Backwards N High Heels

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

Easter Snack Mix

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If there is one thing I know with certainty it is that our home is a house full of sweet tooths. No wonder my dentist loves me.

Between Nathan and I, Logan’s poor genes don’t stand a chance with our instant cravings. I was born with an ice cream spoon in my hand, growing up with a grandmother and great-grandfather who could eat ice cream for every meal. I did not stray far, and my husband, well, I landed the sweet tooth jackpot as his family owns an ice cream shop in our hometown. Have you ever heard of a Boston Shake? It is a hot fudge sundae inside a chocolate milkshake. I mean just typing that I feel like I added 250 calories into my body.

Nathan is a mean sweets sleepwalker. Yes. You did indeed read that right. The man sleepwalks and eats sweets. As I type this I giggle but it is so true. I have woke in the middle of the night to what sounds like a flurry of mice nibbling in our kitchen to find my husband in a half asleep / half awake state, leaning against the counter, nibbling on a Reese’s Cup outside the junk cabinet, and I cannot do this superpower of his justice without mentioning the many times we find a cup with milk residue sitting on the coffee table after a night of sleep, only to giggle and say, “Well, I guess you found the Oreo’s last night?”

Clearly, someone is going to private message me this is a problem! 🙂

For me, it is a problem when we do not have sweets (because my gosh what will we eat?!) and it is a problem when we do because they are gone within 1- 2 days, and some sleepwalking nights. 🙂

Easter-Snack-Mix Easter-Snack-Mix

Easter Snack Mix

  • 5 Cups of Honey Cheerios
  • 5 Cups of Chex Mix Cereal
  • 2 1/2 Cups of Pretzel Sticks
  • 1 Bag of Peanut M&M’s
  • 1 1/2 Cups of White Chocolate Chips

Directions: Mix the first three ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave. Once the chocolate is melted into a smooth consistency, pour over the mixed ingredients and stir. Add the peanut M&Ms to the mixture and mix. Pour the mixture out across a table on wax paper and let it set. Once it has set, break apart and serve.

Looking for additional recipes? Here are some similar options.

Creative Easter Basket Ideas

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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Five Things Five-Years of Marriage Has Taught Me – Plus a Giveaway

1 – We give love differently and we love each other differently.
Have you ever heard of the five love languages? Words of Affirmation, Touch, Time Together, Acts of Service and Gifts. When Nathan and I were engaged we attended a few weeks of marriage classes with our pastor as we prepared for the big day. Part of the prep work was learning and understanding love languages and exploring what our personal language was and our partner’s. It was the first time I realized that we loved different and needed each other’s love in different ways. Five years later, that has not changed. Understanding each other is different is not enough. Instead, I have learned that having an underlying appreciation for the fact that we are two different people and knowing what may make each other tick is actually part of marriage success. I gauge our situations by trying to say things such as, “I feel this way because…” instead of starting on a “You did this…” By taking the blame off of the other person and expressing the way you personally feel is super important in validating the fact that we know each other thinks and feels different; therefore, we love differently.

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Gift Ideas for Children: Stocking Stuffers

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The most underrated tradition of Christmas… the stocking. So much emphasis is placed on the gifts under the tree that we tend to overthink the stocking. Maybe we just cram the “smallerish” items into the stocking when we are exhausted and don’t feel like wrapping any more, or, maybe we just use the stocking for a candy jar and pile in the chocolate and sweets.

I personally find the stocking to be such a fun, little extra tradition, and do you know the origins date back to a widowed man who feared his impoverished status would prevent his three daughter’s from marrying? Yes, for real! The story goes that on Christmas Eve, their stockings hung by the fire to dry and Saint Nicholas knowing the father’s humbleness, placed gold coins in the stockings, setting the family into a better financial place. Huh? All of this excitement today over a tradition that began with drying socks. Here are more stories and traditions from the Christmas Stocking.

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Feeling Thankful

Feeling Thankful
Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I love, love, love Thanksgiving for the pure fact that there is no major hype. No crazy decking the halls. No stressful trips to and from the mall. No I must obtain this season’s hottest gift item – a hatchimal. I say all that knowing too well that I love Christmas, but Thanksgiving is quite simply about food and being together and aren’t they beautiful things?

I am feeling thankful. Oh so thankful.

I am thankful for Lo. This bright eyed little mess of ornery is just the right dose of everything I need right now. She makes me laugh, literally belly laugh. Something most humans cannot make me do on most days. I adore her charm, and personality. I love watching her grow and learn and I cannot help but kiss all over her and squeeze her, asking for one more hug.

I am thankful for my health. While stress has taken its toll on me this year and I know I am not my healthiest, I am not fighting any major battle and I am thriving, or maybe surviving. For many this is not an option. We don’t know how much we value our health until it is gone or put up to a challenge.

