Learning CAN be fun!!

I think I’ve mentioned before how much I DON’T like cold weather.  The only positive that I can come up with is that I get to wear really cute Uggs on any given day.

I don’t take to the slopes.  I don’t like being cold.  And even though we live in Colorado, people still don’t know how to drive here so going out when it snows is just not worth it.

I am much happier putting on a tank top & flip flops & feeling summer sun on my skin.

But…since that ain’t hap’nin anytime soon around here, we need to come up with some things to do with the kids.

And I thought I’d pass a few a long.

I’m not a home school mom.  I’m just a mom.  That stays at home.  And likes to educate her kids.  And really….it doesn’t take much money to do it sometimes.

For instance….check this cute activity out!! 

All I did was take a few pieces of scrapbook paper & cute out ice cream cones & scoops.  I also printed out UPPERCASE & lowercase letters.  Put them on with double sided tape…..DONE!!!

Then all the kids do is match up the letters!  So cute, right?  And…if they are just starting to learn their alphabet, they can just line up UPPERCASE or lowercase separately so it’s easier for them.  Then you can challenge them more as they grow.

And then there is this one…..so easy & costs about $3.00

You can get a packet of calendar #’s at any school supply store or on Amazon if you don’t know where the closest supply store is. They have so many different themes too if you want to be even more creative & go seasonal.

For younger kiddos, just have them tell you what the #’s are.  OR….you can also have them just order them 1-10.  When they master that, add more #’s.

The best part about BOTH of these activities is that they are CHEAP, CHEAP & you can throw them in Ziplocs and take them with you to restaurants or doctor’s appointments. 

I ALWAYS have something in my purse that I can occupy them with.  I love some of the iPhone Apps for kids that are out there but I want them to see that as a privilege not a necessity to having FUN while learning!!

With cold weather approaching…well….what am I saying?  It’s already here!!  With those cooped-up days on the way….why not make up a few things that are going to keep them entertained & you from wanting to pull your hair out?! 

Happy Winter!!!

Random Acts Of Christmas Kindness....COMING SOON!!

So….

Remember the chicken nugget incident?  Well….it got me thinking.  Why stop there?  I mean, if paying for someone’s lunch can’t change the world then I need to think bigger.

And some of you may be thinking I’m jumping the gun here BUT….it’s SUCH a good idea & I KNOW that I will hear from some of you saying ‘I wish I would have thought of that!!!’  Cuz it really is a great idea!!  So enough of the idle chit chat…here’s my plan.

I have waited 6 very long Christmas seasons to do an Advent.  There are so many adorable ideas out there on ways to them.  And I was getting everything prepared.  Making my list of things to put in the kids little advent boxes….and then something happened to my heart.

The kids have SO….SO…SO much already.  And I am honestly tired of picking up all the little toys that lay strewn across the entire house.  (although I wouldn’t trade the blessing of WHY they are littering up my floor)….nonetheless…they don’t need any more candy or toys.

This is where the DRUM ROLL comes in……

We are going to do a Random Act of Christmas Kindness advent project!! 

I KNOW, right???

Totally awesome idea.  (I didn’t really come up with it on my own)

We will have 25 Random Acts planned for the month of December to celebrate love & giving & blessing! 

Here’s a few just in case you feel inspired to join in on this totally fun & life changing project!!

-tape quarters to gumball/toy machines in random stores

-pick out 2-3 random strangers from the phone book & send a card to them

-pay for someone’s gas

-tape $1 on a Redbox kiosk with a note that their movie is FREE

-tape candy canes to ATM’s

-put a $5 Starbucks card in the bank tellers cute little container that sucks your money up WAY too fast

-put a treat in your mailbox for your mail carrier

-go to the grocery store ONLY to shop for the FOOD BANK boxes at the front of the store

-bring coffee & a muffin to a teacher

-make 10 homeless kits (toothpaste, toothbrush (free if you ask your dentist), gloves ($1/Michael’s), deoderant, granola bar, bottle of water, wipes, hand sanitizer, towel, socks, etc.) & drive around town to hand them out

-visit nursing home (after having my husbands sweet grandpa in one last year, I can tell you….THIS will be the BEST most appreciated gift of all!!!)

-buy flowers for someone

-help an elderly person load groceries in their car

-buy a family dinner

-pick up trash on your next family walk or park day (don’t forget those little clear plastic gloves so you don’t have to touch anything yucky)

-leave a GENEROUS tip

-make treats and deliver to a fire station

-leave quarters on a vending machine

-deliver food to the Ronald MacDonald House (these families are so so so very appreciative of your kindness!!)

