Maintaining Meghan

all things Mom, Wife, & Meghan

Quick and Easy Summer Recipes

Over the long 4th of July holiday weekend, my family was lucky enough to spend time up north in Lexington, Michigan, at the family cottage. When you are busy enjoying fun in the sun all day, you don’t want to pull yourself away for too long to spend time cooking. We also like to eliminate the amount of times we have to make the house any warmer than it needs to be.

In order to get that crucial sun/water/relaxation time, we went for minimal grocery items and low maintenance preparation time. We wanted to find different options to pair with our basic hamburgers and hot dogs.Continue Reading

{An Amazon Christmas} It’s Prime Day!!!

Anyone who knows my family, or has ever been to my house, knows we are slightly technology obsessed. Our house talks to us, we have all the updated gadgets as soon as they come out, and if we don’t have them, we can tell you exactly why. I don’t do all the research on them, but my husband does. Believe me, he tells me all about it.

But, what do our kids love the most? Alexa, of course. We have had Alexa around for a few years now. When we first introduced her into the family, no one even knew what she was or what she could do. I referred to her as my husband’s mistress (he wasn’t so happy about that).  In all honesty, she has become another family member these past few years. My son and daughter have literally grown up with her.Continue Reading

Life Isn’t Always Perfect {The Outtakes}

I might be aging myself a bit but I was an original Facebook user. I was a Freshman in college at Michigan State when a classmate explained to me that I had to join this website where you could find people that went to our school and connect. At the time, you could only join Facebook if you had a university login. That was almost 13 years ago. Facebook has come a loooong way since then and I have grown quite a bit with it.

Back in college, there were not smart phones but each of us had digital cameras. It may not have been instantaneous, but we still took the pictures and critiqued which ones would be displayed for the Facebook world to see. I remember nights where the main goal was to literally get a great shot so you could have an awesome new profile pic. Continue Reading

Finding My Inner Interior Designer

After our third move, I had built up enough practice in decorating our homes to make it appear as though I had some interior design in my background. After all that practice, I also figured out ways in which to keep my spending smart, sticking to some of my favorite places, Target, Home Goods, Marshalls, and Hobby Lobby. Continue Reading

Ditching Smart Phones {Losing Constant Connectivity}

Let me start this by saying my house is about two more smart devices from being the fifth family member. It talks to us, turns on our lights, opens our doors, keeps us safe at night, waters our garden, records activity when we are away, sings to us at night, and many more things I’m probably forgetting (my husband could go on I’m sure). The point is, you can’t do much of anything in our house without needing some sort of internet connection.

Everyone I work with thinks it’s strange that I am technically in the beginning of the millennial generation. I’ve never really fit into the typical stereotype that describes that generation. The biggest stereotype: always having your phone attached to you. I just don’t see it’s necessity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely a Facebook and Instagram person for sure, but I tend to miss capturing moments because I’m actually living them.Continue Reading

Letting Go of Gourmet {Embracing a Minimized Meal}

Some days we eat Pinterest worthy gourmet meals. But most nights it’s chicken nuggets or hot dogs. I’m not even sorry about it. It has a little to do with our busy lifestyle but a lot to do with the fact that it seems to be all my kids eat these days.

For a long time I held on to the fact that I wanted this beautifully balanced meal. One that was truly picture worthy. I’m sure there were times those pictures made it up on my Facebook and Instagram feeds. “Look at me, I’m a mom who can work all day, pick-up my kids, and cook at home like Martha Stewart!” Except those days were few and far between. I would be rushing home to hurry and make dinner while the kids were screaming that they were hungry as I threw some goldfish crackers at them (not literally, relax). After sweating because I almost burned something after running back and forth to stop Jack from doing something he shouldn’t for the 7th time, I would finally get dinner on the table only to get annoyed if no one ate the food or if leftovers went untouched for days. Leave it to my daughter to ask for chicken nuggets and yogurt instead of whatever fancy chicken was in front of her.Continue Reading

Knowing We Would Need a Village {Before We Needed It}

 

Shortly after deciding to leave law school, I had been working different jobs and floundering through life, trying to figure out what was next. My whole life had been geared toward one goal: become a lawyer. If you ask any of my family and closest friends, my role model in my life, and the person I looked up to most, was my older cousin, who was like a sister to me. She was a lawyer so of course I wanted to be a lawyer. When I realized the life of a lawyer wasn’t for me, it was my cousin that supported me and made me feel like it was okay. She said it was better to know and be confident in my decision to leave now than to finish and hate my job later and also be hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. She knew, being a lawyer herself, how grueling the hours could be … and she also knew being a first time mom, the struggle of work/life balance. I didn’t know it at the time, but we would come to have many conversations about this once I became a mom myself.

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A Father’s Journey

 

One day he knows he wants to be there but doesn’t know what that means.

Until that day comes fast approaching.

That stick has two lines that he can see.

 

He’s not quite as emotional as his partner, she seems to weep at everything.

He plans for it all; the house is ready.

Until suddenly the doctor says she’s coming.Continue Reading

Turning My Thumb Green

Let me preface this by telling you that my grandmother is probably rolling over in her grave by the lack of green thumb I turned out to be. I would spend hours upon hours at her house (which was just a few blocks from my own). She had the most beautiful garden that she kept pristine year round. She was the envy of the neighborhood. My mom and other relatives all took their wedding photos in her yard, using her garden as a backdrop.

I had pretty much thrown in the towel on gardening. I managed to kill any plant that came into view. We did ok with the landscape updates at our first home, but that was easy; it was just updates. However, when Matt and I decided we were going to overhaul the entire landscape of our new home to match our style, I wasn’t so sure I was ready to take on the challenge.Continue Reading

Maintaining Meghan: Flaws and All

From a very young age, I was always a talker. I never minded sharing my feelings or being loud about it. In the delicate words of my brother, “the house got so much quieter at dinner time when you left for college. I could actually talk…” I was also a control freak and a do-er. I didn’t like to stand around and wait for things to happen to me, I liked to make them happen.Continue Reading

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Maintaining Meghan