More Than A Young Wife & Mom

A tangible record of the things I love each week and possibly a few resources or ideas for you.

I found this week to not be as crappy as last week but not much better, either.

Here are the things that gave me life this week:
IF:GATHERING 2019 Livestream - 2 days of amazing testimony and teaching focusing the question of "what it looks like to be a woman of wisdom."  I was able to watch the first two sessions and part of the third. I purchased the digital access so I can finish when it's posted to their site on Feb. 25.

This inspirational mirror and matching frame -  Before my counseling appointment I browsed a nearby store and ended up purchasing these markdowns from Valentines. $5 for both. The mirror was a sweet reminder for me to love myself, which I struggle with. I purchased the frame since it matched. I also purchased a new pair of jeans that actually fit, because, let's face it, I've been holding on to (and squeezing into) those smaller sized ones for too long.


Then at my appointment, we discussed how my self-esteem is possibly causing some of my depression. Makes sense. I like this mirror even more now.

Valentines Day - Hubs was out of town so the kids and I exchanged our gifts, mostly homemade. I gave the kids a valentine heart plush each and used my Cricut to add their names. I received two handmade cards. Small but sweet.

That's it for this week.

A tangible record of the things I love each week and possibly a few resources or ideas for you.

Soooo, this week sucked really bad. First, my daughter got a cold late last week, which complicated her asthma. Fevers, coughing and wheezing. Then, little man started to get sick, throwing up on Saturday, then fever and coughing most of this week. Took him to the doctor and he has a virus, which is probably what his sister had. Along the way of taking care of them, I caught the virus. Had to skip the gym this week and some cystic acne decided to pop up on my face. And did I mention that "J" is out of town this week for work?!

Somehow there were little glimpses of light during the week that deserve a highlight on this post.

Here are the things that gave me life this week:
Being that I found myself in the bed so much this week, I was on my phone quite a bit. I saw that Becky Higgins had an Insta story dedicated to her notebooks system, especially her "Notes of the Spirit". She had mentioned them in last week's podcast and I thought to myself "I'd love to hear more" so I headed to Instagram and watched. From there she linked to another full Youtube video on it. Needless to say, I'm inspired. I have so many cute notebooks lying around and was looking for a way to organize.

Enjo App - I was scrolling through the IOS App Store and decided to check out the recommended apps of the day. I came across Enjo - Wellness for Parents. The idea is to spend 5 minutes a day for mindful reflections on your family. My kids' school is focusing on mental health awareness and mindfulness, in particular, this week, so I thought it might be good to check out. It's free with no ads or subscriptions. Basically, you're chatting with a bot that asks reflective questions and gives you prompts to use, or you can write your own. There are 6 sessions to get through all the intro stuff about you. The first session was about me and what I appreciate about myself. On the second session, it asked about my husband with the option of adding him via contacts or manually. I opted for the contacts so that I could see his picture when we talk about him. Enjo asked what did I appreciate about J? I replied that I love how hard he works for his family." Enjo saved it to my timeline as a reflection. It then said that it is good to let our families know that we appreciate them.  When Enjo asked did I want to text my appreciation response to J, I said sure. Thinking J would know something was up with the random text, I expected him to question it. Instead, I got FOUR texts back thanking me, saying he loves me and that he misses us (he's out of town for the week.) I was blown away! I must admit that not only was it nice to think good things about my husband and his response was over the top. The next sessions include the kids so I'm excited.

Stock Photo

IF:GATHERING 2019 begins TONIGHT and it's not too late to join via the livestream. I don't have a local meetup near me so I'm watching online as well. It's a 2 day/3 session Christian conference for women based out of Austin, TX. I've done this amazing event in small groups as well as by myself. It is free to watch the livestream this weekend only! If you can't make the livestream, you can purchase a 1-year digital access (which is what I did) and watch it anytime!

It's that time of year, family food and holiday photos. Looking for the best affordable option can be daunting but let me tell you about my family's recent session.

