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Randomness

My goal is one blog post a week, on Tuesdays. And this Tuesday morning I’m squeezing in a post before we head out the door for preschool, sewing class, and errands.

After making breakfast for the kids, I have about two minutes to write a blog post before it’s time to get them dressed and head out the door. I am really looking forward to summer when the only think on our schedule is a trip to the pool!

The other day a friend gave me a couple bags of Amish Friendship Bread Starter, so, yesterday we were baking – also yesterday my husband was home sick, and we had ballet lessons and grocery shopping. Anyways, back to the baking. So, Amish Friendship Bread makes great bread and muffins, but it does not make great pizza crust. I tried a pizza last night for dinner, and while the crust turned out great, it was too sweet. It would have been perfect for a dessert pizza, but with cheese and pepperoni on it, it was pretty bad. Well, I thought it was pretty bad. The kids loved it – I don’t know what wrong with them!

I did save myself another starter and in 10 days I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I’m going to try. Since the dough is sweet, they should be pretty tasty!

Yeast is such an interesting thing. One person starts a bag, lets it sit for a while then shares part of it with someone else, who can then just add sugar, flour, and milk, and the yeast keeps producing. No need to add more yeast. It’s amazing how it keeps going and going and going.

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Shopping

So, I’m enjoying shopping at WalMart less and less. Now, lest anyone get the wrong idea, I’m not against WalMart, or large retailers, for that matter, but WalMart has less and less stuff that I need these days.

For example, my shopping trip today, which is just like all my shopping trips to WalMart for the past year or so. I’m just about to give up on the store. I’m not sure if WalMart is stocking less or my needs are just more specific, but I find that I just can’t find what I’m looking for these days.

Back to my shopping trip today. First of all we (me and 3 little kids) stopped off at Office Max for some paper and file folders because I know from past experience that WalMart doesn’t carry the large box of paper I need and I’m really not sure whether or not they carry file folders and why put myself through the frustration of looking for something that’s not there. I really did try to only look for things that I expected WalMart to have.

Next, on to WalMart. First on the list blond bobby pins and hair nets – I need these for ballet buns for my 5 yr old’s ballet pictures and performances. Well…WalMart only has brown or black bobby pins, which is kind of ok since no one sees the bobby pins anyways, but blond ones would hide better. And they only have brown hair nets, which are not going to work. I decide not to get the bobby pins either because I’m going to have to stop somewhere else for hair nets anyways so I may as well get the blond bobby pins I want while I’m at it.

Next on the list, large storage bin. I have about 8 of these in my garage with kids clothing and I need one more for some clothing the baby just outgrew and WalMart is always where I buy them. Well…they’re out of stock.

Next item, birthday gift for the Girl’s friend. WalMart does have barbies, 1/4 of an isle of barbies, but at least enough that the girls find a good gift that they’re happy with.

On to bottles. I’m switching to bottles for the baby because he just won’t stop biting me and it’s becoming a real problem – btw, stopping nursing is more painful than starting, in my opinion. I have one bottle that he likes but it’s only a 5oz bottle and I would like to get a 10oz one for when I know he’s going to drink more than 4oz. He at least understands the word “more” and gives me the bottle to refill when he wants more so refills are not a problem. Also, having one bottle is very inconvenient. I get to the bottle aisle and there are push carts full of packaged diapers and other baby items all lined up in front of the bottles (no stock person in sight). So, I have to basically climb over boxes to look at bottles, and of course, they only have the newborn nipples. I want the 6month+ nipples since they flow faster and that’s easier for my 9month old. I give up, I’m going to have to try Target or Babies R Us later this week. Probably Babies R Us because if they don’t have them I’ll have to order them online somewhere.

On the way out of the store I grab a bag of puffed goldfish because the kids want a snack, and we pass these almond joy pudding mixes. I don’t understand, why do they have almond joy pudding mixes and taco flavored goldfish puffs but no blond hair net? – I actually found the blond hair nets AND blond bobby pins at Kroger, it’s sad when my grocery store has more selection…

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Help

Last week I had two of my sisters stay with me for a couple of days. They’re teenagers, and one of the things I love about coming from a large family – though we did figure out that my youngest sister is closer in age to my kids than I am to my youngest sister. Anyways, having help for a couple of days was so nice!

I actually ended up having several surprise projects come up while they were here and it was wonderful to be able to get my projects done AND have a clean house – this week I got lots of projects completed or made progress on them (I’ll post some of my latest logos once I finish them), learned some new things about illustrator, got my bathrooms cleaned (actually I didn’t do this part), laundry done, and my kitchen miraculously stayed clean (thank you kitchen genie…i.e. sister!). I even made it to a meeting all by myself, alone, with no kids!

