A few weeks ago my son fell while running full speed and hit the bottom of his face on a piece of wood, there was blood everywhere, a large gash on his chin, and in that moment I realized I had no idea where we should take him.  The Children’s Urgent Care is 5 minutes from us but what if he needs stitches - is that more of an emergency room visit? Or can we still go to urgent care? I called our pediatrician to ask what I probably already should have known, “Is this trip an urgent care trip or an emergency room visit?

Sadly, by the age of 24 I found myself making a the hardest decision.  My marriage was rocky; I was suffering from depression and even attempted suicide.  My perfect life was falling apart and I didn’t know how to hold it together. When I was leaving my ex-husband, I had my car packed with everything my son and I owned.  It was so packed that my son couldn’t fit in the car. And honestly, I didn’t know where I was even going to stay. I begged my then husband to give me a few hours to figure it out and we would meet up so he can give me my son.

It’s August and that means the kids head back to school later this month and for so many families in the Olentangy School District this marks a really exciting time as their new High School is getting ready to open their doors to welcome students for the very first time.  

Olentangy Berlin High School sits on 90 acres of land in the city of Delaware and is simply stunning.  This beautiful state of the art high school is home to the Berlin Bears and will soon be filled with 9th, 10th, and 11th graders.

After two wonderful seasons I thought I would share a few of the reasons we choose I9 Columbus East as the league best for our child. As you know, I research E V E R Y T H I N G. My view is that if I’m sending my kids somewhere it better be safe, fun, and high quality.  Also, if I’m spending good money on an extracurricular activity I expect good communication, highly organized team, and friendly staff. There are definitely other things I look for depending on the program but those are my initial standards. I9 Columbus East meet and exceeds those standards over and over again.  

Last week Fourteen Twenty Nine and I hosted a wonderful date night experience at Coffee Connections where we paired the delicious brownies from Fourteen Twenty Nine with coffee from Coffee Connections along with intentional conversations starters.  Events like these really fill my heart with so much joy because I truly love meeting each and everyone of you and if I can do that while also supporting local businesses it’s EVEN better.

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you know that last week we hopped in the car and drove 2 hours and 48 minutes to the Spangler Candy Factory for a unique day trip.  I had always heard it was in northern Ohio but was never quite adventurous enough to take the trip by myself.  Luckily a friend of mine also wanted to check it out so we decided to make it an adventure and the kids LOVED it.

A little over a year ago I shared a list of awesome mother/daughter date ideas and I’ve been meaning to write this mother/son date list ever since but...life.  So today I’m sharing some of my son’s favorite places to go when it’s just him and I. Spending special one on one time with my kids is so important to me, and now it’s something my kids count on so I have a feeling we will be adding a Volume 2 of this list sooner than later.