Nunnie School

So I have started "Nunnie School" with my Kaitlyn. She is needing something more structured during the day while Mack is away at school and Brian has been wanting me to give her some more guided instruction, so this has been the result. So far it has gone well, but the main thing I have to remember about my youngest girl is that she DOES NOT function well right after waking up or without a full tummy. So by keeping that in mind I think we have been able to get some good "lessons" in each day. It hasn't happened at the same time everyday because things come up, but I like flexibility in my day so it works for us. I have been basing our lessons off of the Brightly Beaming preparatory curriculum over at http://www.letteroftheweek.com/Preparatory.html. I have also added some extras and tweaked it a little to fit Kaitlyn. I have also supplemented with a workbook to reinforce letters, shapes, colors, numbers and encourage her use of a pencil. I plan on adding a cutting exercise each week also so that she can work on that coordination.

This is something that I probably should have done with Mack too, but to be honest, she LOVES to learn so much that I never felt like she needed as much direct teach in order to learn her basics. She sought to learn those things on her own so I didn't force too much on her. Kaitlyn is a bit more reluctant. She is smart but does not go out of her way to learn new things and has mostly picked things up along the way. I  am hoping that by doing "Nunnie School" she will gain a love a learning and start to seek out more information on her own. Here are a few pictures from our first week!

Day 4 & 5

Day 4: fun!

This zoo is awesome because you can feed the giraffes which is ALWAYS fun! It was a nice family day at the zoo :) 

Day 5: bird

I AM BOYCOTTING THIS DAY. BIRDS ARE GROSS. 

I LOVE MARRIAGE!

Brian and I are coming up on our 4th wedding anniversary. I have avoided EVER writing about our marriage because...well, honestly I felt like 'what could I possibly know about marriage this early on?'.  I mean, I feel like I can write about mothering and my new hobbies, so why have I felt like I was not qualified to speak on marriage? I have been a mother longer than I have been a wife, but only by 10 months...my hobbies I have started after I got married so those have had an even shorter life span. And yet, I have felt unqualified to speak on marriage. Even my own marriage!

But here it is.

Four years later and this is what I have to say for me and my husband: I LOVE MARRIAGE! I know that it isn't perfect. And it isn't always pretty, but so far it basically just seems like fun! The person I CHOSE to spend my life with makes me laugh. Daily. Maybe even hourly (when he's home, of course). He is the best dad I know. He is the  best husband I know. I nag him sometimes. I feel needy sometimes. I even get mad at ridiculous things that are out of his control, but I love being married to him and I am *pretty sure* he enjoys being married to me.

The thing that has surprised me most about marriage is how comfortable it is. I love not feeling self-conscience. I love that even on my crazy days I am loved. NO MATTER WHAT. It is easy to feel unconditional love for you children. Even your pets! But for some reason people find it hard to find that same unconditional love in their partners THAT THEY CHOSE. I make a conscience decision daily to love B. I try and do something daily that will make him smile. I want to be his "dream girl".

I am not going to lie. I appreciate every single time he has come home to say that someone in his office has told him he has a cool wife because of something I have done for him. I like being the "cool" wife. I like that he feels he has something to be proud of when he talks about me. But that's not why I do those "cool" things. I do them because I know that he has his own needs. Separate from my own. Separate from anything that I can even understand. Just like I have my own needs that he has somehow managed to accommodate without fully understanding.

I pray that in another 3 years, when we hit that "7 year-itch", I will feel the same way I do now. I want to be able to look back on this post and have the same feelings about marriage that I do now.

Day 3

Day 3: something you wore today

I absolutely love my Toms and cannot wait until I can get some more pairs :) 

Photo A Day

I am going to *ATTEMPT* to do a daily picture. I pinned a "photo a day" for May on pinterest that I want to try and do. I am already a day behind though. OOPS! But I have pictures for both so that is what counts. At least in my mind...

