Easy Peasy Snack

Summer time officially means travel time.  We definitely have travel plans this summer, not to mention just going to the pool with little ones feels like we are packing for vacation sometimes.  I don't know about you, but hot summer weather is the last time I feel like eating crap food.  Yes, I know...it tastes so good but a greasy double cheeseburger from Wendy's doesn't quite hit the spot when temperatures soar above 100 with 98% humidity.  Fast food is certainly less appealing when you are car traveling.  It may sound good when all you've heard is "are we there yet?" from the moment you leave Fort Benning (and yes, that happened to us last time we traveled to Orlando) and you just want everyone to stop talking, eat fast and get to the final destination but after fast food and eating out for an entire vacation, my belly and I are in a screaming match by the time we pull back into the driveway.

My sweet friend, Danielle, gave me this wonderful recipe for homemade granola bars.  She shared them with me months ago and out of pure laziness I hadn't made them for myself until this afternoon.  No joke- they took less than 10 minutes to make, not including baking time.  But seriously, lunchtime for the kids takes longer than 10 minutes to put together- this was easy!!  And this would be a good "mommy's little helper" kitchen project with your little one.  They are so delicious and will definitely be a "must pack" for the car on our next trip.

2 c. quick-cooking oats
1 c. old-fashioned oats
1/2 c. hulled pumpkin seeds (I prefer sunflower seeds)
1 c. dried cranberries
1 c. mixed nuts
1 can sweetened condensed milk.

Line a 13x9 inch pan with parchment lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  Leave enough parchment on each end to pull out when baking is finished.  Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all the ingredients and spread onto prepared pan, evenly pressing the corners.

Bake 20-25 minutes (20 for more chewy bars- 25 for more crunchy bars).  Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan and cut into bars.  Allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Welcome to Summer!

First of all, can I just say that I can't believe it has been almost 3 months since my last post?!?  Time flies!!  We have been really busy with school, therapy appointments with Alaina, we went on a super amazing Disney family cruise to Nassau and Castaway Cay, swim lessons and soccer practice, Wednesday church and the list goes on and on.  Summer is already in full swing here in the South and you know what that means- figuring out ways to entertain children, gorgeous sunshine, warm weather, pools and sprinklers, sidewalk chalk and bubbles.  In a nutshell, lots of outdoor fun and very little time spent inside. 

And, as a lot of my closest friends know, big changes are on the horizon for us.  We aren't exactly sure what is happening yet and the specific details, but we will keep you updated when something gets a little more concrete.  However, most people who know me know that when things gets crazy chaotic, I revert to the most basic things I know- lists, organization, simplicity.  This summer is going to be about trying to gets things as easy as possible.

One perfect example is cooking.  The sun and temperatures are not a joke, the kids have been playing outside all day and it is now 5:00pm.  CRAP!  What are we going to do for dinner??  I don't want to run everyone through the drive-through and I don't want to go in and stand in front of a hot stove or oven for the next hour getting something on the table so I am going to be working on slow cooker and freezer meals.  They may be the world's most perfect solution to summertime fun.  Well, not including popsicles and watermelon, of course ;)

Another one is ways to entertain kids in the summer.  Oh man, can this can be tough!!  Especially tough when they want to go play but you have a mountain of laundry, a sink full of dishes and/or an entire house to clean.  Fear not!  Pinterest has been a lifesaver with a boatload of ideas to beat the summertime stale-out when the chalk all breaks, the bubbles run out and it is too hot to ride a bike.  I can't wait to share some of these with you!

Stay tuned- it is going to be a really busy summer!

It Takes a Village

I know most of us...well, actually, us children of the 80's who have memories of the Clinton Administration can remember "It Takes a Village" and attribute it to Hillary Clinton's book on children in America. It was her vision for a society where all a children's needs are met. The phrase actually stems from an ancient African proverb, loosely translated into "it takes a village/community to raise a child."

Someone at church said this to me in passing a few weeks ago. Connor decided to join us at church and instead of sitting with us (where we were terrified he would misbehave, speak during the prayers, jump all around, you know, the normal fears that your child is going to be a child during the most non-child time). He wanted to sit with another family that were directly behind us and he sat quietly, intently, "perfect" the entire first part of the service. Trust me, we weren't dumb enough to make him sit there for the sermon and expect the same behavior!! But Mr. Sharitt (the father who Connor decided to sit with) leaned in after I turned around once to check on Connor and said, "Please stop worrying, it takes a village."