-pay someone’s meter

-put stickers/small toys in easter eggs & place them around a playground for other kids to find

Oh my gosh the list could go on and on and on!!!!

We will attach a note to all of them so everyone will know they are the recipient of something really cool!!

I am so totally excited to do this with the kids.  The boys may not quite get it yet but they are still in their 4-year-old self-serving mode.  And I get that.  But I can’t wait to involve our family in something that actually will probably lift us up more than the people getting these random gifts!!!

I will keep you updated as the days go by but I just wanted to pass on this super fantastic idea before the season passed.  I would LOVE to hear what you do!!  And it doesn’t even have to be 25 days.  Do it ONCE!  Even putting 4 quarters on a vending machine will make your heart happier.  I promise!!!!

Random Act of Kindness

I get so wrapped up in myself sometimes.  Well, I think we all do.  We run around crazy with so many things on our plates & it takes an act of God, literally sometimes, to make us look up & see that there is an entire world out there that we can set our eyes on too.

I took the kids to Chick-Fil-A today.  It’s really the only fast food place I will go.  Not because the kids can self-entertain for a half hour (although I do love that) but really because it’s just plain YUMMY!!!

As I was ordering I told the cashier that I wanted to pay for the next person coming through the drive thru.  Can I just tell you…..

I was so excited to participate in such a trivial act!!  And the funnier thing was, not only did it affect the guy getting a FREE lunch, it tugged at the hearts of 2 other people! 

I can’t run around paying for someone’s meal every day.  And I was sorta thankful that it wasn’t a bus full of high school band students on their way to state conferences.  It was just one guy! 

But if I move one heart or one hundred, have I done less with the one?  Not necessarily! 

It’s good to go beyond ourselve’s sometimes.  To check our hearts & reevaluate the priorities of which we THINK are important.  It made me realize what small things I can do to make big differences.

Will my paying for some guy’s lunch change the world?  No.

But we have to start somewhere!

So some free chicken nuggets may have just started a Random Acts of Kindness Revolution for all I know!!  I’ll have to wait & see on that one.

You never know how kindness will spread.  How far generosity given will stretch.  How even the simplest, smallest bit of love, and that IS what it is!!....LOVE….how even the smallest bit of love may overwhelmingly bless another.

Searching (for alphabet letters and GRACE)

I’m always looking for things to do with the kids that are fun AND educational.  This activity was so much fun for all 3 of them!

We had an alphabet puzzle that worked great.  You could also just use refrigerator letters too if you have those.  Anything will do.

I had colored rice that we made a few months ago so I just threw it in a bucket, along with the letters, and the kids took turns finding them.  They named the letters & then put them in the puzzle.

I’m tellin’ ya, this kept them occupied for an hour.  Hailey can absolutely do this herself.  We’re still working on letter recognition with the boys so I played with them. 

They loved just digging in the rice too. 

I would love to take credit for coming up with this idea but I actually found it online.  Can’t remember where though or I would tell you. 

You could use plain rice too if you didn’t feel like taking the time to color your rice.  Or beans would work too.  Anything really.  Just go have fun with your kids. 

Now they are off in different directions playing.  I love incorporating little things into our day like this.  I always find it funny how ‘bored’ they seem to get even though we have hundreds of toys & games & books & other things to do around our house. 

I was thinking , the other day, how it’s so easy for us to compare our parenting to others.  To compare the educational abilities of our own children to others.  To look at other kids that are doing better, achieving more, learning faster, potty training sooner and the…list…goes…on.

And as I was feeling stressed out because Ethan doesn’t know his letters as well as Noah, I felt grace.  He WILL learn them.  He is SO smart.  And he knows other things that Noah doesn’t know. 

We all need to remember that it will all happen in it’s own time.  Value the time that you spend with your kids.  Teach them.  Appreciate their specific gifts.  They will go potty when they are ready.  They will learn their letters.  They will count to 100.  They will learn to ride their bike, tie their shoes, cut with scissors, feed themselves & eventually not rely on us much for a whole lot of anything.

GRACE!  I have to give myself a little bit more of it.  We all probably do.  One letter of the alphabet at a time!!

10 Things I Love About Summer

I love, love, love summer.  I know it’s hot but I’ll take it any day over cold & rainy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good summer rain too but….hands down, summer is my season. 

Here are my TOP 10 things I love about it….

1)    The sound of lawnmowers & the smell of fresh cut grass (ok, maybe that’s 2 but they sorta go together so I’m gonna count them as one)

2)   Corn on the cob  (I probably eat it 3 times a week during the   summer)

3)   Flip Flops (need I say more??)

