didn’t need our alarm that morning as the cat decided to knock the gerbil cage off the table, and we startled out of bed to see the damage. Our daughter amazingly caught both gerbils (who were now loose) in one snatch. Phew!
It was super early, but if we wanted to get there at a decent time, we figured we might as well leave. It was Christmas Eve, so we wanted to see our family!
Off we went in the gloomy, rainy weather. We heard it might be snowing up in Ohio that night, so we were hoping to get there before the snow. There never was any snow, but it was gloomy, windy, and rainy the whole way there. The WHOLE WAY. It was terrible. Plus my husband, who was ahead of me in the moving truck, discovered our headlights weren’t working in automatic mode. I’m sure this is because you cannot move without some type of vehicle issue.
I was fighting my fatigue again, a headache, and a stomach ache surely brought on by the stress, so we had to make frequent stops. At this point I wasn’t even sure we’d make it there at a decent time that night – if at all! I just kept praying and praying that we’d be able to get through the final stretch.
We did! We arrived on Christmas Eve just before dinner. We walked in to the sweetest surprise – a Christmas tree with decorations and some goodies under the tree to welcome us to our new home. It was such an amazing blessing. We were finally home – and just in time for Christmas!

I have been trying to catch up on blog posts to discover my computer has malware, and I was going to have to get rid of it first. Plus our internet won’t be connected until Tuesday, but I’m here posting from my phone. I cleared the malware, so I should be “back” soon. In the meantime we’re working on putting things behind us and starting our new adventure. We had amazing help with unloading the truck today, got to the store for some winter gear, and got a few basics for the house. We are so ready to settle in to our home.
It seems most moves have at least something that doesn’t go as planned. Have you ever had a move that went as planned or one like ours that was a bit of a disaster?

How to Manage Pictures of Your Kids

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