Day 1: Peace

Ok, seriously? How could you not love that face??? She might not have an official name yet, but she is very much a part of our family now. I love her a little bit ;) 

Day 2: Skyline

On almost any other day I would have been able to capture a beautiful skyline at this time of day (6 P.M) but of course on this day, there are clouds totally covering up our view of Pike's Peak.

Dancing In Heaven

I am so glad that I decided to go to church today. The yucky, snowy wind almost kept me home, but I would have missed a very powerful message. It actually had me in tears by the end, which is VERY rare for me.

We have been going through a really awesome series called, "Think Again- Truth, Doubt and Questions that Matter" with this week focusing on the question of whether there is life after death. It really made me think about how I view this life and how I should be living with the view that THIS IS NOT IT. This is not all of it. In fact, this is the hard part. Once we die and move one with Jesus in our heart, we get to experience joy like we can't even imagine.

My church experienced the death of a young man, 20, last weekend due to a climbing accident. They showed a couple clips from his memorial service that were so eloquent and heartfelt that a million memories of my dear friend, Erica Nicole Smith, who died in December '07, came flooding back to me.  And thus released my tears. She died as a result of a drunk driving accident and negligent paramedics. (http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4019050&page=1#.T4tAHRzQIfs) It was a horrific, tragic, horrible thing that happened to an amazing girl. It was a  long 4 years before Jenny Ybarra, the woman responsible for the accident went to trial and it seemed like it dragged on forever before she was convicted of intoxication manslaughter. But then another devastating blow came to those who were so invested in seeing justice served; she only received a 2 year prison sentence. (http://www.kens5.com/home/Ybarras-fate-still-in-question-at-conviction-139391318.html)
I needed to hear the words of the pastor to really remember that although we do not feel as though justice has been served for Erica, there is a higher power that will bring justice.

I miss Erica all the time and she is on my mind often. I absolutely do not think it is a coincidence that she was in her car accident exactly one year before my Kaitlyn was born. She was a beautiful, hilarious, passionate, wonderful person who is missed by so many who believe that she died early. That she died an untimely death. But something else that our guest pastor said struck a cord with me. When he was speaking of the young man, Ryan, he said, "He didn't die an early death. He died a young death, yes, but it wasn't early. He ran the race that God sent him to run. He finished his race faster than we would have wished, but it was what God had intended." It breaks me heart to know that Erica will never finish college, get married, or have kids. But it also makes my heart so incredibly happy to know that she is exactly where Jesus wants her to be. She is dancing in heaven. And I have faith that one day I will get to see her again. I love you, Erica.

Girly Dinosaur Room

I am so excited! The girls' dino room is finally complete! I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! Obviously the hardest, most time consuming part was the dresser. It was B's when he was a kid which means that it is at least 35 years old. He did the bulk of the hard work, sanding, re-drilling the holes for the handles, and filling in the old holes. I got to do the fun, easy part: painting! Seriously what would we do without pinterest?! It is where I got the idea for the paint chip inspired paint job. 

Who says dinos are only for boys?

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

I am not sure why I decided that I needed to add more to our crazy lives by creating an extra chore for myself, but that is exactly what I did when I decided to cloth diaper G. Now I didn't just randomly come to this decision out of the blue, but rather through many, many, MANY horrible diaper rash episodes with each girl. Brian and I had discussed cloth diapering Mack when she was about 8 months old and started to have bleeding diaper rashes (a result of starting solids) but it was not financially feasible at the time. Starting out cloth diapering is EXPENSIVE, even though in the long run you save lots. Eventually though we were able to get her bum back to a nice, soft, rash-free zone through trial-and-error of many diapers and diaper creams. Well, quite sooner than we expected we found out we were expecting AGAIN. And of course if there was no way we could have bought a full set of cloth diapers for one baby, we certainly couldn't afford it for two! So, we never really talked about cloth diapering again (despite more rounds of diaper rashes, now from two children!) until I found out I was pregnant for a third time. This time around, I new that it was what I wanted to do because I did not want to deal with a third child having a painful, red bum bum. And so, I decided that since we really didn't need any new baby things, but knew my dad still wanted to get us some kind of present, I asked him for cloth diapers! Yes, he thought I was a bit crazy, but he more than happily supplied us with enough money to get us started on this endeavor.