4)   Going for a walk at 7:30 at night & seeing families out on bike rides & people walking their dogs  (I guess it’s just that sense of community I feel that you just don’t get in the wintertime)

5)   Going to a Rockies game on a Saturday night & having the best hotdog ever, a Tornado & a cold beer

6)   Opening all the windows in the house (even when my husband wants the air conditioning on cuz it’s 102 degrees) 

7)   The smell of BBQ

8)   Hanging out with friends on the back porch & enjoying a great summer night

9)   Outdoor movies in our cul de sac with all the neighbors

10)  Getting the blow-up pool/slide out & watching the kids play for hours

I could some up with so many things.  Wearing tank tops every day.  Visiting different parks.  Going for hikes.  Driving up to Breckenridge for a long weekend (favorite place in the world)….well, in Colorado, anyway.  Taking our annual trip to Beaver Creek.  Making Smores.  The smell of a campfire.  (although camping really isn’t up my alley)  The thought of it THRILLS me (seriously!!)  But when it comes down to actually putting up a tent, sleeping in a sleeping bag, peeing outside & not showering for 3 nights…well….that’s where ya lose me.  (I think I would make a great SURVIVOR contestant actually…..I’d get big ratings!!)  J

I love the sunshine. Going to the Paris Street Market & picking up some really unique things for our home.  The taste of watermelon.  And those 6 weeks that cherries are all you want to eat because they are so sweet & yummy & temporarily precious!

I love the drive I take every single day where I look West & see the most MAGNIFICENT mountains, covered with snow, touching blue sky.  Honestly, I could make that drive every day for the rest of my life.  And I always wonder how many people drive that same way & miss the whole thing.  Destitute of the appreciation of what beauty really is. 

Theoretically or maybe just cosmically speaking, it’s not even really summer yet.  But it sure feels like it.  And I’m happy!  And that’s all I really have to say about that.

Scattered Joy

A deafening silence blankets our house this morning. 

Giggles & high-pitched happiness have escaped for a moment.

Off with friends.  They wander different halls.  Sing songs with sweet voices.

Learn new shapes & animal sounds.  Important things.  How to mix yellow & red to make orange.  That zebras have stripes & cheetahs, spots. 

Even in the temporary stillness, I still have scattered joy.  Remnants of lives very present.  Books that we will read for the 100^th time before they drift off to dream tonight. 

In the mundane chore of laundry, joy still evident.  Toys that welcome me as I pull the wet clothes from the washer.  Tucked in pockets with little hands.  Dinosaurs & Potato Head feet.   Buzz Light Year patiently waiting to be reunited with the little boy that delights in him every minute. 

Untucked beds.  Sheets that need washed.  Bears that have been hugged so much that their fur is beginning to thin.  They lie scattered on the floor.  Tucked in secret hideaways.

To my organized eyes, I see a mess.  Clutter that needs to find a specific place.  To my mommy heart, I feel joy.  Even in the silence.  In the moments that I can’t just reach out & feel arms wrapped around my neck as I get the biggest hug ever.  I feel love.  And I feel LOVED!  
In every room.  Every nook of a room.  There is a reminder.  Of a life that is lived in abundance.  And I am thankful.  For my scattered life.  And for the joy that fills these walls.  Even on the days when it really is hard to find…..I am still reminded.  Sometimes I have to make myself remember.  In those harder moments.  That joy does reside here.  But I am ALWAYS thankful!!  

Wanna Be Friends?

Playgrounds teach me a lot about life & about the perspective I have on it.

Summer allows for a lot of lessons then since we’ve been to the park countless times.

With pebbles crunching loudly under her pink tennis shoes, she runs to my daughter without hesitation.  No fear of rejection.  Not caring what the answer will be….she asks ‘Wanna Be Friends?’ 

And off they went.  Laughter filling the air as soft clouds roll over head.  They swing & slide.  Pretend & play.  And a friendship is made.

Each one of them offers the other happiness in that moment.  In that place & time, their hearts are full. 

There is no worry of popularity or socioeconomic status.  They are blind to skin color and religion.  They don’t even ask if the other drives a Barbie jeep or an Escalade with 2 seats.  It doesn’t matter.

All they hope for is an afternoon filled with building castles in the sand & someone to catch them at the bottom of the slide.  They share juice boxes & goldfish crackers & when it’s time to go, they wave goodbye…with smiles that span from ear to ear.  They have showcased a sweetness that settles on my heart in a way that my much older soul has not felt for a while.

I have been hurt before by a lot of friends for a lot of different reasons.  And in that hurt, those protective walls go up to make a barrier around my heart.  Friendships become more complex & it shouldn’t be that way.