Oh, and they helped my 5yr old with her school work – we’re all homeschooled so they know how to teach as well as I do – or almost, my one sister did tell my 5yr old that 5+3=7…not going to let her live that one down…, It was actually kind of nice, because they could get her to read way more than I can, maybe she just expects more help from me, so she finished up a couple of books while they were here. Very nice! I did make up for it by helping my one sister with her algebra (this is the sister who “can’t” add 5+3). I discovered that I actually still remember how to do it, it’s been a few years, but, I did always enjoy math, gives me hope for my kid’s teenage years!

And, we had time for some fun stuff, Rummikub is a favorite game for my family so we played many rounds of that – with good natured teasing and cajoling. One day we even started teaching my 5yr old how to play, which was pretty exciting for her, she got to be one of the “adults” for a few minutes.

As much as I enjoy bing a mom it was so nice to get a break and have fun hanging out with my sisters at the same time.

It’s so refreshing to see that there’s an end to the tunnel of young kids. Actually, it’s more like a cave than a tunnel, with pretty pictures on the wall – figuratively and literally (with pink sparkly nail polish), that most of the time I enjoy. But, sometimes, when I get tired of my current pace it’s nice to see that there’s more to life than sticky fingers and the alphabet song. And it’s good to laugh and play, and see the bottom of my laundry basket!

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Tone Body Wash

Thanks to BzzAgent I got to try Tone Body Wash in Petal Soft with Pink Peony & Rose Oil. I love trying new bath products, especially products that smell as good as this Tone Body Wash!

Tone has Body Wash and Bath Bars, my preferred format is the liquid body wash so I was really happy that I got to try the body wash and not the bar soap (and my 9 month old is on this “eat Daddy’s bar soap” kick so it’s better if I don’t have any extra bar soap in the bathroom for him to eat).

Their products have cocoa butter, white clay, and alpha-hydroxy fruit acids that help keep your skin moisturized and nourished each and every day!

Honestly, I’m not really picky about what in my soap as long as it smells good, lathers well, and leaves my skin soft. It just sounds cool to say that I’m using soap with white clay in it! Sounds very premium, maybe that’s why I like it so much…

Tone Body Wash smells great, and leaves me smelling great after my shower! It lathers well so I feel like I’m getting as clean as I can. And it leave my skin feeling soft and moisturized after every shower. After all this cold weather my skin really needs more moisture!

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Birthday Party Woes

So, I went to my daughter’s friend’s 6th Birthday party the other day and I find myself puzzled as to why we as parents continually put ourselves through this. Not that I hate birthday parties, but they all seem to operate the same way, and I can’t figure out why we all do it this way. I’ve been to over a dozen such birthday parties – children’s museum, bounce houses, pool party, splash pad, princess party, gym party, pizza party, and I’m sure a few more I can’t remember at the moment.

They all go the same way, a group of parents (usually just the moms and a few dads), most of whom do not know each other, all arrive at the designated party location. Every child present at the party knows the birthday child and usually knows a few of the other children so there’s a general mobbing/following of the birthday child as she plays because every child wants to play with her and they don’t know most of the other children.

The parents stand (or sit, if there happen to be seats) at the edges of the room and watch the kids play, if you’re lucky, you know one of the parents (other than the birthday child’s parents) at the party and you have someone to talk to, but over half of the room doesn’t know any one else at the party so you say hi to the person you happen to be standing next to, carry on a short awkward conversation about where your kid goes to school (I homeschool so my conversation usually ends with the other parent saying something about having a cousin or other distant relative that homeschools). Then you wait for an hour to an hour and a half while the kids play.

After playing the kids enter the party room and are served cake, icecream, and juiceboxes. Sometimes they even get pizza, chicken nuggets, or other snacks. Really nice hosts have over prepared and have enough food for the parents as well (which only half of the parents will eat because you feel awkward eating at a kids party). But, at most parties, the parents just sit (or stand) and watch as their kids eat.

Next, the birthday child opens presents – which are generally all toys, with lots of admonitions from parents telling their kids to back up and give the birthday child space. Your child receives a goody bag (full of candy and other small objects that will soon be lost or destroyed) and you go home.

Now, what I can’t figure out is why we do this to ourselves multiple times a year. First of all, why do we all stand by bored as can be and watch our kids play for over an hour? You’d think someone would have something for the parents to do. Second, why is there never any food for the parents – we’ve been there just as long as the kids and I’m always hungry come cake time. Usually if the host family provides the food there is food for the parents but if the food is catered by the party place then there is only food for the kids, you’d think they would provide something for the parents as well.  Third, why do we always purchase toys for other children – I dread all the toys my children receive on their birthdays, I never have room to fit them all, and yet I always buy toys (and so does everyone else).

