One project we worked on was painting like Michelangelo. I got the idea here, but adapted it. First, I recycled paper by using the backside of the zig zag track we made. I taped it to the bottom of the coffee table. I then rolled up the carpet, which was brilliant insight on my part considering there was paint and marker on the floor. Before the kids began, we talked about Michelangelo and looked at pictures of the Sistine Chapel. Monster came up with some theories on how the painted the ceiling. When we were done talking and looking at pictures, I let the kids go to town. Forseeing some issues, I divided the paper under the table with a red line, half for Monster and half for Sunshine. They did awesome! I was amazed that in such a small area, there was no fighting over anything. A friend got Sunshine the Crayola Paint Brush Pens for her birthday and they were perfect for this project. Only problem was there were only five colors, so we moved onto markers fairly quickly. Kids didn't mind. They had such a great time with this!
Lately, uploading pictures has been killing me. That's made me procrastinate posting some fun projects we've been doing. One project we worked on was painting like Michelangelo. I got the idea here, but adapted it. First, I recycled paper by using the backside of the zig zag track we made. I taped it to the bottom of the coffee table. I then rolled up the carpet, which was brilliant insight on my part considering there was paint and marker on the floor. Before the kids began, we talked about Michelangelo and looked at pictures of the Sistine Chapel. Monster came up with some theories on how the painted the ceiling. When we were done talking and looking at pictures, I let the kids go to town. Forseeing some issues, I divided the paper under the table with a red line, half for Monster and half for Sunshine. They did awesome! I was amazed that in such a small area, there was no fighting over anything. A friend got Sunshine the Crayola Paint Brush Pens for her birthday and they were perfect for this project. Only problem was there were only five colors, so we moved onto markers fairly quickly. Kids didn't mind. They had such a great time with this! Another project we worked on were masks. Monster already had a mask that he had made at art class. Sunshine wanted one, too. I wasn't about to make one near as elaborate. I came across a mask that was super simple to make. I used the basic concept, but then tweaked it. Even though it's not near as fancy as her brother's, Sunshine loves it! Last project I worked on was one of my own. I had seen this idea on Pinterest. It took scrap book paper and "remade" clear, plastic drawers. I liked it, but it was too complicated. I want simple. So, I simplified. Here's the original pin. Here's mine. Not quite as nice, but not too bad. The smaller drawers didn't turn out like I hoped, but I do like the larger drawers. Maybe when I get motivated, I'll come up with a simple idea to make the small drawers better. Best part of it though is that the drawers are now perfectly organized and clean!
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I am very proud of my mom. She is a wonderful woman and has over come a lot in life. To start off, I was a late in life baby. Since I've stated before how old my mom is, I won't say how old she was when she had me so I don't have to give up my age. When I was in 6th grade, my mom had spinal surgery. She had two steel rods put in her back. She came through that amazingly well. When I was in 8th grade, she severed the tendons in her hand. Got full use back pretty quickly. When I was in high school, she had a double mastectomy. Again, came through with flying colors. So when my mom told me she had to go in for surgery on her rotator cuff, I really wasn't worried. I knew she'd be alright. She's 76 and not in the best physical condition (sorry, Mom), but I was worried about her attitude rather than the actual physical surgery. She was very down about it. Very scared, very nervous. It's a scary thing. I couldn't handle it. But this is my mom. She can do anything.
When my mom went in for her surgery, I had asked my father to call me when she got out. 9 hours go by and I still hear nothing. Finally, after freaking out, I hear from my mom. She's out of surgery. Totally drugged up and out of it, and very sad. Next morning, again, out of it, in pain and sad. Then later that afternoon, I called again. She was my mom again. The drugs from the surgery had worn off. She was sore, but in great spirits. She has been ever since. When she went in for her post surgical check up, the doctor said it looked great! Granted, she hasn't hit the really challenging part yet, physical therapy, but I know she'll do great as long as she keeps up this great attitude! I'm extremely proud of my mom and the way she has handled the many challenges in her life. I don't think I let her know that enough. So, I'm proud of you, Mommy. You are one of my heroes. I meant to get this posted earlier. Here's a list of interview questions for Little Miss Sunshine, age 3.
