We are joining our book loving friends today as the Poppins Book Nook heads to Ancient Greece!

There’s something so intriguing about traveling into the past.  We’ve loved exploring the some of the ancient cultures and customs of past societies but especially Ancient Greece.  My daughter is a huge fan of Percy Jackson and knows all the myths by heart (I am schooled weekly on some of the details).

So to honor all the Gods & Goddesses, we’ve rounded up some great books & fun activities so you too can introduce your kids to the stories and secrets of Ancient Greece!

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.  As always, all opinions and content are my own and I only recommend products that I use and enjoy!

I don’t know about you but my kids tire me out — All. The. Time.  

It’s a good tired – wouldn’t trade it for the world!  Parenting takes lots of energy and I’m always looking for ways to stay healthy and full of energy.  Luckily, I’ve found a few things that really work for me, and no, it’s not hours at the gym. 

My “keep Mom healthy” secrets include superfruits, natural probiotics and daily exercise!

I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be a parent who keeps up with the kids.  I want to play chase and tag with them.  And go biking, sledding and swimming – not sit on the sidelines.  And it was also really important for me to find ways to fit in easy and simple healthy behaviors that I could stick with for a long time.

You don’t need a lot of fancy instruments to create beautiful music. 

In fact, kids can make so many types of instruments on their own AND using items you would either recycle or throw away.

We had some absolutely gorgeous and wonderfully creative ideas shared at this week’s Discover & Explore Music linky.  So grab that recycle bin and get started!

Birthday season is coming for our family. 

Well, make that Birthday Season for everyone in my family BUT me. 

I celebrated my special day last month – super great day!  The kids made me pancakes and I didn’t have to run one errand all day long (now that’s a birthday).

So Spring is my time to focus on creating special days for my family.

Not long ago, I walked into our playroom to find my daughter surrounded by all her cooking items and talking aloud to no one.  I just smiled and she smiled back.

“What’s up?”, I asked.

“I’m doing a cooking show!”

I guess I had been mentioning Rachel Ray quite a bit (I mean, it was the holiday season and I’m more likely to search for new recipes and tape some of the food shows).

I’m a list-making kind of girl.  Pen and paper for me (my tech-saavy teen thinks I’m so old school!) 

And every January, I have a penchant for making booklists!

We love reading at our house and are always visiting the library, looking for new books to devour.  So I’ve found that having a list really helps.  I have a list for myself and also encourage the kids to add to it so I know what books they’re dying to read.

I do love the month of January. 

Not because of the snow or any special occasions — it’s because the month brings us a chance to slow down and reflect on all the great times from the previous year.

Live is busy; we all know it can fly by too quickly.  January offers us a time to think about all the wonderful memories and activities that we experienced. 

Hello, Hello!  And most of all — Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year.  We all slept in today (which is a real treat in our house) and are getting a slow start to the new year.  Slow is good, right.

And we are also kicking off the new themes for the winter/spring Discover & Explore Linky today (yea!!).  We have four amazing blogs hosting the linky each week and we all love to see all the great ideas and fun activities that are shared.

We’ve already had our first taste of winter and the temperatures were brutally cold!  So I am ready to find a few new ideas before the next snowy day blows in from the west. Now, I’ll admit that no matter how snowy or cold the day, I do like the get the kids outside for …

I learned a long time ago that the memories our kids have of the holidays are not those picture perfect ideals that you see in magazines and movies. 

In fact, some of their fondest memories of Christmases past are ones that I may not want them to remember – but for them, it’s what made the holiday special or different or just plain enjoyable.