Occasional boredom in an otherwise exciting life

Multitude Monday

2012-01-30T08:16:00.004-05:00

This past weekend I've been fascinated with Pinterest, to the point that I burned hot chocolate on the stove for 1.5 hours! It's the messages people are pinning that has piqued my curiosity. Some have messages of hope and inspiration, others have very negative words filled with self-gratitude. I realized how much words can quickly brand us as a positive or negative person and it made me want to fill my online spaces with positive words.

My twitter background now has the following inspiration (it's small here but scaled to fit Twitter):

This week I am thankful for:

261 - Inspiration boards, they give us pause and time to reflect on good things in the swirl of chaos a day can bring.
262 - Sunday family time, a day designated to spend time with our children and show them amazing things.
263 - Beautiful songs to start the day with (thank you to Still the Sea for posting this today)
264 - For social media, which allows us to quickly share family moments with our extended families in Maryland and Texas.
265 - For my husband who made sure I rested all day yesterday.

Sunday Family Time

2012-01-29T14:06:00.004-05:00

Today is Sam's 18mo birthday! Okay I know it's a little silly to celebrate 6mo b-day's but this is the only one we celebrate. There is just something really cool and nerve racking about 18mo that takes a toddler from bumbling to amazing climbing abilities small child.

Call our house any time during the day and you are bound to hear another parent in the background screaming at Sam to come back (as he high tails it to the road) or stop whatever destructive behavior he's engaged in (downward dog on chair with head pointed precariously to the edge?!!). Just yesterday I found myself screeching for him to NOT GRAB the tray of oranges off the table and husband commented that it was a little over the top. It's true, the more he reaches the higher our volume gets in an attempt to reach that determined little brain of his. Sigh! So I apologize in advance if you've called and heard one of us screeching in the background.

We celebrated 18mo with a trip to Cracker Barrel for Sweet Potato pancakes loaded with brown sugar/butter (good thing I'm pregnant!!!) followed by a trip to the epic Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton, FL which comes with a fantastic carousel and giant wooden fort with enough steps to preoccupy our determined climber.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2012-01-25T00:21:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday. This week our topics are:

1. What events from your past have helped form the professional you are today?

2. In looking through old journals, do you still recognize the person you were in college?

I spent the past weekend going through journals and sketch books in an attempt to clean up our overflowing garage. At first I only intended to downsize because we really want to minimize our clutter but then I got pulled into the journals and sketch books that had tons of notes from college. It was there I found ideas and dreams from 12 years ago that became the basis for my thought process as a professional.

I found notes from conferences that had inspired me but most importantly I found a passion for learning and advancing myself into a creative profession. I'm really glad I kept these sketch books and journals. My college self is an inspiration to me today to stay passionate about my career and seek the jobs and positions that will best bring out that passion for learning and advancement.

I'm looking forward to your stories, please link below and I'll be sure and stop by later this week.

Random Tuesday

2012-01-24T08:08:00.002-05:00

I've reached the 3rd trimester which comes complete with more exhaustion, more bathroom breaks and the feeling that my uterus is about to fall out after a weekend of handling kids, including almost 18mo who weighs 28lbs. My doctor tells me to stop picking him up and coincidentally he's suddenly wanting picked up more and stomps his tiny feet in frustration when I try to get on his level and get a hug. He wants UP. He wants my additional height to see things in the room. He wants entertainment and being on his level is not fun. I've been here before with Charlotte when I was pregnant with Sam so we will get through this.

Now I'm off to work early so I can fit in a yoga class! Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Sunday Family Time

2012-01-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

This year, we are trying to plan something for every Sunday to do as a family. We write it on the calendar and spend the prior week getting the kids pumped up. Today was Train Day! Our local Tradewinds park runs a little train every 3rd Sunday of the month and we've been looking forward to this since discovering the park in December of last year.

Charlotte was just recovering from her 4 day fever but since she woke up without any temperature we decided to still do train day.

Upon arrival to the ticket counter I was told that I could not ride the train because I was pregnant. Sounds silly right? But we are familiar with the strict park rangers in Florida, last year they wouldn't let our family of 4 ride in a canoe together because the rules stated 3 persons, regardless of one person being an infant at the time. It may sound funny but rules are rules and besides, now I'm available to take photos of our family on this cute little train.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2012-01-18T10:37:00.004-05:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday, the prompts for this week were inspired by a mid-January article suggesting the 17th to be the most depressing day of the year.

1. What are you doing to stay positive in January?
2. Or what is bothering you this month, making it hard to stay positive?

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Perhaps it's because I live in South Florida and get 250 days of sun but I don't find January to be depressing at all! It's the beginning of a new year, resolutions are still fresh and the weather outside is fantastic. Okay so I may live in paradise but there are other factors keeping me in a good mood:

1. I'm working on a new project that has me super jazzed. I personally get a ton of positive energy from working on exciting projects. It just seeps into every pore and I find myself constantly mulling over ideas and content.

2. I'm in the last trimester of pregnancy - lots of happy hormones keeping me positive and I've had a relatively easy pregnancy so I'm not uncomfortable at all.

3. Happy kids and happy dad at home, they are in a good routine with food, chores and playtime so our home life hums along at a happy pace. Yes there are still the daily hiccups like late dinners, Sam standing on the coffee table and getting in trouble or both kids refusing lunch but these are small things, overall they are good happy kids.

I'd love to hear your tips on how to stay positive during winter. Please link up below with your ideas. And even if you are not feeling so positive I'd love to know so I can pray for you!

Have a blessed day.

Multitude Monday

2012-01-16T06:37:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed this article in The Daily Beast, "Consumption makes us Sad? Science says we can be happy with less". The article suggests that happiness with new purchases is fleeting, once we get used to the new object it just becomes another gadget/car/thing in our lives. True happiness is found in DOING.

"It seems that most of us get more pleasure out of doing than out of having."

"Moreover, we don’t adapt to doing to the same degree that we adapt to having. The museum trip, the hike, the bike ride in the hills, the informal dinner with friends keep satisfying long after the Mercedes has stopped providing a thrill. And a great thing about at least some “doing” is that it doesn’t cost much money. Furthermore, people seem to get an extra shot of well-being juice when they do things that serve others rather than themselves."

With Multitude Monday I join hundreds of women in finding JOY by giving thanks for the many gifts in our lives. I tie this together with science in that "DOING" things with my children gives me great JOY and giving thanks for getting to do these things gives me double JOY!

Here are some of the gifts I am thankful to have experienced this past weekend (continuing my count to 1000):

251 - blowing bubbles with Charlotte on a cold January day
252 - chasing my children with a camera to capture their various hat photos on Hat Day
253 - planning the dress and sweater Charlotte would wear to church on Sunday
254 - taking my kids to the mall to play in the indoor playground
255 - wearing hats on Hat Day
256 - taking photos of gorgeous rainbow colored bubbles
257 - having software to edit photos from home
258 - sharing photos with friends and family on Facebook
259 - Sunday brunch with the kids where everyone gets to eat their favorite food
260 - Sharing chocolates with the kids

National Hat Day 2012

2012-01-15T21:02:00.004-05:00

Today is National Hat Day! I don't know where husband finds these days but we all rallied around in support. I spent the day chasing kids with a camera and most of the hats came out blurry. I need a faster camera!!

Budget Tips ~ Homemade Chocolate Milk and Mocha’s

2012-01-15T15:34:00.005-05:00

This past week I’m guilty of hitting up Dunkin Donuts 3 days in a row for iced mocha’s (pregnancy craving)! At $3.06 per day I’m feeling a little guilty and compelled to do something about it.

The first day of homemade mocha’s I found a hot chocolate packet and just added an espresso shot to the powder + milk. The second day I realized we had no more packets and found the only chocolate in the house to be Hersey’s special dark cocoa. Time for my childhood training to kick in! I recalled how my mom would make hot chocolate on the stove with unsweetened cocoa powder. It’s a little extra work but so worth the effort because it actually tasted better then packets and syrups (and without additives like colors and corn syrup).

Here’s the recipe:

¼ cup Hershey’s Cocoa special dark

½ cup Sugar

1/3 cup hot water

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Stir on stove until it boils for 2 minutes; add 4 cups of milk and heat until serving temperature stirring the entire time.

Now for the espresso, and here’s the really thrifty part:

Background – In my Pittsburgh college days, I worked at coffee shops to support myself. Not corporate coffee shops, small tiny shops that taught me how to make really excellent coffee with fresh roasted beans. I learned that unless you want to invest thousands of dollars into a machine that can force hot water through tightly packed fresh roasted, fresh ground espresso in 19 seconds to produce a perfect creama then you might as well settle for a cheap imitation. Therefore we’ve settled on the cheapest of all possible espresso makers – this lovely stove top for $24.99.

We live in South Florida so no lovely coffee shops to be found that roast and sell beans in small quantities so we just buy the store Starbucks bag - I suppose we could order online but then we'd have to pay shipping costs and I'm just not that much of a purist!

Back to the mocha part, I add 1/3 espresso coffee to 2/3 chocolate milk and a pile of ice. A homemade mocha!

Saturday ~ Bubbles and a Bear Walk

2012-01-14T21:22:00.001-05:00

Cold day outside, for us Floridians. We went to the mall in the morning to play indoors but by late afternoon the kids were itching to play outside. I was on a mission to clean and had made good progress until Charlotte put one hand on my arm and said "can we blow bubbles?"

Floors can wait. Dinner is just left overs. Sure, let's go blow some bubbles!

Sam makes his own fun and leads a bear walk back into the house. Seriously, everyone but me bear walked back into the house. Our family has no shame!

Do Working Moms Have More Guilt?

2012-01-13T09:01:00.001-05:00

Linking up with Susan DiMickele for Friday's "Working Mom's Devotional"

Question: Do Working Moms Have More Guilt?

Recently I’ve been hearing more comments from my stay at home friends that they feel guilty for not balancing as much as I seem to. They call me super mom and seem to feel a little down that they can’t keep up with me. So to answer this question, I guess it depends on the perspective of the individual. My SAHM friends feel guilt for not doing as much, sometimes I feel guilt for not spending more time with my kids. Not really sure who has more guilt. I think we can both have a tendency to pile too much on our plates and wish we had more time for our kids. It’s all about balance and finding the right fit for our families.

Just for fun, I googled the question and found a blog dedicated to to working mom's against guilt! It looks like a fun read!

Working Mommy Wednesday

2012-01-11T00:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday. This week our prompts are:

1. What are your "super mom" tips for balancing work and family life?
2. What are some of the biggest challenges you see facing you this year and how do you plan to tackle them?

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My super tip is meal planning. For 2011, I made a meal plan every week for dinners and bought groceries accordingly. To make this job go faster, I made an excel list of all the meals my family enjoys and then once a week I'd select 7 meals from that list. If feeling adventurous then I'd break out the cookbooks and reference a new recipe. If it's a good recipe, then it goes on the list. Provided we stuck to our meal chart, we stayed on budget.

After this year of conditioning, we are ready to move to the next step. I discovered The Better Mom's super handy meal chart that plans breakfasts, lunches and dinners!!! She even let's you download her template which I customized to fit our needs.

Lately husband and I have been wasting precious morning minutes debating breakfasts and lunches. I realized that by downloading this chart and making the entire week's decisions that we could save time and most importantly stress in the mornings.

This past weekend I created the following chart:
By day 3 I've noticed the following results:

Leftovers have been promptly eaten, which achieves one of my annual resolutions to not waste food - yeah!
Freezer meals are getting eaten because they are assigned
Breakfast is on the table faster because there's no discussion!

This chart took some effort to prepare and we even did revisions but once it's hanging on the fridge it makes the day go smoother! This works for us, now I'm looking forward to your ideas and blog posts! Link up below and I'll stop by later this week.

Random Tuesday

2012-01-10T06:08:00.003-05:00

Random Links:
Between Facebook, Twitter and my own internet browsing, I come across many interesting links. Here are a few you might find interesting:

Bi-Weekly Meal Plan - The Better Mom is probably the most organized person I've ever seen with meal planning! Now I plan dinners but never breakfasts AND lunches and for two weeks in advance. Mind blowing and very interesting to read for ideas.

You Never Marry the right person - This is a great post for anyone thinking they may have erred at some point in their marriage choice, or if you're just wishing your spouse was a different person. I love the points made that no one is perfect.

Do you sleep through the alarm bells in your life - I love this post, such a wake up call to get out of complacency and evaluate what life is really all about.

Random Photo:

Random Fact about me:
I have a desperate urge to make peanut butter cookies.

Have a great random Tuesday!!
ps. cold is significantly better, so thankful!!!

Multitude Monday

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I've come down with my 3rd major cold of this pregnancy. This is unprecedented, my prior two pregnancies were really healthy. I've never been more exhausted in my life so this will be brief but still with a thankful heart.

Counting up to 1000:
246 - Halls cough drops, they help a little to clear the nasal passage!
247 - Husband who takes over with the kids so I can take a hot bath on Sunday afternoon to relax and clear out nose.
248 - Spicy food, I can taste it with a cold! In particular spicy chocolate!!
249 - Husband willing to try new things and help me in the process. Today we made Rye Flour Apple Muffins just so I could use up the rye flour in the pantry. Then he raved over them like they were the best thing in the world!
250 - Warm bread with pesto and oil, in the words of my 3 year old "so good"!

