This Picture Schedule Will Instantly Improve Life With Your Toddler

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He has so few words.

He is so so ornery.

He is practically addicted to screens.

Can not handle transitions at all!

We are fighting eachother all day long!!

Sound familiar? Let’s talk about.

I had no idea where to start.

THEN… we began going to this cute little speech therapy preschool. And I began to see a way out.

At this preschool, like all preschool’s, they had their unique way of doing things. And my favorite thing was the cutest little picture calendar showing what the kids would be doing that day.

We would accomplish one activity, find our schedule, say “all done _____ “, rip it off and put it in a pocket. Then we would see what was next on the schedule! It was simple and it was genius.

My three-Year-Old loved it!

This was it! Something I could use to show my child what the plan was for the day.

Where he could see the activities and what order we would do them in.

Look forward to new things we would introduce or

be able to prep for not so fun things we would be tackling.

He could see that his precious screen time was in the plan but that we had fun things built in all around it.

This little calendar could potentially solve so many problems in our day.

So I made one and have LOVED using it these past several weeks. Grab it here!

For now we have our picture schedule displayed where we hang out the most… the tv room/kitchen. And it’s in a place where he can help me build it and take down the cards when we’re done.

I also laminated the activity cards and put velcro on the back so we could stick them up on this felt fabric square. But there are so many ways you can display these cards.

Not the most picture perfect, I’ll admit. But that’s not totally my style.

This may not be for everyone, and heaven knows we don’t use it every. single. day. But I am a huge believer in TOOLS. Every occupation has tools and trainings and MOMS NEED IT TOO!

So start here and come back for more ways to create a happier home.

Grab Your FREE Picture Schedule Here!

DIY Halloween Fairy Houses

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If you’re looking for a magical new way to decorate for Halloween this year, then look no further!! I have ALWAYS loved Halloween but the gory, scary decorations have never been my style. So this year as the pandemic has turned everything upside down, I decided that, just in case trick or treating doesn’t happen here in Seattle, that I still wanted my kids and the neighborhood kids to have something fun and festive to enjoy. SO my CRAZY idea was to make our backyard an amazing halloween display themed as a witch’s enchanted garden.

So of course I have to have part of my yard display be a a magical fairy garden! I mean, it’s a no brainer.

There are a lot of different ways you can create a fairy garden but when I saw Creative Mom’s channel on Youtube I knew that I had to do Fairy houses like her. Check her out —> Creative Mom on Youtube.

So here is my take on Halloween fairy houses. Watch my video to see a step by step guide to making your very own fairy house. It’s seriously super easy. You do not have to be crafty to make these houses, you just need to be dedicated. They take a lot of time but it will all be worth it.

If you make your own halloween fairy house please tag me on instagram so I can see them! Follow me @tarabrough

Leave me a comment below too!

Stay Happy Everyone – Tara

Beef Stew – Instant Pot Experiment Perfection!!

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I was so ready for this experiment to fail, but when I tasted the sweet numminess of this stew I squealed with delight! This was so fun to make in my new Instant Pot and I will for sure be making it again. Let me know how yours turns out!

This is the recipe that I used to figure out how to make my mom’s beef stew recipe into an Instant Pot recipe. But I’m sure if you followed all the directions on here it would be just as scrummy (ya I see you Great British Baking Show fans out there).

Here is my mom’s recipe that I “follow” (usually adding a little of this and a little of that).

3-4 medium russet potatoes

2 ribs of celery

3-4 medium carrots

4-5 cups beef broth

1-2 cans tomato soup

1 cup if water (I usually use my now empty soup can)

1 can stewed tomotoes (the tomatoes are big so I cut those up sometimes)

1 lb canned beef or beef stew meat

2 tablespoons flour

4 tablespoons butter

as much as you want of Worcestershire sauce (maybe 2 tsp.)

salt and pepper to taste

Other seasonings that might be good are rosemary, thyme, garlic salt or powder.

 

Season your meat however you want. Flour the meat and stir to coat.

Melt the butter in the instant pot on saute.

