Our Family Trip to Moon Palace in Cancun Mexico

We surprised our kids with an early Christmas this year and told them we'd be going to Mexico for a week in December, with some of their aunts, uncles, & cousins! We had a great trip and I have been looking forward to sharing photos with you here, and filling you in on the resort we visited. There have been quite a few questions about Moon Palace since I started sharing our trip in my Instagram stories!

Ken & I went to Mexico 6 years ago, for our 10th anniversary and we loved the resort we stayed at in Cancun. We dreamed of going back to Mexico someday with our kids, but weren't sure how we would make it happen. Then a year ago, Ken's sister & her husband went to Mexico for their anniversary and ended up becoming members of the Palace Vacation Club (which meant that they had a certain number of discounted weeks at Palace resorts) and they offered the discount to us and some other family members. We were so excited to be able to make this trip happen, and to do it with some of Ken's family and our kids' cousins! We also partnered with Palace Resorts who upgraded our room to a Family Suite so we could show you all of the special features available at the resort for families with kids, and I can't wait to show you!

31 Days to Declutter Challenge Worksheet

The 31 Days to Declutter Challenge starts in a few days!

While you don't have to come up with a plan for each day of the month ahead of time, it may help you to brainstorm some ideas now, so that it's easier to decide what to declutter each day.

Of course you can just grab a piece of lined paper & make a numbered list of your areas, but if you'd like the ease of this simple worksheet I created, here it is!

Easy 31 Day Declutter Challenge

2 years ago, I did a simple 31 Day Declutter Challenge. It was just 15 minutes of decluttering per day, for every day of the month. This year I'm going to do the challenge again (starting on January 1st) and I want to invite you to join me! 

I'll be sharing before & after photos every day on Instagram, during the month of January. If you'd like to join in, please share your photos on Instagram (in a post or story) and tag me @raisingmemories! If you tag me, I can share your posts on my stories so we can all be inspired by each other!

How the 31 Day Declutter Challenge Works:

1.  Make a declaration to the internet of your intentions, to keep you accountable (tag me @raisingmemories in your post- I'd love to see it!)
2.  Commit to share daily before & after photos on social media (I'm doing this on my Instagram stories every day of January & I'd LOVE for you to follow along and tag me @raisingmemories in your posts!)
3.  Invite friends to join in- Won't you join me?? I would be thrilled to know I'm not alone in this! If you want to participate, just share your before & after photos on Instagram (in your stories, or in a post) and tag me (@raisingmemories) so I can see them and share them with everyone else who's following along!  

Let's all be inspired by each other!

I'm not going to lay out a list of areas for you to declutter for two reasons: First, I I want to be able to choose the area based on how I'm feeling that day. Second, we all have different homes with different problem areas, so my goal is simply this:

Choose One Small Area of your home to tackle each day. 

Commit to 15 minutes of Decluttering each day.

You can certainly spend more than 15 minutes if you're really getting into it, but only commit to 15 minutes. This means your daily area must be manageable and you give yourself permission to stop after 15 minutes. (I'm hoping this will help to avoid feelings of overwhelm and/or the desire to give up!)

If you'd like an easy way to organize your plan, I'm sharing a free printable worksheet!

I hope you will follow along and let me know you're following along- we can keep each other accountable!  If you're joining in, I'd love to cheer you on too, so please tag me on instagram @raisingmemories. I'll see you over there!

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Thoughts on Christmas, Love, and Stress

This post about Christmastime, expectations, boundaries, love, and service was written in 2017 but I'm feeling and thinking about many of the same topics lately and wanted to re-post it this week as we are now less than 10 days away from Christmas!

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You know that magical feeling that seems to be in the air around Christmastime? We often talk about the excitement around Christmas with gift giving and Santa coming and the extra kindness and generosity that comes with the season. I think that magic that we're feeling this time of year all comes from love.

We want to create and participate in that magical experience of Christmas (that tangible sense of being surrounded by love) and that's what motivates us to do all that we do this time of year: we shop for gifts, bake cookies, plan special meals, fill our calendars with parties and gatherings with the people we love, sing in choirs, attend performances, go to church, do service for others, and the list goes on and on! Some of you even coordinate the antics of an elf on the shelf in the midst of it all!

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Decorating with Personal Photos (& Canvas Prints Giveaway!)

I have always loved using family photos in our decor so I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that this ended up being the solution to an empty wall in our new bedroom. I'm so happy with the way that it turned out- I can't wait to show you!

I also have a discount code and a giveaway for you, to be able to order your own personalized Canvas prints, so be sure to stay tuned to the end of this post if you'd like to enter!

A Secret 12 Days of Christmas Surprise

We were having kind of a rough time a few Christmases ago when something amazing and very unexpected happened to us during the days leading up to Christmas and I think it's worth re-sharing this year.  Here's the post that was originally posted 2 years ago:

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Near the end of last year, I was struggling with feelings of frustration with the uncertainty that came with Ken's PhD. He had been in school far longer than we planned or expected and there was no end date in sight. Those last few years of Ken's degree were difficult for both of us. As I was dealing with some of those feelings and trying to focus on the positive and on all of our blessings and all of the good in our lives, something pretty awesome happened to us!

I wanted to share this experience with you because I've been thinking a lot about how we can serve others this month and I thought sharing this might inspire some of you with some ideas of how to show love and support to the people in your life. Whether you feel you can set aside the time, effort, and money to do something as involved as this, or there's a cute idea in the mix that sparks an idea for you, I hope it inspires you to do something kind for someone else.

On the first day of Christmas...