Finding our way to the promise land

2012-01-08T21:43:00.001-05:00

Last year my husband challenged me to look forward to 2012 as our journey to the promise land. We evaluated our lives and realized we were stuck in a rut, living from one week to the next, meeting our physical needs but not focused on the future for our family.

January 8, 2012 – Pastor Bob preaches on “Victorious”

In the little bit I heard, due to being home sick with a cold and rambunctious kids playing while we try to listen to online church, I heard Pastor Bob preach about Christians living in the wilderness because they are too complacent to put in the effort to find the promise land. He challenged us to get out of the world of mediocrity and live in the land of promise.

I feel like this goes perfectly with what my husband challenged me to do. Find our way to the promise land. Get out of mediocrity.

What does that mean to me? How does one move from wilderness to the promise land? Well it means following God’s call for our lives.

2 Peter 1:10 Therefore brethren, give diligence all the more to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.

Peter is saying to be diligent to discover and find you’re calling in life. Make your election sure by knowing you are saved and ready for life in heaven. If you do these things you will never stumble.

There is something that matches the burden in your heart; that is your calling.

What is my calling? I believe it’s the voice that speaks to me every Sunday as opportunities are offered over the pulpit to get involved in short term mission trips, 4 Kids of South Florida, Compassion trips, serving in our church and in our community.

In the past several years I’ve been struggling with my work schedule and my husband’s schedule. Between us we cover working hours Monday – Saturday, with only Sunday’s off as designated family time.

Even though we have small children we want to serve in our community but we cover too many working hours with no family support to help with childcare.

I’d love to say I’m satisfied with serving my family but this hunger will not go away. Every week it gets stronger to do more with my life. I might be 26 weeks pregnant with my 3^rd child and it be impractical for me to serve at this point in my life, but I can still do the preparatory steps to get our family there in 6 – 12 months. So that’s what we are doing, preparing to move from the wilderness to the promise land. 2012 is our journey of faith.

One Word to describe 2012

2012-01-06T20:13:00.004-05:00

The inspiration keeps coming from bloggers writing about their New Years resolutions. Mary Demuth is hosting a link up for one image to describe our one word focus for this year.

Our family word is FREEDOM.

My husband and I have some very specific and personal goals regarding debt, finances and happiness. We are not ready to share them as much prayer and preparation is needed but this word and image is the perfect summary.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2012-01-04T09:14:00.005-05:00

Welcome to our first WMW of 2012! I'm so excited to get us started with the following posts:

1. Describe how a company can prove they value you as an employee.
2. New Years Resolutions - share!

I've already posted my New Years resolutions on Monday, feel free to scroll down to check them out if you are interested. Today I'm going to talk about how a company can prove they value you as an employee.

Value can be proven through monetary means which is important! However, I've found that once salary is settled and I'm in a mid-year routine of coming to work and dealing with stressful situations that other things go a long way to prove I'm valued.

1. This past Monday, first working day of the year, I walked in the door and my boss shouted "come over here and let me give you a hug"! He's a Latin guy, they can be very huggy. It really made my day! It was a cheerful way to start the year and I appreciate being valued enough for a big hug.

2. Last year I got a surprise text on Fathers Day from my boss telling me to take the family out for dinner and bring the check in for reimbursement. It was a surprise and showed value.

3. Even in volunteer work the receiver can show value through thankfulness. I helped my friend Katrina redesign her blog, The Poorganic Life. I really enjoyed the process of working with her because she is a lovely person with outstanding morals. And I definitely glowed when she repeatedly told me how much she appreciated the work I was doing for her.

4. I've recently started working as a consultant for a wonderful online company called Still The Sea. One day I'm sitting in my office and my phone blings with this message from Twitter:

@rubberbacon sitting in a coffee bar, telling everyone here how amazing you are. You know that right? You are amazing.

That last one had me beaming for the rest of the day!

I cannot emphasize how much a hug, a surprise gift, pat on the back and words of encouragement can do for the spirit. It takes even a hard worker bee like me and makes me superwoman. So managers, if you want your people to work astoundingly hard for you, give them praise and recognition. They will do miracles for you.

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I look forward to reading your stores! Please link up below and I'll stop by later this week.

Random Tuesday

2012-01-02T22:16:00.005-05:00

New Years Resolutions:
I love how January brings a super high of motivation in writers to express New Year's Resolutions, goals and even single words to declare their intentions for the new year. I've also seen refreshed blogs, announcements of new books and exciting new link-up adventures in the past 2 days! So much creativity in the air!! It's very inspiring.

On Sunday I heard a snippet of Calvary Chapel's 2011 New Year's message and it was about Revolutions rather than Resolutions. I thought that was a nice twist on the concept. I won't elaborate, you can gather your own assumptions from what it means to start a revolution in your life.

My resolutions are in the post below, sort of a rehash of last years but at least one area I'm still trying to fix! Actually I feel like mine are kinda boring in comparison to all the great posts I've been reading but I don't care, they are my areas to fix and they are important to me.

Baking Obsession Update:
- Now that pumpkin season is over, I've decided to give squash a fighting chance for my love and adoration. Somehow I just assumed it would be more hollow inside, apparently only the ball section has seeds!

My 1st Butternut Squash

My 2nd set of Butternut Squash Muffins (because they were that good)

I won't bore you with the recipe here, if you want it please let me know in the comments and I'll be happy to share.

Random Photo:

Have a great Random Tuesday!!

Multitude Monday

2012-01-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

1st Sunday of the year deserves family time at the beach. In fact, we plan to make 1st Sunday of every month dedicated family day. So often we get caught up by chores that it's nice to have this dedicated time to our kids. It hit me today that it's been 3 months since our last beach day; that's kinda shameful when you think of the longing our friends and families feel towards going to the beach. I'm so thankful that we live in this wonderful environment!

Working towards 1000 thankful things:

231 - Thankful for having the extra "time" mid-day on a work day to take pre-natal yoga class!
232 - Working in a creative environment is a gift.
233 - Extra Pillows
234 - Baby kicks while I lay quietly waiting for sleep
235 - Lunch with kids and husband, as a working mom it's rare and wonderful!
236 - Budget for Chick-Fil-A when errands run late and children are tired and hungry.
237 - Enthusiastic kisses from 17mo son.
238 - Watching my daughter run for the playground with a heart for of joy!
239 - A weekend dedicated to my kids!
240 - All the greenery in South Florida, what a beautiful place to live.
241 - Free water to water my house plants (well it's covered by city taxes so it seems free).
242 - My daughter's hair blowing in the beach breeze.
243 - My son's face covered in sand as he explores coral and shell bits.
244 - My husband making sand castles with the kids
245 - Family time at our favorite restaurant after the beach

Happy New Year MMXII

2012-01-01T09:25:00.003-05:00

Ooooh look it's that time for New Year's Resolutions! But first a recap of last year's resolutions:

Rest - stop running around like a maniac and cleaning every time the kids nap, rest when they rest.
Food - stop throwing away food
Friends - find more ways to value my friends

I accomplished 2 out of 3!
1. Rest - I did really good with this one, it was hard to put down the cleaners but I did it and maybe more in part to being pregnant again but at least it's a resolution kept!

2. Food - I'm so disappointed in myself for this one. I'm still throwing away left-overs every week. I think we've gotten better but the fact that we still throw away food makes me very sad. I sat in a conference recently where Shawn Groves, from Compassion, talked about how the poor kids in many areas do not have 3 meals per day, he asked if any of us have left overs and if we do, then to please sponsor a child. Of course I cried and signed up another Compassion child and it stuck with me. Guilt over throwing away food. This is now my only resolution for 2012. I'd like to come back in December and say I'm down to 0 food wastage. Is that even possible??? And while on the subject of food, I'd like to feed my family healthier options.

3. Friends - I have to say I worked really hard at this one in 2011. I'll keep going with it in 2012.

So for 2012, my goals are still three (easier to maintain right?):
1. Food - reduce wastage to 0 by year's end
2. Friends & family - continue to find ways to value the wonderful people in my life
3. Faith - pursue my faith in God with daily prayer and study

If you've made any resolutions, please share them with me. I love reading other people's goals!!

Fragmented

2011-12-29T20:46:00.005-05:00

That's my state of mind. So this might not be the best time to write but I've been ghastly at keeping in touch with my fellow blog writers these days so not sure who's paying attention anyway. Just a little warning, this will be extremely fragmented but I have a free hour and feel the need to wrap up this month in some way because it is after all, the 29th!

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Today Sam turned 17mo old, and his toddler bed arrived. He will spend his first night in the toddler bed. Oh the celebrations we had getting in and out of bed and reading first book on bed. I demanded husband get the safety gate out of the garage, you know the one that keeps them safely tucked in like they are still in a crib because I literally cannot sleep thinking he will roll out, even though it's only a one foot drop. Husband disagrees and thinks the boy needs to just learn to stay in bed. I win.

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I'm 25 weeks pregnant tomorrow. In my doctor's appt. yesterday I learned that I've gained 9lbs in 7 weeks. See, that's what holiday's and only the occasionally pre-natal yoga class will do for you! This coming from a women who in prior pregnancies walked 3 miles a day and gained a modest 25lbs per pregnancy. What has happened?

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Today I said goodbye to a dear friend at work who's moving on to something better so I really can't be too sad, I'm just sad she won't be there every day to talk to. Now I'm stuck with three rowdy guys, oh wait, I know there is a silver lining here somewhere? I'm joking, honestly they are all great guys, I just miss having a girl friend around every day.

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I made lasagna tonight. Why do I continue to trick myself into thinking I can do it like really fast, in 30 minutes. I'd like to establish right now that it takes a full hour to assemble, and that's even with pre-made sauce and pre-cooked sausage and pre-cut onions. One.Full.Hour. So when coming home from work at 6 and already hungry, just remember, it takes one hour to assemble and 45 minutes to cook so you will be eating at 7:45 - but it will be so worth it.
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I've given up on grocery shopping. Even without the kids I come home exhausted. So now I will make elaborate lists for husband, with contingency notes like "cottage cheese must be Breakstone's 4% small curd or put it back and don't even think about substituting store brand"! I just have to be very detailed and I'll get accurate results.

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Back to the baby update, nothing to report except that I missed a spinal something test. No one called me to say I needed it and now it's too late. Oh yeah, and I need to call the perinatal center back for a follow up ultrasound in two weeks because my doctor told me to. By then I'll be 27 weeks, a good time to get caught up on babies weight and development.

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I had a freak accident at work when I tried rebuilding my Mac Entourage email program and accidentally moved everything to my desktop and off the company server. Mind you I've worked with Mac's for 11 years and have done this like once a year and never had a problem. Soooo, in the process of tech guy moving everything back to the server, I randomly lost phone contacts and appointments. It's been a strange week of discovering who's missing in the phone and what appointments I need to show up for. My husband's been saying for years that we need to have a paper back-up of all our contacts and I scoffed, but honey, they are backed up at the trusty work SERVER!!! Well, he wins this round.
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So I guess we are 1/1 and at least he gets lasagna for dinner. A well deserved meal for putting Sam's bed together and washing the dog all in one night.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-12-28T00:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the last week of Welcome Mommy Wednesday for 2011. Today's prompts are:

1. Highlight your best post of 2011!

2. Name the most important thing you've accomplished in 2011.

3. Name the one thing you are thrilled to leave behind in 2011.

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Things I'm thrilled to leave behind in 2011:

1. Small Jewels - our daughter is obsessed with small jewels and it drives us crazy because she constantly drops them in the lawn or house. We really hope she drops this obsession!

2. Pregnancy - okay I can leave half of it behind! Now up to 24 weeks.

3. Baking - well at least the cookies part, husband has declared I'm on my own if I bake any more cookies.

4. Clutter - oh how I long to have a clutter free home! Someone please visit and take whatever you fancy (except the Christmas gifts of course).

Only four things? Well that's all I can think of right now! Looking forward to catching up with everyone this week, please link below.

Boxing Day for the workoholic

2011-12-26T13:07:00.004-05:00

I LOVE this day!

At first I was kinda dreading it. Of an office with 9, only 2 are present today and I'm one them. What? I have to go to work with just one other person? My entire client base AND Hong Kong office is on vacation. Come on!!!

But I have never felt so productive! No distractions, I can choose silence or blasting my favorite music. Lunch at my desk. Quick jaunt out to get new tires on my car, back in 15 minutes. This is turning out to be a really cool day!

Maybe the quiet time is cathartic after a weekend of squealing, hyper kids maxed out on sugar? Yes, that's what it is. Quiet time. I love this!!!

I really feel for single mom's

2011-12-24T08:51:00.003-05:00

On Friday's and Saturday's I get a little taste of what it might be like to be a single mom. Husband works these two days in retail. Over the month of December he works extended hours which means leaving on Friday from 2-12am and then 7am-5pm on Saturday. This means I do all his night time chores along with getting the kids to bed by myself and up again on Saturday. It's alot of work!!!

Last night they had hot dogs for dinner, anything more elaborate would likely create tons of mayhem and I've learned to not make any noise while they nap so I can't get an early start.

I got Sam to bed first at 8pm because if I do them both together, Charlotte does things she does not do when both parents are present such as talking excessively, banging feet and keeping Sam awake. So she gets to sit on the couch and watch "Shaun the Sheep" while I get Sam to sleep. Then she wants a bath, which is actually fine because putting them both in the bath together by myself has become a series of difficult steps I'm no longer willing to do while pregnant - think dragging almost 30lb wet boy in and out of tub and monitoring water battles. So we do Charlotte's bath solo, put her in pajamas which she promptly covers in toothpaste, change pajamas and get her to bed by 9:15! Ah, so much for an evening to myself.