Now, for a neurotic mom like me, this is a tough concept. I really don't like relying on other people for help. It makes me feel "inadequate" as a mom. Like the helping party clearly views me as unable to provide and care for my own children. I guess for some helping people, this may be the case, but in most cases, I have found that any parent with any age child joins the Club of Parenthood and instantly inherits this piece of heart that will help out another member of the club in need. Prime example: I have found it much smoother to fly by myself with children than with my husband because the TSA employees are so over-the-top helpful to a single mom flying with 2 children and go out of their way to make the security checks (and whatever you need) as painless as possible.

I have actually started "enlisting" people at church to be a part of this "village" with myself and my kids. I started reading The Five Love Languages-Children and while I read the adult version when Ben and I first got married, the kids version opened my eyes in so many ways. Until the age of 5, no child has a "primary" love language. Not just one which is one of the reasons preschoolers can be so tough and challenging. They have a nice healthy mix of all 5!! Talk about another reason to keep you on your toes! Connor is predominantely words of affirmation, touch and quality time. As I have really focused in on these 3 things with him and (with an overly ridiculous amount of patience) worked hard to make sure I am keeping his love tank filled, I have noticed such a change in his attitude. I am NOT by any stretch saying that this is a cure-all and we certainly have a moment(s) every day where he and I are in the middle of a serious behavioral crossroad but by my ensuring his love tank is filled, he has been much more receptive to discipline and we aren't getting so bad that we are in throws of a full-on preschooler meltdown, complete with the arms and jumping around a la chimp trapped in a cage.

So here is the thing- remember that it takes a village. Before we are so quick to judge as you see the mom in the grocery store with the kids acting all chimped-out crazy, a little compassion and understanding go a long way and for anyone who sees Connor and Alaina frequently, I have a request. I am putting down my suit of armor that I am the only person who can help shape their little personalities and that I am the only person who can give them what they need. Nope- not true. It takes a village. Everyone is so quick to discipline a child for what they are doing wrong and steering them to do the right thing, but if you catch Connor doing something awesome- let him know! Pull him aside and thank him for making a good choice. Alaina is so positively responsive to genuine smiles. Be a village. Be a community that cares about what is being raised in our society and culture. What if we were to stop being so self-centered?  Isn't is interesting that in our grandparents generation, families heavily relied on the "village" concept and there didn't seem to be nearly as much crime, self-centeredness, all the things we really seem to complain about with later generations. Can we change the entire country? Nah. But can you change your village? Absolutely. I resolve to be the change I want to see.

Oh the Places You Will Go

Remember that Dr. Seuss book?  I know Dr. Seuss was a children's author but this was one of those "okay" books to read as an older kid too- it is a staple at every.single high school graduation celebration.  Anyway, that book is kind of how I am feeling about 2012.  Oh the places I will go!!!  This is the first year in the past 4.5 where I haven't been pregnant, trying to get pregnant, the exhaustion and body fatigue of dealing with a newborn or the stress of an infamous PCS move.  This is the first year where we haven't been expecting a major life change.  2012 is the year to figure out how I am.  Please understand that I understand you can't figure it all out in a day, a week, a month or even in this one year, but I realized I needed to try. 

There are some conversations you can't have with anyone but you and God.  There are some nights you lay awake staring at the ceiling and this realization comes to you that you need to make a change.  Something isn't working...the pieces aren't fitting.  You have a great life.  Beautiful kids.  Kind and caring husband.  But you need to make a change.  It's a conversation I had with God.  It was these little reminders, hints, messages in my face and stuck in my brain for weeks and weeks until I had that conversation in the middle of the night with God and He reminded me that if I don't like where I am at, then I change and He would help me.

My 2012 resolutions were so easy this year: focus on me.  Trust me, it's not as self-centered as it sounds.  I know, it sounds pretty self-centered.  I need to focus on changing the way I approach my spiritual, physical, mental and emotional health and wellness.  In the past 4.5 years, I have been so focused on taking care of babies, my pregnant body, our house to move that I have seriously neglected who I am and "neglected me" isn't as good of a mommy, wife, friend, sister or person that "healthy me" can be.