Today, I had one goal. Stay in yoga pants all day. I accomplished this goal. Funny thing is, my yoga pants days are often my most productive. The day started much earlier than normal. Monster, who I usually wake up at 7:15-7:20 was up at 6:40. This, however, got my butt in gear. By 8:15, both kids were ready to walk out the door for school, even though we had 15 minutes left and Sunshine didn't get up until 7:55. By 8:50, dinner was in the crock pot and Sunshine and I had brownies baking in the oven. The whole time Sunshine was helping, she was also singing, "I bake brownies for Daddy...brownies for Daddy." After that, she and I spent almost 2 full hours in the basement doing laundry and cleaning the basement, which had been a disaster area. I am officially getting rid of all my baby stuff. No more holding on to it "just in case". Luckily, I have a friend who is having twins, so she'd getting the majority of it! Because of the purging though, my basement looked like clothes and baby stuff threw up. Bins upon bins, upon boxes, upon bags. It was worse than bad. Sunshine happily played all by herself, which is rare, so I had time to get everything done! The basement looks awesome and all the stuff that Twin Mama is getting is neatly packed in bags and boxes waiting for me to rent the U-haul to drive it up to her (just kidding...sort of). The things that she doesn't need, I've got in a large moving box for BirthCare. That's not even touching on all the clothes I just went through and sorted to give to several other friends. I also got two boxes aside for Goodwill. It feels wonderful and scary all at the same time. We finished up the basement with just enough time to pick Monster up from school.
During lunch, I cleaned the kitchen and did more laundry. At nap, I cleaned the living room. After nap, we went for a brisk walk to train for the 5K we're doing May 4th. When we got home, the kids and I pretended we were Mars explorers. I also drew a zig zag racetrack for their cars. Sunshine didn't quite get it though. She cheated a lot, which made Monster extremely frustrated. I got dinner on the table as Husband was getting home. After dinner, all four of us cleaned the computer room. We put every toy away where it was supposed to go! I even filed paperwork, which I hate doing, and usually leave for Husband to do. I got the trash out, dog pooped cleaned up, downed branches from yesterday's wind collected, and all the rest of the laundry done and put away before the kids were even in bed (Husband does bedtime here). Husband and I were actually able to sit down at 7:30 and watch an episode of Numb3rs. Now, it's off to work again for Husband and I get to sit here, in my sleepy pants now instead of yoga pants and type, feeling good about all that was accomplished on my Yoga Pants Day. Going to upload some pictures and then relax with Chasing Fire. It was a great day and an excellent break from the normal, go, go, go. This month I've slipped backwards a bit. That might be part of why I had a rough day yesterday. I'm in pain again. A lot. Thursday, I had to have my rib and shoulder popped back into place. On top of that, a plate in my skull shifted so that it was stuck under another plate. This might have been the reason for my four day migraine the week before, but they aren't sure. They couldn't completely unstick my cranium, but they said it should shift back into place on it's own. Apparently this happens to people all the time and no one knows it's even happened. I had been doing well with training for a fun run that Monster and I are doing in May, but, the past week or two, I've been in so much pain, it's hard to keep up. I'm really hoping the crazy temperatures are affecting my pain and it's not something more serious. It may be time to see a neurologist though, which freaks me out. On a positive note, I'm back to functional after being barely functional for four days because of a migraine. I'm still walking every day and trying to exercise as much as I can. We'll see what the next couple of weeks brings. I'm hoping that I feel better by the time Husband has to travel to Newfoundland. That's my goal. When I have a goal, I'm pretty unstoppable.
Everyone has bad days. It's how you handle them that makes a difference. Yesterday, was my bad day. I've often given the advice that when you are sad or angry, you need to own it. You need to feel it and then move on. I'm bad at taking my own advice. I fight through it and put on a happy face. Yesterday though, I actually took my own advice. I was angry at the world. Luckily, I have a great Husband who let me have my day. He let me escape from reality by hiding in the basement hating life while he took care of our actual wonderful life. You know what, after a couple of hours of owning my feelings, I felt so much better. Just having that time where I didn't have to pretend everything was fine made all the difference. It allowed me to see that in actuality, everything IS fine. It helped me put things in perspective. That time allowed me to be angry at circumstances beyond my control and then come up with solutions for what I am in control of.
Even though having my "day" meant that my To Do list didn't get done, it's OK. I know that without owning my anger, I would have let it fester. I would have eventually blown up over something that I wasn't even concerned about. And, my To Do list still wouldn't have gotten done because I would have been too angry to do it. I am ready to tackle my day now with a whole different outlook. A positive outlook, and not one I have to fake. Carpe Diem! My kids had their first friends sleep over Friday night. They are used to friends coming over and then going to bed here, but when they wake up, the kids are gone. This time, their friends were still here!