Finish dishes, let dog out, feed cats, read for 15 minutes and sleep.

Saturday morning husband wakes me to say goodbye at 7am, I must have forgotten to set alarm because I meant to wake up and make his coffee. Get up, load laundry, walk dog and take out trash. Come back get shower and get kids up. By 8am Sam has bit Charlotte on the head before I can manage to get breakfast out.

9:13 - both are fed but I can't find Charlotte's shoes - the only pair she will wear and Sam is creating more havoc! So I'm signing off to find shoes and get these kids OUTSIDE TO PLAY!!!

Charlotte

2011-12-21T21:12:00.003-05:00

I came home from work tonight to find my little girl watching "A Christmas Carol". Her brother bounced off me a few times and bounded around the room while husband made dinner. Charlotte was quiet. I marveled at her attention span for such a serious movie. As dinner was served, I realized she had a fever so husband took her to the bedroom for some medicine and temperature while I served Sam a grand dish of bean and ham soup. We finish and he's taken to bed by dad while I resume the movie with Charlotte. We let her stay up late and she gets to eat blackberries for dinner. By movies end she's feeling better. I guess an extra hour up with mom and dad with special treatment will do that because she assured me she was all better. Lots of "I love you's" hugs and kisses. Some days my little girl can be so sweet.

Dig Deeper

2011-12-14T23:27:00.000-05:00

Jill would be 30 this year, if she had not died from a drug overdose 2 years ago today. I found out about her death a year after it happened, because I was an absent friend.

Jill's death changed me in a profound way. I learned to dig deeper into the lives of those actively participating within my orbit. In this past year I've tried to push beyond my quiet introverted self to be more involved in my friends lives and I can honestly say I'm a happier person.

Phone calls, text messages, Facebook, in person get-together with girl friends from high school - all priceless moments in this year.

In addition, I've tried to reach into my blog community for those in need or just looking for encouragement. I hope I've made an impact in your lives, you certainly have in mine.

I'm still a work in progress as I learn to dig deeper. I hope to never again go a year without calling a friend back.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-12-14T01:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday! This week's topics are:

1. What "Christmas activity" did you over commit to this year?

2. Do you find yourself more organized at work or at home?

#1
I find it so easy to over-commit during the Christmas season, but the momentum is built in the prior months. First we have Halloween and Pumpkin patches in October, then Thanksgiving in November and finally Christmas! It's three months of changing decorations, seasonal movies, non-stopping planning of activities and baking!

I have noticed Twitter is blazing with blog posts full of advise on how to not over-do it this season. My personal favorite was written by a dear bloggy friend, The Poorganic Life, who advises to not be a "Charity Slut" this year. It's particularly funny because I know this person already gives far more to charity then the average bird so for her to write this was hilarious.

So where did I over do it this year?

Baking.

I have lost track on how many pumpkins I've cooked and pureed. Well over 10, the last tragic act was dumping an entire pan of pumpkin muffins upside down into the oven. Wouldn't you know it was the last pumpkin available to me of the season! How will I go on?

I have baked 11.5 dozen chocolate chip cookies, 10.5 dozen peanut butter cookies, 4-5 dozen muffins, 1 sheet of tiger butter, 2 sheets of Christmas bark, 1 banana bread and 1/2 dozen of apple/cherry turnovers which may be the best thing I've ever made!

I'm done.

I have shipped out packages to 8 friends and family and I'm incredibly sorry if you were not included on the list. Honestly I had planned on sending more but I ran out of time and energy and I think my husband might be tired of cleaning up after me, or at least of cleaning up after the entire house I've ignored. My kids might also be a little tired of the intense attention my kitchen has received and my bills are lagging.

So I bid you goodbye dear kitchen. I must return to a normal life!

I'm looking forward to your stories. Please link up below and I'll be sure and stop by your bloggy pad later this week.

Random Tuesday

2011-12-12T22:35:00.008-05:00

Hi random Tuesday, I've been absent for a few weeks. Sorry about that. I've been baking cookies for two weekends straight and working with a few bloggy friends on some exciting projects.

Oh did you notice the Fall boarder is STILL UP? Yeah, I've been THAT busy! Oh well, at least the colors are pretty and calming. I promise to put winter up before January hits.

Christmas season with the kids has been fun. We put our tree up on a trunk (like Stacy), great minds think alike! It keeps the ornaments out of kids way. Another friend put a gate around their tree. I love how innovative parents have to be to keep kids away from ornaments!

Random image of sibling love

Have a great Tuesday!

Just another random Sunday

2011-12-11T20:40:00.002-05:00

My little girl takes care of me

2011-12-10T22:41:00.004-05:00

When my kids are accommodating I will pack in as much as possible. Today began with us leaving the house by 9:35am, a record with two small ones under four. We started at Old Time Pottery where I bought six tins for $1.22 each - is that phenomenal or what! Charlotte enjoyed ooohing and ahhing over all the Christmas decorations.

We moved onto our church thrift store where the kids ran wild as I tried to check prices on bunk beds and realized that Charlotte is afraid of heights, maybe we won't be going this route after all.

Third stop, Costco - on a Saturday. Packed store at 11:30 with hungry kids. My imagination says we can be in and out in 30 minutes. Reality is 1.5 hours! Well we did stop at every food station, Charlotte and Sam have become little foodies, wanting to try everything! Even fish spread on crackers! If I tried half this stuff at home it would be soundly rejected. But the allure of Costco vendors is impossible to resist. There is Christmas bark, brownies, brie with hot pepper raspberry sauce on crackers, Pillsbury crescents with spinach dip inside, roasted deli chicken on a toothpick, special juices and on and on. Oh the wonders of Costco! Thankfully I have the sense to know they will not eat these things at home so I stay on budget. Somehow we manage to weave through the masses and collect our goods. Stopping briefly so Charlotte can play a piano and play inside a kids kitchen that is a stunning replica of a real kitchen! We finally make our way to the front and stop for pizza and hotdogs before leaving.

Home by 2, Sam in crib by 2:30 - is it any wonder I was completely exhausted in my 22nd week of pregnancy. I put a movie on for Charlotte and laid down for 10 minutes to rest my eyes. She came in after 10 minutes, removed my socks and covered me with a blanket. All the while telling me to stay asleep. It was so cute. She took "care" of me! She came back in 30 minutes and told me I needed to keep sleeping. So I did! I must have really needed it.

These things are impossible to plan, these little moments in life just happen unexpectedly and yet so perfectly.

Adventures in Baking!

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

Year 2 of marathon baking cookies, candy and muffins for friends and family as gifts. I've got a few tips to share after baking 11.5 dozen cookies, 2 dozen muffins and 1 sheet of candy (so far).

Christmas Tins:
* Before Black Friday, Big Lots had an entire aisle of tins $3.00 each!
* Old Time Pottery has same priced tins at this time, I'm going out for 6 more this weekend with a 15% off coupon.

Ingredients:
* Buy bulk at Costco, my happiest day was finding a giant bottle of vanilla at Costco for the same price as one 1/4 of it's size in the regular grocery store.
* Don't use specialty ingredients on Friends and Family. Just go with good old white flour, even if your little family is on board with white wheat or regular wheat, snacks just taste better with white flour.

Timing:
* Don't assume your three year old has any interest in helping except to eat the batter and beg for more. She will say "but I HAVE to eat more!" Such drama!
* Just do everything after they go to bed! Or while another adult is supervising, although even a barrier in front of the kitchen will not stop the most determined child from getting through and seeing what his mama is up to.

Equipment:
* Buy a cookie scoop, it will change your life! No more sticky fingers scraping cookie dough from a spoon. AND your cookies will finally come out in the quantity the recipe states! Seriously I don't know how I lived before the cookie scoop!

Know when to quit:
* I just had to do that last pan of muffins at 9:45pm! I forgot the sugar topping and not seeing a pot holder nearby, reached in to pull the pans out bare handed! It worked for the 1st pan but the second was hotter and I dropped it! Upside down into the oven!!! Requiring us to turn off oven and spend a half hour cleaning!!! Pumpkin muffins that I had just lovingly pureed that morning and let drain all day just for this purpose! I was devastated to say the least.

2011 Christmas Card!

2011-12-07T13:27:00.001-05:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-12-07T01:00:00.002-05:00

Hi Ladies, welcome back to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday. I'm sure you are all busy with getting ready for the holiday's, I sure am! Here are the posts for this week:

1. Every January we get the question, what are your New Year's Resolutions. Well before that hits, let's take a minute to reflect on the goals we had for this year and what was a success or non-success! This can be work or home related.

2. What toys (gifts) are on your hot list for the kids?

TOYS
Oooh what's the toy designer going to get for her kids??? I know you are breathless to find out. Actually my attitude towards toys and my kids is surprisingly casual. I like to watch their interest in a particular subject and then encourage that activity. A few examples:

Sam - is into lots of noise, he's loves maraca's and drums so I settled on the First Act Disney Acoustic guitar for $18.88 at Walmart. He also loves balloons so I might just fill a box with balloons for him. Can you imagine, a big wrapped box filled with balloons for a 1 year old???

Charlotte - got a matching guitar because if she see's Sam with one she will be green with envy and they do a really pretty one for girls. However, she's proving a little more challenging to shop for because she changes her mind every day on what is cool. Tonight before bed, she asked for a purple present for Christmas. That could be anything! Recently at Target she fell in love with some red sparkly shoes so I'll probably go back and get those. And she loves her shirts covered in sparkly things so I thought a bedazzler might be a good idea but husband totally nixed the idea - I think it's because he doesn't want to be caught doing the bedazzling. She loves Squinkies but we had to ban them because Sam kept putting them in his mouth. She believes her collection is resting safe in Texas with Mema, she said so tonight, six months after visiting Texas. Good memory little girl!

That's my list so far! I'm looking forward to your posts. Link up below and I'll stop by your bloggy pad some time this week!

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-11-30T01:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome back to Working Mommy Wednesday! We took last week off to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, I hope everyone had a truly restful weekend. Our prompts for this week are:

So, did you get sucked into the excitement and drama of Black Friday? If so, what deals did you snag?? And for our international gal, has our shopping madness spread to your area?
Four day weekends are nice but the transition back to work can be challenging! How are you doing with the transition?

BLACK FRIDAY

I was so determined to not get sucked into the consumer madness this year. I had plans for baked gifts and photo books for friends and family. I wanted a day off from consumerism.

Black Friday husband says to me, I'll keep Charlotte home if you want to run out and get a few things. Oh really? Now that's a game changer. If you've ever shopped with a three year old you may agree, they do not make good shoppers. Mine has gotten to the point that she'll say to me "mommy I'll stay in the van and watch another movie on your iPhone while you run in the store". I'm like sweetie, that's illegal, you HAVE to come into the store. Which of course she doesn't understand so I spend 5 minutes trying to negotiate going into the store as a "family". Suffice it to say, she's tricky to shop with. So after considering my options, stay home on principle? Or shop with surly threeager on the weekend while husband works? I think I'll just pop into a few shops and get a few things.

So there you have it, I'm a hypocrite and I will never disparage black Friday ever again!

I got the kids Christmas clothes at Khol's for $23.95. I got a bag full of tins at Big Lots for $15.00, husband's birthday present for $6.95 and a free 8x10 photo at Walgreens in 2 hours. Those deals were good!! I get it! It's a shopping day that works if stick to a strict budget/game plan.

I look forward to hearing your stories. Link up below and I'll stop by your bloggy corner this week.

To be truly victorious, one must fail miserably

2011-11-26T13:37:00.005-05:00

I've had weekends where I do everything wrong and fail miserably at parenting. I may have the right intentions for my family, like spending a morning doing the grocery list while letting the kids watch TV as I did last weekend. It resulted in angry kids, tugging and pulling at me to get away from the computer and downright surly that I was ignoring them. The store experience just got worse from there.

This weekend, probably due to the extra days of Thanksgiving, I already had my grocery list complete so when breakfast finished and first tugging started, I said, let's go to the park!

Hurray! Say's both kids as we put shoes on and clamor out the door.

We have this lovely tropical gardens/mini parrot zoo nearby for only $3.00 entry - total! I haven't been in over a year so Charlotte forgot about it. But now that Sam's walking I figured he'd enjoy the rustic paths and interesting little stone characters they place throughout the gardens. Actually he enjoyed splashing in the water pots even more but that's okay.

Sam is at the age where I love to watch kids learn. He's been walking for 2 months now and has the most adorable habits. When he approaches a steep down hill or really rough path he gets down on two hands and crab walks along. I love this age. I goes by so fast. He doesn't say much but you can see his little investigative mind taking in all the sights. Picking up nuts and rocks, studying each intently.

Charlotte has alot to say these days and she's learned a good deal since we were here last. She can now name every stone animal in the tropical jungle! She can clamor up into chairs and run so fast that she even got lost once or twice - which doesn't bother me in the least because the garden is gated in and we are the only ones here. She hops up into a chair and announces herself as "Queen Charlotte".

While the kids play, I take photos of Florida's beautiful and unique tropical plants. These photos are also for all you folks already experiencing winter! Enjoy!

