These Conversations
We have these conversations. They are our constant. They usually start with some form of , “So, I was thinking…” and run the gamut from what to have for dinner to what we’ll do this weekend to house projects we need to do to budgeting to wishful thinking to whether or not we’ll actually have another kid and if we did it we’d be able to stay in our two bedroom house with three kids without losing our minds. They happen most often over the top of little heads amidst chaos and bustle, through doorways and up the stairs while sitting at the table or chopping in the kitchen or washing dishes or sitting behind a laptop. They happen in our strange form of conversation that, most likely, no one else would understand. Disjointed sentences referring to previous conversations and vague statements that make sense only in the midst of our little family. We see each other only to say goodbye in the morning and good night in the evening with a brief phone call or email or text here and there to check in more days than not during the week. When all four of us are home together, there’s always the mad dash to try to accomplish things more efficiently than we could if the other were not there and to squish in as much time together as we can. Trying to balance the much-needed down time and the million projects + normal housework is killing us. We both know it, but neither of us has the extra energy to put into making a change. We’re working on it, though. One little bit at a time it’s the story of our life, these little conversations here and there being the constant running through it all.
bits of the week : habit
habit , “a place to capture and celebrate the bits of our daily lives.” 1 Picture. 30 words or less. Joining in during the month of November, feel free to link in the comments if you are as well!
Saturday, November 12:
She told me she was pretending with her friend, Alice, who got hit by a train and couldn’t open her eyes. I guess While You Were Sleeping last week wasnt the best idea ever.
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Sunday, November 13:
They pretended to ice skate – her being graceful and sliding around, him repeatedly pretending to fall and thinking he was hilarious.
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Monday, November 14:
He came down the stairs so quietly that it took me a minute to realize he was there and whimpering. I was thankful for the excuse to hold him in my arms and feel him breathe.
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Tuesday, November 15:
I looked down and realized that I had on the same shoe in two different colors – all I could do was laugh.
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Wednesday, November 16:
She said, “I was thinking last night that we should give away some of our toys so that we don’t have so many to pick up.” I heard the Angels sing Hallelujah(at least in my head.)
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Thursday, November 17:
It feels like it’s officially shifted to more leaves on the ground than the trees.
Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy….all.day.long.
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Friday, November 18:
He turned down bouncy houses and asked to stay home. I was so thankful for the few quiet hours with him.
Merry Making: 50 Things To Do With Kids In December
50 Things To Do With Kids in December:
- Go out and look at Christmas lights
- Bake cookies
- Pick out and put up the Christmas Tree
- Decorate the Christmas Tree
- Make an Ice Wreath
- Make Cinnamon Applesauce and/or Salt Dough ornaments
- Make and decorate gingerbread houses
- Sing Christmas Songs
- Visit Santa
- Buy and donate toys for Toys For Tots
- Help to wrap presents for friends and family
- Act out the Christmas story
- Make Reindeer Food
- Make homemade Christmas color/glitter play dough (and scent it with peppermint) to give to friends
- Make and decorate gingerbread people
- Make popcorn and cranberry garland
- Go on a sleigh ride
- Make paper chains for the Christmas tree
- Write a letter to Santa
- Watch a holiday movie
- Check out holiday books at the library
- Leave out shoes for St. Nicholas
- Eat Candy Canes
- Hang stockings on the mantle or banister
- Put out the Nativity Scene
- Address and Mail holiday cards
- Pick a special family ornament for the year
- Make a special plate for Santa’s cookies and the reindeer’s carrots
- Go to see The Nutcracker
- Go to a holiday parade
- Go to a candy store for a holiday treat
- Tie bells with ribbons and hang them around the house
- Make cards and gifts for teachers
- Go to the dollar store and pick gifts for family
- Make special cards to send to cousins
- Have a Random Acts of Kindness Day(s)
- Make cards to send to troops or to bring to a nursing home
- Grocery shop just to take to a food bank or donation boxes
- Learn a Christmas song on the guitar or piano
- Make a present for Santa
- Celebrate the Winter Solstice
- Make Winter Tea
- Make/Put out food for birds and squirrels
- Make orange and clove pomanders
- Look through favorite Christmas Cards from friends and family from years past
- Start a garland or photo album with your own family holiday cards from years past
- Prep and freeze a special breakfast for Christmas morning
- Make hot chocolate balls
- Make snow globes
- Do research on holiday traditions around the world and choose one to add to family traditions
*Inspired by my friend Maggie, who posted on Facebook that she wanted to think of one activity to do with her boys each day for Advent.
I’d love to hear your favorite holiday activities in the comments! This started as a list planning one thing to do each day with the kids during Advent, but it turned into more as I started to try to compile. I also realize that this list mostly centers around Christmas-related activities, since that’s what our family celebrates, so I’d especially love to hear about traditions for other special holidays during this season of celebration.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for stopping by via links from Worpress! Please make sure that you read the comments for even more fun ideas from readers:)
bits from this week : habit
habit , “a place to capture and celebrate the bits of our daily lives.” 1 Picture. 30 words or less. Joining in during the month of November, feel free to link in the comments if you are as well!