To say I was excited is an understatement. Who knew that something that is made to hold baby poop would make me so ecstatic?! But I was super pumped to get started. Unfortunately, our life was more than a little nutso for the first 2 months of Gregory's life, so I wasn't actually able to get started until we had successfully moved across the country and gotten settled into my dad's house in Texas. 

Turns out, I actually enjoy cloth diapering! We still have issues with night time diapers, so I admit, we use disposables at night, but overall it is a life choice that I would recommend to others. Not to mention they make baby bums look freaking adorable!

All things Mack!

Sick weeks are always hard and this was no different. Mack had a high fever off and on for 4 days with a bad cough, congestion and a loss of appetite. It is already difficult to get this kid to eat a full meal and with her basically not eating anything for 3 days I knew her weight would suffer. Unfortunately I was right and she is now back below 30 lbs!!! For once in their lives, Kait weighs more than Mack which is just kind of sad. I guess I won't feel bad giving her girl scout cookies this week if it will help her gain some weight back. I was finally able to get her an appointment yesterday on base and they ended up having to take x-rays of her chest. Because I had the other two kids with me, I wasn't able to go back with her where she was getting the x-ray done. Thank goodness she is such an easy going kid because she just walked right on back with the nurse without a single glance back at me. I was worried she would be scared or nervous. What was I thinking?! And she even got an x-ray of a teddy bear to take home as a souvenir, as well as a handful of stickers! She did have some fluid in her lungs, but luckily it was not full out pneumonia yet and her oxygen levels were at 90% which isn't horrible, but definitely not good either. She is on an antibiotic and albuterol treatments, which are never any fun, but at least she is on the mend and fever free. This is all good news, EXCEPT now the other two are starting to come down with the same thing. Here's praying it doesn't get as bad as hers did.

In other Mackie news, she is doing so well at school and is blowing me away daily by how much she is learning!  I mean, I know she is 4 years old already, but I was not prepared for how fast she would grow up! She can write all her letters, her name, numbers, knows advanced shapes (hexagon, octagon, trapezoid, etc) and has even started doing basic addition! I am so proud of her! She has been drawing dinosaurs since she was barely 3, but they are seriously getting good! She can draw a stegosaurus, triceratops, t-rex, brachiosaurus, apatosaurus, and even her made up dinosaur, a "hercadon".  I'm sure she can draw others too, but those are the most recognizable. She loves books and I am just waiting for her to come home knowing how to read on her own.

I am still unsure about when I am going to start her in kindergarten, though. I really hate that she has an August birthday. Seeing how well she is blossoming in school, I am leaning towards her starting Kindergarten this coming school year.  I really didn't think I would, but I honestly think that she is ready. If she didn't have the personality she does, I would be more hesitant, but she is SO social and so happy that I think holding her back would be a disservice to her.

I love her little (or should I say big) personality so much! She is not an average 4 year old girl and I could not be happier about it! Usually the first thing she says to someone she meets is, "I'm Mack! I love dinosaurs, and lizards, and snakes, and frogs!" which always throws people off because when you look at her, you think, "Wow what a gorgeous little girl!" and then you hear her talking about snakes and things and it makes you look twice. I also love how rational she is. I mean, don't get me wrong, she can still fly off the handle like any other 4 year old and overreact about things that really don't matter, but those moments are few and far between. Even a lot of her tantrums are done methodically and thoughtfully. For example, anytime I am getting ready to leave the house without her she tells me calmly, "Mommy, if you leave without me, I am going to be sad. I will cry if you leave. If Daddy leaves, I won't cry. I will be sad, but I won't cry. But if you leave me, I will cry!" Then she does actually start to cry once I am leaving. But it is so calculated! I mean, she makes a very conscious decision to be upset instead of just letting her emotions take over. She really must be my child because I pretty much operate the same way. It makes me nervous too though, because I know that girls can be mean. Especially to girls they think are different or weird which Mack is a little of both! She has already had a couple girls ask why she wears boy clothes, and even one (sweet wonderful girl who I miss a lot!) say that Mack was not a "real girl" because she loves dinosaurs. Thankfully Mack has the ability to be oblivious to this stuff, I just worry that one day she won't. I guess only time will tell, but I hope that by us continuing to encourage her individuality and confidence that she will always let stuff like that roll off her shoulders and that she will be proud of herself for staying true to who she is.