We came home by 11:30, had kids lunch served before noon and Sam in bed before 1pm. Charlotte watched Beauty and the Beast and "willingly" went to bed by 1:15! Now that my friends makes me a victorious mom!

20 weeks!

2011-11-25T09:41:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T15:47:00.002-05:00

Today Charlotte learned to ride her bike!

Multitude Monday - Learning to care for myself

2011-11-21T20:19:00.004-05:00

I haven't been taking care of myself lately. I didn't realize this when my legs began to hurt last week. I have this weird achy leg syndrome that I've had since high school and it basically means my legs will occasionally hurt all over, not enough to stop walking, more of just a nagging annoying pain. I forgot that if unattended, leads directly to severe leg cramps that wake me screaming in the night for husband to fix it. Which leads to sore calves for 3-5 days afterwards and this morning hobbling to the bathroom. Which leads me to finally do something about it.

Research indicates lack of electrolytes, potassium, calcium and general lack of activity or overabundance of activity. Mental check list, I've stopped eating/drinking milk, yogurt and bananas - yep that will do it! And spent the weekend carting around 15mo who weighs 26lbs while 5mo pregnant (yes he can walk, he just missed me I guess). Again check. No wonder my calves are screaming in pain.

So I've started doing the following:
* drinking Emergen-C packets of 1,000mg of Vitamin C twice per day
* 30 minute bath twice a day to soak legs
* one smoothie per day with banana, blueberries, flax seed, honey, yogurt and soy milk (soy is only because I need to use up the soy milk MIL bought when she was here)
* Absolutely no heels for remainder of pregnancy (not that I've been wearing lately any but was favoring white wedge 3" sandals a few weeks back - hey don't hate me for still wearing sandals, it's hot down here!)

And that's about all I've had time to fit in. I'm also supposed to do morning stretches, night stretches, drink 6-8 cups of water (doing about half of that) get up every hour to walk and take at least one walk per day at lunch. I'm just not good at prioritizing my own needs. I work at an exasperatingly hectic toy company and every minute spent socializing or personal time is one minute longer in the office at the end of the day because the work has to get done when one is in charge of a department. Regardless, I still left at 6:45 and got home at 7 with only an hour to spend with the kids. Soooooooo, you see my dilemma.

Well at least I'm trying!

Last week my yoga teacher said mothers/wives need to take care of themselves because we are the pillars of our family. Our health, happiness and outlook on life is the foundation of our families happiness because they feed off our maternal energy. Happy mom, happy family. Tired achy mom, grouchy family. I owe it to my family to take care of myself! I really do. So if you see me loitering on Facebook or Twitter just give me a shout out to go drink a smoothie and take a walk.

On with the thankfulness!!!

226 - blueberry smoothies
227 - unexpected grace for a mistake made at work
228 - pantry so full of food that I can make 2 weeks of meal plans and still have food left over!
229 - safety for Sam's return to our home
230 - for weekends with the family where we have no goals, just time spent with our kids.

I hope whoever is reading will have a beautiful week with your family. It's Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday!!

LIFE - after 15mo returns (hold me)

2011-11-18T14:36:00.007-05:00

Sam is back (my 15mo old)! After a two week trip to Texas with his Mema he has made a grand return with more energy then any of us remember. Seriously folks, go without a 15mo for two weeks and you might be tricked into thinking life is a breeze. Your three year old is content to quietly draw, watch movies and read books for hours with no shouting at anyone for control of whatever she's obsessed with. Only the occasional drama of finding a lost toy or correct Netflix cartoon. Suddenly you have time to clean and keep a house clean. Time to cook and finish 1st daughters baby book! Time to stop and plan the future with husband in a relaxed unfrazzled manor.

Then The Boy returns and ALL HELL breaks loose. Toys are strewn everywhere as far as the eye can see. Competition for toys is fierce and many battles break out. Competition for attention from dad (recipient of first day home with both kids) rages throughout the day with The Boy alternating to clinging to dad like velcro and slinging toys around with wild abandon. Refusal of naps intensifies the drama culminating in The Boy's first slap at sister! That's right, he hit his sister for the first time. He came back with major attitude! Don't worry, we don't lay any blame on TX family for this startling change. Oh no, we have past experience with 15mo attitude and we were anticipating it but still - shock and disbelief remain.

So I'm home from work. I've switched off with husband for our mid-day Friday swap. I get off at 1:30 he leaves for work at 2:00. And I wait, I wait for my children to wake from their naps and go at it full force again. I got my swat gear on and afternoon snacks planned out.

Deep breath mama. You CAN do this!

ps. photo post nap

"What? You don't want all sheets on the floor?"

Random Compliments

2011-11-17T08:32:00.000-05:00

Monday night - I noticed our neighbor girl was wearing a beautiful skirt, she must have been going somewhere important. The next day, as we passed on the path I told her she looked awesome in that skirt. She was puzzled by my compliment. It was random but I think the best compliments are unexpected.

Tuesday - I stopped for free curly fries at Arby's. What? I'm pregnant, I can do that. The cashier referred me to the manager who never once tried to make me feel silly for coming in for free fries and nothing else. In fact, she went out of her way to smile. She looked me directly in the eye and smiled as she took my order. She smiled as she went to pick up the fries, she looked down at the receipt to catch my name that her associate had written down, and then smiled as she handed them to me and told me by name to have a nice day. I couldn't resist, I told her she had a very beautiful smile. She made my day brighter.

Random compliments and smiles at strangers are beautiful gestures that make our world a happier place.

Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe

2011-11-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

I lived in Pittsburgh from 1994 - 1997 and I worked in coffee shops to support myself while I going through college. One of my favorite coffee shop memories is Cranberry Orange Muffins. I've looked high and low for a replacement muffin with disappointing results. Recently I decided to make my own muffins but finding a recipe has been challenging. Not enough orange for my taste, or a recipe that looks boring. Finally I decided to just create my own recipe based off another successful one I loved over the summer.

Cranberry Orange Muffin Recipe

1 cup of cranberries, diced in food processor
1 Tablespoon of orange juice
1 cup of White Wheat Flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 cup oil (use your favorite oil or switch with melted butter)
1/3 cup sour cream (or yogurt)
1 egg
Turbanado sugar (for sprinkling on top of muffins)

Pre-heat oven to 400.

In medium sized bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking powder. In separate bowl, beat egg, add oil and sour cream. Combine wet, dry and cranberries in one bowl, mix only until all dry ingredients are combined.

This makes 8 regular sized muffins or 24 mini muffins. I use an ice cream scoop for regular size muffins to create an even batter per muffin cup. Once muffins are happily sitting in the muffin tin, sprinkle turbanado on top of each (also known as sugar in the raw at coffee shops).

Bake mini muffins for 12-14 minutes. Bake regular sized muffins for 22-24 minutes.

Best while hot! If you try it please let me know, I love to get feedback!!!

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Working Mommy Wednesday! This week's prompts are:

Let’s talk about toys! What toys are you excited to purchase for your little ones for Christmas?

Are you excited about Thanksgiving? What plans do you have?

Thanksgiving
Five years ago (pre kids), my husband and I went to Texas for Thanksgiving and made dinner for the entire family! I think it was our last with family because we've been stuck in Florida ever since due to his job not allowing off time for Oct - Dec. This has not tempered my enthusiasm for preparing an entire Thanksgiving meal for 2 adults - well not too much.

Last year I hit my limit with turkey. I've struggled to find the smallest bird and wrestle it through all the pre-day preparations - brine soaks, etc. I've spent the entire morning of Thanksgiving tending the bird every 30 minutes and timing all other meals around this one object taking up my entire small oven. I've grown downright resentful of the turkey! The mess to clean up after dinner, family not wanting the leftovers after three days.

Last year, we got so hungry at noon we went to Whole Foods for lunch! We found they have turkey and the entire trimmings in the buffet bar! An idea formed. What if I prepare all my specialty dishes - and just buy prepared turkey from the buffet bar? Sure I'll miss the pretty bird sitting in the center of the table but with two small ones underfoot I'd rather just enjoy the day with as little stress as possible!

My Thanksgiving Menu

Breakfast:

Cranberry Orange Muffins
Chorizo Egg and cheese burritos

Lunch (which can be packed in a cooler and taken to a park or beach):

Cold Fettuccine with red peppers and chicken (can be pre-made)

Dinner:

Cornbread Sausage Stuffing - my only regret is not being able to stuff it, however, with a crock pot, I might be able to replicate the results. I make the cornbread at least one day before Thanksgiving.
Cranberry Sauce - from a CAN! That's for husband and only special because he loves it!
Plain Mashed Potatoes
Canned Green Beans Organic (from Whole Foods)
Turkey and Gravy (from Whole Foods)
Homemade Pumpkin pie with pumpkin puree that I've made from fresh sugar pumpkins - totally worth the effort and the puree can be made weeks in advance.

I put the most effort into the pie and stuffing. All other dishes are quick and easy to make, low stress!

I'm looking forward to your stories! Link up below and I'll be sure and visit your blog later this week.

Random Tuesday: A 3 year olds curious movie references

2011-11-15T07:22:00.002-05:00

How often do you find yourself, as an adult, struggling to remember what movie "so and so" acted in. You find yourself saying things like, it had that guy who's bald and always acts in extreme adventure movies and his name is....... At this point a friend might helpfully chime in Jason Statham!

However, a three year old has less ways to reference her favorite movie, and a parent would do careful justice to watch all movies at least 2-3 times to catch all obscure references a 3 year old might remember and thus demand said movie by obscure title.

Key examples (as experienced just this past week):

"Mama, mama I want to watch "The Hand" movie." Huh? Honey, go ask daddy, I don't know of any movie with a hand in it. Daddy unfortunately has no visual memory of a movie predominately displaying a hand. Finally, mystery solved as we discover "Flushed Away" tucked away in an oft used DVD player and our joyful daughter demands to watch it twice in one day. Finally, we get to the scene where the little boat disappears down the falls and waves back at it's owner. Finally, my daughter shouts out with glee, THE HAND! Thus solving a cinematic mystery for her parents. Breath big sigh of relief.

Another example only requires a little background knowledge. Yesterday there was a demand for "Shrek Tinkerbell". Apparently in the Netflix offering of Dreamworks scary episodes, one titled "The Ghost of Lord Farquaad" has Tinkerbell and Shrek. A quick phone call to husband solved this one, thus an another afternoon was saved.

Sigh! The things we go through to keep our darlings happy!!!

On a totally different subject, here is a still life created by our daughter. We call it "Bear at campfire".

Have a great Tuesday!

Multitude Monday - Thankfulness

2011-11-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

Last week I spent every day at home with Charlotte and husband, recovering from a cold that turned into bronchitis. I worked from home so I wouldn't fall behind on work duties, and it was lovely to do so in a home environment. While I'm thankful to be better, I'll miss being home this week as I go back to the office.

In no particular order - haven't applied make up for one week, wore yoga pants most days, had frequent snacks and meals on time without interruption to discuss random work topics, took naps when I needed to, had lunch with family every day at noon sharp, didn't shave legs for a week and had dinner every day by 6. What a great schedule! It's alot of work to get a body "office ready" plus on a schedule that accommodates family meals!!!

And with that, I'll jump right into my list of 1000 things I'm thankful for:

217 - that white blood cells work in my body and this cold is finally going away!
218 - $1.00 bag of discount oranges
219 - fresh squeezed orange juice on a Wednesday morning outside on the porch, with home made cranberry bread and tea.
220 - daughter whispering stories into my ear, randomly throughout the week.
221 - Christmas outreach programs and how they give us a chance to give compassion to total strangers in another continent.
222 - a comfortable home where I have wifi and can work in any room when necessary.
223 - a comfortable bed piled high with 4 pillows so I can breath when I have a bad cold
224 - extra time while baby boy is in Texas, to file a year's worth of paperwork that's been nagging me for months.
225 - extra time while baby boy is gone to clean every room of the house.

Weekend with Charlotte

2011-11-13T20:09:00.001-05:00

She's teaching me to love color.

Charlotte's 1st Pony Ride

2011-11-12T09:37:00.000-05:00

This one's for the grandparents, who can't get enough stores about their grandkids!

While Sam's away visiting his grandparents in Texas, we are focused on spending special time with Charlotte. I've had the idea to take her for a pony ride since she was born! There is just something special about little kids and ponies! But I wanted to make sure she was the right age to really love the idea and enjoy the experience. Some kids are scared of big animals so I really wanted the timing to be perfect.

We started the day by showing her pictures of ponies on the internet and she fell in love with the idea of seeing ponies.

She picked our her favorite Princess dress and we added the cowgirl hat!

Cowgirl hat traded for proper helmet. AWESOME! We see ponies nearby!

Here she is! My 3 year old, on the smallest pony in the field!

Mama runs around the fence to take a better shot!

Very special day with our first daughter.

Fight Indifference with Empathy

2011-11-12T07:06:00.008-05:00

This past week the news has been saturated with stories about the Penn State sex scandal. I've read the various stories of parties involved with the usual disgust but what stood out the most in this case was indifference of those who protected the pedophile and moral decline of the Penn state students who protested and rioted the firing of the protector, Joe Pa.

Indifference - lack of difference or distinction between two or more things

My moral barometer is horrified that these students misunderstood the social and legal justice in firing a man like Joe Pa. They seemed to only care about losing a winning coach. What will become of these students who care not if a man protects a pedophile? What kind of adults will they be?

I pondered indifference for several days.

It's easy to stand in judgment of such an egregious act of indifference.