Saturday, November 5:
Such a quiet, lovely day, but I spent the whole day trying to shake last night’s dream and it never happened.
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Monday, November 7:
It was worth the extra drive for fabric. She was right to think that I would like it.
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Tuesday, November 8:
She finally said through tears that she was upset because the letters weren’t perfect and she couldn’t make them look just like mine.
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Wednesday, November 9:
She is so sad that she has to miss school, but the fever was my tipping point. I hope she hangs onto that sense of fun associated with school for as long humanly as possible.
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Thursday, November 10:
I dozed for 15 minutes while they played, completely engrossed in the novelty of toys the don’t see every day. It did the trick for all of us.
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Friday, November 11:
I suddenly realized that I wanted to do the projects for myself, not for them. So, I had a lovely hour with a cup of tea, leaves + wax, cranberries + needle + thread.
{this moment}
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. -Amanda Blake Soule
Merry Making: Wrapping Books for December
Yes, it’s true. Everything I want to do this year for the holidays is because of Pinterest. So sue me! I can’t help it. So.many.fun.ideas. One of the easiest that it’s impossible to miss? The ubiquitous wrapped books for December from Katherine Marie Photography’s blog. In that post, she suggests wrapping one for each day leading up to Christmas and we could have done that. But, seriously? We don’t need 24+ Christmas books, so I decided to sit down with the kids and sort. They picked their favorites and we decided to donate the rest.
I wanted to do this especially early so that they could go through the books and still forget about them by the time December rolls around. Plus, that gives me time to get the extra books donated somewhere or given to other families in time to use them leading up to the holidays.
So, we had a stack. Wrapped them. Also labeled the spines, just in case Mommy or Daddy especially feels like reading a certain book.
Done! Now they’re waiting on the shelf in the basement for December to go under the tree. Such a fun, easy project.
Also: If you want an even easier project for holiday books, last year we got a basket at Salvation Army and stuck them all in there so that they were all in one spot. Can that even be called a project? Maybe not, but it is nice to have ideas for wrangling everything into one spot. We’ll get it out again this year for the wrapped and unwrapped books and we’ll have another for cards that start rolling in. I loved having them out where the kids could get to them and read the books and play with the card.
On My Mind
I have a lot of heavy thoughts on my mind. I’m thankful that none directly impact my family, but it’s still all there in the back of my mind. So I think today will be an all-over-the-place kind of random day, including a picture dump completely unrelated to anything. It’s been too long. So that’s your warning.
(I’m going to go ahead and start the braves-savings-fund now, ok?)
::Top in my mind is Penn State. Sandusky, specifically. I’m a grad. I was a student when some of this was actually happening. It’s so awful and I just can’t shake it. I know so many incredible human beings who are Penn Staters, both as students and as faculty and just associated with the university and I hate that this is all that anyone is now associating with Penn State because of horrendous actions that put an institution above the greater good and moral responsibility when children were being brutally assaulted.
::Mia got to stay after preschool today for lunch and playtime with friends, so Nick and I took advantage of the extra time and headed a bit farther than our normal for fabric and grocery shopping. We live an area known for a large Amish and Mennonite population, so we don’t think about it much. It still surprises me sometimes to pass a horse and buggy on back roads and to see a spot at some shopping spots for tying horses, but on the whole it’s not an everyday occurrence because of where we actually live. We’re smack dab in the middle of suburbia and Big Company Stores and the mall and outlet malls. So all of this to say that our trip a bit off of our normal beaten path was really nice. Everything heavy on my mind made it nice to take a beautiful drive and to go somewhere that reminds me that ours is not the only life and not the only way that people live. Sure, we live immersed in “normal” culture – but that normal is ours, not everyone’s. There are many people living all around me(literally) choosing a more simple, intentional life. Despite the differences, we’re all living this life with the same basic purpose at the very center of it all – eat, sleep, work, raise our children to be good, kind people in the world. We’re all just trying to do that in the best way we know how. Sometimes it’s nice to have a bit of perspective outside of our own small world.
::I stood in line at A.C. Moore for almost an hour last night. To buy a bunch of crayola, a Melissa and Doug sticker book, a smelly pencil, candy melts in case I ever get around to making cake pops and a gingerbread house. After I had been at work 9 hours standing on my feet all day. I stood in line with a family with little kids behind me who were touching everything and bumping into me the whole time(and I couldn’t blame them – they were little and standing in line for almost an hour!) and an older man who just kept telling everyone what to do and when do do it, even though we were all just standing in the same line. So many people. Everyone irritated. I stood there going back and forth between, “Why am I here? Just put the basket down and walk out…” and “You’ve already spent all fof this time in line, just stay and finish.” I stayed. It was stupid. I should have left. It was a good lesson, though. I’m glad I got it out of the way early November because I’m not doing it again. There’s nothing that I need so much that I need to stand in line with cranky people being nasty to one another and complaining about cashiers and it’s exactly what I don’t what my Christmas to be. So no more. I’ll buy online or at 10am on a weekday, but I’m done with busy stores with people in panic-buying-frenzy-mode. I get enough of that at work and it’s not going to be a part of my holiday season.
