Personally Polished

Life in the Stone household is about to get a little crazier. I have decided to become my own boss lady by joining a dry nail polish company! I’m sure you’re thinking, “What in the world is that? And why are you adding ONE MORE THING to your plate?!?!” I asked the same things!! Haha! …

Take Time to Listen

Those of you who know me personally know that I’m an introvert. I enjoy being social with small groups, but I find large crowds very draining. You can imagine how I feel when we have six boisterous children around the house. The volume level increases by several orders of magnitude when everyone is home. I …

You Got This

Three little words, said when passing by me as I struggled to breathe, struggled to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and wanted to quit. “You got this.” I seriously almost burst into tears. My friend had no idea, but I needed to hear those words. I’m sure you’ve had those moments …

Attack of the Space Invaders

We just finished up one week of spring break and are starting down the road of spring break number two, and I am ready for a vacation! I mean, I’m ready for a vacation from this vacation. Do you ever feel like that? I think much of it for me is largely because I’m an …

Holiday Happenings

Phew… It’s time to let out a big sigh of relief. The holidays are over! Don’t get me wrong, we LOVE Christmas, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus. But as a blended family, this time of year is just extra crazy! Now that we are a little bit past the crazy, I have had …

Taking Back My Identity

For several years, my identity was single mom, working mom, strong mom, fit mom. These were things that I felt defined me; they were who I was. I worked full time, exercised regularly with a personal trainer at the gym, worked my Beachbody coaching business, parented two children (with the help of my village) and …

8 Lessons of the Blended Staycation

Summers for blended families can be as stressful as they are rewarding. We recently had a week of “staycation” with our six children. I just wanted to share some of the lessons we learned (or were reminded of) during this week. 1. Your kids just want to spend time with you. More than anything else, …

Challenging Co-Parenting

To say that co-parenting with a former spouse is easy would be a lie. Regardless of whether you are on good terms with your ex or not, you are going to face challenges at some point. How you collectively handle those challenges can have huge impacts on your children. I’m going to share some of …

The Joys of School Events

As the parents of school-aged children, you are constantly pulled in multiple directions – recitals, programs, sports games, fundraising events, carnivals, etc. There is almost aways some “event” that your children want to attend. As a blended family, one of the extra challenges we face is that two of our children (“mine”) live with us …

Year One

This is the third in a series, so if you missed them you can read the first one here and the second one here. We ended the last post with saying our “I do’s” and wedding cake (of course). I think I forgot to mention the importance of my wedding dress. I was honored to be able to …