It's harder to admit the indifference in my own life. Indifference for the Facebook friend who is in such constant daily extreme back pain that I forget to pray for her healing. Indifference for the random prayer requests strangers throw out on Twitter. Indifference for the child who knocks on my door one night to ask for bread, why didn't I follow up with her the next day to make sure she was okay?

I realize these daily indiscretions pale in comparison to disregard for sexual abuse but my bigger concern is to challenge myself to more empathy for children and those who are suffering. I don't want to be the person who misses obvious clues of abuse. I don't want to be the absent minded parent trusting a potential predator. I want to be vigilant for those around me.

Vigilant - alertly watchful especially to avoid danger

Dear Lord,
I pray for an empathic heart towards children you have placed in my life and those who are suffering. Increase my capacity to love and care for these dear ones. Give me the wisdom to know when to stand up for those in need.
In your name, Amen

Working Mother - finding balance

2011-11-10T07:00:00.002-05:00

In a typical week, as I wrote about on Oct. 25th, my children see me rushing to get ready for work in the mornings. I stop to eat breakfast with the family, finish my make up and then I'm off to work until 6 or 7. I get home just in time for the one or two hours before bedtime in which we try to fit in dinner, bath, book and bedtime cuddle.

On Friday's I come home at 2 and switch with husband, he leaves for work. Usually the kids are napping and wake up around 4 to find me busily working on the weekly meal plan and budget. I stop to put out a snack for them and am then right back to the computer to finalize plans. Our weekend shopping trips depend on this first step. By 6 I stop to make dinner. By 7 we get ready for bed. By 8pm I'm back on the computer.

They have me all day Saturday and Sunday. They see a busy mom doing laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning and a little play mixed in. It's the life of a working mom.

They've also seen mom travel to Asia for 6 weeks out of this year + 1 week to Europe. That's almost 2 months of gone time.

So when the opportunity came up to let little Sam travel to Texas with his Mema, I thought to myself, hey - a chance to reconnect with Charlotte, like we were before our precious son arrived! Now, I don't mean this to sound in any way like we are anxious to get rid of our little guy. He's an extraordinarily happy boy! He makes every day an absolute joy to be around. In contrast, my daughter has been struggling with issues like constant sadness , anger and not eating. To the point my husband has seriously considered therapy. We thought, perhaps if we can give her undivided attention for a few weeks, we can figure out how to make her happy.

The first weekend was a disaster. Screaming fits and everything I suggested she did the exact opposite. Charlotte, come sit on your bed so I can put your shoes on. No, I'll sit on the trunk. Okay that's not a big deal. But when I decided to take our dead plants to the trash in our trusty red wagon, she walked along next to me screaming to go home, she didn't want to visit the trash. Now the walk is like 5 minutes max! She's used to half hour walks! She finally tripped and fell in front of the wagon, likely making it look to any stranger that she'd thrown herself in front in an attempt to stop me. Bewildered I picked up my sobbing child and turned around, dog leash in one hand also tugging wagon back to the house.

Husband came home that night and we compared notes of his first week home with her, after Sam left. We thought, maybe she misses him and her world is upside down and she doesn't know how to express it? She had been acting off all week but she had been sick with a cold.

Sunday we couldn't take her to church due to her persistent cough so to make up for it (she loves her Sunday school class) we promised a pony ride. She was thrilled and enjoyed the experience tremendously. Of course she came down with an earache later that evening which put a huge damper on the rest of the day but at least we started well!

Monday she had no more pain from the ear ache! I was home from work, sick with a cold so we spent the day with her. I noticed by this point she had become very loving, she would walk up to me and give me long hugs. Still would not eat much, eating is a consistent problem with this one but she was cheerful about it.

Tuesday I realized my cold had developed into bronchitis so we did the rounds of doctors. First mine where she was an absolute angel and got to hear baby girls heart beat for the first time as my OB-GYN consolidated check up with bronchitis care. We then went to Charlotte's pediatrician who diagnosed double ear infection but no bronchitis. Prescriptions for both mom and daughter. Dad went off to Target to get them filled. We stayed home to eat lunch. I tried to get some work done on the computer but I noticed her getting frustrated so stopped and went outside to sit while she played until dad got home. Our deal that once he got home it was nap time. She responded well to these conditions.

Wednesday morning, I sat outside with my devotions before she got up. As I sat there the door opened and she came out and just stood next to me where I hugged her for more than 5 minutes. Not moving, not talking. Just holding my daughter. She finally stopped and smiled up at me the most beautiful smile and I knew, I just knew we had reconnected. The business of life was not in this moment, it was me and her. We were completely relaxed and happy.

If I can only hang onto the lessons learned from this week of sickness as I go back into the work world, I think I can find balance.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-11-09T01:17:00.000-05:00

Welcome to a new week of Working Mommy Wednesday. Today's prompts are:

Are problem solving skills used at work useful at home with the family? Or vice versa?

Share a cause you enjoy supporting.

Today I'm going to write about a favorite cause I enjoy supporting. It's Operation Christmas Child which is run by Samaritan's Purse.

The objective is simple - fill a shoebox with Christmas gifts for a child who lives in a poverty stricken country. Drop box off at a church. Box get's delivered in time for Christmas!

Today I assembled 4 boxes - I guess we bought at least 4 pairs of shoes this year! Actually I'm sure we bought more but these are the only boxes I managed to save.

I spent the following per box:

Bar of Soap $0.66
Toothpaste $1.66
Notepad $0.99
2 Pencils $0.12
Hard Candy $0.62
Cost to deliver box $7.00
Total: $11.05

I'm a bit of a frugal nut so I've actually saved toothbrushes and combs from my hotel stays - just for Operation Christmas Child!

I still need to get some basic toys (jump rope for girls, dinosaurs for boys) but after reading this article about children in the Philippines who live near a giant garbage dump outside of Manilla, I want to get a few more useful things like socks and shirts.

It's such a small thing, a shoebox. It costs less than $20.00 to put one together. When I think of the money we spent on 4 pairs of shoes verses giving back the box with a few gifts? Well, let's just say I feel so blessed with all we've been given that this is a small price to pay for a child's happiness.

Looking forward to reading your stories this week! Please link up below so I can find you.

Random Tuesday

2011-11-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

Did anyone see this bit of news from NPR yesterday? A mom in Nashville, TN advertised Lollipop's laced with chicken pox virus for $50.00. That's definitely the strangest news I've seen all week!!!

-------

We recently had our condo painted and had to bring our plants inside for 3-4 days. Husband was concerned about ants getting into our living space so he put our "hardiest" plants out in the garage. Strangely enough 4 died a horrible death. They just completely withered and died within 4 days! Not just died, I mean every single fluffy leaf gone and the tomatoes had been eaten through! We can't figure out what would do this. Is our garage possessed with a killer plant virus??

Oregano

------------------

That's all I got! Hope you all have a great Tuesday!!

Multitude Monday - Thankfulness

2011-11-07T05:30:00.002-05:00

Ann Voscamp is one of my favorite bloggers and she writes a beautiful post every Monday about all the things she's thankful for. She's challenged her readers to make a list of 1000 things they are thankful for. I've been keeping a journal and I'm up to 205. I'll continue it in this space for Monday's.

Psalm 100:4 "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name"

This past weekend I've been dreadfully sick with a cold, while pregnant so I can't take much medication. My daughter's been getting over a cold and on Sunday added an earache to the mix. Fortunately husband is not sick so he can take care of us. Where is Sam? Oh he went to Texas on Nov. 1st with Mema and took his cold to the grandparents. So how does one sick family find thankfulness in this sickness? Well I thought about this last night, as I tried to sleep in a sitting up position. I recalled all the days I'm not sick and realized this is such a fleeting time, it will be over before the week is out.

206 - I'm thankful that I'll eventually sleep and tomorrow will be a new day. Yeah I know that's not a "living in the moment" thought but some days we really do look forward to sleep and a fresh start.
207 - I'm thankful Sam and Mema made it safely to Texas.
208 - The joy in a little girls eyes on her first pony ride. Yes we did manage to fit this in before the earache hit. We thought she was on the mend, the earache hit on the way home.
209 - Remembering photos of my childhood on a pony, my mom's proud smile and joy in taking her little ones to a memorable experience.
210 - Discount apples, they make the best pies! I made an apple pie Sunday morning and it's incredible.
211 - The smell of a crock pot meal as we come home from a day out.
212 - Teamwork with husband in caring for a sick child.
213 - We are thankful our condo didn't flood in the torrential downpours that brought the center pond almost to the sidewalk!
214 - Spicy chili that clears out my sinus's!
215 - Friends who ask for advice. I don't know why but it's just nice to be useful to others.
216 - Long distance friends that say they wish they could bring me soup while I'm sick - two different friends (one new, one old)! How cool is that!

That's it for this week. If you are the praying type, please keep a prayer out for my Charlotte. It's her first earache and in both ears. She's taking it badly and hasn't eaten since noon, which drives us crazy.

Five Minute Friday: Remember

2011-11-04T15:39:00.004-04:00

Welcome to 5 minute Friday, hosted by The Gypsy Mama. The rules are to write for 5 minutes. Unscripted and unedited.

Remember …

Last week, I attended a blogger conference where I knew no one; except the roommates who I had found through Twitter. Do email conversations count? I was the first to arrive and had the absolute joy of meeting a friendly blogger in the airport who offered me a ride to the hotel and lunch at Chili’s. I was welcomed! But we had to part ways eventually.

Later I found myself in a room full of chattering women, the 4pm meet and greet. Everyone talking at once like a room full of magpies. I circled, looking for a familiar face, unable to walk up to a total stranger. They all seemed to know each other. So intimidating.

I finally found safe haven in a familiar face who I had chatted with briefly in the airport and relaxed as she told me about her company DIY.

Finally time for dinner, claimed my wandering roommate and made safe haven at a table in the back. Made room for remaining 2 roommates who were coming later. Finally a mission, a purpose, hold space for future friends. Hold vigil by phone for them to make contact so I could bring them into the safe table I had secured.

Confidence? I don’t have it in a room of strangers. I long to be more like my dad who had never met a stranger. Confidence.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-11-02T07:09:00.007-04:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday! Today's prompts are:

How was your Halloween?

Show photos of autumn in your area.

Halloween:
Last year I noticed many of the children in our neighborhood did not have costumes or bags to collect treats. They would use backpacks and shameless run around the condo buildings asking for candy. My perception was they didn't belong because they were not following the rules.

This year my heart for these children changed. I found them hanging around my porch constantly, wanting to pet my dog, spend time with my children. I finally realized these kids are just looking for something to do, they are friendly, they wave at me when I drive by, they like my kids. I finally warmed up to them (kinda sounds like a Grinch story huh?). I got to know their names and finally asked what they had planned for Halloween.

Our mom's don't let us dress up for Halloween, they say it's bad. Oh, well I grew up in a church that didn't celebrate Halloween so I can understand this - but the girls did not go to church. Maybe their parents can't justify spending money on another holiday.

An idea formed. What if set up an arts and crafts table and let them make a Masquerade mask, it's not a mask that has anything to do with the dark side of Halloween, just a simple decorated mask to hold up to one's face while gallivanting around the neighborhood participating in Trick or Treat.

It worked! I had 8 kids in my home, some already had masks but just wanted to participate in the arts and crafts table. They happily worked on their masks while Charlotte commanded a chair and painted hers. I cut faces and opened craft jars until everyone was satisfied. Noticing some were using backpacks to collect candy we found paper bags to hand out.

Of course we still needed to do our own trick or treat rounds! Charlotte, in her Princess dress insisted it was her turn to knock and say trick or treat. I absolutely adore the smile in her first picture below.

And Sam (shown here with Mema) was so tired by the time we made it out the door, but he still managed to walk almost as much as big sister!

Overall it was a great night and our kids seemed thrilled with the entire evening.

I'm looking forward to reading your stories! Please use the link up below and I'll be sure to come around your place later today.

Random Tuesday

2011-11-01T10:02:00.005-04:00

This past weekend I had the ultimate random experience. I traveled to Harrisburg, PA for a Christian blogger conference and the weather report said 40's at night, 50's during the day. That's cold for me - coming from South Florida - so I packed warm suede boots and layers of sweaters.

HOWEVER!

The day after I got there, the weather report changed to snow forecast for Saturday! Snow! In October? Now, I actually grew up in this area and cannot recall snow before Halloween so this was definitely random!

Photos!!!

Poor broken flower!

Sunday, all my flights were on time. Bye snow, back home to sunny Florida and my adorable family!!

Muffin Monday Madness - Double Apple Spice!!!

2011-10-31T09:06:00.004-04:00

Monday morning and I’m out of baked snacks. Wake up at 6am and analyze fridge ingredients – 1 apple, small amount of apple sauce – that’s it! Apple Spice Muffins it is! Or make that Double Apple Spice Muffins. Yeah!

Next, create personalized recipe. I start by finding a generic base on allrecipes.com. Theirs calls for butter, I’ve found oil makes a more moist muffin. Exchange. Theirs does not call for diced apple, I want MORE apple! Theirs calls for allspice, I prefer ginger and cloves. Exchange. Theirs does not call for a topping, I feel a little oatmeal would be awesome. Since I’ve remade half the recipe, I’ll just call this one my own creation.

