How To Talk About Adoption - From An Adoptee

Linking up with Shay and  Erika for another random discussion. Last year they did a Workin' It them, and this year they are doing How We theme. I love it. This month they are chatting about talking to adoption to kids. Now I have no adopted any children...yet, but I do have some experience as I am ONE of the kids that has been adopted. I write a little about being adopted and my top asked questions here.

Meet my family.

Front row: Mr., Mini Fox, My Mom, Me

Second Row: Brother, Baby Fox, Sister, Dad

So today's topic is talking about adoption to kids, I thought I would share my experience as someone who is adopted. Obviously my parents couldn't hide that I was adopted...Hello I'm Korean, they are most definitely not. My brother and sister (if you have a question about that, I answered that question you might have here) are also adopted, my sister being 5 years older than me and my brother being 9 months younger than me. Yep my mom went from 1 to 3 kids in 6 months.

My parents were always open and honest with all of us being adopted. There was never a time when we didn't know. From babies they would talk about how we were adopted, even though we couldn't talk or fully understand they were constantly telling us how lucky they were to adopt us. All of my cousins knew too, it was something that we all talked about. We read Horton Hatches The Egg a lot. At the end, my mom would always say: see it doesn't matter that the bird laid the egg, Horton was the one who loved and cared for the egg. Even though I didn't carry you, I love you just as much even more than any mother/father could and am so thankful everyday to God for him sending us you. 

Now that I am older, we have always told Baby Fox and Mini Fox that I am adopted and so is Uncle M and Auntie N. We have told them that our birth parents couldn't take care of us and that they did the most selfless thing they could, and gave us to Nana and Ampa (Grandpa), so that they could love and care for us. That Nana and Ampa couldn't have kids of their own, and they wanted kids so badly so they adopted the three of us.

Also my parents were ALWAYS super open with us about questions we might have. Every once in a while, they would ask us, do you have any questions about adoption? Just in case we didn't want to bring up the subject. They would be super supportive if any of us wanted to find our birth parents, although in my sister and brothers case they know way more information than they do mine. That's their story to tell, not mine.

So that's how my parents told us we were adopted. I know this was sort of a prompted post, but any other topic of adoption you want me to discuss? I'm pretty much an open book and no question is stupid, seriously, if you thought it then I'm sure others have too. Ask away!

5 Tips To Plan the Best Summer Vacation

Linking up with Shay and Erika for another random discussion. Last year they did a Workin' It theme, and this year they are doing How We theme. I love it. This month is about how to plan summer vacations, so I'm giving you 5 tips to plan the best summer vacation.

As a full time working parent, I try to make the most out of our weekends. It's the time we get to spend together with friends and family, so we like to jam pack our weekends. Not to say that there aren't those weekends, we actually plan to do nothing and have no concrete plans, but mostly I like to catch up with friends and enjoy each weekend to it's fullest extent. That being said, this is how I plan each summer, I like to call it the 5 phases of planning Summer.

I keep everything in my Day Planner, all written out so I can see the whole month of activities. I just don't think I could go to a digital planner.

Planner code:

Yellow = Baby Fox
Purple = Mini Fox
Blue = Work
Green = Family/My stuff
Orange = birthdays/anniversaries

You might be interested in How I Use My Planner

Phase ONE:  Save

...haha, that seems like an obvious one, but by this I mean, we decided in the Fall what we want our Summer to look like, so we can save money. Most things these days cost money, and if we want to make the most of our Summer, we need to plan how we get the money to do so. This year we are going on a big trip for Christmas, so we know we don't have enough to do two big trips, but vacation time at work...blah, work getting in the way of having fun, haha.

So each paycheck we save a little so that we can do weekends away, instead of doing one big long trip. We follow the Dave Ramsey plan, which I talk a little bit more here and how we incorporate that into our lives here.

