Tag: family

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Summertime Survival: 15 Hilarious Memes Every Parent Can Relate To

Ah, summer break—that glorious time of year filled with endless possibilities, when school is out, and the kids are home for a couple of months. As mums, we eagerly anticipate the arrival of this sunny season, envisioning lazy days, trips to the beach, family vacations, and plenty of quality time with our little ones.

But let’s be real for a moment: parenting during summer break isn’t always the picture-perfect experience we dream of it being.

While summer brings plenty of fun and unforgettable moments, it also presents unique *ahem* challenges for parents. From managing the kids’ boundless energy (and appetites!) to finding ways to keep them entertained and ensuring they stay safe in the water and under the burning sun, summer parenting requires a whole new level of creativity and resourcefulness.

And patience. Lots and lots of patience. 😅

We all know that laughter is the best medicine, and what better way to stay sane in the chaos of summer parenting than through laugh-out-loud memes?

Whether you’re a seasoned parent or a newbie navigating your first summer break with the kids you’ll surely get a kick out of these 15 hilarious, summertime parenting memes.

If you’re also after some practical tips for getting ready for travel with the kids or simply some fun, easy ways to keep them entertained this summer, I’ve got you covered too!

Let the laughter (and packing!) begin!

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31 Horrid Halloween Jokes for the Whole Family

Here on Everything’s Famtastic I’m always sharing my love of sewing and fun creative projects.. Like the last post with loads of ideas for easy Halloween home décor to make.

But, I ALSO love to have some laughs. What’s life without a bit of laughter, right?!?

That’s why, in honour of Halloween this October, I put together this list of 31 side-splittingly funny Halloween jokes for you.

You’ll find vampire jokes, ghost jokes, monster jokes and plenty of surprises too.

And yes, they are also suitable for the kids to cackle along with you. 😂

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What’s So Great About Photos?

Halli Hallo! Here we go again, another round of Everything’s Famtastic to enthral and delight you. Last week’s post about dealing with grief was kinda heavy and not my usual thing. But then again, the passing away of so many friends and family in such a short time is also not “my usual thing”. But nobody is ever alone in their grief. I just hope that my post reached the right person at precisely the time when they needed some reassurance, comfort and strength after losing someone special.

One of my “usual things” however, is photographs. I take a LOT of photos. Just ask my Hubby. Or my kids. Or pretty much anyone who has known me for a while 😉. I take photos with my mobile phone. I take photos with my big fancy-pants SLR camera.

I not only take a lot of photos, oh no. I collect photos from my Hubby’s mobile too. And when we get together for special occasions with friends or family, I like to check out what photos anyone else took too. Which means that I have a fairly large collection of photographs.

Ahem. *clears throat* I don’t think that I have been quite clear enough. I have a REALLY LARGE collection of photos. I haven’t done a hard-core sorting and cleaning out of photos from my laptop in years. Since approximately 2014 to be precise *buries face in hands in shame*.

Ok confession time. I take a LOT of photos. I have more than 40,000 photos stored on my laptop dated from 2014 to present. I am a photography addict.

There is just so much to do with all those photos… *wails*

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Bring on Summer Holidays

Another week complete. Another week closer to Christmas. Hey, wait! What?!? Christmas? It’s true, at last one of my children have already asked me how long until Christmas (“About another 5 ½ months, sweetie!”). But they seemed to have missed the big fun right in their face: summer school holidays!!!

School’s Out For…

… well you know the song title. My kids have been requesting to hear it a lot lately!

This week marked the end of the school year for our 2 girls. Both brought home outstanding report cards over which they- and we parents- are extremely proud. Apparently both of our girls are class leaders in the amount of books they devoured, er, read. And both have loved their teachers. Which makes it plain easier for everyone involved, right?

For one of them though, not only was this week the last before summer, but also the end of an era: Miss 10 has just completed primary school *sniff* “I think I have something in my eye” *dabs eye*. 😉 I will confess, there were more than a couple of tears shed. In fact, I think I was weepier than Miss 10, who informed me very matter-of-factly that “just because I am sad doesn’t mean that I must cry”. Oh man. I would like to point out that I was not the only mother with watery eyes on the final day of primary school. However I of course will not be naming names 😉.