Sleepovers are right up my alley. I had fun stuff planned. The girls were going to make masks (Monster already made one), we'd go to the park, we'd all snuggle and read in our jammies, when we got up, everyone would have a fun breakfast. I think big. With a 5, 4, and two 3 year olds, things don't always follow a plan. It was still fun though! When the girls got here, they all just wanted to play inside. I was all prepared to let them dig in the dirt outside, but no one was interested. I made dinner and they all entertained each other. I tried to sneak in some extra veggies with Kraft's new Veggie Mac and Cheese. Not so good. The two oldest devoured their first helpings and asked for more. They each took about 3 bites of their second helpings and were done. Monster came over and whispered to me, "The more bites I take, the less good it is". The two youngest wouldn't touch it. So, that was a fail. However, the zucchini cupcakes were a hit...I can't take credit for those though. The girls' mom made them. When dinner was done, we all headed out to the park. Me and four kids. It went better than I anticipated for the first 20 minutes. Then, there was almost a trip to the ER. Sunshine fell off the teeter totter and landed on her arm. It was hanging limp. I have to say, the kids were AWESOME for this. I told everyone we had to go and get Sunshine home so Mr. R could check out her arm to see if we had to go to the ER and they all hustled! Mr. R just happened to be walking up to the park to meet us at that moment and checked it out. Sunshine was able to move it and freaked out about not being able to stay and play, so we figured she was fine (and she is). We got to stay for another 20 minutes at the park before we all walked home. All the physical activity must have worn everyone out because when we got home, one of the girls asked if it was bedtime yet! I was going to make the masks with the girls then, but everyone just wanted to play. I love that all four of the kids were able to get along. The four year old was such a great helper. We were looking for the GloDoodle pen and she helped me pick everything up and organize to try to find it. By the time we were done, we still didn't find it and it was time for bed. I expected some tears for feeling like she didn't get to play since she was helping me, but there were none! My kids would have lost it and I would have heard, "But I didn't get to play!". I may have to borrow her every night to teach my kids to clean up! Bedtime went a lot more smoothly than I had thought. Mr. R. read stories to the girls. I tucked everyone in. Then, Mr. R. read stories with Monster. One of the girls asked why Monster got to stay up and read stories. I let her know he would be going to bed soon, too, but he was older so he got to stay up a little later. A problem that I didn't foresee was Puppy. Puppy desperately wanted to sleep with the kids. Any of the kids. He first tried Sunshine, but was shooed out. Then he tried Monster and was again shooed out. Then he found he could bother the girls. The girls asked to sleep with the door cracked open. Puppy kept nosing his way in. The last time I had to drag him out, one of the girls came downstairs to tell me Puppy was in the room and when I found him, he was hiding on the far side of the bed facing the corner as if to say, "You can't see me!". After we finally locked Puppy on the porch, everyone fell right asleep. Husband blew up an air mattress and we camped out in the living room. By 9:30, I could no longer keep my eyes open and fell asleep while Husband watched TV. At 3 am, Husband and I collided. Either he didn't blow the mattress up enough or there was a slow leak, either way, the mattress was going flat and we rolled into each other. We spent the next 3 hours trying not to move or bump into each other, unsuccessfully. Finally at 6am, we gave up and tossed the mattress aside and slept on the floor. A little after 7:00, the girls got up. A house rule is that, on weekends, kids don't get out of bed until 7:30. I'm a firm believer in everyone following house rules, even if they are guests. Luckily, I know these kids well enough to know they (and their parents) will have no problem with this. I have the oldest one go to the bathroom. She comes out and her sister goes in. While her sister is in, she whispers to me, "I didn't flush so I wouldn't wake anyone up." About 10 seconds later, her sister flushes the toilet. The look on the older one's face was priceless. It was a mix between panic and annoyance. She stops and listens and then says to me, "Good, that didn't seem to wake anyone." Such the little mama. They both got back into be and just hung out in their room until 7:30 (after I had made coffee and had my first cup). We were building with Lincoln Logs when my kids got up. I could hear Sunshine upstairs, super excited her friends were here. Monster came down and started building with us. When Sunshine came down, the first words out of her mouth were, "No! I don't want you play with that!". And so the struggle began. From that point up until we left for soccer, Sunshine was no ray of sunshine. It's obvious we need to work on sharing. There was a 40 degree in drop in temperature over night, so soccer was cold. Very cold. The girls and I all went to soccer while the boys got their haircut. We froze. After about 10 minutes, I asked the girls if they wanted to sit in the van. They jumped on that opportunity. The older one came out and joined me again, but the younger one wanted nothing to do with being out in the cold drizzle watching Sunshine kick a ball around. After soccer, I took the girls home. Monster was a little sad I didn't bring the girls back to play more. We had a lot of fun with our sleepover! I was beat. I actually took a 2.5 hour nap. The kids can't wait to do it again. Now that we know the girls will definitely sleep here, we will most definitely do it again! Hopefully next time, I can work in all my fun plans :) Though Monster's birthday isn't until the end of May, I have started working on his favors for his class. There are 26 kids that I need to make these for, so I wanted to get a jump start on it. I found this cute idea on Pinterest. Like most things, I take the general idea and then change it around. I pretty much followed the same steps in making the cones, except I made them smaller by making two triangles instead of one from the paper. It also said to tuck down extra paper. I just cut it off. Much easier that way. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of loose candy and tissue paper, so I made up little treat bags to put in the top to look like a scoop of ice cream. I stuck a red puff ball on top of the handle to look like a cherry. I sealed the cone with a sticker that says, "[Monster's] 6!". I just used address labels for that. Pretty cute. I've got all the bags made up and two cones down. Only 24 more. I figure if I do two a day (and that's the goal because I know that won't actually happen), I can be done in plenty of time for passing out birthday favors!
I do not consider myself a trendsetter. I also don't jump on the bandwagon. In fact, I tend to rebel against the bandwagon. A question someone asked me the other day got me thinking about this though. For some reason, I'm always a step ahead of the trends. I was grunge before it became J Crew. I was a vegetarian before people even knew what that meant. I was green before it was the new black.
I have always be concerned about the earth. When I was young, maybe 11 or 12, I made my parents buy these things for the toilet that helped conserve water. This is back when Seventh Generation was one of the only green companies around. I wanted my parents to use all of their products. My parents weren't exactly on board, but they gave in to some of the stuff. They started recycling because of me, and then the city caught on several years later. In high school, one of the first clubs I joined was the Environmental Club. My Senior year, I was co-president. I went to Earth Day rallies before people even understood what Earth Day was. I have always believed that one person can make a difference. Now that I'm older, I've improved my green practices. We recycle, even though our city swears they pick through the trash and get all the recycling out. I don't believe that's effective enough. I actually start to feel guilt if I throw something away that could potentially be recycled. Just the other day, I took a new package of bubbles and blowers to a friends house and I brought the packaging home with me to recycle since I knew she doesn't recycle those things. Crazy, I know. Extreme? I don't think so. Other than recycling, I clean green. I use a LOT of vinegar and essential oils. I'm also still a Seventh Generation fan and like Method as well. I buy biodegradable trash bags. I try to buy local, organic produce. I don't use chemicals in my garden. I'm also raising tree huggers. Both my kids are very aware of their impact on the environment. Monster even has the terminology correct and lets people know that he's trying to reduce his carbon footprint. The issue comes with my desire to rebel against trends. It seems as though everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon. When everyone jumps on is normally when I jump off. I am thrilled to see people being more concerned for our planet. At the same time, I don't think most of these people actually get it. I'll use my mom as an example (sorry mom). My mom takes her own bags to the grocery store. She recycles. She may even be more fanatical about recycling than I am. She donates unused items instead of throwing them away (but I don't consider that green, I consider that common sense). My mom loves her chemicals though. Up until a year or two ago, my mom used to put the super strong Lysol disinfectant in her laundry along with her detergent, a color brightener, and liquid fabric softener. Every cleaning product in her house is a super strong chemical. I also think my mom needs to buy stock in Ziploc. Even though my mom recycles, she also uses a ton of paper. She prints things left and right. Now, my mom is also 76 years old, and, she's gotten WAY better and she's not jumping on the bandwagon. A lot of the stuff she does is because I've talked her into it. I'm just trying to prove a point. A lot of people doing "green" things are doing them because it's now popular, but they aren't changing their other habits. In fact, even companies who claim they are going green still use a ton of packaging materials. For the same event in which I brought the bubbles, my friend had brand new sidewalk chalk. The chalk was in a box. Each row of chalk was wrapped in cellophane. Come on. You can't just stick the chalk in the box? I am so happy to see the United States moving towards better environmental practices. It disappoints me though that we have to sell the public on these practices by making them seem "cool". It disappoints me that the public is jumping on a bandwagon they know nothing about and most don't even care about. At least I know I'm still doing my part and raising kids who aren't just jumping on the bandwagon. They are the future of environmental trendsetters. I am a routine person. I pretty much have every last minute of my life planned out. When Monster was just a baby, his pediatrician told me to keep with a routine, a schedule, because babies thrive on that. As he got older, she told me the same is true for kids. Routine makes children feel secure. It gives them set boundaries. They know what you expect and they know what to expect from you. I believe routines are important to keep a house running smoothing.