I am thankful for cell phones and technology and while you may think, “Why, what a thing to thank?” Know that because of the world’s growing technology I have my job, I get this here Blog, I can connect with people all over the world through a keyboard, I have a digital scrapbook and camera, and I have so many benefits that make my life easier due to its existence.

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Gift Ideas for Her: $25 and Under

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Tis’ the season to be jolly! We all need a little jolly wouldn’t you say? I think I am more excited for this holiday season than in year’s past. There are a multitude of reasons which have been built up to this magnitude of holiday cheer. The stress from a hectic work year, the age and playfulness of Lo, the need for some downtime, the fact that the holidays have always been my most favorite season and with all the heartache 2016 has brought this time always brings out the good and the outlook for a fresh start. Doesn’t that sound delightful?

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Just A Change In Perspective

Chaning Your Perspective - Backwards N High Heels Chaning Your Perspective - Backwards N High Heels

Logan was born on a cold winter night. Three weeks early, the little bug not yet out of my womb already earned her first tally on the parenting wall of scares. A wall we all put up the moment we find out we are to be parents. Tallies that we mark with every tumble and fall, scrap and bleed. After laboring for 5 hours, we were rushed into an emergency c-section and then there she was. All red and swollen and wide eyed.

“Where have you placed me?” I often wonder each child thinks when they enter a room full of strangers in masks and bright overhead lights piercing rays into their sweet innocent eyes. And, then they hear your voice and know they are home.

Having a child changes your perspective of the world. It happens instantaneously. For some, you recognize the change the moment the newborn is placed in your arms. Others it take a few days or weeks. Sometimes it occurs when you finally leave your child to return to work and maybe for others it isn’t until you take a moment to really slow down, look around you, reflect back and realize that you did change in that very first moment you looked your baby in the eyes.

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Not All Days Are Easy

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Not all days are easy. Actually, most are not. As I sit here writing this, I am donning the same PJ pants I had on the night my water broke with Lo. Eww! Gross. Yeah, I assume that is what you are thinking. I mean I probably would have too pre-baby but then again that was pre-baby. Amniotic fluid, totally washes out of clothes! Same as vomit, poop and pee that will inevitably cover your child’s clothes or blankets at one point, multi-times in their life and even your own. Anyways, back to the pants, they were and are my favorite. How the heck was I to know my water would break in them? I didn’t! I washed them, I kept them, moving on.

I am cranky. Lack of sleep. Always lack of sleep. Overwhelming work. Pending and never ending deadlines, a new hire, a looming move. Soon-to-be two-year old with a raging personality. Pushing buttons. Meltdowns and hyperactive mixed with a headstrong personality. Equally busy husband. End of season deadlines and the pressures of being a small business owner. And, for complete shits and giggles (as the old saying goes) dealing with a late appliance delivery.  A refrigerator too, which requires you to empty and clean your old, and clean and load your new. All of the above.

I am drinking a glass of wine. Chilled and served in a Stella chalice (P.S. – I hate Stella in a chalice. Just give me the bottle). I swore I would not drink tonight but then everything I discussed above happened in real life and I decided, ahh what the hell. I digress.

Not all days are easy. Most are exhausting. I am just being real. Not trying to complain or whine, but instead just painting a picture of a realistic day in a blogging mom’s life. My life. Sometimes I feel like social media paired with a Blogger is all white walls, fashion, highly stylized shots and picturesque days. That is not me. That is not my family. That is not my Blog. I stand for being raw and real and sharing aspects of my life, motherhood, parenting, adulting, with you all that hopefully you can relate with. My intention behind – Backwards N High Heels was to paint a picture. Not necessarily a pretty picture by a world renowned artist but instead a finger painting by me!

So, this post tonight is just to serve as a reminder to you, that I am real and to remind me that… I am real. Not all days are easy! Some require your favorite PJ’s that you just exploited to all and that chilled glass of wine! Heck, I made it through another day. That is a success and blessing. Cheers, friends!

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The Third Voice

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It is funny how loud our home has become.

Pattering of feet running hard across tile floors. The wheeling of a shopping cart buggy being pushed across the wooden planks that make up our back deck flooring. Squeals of delight as the music to Frozen starts up. Tears and tantrums. Oh the incredible tantrums. The call from one end of the home for “Mommy!” And, let me tell you one cry for Mommy will never do. It is “Mommy, Mommy… MOMMY!” Until I arrive.VIEW STORY »

Dear Pacifier

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Dear Pacifier,

Let’s just cut to the chase, you are called a “Binkie” in our home, so Binkie you shall remain and be referred to through this post. Okay, now that we cleared that up, you and I have a love / hate relationship right now.

It all began when Lo was a mere few hours old. For some unknown reason, I was scared of you. Afraid, she would become addicted to your power. Sitting there holding my day old baby and all I could think of was her at four running through the yard, I chasing after her, trying to coax you from her mouth.VIEW STORY »