DOUBLE APPLE SPICE MUFFINS

Muffin Mix

½ cup oil
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cup white wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup applesauce
1 apple diced very small (I used Gala, they are so juicy right now)

I mix dry ingredients by hand in my kitchen aid mixer. I have the wet ingredients sitting by in premeasured bowls and dump everything into dry ingredients (eggs, oil, applesauce), blend in mixer only until all dry ingredients have been absorbed. Don’t over mix.

Topping

2 Tablespoons Land O Lakes butter
¼ cup oatmeal
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour

Mix topping in food processor, put one spoonful on top of each muffin

Grease muffin container, it should make 12 muffins. Always use an ice cream scoop to measure muffins into tin pan. This is critical because it ensures each muffin is equal is size and will bake evenly. Wonderful tip I picked up from professional cupcake makers.

Bake at 350 for 22 minutes.

Tip – it’s best to dice an apple as small as possible because I’ve found the muffin mix will not always bake as evenly around a chunk of apple so you end up with an over baked muffin to compensate.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-10-26T07:05:00.007-04:00

Welcome to another episode of Working Mommy Wednesday! Today's prompts are:

Does being a mom cause your co-workers to think of you as the “office mom”?
Children’s books can be, boring – have you found any that are fun to read over and over?

Children's Books
In a world full of children's stories on TV, internet and books a parent can get really tired of the same stories over and over - like Curious George. Regardless, I love reading to my kids and due to having a teacher for a mom, I seem to have accumulated over 50 kids books! The variety definitely keeps things interesting but even so they can get tiresome to read night after night.

Then I discovered the coolest books ever written for kids - and I'm not talking about Dr. Seuss because he's really cool but his books are kinda long for a bedtime story.

In a trip to London earlier this year I wandered into an independent book store and stumbled across two books that have become the stars of our collection! They are:

The books are written in 4 line rhymes per page and they are hysterical! They cover the antics of aliens and dinosaurs who have become obsessed over stealing human's underpants. The artwork is really funny and entertaining along with very rich colors.

I've checked the author's website (http://www.clairefreedman.co.uk/) and noticed she has two more books so I definitely know what Charlotte is getting for Christmas!

I think books like this would be great birthday gifts because the kids I know already have too many toys and you never know what to get because you don't want to copy what they already have! So I plan to give these books as gifts for any 3-5 year old I come across needing a birthday present.

Now it's your turn! Tell me what books are the stars of your collection. I love collecting books and am looking forward to your ideas.

Working Mother - desperate to find balance

2011-10-25T21:57:00.003-04:00

So much to do before leaving for Relevant conference on Thursday morning. I come home Monday night to 2 kids anxious to see me. Elbows to my pregnant tummy, feet to my chin, tumbling over my lap, over each other, back and forth in an attempt to gain sole access to my lap. Sam wins igniting a stand off with sister glaring furiously at me, spouting her anger at being left out, I try to make room for her but it’s all or nothing. She get’s a time out for her anger and a talk to by dad. She returns apologetic as I move Sam into my left side and ask her to sit on my right. Defiant, she wants the left side. Exhaustion sets in. Husband calls for me to cut the avocado for dinner and I gladly leave the ruckus behind.

The boy trails, clinging to me for dear life. I say, you must be hungry and put him in his chair. He howls for me as I leave. We finally eat dinner as a family and get the kids in bed before 8.

The next morning I determine is my last chance to make muffins before leaving for the conference. I plow through my new recipe of pumpkin apple muffins without joy, they must be done, I need to take them with me so I have a snack for the trip. No time tonight or tomorrow. The mix is too thick, I haven’t used enough pumpkin, I try to compensate and end up taking too long, running late, shower, get ready for work. Husband tries to help by packing lunch but suddenly runs out to move the van for painters who have shown up on time at 8 to paint our condo.

I realize muffins must be done because timer is off. Just as I pull them out a little boy runs near. Panic, did he almost touch the open oven? How long did the muffins over bake? Still have to pack lunch. The little boy clings to me as I fret. Husband returns to help me finish packing stuff for work. I wave a dismal goodbye, caught up in another world.

During lunch I read Ann’s “Velveteen Mother” and I finally get beyond the cobwebs of work and list of things to do before weekend trip. I finally realize my kids really need me and sometimes when I’m home, I am far away in my head. It’s so hard to turn off this working mind. Sad that I have counseled others to the importance of taking captive every thought but I’m the first to fail at this when challenged.

End of the day comes way to fast, I haven’t printed the files my husband needs for his court case on Friday, I haven’t gone back to Office Depot to pick up my business cards and work looms bigger than when I started the day.

I finally leave work at 7pm, such a long day. I left this morning at 8:30am. I drive directly into a beautiful sunset with the most amazing one point perspective. Lovely image from the greatest artist of all, our heavenly father. Deep breath, leave work behind and go to join my children, husband and mother-in-law at the restaurant where I will surrender my phone and enjoy their company.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-10-19T06:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome to another Working Mommy Wednesday. I've finally updated the button to match back to my website, you can access it from my side bar. This week's prompt is:

Share a blog or website that you’ve found meaningful and rewarding to visit (if it's Pinterest please share why this has become such a raging fad).

I love finding new blogs that inspire and enrich my life and I'd like to share the following with you:

WORKING MOTHER
I use this blog to find ideas for prompts on WMW. I'm considering joining the community as a working mommy blogger, I thought this might be a good opportunity to share with all of you and perhaps you'd be interested in joining as well. In fact, one of our WMW members, Be Positive Mom, is already on there! How cool is that!!!

STILL THE SEA
This website is in it's infancy but plans to offer Christian Yoga DVD's very soon. You can already purchase yoga equipment beautifully printed with Bible verses. In addition, the creator writes a very inspiring blog, most recently about her 10 day visit to Nepal to help trafficked children return to their birth parents. I really can't say enough about her wonderful writing style except to go check it out.

PINTEREST
What is it??? It's a website that lets you pin images to a virtual board. How often do you browse internet shops thinking, I like that dress or I wish I had that coat some day. Now you can pin it to a fashion board and build a collection of things you want. I did this recently, to update my fall wardrobe. It was fun for a few days and now I don't know if I have a reason to go back. I keep seeing people on Twitter obsessing over the site. So if you have any insight as to how to better use it, please enlighten me.

Finally, thanks for joining me on Twitter. It's fun to find our little community growing in social media. Once again I've made a hashtag called WMWpals. Hope to see your blog posts on Twitter again this week!

Random Tuesday

2011-10-17T22:10:00.002-04:00

Facebook - has anyone noticed that Facebook has suddenly included "likes" as part of your feed? I'm not just talking about groups/companies you like but "likes" of your friends posts. Friends you don't even know. It gets really odd when an acquaintance you know from 15 years ago likes a post for a total stranger to you who just got a brand new red canoe and can't wait to try it out. Why are "likes" appearing in my feed? It should just be updates from people I'm actually friends with!

Speaking of Facebook frustration, I came across this great image on Dave Lowe's cartoon site (just in time for Halloween):

In other news, Charlotte has discovered Netflix on my iPhone and she's figured out how to access her favorite cartoons, Shawn the Sheep and Invader Zim. This means demands for my phone will be relentless. For the record, I've never shown her how to use Netflix!

Have a great Tuesday!

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-10-12T08:25:00.004-04:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday. This week's prompt is:

How do you carve out personal time for yourself?

Since getting back from Asia, I've found myself waking up at 5am with tons of energy. I've cleaned the house, made muffins, showered, paid bills and updated my blog all before the kids are up. It's great! I love this new routine but in the last few days I've found myself slipping back into my old pattern of staying up later, doing the same work when I'm tired, less productive and waking up at 6:30. It makes a big difference. I think I need to switch to those morning hours of "me time". I love being so productive in the mornings!

I think some of the lure of staying up late is the occasional TV show, friends are more interactive on Twitter and Facebook at night and that's fun. But I think I can still have this and cut myself off by 9pm. So that's my goal, bedtime by 9, up by 5am!

Looking forward to reading about how you carve out time for yourself! Linky appears to be working again so feel free to leave your blog link below. Have a great Wednesday!

ps. If anyone would like to connect on Twitter, I'm thinking of making our hashtag #WMWpals. If you would like to join, please leave your Twitter name in the comments.

Random Tuesday

2011-10-11T07:17:00.002-04:00

Charlotte asked to wear the fairy wings from her Halloween costume. I broke the seal and put her arms through the loops, beautiful teal wings. She wore them for awhile and suddenly came to me in tears. “They don’t work mom!”, she wailed. “I can’t fly”.

- Oh the imagination of a 3 year old, to think flying is still possible, if you only have the right wings!

Friday Night Fun - Tortilla Soup

2011-10-07T19:35:00.009-04:00

5:30 time to start dinner: cook corn
5:40 turn off corn, get distracted with kids, let corn cool
6:00 cut corn off the cob

Simmer garlic in chili powder and olive oil
Add two cans of diced tomatoes
Stop, serve corn to hungry girl who wants to snack on corns
When she's done, add to soup

Go outside with kids to play while soup cooks.

Gang of kids descend on us creating mass mayhem while all gather around our porch, snag sidewalk chalk and make over our dog Chopper.

I add two bricks to our garden border, likely digging them into the ground too deep. More neighbors come home, Charlotte's favorite little friend Layla comes over to play. I'm never getting the kids back in the house now!

6:45 I realize I forgot key ingredient for soup. Black beans! Briefly try to get shoes on Charlotte. One shoe on and she runs for the bathroom. I don't catch her on the exit and she runs outside with one red sandal.

Layla's mom comes over and we chat aimlessly while our kids run pell mell around the yard. Frantic energy.

Back into my home they go, into the bedroom to play tea party. Layla's mom says she will come back later for her after I say it's fine to play. I order take out. Sam's too tired for a store run. I'm becoming a tired mental case.

7:00 Layla's sister comes back for her while I'm feeding Sam.

7:15 I'm putting Sam to bed because he's just that tired! His standard bedtime is 8. First put UP movie in DVD so Charlotte has distraction while I put Sam to sleep.

7:45 my food arrives.

Charlotte demands access to Pumpkin trick or treat bucket with bat headbands. Pulls both down and wears headband (I got this in Hong Kong, 2006). Smile Charlotte!

TGIF

The Baby Talk

2011-10-06T20:57:00.002-04:00

Husband "Charlotte, mommy has a new baby in her tummy. Do you remember when she had a big tummy before? Sam was in mommy's tummy."

Charlotte "NOOOOOOO!!!!", in total disbelief.

I couldn't help it and completely dissolved into giggles thus likely ruining any credibility husband had going.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-10-05T06:50:00.004-04:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday. This week our prompt is:

The last quarter of the year is full of amazing holiday’s. What is your favorite? Halloween, Thanksgiving, Talk Like a Pirate Day or Christmas?

I really love this time of year! Photos from up north with all the lovely fall leaves changing colors (don't get them in South Florida so have to enjoy in photos), pumpkin patches, dressing kids up for Halloween, great food on Thanksgiving and Christmas presents! It's a giddy three months of fun and preparation!

My absolute favorite starts in October. I am a massive fan of everything pumpkin and last year I went a bit crazy and made at least 15 pounds of pumpkin puree for the deep freezer (to-do guide here). I still have 2 left! I probably will not go quite so crazy this year, one maybe two pumpkins.

I love taking the kids to Pumpkin patches and taking wonderful contrasting photos with brightly colored clothing and pumpkins. My favorite photos were of Charlotte in 2009 in this gorgeous dress from Gymboree.
Some people go nuts for a Christmas or Easter dress, I dig bright dresses for pumpkin patches!

I look forward to reading everyone's stories today. Link up below might not work since I just paid for the subscription and it seems to be taking time to connect. If you don't see the link up then please leave a comment and I'll come by your blog today for a visit.

Have a great day!

Random Tuesday

2011-10-04T07:17:00.003-04:00

Well the jet lag does not seem to be going away. Last night I crashed hard at 8pm and woke up at 3am. I've decided to not fight it and just got online to work from 3am - 7am. I figure I'll go into the office from 9:00 - 12:30 and call it a day. Hopefully catch a nap from 2-4pm when the kids nap and then maybe stay up till 9pm? I've given up hope of getting back on schedule, I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and keep myself healthy for 3rd pregnancy! How's that for a random schedule!!

Does anyone have photos of autumn? I'm in Florida and in serious need of some pretty fall pictures. If you are posting any pls let me know and I'll come by your blog for a visit.

Anyone ready for Halloween? for the first time since becoming a parent, I have costumes for both kids by October 1st! Usually I wait until the last minute and realize there is nothing left in their size and have to improvise. Maybe improvising is cheaper but I have a busy month so it's done. Charlotte is a fairy and Sam is a Transfomer Bumblebee. What preparations have you made for Halloween?

Jet Lag + Pregnancy = MAJOR UGG

2011-09-30T20:40:00.002-04:00

Well I might as well announce it, since it's on my mind and has everything to do with why I'm feeling so uggg lately. I'm pregnant with my 3rd baby; found out the week before I left for Europe in August so I've now completed 2 international trips in the first trimester. Hardly a goal I was ever hoping to achieve. At least I can finally settle down and not travel for at least a month. There's a rumor of a potential trip to London in late November but I'd make it 2 days max. I have Relevant conference at the end of October but I don't consider domestic travel to be challenging.