Primary school here in Germany is over and done with after 4th grade and high school lasts from 5th to 13th grade! Which as an Australian, is something I am not used to. So off onto the next big adventure for her. (And for me, as I have ZERO experience with the high school system here. Looks like we will be learning together).

But before the next big school adventure comes a summer break FULL of new adventures. Hurrah! Like going away on holidays! We are all so excited and desperately looking forward to going on a big trip somewhere totally new. And this year it’s Croatia!

Big family holidays require big plans. Like: What to pack? What not to pack? What’s the weather likely to be? (Sunny and hot apparently!). Suffice to say that there are scraps of paper all over the place here with list after list of what to buy, what to organise, and what to do with our pet bunnies.

And that’s where I am going to sign off for this week. Because we are exhausted from the final weeks of school and everything that gets celebrated, signed and tidied during that time. If you have school-age kids, you know exactly what I am talking about. And now because we are busy prepping for our holiday.

So, Auf Wiedersehen, vidimo se kasnije and see you later! Have a great week, and if you have school holidays too, enjoy every minute!

How are you spending your summer? Got any grand plans? If you have kids, what are they hoping to do in the coming weeks? f

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The Half-Year Growth Check-Up

Hey everybody! There is an electricity in the air around here. Can you feel it too? No, we don’t live underneath one of those really tall, high-voltage transmission towers 😉. I’m talking about the summer school holidays countdown! Have the school hols already kicked off where you are? We have 5 school days left and counting…

Did you see the long list full of FAMtastic ideas for the summer holidays I posted last week? Have you tried any of them yet? Or have you made your own “To Do List” for holiday fun?

I need to sit down with our 3 kiddos and make up our own personalised “bucket list” for these school holidays. Because I can tell you now, as much as I am looking forward to having lots of fun times with the kids, we will NOT be ticking off ALL of the 61 suggestions from last week’s list! We have however, already started experimenting with making ice cream 😉 based on a Donna Hay recipe. Oh my, how my children are currently infatuated with our @donna.hay cookbook…

Coconut, raspberry, choc chip ice cream. Delish!

I don’t know whether you remember, but at the start of the year I wrote about setting goals for GROWTH for myself for this year. Not drunken New Year’s resolutions, but real goals that I plan to achieve by year’s end. And given that the year is already half done with, I thought it was about time I gave myself a review. If you set yourself some goals for this year too, I hope that you are straight up rocking them! Me? Hmm…

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Mothers are Monumental

Hello Everybody! Last week I celebrated my 40-something birthday and I am not sure where in the world you are reading this from, but for me, today is Mother’s Day! Lucky for me, the sun is shining here, the kids are behaving, and all is good in my world 😊.

I know that Mother’s Day is not celebrated by every country on the same day. I know that my friends in England already had their Mother’s Day for the year. But plenty of other countries are celebrating today too. And making it completely convenient for expat me, is the fact that both Australia and Germany celebrate Mother’s Day today, the second Sunday in May. That means no mix-ups within our family and no excuses like “Ohhhh, I thought we were celebrating on the German Mother’s Day not the Australian one…” 😉.

Not only have my 3 beautiful, energetic and sweet children been extra lovely today and made it a special day. My dear Hubby too, of course (thank you very much for that massage gift voucher. I’ll happily take care of that!!). I also have another reason to smile today. I have some new babies in my life…

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Mama Gets a Time-Out

How are you going? Have you had a great week? Me? I’m doing OK. The weather is trying to improve- hooray for sun!- and my kids complained their way through the one *sweltering* 20°C (68F) day we had. I also had to chase up my doctor the other day to find out why my knee was still hurting. Turns out I may just have myself a torn ligament. So it’s off for an MRI next week for me. Oh yay. Wish me luck folks!

But for now, I get to focus on something else. I get to enjoy some time to myself. Alone. And that makes me just a little bit immensely excited and happy like a bouncy little puppy dog.

Let me start by saying: I love my husband and I love my kids. A lot.

