Share the Joy Linkup - May 2018

Welcome to Share the Joy Monthly Linkup for May. If you this is your first time visiting this linkup, Share the Joy is the happiness-focused linky.  Bloggers, writers, artists, poets, if creating something made you laugh out loud, opened your heart, raised your spirits or just made you smile – you’re welcome here.

I am very thrilled that Amanda from The Family Patch is joining us again this month. She is sharing how she has found joy the last couple months even though she is courageously fighting illness. Please head over to The Family Patch and send Amanda some love. 

Share the Joy Linkup - April 2018

Welcome to Share the Joy Monthly Linkup for April. If you this is your first time visiting this linkup, Share the Joy is the happiness-focused linky.  Bloggers, writers, artists, poets, if creating something made you laugh out loud, opened your heart, raised your spirits or just made you smile – you’re welcome here.

April has started with the feeling excitement for the 2 week school break. I do appreciate interrupted work time when children are both in school but I am looking forward to spending quality time with them and the Easter Bunny coming. We have a couple family days out planned. 

Share the Joy Monthly Linkup - March 2018

Welcome to Share the Joy Monthly Linkup for March. Thank you for everyone that joined us in February 2018. If you this is your first time visiting this linkup, Share the Joy is the happiness-focused linky.  Bloggers, writers, artists, poets, if creating something made you laugh out loud, opened your heart, raised your spirits or just made you smile – you’re welcome here.

March is arriving with snow storm and sickness in our home. We plan in just staying home watching movies and keep warm. My February was filled with moments of small accomplishments as new domain names purchased and new online businesses in development. I am hoping that the weather improves soon and the Spring flowers start appearing.  

Share the Joy Monthly Linkup - February 2018

Welcome to Share the Joy Monthly Linkup for February. Thank you for everyone that joined us in December 2017. If you this is your first time visiting this linkup, Share the Joy is the happiness-focused linky.  Bloggers, writers, artists, poets, if creating something made you laugh out loud, opened your heart, raised your spirits or just made you smile – you’re welcome here.

A huge 'Thank You' to Lizzie and Carol for hosting the last couple month of 2017. They have decided to focus on other projects in 2018 but I am sure will be linking up in the future. Amanda from The Family Patch and I have made the decision that this linky will be monthly instead of the weekly as previously. This will allow us to spend more time focusing on reading the linked up blogs posts and sharing with our readers or followers on social media. On the 1st of every month, please stop by here at LadyBug Home to linkup.

January was a month filled with lots of small moments of joy and taking the time to think about what myself and family focus will be in 2018. My family goals still need a new defining but I decided on January 1st that I wanted to be more focused and productive this year. I often find my thoughts bouncing from one goal or project to other without making proactive progress on any goal or not recognising the progress. 

Joy of Christmas Decorations - Share the Joy Linky

Hello December! I love Christmas. I have many happy memories in past Decembers involving celebrating birthdays, yummy food, cheerful Christmas decorations and family fun. We got our Christmas tree last week so it was time to pull out the Christmas boxes from under the stairs. I love re-discovering Christmas items that I have forgotten in the last year but I think the person that was most excited was my daughter. Very quickly my living room floor was covered in Christmas decorations, craft supplies, and Christmas cards. I had forgotten how many Christmas craft kits I purchased the last couple years. I have decided on a new goal that this year we are going have hours of crafting fun and use up the craft supplies so very little is put back in storage at the end of the Christmas season. We will enjoy buying a few next craft kits next year.

My truly special ornaments (or babbles) are still stored in the USA at my parents home. In the next couple years when my children are a little older and less likely to pull the glass ornaments off the tree, I will have the "Christmas box" sent to England. Our current tree decorations are made up of plastic metallic and glitter ornaments with a few bead garlands. My daughter has handmade felt ornaments for her tree and Little Brother has inherited handmade wooden planes that were made by my father and grandfather before I was born.

Joy of Wintery Nights - Share the Joy Linky

Thank you everyone that linked up last week in the Share the Joy post here at Ladybug Home. Loved reading the festive posts and several clever handmade gift items. I was thinking of titling this blog post, "Joy of Mince Pies" because it my children's favourite treat this past week. I really love wintery nights and being cosy at home with warm cup of tea or some hot chocolate. It has been so cold lately in England and definitely winter has come. My daughter has asked for snow for Christmas and that certainly could be a possibility based on how cold it has been the last couple weeks.

We have been walking around the toy shops and creating a list in my head or by taking photos on my phone of toys or items that my children seem to show interest in. Santa is still not sure what he is bring my children this year. Since both my children were born within a month of Christmas, there is plenty of gifts to be purchased in the near future. I keep sneaking items into the closest under the stairs and luckily my daughter has not peaked in there yet.

Joy of Thankfulness - Share the Joy Linky

On Thursday, November 22nd, 2018 is Thanksgiving in the USA will be a day is filled with lots of food, checking out the Black Friday deals, and visiting with Family and Friends. Most importantly it is day dedicated to think about what you thankful about. I have many reasons to be thankful but below are a couple of my top reasons. 

