Why I Won't Go To Your Kid's Birthday

Kid's birthday parties. I'm sure you've been invited to at least one in your lifetime as an adult. Right? If not, well, either your friends don't have kids yet or you just flat out refuse to go to one. And I don't blame you. For me kid birthdays are my nightmare. And yes, I have children. Sure we go to a few kid parties. I'm not a horrible mom that keeps her kids away from all of the fun. There are, however some parties I will RSVP "no" to.

Poor Planning. 
I hate that this even needs to be brought up, but if you're inviting me FOUR DAYS prior to the actual party. It's a hell no. I literally had someone MAIL a birthday party invite. I actually got excited cause her son is about the same age as Zander. Mail invitations usually mean the party is at least 2-3 weeks away and I'd have time to plan. Nope. This one showed up yesterday for a party that's on Saturday at 3:00. Not going. We've already made plans. Hate to say it but she probably won't have anyone there.

We Don't Socialize Frequently. 
I'm an extrovert and can make friends with the wall. It's true. But even I have my limits. There's certain people that I just cannot socialize with comfortably. These people are the ones that it's painful to make small talk with and you just can't bring yourself to be around them in any social setting. I'm not putting myself through that torture.

I Don't Want to Buy a Gift.
There. I said it. I don't want to do it. I don't even like buying my kids random toys that they don't even play with 15 minutes after they've opened it. WHY would I want to do it for your kid? It's a painful process going through the toy aisle with a five year old. It's not fun. If I don't have to do it, I'm not going to. And yes, I have said no because of this reason. Of course I've worded it much nicer.

I've Never Even Heard of Your Kid. 
Zander is usually pretty good about expressing clearly who his "best friends" are. The ones he talks about non stop, and always asks if they can come over. Then we'll randomly get an invite for a kid that he's never mentioned. This kind of ties into the not socializing frequently, but on the kid level. If my kid knows yours is in his class but they never talk about each other, why invite them? I get not wanting to leave anyone out, but think about what's going to be fun for your kid. You DON'T Have to invite the whole class "just because".

Luckily, Zander only got a few birthday party invites during the school year last year. All other parties we've been to have been SUPER close friends of ours, and it was an obvious yes. But going into kindergarten this year and the invites are likely to pour in, this is why we'll say no.

Moms, are you with me on this?

Also, don't forget! Emelia, Kerri and I are still giving away $240 CASH via paypal! Have you entered yet?

Your June Blogiversary Host Ladies: Emelia, Kerri & Melissa

The Party People & Awesome Co-Hosts: 

Niki, Becca, Anne, Kati 

The Gals- B&M, Rebekah, Lisa, Julia, Hope

Lindsay, Kate, Linda, Alex, Rachael

Meagan, Kristin, Erica, Kelly, Rebecca 

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When Communities Give Back

Summer time. That magical time of the year when kids get to play outside all day, go to bed late, get up late and just have too much fun. It means pools, beaches, cookouts, and sun.

Only. Sometimes it doesn't.

Y'all, do you realize for a lot of kids school days are the only days they can count on getting any food? What happens when it's the summer and they don't know if they're getting any food? This thought seriously breaks my heart.

I'm blessed to live in a community and in a neighborhood where there are people that help. Allow me to introduce you to F.I.S.H.

F.I.S.H. stands for Faith In Serving Humanity. They're an outreach program sponsored by local churches, and they do so much for the community. Some examples include helping needy families pay for their rent, utilities, or medicines. Setting up thrift stores to sell large ticket items like washers and dryers for less than $20. And what I want to focus on, feeding the community.

Each month, needy families are able to get F.I.S.H. Care. It's several weeks' worth of food at no cost to the family. The outreach program is funded solely on donations and volunteer work. They do this because they want to help the community. I'm not ashamed to say the care packages have helped us several times in the past few months. It's just really amazing to know there's help when you need it most.

And back to the school children. The ones that are in need. The ones that are wondering where their three square meals are coming from. F.I.S.H has not forgotten about them. Enter F.I.S.H. for Kid's!

