About

Hi, I'm Tiana.  People often mispronounce my name so I tell them "It's Tiana, like banana." I hate bananas.

I am wife to one man, mother to four girls, and family to one dog. I'm also often tired.

With the birth of my fourth child, I changed from working full-time outside the home, to being a stay-at-home mom. I can say that this change has left me less stressed, but more exhausted! I was excited to have more time to teach, play and explore with my children.

About a year into my new SAHM status I realized that I was instead using that "extra" time to do more cleaning (not that a person could readily tell the difference). I figured out that I needed to be more purposeful in providing fun learning opportunities.  When my 4YO's preschool closed midway through the  year, I started what we call Mom School.  We read a book and then did a related activity.  This concept has now morphed into a monthly focus with weekly themes, as described here.

I use this blog to share our Mom School happenings and other bits of sunshine and silliness. I am always on the look out to find a better way to do anything, and I like to pass that on, too.

Meet my girlies

"Yellow", age 7, has a sunny disposition that matches her fave color.  She is social like her daddy and likes to play with her friends and make new ones, but also needs her alone time to draw or be in charge of the TV remote for a while.

"Pink", age 5, is our girly girl.  She works to keep up with Yellow in having the same friends and doing things just as well as her older sister.  Pink also makes me laugh, a lot, with the unexpected thoughts she shares.  It's not that she means to be funny; she just tells it how it is, at least how it is to her.

"Purple", age 3.  Her most treasured possession is her "beautiful bike" that she convinced her daddy into getting, simply by batting her big brown eyes and asking "please."  She has her own ideas and can be stubborn, so I have to work harder to channel that energy into a good direction.

"Blue" is our baby, age 1.  She has the cutest 8 toothed smile, though she's a stinker to catch on camera.  She is madly in love with our 11 year old border collie/lab mix dog, Casey; the feeling is not always mutual.  Even at her young age Blue is always quick to run to a crying sister to try to console them with a hug or pat.