Part of this revolutionized me is actually doing some of the projects that have been on my "to do" list for quite some time.  Here is one of them that I was pumped to do- Alaina's hairbow hanger.  For anyone with a girl in their house, you know how many hair accessories these little girl's with barely any hair can accumulate so I needed to place to store them before they overtook boxes, shelves, drawers and anywhere else you can think!

I started with a white canvas (the cheapest I could find) and painted it pink with a sponge brush.  I ended up having to do 3 coats to get a nice even color.

I bought a couple different spools of ribbon in different widths and figured out the placement.

Voila!  A couple staple guns shots here and there and the hairbow hanger is finished!  I can hang barrettes, clips, the oversized flowers, ribbons and headbands all in one place!

Cute, right?!?  And since I was on a roll with little girl projects, I whipped this one out too.  We had a very sweet 3-year-old's birthday party coming up and I wanted something unique that would be a ton of fun for her and this is what I ended up with....little people in a box!  (I made a boy version for Connor, too.)

I penciled every little people with the design of the character.

Starting the painting process.  The longest part of this project was that I had to paint in layers and wait for each color to dry before I could move on to another color.

The princesses.  A couple sequins or rhinestones here and there and they are so adorable.

"The town" backdrop for pretend play

And they all fit neatly in a little box to keep them safe from baby or animal mouths

And, of course, Connor's set ;)

Woot Woot 2012!!

I could not be more pumped that 2012 is here.  I thought long and hard about what I was going to put down for my 2012 Resolutions and this is what I came up with. 

• Motivation gets me started, habit keeps me going
• 2012 is the year of "me"

That's it...simply stated but it means a lot to me this year.  One of the reasons I am so bad at sticking with a resolution and completely ditched the effort by mid-March is because it becomes "work."  I am, obviously, not off'ed by work but when it becomes overwhelming with everything else going on in my life, I let the extra efforts slide by the wayside.  One of the things I really wanted to focus on early was getting super organized and making it cake to stay organized.  In the last 2 days, I have started a couple different projects (not enough time in the day to get them to completion yet, but am really close) and have wrapped up 1 minor and 1 major project.  Today at Target, I picked up some stuff to help and this is what I have come up with.

These are some of the necklaces I had bunched up in a small sterilite bin in my closet.  I would never actually wear a necklace because by the time I was trying to throw one on and get out the door, it would have taken too long to untangle the mess of chains.  This was the easiest 10-minute project I have ever done!!  It is 2 M-Hooks ($3.49) , a dowel from Michael's ($0.69), and 3 packs of S-shaped shower curtains hangers from Bed, Bath and Beyond ($2.99 each).  Piece of cake and it freed up 2 jewelry bins to rearrange some other pieces of jewelry that was overrun in other places.

My next project this morning was the pantry.  Oh my word...if you could have seen the state it was in pre-clean-up.  I wish I would have taken a picture, just for giggles at the disaster!  I had a couple different goals in mind.  I wanted things to be easy to locate so I would stop purchasing multiple packets of taco seasoning because we already had 6 packets buried in a corner and I wanted some organization in terms of snacks, both for Connor and myself.

The finished product.  All in all, it took less than 1 hour to get this whipped into shape.

The pockets on the door hanger are all neatly labeled

Connor's snack bin is green, mine is white and Alaina has a huge box on the floor of the pantry for her snack stuff.



2012 is also the year of "me."  Without being selfish and self-centered, I am committed to myself this year.  I am committed to being diligent about going to the gym and getting super healthy again with zero excuses holding me back.  I am devoted to finding time to daily pray and praise my Lord.  To re-connect through a few Bible Studies that have been sitting collecting dust in my spare room.  I am adamant about taking a little time to myself each week out of the house to get away from the responsibilities of the home and kids and re-center myself.  I want to focus on my little world (this world includes my husband and children) and be less concerned about the external stuff.  I want to try and shut off the computer after 5pm. and give my all to my family during the time when we are all together. 

This is MY year to to be the best I can be and I have never been more thrilled, excited and ready!