Teaching and Parenting

One of my biggest fears when I was going through my education classes at Texas State was that once I became a teacher I would have to deal with parents. The very thought of that made me reconsider my chosen profession. I had never been very good at talking to parents about their children, specifically their less than pleasant moments. In high school I worked for YMCA's after school program and through college I worked for Extend-A-Care (which was basically the same thing) and my worst moments at both of those jobs included angry parents. I always became flustered and felt very inept in those moments, despite my confidence in my job skills. I knew that their "babies" were the most important things to them and the fact that they were yelling at me that I was not adequately caring for them was always too much for me to handle. 

Well, before I actually finished my degree and became a teacher, I became a parent instead. The very thing that scared me. Now I was going to become one of those crazy parents who never thinks anyone can properly teach and care for my child. Turns out though, becoming a parent BEFORE becoming a teacher might have been a great blessing. I finished my last semester (student teaching) in North Dakota when Mackenzie was 5-8 months old and I never felt more confident dealing with parents than I did in those three months. All of a sudden I became fully aware of the responsibility it takes to teach other people's children. I didn't feel intimidated by my students' parents. I was one of them now. I sincerely think that being a parent will help me to be the teacher that I want to be. 

Vice versa, I genuinely think that my teaching background has helped me become a better, more involved parent. There is always that "joke" (I actually don't think it is very funny) that you have to take classes/pass tests to do pretty much anything, except becoming a parent. This is sad and is a huge disservice to children, but luckily for me, my last two years of college were spent learning about child emotional and physical development as well as discipline and teaching techniques. I feel as though I entered parenthood as prepared as one could hope for. I am constantly aware of my children's developmental levels and am always doing more research of ways to encourage them at every stage they are at. Now this is not to say that I do not have my lazy days. I definitely do when just pulling out the play-doh seems like a lot of work. But even on my lazy days, I try and incorporate some level of "teaching" if possible. My 4 1/2 year-old and 3 year-olds both do chores, have a daily activity (craft, paint, play-doh, etc) participate in story time, and are expected to get themselves dressed and clean up after themselves. Sometimes those tasks and teaching moments take up A LOT more time than if I just did them myself, but then what would they be learning? That someone else will be there to do it for them. I want more for them. I want them to realize the importance of constantly being in the process of learning new things. I want them to know that Mommy thinks they are capable of doing new things. I want them to be able to prove to themselves that they can do things for themselves. 

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6

Inspiration...

Inspiration has struck again. I always seem to go through blogging phases and I think I am about to be going through another one, thanks to a good friend, Brandy.

Awhile back I wrote about needing/wanting a hobby. Since then A TON has changed, but that desire still seems front and center. And so, I decided to try some new things. I finally learned how to use my sewing machine this summer! Of course now I am missing a vital piece for it and cannot use it until I order a new one (which is very disappointing since I bought a cute apron pattern). I also started using our Canon Rebel X. I am especially excited about this because I really want to be able to take good pictures of my family. I have so many talented friends that any and all advice about sewing or photography would be greatly appreciated.

In addition to those new hobbies I have started P90X which is a hardcore workout DVD program. Brian convinced me to do it with him, which actually works out well for both of us. We are each other's motivation. Only three and a half weeks in, and I have already noticed a significant difference. I currently weigh less than when I got pregnant with Mack and have more muscle definition than I did when I was 21! Very exciting, especially since I had very little expectations of it working. Eventually I will post a "before" and "after" picture, but I don't think I am that brave yet. We'll see.