It should be as easy as just reaching out & asking the question….and then letting the afternoon take you somewhere magical.  Where it may not be castles in the sand that we build but a lifelong friendship that fills up our souls.  And when we fall & get hurt, when we need someone to catch us at the bottom of the slide…we know they will be there.  Even if we don’t talk on the phone every day or see each other but a few times a year because life & work & kids….happen in the meantime.

I have good friends now.  My heart is in a different place.  And at the end of each day now, I also smile ear to ear when I think of how blessed I am for the friends that I talk to on a daily basis & also for those that I see once in a blue moon.  When our KIDS are sharing juice boxes & goldfish on the playground as we catch up after way too long of not seeing one another.

Boardroom Bound

I was offered a job today.

I was caught off guard by the level of responsibility.

The job description stated it wasn’t for the weak & weary and that the faint at heart need not apply.

And to be honest, even now, I question whether I’m qualified for the job.

It’s not like my ‘life’ resume is all that impressive, after all.

The hours were long but the commute wasn’t bad.

I was told that the salary would be negotiable & the bonuses, like none I’d ever seen before.

I would have my own boardroom.

And the corner office I had always wished for was finally mine.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime!

I had climbed the ladder.

Impressed the right people.

And I finally was getting what I had always dreamed of.

My bosses were tough & they didn’t even stand more than 3 feet tall yet.

My contracts I negotiated were signed with crayons & finger paint.

And my board meetings were comprised of why we can’t run with scissors or put gum in your brother’s hair.

The corner office was filled with iridescent glitter & glue sticks.  And enough play dough to construct a life-sized replica of the Empire State Building.

My salary consisted of Eskimo kisses & late night snuggles because I had scared another monster away.

And then there was the bonus I had worked so hard for.  But it didn’t come at the end of the year like the others had in the past.  It didn’t reflect the ‘Profit and Loss’ like I was used to in my previous positions.

The bonuses are a daily occurrence.

They are the giggles I hear when the tickle monster shows up out of nowhere.

They are the countless ‘I love YOU the most’ moments & actually, at this moment, I’m still not sure who won that argument…but I don’t care.

It is the patter of little feet as they chase one another around the coffee table & land in a heap of pillows they have methodically placed on the floor.

They are the endless hugs that are the type that almost cut off my circulation.  The arms that are wrapped so tightly around my neck because they have so much love to share & I just happen to be the lucky recipient of it.

They are in the making of these beautiful, innocent, miraculous children that I am so blessed to be the mommy of.

And,

When the days are long & the laundry piles are too many to count…..

When the boardroom decisions I made in that split-second, probably aren’t going to earn me the ‘Mom of the Year’ award….

When my negotiating skills break down & it’s not even time for morning snack yet….

I think to myself, there is no better job in the world.  No one I am more honored to work for.  No salary that could ever possibly come close.  No reward greater.  No position more sought after.  There is nothing that compares to this.

No one else need apply.  This job is mine!

These feet are going places

Her little feet are snug in frog jammies today. 

Tucked away in warmth where her little toes should be. 

I hear the beautiful sound of those same tiny feet scampering along the wood floor while she chases her brothers from room to room as they giggle relentlessly.

And more times then not recently, I’ve heard them. 

Click.

Tap.

Click.

Tap. 

As she dances around in her pink leotard & tap shoes eagerly anticipating her next dance class.

These same cute little feet will, all too soon, take her away from me.  To school, new friendships, childhood adventure, a bigger world.

They will step onto a different country’s soil.  Walk down the aisle, along with her dad, as she starts a new life. They will, if she is lucky, step into all kinds of adventure that is waiting for her.

Will I have taught her everything she needs to know? 

Will she be equipped to handle heartbreak & disappointment?

Will she know that she can always run back to me for anything she needs because I am her greatest fan & want to protect her ALWAYS?

Are they going to, some day, walk away from things that aren’t good for her? 

Help her to stand for something she believes in?

Or, stand firm for something that she doesn’t?

Will she stand up for God?  In a world that is running from Him, will I have taught her that all she needs is to run TO Him?

She will walk into unchartered territory.

Run into challenges.

Walk away from bad choices.

And stand on her values.

Does she have everything that she needs? 

Does she have her feet on solid ground? 

Set on a good foundation? 

ABSOLUTELY!!

I can teach her things along the way.  Give my advice.  Share what I have learned.  Provide her with what I think will help her. 

But she needs to place her feet in the richness of God’s soil.  Place her faith & feet on His path.  And walk through the journey He has set for her. 

Her path may not always be clear.  It may be treacherous along the way.  She will get off course.  Lose direction.  Become lost & want to turn back. 

But no matter what, if I have done anything right in her life, she will know without a doubt that if her gait is steady, that her feet will lead her straight to Him & that is truly all that matters.