Add the meat and brown it on all sides as best you can. The flour might start sticking to the bottom which is ok. Just don’t let it burn. You can scrape any buttery floury areas off once you add the broth.

Add the broth. Keep saute setting on so that the broth heats up.

Dump in all other ingredients. stir.

Set the the Instant pot to High pressure for 35 minutes. Make sure you pressure valve is on sealed.

Sit back and relax.

I like to eat beef stew with Saltine crackers or bread and butter.

 

Enjoy!!!

(please let me now if there are typos. I’m writing this out at 11:30 at night.)

 

 

 

 

 

Free Printables For YOU!!

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Hey guys! Wow it has been a whiiiiiiiiile since I’ve written a vlog blog! It actually feels kind of good saying things in the written word instead of splurting out whatever my brain comes up with in front of a camera…

Anyway! Here are a couple of prints that I’ve made recently. And if you haven’t seen my latest video about the changes I’ve made around our home feel free to CLICK HERE to watch the video.

Love Ya!!

 

Be Kind and Have Courage

The Family – A Proclamation To The World Print

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS with Friday We’re In Love

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We had so much fun on this double date with our friends Jacob and Camille! If you don’t know already, Camille runs the blog, Friday We’re In Love, where she shares amazing date ideas. It is incredibly well-written and inspiring! Not only does she give hundreds of awesome date ideas for you and your significant other, she also has amazing insights on being a wife, mother and all-around wonderful person! We’re so happy we could collaborate/double date with them before we move to Utah! She and Jacob did this date a while back, but we thought it would be fun to do as a collaboration and create a fun video to go along with it. Plus, the world can use as much kindness as possible, especially right now! I hope you enjoy watching this video and that it inspires you to go out and do something kind for someone! If you like this, please give me a thumbs up, comment, share on social media and SUBSCRIBE ( www.youtube.com/Broughington and click the red subscribe button)!!!! Thanks!

Here’s a list of the “Kind Acts” we performed!

Kind Act #1 – Giving Away Cold Water to Pokémon Go Players
Kind Act #2 – Nice Notes on Store Mirrors
Kind Act #3 – Flowers for Everyone!
Kind Act #4 – Free Train Rides
Kind Act #5 – Nice Notes for Target Shoppers
Kind Act #6 – Dollars for the Dollar Corner at Target
Kind Act #7 – Money for a Good Book
Kind Act #8 – Free Movie and a Treat (Round 1)

Check out Camille’s Blog: http://www.fridaywereinlove.com/
Thanks for stopping by! Don’t forget to Subscribe!! (click the red subscribe button) https://www.youtube.com/Broughington

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ5MEMbE-mI&index=2&list=PLcMaGHL-7VpNPTzAlkcNSsNzxqc21rzvk
Here is a playlist of other pregnancy videos – follow me on my journey! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcMaGHL-7VpNPTzAlkcNSsNzxqc21rzvk

Why I Chose Vlogging Over of Blogging

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Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write on this blog so… Lucky you?

Many of you might have recently seen my  mommy parody of Meghan Trainors song “No”. If not, here it is.

 

This has been a super fun experience having one of my videos get more than just a couple of hits. Normally I’m counting tens of views and now Zach and I are counting hundreds and thousands!!!! Given, a lot of popular vloggers get those numbers EVERY TIME THEY POST! So big wup right? Even still, It’s been fun.

This actually has nothing to do with my topic today. Just had to get that off my chest.

I wanted to write a little bit about why I chose vlogging over blogging.

I’ve always liked blogging and I’ve been wanting to get serious about it for a long time. So last summer I decided to get a domain name, design a cute site and try to get more serious about it. I decided to do three posts a week, which quickly became one post a week which then became zero…

It just didn’t stick for me. I’m terrible at still photography. I take forever to write and edit and reedit. My ideas just never flowed when I had to put it into words. It ended up just being very time consuming and not just that, but it took my time away from things I actually liked.

And I AM NOT SAYING that doing vlogs takes any less time. But when I started vlogging I realized that I could honestly do this every day and never get tired of it.

Lets back up. I did my first silly music video with my girl friends a long time ago.

Here’s the link to my first YouTube channel I started 8 years ago.

