Tag: kids

Long time no post

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, homeschooling, kids, life, mini-farm

Hello! Happy May.

It has been about 2 years since I have posted. I currently have a 4 year old and a 5.5 year old. Both very active and very smart. Life is busy. I am home full time with the kids and we are homeschooling.

Recently we moved to a smaller town about 30 minutes from where we were living and are even outside that small town. We have just over 2 beautiful acres that feels like paradise…..the house, not so much. But you can’t have everything can you?

This is my view while I type.

I am hoping to start blogging regularly again. I will still be mostly a lifestyle blog. I will still talk about health and fitness; especially my fitness journey (nothing new there). After having 2 children less than 18 months apart the weight never really came back off. Currently, I am, deep breath, 185 lbs. and I am only 5’4″. I got really sick during my pregnancies, so it was always more just about eating than worrying about weight gain. Though I did gain weight. Since then it has been survival mode. Since having kids I have run 2 half marathons but have never managed to outrun my diet hahahaha. I am working on that. I did do a chest and triceps workout this morning and even resting my arms on the table to type this is starting to hurt.

Part 2 of the blog will be our life and anything that may encompass; travel, gardening, what I am reading, mom encouragement, and who knows what else.

Last, but by no means least, our homeschool journey! We just finished out first year with Classical Conversations and I love it. I will do a whole blog talking all about it. I will also talk about the homeschool philosophies I sort of adhere too and anything homeschool under the sun. We are done with our co-op for the summer but in the fall I will post about our weeks each week. I am working on a summer rhythm for us right now and once I have that nailed down I will tell you all about it.

If you are still here from before I hope this continuing and new content interests you; and if you stumble upon this blog now HI!

My daughters birthday party this past weekend. We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods and that is the theme she chose.

Crappy Garden update for 2024

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, kids, mini-farm, Uncategorized

One word: E. Coli

Well I guess that’s two words. The neighbor diagonal to our backyard has a pipe that likes to overflow. Apparently. It overflowed when we had a big storm surge and our backyard was flooded. The city took some tests and there was high E coli levels.

Once the sun hits the top layer of soil after a couple hours, the E coli will be killed off by the UV rays, but the underlayer can be contaminated for months! So that takes away half of our backyard for planting food.

Our side yard had no flooding and there’s nowhere near the contamination zone so our raised bed that we do tomatoes in should be fine. Also the little area where we do snap peas should be fine.

My neighbor has a row of grapes that come every year and she lets us eat as much as you want. So for the month of September the kids gorge themselves on grapes and those are still fine

Thankfully our raspberries are fine. They’re on the complete other side of the yard from the contamination

We have this area that’s already 3/4 of the way fenced off from the chickens but it’s solidly in the contaminated area. So what I think I’m going to do is get a couple above bed, just kind of garden planters. The cheapest ones I can find and some cheap trellises to do cucumbers and a few other vining plants, not 100% sure what yet.

Thankfully garlic doesn’t have super long roots so these ones planted in the above bed gardens should be okay.

My husband actually cleaned this area out about 2 years ago. Took all the dirt out and we never refilled it between being pregnant and having newborns and babies. But this year I think I will put more cardboard down and fill it for a raised bed garden again and that should be good to plant in.

We won’t be planting any root vegetables this year just to be extra extra safe.

We are also inquiring about getting a permit to tie into the city storm drain to stop the flooding in our yard but is prolific and happens every winter so hopefully that’s a process that will be happening this summer as well.

I will keep you updated.

I was a selfish idiot

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, kids, life, running, training

It has taken some time and reflection to realize how selfish it was for me to sign up for a marathon at this point in my life without fully thinking through the repercussions for my family.

I am not saying running races is selfish, or being a wife and running marathons is selfish or even being a mom and running marathons is selfish. Simply that for me, at this time in my life, it was.

I didn’t really discuss it with my husband before I signed up….oops, I’ve been married for 5 years and sometimes still forget I’m in a partnership now.

Running a marathon is a HUGE time commitment and can be a large financial one as well. Both of these were/are true for me. Currently I am a slow runner so my long runs took a LONG time. Meaning, we lost most of our Saturdays (during my training) to my long run, especially when you add in that my youngest (and sometimes my oldest) still needs to nap. This means we had no opportunities to camp or do any overnight trips this last summer.

Financially it was a big commitment as well since I chose a marathon in another state (my home state). I did use this as an opportunity/excuse to spend time with my family there but this meant plane tickets, days of extra food costs, and all those miscellaneous costs that come with traveling.

I am not saying I regret doing it. My husband was pretty gracious about it all. My kids got to see family and we as a family got to do an awesome Disneyland trip and make lots of memories.

Also, doing something for me is not selfish (that is not what I am saying) but doing something that impacted my whole family for a big part of the year…….was pretty selfish…..in MY case.

I love to run and will keep running, I love doing races too, but this isn’t my time for racing. That time will come again. For me and my family, this is the time for healthy fitness for me…..and lots of family fun together.

This coming year I look forward to lots of family camping and fun family weekend trips.

What are you looking forward to in 2024?

Book review: Hunt, Gather, Parent

by Ariana Peters, posted in books, kids

I thought this book was so interesting. The author spent a significant amount of time with three different cultures in three different parts of the world and really looked at how they parented day to day, week to week, and month to month and how it affected their children. And the differences between what they do and what western societies do. It was very eye-opening and made so much sense. We as a western society have come up with all of these rules and guidelines just in the last 100 plus years as opposed to other societies that have been raising kids the same way for thousands of years.

I don’t want to give away too much about the book in case you want to read it, but I love that it wasn’t dry. She talked about her own experiences with her daughter Rosie, who she describes as a wild child.

