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Finding Routine in Uncertain Times

Posted on January 12, 2021 By Christine

If you asked me when I first started blogging where I’d be in the year 2021, I would never have predicted what we’re experiencing right now. Finding routine and structure has truly been saving my sanity throughout dealing with the state of the world. The Tiger…

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Health & Wellness Lifestyle

Easy Christmas Diffuser Blends

Posted on December 10, 2020 By Christine

Somehow we are almost halfway through December! How the heck did that happen? I know that this year celebrations are looking a lot different for many of us. We always kept Christmas Eve and Christmas Day super small and intimate so I’m thankful that we will…

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Homeschool Momming

Homeschooling Adventures & National Honeybee Month

Posted on September 28, 2020 By Christine

I’m so excited to share that our official Homeschool 2020 year has kicked off. What? Homeschool? Aren’t you a high school teacher? All true! Leo attended a small Montessori style preschool housed in my high school for a year. He went for two days a week…

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Health & Wellness Reviews

MaryRuth Organics Liquid Morning Review

Posted on September 3, 2020 By Christine

This past winter I was introduced to MaryRuth Organics Liquid Morning Multivitamin and couldn’t be happier. The timing was perfect. Leo really needed a multivitamin that was going to be tasty and easy to take each day. For a while, we had three different multivitamins going…

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Personal Life

2020 Reflections Thus Far

Posted on August 24, 2020 By Christine

If this year has provided us with nothing else, it has given us a chance to deeply look at our lives, goals, and decisions more closely. We have had more TIME than ever before to begin reflecting on designing our days with intention and healing our…

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Health & Wellness Lifestyle

My Steps to Clean Living

Posted on May 29, 2020 By Christine

Lately I’ve had some messages and received notes asking about my journey of clean living. It’s truly still a journey because I learn something new all the time about products and ingredients. I’m still constantly researching clean living recipes, tweaking my own home procedures, and of…

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Beauty Lifestyle

DIY Exfoliating Coffee Scrub

Posted on April 28, 2020 By Christine

The other morning I was cleaning up my kitchen and was struck with a thought. How can I repurpose my coffee grounds? I usually use an Exfoliating Coffee Scrub from LUSH but with the shipping delays and general attempt to have less people on my porch…

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Personal Life

Digging Deeper & Candid Thoughts

Posted on April 22, 2020 By Christine

Believe it or not, it’s been 40 days since life as we know it (at least in my home) has completely changed. I left work on March 13, 2020–didn’t get to say goodbye to my students, and have been thrown into a realm of distance learning,…

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Momming Reviews

Magazines for Littles – Leo’s Faves

Posted on April 14, 2020 By Christine

We’re going on week three of our new normal here at home, which means we’ve been finding lots of ways to try and stay busy. In my last post, I talked about the activities that we’ve been doing to keep busy. All of them are hands…

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Lifestyle Momming

Five Activities for Littles Stuck Inside

Posted on March 17, 2020 By Christine

By now it’s not news anymore. Most of my country is practicing social distancing to help put a stop to the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020. As a teacher and a Mom this has placed a large sense of uncertainty around the things I do on a…

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Christine is a vegetarian mama, wife, and teacher who loves books, scarves, and all things fall. She’s been blogging since the early 2000s and now focuses on crunchy mama life, mindfulness, and all the cool things she can buy at Target. She loves her Golden Retriver, Myles, and binge watching Netflix while huffing essential oils and eating snacks.

