Blog Birthday

Happy birthday, my little blog! I went back to re-read some of my earlier posts a few weeks ago, and I realized that my very first post was mid-February. I decided to take stock of where I am right now, and see how I did with my goal of sweeping life changes.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I cook a LOT more for the girls, we do super fun stuff almost every day, I've cut down on their TV a *little*, and I feel like my attitude is much better in general. There are a few things that have really helped me get my shiz together.

N going to school has brought some weekly routine into the mix. Not only does it get us out and about early in the day, but it gives me some quality time with D. School has also helped N's attitude, I think. She freaks out less frequently, and is a little more reasonable when there's an obstacle in the way. A little. We're still working on that.

I discovered audiobooks! This was a housecleaning epiphany. My husband works very late 4 days a week, so I'm on my own a lot. After the girls are in bed, I feel like I need some *me* time, understandably so. Before, I would sit down for "just a minute" to check my e-mail or watch a short show while I ate dinner. Once I parked my butt, that was all she wrote. This way, I can listen to a book while I poke around the house cleaning. I lose myself in the books and I find myself looking for more things to do while I listen. The house isn't perfect, but it's a LOT better.

I made a conscious effort to not shrink away from "messy" fun. We've been doing more crafty fun things, even if the project requires a lot of clean up. I try to include D, but that's asking a little much, haha! Our messy play time is usually when D is sleeping in the afternoons. N has gotten a lot better at helping around the house. She cleans up her toys when I ask her, and she even empties parts of the dishwasher for me! She's in charge of silverware and sippy cups. What a big girl <3 !

Dried beans and glue! Just a quick little craft for the afternoon. D didn't try to eat *too* many beans. (Really, you would think she was old enough to know better by now!)

I joined a MOMS Club! It's been awesome. There are playdates available just about every weekday, if you want to go. There are also Mom's Nights Out once a month, but since A works late just about every night, I never get to go. Boo! I host at least one playdate a month here, so it's also a good motivation to get the first floor presentable once a month. I've met a lot of great moms that live in my town, and N & D have a bunch of friends that they get to play with regularly. Not only are the playdates super fun, but the support has been fantastic. When I have a question about ANYTHING, there's 20 other moms that have an opinion (and aren't afraid to share it!). They all have kids. They all live near me. They've all been where I am, and know how hard it can be. They also know how much fun it is, too. :)

We still eat mac & chee sometimes. D still has chronic diarrhea (nasty, I know!). I still get frustrated. But I feel like I'm floating through the days less and less. I feel like I have a Purpose. I know that this is largely due to the girls being one year older and a little easier to handle. N & D can play together, and now that D is talking a little clearer, they can have actual conversations. (SO freaking cute!!)

Those little heads bent together are just the sweetest!

I would love to bottle this positive feeling and keep it in a jar for those days when the grumps come creeping in. Bad days are a part of life, but they've been less frequent and for that I'm grateful.

Pinterest: Productive or Procrastination?

I like to think of it as productive procrastination. If you don't know what Pinterest is (and it seems that the ignorant population is rapidly decreasing as the popularity of Pinterest has boomed in the past few months) I'll give you a brief rundown.

The best way I can think to describe Pinterest is that it's a visual organization of internet bookmarks. Some bookmarks, or pins, you create yourself. You can also search or browse through other people's pins by general category, such as DIY & Crafts, Food & Drink, Kids, Pets, Art... etc. When you run across someone else's pin (internet bookmark) that you like, you can "re-pin" it to your own page. Your personal page is divided into categories called "boards" that you create yourself. On my personal page I mainly pin to my crochet board and crafts for my kids board. I love this method of storing and organizing internet bookmarks. Previously I would bookmark a site from my internet browser, and then promptly forget about it, or forget what it was when I went back. If you want to create your own "pin", there's instructions on how to add the "pin it" button to your internet's bookmarks or favorites tab. While you're on the website, click your "pin it" button and select a thumbnail to display on your board. Add a caption describing the website or why you pinned it and select a board to display it on. Voila! Limitless inspiration at your fingertips.

The key is to not only pin every awesome idea you run across, but to actually FOLLOW THROUGH with them. I've been making a concerted effort to do more with my girls. I want to do more than get through the day, I want to have a fun day. The little crafts and play time ideas that I've run across through Pinterest have made this so much easier. Once I got into the habit of doing more, it wasn't such a chore when N wanted to pull out her watercolors or play doh.

Here's a few of the pins that I have completed!

 Cloud Dough from Play at Home Mom

Metamucil Flubber from about.com

Water Beads. These are actually squares in progress (we did both), but everything was squishy, slippery fun!

We put everything on the lightbox thanks to Play at Home Mom (again!)

Cute dress up butterfly wings adapted from My Poppet

It's not snot, it's home made hand soap!

8 complete crock pot meals, I'm so excited about this one!! I'm actually making my first one tomorrow morning. Yum! I especially love these recipes because they are heavy on the veggies, and super low fat.

