Where did June Go? Only 6 months left in 2015

Can you believe that there are only 6 months left in 2015? We are halfway through this year and I swear I don't even know where the month of June went. May was such a blur with the kids birthday and the end of school and now it seems that June has been the same, a blur. First it was the start of Summer, a weekend of birthdays, and then out of town for 6 days of fun with family & the wedding of 2015, and now I'm home, relaxed, and back in the swing of things and it's already July. I feel like I have missed so much, and I have, and for that I have to apologize because I have been MIA in more ways then just at Raised Southern. I hope you all are ready for a full month of fun!! Have a great rest of the week!

{Crafty on Tuesday} Cross Stitch with the Kids *Fail*

Hey Y'all, have you been getting crafty?? We haven't because we just came back from Pennsylvania last Monday and have been trying to get all caught up with work, unpack, clean the house up, etc. Well of course I didn't want to fall off track even more from us being away, so I had to think up something quick and I remembered I bought these two cross stitch patterns from Hobby Lobby for  a few bucks. ( I don't remember the price) and I thought these were absolutely perfect to talk about today on our Crafty Tuesday!

     When I was a kid you could find little ones that didn't take much time and were "easy". At least I remember them being easy. I first did cross-stitch with my nanny. She wasn't technically my nanny, but we were family. She was my mom's best friends grandmother and she always would keep my moms BFF's two girls and me on the weekends and we would go to church with her. I've always loved anything crafty. So of course, I thought these would be fun and a good focus activity because the kids have been wild since the last day of school. On a "It's Summertime" high, where all they wanna do is go go go..... Well boy was I wrong.

{Cooking with the Kids} Gummy Bear Popsicle's

      Yes, they were back at it again. I think it's so important that kids {boys & girls} get in the kitchen and learn to cook. There are so many reasons that this is important but one that really sticks out to me is that our children need to know how to take care of themselves. Yes, as mothers it is our job, and we do it, to take care of children and do for them but I want my children to never have to depend on anyone unless it's each other of course. Now that it is Summertime and both of the children are now homeschooled they will be cooking a lot more. My son likes to cook and my daughter loves to cook, so we always felt bad that she was being left out while at school, so we didn't cook as much as when she was home.

{Living Life Home-schooled} Our First Year

Our first year has been a great year! There have been so many great experiences and new things that we have done with our son and daughter at different times because she was still in public school at the time. While I can say now that the year has been great, I will also say it was hard to get to this point, for me. My son adjusted well to being homeschooled, he has always been apart of the homeschooling talk and it's what he has chosen and of course what we think is best, but it was a transition for me. I already had/have a busy schedule so then adding something in the mix that I was so focused on left me playing catch up in work, my personal business, and even stopping my boutique opening because when was I going to have time to build and do that also? {Day by day and baby steps, it will get done}but I was a little overwhelmed.

We made it through the "first semester" which I consider the first half of the year- up to Christmas and we did some reevaluation over our Christmas break and thought about things that weren't working and what was and what we wanted to do and do more of. I will say this year was more of a finding our schedule, what we liked, didn't like, basically finding our groove. You can read all the articles you want on making your homeschool schedule and how other families do it but the truth is and you will hear it over and over again, you have to find what works best for you and your family. Once you find what works best because every child is different, works better at different times, and does things differently and this needs to be taken into account too. When we found what worked for us it was smooth sailing through the end of the year and not only did my son enjoy it but I enjoyed it!

My number one tip to anyone considering homeschool or are currently in their first year of homeschooling.

Father's Day Foods - 10 Foods that will fill his stomach and you will win his heart!

     They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and well I must say I believe that is true. At least this is true for my grandparents and my husband. I don't know what we would do if I didn't know how to cook. I mean don't get me wrong we would survive because my husband is a hell of a cook but there is no doubt in my mind that if he had to cook every night and then two/three times on weekend, I'm sure we would eat cereal, sandwiches, and pizza on rotation.

     Earlier in the week on our Crafty Tuesday I shared 5 DIY Crafts that you can make as gifts for the men in your life, and as I was making my shopping list I realized I needed to get stuff to make all my husbands fav. foods. We're celebrating Father's Day this weekend because I will be out of town the weekend of Father's day. As I was doing that I decided to share some the best recipes I've added to my Father's Day Pinterest Board this year! I hope this helps y'all get the idea of what you can make for your favorite man.

Take a look at these delicious and awesome recipes:

*Courtesy of Bakerella
How cute are these cupcakes and cookies? I know that I wouldn't be able to resist this sweet treat and neither would my husband! These are great for any cookout you may be having to serve to all the guest. These could be made very simply.
http://www.bakerella.com/fast-food-fun/

*Courtesy of  SheKnows 
Add a little food decor to your Father's Day spread! This is great to sit out for your Father's Day get together/Cookout. This will be what everyone is talking about.
http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/1004269/watermelon-grill-with-fruit-kabobs

Can't decide what kind of burger you want to make dad this Father's Day? This should help you with your decision, or maybe not because I can't decide.