Here are a couple pictures I have taken so far. Not even that good, but I am eager to learn and practice :)

Mommy Guilt

I have honestly not been one to feel a lot of "mommy guilt" when I do things for myself (which then leads me to feel guilty for not feeling guilty) but I sure got a strong dose of it this afternoon. I was playing dinos with Kaityln when she started making her baby triceratops cry. I asked her why she was crying and she said that her mommy and daddy weebles were up in the treehouse and she missed them. I told her to call them down to her and so she did and then her poor baby triceratops started crying harder. She told me that her mommy and daddy told her no and they were too far away to get her.

A year ago this scenario would be pretty innocent play, but right now I know that it is a direct effect of our current situation. Brian is gone in California and I know that she misses him a lot and although I have been here with them all summer, she has spent several weekends with each set of grandparents away from me. The time I have spent away from them has been CRUCIAL to my sanity, however seeing its effects on my poor Little Nunnies breaks my heart. So now I have to decide if the space and time I need to decompress is worth Kait feeling like Mommy and Daddy are "too far away". Being a parent is full of difficult decisions.

What is wrong with your eyes?

One thing that I am determined for my girls to have and appreciate is confidence. They are going to be growing up in a time when there are a million negative influences on them, telling them what "beautiful, smart, successful" looks like. And it might not always look like them. I do not want them to grow up thinking they are anything less than they are and it is such an easy trap for girls to get stuck in. Pretty much every girl/woman I know has struggled with some sort of insecurity and the degree of that struggle can literally be life-threatening. This is the last thing I want for my wonderful girls, but I also know that instilling confidence in young girls is sometimes easier said than done.

I was blessed growing up in a family that CONSTANTLY told me how smart, pretty, funny, I was. In fact, I probably developed an OVER-confident view of myself because of all the praise I received. Turns out though, God put me in the right family because if I hadn't had that view of myself, what happened to me at 15 years old might have proven to be too much.

Not everyone knows this about me, but I have had some pretty serious thyroid issues since I was 15 years old. Typically thyroid problems don't begin until women are middle-aged, however I was one of those "lucky few" who developed problems early and will therefore deal with it my whole life. I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease just after my 16th birthday. It is an autoimmune disorder that basically stimulates thyroid production. (You can read more about it here.) In my case, I also developed Graves' opthalmopathy, which was what led me to go see a doctor in the first place. Basically, one of my eyes started to bulge out of my head and my eye-lids couldn't completely close around my eye. It was such a gradual change that it wasn't until it was VERY obvious that my mom decided it was worth a trip to the doctor. As soon as I was seen by our family physician he made a referral for an endocrinologist and highly recommended I make an appointment with my opthamologist as well. I spent the next month or so in and out of doctors offices trying to figure out the best way to deal with my condition. I was put on medication to regulate my thyroid levels, given a TON of lubricating eye drops and gels, and told I could not wear my contacts while my eyes were so bulged out. I had been wearing contacts since 6th grade, so being forced to wear glasses for an unknown amount of time was torture enough. I was given hope that EVENTUALLY they would be able to do surgery to try and fix my eyes, but until they were sure that they were not going to keep changing, I would have to wait. I spent my entire Junior year of high school wearing glasses that I hated, and fielding countless questions about "what is wrong with your eyes?" Unfortunately, that was the nicest way people would go about asking me. I had everything from young children to grown adults basically insult me and very rudely tell me that I looked weird, ugly, like a freak. No joke. I still can't believe that there are people in the world with so little tact that they would verbally attack a teenage girl. I could have easily gone into a depression and refused to go out into the world, for fear of what people would say or think of me, but I decided that I was stronger than that. I consciously decided that I would still go out with my friends, go to football games, and basically enjoy my life, despite what people had to say. It was not always easy, and I'm sure I did my fair share of crying and questioning why it was happening to me, but I am proud of myself for not stopping my life.