TOP REASONS I AM THANKFUL

1) FAMILY - I am so grateful to have two beautiful children and supportive husband. I am blessed with caring parents and in-laws whom always are creating magical moments for my children. My parents send boxes filled with yummy treats, clothes and decorative items. My mother-in-law always send us home from Sunday Lunches with baby wipes for the children and dark chocolate for "Dad & Mum".

Joy of Cuddles - Share the Joy Linky

The greatest joy that I felt this week was cuddles with my children. I recently started working at a new job and I am really grateful that this job allows me work evenings and weekends so that I can still do the school runs, go on school trips, and have lazy days at home during week with my son. It also makes me appreciate more cuddles with my children. I also think my children appreciate me a little more since I am not around 24/7 now. My son normally meets me at the door when I get home from work and instantly wants to jump in my lap for mommy's special cuddles.

I love trying to soak up my son's body warmth and touching his soft hair. It fills my tired body with love. I also sneak into my daughter's room in the late evening to give her a small cuddle while she is sleeping but my favourite cuddles are in the morning when she has just woken up. My almost 6 year old barely fits in my lap anymore but I am filled with joy and pride of my beautiful daughter when we cuddle. I hope my children always want hugs from their Mommy.      

Joy of November - Share the Joy Linky

Welcome to November! We had a very fun Halloween that included one and half hours of trick-or-treating. My daughter was so joyful as she dashed around the neighbourhood with her friends and filled her pumpkin bucket with sweets. I must admit that I have eaten more of the candy the last week than she has. It definitely feels like November with the cold and dark nights. The weather has been colder and greyer than October. 

My daughter is counting down the weeks until Christmas but my thoughts have turned to festive treats. The month of November for me is filled with thoughts about past Thanksgivings with yummy food and spending time with my USA family. Life can be challenging at times these days but I am always very thankful for my family and festive foods this time of year. I must get some canned pumpkin to try to tempt my children again this year with some pumpkin pie. Bring on the whipped cream!

Joy of Halloween - Share the Joy Linky

Welcome to this week's Share the Joy Linkup. As we countdown to Halloween Night on October 31st, I have been thinking about all the joyful and fun Halloweens of my childhood in USA. My favourite Halloween memories include cheerful Halloween decorations, carved pumpkins (aka Jack-O-Lanterns) and homemade costumes. Every year my mother would make my siblings and I new costumes on her sewing machine. Over the years, our costumes have included dressing as rabbits, bears, french clowns, jester clowns and Disney characters (Snow White, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse). My mother even made an amazing of Queens of Heart costume for my Senior Year in high school. We were very lucky that we had a mother that encouraged us be creative with our costumes every year.  

Every year we would head to the local pumpkins patch to pick a pumpkin fresh off the vine. My parent's rule was that you could have any size pumpkin as long as you could carry it. The older we got the bigger the pumpkins were. Also, we would often take school field trips to pumpkin patch with our fellow school mates. We would trick-or-treat around our current and past neighbourhoods which allowed our past neighbours to see how much we had grown over the past year. My mother has a huge collection of cute and cheerful Halloween decorations. 

Joy of Dancing - Share the Joy Linky

This week's 'Share the Joy' theme is Dancing. We are days away from half-term school break and everyone in my home is tired. The weather keeps fluctuating from warm to cold and we all fighting off the sickness bugs that we are constantly getting exposed too. So must say that we are not the most cheerful household these days. On those tough days when it just seems life is just to hard there is one way that always brings laughter and smiles back into to our lives... dancing.  

Joy in Autumn - Share the Joy Linky

Hello October! I love when the leaves start changing colours because it means that the next couple months are going to be filled with hot seasonal drinks and festive decorations. I have many fond childhood memories of heading to the Pumpkin Patch to find that perfect pumpkins for Halloween Night. My mother would make the most magical handmade costumes each year. These days, I love brainstorming with my daughter costume ideas and designs for pumpkin carving.  Time for cosy jumpers and the nights to get longer.

After Halloween, I start to looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner the end of November and my favourite month of December. There is birthday celebrations (December & January) to focus on and the magic of the Christmas season. This last week, we have jumped in many piles of leaves and enjoyed sunny cool days.

What do you enjoy about Autumn?  

Joy of Inspiration - Share the Joy

The theme that last week was being inspired and "Sisterhood is Power". On Monday, September 25th, my dear friend Lisa from First Mummies Club and I headed to the Mums Enterprise Roadshow. This was the 4th Mums Enterprise Roadshow and first time in London. I signed up last May 2017 when I thinking about how in September I needed to focus on looking for ways to make additional income. I was thrilled when my friend Lisa told me that she was also going to this event also. The Mums Enterprise Roadshow is a "child-friendly work and business exhibitions helping mums on a mission whether that be retraining, finding flexible work, starting up or growing a business." I attended this show to learning more about other mother entrepreneurs' business journey and be inspired to take some of my personal projects to the next step.