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good party, but it just seems like there must be a better way to do kids parties instead of putting ourselves through this over and over.

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Winter Hacks

So someone on facebook shared these “life hacks” for winter. Actually, if you do a google search you can find them everywhere, and some of them are pretty cool, like kitty litter for if you’re stuck in snow (now, I never have kitty litter so a lot of good this information would do me were I ever stuck in snow). And apparently if you spray your windshield with a vinegar/water mix it will keep the ice from sticking to it – that would be nice, if it works. I like the dry your shoes quickly with newspaper trick and the spray your snow shovel with pan spray so the snow won’t stick – but I never get the paper, I don’t use pan spray, and I don’t own a snow shovel. All very useful tricks if I had something to use them with.

Some of the “hacks” were just downright entertaining.

1. Leave your oven door open after baking so you can help warm up your house – obviously this person is neither clumsy nor has kids. It’s like asking for someone to get burned. Even if I didn’t have kids I would probably trip over the open oven door or do something else to come in contact with the hot oven interior.

2. Place socks on your toilet seat to keep it warm – I can just hear it now “Mom! there’s ANOTHER sock in the toilet!”, “Mom! the toilet won’t flush!”, “Mom! Mom! Mom! come quick, there’s water all over the floor!” Most likely, I would enter the bathroom to see one of my children holding a soggy sock or to see the toilet running over…

3. Try heating a room with tealights – huh? what? how about try burning down your home with tealights? Really, could you heat a room with these? Maybe…but sounds pretty dangerous

4. Use tin foil behind your radiator, space heater, or heating vents to reflect heat back into the house – aaahhh, the aliens are coming! (so, I’ve watched a few too many scifi movies) But, really? Tinfoil in all my rooms?

5. Wear cotton gloves over your hands after you moisturize. This will help lock the moisture into your skin – because I have nothing better to do than sit all day with my hands in gloves…

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Mom’s Night Out – Review

Got to see a pre-release screening of Mom’s Night Out with some friends Thursday night and I loved it! The first pre-release I’ve ever seen so I didn’t know what to expect. I had three other friends who came as well so we had a nice group going. My husband was a little nervous about feeding the baby and getting him to bed on his own (the movie started at 7:00pm which is right when we start our bedtime routines) but things went pretty well for him. The baby ate 3 pieces of french toast and then didn’t drink very much of his sippy cup, which concerned my husband a little – but I’m sure the little guy was just stuffed from his dinner and wasn’t hungry for milk. Which definitely seemed to be the case because he didn’t wake up any more than usual last night.

Back to the movie…so we get to the theater and walk in and there’s a table set up on the way in to our showing, everyone gets a swag bag. Awesome! I was going to be really disappointed if they didn’t give us something. There was a magnetic notepad, pen, car sticker, resource DVD, two movie posters, nail file, some little cards, keychain, and my favorite “Dad’s Big Book of Tips for Moms’ Night Out”, hilarious tips for Dad’s watching the kids.

So I’m already excited. Then, what I hadn’t realized before, during the introduction, I discover that the movie is created by the same people that made Fireproof, which I haven’t actually watched but it gives me hope that the comedy will be a clean comedy. You know, I invited friends to this, all of our husbands are home with the kids, I’m really hoping for a good movie!

Mom’s Night Out is hilarious and heartwarming at the same time. They did a great job on the movie, me and my friends thoroughly enjoyed it!

The comedy was clean so you could take kids to the movie (though they probably won’t find it as funny as parents do). There were only 3 men in the entire theater last night, which I expected because the marketing for this movie has been primarily to moms. But, I’m sure that men will love it just as much as women do.

It’s a nice, happy, hilarious view of motherhood and parenting and left me, as a mom, re-engergized for the stage of motherhood that I’m in. (or maybe it was the giant piece of New York Style Cheesecake that I ate after the movie…)

I really think any mother would love this movie, regardless of how old her kids are. It comes out May 9th, just in time for Mother’s Day. So if you don’t have plans for your mom yet, try dinner and a movie, and you’ll be glad you did!

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Mom’s Night Out

Looking forward to seeing Mom’s Night Out this evening! Going out with some other Mom friends to see the movie. I’m so excited!

We get to see a pre-release showing at our local theater.I’ve never been to something like this and I’m super excited!

I got the invitation a few weeks ago so I checked my calendar and saw that the date was open, then I txted my husband and asked him if he had heard of the movie and if he had any thoughts. He didn’t really care about the movie, he just thought it was awesome that I get to go to a free pre-release showing of a movie. Basically, he was like “you should go!” even before I gave him the details.

Up until last night I think he was more excited about it for me than I am excited for me. I have a friend who’s a local business owner so she and I each got tickets and we’re each bringing a friend so we’ll have a lot of fun all getting to hang out together!

