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Backwards N High Heels

Balancing work and play while wearing many hats (I mean heels).

Creative Easter Basket Ideas

February 24, 2018

Easter is a little over one month away, and I have already begun to save items in my Amazon basket for Logan’s Easter Basket. By the way, is there anyone else like me who shops online and never actually buys the things saved in their virtual basket? I wish I could say the same for my trips to Target.

I know some of you may roll your eyes at me when I say this (and that is okay because guess what? I will not know that you did) – I am not a big fan of filling Logan’s Easter basket with candy. Say what? Yes, I will say it again – I am not a big fan of filling Logan’s Easter Basket with candy.

While it may seem like a tradition that I am depriving my daughter of, let me assure you, she gets plenty of candy. Her basket will usually include a few treats like peeps, some McFarland Candies chocolates (a local chocolatier) and jelly beans, but other than that, I try to use her basket as a way to get creative with things she needs or I want to get her.

As a total presentation-focused individual, these Easter Basket ideas I found while scanning Pinterest, caught my eye. How fun are these non-traditional basket ideas?

For full disclosure, these ideas are not my own. They are actually from far more creative people, so I have been sure to include direct links to the sources. Just click the images below.

Photo credit – i heart arts n crafts

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1 Comment CATEGORIES // Family, Lifestyle TAGGED: Back, Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, BackwardsNHighHeels, Creative Easter Basket Ideas, Easter, Easter Basket Ideas

Loves Of Our Lives

February 14, 2018

I do not remember the day I fell in love with you, Mom and Dad. I guess that is what it is like when you are a child. You enter this life with complete reliance and trust. Strangers hands that God placed you in. You have no say in where you landed, but you instead, just land, and by the grace of God I landed in two sets of hands of a mother and a father who gave me a privileged life. Not in the sense of money or things (although I know, having a child myself, children cost a great deal of money and I never went without), but more a privilege to be in a loving, healthy home. A true gift of present parents who not only sacrificed in their own ways to give me and my siblings a life that was kind, but were so involved in our lives, we never had to question if our parents would show up. In fact, I never knew such a worry in life, because they always showed up.

And, because of all of this, my mother and father are natural loves in my life. It was never a love I had to fight for or stress over. Instead, it was an easy, steady, and constant love that has shaped and carried me through my life.

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2 Comments CATEGORIES // Family TAGGED: Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, backwards n high heels blog, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Family, Loves of our life, Valentines Day

Mornings in my Rearview Mirror

February 3, 2018

Can we talk about mornings? Ya, know what I am talking about? Shit show mornings. Sorry for the curse (not sorry). Mornings when you have to get out the door and be at your office job by 8 am, and you got kid(s) – well I am not joking, it is a shit show. Sometimes I exclaim “I have worked a full day before I even start my ‘workday’.” Why? Well, because I am exhausted mentally and physically from mom life and adulting. I am pretty sure I do more from 6 am to 8 am than any other two-hour span all day.

Coffee. Bottle. No, actually I need to clean a dirty bottle, so my daughter has a bottle. Shower. Laundry load switcharoo. Throw a toddler in the shower. Well, don’t throw her. Find papers from work that said toddler relocated somewhere in the house (usually her shopping cart, along with a potato from three weeks ago). Fix hubby a coffee. He drinks it cold. I drink mine cold. Get ready the best possible way I can. Dry a wet toddler who got out of the shower and is crying she is cold from the bathroom. Pack toddler bag. Pack my lunch. Locate car keys, after getting locked out of the house in the cold. – You get it!

So, when we finally, yes FINALLY, get ourselves in the car to head out the door, sweat pouring from my face and down my neck even in sub-zero degree temperatures, I find myself sighing heavy and wanting to crank up the radio and drown life out.


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Leave a Comment CATEGORIES // Family TAGGED: Backwards N High Heels, backwards n high heels blog, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Life with Kids, Mom Life, Motherhood, Parenting, Parenting Advice, Toddler Life

Top Blog Posts of 2017

December 30, 2017

2017. Wow. Can you believe we are here starring at 2018? It is so hard to grasp how quickly time moves.

While I don’t want to say 2017 was a bad year because I know the good outweighs all the bad, and I am blessed for another year of life and everything and every day in between, 2017 has indeed been a very hard and challenging year.

I started this Top Blog Posts recap in 2015. Basically, I pull all my blog stats and see which posts generated the most views for the year. So the results below are because of you and your readership and support.

And, while we are at it, let’s talk about you, dear friend. I come to this space time and time again to share pieces and snippets of my life in hopes that one blog post or one line from a blog post would start to fix a broken heart, mend a worn spirit, ease a worried mind, or make even the most exhausted of parents chuckle.