It's not that I'm inflexible, because I'm pretty flexible, but we do follow certain routines throughout everyday. Every school morning, it's the same routine. This keeps us moving so that we're not late. Breakfast on the table by 7:30. Everyone has gone potty and gotten dressed by 8:10. Shoes and jackets (if necessary) are on by 8:30. We are out the door by 8:35 at the latest. Everything in between is flexible. If it takes the kids 5 minutes to eat, then they have time to play and do what they please. If it takes them a half hour, no play time. If they get dressed in a timely fashion, they have extra time to do something else. It's the same routine every day though. They know it and understand it. Hardest part is keeping something similar on the weekends when Daddy is home. Obviously the weekend is only two days long. It takes a child 5 days to build a routine. That's 3 consistent weekends. After 3 years, we finally have that routine down. The key is I still have to get up early. Our lunch routine and bedtime routine have always been followed 7 days week. Again, there's flexibility. Sometimes we go out for lunch or dinner. Occasionally, we'll stay out late and the kids won't make it to bed at their normal time. In the summer, one day a week is late baseball. However, the basis stays the same. Lunch, potty, story, rest. Bedtime is a bit more complex...potty, teeth, jammies, stories with Thing 1 and 2, Thing 2 to sleep, Thing 1 reads story to adult, sleep. Mommy and Daddy have different routines also, which the kids understand, because we don't veer far. Daddy almost always does bedtime, so the normal bedtime routine is his. When he's gone, Mommy does bed and takes out one story for each child and adds songs. I love singing to my kids and love that they still love me singing to them. The kids have got this routine thing down. Sunshine is super flexible with it if things have to change. Monster is more like me, and creature of habit, so he needs a lot of warnings that things are going to be different. Having Husband gone more and more is actually helping Monster with that. I'm not so flexible with my own routines. Every morning, I get up. I get coffee. I check my email. Then I move to Facebook and the Pinterest and then here. The pattern never varies. I don't ever mix it up and check Pinterest first and my email last. I think I'm acatually incapable of it. Even though it only takes children 5 days to learn a new routine, I feel like it takes adults, or at least Husband and myself, a lot longer. Can't teach an old dog new tricks, right? That being said, I believe that's part of the reason it is so difficult to create family traditions for us. Traditions are just pretty much special routines. For example, one that we actually do and remember is Pizza/Movie night. Every Sunday, we make pizza and watch a "movie" (usually the kids pick Looney Tunes or Super Why instead of an actual movie). This tradition came about from Husband's friend's family. Growing up, Husband had a friend who, every Friday, had pizza night. All the kids were required to be home. They could have several friends over if they wanted, but everyone was home for pizza night. The parents make every child there their own pizza. Apparently this made a huge impact on Husband because he decided that's what he wanted to do with his children. Since he works such late hours though, pizza night had to be on the weekend so he could be home to make the pizzas. Other traditions though, we have a harder time keeping up with. Our Elf on the Shelf is a tradition. This happens to be the first year that Oee moved every day instead perching in the same spot several days in a row! This was our first year of Advent Acts of Kindness, but I hope it continues. Problem with that was, there were days I forgot to have the kids pull a card until before bed. The kids were much better about remembering than I was. I firmly believe traditions are important part of growing up. Sadly, Husband had no traditions in his childhood, at least none he remembers. I had several, but they didn't carry on through high school. I want my kids to have traditions that withstand the test of time. Like Pizza/Movie night. I'm hoping that when my kids are grown with kids of their own, they will have their own Pizza Nights or come over here. I'm hoping that my kids take the Acts of Kindness with them into adulthood. I'm hoping that I can learn to be flexible enough with my own personal routines to add some new things and to incorporate family traditions. I think we'd all benefit from it. |
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