I’m quiet. I know. I know.
I promise, the blogging will resume soon… my heart is BURSTING with things to write about! But secretly, I’m enjoying taking some time off to enjoy Springtime with my kiddo and our new home.
“I call it ‘My Home’” she says, in her three-year-old wisdom. 🙂
But if you must, I’m still blogging occasionally at the Knoxville Mom’s Blog, and this experience with one of my little students still brings me to tears.
Enjoy it! And go make someone’s day!
Please come visit me at the Knoxville Mom’s Blog today (even if you’re not from Knoxville). I’m inviting you into our home to take a peek at some of my daily drama with the Pickle. And I’m begging for some advice!
Because let’s face it… we’ve hit the terrible threes and this momma isn’t handling it well. From tantrums to talking back, I’m learning a lot…
about myself.
It’s been a rough couple of months. And she’s not even three yet. What’s a Momma to do?! (click here or on the image to read all about it!)
Last night I started packing the Pickle’s lunch.
We are finally going back to school! (after an extra long break)
I meticulously selected lunch items that would be healthy, filling and easy to open. I cleaned out her new Minnie Mouse Back Pack that she got for Christmas and began listing in my head the items that she would need to have in it. I picked out her clothes and laid them out for this morning. And in my heart I mourned just a teeny bit..
Because, you see, my girl is moving up to the three-year-old class today. Continue reading
As many of you know, once the Pickle arrived on the scene I suddenly had a built-in reason for being crafty again. When she was in my womb, I found myself sewing coordinating ribbon onto a mosquito net to hang over her crib. I threaded old jewelry pieces and hung them from a bangle over her changing table. And I even watched as my husband’s cousin sewed a custom crib skirt to match her curtains.
So it was no surprise that after she was here and I had lots of time on my hands (in between feedings, going to the park, napping, and keeping up with the house) I wandered back into sewing. I had never really been into it, but had tried my hand at a few projects over the years. That Christmas after the kiddo was born, my parents bought me my first sewing machine. And I was hooked.
Since then I have learned a LOT. Continue reading
One of my favorite parts of having a child is creating new traditions throughout the year. Since our Pickle is at the age where she is beginning to understand celebrations, I wanted to find some fun, creative ways to ring in her newest Year! Of course, I headed straight to Pinterest, and you can check out my findings on my 365+1 Pinterest Board. But you can also get a peek at my Top 5 Favorites over at the Knoxville Mom’s Blog!
How do you ring in the new year with little ones?
I’d love some more ideas as we begin creating our own traditions for our little family!
Celebrating in Times Square with my parents… before marriage and children!
Some things never change. Or at least I try hard not to let them.
When I was growing up, we had lots of Christmas traditions that we clung to. We always picked out our own live Christmas tree. We decorated the house to the tune of the Beach Boys, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, and the Carpenters. I was the one who meticulously set out the big nativity. On the last day of school before Christmas break my mom and I would make cinnamon rolls to take to our bus driver. And every year we would make and decorate sugar cookies.
Now that we have a sweet Pickle and a flurry of traditions of our own, some of these have been lost. The live tree, for example (it’s not allowed in our apartment). I don’t have the Beach Boys Christmas Album (although you could purchase it for me here). I probably won’t set out the big nativity until the kiddo is in high school because I’m pretty sure the first thing she’ll do is break it.
But sugar cookies?
That we can (and did) do. Continue reading
We lost our sheep.
Three of them.
And a shepherd… and an Angel.
This has eaten away at me the past few days. I hate losing things, as you may recall from this post. Losing things leaves an emptiness in my soul that cannot be explained. It’s nothing. They are plastic. They are replaceable
So of course my response after I’ve searched every nook and cranny of our house is to plaster it all over Facebook. To gain the pity of the masses… and hopefully stir some kind soul to send me a sheep.
I’ve looked everywhere. But in the back of my mind I remember that rainy morning well. Continue reading
Santa is not real.
There. I said it.
He does not exist.
There is no man in a red suit flying overhead on Christmas Eve taking toys to every good little boy and girl in every country, in every city all over the world. There are no reindeer. There is no North Pole. There aren’t elves or a magic toyshop. A strange man is not coming into your home and nibbling on cookies and drinking just a gulp of milk. (Because let’s face it… if a strange man is in your home, he’s probably not there for cookies. And if he is, he’d probably eat them all… I would.)
No. Santa does not exist in the form that we currently create for our children. It’s true.
With that said, however, I believe with all my heart and all my soul that Santa is real. Continue reading
The Plan:
Christmas is a Season of Giving… just as God first gave His son to us. To be born among us as a baby. To grow up and walk with us and live life just like us. Ultimately to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins and to rise from the grave and conquer death, so we could live eternally with our loving, holy Creator.
Just like that first Christmas, we seek ways to give to others at Christmastime. We give our time to ring bells outside of department stores. We give our money to charities. We give gifts to friends, families, and those in need. So today we will give.
I really want to start the tradition of going through toys every Christmas and getting rid of the old to make room for the new. So we will begin today. I’ve wrapped up a large bag for her to open that says “Habitat Restore” on it. When she opens the bag, I will explain to her that she will be getting new toys for Christmas, but first she needs to gather up old toys that she doesn’t play with anymore. We will go through them together and think of other children who might enjoy them. Then together we will donate them to the “Habitat ReStore” (our favorite thrift shop). We like this shop because all of their items are sold at very very low, affordable prices. Almost all of the employees are volunteers. And all of the proceeds go to support our local Habitat for Humanity. It’s the best way we can find to share our gently-used things with others who may need them.
The Reality:
Are you kidding me? We were gone from 8:30am until 1:30pm when we finally made it home to eat lunch. The pickle was sick. I was fretting about a custom Sweet P’s order. The hubs was coming home early and I wasn’t hungry. The house was a disaster. And there was no way I was going into town again to go to the Habitat Restore… let alone going through the Pickle’s disastrous closet to fight with her over toys she hasn’t touched in two years.
In other words. We didn’t open the gift today.
We opened it on the 5th. And suffice it to say she was a LITTLE disappointed when she opened up a trash bag.
The Plan:
Yup. That’s right. Following suite PERECTLY with this morning’s post, I didn’t have anything on my list for today. There is no gift under the tree for today. No fun activity. No “new” toy. No number three to practice. I saw it all weekend, that glaring empty “3” on my excel spreadsheet and could NOT think of anything amazing to do. I thought, “I’ll get back to it… I’ll think of something… it’s not until Tuesday.” Well… here we are.
Empty three.
So I’ll probably just wing it. Maybe wrap up a bag of instant pancakes and say it’s her Christmas activity for today.
Epic fail? Or perfect opportunity for Grace? Oh wait.. it gets better. I wrote this post too soon…
The Reality:
I was wrong. Not only did I have a gift marked “3” under the tree, I had a very cute gift marked “3” under the tree and we had a very good time unwrapping it! What I didn’t have was a saved Excel spreadsheet on my computer. Apparently my battery had died at some point in my crazy dazy and left my nice list with the old version which, didn’t have a 3.
Nothing bad about this. We opened a sweet little box of mini-books with Christmas Carols written in them and a handmade jingle bell instrument that I saw here. We read them all together. She loved it. She shook her little bells. We sang. It was the sweetest day yet.
What was not sweet was losing my spreadsheet that I had spent most of naptime the previous Saturday tweaking and adjusting and correcting. Gone.
All I have now are a bunch of presents under the tree that I hope I remember!
Rediscovering Yesterday 