I also love time spent alone. This is not the same as being lonely. That for me is a state of feeling sad because nobody is around. But sometimes I CRAVE time alone. I want a quiet house. I want the house to stay as tidy as it was this morning. An hour ago. Heck, even 10 minutes ago!

I want the chance to do whatever I want. If that means tidying up without interruption or turning around to discover a brand new mess, so be it. If that means dancing around my kitchen to will.i.am, then bring on the dance party! Maybe I’d nap, or catch up on some reading while sitting outside in the sunshine, or lose myself in Pintrest, or drink a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, or start sewing new clothes for my kids, or cook up a meal of linguine with prawns (that would be “shrimp” for you North Americans 😉) that I know no one else in my family would dare let pass their lips, or… I’m getting dizzy just fantasising about the possibilities! *sigh*

You see, we mums are NOT robots that can function caring for our families eternally, without pausing to care for ourselves. It does NOT mean we love our families less, or are neglecting them. But there are only 24 hours in a day. And if all your waking hours are spent caring for, cooking for and feeding, transporting, disciplining and entertaining your kids, there is not a moment left to care for YOURSELF. And if you don’t look after yourself, who will?

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7 Brilliant Benefits of Decluttering Your Home

Yo what up peeps? Er… nah. Just kidding. Totally doesn’t work for me.

*starts typing again*

Hey! How are you going? What’s been happening for you this past week? Me? I have been getting excited about tidying. Yes folks, you read it here first! I did indeed say that I was getting excited. About tidying. More specifically, decluttering.

If you are anything like me, when you look around a disorderly, cluttered room, it weighs down on you. It all just feels so… much. I literally feel my shoulders sag. My mood sinks. I sigh. My stress and frustration levels rise as I think of how I wish the room would be. Less stuff. Tidier. Cleaner. How I wish everyone in the house was as bothered by the clutter as I am and inspired enough to do something about it. But alas…

So I have told myself, enough is enough. This family of 5 is getting it’s house into shape. And everyone is going to have to play their part if we are all to enjoy a more relaxed household and a more chilled Mama 😉.

Therefore, let the organising begin! Come join in the fun of Jenny decluttering and read about this in-home adventure!

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5 Ways to Deal with an Overwhelming Household

household, how-to, tips, stress less, housework

Do you have sometimes have days when you feel overwhelmed by life? By your household? By your kids? C’mon, you can be honest here! Raise your hand!

**raises hand**

Of course everyone has tough days. Anyone who denies ever having a rough day (or week, or perhaps month) is kidding themselves and fooling no one. Life throws us lots of opportunities. And sometimes life just throws lemons. (yeah yeah, we’ve all heard it before, make lemonade, yada yada).

Anyway… when life at home with kids, or a partner, or a barnyard full of animals, seems gruelling, repetitive, thankless, boring, frustrating, uncontrollable- shall I stop now?!- it can all seem a little, well, too much.

What can you do? The #1 thing to remember: You are not alone!

Even in stress, you are not alone!

You are not the only one facing this crisis, this mood, this shitty day. Say it to yourself: “I am not alone”. Say it again. Say it a thousand times if you need to. Because it is true and you should believe it. What are the chances that

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A Word for the Year

Welcome back to Everything’s Famtastic! As I mentioned in my last post here, we are already in the month of February and I can hardly believe how quickly time flies! One minute I am sunning myself in Australia and the next minute I am back in Germany being the Master (Well I guess, technically the Mistress. But that word might bring on images of another sort 😉 so I might just stick with the word Master) of the more-chaotic-than-I-would-like-it-to-be household of 5.

So again I ask, how is your year looking so far? Got any special dreams for the year? Have you made any plans or goals for yourself?

Last January I started off the year imaging one word for myself: Nourish. I think most of my friends and family imagined that meant, that I intended to eat lots of tasty, gourmet foods. Sure, that may well have been part of the story. But not actually the point. I had imagined I would spend 2018 focussing on nourishing my body and my mind. I wanted to continue learning to speak Dutch. I wanted to feed my body healthy, nourishing foods. I wanted to read lots of interesting books. I wanted to improve my sewing skills. I wanted to meditate regularly. I wanted to feel well and strong and happy.

Was Last Year a Super Success?

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