You are not alone. We are not alone, and that is the point of Backwards N High Heels. To share how our lives while every so different, can also offer glimpses of ever the same.

I thank you for continuing to come to this space. For believing in me and heck, maybe even enjoying a thing or two I say. May God bless each of you as we wind down 2017 and enter 2018.

10 – Top 10 Reasons Living With a Toddler is Like Living With a Drunk Person
Top10ReasonsLivingWithAToddlerIsLikeLivingWithADrunkPerson_BestBlogPostOf2017

9 – My New Season With God
MyNewSeasonWithGod
8 – In Sickness and In Health
InSicknessAndInHealth_BestPostsOf2017

7 – Change
Change_BestBlogPostOf2017
6 – God’s Grace and Prayers
GodsGraceAndPrayers_BestPostsOf2017
5 – I Wish For My Daughter
IWishForMyDaughter_BestBlogPostsof2017
4 – We Swore We Would Never Become Our Mothers
WeSworeWeWouldNeverBecomeOurMothers_BestPostsof2017

3 – Great Wolf Lodge – Williamsburg, VA
Great-Wolf-Lodge_Williamsburg-VA_BackwardsNHighHeels_BestBlogPostsof2017

2 – I Failed At Parenting
IFailedAtParenting_BackwardsNHighHeels-Blog_BestBlogPostof2017
1 – This Part of our Story
ThisPartOfOurStory_BestBlogPost0f2017

Enjoyed this post?  Awe, thanks. I am blushing.  We can connect through facebook || twitter ||  instagram || pinterest || bloglovin’

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Today You Are Three

December 20, 2017


Today is the day my baby girl, turns three. THREE! Seriously, I still do not know how that possibly could be. I look at the clock now, and think back to three years ago today, when she came into this world three weeks too early, but right on time for me. My little Christmas baby and present. A joy and complete whirlwind arrival. I think of her tiny little fingers and nose and swear I can still smell her sweet newborn smell if I think really hard. And, while I very much find birthdays for myself exciting, for Lo, they are all too often bittersweet. She has grown. Another year down. And, yes, I am grateful and blessed for this past year, it is too nostalgic to really think how quickly time does pass and every moment and milestone you thought just would never come, has come and gone. But, instead of focusing on my pitiful sadness of watching my baby turn into a little lady, I celebrate her and the many joys she has brought to me.


Today you are three!

  • Your imagination and the wonder in your eyes. Watching you pretend play is like living every day in theatre. You are so committed to your imaginary world and bring us in with your stories and play.
  • Your uncanny ability to hear a song play once and then be able to sing the lyrics upon the second time it plays. I cannot tell you how many times your Dad and I have looked at each other, “Oh my goodness can you believe this?”
  • How when we say our nighttime prayers, after listing all our family, you pause, giggle and say, “And, waterparks.”
  • The fact that you can without certain, determine if I have heated your bottle to the perfect :35 seconds.
  • Your sense of adventure and exploration. A distinct characteristic you must have gotten from your father.
  • When you ask to eat at “Chic FOR Lay” 🙂
  • Your idea of a Saturday. Shopping! Girl, your father is going to be in trouble.
  • Your my cuddle bug, and I love when you curl up in my arms.
  • Speaking of that you are my baby cakes and honey bee and if I address you anything different you quickly remind me that those are your names.
  • When you take your little hands and squeeze our checks and announce, “I love you!”
  • Your obsession with the movie ELF this holiday season.
  • Your big blue eyes and bright smile.
  • Your giggles and laugh really are my favorite.

Today you are three! But, as I explained to you last night as I put you to sleep, while two is now gone, my sweet baby, you will always be. Remember, you promised!

Happy Birthday, our sweet girl. We adore you and love you.

Leave a Comment CATEGORIES // Family TAGGED: Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Family, Happy Birthday, Life With A Toddler, Motherhood, Parenting, Third Birthday, Today You Are Three

Holiday Gift Guide for Toddlers

November 26, 2017

Toddler_Holiday-Gift-Guide copyHave you been watching my Instagram stories lately? Well, if so, you will see that over the course of the last few months, our two-nearly-three-year-old daughter’s personality is really starting to come out. Some days I love it. Other days I am terrified, but for the most part, I enjoy the daily giggles I get from the cute, honest, and spontaneous things she says.

We are in full Christmas mode here in our home. It is true when they say that the holiday magic returns once you have children. Suddenly that butterflies in your belly magic that once existed as a child returns and you feel the spirit of the holiday season return. We are enjoying creating new traditions and celebrating ones that our parents started with us.