::Reading: The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas (thanks, library books sale!) When Leaves Die. One Hundred Years of Solitude (again.) A Common Life (anyone else love the Mitford Series? I know you’re out there!) One Thousand Gifts (The slowest I’ve ever read any book. I’m digesting it one word at a time.) Nicholas the Bunny (for the millionth time and still loving it.) Does anyone else keep a stack of different books going at all times? I’m never actually reading just one book.
::Thankful today for: time change that means my kids take extra long naps, dark evenings that make everything feel a little more cozy, conversations with a two-year old in the car, a husband with a job that he still loves months later, holiday crafting, good friends (who I don’t talk to nearly enough.)
::The kids took crazy long naps today, so we skipped dinner and went straight to dessert when Nick finally got up at 8pm(just long enough to eat, drink some water, read a book and go right back to bed – I love when he does that every so often!) Um, really really really – if you’re planning a Thanksgiving menu now, add this Pear, Cranberry and Gingersnap Crumble from Smitten Kitchen to your menu. Easy, beautiful, full of fall freshness and so unbelievably delicious.
That’s it. Well, not all of it. But enough for today. What’s on your mind lately?
Merry Making: An Easy Gift Wrapping Station
Ok, “Easy” is a kind of relative term. A very relative term. So maybe that wasn’t a fair title? Because unless you’re like us and have a basement full of pegboard left from the previous owner’s basement workshop, this project might take you a bit longer since you’d have to put up pegboard. But the point is to figure out something that works for you without spending hours putting it together.
Last year I had a table set up in the basement and I kept a grocery bag for trash, a pair of scissors, a pen, wrapping paper, tape and sticker tags all sitting on the table. It worked. It got messy, but it was still great to have everything in one spot instead of trying to hunt down scissors and tape every time I wanted to wrap.
Then I saw this on Pinterest from Two Shade of Pink and it made me think of what I have already that I could use. Since I’ve been slightly obsessed lately with finally finding a good use for the basement pegboard, this was perfect. Especially since they even left us a big old variety of hooks and pegs. This would be especially awesome if you’re lucky enough to have a craft room or office of some type, especially the dowel rods for ribbons and such. Pegboard painted white or a pretty shade of pale blue? *Swoon* That would be perfection. But I don’t strive for perfection, I just wanted something functional and utilitarian and this has been fantastic.
Let’s just also put it out there that these are not my #1 photography masterpieces of all time. They’re in my basement with only fluorescent lighting at nighttime. I think even those of you who don’t give a lick about photography know how worst-case-scenario that is for trying to take a picture. I could have edited the heck out of them, but would sort of defeat the purpose of keeping it as a quick and easy project, no? So, without further ado, my new gift wrapping station:
I love it. I love having everything right there. I love not having paper all over the place and scraps hiding the tape and ribbon rolling off and falling on the floor. (Except the ribbon that’s not up there because a certain two-year-old found it all and unrolled every.single.spool. It’s tucked away in a bin for crafts now, otherwise the dowel would have been more full with pretty ribbons.) I especially love the Martha Stewart wrapping bits from Michael’s with 50% off coupons. I have been squirreling them away over the past few weeks and it’s making wrapping so.much.fun. Now I just need to decide if it’s fun enough that I even want to re-wrap a few of the things that I had already wrapped….I think I might:)
p.s This post is not sponsored by Michael’s of Martha Stewart. Obviously, or it would have been much prettier:)
The November Garden
Snow last weekend managed to kill almost everything left in the garden. Almost. When I went out to take some last pictures before we start putting it to bed, I realized that we still had carrots left that I had forgotten – yay! We also still have tons of herbs that I didn’t even realize were still alive. I planted them all individually since I didn’t have room for them at the beginning of the season, so they’re still all in pots that I think I will just bring inside to try to keep them going. They got lost amongst the nasturtium that took off like wildfire in the past month – a sweet surprise as everything else was one their last leg(and you can see a lot of their remnants in these pictures after the snow squashed them flat.)
Honestly, the garden was a bust this year. Between my work schedule and some major busts in planting and the learning curve of it only being my second ear gardening at all and a ton of rain and crazy heat at different points…it just never felt like it was in full swing. Certain things did well (beets, lettuces, peppers, carrots) and others just never quite got off the ground(the tomatoes were awful, beans, corn, melons, cucumbers, potatoes, strawberries, onions.)
The beauty of the garden – there’s always next year! A fresh clean slate to plan and order and be excited to grow again. I have big plans for a lot more flowers next year along with a few less attempts at lots of thing. More fine tuning of the things we really eat and more pretty to enjoy.
Any other November gardens out there still? How was yours this year? Any big plans for next year?
Shutterfly Winners!
Congrats Calmly Chaotic, Jenn and Felicia! Look for an email in your inbox from me soon:)
