A Mother’s First Day of School Prayer + What Children Love From Their Parents + Anthropologie Extra 30% Off Sale

I hope y’all had a fabulous weekend!  My sister-in-law and her husband and two kids came in town on Thursday and stayed until Saturday.  We had the best time hanging out with them and catching up on life.  The children loved hanging out with their cousins too!

It was fun taking them to different places around the city, since they hadn’t visited Charleston in awhile.  Wearing my new Twine and Twig Necklace, and paired it with this Anthropologie Tee.  

Wheeler got this baby doll when she was 2 and goes in and out of phases of wanting to play with her. Lately, Baby June has been coming with us everywhere.  On Saturday, she walked up and down the street with her on her shoulders like this.  

On Saturday night, I went out and helped celebrate my friend’s birthday.  We had the best time!  Thankfully, the weather was absolutely perfect!  Since then, all we’ve had is rain.  Lots and lots of rain.  Really hoping it stops soon.  I wore my new J.Crew Necklace that I love, and paired it with this J.Crew Silk Blouse.  More photos to come on this week’s Wednesday Whereabouts.

Anthropologie’s Sale is on Sale.  For a limited time, take an additional 30% off all sale items with code: EXTRA30.

My friend had these fun sunglasses that I’m going to order too!  Especially now that they’re on sale with an additional 30% off, making them only $42.

My friend posted this to Instagram last week and I had to share it.  So incredibly true.  If you don’t have children yet, trust me, this stage is so hard!

And another good one I found last week.  Couldn’t wait to share with you!  These little articles are just the reads I love for that extra little bit of advice, or a reminder or two.

The Top 10 Things Children Really Want Their Parents To Do With Them

Erin Kurt

What do you think matters most to your children? You driving them to lessons and practices, or is it the smile and hug you greet them with after school? If you guessed the latter, you are correct.

Sixteen years of teaching and giving the same assignment every Mother’s Day has led me to the exact same conclusion. You see, every Mother’s Day I would ask my students to give me advice on being a mother. They were to think about things their mother or guardian did for or with them that made them feel happy or loved. The classroom would go silent as the students wrote intensely for longer than they had ever written before. Often smiles would appear on their faces as they reflected on the happy experiences they were remembering. After reading their responses I would add to my list all the ideas they mentioned. Surprisingly, many of the responses were the same. Year after year, in every country I taught, and in every type of demographic, the students were saying the same things and had the same message: It’s the small things that their mothers did that meant the most and that they remembered.

Many moms today feel as if they are not good mothers unless they are racing around, shuttling their children from lessons, to practices and back to lessons again. I’ve had mothers tell me that they want to give their children every opportunity they did not have. While this thinking might bring the mother some comfort, it really does not do the same for their child who is potentially feeling overextended, stressed and tired.

After speaking endlessly about this topic with my students, it became clear to me that children today are involved in too many activities and are in turn becoming less in touch with themselves and their families. In addition, my students told me they really wished for more time to “just play”. Of course many of them enjoy their extra curricular activities, but it is not necessary they said to be allowed to do everything. What they enjoyed most, and what made their hearts happiest was when their mothers did simple things for or with them.

Here is a list of the top ten things students around the world said they remembered and loved most about their mothers.

1. Come into my bedroom at night, tuck me in and sing me a song. Also tell me stories about when you were little.

2. Give me hugs and kisses and sit and talk with me privately.

3. Spend quality time just with me, not with my brothers and sisters around.

4. Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy.

5. At dinner talk about what we could do together on the weekend.

6. At night talk to me about about anything; love, school, family etc.

7. Let me play outside a lot.

8. Cuddle under a blanket and watch our favorite TV show together.

9. Discipline me. It makes me feel like you care.

10. Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.

Children are incredibly wise and tend to see the world more simply than we do. Perhaps it is time we start taking their advice. Maybe we would all feel a little less stressed and be satisfied with the fact that doing little things really is… good enough.

Isn’t there so much truth to so many of these?

Looks like we’ll be trying to dodge rain all day.  I hope y’all have a great start to your week!  My Hunters will be coming in super handy!  Oh, and I’m always on the lookout if Hunters are back in a bright pink, like I scored a few years ago.  They do have a pink pair this season, but it’s a muted pink, shown above.