It...was...RAINING!! Not like a sprinkle but a full downpour. Luckily our local stores provided a Plan B for our disappointed kids.

Walgreens had candy for Trick-or-Treaters at checkout while H-E-B had trick-or-treat stations all over the store. It was Prince C's first time really experiencing Halloween and he enjoyed it, even though it was inside a store.

Are you local and looking for something to do this Saturday? 

It never fails. NEVER.

When King J is out of town the kids go crazy or as we still like to call it...CRAY. There must be some sort of receptors in a kids brain that knows when Daddy is far out of the perimeter, with no chance of coming home that evening and punishing them.

And guess what?!! Within 6 hours of him leaving this time, it began. The kids are cray, and mom is almost Bat-Crap CRAY!

Who's ready for Back to School Shopping?! Let's be real, school clothes and supplies can be expensive. How about getting back some of your hard earned money while you're shopping this time of year? Um, yes PLEASE!!

How often do our kids ask us to play a game but we parents dont want to because:

1. It's too long
2. It's too boring
3. Or, It's too much to set up.

Princess A and myself were excited to test out Spin Master's Cars 3 Risky Raceway! I secretly set up the game before I called her to play with me. It only took a matter of minutes to assemble the 3D elements to the game and to pop out the die-cut tokens. And so we began...

But first let me tell you that we are competitive in this family...REALLY COMPETITIVE. My first date with King J was a basketball game one on one. Our kids have taken this characteristic on as well.


She chose Jackson Storm and I was Cruz Ramirez. We spun the wheel and moved our cars across the board, cheering as we got a high number and pouting when it low. Princess A loved it when she would pass me. There may have been a short-lived dance.

We talked about all kinds of stuff as we played, oblivious of the time, the television or my cell phone. It was a nice break to be unplugged and happy about it.

Remember when I said her dance was short-lived?! Well, guess who won the Piston Cup and the Risky Raceway game. This girl right here! The big girl, I mean woman, mom, yeah.

And now King J is home from traveling so we have our third player. I imagine it will be even more fun.


Spin Master Games – Cars 3 toys are available now at Walmart and Toys''R''Us.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Spin Master. A Complimentary product was sent for pupose of review.

Confession time: I absolutely hate summer sometimes. I know—summer is supposed to be full of blue skies, popsicles, and sprinklers. But it can be a lot of pressure to keep the kids occupied when school is out. It's hard for me to set the kids up with activities that keep them learning and engaged.

It can be particularly tough for parents of kids with behavioral, social, or learning difficulties. My mother is currently a single parent of a young son with Autism and ADHD. The diagnosis was hard and since then I am constantly trying to learn more ways to help them.

So I partnered with Brain Balance —a drug-free, holistic approach to addressing the challenges of behavioral, social, or learning disabilities—to try some of their summer activities, and to share a little bit about their philosophy. And let me tell you, their activities actually work, even with Princess A who doesn't have a learning difficulty (just tween hormones - yikes).  I'm so excited to keep this momentum going into the summer and beginning with my brother!

😎Found this selfie gem! Handed him my phone the other day so he could see himself in his new sunglasses. There's about 10 similar he took, lol. Oh that smile!! What am I going to do with him?!!😍 #CamMan #CamManSelfie #MommysBoy

A post shared by Tiffany (@youngwifemom) on Feb 15, 2017 at 7:28pm PST

I got this awesome shirt from +CrazyDogTshirts.com via a review site and absolutely love it! I saw it and said to myself "I MUST HAVE IT!" and decided to do a quick Wife-Life Wednesday post about it. Long time readers might remember that I worked with them some years ago on another sponsored post and love how much they've grown (and the tees are still so dang comfy!)

Loving my new tee from @crazydogtshirts! Claiming this as its #wifelifewednesday at #youngwifeandmomblog

A photo posted by Tiffany (@youngwifemom) on May 18, 2016 at 8:26am PDT