I swear I do fun things with little D, too, but she's not as easy to photograph, haha! That girl doesn't stop moving, and if she sees the camera, she wants it. Bad. Anyway, I've been making it a point to accomplish more awesome with the wee ones, and Pinterest has been a good inspiration. A lot of the activities I've found use things that I already have around the house. Super handy!

I realized last week that my first blog was February 17th last year. Happy Birthday, Blog! I think I'll take the next few days to evaluate where I am and what I've accomplished during the last year. My head is definitely in a better place now than a year ago, and for that I'm glad. The girls are growing up (*sniff* *sniff*) and every day gets easier. I'm glad for everyone's support and all that mush, but I think I'll get into that next post. ;)

Valen-times Day

We had a nice one!

The day before, we made faux sugar cookies out of boxed white cake mix, neon food dye and red sprinkles. N was a big help rolling out the balls of dough and squishing them flat. Of course, she also helped enthusiastically decorate the tops! I cut a heart out of cardstock and used the hole to create the hearts.

While the cookies were baking, N made the Valentines Day cards for her pre-school class. I folded the paper and drew a half heart and N did the rest. She cut the hearts out all by herself...

and really got into decorating them! I thought she would just stamp random hearts on them, but after a few she created a design that she liked and made the rest the same. The row of hearts at the top with a small break in the middle are eyes, and she drew smiles and frowns on the bottom. (That girl LOVES a good sad face!) We talked about love, and why she loves her friends and family.

She instructed me to take a picture of her stamps after she lined them all up.

Here are the finished Valentines. Cute! I made little bags of Mini Teddy Grahams to go on the back. I was going to write something about "bear hugs" or something, but N got so into her designs, I didn't have room! In the back is a rice hand warmer for her teacher.

The next morning, she let me make her hair pretty for school. It was supposed to be a heart, but I think I pulled a little too much hair back. Still cute, though. She had so much fun at school exchanging Valentines. I should have done something special with D, but sometimes that girl exhausts me! We went to a playdate with her cousin, so she had a super fun morning, too.

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. We should take time every day to remember those we love!

Less is More vs. Toy Guilt

With the holidays behind us and the girls' birthdays come and gone, I can't help but stare at the house in horror. So. Many. Toys. I don't know what to do with them all. I know that they don't need so many (obviously!! Who needs that much?!) but I don't know what to donate. I feel like this is a dilemma that many parents face in today's materialistic and plastic age.

We recently dismantled our guest bedroom and turned it into a play room. This is awesome because at the end of the day, you just toss the toys in there and shut the door. This sucks because at the end of the day, you just toss the toys in there and shut the door. The sheer volume of toys housed in there is staggering. Ideally, I would love to cut the number of toys we have in half so that N & D could participate more in cleaning. It's hard to ask N to clean up her toys when they have no "home" in the playroom. Also, the size of the room has amplified the clutter. When it was spread out across the entire first floor of our house, it was more pervasive, but less overwhelming. Now, their toys live in two rooms: the play room (which no one plays in because it's a wreck) and the sun room. The sun room is mainly used for messy play, such as play doh, paint, markers, etc., and as additional toy storage. Yup. MORE toy storage.

I think my problem is that I become unreasonably sentimentally attached to their toys. I feel attached to toys that certain people gave them, just because I love that person. I feel attached to toys that are expensive, because I think that the girls need to get the giver's "money's worth" out of it. I feel attached to toys that they played with as babies. Hell, I'll feel attached to a toy merely because we've had it for a long time! It's hard to separate the feelings of false sentimentality with being truly attached to a toy that the girls loved (and would appreciate if it was saved.) That being said, I read somewhere that a person's memories usually start around age 4. N & D won't be missing a plastic baby rattle 20 years from now.

Another problem (if you can really call it that!) is that we have very generous and thoughtful friends and family. They love us and they love our daughters. And they LOVE to make our girls happy! As their parents, I think that my husband and I have bought maybe 15% of their toys and clothes. It's actually gotten easier since the girls are a little older (2 and 4! sniff, sniff!). Now we get a lot of art supplies, cool books, and clothes for them. Which is awesome. But we still get a lot of toys, too. I think we need to do a toy purge before the holidays and birthday times so that the girls can enjoy their new toys more, rather than losing them in the morass of the play room. I also need to be better prepared when someone asks me what to get the girls.

I recently ran across a blog, Play at Home Mom, that got my wheels turning in the direction of where I want to be. They write mostly about raising their young children through child-led play and learning. Their play rooms are astonishing. It's more than I feel like I am able to do, but I want to at least incorporate elements of their environments into my own. Maybe if I had seen this before we had children, it would be feasible. A lot of it centers around instilling respect for your environment at a very young age. D would kill someone, or herself, if she had easy access to one third of their play environment (glass, scissors, staple guns). If I had a do-over, I would have taught her better. Now, I guess I just have to wait for her to get a little older!

It's easy to think objectively about what to do about the mess of toys, but a lot harder to put into practice. Maybe I just need to jump in and start in a small spot. Divide and conquer.

Anyway, new goal. Clean up the damn toys.