I was able to get one of my eye surgeries about 10 months after my diagnosis and could wear my contacts about 2 months after that. That surgery was pretty invasive and I had to wear a patch over my eye for 2 weeks. It did not completely fix the problem with my eyelids, so I had to have another surgery a couple years later so that my eyelids would finally completely close. After the second surgery I had both my eyelids stitched shut for a week. That was quite a weird experience.

Because of everything I had to go through with my eyes, I developed a very thick skin. I learned how strong I could be and how to have confidence even though I "looked like a freak." I am thankful for having gone through that experience because it really did make me a stronger, more confident person. Even though I am thankful for the lessons I learned, I truly hope my girls never have to go through such an extensive trial of self-discovery. Nobody wishes hardships upon their children, and I hope that they are able to have confidence and self-worth without having to go through something so hard. But if they do end up having some disfiguring condition, I pray that they are able to get through it and come out the other side, better, stronger people.

Kaitlyn, nose, and a bunny...

It's a good thing that moms develop some kind of sixth sense about their children's cries otherwise, you might not realize that a sudden outburst of tears during nap time is the result of a 2 year old attempting to retrieve something that they have shoved up their nose. Good gravy it never ends!!!

I knew that this particular cry was not just a refusal to sleep and that there must be something physically wrong with her. I assumed poop. Because that is almost always what the problem is 30 minutes into nap time. Well, I was half right. There was a poopy diaper situation. However, the more pressing matter was the very small crayon my child decided to put up her nose. I traipsed up the stairs, wipes and diaper in hand, prepared to change and send back to bed, but as soon as I opened the door, she started yelling about her nose and a bunny. It did not take me long to understand what she was talking about. We recently bought the girls these cute little bunny crayons that they have both been carrying around with them for days. Well, key word being LITTLE. I have never had one of my children put something in their nose, but I guess there is a first time for everything!

 I had her tilt her head back and sure enough I could see the end of the crayon just out of reach. I tried having her blow as hard as she could while I held her other nostril closed. Nothing happened. So plan B, call our wonderful pediatric neighbor to come to our rescue. Yet again. He was over within 5 minutes and had it pulled out within 30 seconds. Crisis averted. I seriously have no idea what we would do without Dr. Wilhelm. I suppose we will find out soon enough what life is like without a trusty doctor just around the corner once we move.

Here is the bunny culprit complete with boogers on the crayon. Crazy child!

Uncertainty, Separation, Stress...

We finally got the official news we have been waiting and expecting, for months now, however the reality of the news is not quite what we had hoped for...

Brian got orders for Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs and his report no later than date is October 14th which is pretty much what we were expecting. The part we were not exactly prepared for is that his training is going to be three months long (July-Sept) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. That is what is going to make for a very stressful period of transition for me, three small kids, two dogs, a cat and a turtle!!! Basically those three months will leave us homeless. We will not be able to stay in our house on base here, but I do not want to move to CO without Brian and without any type of support system. So our alternative is to go back home to Texas for those three months, which is awesome in theory, but in reality, is going to be CrAzY!

As any mom who has traveled with small kids knows, not having your own space, things, or routine, is a stressful situation to be in, especially when you have to do it husband-less. I am completely unsure of how we are getting down there, how much stuff we will be able to take, and where we will live once we are there.  All this uncertainty is especially frustrating because we are going to have a 2 month old baby to factor into this plan. Newborn babies are hard enough to deal with in the best, normal circumstances, and this is far from that.

I worry for my girls who will be old enough to understand how different things are going to be. And that this will be their first time away from Daddy for this long a time. I worry for Gregory not having a stable introduction into this world. I am sad for Brian being away from his family for so long and missing out on Gregory's baby-ness. And I am definitely worried about how I am going to handle this transition, especially with postpartum hormones to contend with. The only thing I can do is count on my faith that God has a plan for our family and that even in this stressful situation, He knows what He's doing. I usually have a pretty care-free attitude about things and handle change well, but even this feels beyond what I can handle. I would appreciate any prayers and advice for getting through this minimally scathed. I suppose this is just a taste of what military life can bring you. Uncertainty, separation, stress...