She’s very candid about how much her and her daughter buttheads and how much they end their days in tears and yelling and the fighting. So she really was coming at this not just as an author or a journalist or reporter but as a mother looking for better solutions for her family.

All in all, I highly recommend this book.

Weekly Workouts

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, life, training

I’m back!!!!

Ugh it feels like we had the cold that never ended. The kids got slight colds coming back from California, no surprise. They were starting to get better so we went out to some indoor play places, like those indoor playgrounds and we ALL got sick, worse this time. And then once the colds started to clear both kids got double ear infections. Yep, double ear infections.

Then for about a week after I stopped coughing up enough stuff that I would have been comfortable working out. I was still so exhausted from recovering from being sick and taking care of two little kids while being sick that I just had no energy to work out. My goal this week was three workouts and I hit it.

Tuesday – upper body burn from mbf on beachbody

Thursday – full body burn from mbf on beachbody

Friday – Lower body burn from mbf on beachbody

It looks like next week should be mostly dry for us so my goal will be 3 strength workouts and 1 run.

Weekly Workouts – Plague edition

by Ariana Peters, posted in kids, life

Sunday -OFF

Monday – Lower body workout

Tuesday – 4 miles

Wednesday – Saturday – Nothing…..

The whole house has been hit by a heavy cold. We are doing a lot of relaxing and movie watching……and a lot of interrupted sleep at night.

The crazy thing about kids is they are sick then fine for a few minutes then sick and back and forth

Day 4 at California Adventure

by Ariana Peters, posted in kids, life, travel

California Adventure kind of sucked hahahahaha. There were only a small handful of rides my son was tall enough for and even less for my daughter. So many rides were closed, things didn’t open when the park did. There was just a lot that was disappointing. We did manage to occupy ourselves for the whole day but we were super glad we only went there for 1 day.

My son loves the Cars movie so Cars land was a hit
Frozen snacks……so cold they almost broke your teeth
The rare picture of just us
I found the Starbucks!!!! Both parks had a Starbucks in them but they don’t outwardly advertise that they are Starbucks until you get up close.
He thought Chip or Dale (not sure which hahahaha) was cool but he was a little wary. My daughter wouldn’t even go near him.
There was this cool redwood forest place in the park with lots of fun stuff to climb and explore……but even parts of this had height requirements. What the heck??!!!
Nap time
My sister and brother-in-law got to come and spend part of the day with us! The kids were so thrilled
The ‘san Francisco Pier ‘ area in the park.
My sister!!!!
They both like Monsters inc.
He LOVED this wrecked car outside one of the shops in Cars land. It would smoke and make a noise like it was trying to start. He stood there forever! And we went back several times.
Micky’s philharmonic 3d show.

And that’s a wrap!!!!

It was long and exhausting but I am so glad we did it. I loved watching their little eyes light up and watching them explore so many new things.

I wish the food was better for the prices they charge. I wish some of the characters were more easily accessible or accessible at all. There were no characters from Encanto which my daughter loves and to see Anna and Elsa you had to wait in a line forever and they were behind doors until you got up there so you couldn’t even wave at them and see them if you didn’t want to wait in line.

I don’t see us going back for a very long time, if ever. It’s just soooooo dang expensive! They really do nickel and dime you…..or should I say like $20 and $50 you.

I was very happy with the time of year we went though. Granted with small kids we didn’t go on some of the most popular rides with the longest waits but with the use of watching the app for wait times and trying to be smart the longest we waited was about 20min for a ride. So, I am incredibly thankful for that because I don’t think they would have tolerated much longer.

All in all I am so glad for the memories but I don’t need to do it again.

Disneyland Day 3

by Ariana Peters, posted in kids, life, travel
Oh man, by day 3 of Disneyland and day 10 of traveling I needed all the coffee! But how dang cute are they??
She loved Dumbo……I tolerated it hahaha. I don’t love spinning things.
So freaking cute!
She loved Winnie the Pooh from a distance but was skeptical up close…… brother was napping during this time.

Sister’s nap time!!! We took it day by day and nap by nap hahaha
Goofy’s house in toon town. We spent time there everyday.
Just before the rocketships in tomorrow land. Robert loved these and apparently so did she…..I HATED them!!!! I felt like I was going to fly out!
Sometimes they have sweet sibling love…..othertimes it’s thunderdome
It’s a small world. We did this every day, short lines and air conditioning!!! Need I say more?
Snacks, snacks and more snacks. This is how we survived most lines.
Every body of water had ducks, which she is obsessed with.
Sleeping Beauty’s castle
His nap
He LOVES to drive!!

Another long, fun day.

Disneyland Day 2

by Ariana Peters, posted in kids, life, travel
Good morning!!
It was fun to see Disneyland decorated for Halloween.
Runaway railroad! Ella loved it! Robert not so much, I think it was a little herky jerky for him.
Fun in Toontown
Mini’s house!
It was fun to explore the houses and see what was just decoration and what you could really interact with.
Mini me.
He LOVED the rocket ships……I took Ella on once and she loved it…….mama did not lol. I do not like spinning things and it leans to the side and goes pretty fast! Not for me lol.
Napping on the Jungle Cruise
Star Wars land. Sort of a mini date for us to walk around together while the kids napped in the stroller.

Star Wars land is freaking cool! Very immersive feeling….but! Only 2 rides and the rest is all shops……seems gimmicky for a whole land….but 100% worth exploring…..if you are there.

It’s a small world after all!!!! The kids loved everything you could look at and mom and dad loved the air conditioning
Tom Sawyers island. Robert LOVED the caves. Lots of fun to look at and explore.
He was so stinking proud to get his ‘licence’ lol. $7 well spent. He still has it. He spent the rest of the trip showing it before every driving ride.
We ended the night on the carousel.
Hi Papa!
IT’S NOT PAPA!!!!!