My parenting inspiration resource

My sweet, caring, hubby noted that I am more objective, loving and kind in rearing my four children on a daily basis when I have outside inspiration. An article from a magazine or a particularly great quote from a book can change my perspective. Even just taking the time to write down my own thoughts and reason through a situation can be therapeutic. Blogging can be that for me sometimes.
In this spirit of helpful therapy, he suggested I keep a file or book of things that inspire me by the bed to read before going to sleep. Reading before bed is my favorite time. My brain seems calm and collected enough at that time of day to really think and receive answers. So, I am putting together a binder with articles like this one or this one and things I have printed out from my blog such as this, this, or this.
Life is a whirlwind and I find myself just trying to hang on and cope, rather than taking control of situations and dealing with them calmly and rationally. I know this won't prevent kids from tracking mud through the house, vomiting on me and everything else, or 6:30 pm rolling around without a clue as to what is for dinner, but maybe it will help me change how I react to it all! I hope this Works for Me!

Freak Utah Storms

Yep, that is HAIL!! Can you believe this? It's the last week of May! The temperatures have been in the 70s!

Emma the Menace

Emma loves our neighbors! I mean, some days I think she would rather live with them. She constantly asks if she can go to play at their houses. They do not have any small children, but what they do have is candy and popsicles! Recently, Jordan has developed a liking for playing at the neighbor's houses too. I wonder why? Evidently, popsicles from the neighbors taste better than at home, especially right before dinner.

Until recently, Emma had two houses that she frequented. She usually would decide to visit the neighbors when I was otherwise occupied doing laundry in the basement, using the bathroom etc. in order to avoid any oppposition to her visits. She became so comfortable that she would just walk into the house and wander around until she found someone. One day, I learned that she had made one of her unannounced visits to the neighbor. Evidently, our neighbor had just gotten out of the shower when Emma wandered into his bedroom! He told the other neighbor, that all he saw were two blonde piggy tails disappearing around the corner. She made it back so fast that I didn't even realize she had gone until 3 days later when the other neighbor told me.

We have been so blessed to have great neighbors who love our children and help watch over them. They even return them when they have wandered off as toddlers. We will be ever grateful for the roles they have played in providing happy childhood memories for our children.

Some beautiful music

My friend Denae did a musical review on her blog. I went over to Sherrie Shepherd's blog to hear the music that could calm my savage beasties on a Sunday afternoon. I actually think this might do it, maybe, once in a while. It is beautiful and if it doesn't calm my little savage beasties maybe it might calm the Mommy savage beast. :) It was so beautiful I put the sample play list on my side bar. It doesn't hurt that she is having a contest and I would love to win one of her CD's. Scroll down and give it a listen!

WFMW - Make your baskets work for you

I had a couple of baskets that I really liked. One made from bark and was lined with dirty plastic. The other was a loosely woven basket. I wanted to be able to use them with spanish moss or in my bathroom. The moss would fall through the cracks and make a mess. I had a moment of "duh" inspiration. I took some white scrap fabric and hot glued it into the baskets solving the problems and creating beautiful, clean baskets that could be used for anything.

It worked for me! Check out some other great ideas at WFMW!

Priceless blessing

Two and a half weeks till moving day = stress

Broken down refridgerator on a Sunday afternoon = stress x2

Possible $700 repair bill = no refridgerator = stress x3

Recall notice found on the internet, 7 minute repair, working refridgerator = $0 =

priceless blessing

One brief moment

Yesterday, for one brief moment, time stood still. My big, lanky nine year old (He looks big and lanky to me no matter where he stands in his class pictures.) came and snuggled up to me on my bed. As we lay there, he let me stroke his hair and reminisce about how he has grown and my good memories of him as a baby. Sometimes, I miss my first baby terribly. We argue about homework, and how he chooses to use his time. I worry about the world out there, the one he is immersed in daily. To a mom, it is a minefield of influence and corruption bent on attacking his innocence and wearing down his self-esteem. I miss the days when his whole world was contained in his parents' arms. The worries are bigger and scarier and loom even larger for the future.
But... for a moment, I held him again, basked in his innocence, and the love he freely shared with me. Just for a moment, it was just the two of us in our own little, snug world.

I have linked this to Steady Days.

Cute little babies in the backyard

We have a nest right outside our back door. Three little baby birds hatched on Tuesday. They are so cute and we love to watch the mama bird feed them. Here are some pictures out of the window:

Oh, no! Another allergy!!