At this age, Lo changes her Christmas wish list quite a few times in one day. I really do not know what she wants but instead, know she will like just about anything. As shopping has already begun, here are a few favorites for Toddlers this holiday season.

Play Kitchen  |  Mixer Set  |  Fridge Food  |  “Everything is Mama” Book  |  Sleeping Bag  |  Table Top Easel  |  Circus Mice in Tent  |  Kids Chair  |  Farmers Market Playtime Kit  |  My Mommy’s Tote

What is your favorite from the list or what holiday gift ideas for toddlers would you like to share?

Enjoyed this post?  Awe, thanks. I am blushing. We can connect through facebook || twitter || instagram || pinterest || bloglovin’

Leave a Comment CATEGORIES // Family, Lifestyle TAGGED: Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Christmas Gift Ideas for Toddlers, Gift Ideas, Holiday Gift Guide, Holiday Gift Ideas

In Sickness and In Health

November 11, 2017

We stood in the farm field. It was a warm late-August day. The summer sun peeking in and out behind delightful white puffy clouds, shining through enough to give us bursts of warmth, but hiding enough to be our photographer’s dream.

The day was everything we had imagined and more. I, an anxious, worry-wart, managed to summons the calmness from the depths of my being. Unbeknownst to me, this chillness did exist and I was ever present at our wedding. Looking back I know I am a lucky one. Too often brides stress their way through their big day, but I truly enjoyed every second of our wedding and lived out each moment presently.

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Leave a Comment CATEGORIES // Family TAGGED: Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Faith, Family, In Sickness and In Health, Marriage

God’s Grace and Prayers

October 22, 2017

Today is a follow up to yesterday’s Post. Thank you for the overwhelming love and support. So many of you reached out to share your stories, or just general thinking of you messages and prayers. Thank you.

– – –

On Friday Nathan and I traveled to the Wilmer Eye Institute at John Hopkins for a second opinion. Knowing they are one of the leading eye institutions in the country, we were more than hopefully – we were expecting different input and outcome scenarios.

I think at one point Nathan even said, “I am just hoping they will say, ‘oh, yeah we have these drops’ and they will put them in and I will see again.”

Of course we were being extreme with that scenario but the point was we were very hopefully.

Naturally I have been praying for Nathan through this experience. My conversations with God began the very first night when we found ourselves in the Emergency Room facing the unknown.

God will not make it all go away just because we magically want it to. God will not fix something because we feel it is not fair. We are good people and faithful people but that does not excempt us from the challenges of life.

God most certainly did not put us in this circumstance but he will see us through.

And, through it all He has shown us His grace. The days before Wilmer and even during our visit I often reached out in prayer. Asking for hope and good news. That was all I wanted or needed – some hope and some good news. I trusted him for the outcome and put everything in his hands. Saying, ‘Show us the way and we will give it all to you.’

Our outcome on Friday was not the miracle fix-all we wished for. Yet God did answer my prayers – ‘some hope and some good news.’

We learned that the macular tear or hole that had shown itself two weeks ago on a scan at our doctor’s office and was the reason Nathan’s sight has been compromised, had healed. Actually no longer existed. Miracle!

As the photo technician took the images I scanned the screen for the hole I had seen but it was gone. I kept quiet on my findings because I am no medical professional and I did not want to get Nathan’s hopes up.

Soon a resident doctor confirmed my analysis and stated, “I see no macular hole.” There was a spark in Nathan and the biggest smile I has seen on his face in some time.

Looking back I guess we did not even realize well if it is gone why can’t he still see? Instead we were so hopeful.

A few moments later the Specialist came in the room and met Nathan, reviewed his files and performed an exam. Then the bad news was delivered. Nathan’s macular layers were bruised and basically collapsed. This was indeed why he still could not see. The bigger gulp, our time at Wilmer would end before it began as there was nothing they could do. No surgery, no medicines and no magic drop that would cure it all away.

She was kind and careful with her delivery and shared that time could eventually, one day, heal some of his vision but there was no sure fire solution or option. She gave him the hope with a 50/50 shot of it staying the same or improving naturally over time.

The crushing news has been the story of this journey – high hopes and then sudden bad news.

As we left, I felt an inner calmness though which was a new feeling through this process.

I prayed for God to give me hope and good news and he did. The macular hole we prayed  would heal is doing just that. In fact, not even showing! While we did indeed learn more and those results may not have been what we were ultimately wishing for, I realized it was still exactly what I prayed for.