Blogging Journey

Where to start? My blogging Journey has  been a long but short road. I've been blogging now for 6 years. Just writing that it takes me back. I decided to start blogging right after my dad tragically passed away. I really needed something to do, something to focus on. I was a Stay at home mom and work at home mom and I needed something more, something that was just for me. I started writing just for me, to get things out of my head and off of my chest. Then the more interested I became in blogging, I started thinking more and more that I could do this and make it so much more. That is where my Journey began. I started out with several different names for my blog and had it on different domain. I did not like that and had to switch in it 2012. I lost a lot of my posts at that time and well needless to say I was a little burnt out, well not really burnt out but derailed. I had worked so hard on so much and it was just gone... Anyways I've moved on and things couldn't be better. I considered doing another site switch but I can't take the risk of even possibly loosing everything. Even though it's backed up.

Since I've started blogging, I look like I'm a tourist every where we go. My husband sometimes has this look in his eye when I say I'm bringing the camera but he's so supportive he understands how important this is to me and he just smiles and supports. My journey in the beginning had many roadblocks that I felt I was constantly having to go around, avoid, and it began that I noticed I was censoring and constantly over thinking every post I was writing. Since I noticed that, I began writing just for me{and you the readers of course, but...}, things I wanted to write, and stuff that was going in on in our life and I became so much more interested in my blogging. I began following other bloggers, joining communities, linking up, etc. & Now here I am!

Crafty Tuesday- DIY Father's Day, 5 Gift Ideas

     Today's our Crafty on Tuesday series and all of a sudden I'm hooked on Father's Day and things to do to celebrate! I'm sure it's because I feel absolutely horrible that I will not be with my husband on Father's Day and I will have one of our children with me out of state.. My daughter and I have a wedding to go to and it just so happens that its the Saturday before Father's Day....*facepalm* that is exactly what I did when I realized that I would be almost a thousand miles away on his day. So I decided that we would celebrate Fathers Day this weekend {Even though it's going to be a busy weekend too}.So I'm looking at a few things we can do for my husband and of course I stumbled across a TON of things I would love to do for Father's Day, so I figured this would be great to share with all of you who may be looking for something of your husbands and/or the best dad you know!

Bridesmaids Checklist - 15 Days till the #CrawleyWedding

     I cannot believe we are 15 days out from this wedding!! It's almost here I remember when the bride was posting pictures of the countdown and we had 500 days to go & look at us now. As I start thinking about "getting there" to the wedding destination, my anxiety begins to rise fast. I'm flying, which I have done many many of times but this time there is one thing different, My 8 year old daughter is flying for her first time. I'm very nervous about that by its self. She isn't a "rusher", if you rush her she is going to go as slow as she can, so long layovers. She doesn't like loud noises, she gets scared easily, and all of the above, so I'm hoping she is okay with everything. She's very excited though about flying for her first time and being the flower girl so hopefully the excitement will handle everything else.

     With 15 days left I'm not only worrying about her, but I'm also worrying about making sure I have everything I need, because heaven forbid, I am 15 hours away and forget my other shoe, or earrings. I had to start a check list- so I started one and then I thought well let me go ahead and find a pre-made one that has thought of probably everything!! This is the one I found and it has so many different things I didn't even think about, so I have to share with y'all! I would have never thought about these few things, and this is number one.

{Southern Snapshots} May 2015

{Monthly Memories} May 2015

May was a busy but G-R-E-A-T month! I got to see my favorite Tribute show the Rusty Mchugh show, My son's birthday, My daughters birthday, camping birthdays and lots of fun times and memories with the family and important people! Hope you all had a great Month, and here we are half way through 2015.

{Kids Garden} Update - We have Sunflowers!!!

We have Sunflowers! Well we had sunflowers in May. This is one of those posts I needed to get done. I was so happy that some of our plants grew. As you may have read in a previous post we had some horrible rain that drowned our carrots, melons, and flowers that we planted, our sunflowers were the only thing that made it.We took several different pictures and took some in the mornings before the last few days of school. Next year I plan to grow a lot more and even some of the Giant Sunflowers along the fence. Take a look at these beauty's!

MIA...

     I know, I know, WHERE HAVE I BEEN? It's been way to long since I've sat down and wrote a post for my site that I'm ashamed. I thought to myself today, what happened to my schedule? Well I know Summer has came. When it's Summertime we run on Island time. We're up at sunrise and don't go to bed until way into the night. I really don't know how we live on 4-5 hours of sleep during Summer but during any other time, we need our sleep! Since the last time I posted, it's all been a whirlwind of a lot going on. We had end of the year activities for school, dance rehearsal, dance recital, two birthday camping trips, end of the year award, and then Memorial Day weekend. While all that was going on, I was busy getting another site that I run, under control and working with Team Members. So in between all that I didn't have any time to do what I love most and just write. So here I am! Back again!