Like we need more allergies to worry about in this family! I really can't complain because as with everything else, there are always those out there with problems worse than ours!

We just discovered that Emma is allergic to anything penicillin based including the amoxicillin she was taking for a sinus infection! She has a full body rash with welts. The photos don't do it justice!

Poor little thing! Well, at least the reaction wasn't more serious and now we know.

Mutating house

Remember the photos of my beautiful house?! The one that was clean and tidy?

Mommy got sick!

Some cuteness amid the chaos

One of Emma's primary teachers is getting married and this will be her last Sunday. The other teacher had such a cute idea! They are having a little wedding shower for her at the end of class and Emma was asked to fill out this sheet. I had to save a copy for her, for when she gets married. (Unfortunately it seems to download blue?)

First piggy tails! So cute!

#4

The boys recently learned the subtle joy of refering to bathroom happenings as #1 and #2. Jordan had to use the restroom during dinner last night. Jordan came back to the dinner table and asked, "Did you know there is a #4?" He somehow skipped #3 and I didn't ask. The mere hint of the continuation of this descriptive conversation had me shouting, "No! And I don't want to know! Especially not during dinner!!" And, like every 6 year old who gets his mind wrapped around telling you something, he was determined to explain his reasoning. He continued talking as I shoved my fingers in my ears, and said, "no don't tell me". With a gleam in his eye, he said, "I don't have to tell you, I'll just show you". This sent me into a full blown panic causing me to squeeze my eyes shut, push my fingers so far into my ear canal it endangered my brain, and begin chanting la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! Needless to say, my childish response was understood by my intelligent 6 yr. old and I was spared any further references to the #4. Meanwhile, Paul was having trouble staying in his chair due to the gales of laughter!
Despite the fact that I still don't know what he was thinking and that I mentally refuse to dwell on the topic too long, I fear the #4 will inspire incoherent babbling for some time. Oh, the insanity (er um) joys of parenting boys!

It's official!

I just learned we are officially under contract to sell the house! Wow, what a whirlwind! The house was only on the market for 13 days before we got the offer! I guess having a great realtor and putting in the extra effort to improve the house and stage it paid off! Now we just have to get through the inspection and the appraiser. Right now we have a closing date of June 8th. I guess I'd better get packing!

People have asked...

I thought I would describe a little about a couple of our projects that we have done. They were the least expensive with the most impact!

1. Framing the bathroom mirror - We had a gigantic mirror just glued onto the wall. I wanted more of a wow factor and something that looked upscale. I had seen people use moulding to frame their mirrors around the blogosphere but really got excited when I saw it on "Sell This House" and they used velcro! It was perfect because who knows whether a buyer would like it or maybe want to change the color. No problem, it's removable! I was grateful to the person who told her blog readers to be sure to paint the back too because you see it in the reflection.
   This project was so easy! Excluding paint dry time, it took me about an hour total to paint and assemble! I took my measurements to HD and cut the moulding to length right there, picked up 4 rosettes, and brought it home and painted it with one coat of paint (it was preprimed). If you have a miter saw, you wouldn't need the rosettes if you don't want them. I used 2" square pices of self adhesive velcro. All I had to do was stick one side of each piece of velcro onto the moulding, hook the other pieces onto them, remove all of the papers protecting the adhesive and stick the whole piece of moulding onto the mirror at once. The whole thing cost $25-$30. A framed for a mirror this size would probably cost $400. Love it!


2. I'll be back to talk about the no sew curtains made from $4 Walmart sheets. American Idol can't wait!
3. Okay, got my dose of AI last night and I'm ready to show the curtains. I bought some twin size sheets for $4 each at WalMart and some clip on rings (if you click on the picture you should be able to see them enlarged). The rings were about $5 for a package of 7 so I used one package for each curtain. We bought the rods on clearance 3 or 4 years ago for $10. Sooo, this window treatment cost less than $40. These took practically no time! I folded them in half lengthwise to give them more fullness and turned them upside down to have a nice wide hem at the bottom. I then decided how long I wanted the curtains and folded the top down and tucked the inside corner up and in so it didn't flap out. Then I just clipped on the rings and hung them. So simple! By the time Dh had the rods hung, the curtains were ready. Less than 30 min. People can't believe they are cheap sheets! They look like designer curtains. It sure worked for me!
   
   Check out other frugal projects going on over at WFMW!