This is a summer feeding program. Each weekday (Mon thru Fri) volunteers load up their cars with sack lunches to deliver to the children. These lunches include a sandwich or hotdog, a juice box, a fruit cup or applesauce, chips, and a granola bar. This way, at least once a day kids in need are getting a good healthy meal.

The way it works is the volunteers drive through various areas of the neighborhoods. They honk the car horns repeatedly to let families know they're outside. All they need is to see the children and no matter what, no questions asked, these kids get a free sack lunch. How amazing is that? It seriously warms my heart to know there are so many wonderful people willing to help, and willing to make sure the kids in their community have at least one good meal.

Giving back to these types of programs is super easy too. Most, like this one has a way to donate money online. But there's also tons of phone numbers and email addresses to reach out and ask how you can help. Interested in seeing if your community has something like this? Simple! Just go to a local church and ask. Last week I mentioned that we may have found a new Church family. It's true, and I'll get to that more later. This Church we've fallen in love with does not have anything like this currently, and when I mentioned it to them immediately planning began to get something started.

Kids are meant to be kids, y'all. Kids shouldn't have to worry about their next meal.
Because of people like this with such amazing hearts I am grateful. I have a grateful heart knowing I live in such an amazing community.

linking up with Emily 

Something else I'm grateful for?? Blogging Friends. This week I will be celebrating this blog's one year Anniversary. Emelia, Kerri, and I have teamed up with some amazing ladies to give YOU a gift for our blogiversaries!

Your June Blogiversary Host Ladies: Emelia, Kerri & Melissa

The Party People & Awesome Co-Hosts: 

Niki, Becca, Anne, Kati 

The Gals- B&M, Rebekah, Lisa, Julia, Hope

Lindsay, Kate, Linda, Alex, Rachael

Meagan, Kristin, Erica, Kelly, Rebecca 

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Getting Fit Takes Time

Working out. Dieting. Trying to live healthier lives. A lot of people make new year's resolutions to do all of these things to lose weight after the holidays. Some people do this knowing they need to get healthier. Knowing they're outrageously overweight. I fall into the latter of the two. I was the person that said every new years "I will lose weight". And then when I didn't see results, I'd give up.

Two kids and almost five years later, I'm finally seeing results.

Y'all... did you know making a lifestyle change to be healthier takes time? It's not something that's going to happen overnight. It's definitely not going to happen three months into you making the decision to get healthy.

I'm not telling y'all this to bring you down. I want to tell you this to encourage you. Because if you stick with it, change will happen. I want to share this with you because I'm still struggling with this. I look at pictures of how I was in 2006, and I get myself upset because of how "tiny" I was. Then I look at this:

This was May 2011. 4 years ago. This was me at my heaviest. I'm not proud of this. In fact, it repulses me pretty greatly, and my husband has even said "I didn't realize you had gotten THAT big". Ouch. "That" big. Granted, he loves me no matter what size I am, but he has said since then that he's glad I'm getting healthy. He's glad that I'm doing this for myself.

At that time I weighed close to 245 lbs. Heck, I may have even been pushing the 250 mark. This was also a little over a year after having Zander.

I'm here to tell you that I did try the fad diets. I tried losing weight quickly. It all came back and it came back almost double from what was lost. What works? Exercise, eating right, and drinking water. Plain and simple.

Here I am at 185 lbs today.

I still have problem areas. I'm still working on my belly fat. However, I'm much happier with the way I look and more importantly the way I FEEL today. I actually have better muscle than what I had in 2006. I've learned that the number on the scale is just a number.

These pictures are 5 years after the first time I said "I need to make a change". Even after falling off of the wagon and going through phases of eating poorly, I've still been able to lose. There may be months where I just maintain my weight, and that's OK. The important thing is this has been a lifestyle change for me.

I hope if you're reading this and going through a similar journey this doesn't discourage you. I want you to keep going. If I'm anything, I want to be proof that hard work pays off. No, I'm NOT perfect. Not at all. I do still love donuts and pizza. But this journey is teaching me that a healthier mom is a happier mom.

Linking up with Kenji

Workout Wednesday