Weekly Activity Update

So far my plan has been working out so well and I couldn't be happier with the results. Not only are the girls enjoying have planned activities everyday, but I am loving the feeling that I am being productive everyday. Even the days the girls stray from the original intent of our activity, it is still something different and fun that they are doing/learning and that was part of the point.



This is an activity that I have done since before Kait was born, but they LOVE it and for most of winter, this is the only way for our NoDak kids to enjoy the snow. Usually they are content with just spoons and the snow, but this day they decided that their animals needed a snow adventure. This kept them entertained for almost 40 minutes, which is like a lifetime in the lives of two pre-schoolers!

I was just telling one of my friends that play-dough has been a "forbidden" activity in my house since Mack was a baby because she has ALWAYS put things in her mouth. It was not until recently that I have been able to let her play with it without her eating it. And sometimes she still does! But despite my reservations, I broke down and made some for them to play with. Needless to say they both loved it! 

We actually enjoyed a "warm" day last week so I decided to take advantage and do some good 'ole hop-scotching with the girls! Unfortunately, this fun outside day was followed by an entire week of sick kiddos which was an adventure all on its own! 

As most of you know, potty-training has been quite a struggle for us, but both girls have started getting the hang of it! We couldn't be prouder of them :) 

These foam abc's have driven Brian CRAZY since we got them so we had them packed away for a couple months. I decided that since I am trying to teach the girls the alphabet that it was time to bust them out, despite the mess. Turns out it was a GREAT idea! 

 Mackie's Artwork! She decided she wanted to do "story time" like at the library and then after we finished reading How Does a Dinosaur Say I Love You? she asked me what the craft was. So we decided to play with some of our dinosaur scrapbook paper and this is what Mack came up with.

This is one of my favorite activities so far. Mack already has her numbers 1-10 down, but Kait is still learning so this was a fun one, especially for her. I just used foam craft paper and some beads I bought from a friend for 50 cents!

Amazing Opportunity

Today I had an epiphany! Ok, that might be a little strong. It wasn't actually an epiphany since it is something that I have already realized but never fully appreciated. I have an amazing opportunity that a lot of moms don't have and I have not been taking full advantage of it. My family is blessed in the fact that I do not have to work and am able to stay home to raise my girls (and soon-to-be-boy). I always wanted to be a mom and actually be the one to raise my children, (I am in no way saying there is anything wrong with working moms, I just always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.) but I feel as though I have not been using this opportunity to its fullest. And I could give you a long list of excuses, the highest of which might sound something like "Winter in Minot is so long and there is only so much you can do inside" but as I just said: these are excuses.

Well I am going to make me new "hobby" geared towards what I already should be doing. Daily activities with the kids. There are too many days when we really don't do much of anything, and it is just plain laziness on my part. I have a lot of ideas of how I am going to implement my new plan and I think that the easiest way for me to accomplish this is through weekly lesson plans. Yes yes, this is the teacher part of me coming out, but I did get my elementary ed degree for a reason, people! I am going to *tentatively* plan out our week with at least one activity. We usually are out of the house in the morning, so many of these home-activities will be after nap time, but those days we happen to be home all day we might just have to up our activities to two a day. I definitely plan to take the majority of my teaching cues from the girls. If they don't seem interested in what the activity is, or start to take it a different direction, I will gladly follow their lead. I want this to be a pleasant and fun experience, while also being educational.

We don't actually have a lot of fun craft materials, so I think I am going to have to start collecting things like construction paper, paints, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, etc. I also need to start saving things from around the house that we can use, like toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, tissue boxes. I might have to ask Brian to add a "craft allowance" to our budget...

So if there are any must-do crafts that your kids love, (or you love), please pass along any ideas! I will do my best to document our activities and see how dedicated I can be to this new project! Wish me luck!