I spent most of the day sitting in informative workshops. One of my favourite sessions were the "Marketing Made Easy" with Nicola Huelin founder of mPower Mastermind Groups who "mission is to empower one million mums to help them build a successful business around the family life they love!"  

Joy with Every Stitch - Share the Joy Linky

Majority of the time my days are filled with focusing on keeping my children happy and safe or thinking about ways to make money to release some financial pressure off my husband and myself.  Although this past week, I have been taking some time to focus on one of my favourite hobbies of cross stitching. My mother creates beautiful pieces of embroidery with very complex stitches while cross stitching is my favourite past time. My first cross stitched piece was done as an art project in high school. I must admit that attention to detail was not my greatest strength while in high school so I would stitch the pattern during the day and then my mother would sweetly unstitch and fix the messy sections at night. I rediscovered and properly learned to cross stitch while my son was a baby and was a simple creative project while he napped. 

This week, I was inspired to create a Halloween themed cross stitch piece. I am not brave enough to design my own patterns yet so I often purchase a pattern from Etsy. This week's pattern was from RedBear Design.  I will normally purchase a pattern for the design instructions and then change the thread colours or alter the design a little bit. As I was working on the Halloween design, there was request by my husband and daughter to remove the skulls and replace with cheerful pumpkins.

I enjoy counting the stitches and watching as a design slowing appears with each stitch. My daughter loves coming home from school to see what new elements I completed while she was away. She sweetly asked me if I was going to sell my current cross stitch project but the answer is "no" and that is part of the joy.  I enjoy that there is no pressure to make the back of the cross stitch look perfectly neat and I often find that I have missed a stitch or created an accidental knot in the thread. I should finished this week and will update this post with a photo.  If you want to try cross stitching, comment below so I can give you some encourage and I would suggest subscribing to RedBear Club where you will get free patterns monthly. 

Joy of Carefree Autumn Day - Share the Joy Linky

I am constantly amazed how quickly this year is flying by and that it is mid-September already. The last couple weeks have been filled with Big Sister heading back to school and Little Brother starting regular Preschool sessions. I always hope that we can extend warm summer days into the first couple weeks of September but unfortunately it is definitely feeling like Autumn. The leaves have been falling since the last couple weeks of August and now the house heating is on during the night (most of the time) to keep everyone warm and cosy.  I keep finding myself thinking preparing for Halloween and Christmas.

I am trying to cherish the couple years before Little Brother is attending full-time schooling so I felt zero guilt this week when I decided on Wednesday that Little Brother and I were going skip Preschool to spend an extra morning together. That morning, he was very cuddly while waiting for Big Sister's school doors to open and it was a sunny morning that seemed perfect for some exploring in town. Once I confirmed with Preschool that Little Brother would be not be in, we headed to the library. I needed to renew a couple books but also wanted to find some new phonic books to keep Big Sister interested in reading.

Vlog Stars September 2016 - The Blogger Tag

This month, I am linking up with Aby from You Baby Me Mummy and Amy from Mr and Mrs T Plus Three for Vlog Stars September 2016. This month topic is "The Blogger Tag".  Below are the questions if you want to join in.

Vlog Stars April 2016 - 20 Questions Tag

This month, I am linking up with Aby from You Baby Me Mummy and Amy from Mr and Mrs T Plus Three for Vlog Stars April 2016. This month topic is "20 Questions Tag ".  Below are the questions if you want to join in.

Vlog Stars March 2016 - 5 Things Could Not Live Without and 1 Thing Could Live Without

This month, I am linking up with Aby from You Baby Me Mummy and Amy from Mr and Mrs T Plus Three for Vlog Stars March 2016. This month topic is "5 Things Could Not Live Without and 1 Thing Could Live Without ".  Husband took the "Little Ones" to the park allowing me to have some time to filmed without interruption.

Vlog Stars #9 - "3 Life Goals and 3 Work Goals 2016"

This month, I am linking up with Aby from You Baby Me Mummy and Amy from Mr and Mrs T Plus Three for Vlog Stars #9. This month topic is "3 Life Goals and 3 Work Goals 2016". Bumblebee Boy joined me in filming. Apologise for his crazy hair but check out Little Ladybug's clean room.

We also joined in Aby and Amy for #VlogStars #5 "A Little Bit of Everything", #6 "Facts & Favourites" and shared Little LadyBug's birth story for #7 "Share a Story".

Why not join us in March 2016 (2nd Thursday) with your video. The topic is "5 Things You Cannot Live Without and One Thing You Could".

2015 Book Advent Calendar with LadyBug Home

Christmas 2014 when I was cuddling my newborn baby boy I came across the idea of creating a book advent calendar from fellow blogger Oh So Amelia. We love advent calendars in our home and often have several of them to count down the days to Christmas.

This year, I decided to gather together my daughter's winter and Christmas themed books. I discovered that we have collected a rather large collection the last couple years and had enough to create an Advent Calendar of 24 days of books. I will wrap the books up and each day my daughter can rediscover one of her books.