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For the last four years, I knew I wanted a tattoo For the last four years, I knew I wanted a tattoo to commemorate the moment that I became a mum!! I went back and forth between crunchy mama breast-feeding tattoos, fancy fonts & scripts for names, and coordinates. Then in March of 2020—the world went crazy & I met Bluey, a six year old Blue heeler and her family who live in Australia and exemplify the essense of parenting. Not every episode is happy, not every episode deals with easy subjects (death and loss), some of them make me downright cry (google Sleepytime), and some have me hysterically laughing (Takeaway!!) until I have to do a bushwee. The amazing and talented @lalobatattoo has been tattooing me since I was 18! Today she helped me commemorate motherhood, the absolute BEST promotion I’ve ever received. This image is from Bluey’s “Fruitbat” episode where she wants to become a Fruitbat to avoid going to bed. Who can blame her? Being a Fruitbat looks AWESOME!! ❤️❤️ When I came home, I showed Leo immediately and he smiled and said “BLUEY!!! SHE’S FRUITBATTING!!!” Right now I’m the coolest mama on the block and I’ve got the coolest kiddo around. @officialblueytv WACKADOO! Thanks for creating the most HONEST and enjoyable kid’s show ever!!! #bluey #tattoos #stablestudio #momlife 💯💯
Happy 6th birthday Myles!! He looks like he’s fe Happy 6th birthday Myles!! He looks like he’s feeling a little sensitive about his age this year. 😂🤣 #goldensofinstagram #goldenretriever #happybarkday
On Wednesdays we adventure. We have a really aweso On Wednesdays we adventure. We have a really awesome @wildandfree.co mini chapter and every week we get together for a hike, snack, and read aloud. It’s so fun to see the kiddos run around and just be wild. ⁣
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My #homeschooling journey looks a little different. I work full-time, so our mornings are sometimes a mix of reciting calendar months while putting on socks and shoes. Sometimes it means focusing on phonics while eating breakfast on the couch, and sometimes it means asking for help or changing the plan for the day entirely. It means schooling year-round because I have summers off. But right now? It works. ⁣
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People WILL try to dim the spark. ⁣
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“How will they socialize?”⁣
“What if they fall behind?” ⁣
“You really want to do that after working all day?” ⁣
“But how will you know that he’s learning?”⁣
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Shine brighter. 🌟⁣
We wrapped up our Weather study a few weeks ago an We wrapped up our Weather study a few weeks ago and jumped right into Spring, Easter, and our Forest study so quickly that I forgot I had these amazing gems to share. Weather was a perfect unit for us to start getting outside and enjoying the sunshine. Some days it was a little cold, but I was able to tweak that into some type of sensory lesson later on.⁣
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Our main texts were from Usborne and Library. I’ve been really trying to make an effort to use in the library as much as possible in a effort to reduce clutter & save some cash. Here’s what we did last month!⁣
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☁️ Use our calendar every single day to check the weather and observed whether it changed throughout the day.⁣
💧 Mixed colors on ice cubes to practice color combinations and fine motor skills.⁣
🌈 Used three-part Montessori vocabulary cards to practice our weather vocab. We continued with matching up letters on our movable alphabet.⁣
⚡️ Practiced beginning and end sounds.⁣
☄️ Added a new chores to our chore chart including cleaning up after ourselves, and washing dishes.⁣
🌟 Rhyming practice & writing practice.⁣
🔥 Matching numerals to amounts with manipulatives.⁣
🌏 Built a simple sensory bin together to review texture.⁣
🌷Started seeds for our garden.⁣
🌪Built a tornado bottle and practiced measuring liquids. ⁣
❄️ Introduced 10 frame addition!⁣
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Overall, this unit was very play-based and sensory-based. We did do some more structured academics, but most of our projects were art, manipulatives, and stem projects. ⁣
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10/10 will definitely do it again next year! 🤣 ⁣
When it’s 58 degrees and the summer clothes come When it’s 58 degrees and the summer clothes come out. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣
Awesome people!! Are you guys ready for my new fav Awesome people!! Are you guys ready for my new favorite #holistic, #allnatural, and #crueltyfree family products? Sit right down and let me drop some knowledge on ya! @sprigslife is a family owned small business that focuses on making health and wellness easy and seamless for your entire family. The owners, Nancy and Jonathan Laudon created an amazing brand that values family, health, and education. They have a team of herbalists and the highest standards and materials that they use in their products. There are so many who claim to have a natural and holistic product, but the proof is truly in the ingredient list. Any product yoknu view on their website is chock full of beautiful herbs and plant-based ingredients that you can feel good about. ⁣