Phase TWO:  Prior Commitments

The first thing I do, is write down the things we always do. Mostly it's 4th of July and we take the day prior off, and go to my cousins for some fun pre 4th stuff and we take the day after so Mr. and I can go on a day date and relax a bit, we've done this the past few years and it seems to work out well. Once those are written out I can go to the next phase of planning.

Phase THREE: Kids Stuff

I like to plan out what Baby Fox and Mini Fox are going to do. I write out all of the potential summer classes they can take and the times, so I can work out what will work with our schedule. Most of the classes Baby Fox is going to take are Monday-Thursday. So that makes it easier for long weekends. This year Baby Fox is going to take a computer programming class, Lego building class and Build a Fort (if you don't know what that is, check out this post for an explanation). Mini Fox is doing a VBS camp with her little friend and so far that's it. I don't think I can handle much more than that!

Yep this is build a fort, they built that...this is several camps after Baby Fox went...but how cool is this?

Now that the kid stuff is all planned out, next phase.
 
Phase FOUR: Who

Plan who we want to visit and when it's going to happen and coordinate with those people. This part takes some time, usually I suggest what is going to work for our schedule and hope that it works for theirs too. This year, we're doing two things, we're going to visit some good friends in Northern California and we're also going camping in Yosemite. The Yosemite took a lot of effort, as it's so hard to get camping reservations, but we knew which weekends would work for us, and hoped for the best and it worked out! I love when that happens.

 Phase FIVE: The Small Things

You know during the year when you tell people, yea we should do that this summer, or we should go there this summer. I find that if you reach out to those people and plan those things...it will actually happen. So after all that other stuff is planned, I start reaching out to friend and asking them, hey want to go to the zoo on this day? Want to do a beach day on this day? Of course not every weekend is full, it just seems like it. But those things that we really want to do, like the zoo, we make an effort to get those on the calendar, instead of making it a last minute decision a few days prior. I find things actually get accomplished when it's written down.

After all that is planned, there is still time to plan unscheduled things with friends, like ice cream dates at 7:30pm.

So that my friends is how I schedule our vacation. Next year we are planning our long vacation during summer, instead of winter break, so I'll probably start with that (we'll probably have already bought our plane tickets before we even get to Summer planning) and then schedule all of Baby Fox's and Mini Fox's Summer classes around that.

How do you plan your summers?

Linking up here

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10 Spring to Summer Transition Pieces

Linking up with Shay and  Erika for another random discussion.  This month the topic is transition pieces, here are my 10 transition pieces and why I picked them. But first hop on over to The Blended Blog to see what everyones favorite tee is. I know that my favorite tee, isn't being made anymore...wahhh, so I'm definitely going to need some new tees to buy soon!

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page. 

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10

#1, 2, and 3 - I love this sweater, because they are long sleeve but gives your shoulders and arms a little hint that Summer is coming.

#4 - Is light weight so it's perfect for Spring and those cooler Summer nights.

#5 -  Comes in 7 different colors and it's under $30 and is the perfect sweater to wear with a tee or tank, and will definitely take you into the Summer.

#6 - I think everyone should have a jean jacket in their closet. It goes with so many things. It can really dress down any dress and just looks more put together when you add the jean jacket. Whether it's a little more edgy like this one, or more traditional like this one I think everyone should have one.

#7 - I have fallen in love with this skirt. It's perfect for Spring and so easy to dress up or down for Summer.

#8 - Is a knock off of this bootie, and it's more than half the price and pretty darn comfortable.

#9 - Well, it might not give your feet any warmth, but it sure is a cute shoe and it comes in 7 colors.

#10 - Who doesn't love a good flamingo? I've been obsessed with them for awhile now and this is the perfect cross body bag for Spring and straight into those fun Summer months.

Now link up your posts below!

An InLinkz Link-up

My Mom Fail And I Lived To Tell The Tale

Today I'm linking u with Shay and Ericka for another round of How We...today's topic is mom fail and lived to discuss. Gosh where to start with this one....haha.