Time can heal Nathan and for that we remain grateful.

God did something else though in the halls of John Hopkins. He gave me perspective.

Somehow looking for a restroom before Nathan’s appointment we accidentally found ourselves in the Cancer Center at John Hopkins.

I looked into the Radiation waiting room. I witnessed a husband holding the hand of a frail wife with a cap on her bald head. I watched a sister or maybe best friend hold the hand of a young women, maybe twenty something, who had on a cap and mask to cover her mouth and most likely prevent the spread of germs to her system.

As Nathan used the restrooms, I cried in the hallway. Dear God, you are powerful and mighty. Our situation which is hard and challenging could be so much worse.

Nathan has his whole life to improve, and that is good news. Suddenly I realized we could have been there at that same Hospital receiving devastating news of merely only a small amount of time left.

I have learned through this stressful time that God’s grace is humbling. The strength of our Faith has grown through this process. I know that my prayers are being answered and He is working in ways that are not always obvious.

I know that God put us in that Cancer Center for perspective. I know He is to thanked for the success we have been graced with the healing. I know that He gave me the hope and good news I prayed for, and even though there was still bad news and the journey continues I am learning that the hope I prayed for always existed. For God has the final say.

Thank you all for being a part of this journey with us. Much love.

 

 

2 Comments CATEGORIES // Family TAGGED: Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Christian Faith, Faith, Family, Marriage

This Part Of Our Story

October 21, 2017

Our Story - JourneyFriends, this space has always been my sanctuary, my therapy where I can vent and explore all the emotions that swirl in my heart and head. Lately, I have come to this space like maybe one would come to their favorite book, or favorite spot in town, a favorite friend, looking for solace in the mess of emotions and yet I stare at the blank page and close my computer.

I haven’t wanted to write nor share my feelings for awhile, and if you are a follower of my social media channels you know something is going on. And something is going on. A something that has rocked my family and husband into all the emotions you can imagine.

A little over two weeks ago, my Nathan suffered a pretty serious eye injury in a freak accident and as my father told me as I explained over the phone what happened, “Ashli, all accidents are freak accidents.” Cutting branches for an evening fire along the shores of Deep Creek Lake, naturally, as the sun set, Nathan moved his glasses to the top of his head and after a few swings a piece of wood came flying back and struck his eye.

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7 Comments CATEGORIES // Family TAGGED: Backwards In High Heels, Backwards N High Heels, Backwards N High Heels Lifestyle Blog, Faith, Family, Marriage, Our Journey

Fall Bucket List

October 7, 2017

Fall2017
Poof! We flipped the page on the 2017 calendar and here we are in October already. Now how in the heck does this seriously happen, people? Like, really? You know what this means? Christmas is merely a few weeks away. I can not help myself. I am a BIG holiday person. Like, already purchased Christmas gifts, started making lists, almost cried when I heard Toys R Us claimed bankruptcy, Christmas season loving kind of person. I feel it is important we get that out in the open now.

Even though I know twinkling lights, a Christmas tree, holiday music, baking and gift giving and wrapping is just around the corner, I will take a moment to enjoy the moment and that is beatiful Fall.

Since the Autumn Equinox occurred September 22, our little family has been busy tackling some of our must-dos.

Last weekend we took Logan to a local Fall Festival in West Virginia. There were about 1,000+ people crammed on the small farm lawn, and the early cool Fall breeze and lower temperature crept higher in the 70’s and low 80’s as the day went on, making our Fall inspired outfits of sweaters and boots turn on us. Suddenly I was ridiculously hot and sticky. It could have also been the 24 kids crammed in one bounce house as I tried hoisting my body over the side walls to retrieve my child.

Oh, and we waited about 20 minutes for face painting and during that timeframe we convinced our daughter that a cute bumble bee on her cheek or kitten whiskers would be plenty. Something about all that paint and those brushes and maybe the kind women who clearly loved painting this on hundreds of children who said, “How about a tiger?” and held up a picture of another child with this same face paint.

Lady, we were giving you a break out of the hundreds of kids with ours. Welcome to carpal tunnel.

I mean clearly, Lo is amused.

This was 5 minutes after she screamed that she did not want to pet a goat and then decided moments later that she did. Kettle popcorn fixes everything.

You see we are already well on our way to accomplishing our list – we visited a farm, a fall festival, and ate kettle popcorn. Noticeably missing from the list below, drag out tired tiger child from festival and momma strip down in car from heat exhaustion.

Don’t let my attempt at humor sway you. It actually was a great day and this really is a fun season!

Fall-Bucket-List-Ideas copy

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