I had so much fun making these videos. And it just kind of grew from there. So when my dad started getting into videography with his DSLRs in addition to his professional photography, I kind of started following him around and asking to borrow his gear.

So on it went. I did a college friends video, an engagement video, a first baby video, and sadly I haven’t done a video for my second baby yet. Sorry Piper!

Every time I sat down to edit a video it was just, fun. I had so much fun! I get going with the music and the clips and the wacky effects, and it’s honestly makes me giddy. I smile as I vlog. That’s a big deal to me. I really don’t know why I haven’t discovered vlogging sooner.

Long story long. I’ve always loved videography. I’ve always loved sharing my ideas, life, work etc. with others. So once I ruled out blogging, vlogging seemed to be the next best/better thing.

It’s just fun for me. And if I can have fun doing something outside of mommy world but still be able to do it with my little family. That’s an awesome win for me!

I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m bashing bloggers. I still am one kind of. It just wasn’t my jam. I guess what I’m trying to say is.

Everyone should be able to find their jam (you know, like how hipsters use that term). Find your jam and find a way to make it a part of your daily life. Do it! Just DO IT!!!!!!!!

Listen to Shia Lebeouf!!

via GIPHY

Listen to Casey Neistat and Shia Lebouf!

 

That’s all I have to say. G’night

  • Tara

 

Articles of Faith Puzzles

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Happy Thursday Everyone!

Yesterday at our achievement Day Activity, I printed out some awesome puzzles for the girls to practice their articles of faith with. But if I’m honest it’s probably more for me. My 8 and 9-year-olds know the articles of faith so well already! Way better than me anyway.

I found this link on Pinterest and thought I would share it here in case anyone else is searching for a fun way to memorize the AoF. This is actually the second time that we’ve used these puzzles and the first time we just paired them up and had them do one at a time. But that was way too easy. So this time we would have each girl on their own grab a puzzle and then we would mix everyone’s puzzle pieces together. This made it a little bit more difficult, but still easy enough for them to figure out.

I talked a little bit about the activity in my vlog for today which you can check out HERE! I also show you guys a little glimpse of the Easter Pageant stage as they are prepping for the pageant these upcoming weeks.

If you come to A Happier Home.com regularly, it would be super awesome if you could head on over to the vlog on YouTube and subscribe to my channel. Subscribing is as easy as signing into your google account (since YouTube is a part of google). It would mean a lot to me. Thanks!!

  • Tara

 

 

 

Garlic Tomato Bruschetta!

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Hey friends!

Yesterday I tried out a great bruschetta recipe and it turned out so yummy that I even saved the left overs and ate them more lunch today. HERE is the link that I got it from but I’m going to type it out here too so that you can see the things I added.

 

  • 2 pounds of roma tomatoes (or any good, ripe tomato)
  • 2 cloves of garlic, very finely minced
  • 5 basil leaves (plus more for garnish), rolled up and sliced into thin strips
  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (the recipe in the video didn’t call for balsamic vinegar so I think it’s optional)
  • Salt and pepper
  • For the bread:
  • ½ loaf of wheat french bread (about 7-10 slices)
  • Softened butter for spreading onto the bread
  • 1 clove of garlic

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  2. Quarter your tomatoes, and pull out all the seeds and “pulp” out of the middle with your fingers and discard so you are just left with the meat of the tomato
  3. Chop the tomatoes up into small, bite size pieces
  4. Transfer your tomatoes into a medium bowl and add in your garlic, basil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste
  5. Store in the fridge until the bread is ready
  6. Slice your loaf of wheat (I used white) french bread into about 1½ inch slices (ish)
  7. Spread softened butter onto both sides, place the bread on a baking sheet, and place in your preheated oven for 10 minutes
  8. Remove the bread from the oven, flip all of the slices over, and bake for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown on both sides
  9. Slice the tip off of one garlic clove so you have a flat surface
  10. Rub the garlic clove across the top of each toasted bread slice
  11. Spoon the tomato mixture onto the bread, top with a little more basil, and serve!

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Hope you guys like it!

Happy Tuesday!

-Tara