So we're at Legoland...we are with my cousin and her two kids.

Her husband was working, so it was her, her two kids, myself, my two kids and Mr. Mr. is being the crazy guy he is an entertaining the kids via, driving the stroller like a madman. My cousin rented a stroller from Legoland, while we were using our double Bob. He had all the kids (yep all 4 of them) in the rented stroller. We had a fast pass, for lack of better word, that would get us into the fast track lane of all the rides. The kids wanted to go on this shooting game that has an Indian Jones type feel to it. So we all race to what we thought was that fast pass entrance. The man told us, no it's over there, so we all race over there. All of us thinking that Mini Fox was with us...so we're in front of the line, and we're discussing who is riding with who on the ride...when suddenly we realize, Mini Fox is missing. Mr. and I immediately start running toward where we last were (about 50 feet), and we see Mini Fox crying hysterically running towards us...thank goodness! All in all, it was probably 2-3 minutes she was missing! But really 20 seconds from the time we discovered it! We asked her what she was doing for those 1-2 minutes before she started running...she said...I was running in circles. Suffice to say, we always keep a good count of who is where now!

Please tell me one of your stories so I don't feel so bad!

My New Years Resolution

Happy Monday Foxy Friends! Today on The Blended Blog it's all about New Years resolutions. I know 2 weeks late, but better late than never right? Anyway, I never like to think of them as resolutions, rather goals. Like I try to pick a goal that I want to accomplish that year. For example, 2012 I decided I wanted to try and wear jewelry, I never wore it before then. 2013, was the year Mini Fox was born and quite frankly I was so sick all the time I could barely function, so let's say 2013 was they year I tried to function as adult and parents a 2 year old.

2014 was the year I was going to revamp my wardrobe, that's when I discovered Alison and Get Your Pretty on Style Challenge (affiliate link), and it changed my life. Seriously, if you need to figure out a new style and want to try things outside the box and have someone tell you how to dress, Alison is your lady. Anyway, this is where I started and this was my last outfit post of 2017.

2015 was the year I wanted to figure out make up, I had no idea how to put it on, I could do lipstick, that was it. The end of 2014, hey i got some bright lipstick on...and barely there eye shadow, but it's better.

Taken at the end of 2015, funny enough I do believe that happens to be the same skirt from above, LOL. Funny how that happened. Anyway, it's a bit blury, but there's some fake lashes and the eyeliner is better.

Each year just gets better, I learn more and get better, the end of 2016.

End of 2017.

2016 was the year I wanted to learn how to do my hair. These were one of my favorite hair styles.

2017 was the year I wanted to organize my house. Which I did, and then never blogged about. I promise it happened. I am in the process of organizing my pantry, which I will have a post sometime in the next couple of weeks. I am waiting for some containers to arrive from Container Store, such a bummer when are you so close to the finish line but don't have what you need...ugh.

Okay finally at 2018 goals. If you are still with me, thank you. This year I decided I wanted to be a little more flexible and be able to let go and get out of my head. I am CONSTANTLY thinking, always have a plan in my head of what to do next. I wanted to try and start practicing Yoga, to a) help me get flexible b) help me get out of my head. So my plan is to do this 30 days of beginning yoga, and then maybe continue on that playlist I have. We'll see, but I found a few flexibilty YouTube videos that I will try out, will let you know.

Day 1 and Mini Fox wanted to do it with me, she lasted about 10 minutes. It was super cute.

Unfortunately we are 14 days in and I was only able to complete 5 of the days until I hurt myself really band and rendered both hand useless. wahh! I thought I was okay Friday, but tried to do a simple downward dog and...nope not yet. So hopefully in the next week I'll be able to pick back up and get back on the train. And no more Hoverboarding for me...

So link up your resolutions below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Also linking up with Shay and  Erika for another random discussion. Last year they did a Workin' It them, and this year they are doing How We theme. I love it. I'm a week late, but hey better late than never!