So back to the jet lag part! Well it's rough! Second day home and husband's already back to work. My day with the kids went very well and I just kept telling myself when they get shrill that they are just happy to see me. Somehow managed to get both in bed by 8:20 so I'm sitting in the dark on the computer to hopefully keep small ones from wandering back out. Our condo is kinda small. Speaking of, not sure how we will fit 3 children into a 2 bedroom condo but I guess it will be okay while they are still small. It does make the clock tick louder on the desire to sell this place!

I find myself eating Granola for dinner because cooked food just doesn't sound good at the moment. Can't seem to eat any dairy which with my usual diet is extremely limiting. Hmmm, maybe I'll add an apple to my dinner.

Okay enough rambling for tonight, I'm off to watch Fringe, very quietly.

1st day post Asia Trip - surviving on random naps but at least back to eating familiar food!!!

2011-09-29T22:55:00.003-04:00

Well, first full day back! I noticed husband was a little battle weary from dealing with kids for 10 days straight and our 3 cats had trashed the garage in a small rebellion of unknown reasons. So I offered to load the kids into the van and off to Costco for an hour or so while husband took mental break from kids and dealt with the cat dilemma.

Of course first we had 2 rounds of breakfast, starting at 8am and 2nd by 10:30am (for some reason the kids appetite came back when they saw me) and I had to cut all finger/toe nails because I'm really good at it and long nails horrify me. By 11:30 we were off to the warehouse.

Clearly a Costco warehouse is not the most exciting thing in the world to return to, I was thinking water park but getting my jet lagged brain around the idea of sun tan lotion on 2 kids + gear ready just killed it. I thought, shopping is needed and easier, Ill do that! And it was fine! The kids got little cups of granola to snack on, this should really be mandatory for kids, it makes shopping so much easier and I did buy the featured snack that wasn't on my list.

I found the cost of Milk and Eggs has gone up, ah inflation, when are you ever going to slow down!

I found Pure Vanilla Extract 16oz for the same price I pay for 2oz at Publix - steal!

I bought Charlotte a fairy Halloween costume because I have bad habit (3 years straight) of waiting till the last minute and having nothing left in the stores. She thought it was pretty, done deal. Still don't know what to do for Sam, maybe we'll just make him a pirate (we still have gear left over from Talk Like a Pirate day - that's always a fail safe!).

Home by 1:30, lunch and then in bed from 2-5pm for me. Nap desperately needed since I had woken at 4am. And now I've managed to keep myself occupied till 11pm, hoping I've dragged it out long enough to where I'll actually manage to sleep 6-7 hours!

Tomorrow husband returns to work so I'm really hoping for a miracle in jet lag recovery because I'll be home alone with the children, possibly lying on some pillows on the floor as they bounce on my head, trying to sleep or possibly in a coma.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-09-28T01:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to another week of Working Mommy Wednesday! This week's prompts are:

Who is an inspiration to you in the workforce?
What’s it like reconnecting with your children on the weekends? Do you find yourself swamped with chores, how do you find balance?

Since starting my career in toys, I've looked for women leaders in toys for inspiration. I started by reading "Toy Wars", a story about Mattel's bid to buyout Hasbro. Jill Barad was highlighted as CEO of Mattel but by the time I had read about her she had resigned in 2000 after three years - which had followed a 15 year career at Mattel. Wow, must be hard to sit at the top as a women, I thought.

Jill is responsible for rebranding Barbie in the 90's and in 1995 created the tagline "We Girls Can Do Anything" which meant Barbie could be a dentist, lawyer, doctor, etc. Sells exploded as Barbie became a symbol of achievement rather than just a sexy doll. That year Barbie represented $1.4 billion in sales or 35 percent of Mattel's gross revenue.

In 2000 she made a bad decision in acquiring The Learning Company, lost 50 million and was pushed out of the company.

Reference: Jill Barad 1951— Biography - Developing marketing skills, Taking mattel by storm, Early successes http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/A-E/Barad-Jill-1951.html#ixzz1ZCq1bw3m

I've googled her name over the years thinking she'd have moved onto another toy company but she disappeared. I found one article saying she moved her attention to nonprofit organizations. Recently, at a Women In Toys event, I heard they had wanted to give her the top award for her work at Mattel but she never responded.

I moved onto other business women who wrote books about their career success but have noticed their struggle after leaving the corporate world.

Carly Fiorina writes about her career before and after becoming CEO of Hewlett-Packard. After being dismissed by HP's board, she has dabbled in politics, first as an adviser to McCain in 2008 and in 2009 a failed political run in California.
Carolyn Kepcher writes about her career in the Trump Organization and The Apprentice. Following her departure from both, she's attempted to create two websites for women, both seem to have failed because the links go to a dead zone. I've followed both websites with excitement, anxious to see what wisdom and advice she may have but since both have disappeared without notice I have to conclude she's been unable to make them work.

In summary, I've learned to look closer at the women who directly surround me in the work force, including those of you who join WMW. I see awesome examples of how to balance work and kids from all of you who respond every week and this has become my inspiration. I'm always thrilled for all who respond. Thanks for being an inspiration to me!!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

Here's a few random bits I've picked up in Asia:

Every September 23rd in Hangzhou China is public transportation day. No one is allowed to drive a private car or you will be ticketed. Therefore it's really hard to get a cab unless you pay the driver to follow you around all day like we did.

Ruth Steakhouse in Hong Kong does not provide plastic ware, no surprise, it's probably below them. So on the way back to my room, I stopped by the buffet to request a set of silverware thinking it would be faster than going to my room and waiting for room service to deliver a set. I was wrong. They flatly refused to give me a set saying all buffet silverware needed to stay at the buffet and they would send room service to my room with a set. Silverware is compartmentalized!

My hotel room at the Royal Garden had a TV inset into the wall so I could watch TV while taking a bath! Unbelievable right???

Here is a 1000 year old turtle:
(okay he's probably not that old but all historic things over here seem to be referred to as 1000 years old)

How I'm surviving 3rd trip to Asia THIS YEAR!

2011-09-25T09:35:00.004-04:00

Wow usually I write every day when I'm over here. This will be my first post about the actual trip. I guess it's just become so routine that the days don't stand out as significant. I did manage to visit a new place, Hangzhou, but my camera died so I can't post photos until I get back so it's no fun to write about a place without photos.

In summary, this trip is my shortest of the year, 10 days. I arrived last Monday night and basically needed 3 days to adjust to the time difference. Normally I just take a sleep med but I have a medical condition that will not allow me to take the meds so adjustment has really been a challenge! Fortunately my co-workers over here are so patient in giving me opportunities to take naps when needed.

I'm currently in Shenzhen, China (about an hour from Hong Kong). No Facebook or Twitter works over here so I feel out of the loop - like that tether that keeps me connected to friends and family is gone! No one writes email anymore.

Social media is a wonderful thing during travel; I've had many long conversations with dear friends and family on Facebook over the last few days in Hong Kong and a bit of banter on Twitter. Really has made my stay less lonely and more enjoyable. I've been on SKYPE every day with my kids, sometimes morning and night. Charlotte tells me all about how she slept, foods eaten and all her "bad" deeds. And then sometimes I get to hear her fighting with Sam in the background because he snatched her juice box. Good times!

Only 3 days left until I leave! For the next two days I'll be lecturing the factory on plush development and all the things they can do for improvement. It's fun!

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-09-21T05:30:00.003-04:00

Welcome to my 3rd week of hosting WMW! I'm broadcasting live from Hong Kong. Okay that sounded a little cheesy, sorry lonely over here. Today's prompts are:

What is the dress code like in your job?
School just got back in session, does this have any affect on your job VS kids out of school for the summer?
Water cooler talk, is there a place for gossip in the work force?

Today I'm writing about dress code. My job is extremely casual, not quite to the point of wearing shorts to the office, but sandals, jeans, tank tops - well industry term is Shell, slacks with shell and sandals, open toed shoes every single day of the week - you get the idea!

It's wonderful - except when I'm scheduled for a client meeting. I panic every time, out of pratice wearing heels and closed toe shoes! When one is out of the habit of keeping "nice" clothes available, one tends to forget to do the dry cleaning. Or just doesn't really bother keeping much of a "nice" wardrobe up to date. A single day client visit is okay, but the week of Europe meetings I did in August - major panic!

In summary, I'd kinda prefer to dress nicer for the office so I'm in a better habit when these meetings come up, then again wearing sandals every day is just so quick and comfortable! I'm in a rut!

Fortunately while I'm in Asia the dress code for my industry (toys) seems just as casual as the US. So I'm still wearing sandals and t-shirt dresses. Yeah!

Looking forward to your stories. Of course I'm going random province in China at 6:30am on Wednesday so I'll catch up with all of you later this week!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2011-09-20T07:40:00.001-04:00

Random Tuesday coming at you from Hong Kong!

1. I don't like eating in restaurants alone. I've compromised in the past by sitting in the window bar of Ruth Steakhouse but tonight it was freezing so I ordered to-go. AND I didn't get steak. Just a Spinach salad and appitizer shrimp, oh and let's not forget the apple crump tart for dessert!

2. I'm having a tricky time with the jet lag. Usually I just take a sleeping pill but for a medical issue I cannot on this trip and I'm not sure how to cope! I woke up at 3:30am, wide awake and never went back to sleep. Went to the office for 2 hours from 8:45 - 10:45 then came back to the hotel to sleep for 2 hours.

3. I had to move hotel rooms because I wasn't originally booked here for another nights. So after nap I packed stuff and was told to leave it in the room and they (hotel staff) would move it.

4. I had lunch in the 12th floor lounge while mystery room was being prepared. I turned off the air conditioner to the entire section I was sitting because I was freezing and by 2pm there was no one there. Had them turn up the TV volume because what is the point of having a TV on silent? They told me to turn it back down upon leaving. Um okay.

5. By quarter to 3 they brought out these lovely little desserts with raspberries and strawberries on a little tart. Wonderful little dessert, I'll have to remember to dash back up there around 3 for more.

6. Had SKYPE chat with my little family at 5am (5pm their time) and convinced husband to take the crew outside for Pirate photos (see post below). I really think he has new appreciation for the effort I put into taking photos of running children!

That's it for now. Hope you all have a lovely Tuesday.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

2011-09-19T18:39:00.005-04:00

Welcome to our 3rd International Talk Like A Pirate Day! A day where our family joins an international group of crazy pirate lovers to dress up and shout ARRRR all day long!

Love how Charlotte is clutching a cheesy tortilla in her left hand! Apparently this is the only available photo of Sam facing forward since the rest are of his backside running down the path to test new walking abilities.

You can see the growth in our children by visiting last year's post here, and the prior year here! It's so much fun to mark our kids growth through annual holiday's - okay this may not be an off work type holiday but it should be!

Sadly mum is off in Hong Kong but got to witness family's fun through the magic of SKYPE and received the above photos from husband after much coercion to just go outside and take the photos so I can update my blog!!! I'm quite demanding that way from 3000 miles away. I have to admit I'm much better about coordinating their outfits but alas, dad is all alone and dealing with two children who miss their mummy very much.

And lest you think it's a little known holiday, Disney's twitter feed has been going crazy all day with their pirate updates. Definitely not one to miss a golden opportunity to promote a brand.

Friday Fun: Bills!

2011-09-16T18:33:00.003-04:00

Today I read my AT&T bill and found they had slapped a $9.99 ATT Navigator with promo deal that we didn't sign up for. It's been there for 3 months. They immediately reimbursed it when I called them. Also found they had suddenly started charging husband for picture text messages. I've had to call about this one before. They offered me $50.00 credit after talking to a manager. Hmmmm, makes you wonder.

In a possibly vain effort to get credit card companies to stop sending applications every month, I've written in large green sharpie "please take me off your mailing list" on the application and returned 3 today.

Paying bills with kids awake is no fun. But I have to leave for Asia for two weeks on Sunday, running out of time to do it after bedtime hours.

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-09-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my 2nd week of hosting WMW. Today's topics are:

1. Meals for the week, do you cook every night? If so HOW do you working mommies do it???
2. What is the best complement you’ve ever received at work?

I will write about meals because it's a subject I really enjoy. Growing up, my mom managed to put food on the table every day by 6pm, a full meal! She was a full-time teacher at the private school myself and two brothers attended and we were home every day by 4pm. I guess that gave her adequate time to finish a complete meal.

I find myself working until 5 or 6pm and coming home to entertain kids for an hour while husband prepares our meals. Of course I love to cook but since he's a stay at home dad and I miss seeing the kids all day, they are ready to pile all over me when I walk in the door so we try to give him an hour to make dinner.

On the weekends I follow my mom's rule. I make a meal list for the entire week and buy groceries accordingly no later than Sunday. This way husband has the food and menu in hand and makes the evening meal a little faster.

Other shortcuts we've developed are to have a few core dishes on rotation, make in bulk and freeze several meals in our deep freezer. This way if one of us is running late, we have a faster meal to prepare.

It all sounds great right? But I can assure you we still have evenings when we eat way later than we'd like to. We are still struggling to find a balance but we have two rules we stick to every day:

1. The entire family eats at the table regardless of who's having a bad day/hating the menu/or just general crankiness.

2. We are not short order cooks. We serve a balanced meal and nothing more. This is a recent rule after putting up with recent tantrums from 1 year old and dolling out crackers to bring peace. We'd really rather him get used to eating what we've prepared, even if it means hating the Chinese food! We may not be so quick to put that back on the menu for awhile but the point was to eat what was prepared that day.

I can't wait to read your stories. Looking forward to your link ups!