Cleaning-Frenzy

As some of you know, we recently acquired a cat, but as might not know, it was definitely against my wishes. We already have two dogs and I feel that they are more than enough, but Brian's heart is EXTRA large when it comes to stray, sad animals, so we brought home a cat. The girls IMMEDIATELY attached and started saying it was Gregory's kitty. (Mack calls Kasuka, Mackie-Kasuka, and Digo is Nuggie-Digo) So needless to say once the girls fell in love and declared him Gregory's there was no fighting against it.

I have managed to find a teeny place in my heart for this kitty (Dini) UNTIL our home began to smell like a giant litter box! Part of it is that my super-sonic-pregnancy nose can smell better than the average person, but part of it is that he has not been fixed and is reaching "maturity". Meaning he has felt the need to spray in random places. Luckily none of those places have been carpet, but the trick is finding out where he has been sneaking his potty breaks. We have made an appointment to get him fixed and that should help.

So instead of plunging into my hobby-finding quest, I spent the day deep cleaning my whole house. Vacuuming, steam-cleaning, mopping, bleaching the bathtub, (because yes, that is one of his favorite spots), and using an absurd amount of febreeze and air fresheners. Now the annoying thing of this is that I can't actually tell how much difference it has made. I need to leave the house for awhile and then come back in and smell. That will be the true test of my cleaning-frenzy. I will apologize ahead of time if my attack plan has not worked and you walk into my house and wonder why it smells like a cat. Hopefully this will NOT be the case anymore.

Talented Friends

So as I was looking through my facebook today, I realized how many talented friends I have. I have friends that can sew amazing things, take beautiful pictures, write eloquently, build furniture, make up kid-crafts, dance, knit, crochet, cook, bake. You name the hobby and I have at least one friend that does it and does it well. In realizing all my friends amazing talents/hobbies, I realized that I seem to be lacking any. At all. Don't get me wrong, I know how to knit, and cook, and can do some crafts (as long as I have some kind of instruction), but I haven't found something that I am passionate about. Something that I do and do well. The only real hobby that comes to mind is reading and I feel like that is somewhat of a "lame" hobby because nothing really comes out of it. There is nothing to show after I read a book, except that I could tell you about it.

Until this point in my life I felt like I didn't need a hobby because I was in college, and then I became a full-time mom, and it seemed as though there was no time/point. Lately however, I am starting to feel as though I should be doing more. I have three hours everyday during nap time when I could be doing something, but usually I eat, nap, read or watch tv. And granted, I am pregnant and my energy level is not where it normally is, but I still feel as though I could be doing more. So I have decided that I am on some kind of hobby-finding-quest. I would love to be able to find something that I enjoy and am good at. I will keep you updated on my progress :)

not going to die of scurvy...

So during the month of November I accepted and completed (for the most part) a "Thanksgiving Challenge" in which I would share (Facebook) things I was thankful for. One of my "thanks" was to my parents for raising me in a household where veggies and fruits were in every meal. At the time, I didn't truly appreciate the values they were instilling in me. Not that I fought against the veggies; I actually thoroughly enjoy my vegetables.

Well today I feel as though I fully accomplished one of my daily goals! My girls (and myself) ate our daily recommended intake of fruits and veggies! YES! I was quite proud of myself for getting them all in in one day. Problem is, is that it is one of my mommy hang-ups. I find myself stressing out on days when we are out of all our fresh fruit and veggies and the commissary (grocery store) is closed and I have to feed my kids (GASP) raisins! In the grand scheme of things, my kids are not going to die of scurvy if they don't eat an orange every day, but somehow I have it in my head that they NEED a certain amount of fruits and veggies or I am failing them somehow. I do realize that it is irrational to put SO much pressure on myself for their fruits and veggies, but I don't want to not think about it either. I guess there are always things that we, as moms, find to stress about. I am not the type of person to stress too much about things and usually just go-with-the-flow, but for some reason, when it comes to fruits and veggies, I am a stickler for that daily recommended amount! I do hope that it is something that my kids will appreciate (or at least tolerate) and implement in their own lives when mommy isn't around to enforce it.