Of course, last night I think my husband realized that he’s putting all 3 kids to bed on his own. He asked for a list of instructions. I am feeding everyone supper before I leave so really all he has to do is bedtime so it’s not that bad, I think thought that he’s never put the baby to bed since the baby likes to nurse to sleep at night. So I’m not sure how well the bottle will go. I guess we’ll find out!

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Rest

Rest, as a Mother, it’s one of those things I always need but can never seem to get.Really, it wasn’t that bad till my third child came along and now I just can’t seem to get a break. I’m constantly on, constantly alert to what the kids are doing, and constantly just trying to keep up.

This Sunday at Church our class was about resting in God and everyone was talking about how they find their place of rest, or their quiet place. Now for some people, that’s just simply finding time for Bible study. For me, being slightly introverted, it means that sometimes, I just need quiet and alone. Do you know how hard quiet and alone is to get with 3 young children? Yep, really hard!

It’s a constant struggle to find that quiet, with 3 young kids, homeschooling my oldest, freelancing from home, and just keeping up with friends, family, kids activities, and other events. Quiet is hard to come by.

First I had to overcome feeling guilty about giving myself some quiet time away from everyone, and I had to give myself permission to just rest, relax, and unwind every so often (that means no cleaning, no working). Some weeks it just works out, the kids go to bed and I get a few hours to myself, other weeks I’m just desperate for quiet time so I put the baby down for his nap and send the girls to their room to play quietly. They have to play with the door shut until I come and get them. Usually, a little over an hour.

The first time I did this I felt bad about shutting them in their room for an hour, but really, after an hour of quiet I felt so much better and was able to get so much more done and engage with my kids so much better that I no longer hesitate when I need some space. I’ve done it enough times, they know the rules. They don’t have to take a nap, they just have to play quietly and get along for an hour. And, usually, when I come get them, they are so busy playing I just poke my head in, tell them they’re allowed to come out now, they say ok, I close the door, and they appear an hour or so later.

Second, I had to learn to be ok with not getting everything done. It’s ok that the kitchen isn’t always clean, the laundry isn’t always done, and my floor looks like a toy factory.

Third, I’m learning the importance of teaching my kids to do things for themselves. My oldest is 5 so there’s obviously a limit to what I can expect the kids to do but we do require that the girls pick up their room every night, and that they take their plates and put them on the counter after dinner. The 5yr old is responsible for feeding the fish every morning. I’m working on teaching them to consistently put away their pjs when they get dressed in the morning, and hang their coats up when they come in the door. Every little bit helps and it’s important for children to learn to be responsible for helping around the house.

And lastly, I’m learning that when I’m taking my time to rest, I need to actually rest. If I’m tired, I need to nap, if I need to think, I need to sit quietly and process through decisions that need to be made, whatever my goal is for my quiet time, I need to focus on it while I have the chance. And there are those days that it just doesn’t work for me, the baby is cranky, the girls argue, or my phone just won’t quit ringing. Those days, I just know when it’s time to give up and I’ll give rest another try when I get the chance.

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My Disney Side Party

Thanks to Disney Side @Home Celebrations for my awesome box of party supplies for my #Disneyside party! With all these snow days we’ve just been off of our schedule for weeks, so I decided to keep it simple and do a playdate. Actually, I did a playdate and a pre-playdate the night before plus a few other random things throughout the week.

The first evening we had some friends over and the kids played the disney bingo and won prizes from our Disney prize bag – I used the stickers, balloons, bracelets, tatoos, and bumper stickers. A couple of the kids that were going to come ended up not being able to come as planned but we still had a great time! We had spaghetti for dinner and monster cupcakes in our Mickey Mouse cupcake wrappers.

The next morning we had our playdate. There were 6 kids total, we decorated T-shirts, played Disney bingo, colored our race posters, ate more cupcakes, and let the kids play.

I had traced mickey and minnie pictures onto the shirts before the party so all the kids (or moms) had to do was color them in. We all had a blast! I think the moms had more fun than the kids did coloring!

I don’t have a color printer or a photo printer so I gave away all the photo card paper at the party, and it’ll definitely get used. People were pretty excited to get to print their own pictures!

Only a few of the kids wanted posters so I had a few posters left over after the party that I sent to my sisters for Valentines day.

The next day me and the kids made our Mickey Mouse cookies and shared them with some friends we had over. The cookies turned out great and the kids had a great time decorating them! I finally figured out a good sugar cookie icing recipe (water, powdered sugar, and food coloring – when it dries you can stack the cookies without the icing sticking) so now I just need to nail down a good sugar cookie recipe. My recipe was ok but I’ve had better.

We’ve had so much fun showing our #DisneySide with our Disney @Home Celebration box!