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I got to try their Deep Tissue Salve and their Daily Supergreens in the Tropical paradise flavor. The Supergreens are SO DANG GOOD!! The kiddo loves them and so do I. I usually mix it up with my #vegan vanilla protein while this product is already a super blend of superfoods, enzymes, probiotics, fiber, trace minerals, and tons of phytonutrients, I add some extra goodies so it can double as a meal replacement for me or Leo. We’re a big smoothie house here so we’re always looking for new items to add to our rotation. The Tropical Paradise flavor tastes delicious! It doesn’t have a synthetic taste and it blends well with other fruits, potions, and powders that I use on the daily. We love it!⁣
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The Deep Tissue Salve is my BFFL! I love using this after a workout and it came through like a true champion during our last snowstorm when I was outside shoveling with the mans. This salve is made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Wintergreen Oil, Beeswax, Peppermint Oil, Menthol, Ginger , St. John's Wort , Habanero Pepper, Calendula , and Arnica all of which have healing and pain relieving properties. It’s a refreshing and warming blend that loosens up muscles and generally just feels really freaking awesome and doesn’t have that clinical smell of your Grandpas Bengay. ⁣
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We all know #selfcare is about taking care of yourself from the inside out. These two products make it easy and simple. ⁣
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#crunchymom #crunchy #crunchyf
Totally obsessing over this body butter from @mode Totally obsessing over this body butter from @modere_us! This winter, I’ve been looking for a new body butter that fits my cruelty free bill! I really needed something with a neutral scent that was gentle and didn’t conflict with some of my other fragrances. I started using this every morning and night and my skin is so happy about it. ⁣
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Their formula a luxurious blend of natural skin softeners: jojoba oil, avocado oil & cocoa butter and features a sweet fragrance with notes of caramel, cotton candy & sugary fig. So you’re basically going to smell and feel like a snack after you use this!! 🤪🤪⁣
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Modere’s restoring body butter passed my ultimate test. After shaving, it absorbed quickly. There’s no grease, no drama, and no struggling to slide myself into my fave skinny jeans. This body butter is the skincare product you never knew you needed!! ⁣
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#stackmodere #crunchymom #crunchy #crunchyfamily #momblogger #mamablogger #momlife #naturalparenting #holistichealth #ctblogger #ctmom #connecticut #bblogger #crueltyfree #crueltyfreemom #cfblogger ⁣
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Looks like @westiesnutrition has a new regular! We Looks like @westiesnutrition has a new regular! We’ve been meaning to pop in in an effort to support small businesses during these wild times we are living in. I got their cookies @ cream protein shake & Leo got vanilla. We also snagged a FREE Paw Patrol themed #aloejuice and green tea lemonade for later. Thanks guys for the great breakfast and the conversation. Leo loved chattin’ ya’ll up about three headed dogs and magical creatures. 🤣🤣🤣 #shoplocal #westiesnutrition #ctnutrition #smoothies #crunchyfamily #crunchyfam #holistichealth #omnom #shopct #ctbloggermoms #ctbloggerbabes #shopsmallct #localbusiness
January was a whirlwind of a homeschooling month! January was a whirlwind of a homeschooling month! Leo has been really interested in the Ocean, so for this month’s learning theme, I let him choose. Ocean studies are great because we can take advantage of the living classroom literally down our street. We also incorporated @rootedchildhood’s January pinecone craft to maintain our seasonal connection throughout the winter months. We found all of the pinecones and he chose the ribbons and sticks on a few nature walks and at the playground. Our highlights of the month included: ⁣
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🐠 Ocean Anatomy & Macmillan Encyclopedia studies⁣
🐧 Polar Kinetic Sand sensory bin (see my reel for this!)⁣
🐚 Ocean cards and wooden block game from @littleexplorers⁣
🌏 Beginning sounds - phonics⁣
🐳 Rhyming sounds - phonics⁣
🦀 Integration of the Charlotte Mason picture study⁣
🌊 Sorting ocean zones⁣
🧺 Sewing a rope basket⁣
📚 Reading and sequencing Rainbow Fish⁣
🌱 Nature journaling with seaweed — this was my personal favorite watching him paint from a picture. :D ⁣
❤️ Finding out we absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE dugongs. ⁣
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Next year, I’m looking forward to hopefully having a co-op trip to the beach to extend our ocean and nature studies further!⁣
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#homeschooling #homeschool #homeschoollife #education #homeschoolmom #montessori #homeeducation #learningthroughplay #montessoriathome #kids #parenting #learning #preschool #learningathome #unschooling #kidsactivities #momlife #homeschoolers #school #homeschoolfamily #teachersofinstagram #earlylearning #kindergarten #homeschooler #preschoolactivities #homeschoolingmom
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