Random Tuesday

2011-09-13T08:24:00.006-04:00

Yeah Random Tuesday is back! It's more exciting than Monday because frankly, I have nothing to say on Monday. I'm usually just glad to have survived the first day back to work.

1. Check out this adorable picture found on Neatorama:

Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen????

2. Conversations with a 3 year old:

"Mama, Charlotte wants cinnamon toast for breakfast so I can get sugars on my mouth and sugars on my hands"

3. Now that Sam is walking, this is the sight I see running down the sidewalk.

4. Sunday I leave for Asia for 11 days, slightly less than 2 weeks. Next week's RT will be coming from Hong Kong. Third trip this year, um yeah for me.

5. And here's a rare recent photo of Charlotte that does not involve her screaming at the camera "no picture"!

Have a great Random Tuesday!

Wordless Wednesday: Fresh Tomatoes, from my Garden!

2011-09-07T07:03:00.000-04:00

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-09-07T01:52:00.003-04:00

Welcome to my first hosting of WMW. I'm so excited to pick this up from Julia. So often we working mommies find ourselves in need of a place to share our stories and know other mom's are working just as hard to keep family time precious and work hours logged in to pay the bills. I'm proud to keep the tradition going.

Top 5 things I'd like to accomplish this Fall

1. Cooking - make homemade donuts. Growing up, my brothers and I were huge fans of homemade donuts. We had an assembly line going of one rolling and cutting, one deep frying (and getting all the burns) and one doing all the toppings. I'm just itching to make a big mess and make some donuts!

2. Pumpkin Patch! I love going to pumpkin patches with my kids and this year I promise to not follow Charlotte (3 yr old) with a camera because she's become camera shy. Besides, I have a new muse that grins wildly every time I point a camera in his direction!

3. Magic Kingdom for Halloween in family costumes! No idea on what costumes yet.

4. Drink hot mulled cider - even though it will doubtfully get cold enough in South Florida to warrant it but we can turn the AC down!

5. Harvest photos - I mean upload them, order them and put them in books. Maybe even order some for family!

I can't wait to read your stories! Looking forward to your links and I'll stop by to check everyone's postings out. If not today then sometime this week!

Random Tuesday

2011-09-06T07:31:00.004-04:00

Well Labor Day is over. I guess this officially brings us into all the wonderful things of fall. For me I just hope it brings a break from 90 degree weather. We did our best to spend Labor Day outside but I ended up so exhausted from the heat I needed to nap for 1.5 hours! Fortunately the kids agreed and napped as well. Too hot down here!!!

I'm going back to Hong Kong for my 3rd and final trip this year in two weeks. This morning I remembered to contact my Hong Kong office to send me money for the taxi. I didn't used to be so good with travel details. I recall a trip in 2006 when I arrived to the Hong Kong airport, got in a taxi, gave hotel name and he said which side of Hong Kong? I froze. There's two??? The nice driver actually called both hotels to see which one had my reservation! Have you ever heard of a taxi driver being so helpful???

And the most exciting news of all! SAM IS WALKING!!! Would you believe the parent who works full time (myself) actually got to see it for the first time! It happened Friday night while husband was working. I'm over the moon with joy.

My 2 brothers are in town for the week so my computer time has been severely limited. That's all I got for now. Hope y'all have a great Tuesday and shortened work week!!!

Labor Day 2011

2011-09-05T21:04:00.000-04:00

Holiday's in South Florida are an easy excuse for the beach, only this time it just seemed unreasonably hot and windy. Original plan was to visit a beach that provided canoeing for my visiting brothers and husband to canoe while I sat at the beach with kids. In 5 minutes I decided there was no way husband was abandoning me. Kids were acting clingy, wind was blowing a fine dust over all of us and everything so that applying sun tan lotion was a hopeless feat.

Brothers left for canoeing. Husband stayed to help with the kids. After an hour of playing in the sun we returned to our umbrella sanctuary for water, peace and break. Kids seemed thoroughly annoyed, not by leaving the beach but from heat, covered in sand, big jelly fish lurking in ocean so couldn't really go in far, just yuck. Windy, not a good day. After one hour we packed up and left. Of course it takes almost a 1/2 hour just to wash 2 kids and self at showers (husband wisely didn't get in ocean) then drop stop at car. Then we waited at the outdoor cafe for a 1/2 hour for brothers to return. Finally in despair at rising temperatures and lack of adequate shade we returned to the van for air conditioning.

By the time we got home, I was so tired I slept for 1.5 hours. Got up with a burst of energy, went grocery shopping and made lasagna for family. Went to bed by 9. At least I got my favorite food in! Oh and here's a few cute photos to remember the good times:

Patience and Unpredictable Children

2011-09-03T09:54:00.002-04:00

Woke at 5:45 as husband got up at unnatural time for work.
6:00 dozed off to sleep, planning to get up at 7 to get shower before kids normal 7:30 wake up.
6:20 dog yipped at door and woke both Sam & I. Sam proceeded to play on and around my bed until 7 when Charlotte finally woke up and said she was going to sleep on the couch and needed all lights off. So much for breakfast! Sam & I returned to my bedroom to fold clothes, well at least one of us folded. Finally decided to grab quick shower at 7:30, plugged Sam into high chair with plenty of food when Charlotte comes in to take over shower. Now it may be hard to imagine how a 3 year old could takeover but she does this by getting mad everytime I step into the water. So it's cold for me, duck in to rince hair, step back to wash, repeat. Afterwards she stays in for another 1/2 hour so I fold laundry. Finally done! She comes out and refuses to wear clothes so I put her in bed with towel until she's ready to get dressed. She observes me putting away clothes for 20 minutes before cheerfully announcing she would like to finger paint and wear all purple! Okay. So it's now like 8:30 and I haven't had breakfast due to prima donnas shenanigans. While making breakfast Sam realizes he can still walk, how exciting he just took first steps yesterday! And he proceeded to throw arms up in cheer and walk, fall down and walk while I take a quick video to show dad later. Finally by 9 we eat but now Sam's tired from getting up so early! So by 9:30 I'm rocking him to sleep only he wakes as soon as I put him down, twice, meaning a rocking cuddle nap is required.

So that's my unpredictable morning!

Wordless Wednesday: Corn Muffin!

2011-08-31T07:04:00.000-04:00

Random Tuesday

2011-08-30T07:39:00.002-04:00

My thoughts on Hurricane Irene

* Sure the news got a little hyper about the "potential" but at least they are taking the dangers seriously. Today writers are complaining that they bought too many supplies and are mad about the hype. But I remember watching Hurricane Katrina approach New Orleans in absolute horror. I've live through a Cat. 3 storm so could only imagine the dangers from a Cat. 5. I couldn't believe how relaxed the residents looked before the storm and the lack of preparations the city was making. So to watch New York shut down mass transit and give the public stiff warnings was gratifying. Thanks for taking the hurricane seriously guys. Side note, I don't watch TV anymore so was not privy to the constant battering of hype from our local corespondents, nor was I in New York where I'm sure the news hype was even worse. However, having lived through it myself, I've learned when to tune in and when to tune out. Listen for the facts, then be prepared with enough supplies to ride out the potential damage.

Men in Black 3
* Apparently I'm the last to learn of this movie in the making!!! So.Excited!!! Personally a huge fan and even bigger fan of the short in front of part 2 called "The Chubs Chubs Are Coming". Which can be seen here on You Tube! http://youtu.be/wzqi1bfflDg

Library Books
* A while ago, I thought it would be a good idea to save money and check out a library book. Not only have I NOT read it, I bought the books I really wanted. Now it's overdue. Fail.

Sam
* Is 13mo today. Knows how to stand on sister's bed and turn lights on and off. A useful tool when trying to prevent mom from cleaning.
* Continues to think big sister will someday help him in his attempts to communicate with us. Does not realize her squeals of "get Sam off me" are not invitations.
* Is displaying affinities for certain foods and refusal for others. Common technique for his age but prior to this was eating everything in sight.
* Enjoys a good game of Peek-A-Boo

Have a great Tuesday!

Conversations with a 3 year old

2011-08-27T21:22:00.003-04:00

"Mom! I want to talk to you", demands 3 yr old.

Clue - she wants me to talk to her.

"Oooookay. I like Charlotte, I like Sam, I like daddy, I like roses, I like pancakes, I like Charlotte's smile, I like Charlotte's eyes, I like Charlotte's hair -

Stop

She gives me a huge hug and gets super happy. Apparently I said everything she wanted to hear - vain little girl.

Wordless Wednesday: future chef

2011-08-24T09:20:00.003-04:00

Random Tuesday

2011-08-23T08:37:00.003-04:00

Morning Random followers, check out this cute video titled "interview with a 1 year old"

http://youtu.be/bq2T7jP7dpQ

Funny right? Why bother with TV when YouTube is so much fun!

Charlotte's favorite game is to find babies everywhere. There are baby flowers (flower buds), baby seed pods, baby forks, baby squishies, baby lizards, baby jewels - yes even jewels have become babies.

She has a favorite red jewel that she carries around the house and loses on a daily basis. Yesterday, after finding it in a pillow pocket, she gave it a bottle and put it to sleep.

That's all I got! Have a great Tuesday!

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-08-17T06:47:00.000-04:00

This week's prompt: What would you do for fun if you had to give up TV and internet?

We gave up cable this summer and I haven't missed it. Even Charlotte, who enjoyed her morning line-up tremendously didn't miss it since we timed the drop with a two week vacation to my mom's house who has no cable. We came home and she didn't even ask for it.

So what do we do instead? Well Charlotte spends more time playing with her toys and brother. They've devised elaborate games like Sam will climb into the papasin and just roll around on top of each other. The noise level has ratchet up but they are both looking at books and playing together.

As for the parents, we do chores in the evenings or get on the internet to read blogs, news and Facebook.

Which leaves me to the last part of the question - go without internet! It would be challenging. We'd have to get a newspaper and actually read articles rather than quick news clips. We'd have to write actual letters to our friends and family or call them more often on the phone. Speaking of which, I do owe my younger brother a call.

In summary, it would be harder to live without the internet!

England - missed the riots!

2011-08-11T13:29:00.003-04:00

Not the England I was expecting. I've been here in 2006 and 2008 and recall it as one of my favorite cities. This time we've seen the riots in the news all week and got increasingly nervous by Wednesday. Boss canceled our hotel stay in London and we took several trains to reach Fleet, England, about an hour into the country side. Didn't see any signs of rioting on our way through London.

I've never spent time in the country side of England before. It's quite beautiful. We started at the Four Seasons where boss's sister works, she treated us to late lunch. It's a stunning property with horses and bicycles. Perhaps the place you might read about famous people visiting for holiday in the countryside. Not that his sister can divulge that kind of information.

We spent the night at his sister's place, she would have been offended to put us up in her hotel. This was somewhat perplexing considering there was one working shower for four adults. I spent the morning wondering when it was appropriate to take a shower. I must have waited too long because we reached the train one minute before departure.

London was not as interesting as before. With only an afternoon to shop and a boss's shoes hurting him, we visited the Disney Store, Carters and Nike. I found some cute stuff at Carter's for my kids and an umbrella for Charlotte at the Disney Store. Nothing London related at Nike, they got ride of all the city specific lines. Too bad.

Now I'm back in the country side at 6pm waiting for sister and roommate to get home so we can eat dinner. Tomorrow I leave at noon. Looks like Paris was the highlight. Wish I had more time to visit blogger friend Grit's Day but just couldn't seem to work out the timing. Turns out, we are 1 hour from each other!!

Wordless Wednesday: Favorite Photos of Paris

2011-08-10T02:52:00.012-04:00

Mickey Sorcerer, found in the back lot where only employees go.

Castle at Disneyland Paris

I just liked the sky and black city line.

Does anyone know what this gold flame is? It had hand made signs surrounding it, one appeared to be for Princess Diana.

Random Graffiti

Last nights menu was in French, I still managed to order well!

I love this pitcher.

I really like this sign, maybe I can find one for my kitchen!

Cartoon on menu.

Room Service in Paris (last day)

2011-08-10T02:49:00.002-04:00

"Bonjour, I'd like to order room service", self.

"Bonjour madame, you would like Cafe Au Lait and 4 chocolate buns, I remember from yesterday", room service.

"Why yes! That would be wonderful", self.

Room service just made my day!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2011-08-09T04:22:00.003-04:00

I really think Paris might be my new favorite city, sorry London! Paris has you beat on food!!!

I can't think of a better way to start the day then with Pain au Chocolat (chocolate croissants) and Café Au Lait! Add a little glass jar of plain yogurt and it's the perfect breakfast. Add no meetings until 3pm so I can sleep in, take an hour long bath in the morning then have said breakfast and I'm feeling quite happy.

Would it be too much to order a few more chocolate croissants? I don't think so!!! And what a classy hotel for not even making me sign a receipt! I've always wondered about the real point of that, just put it on my final bill!! Finally a hotel that "gets me"!!

My only regret is not brushing up on my French before coming - somewhere in the two weeks between our last road trip and this trip! I've found that English really isn't spoken here and I should have at least put the basics to memory. So if I ever come back alone, without boss who speaks French, I'll definitely have to remember to brush up on my French!

Finally, speaking of random, yesterday as we returned to our hotel on the train, a young guy stepped onto the train with a boom box playing Micheal Jackson's song "Billie Jean". He proceeded to dance like MJ for about 10 minutes before getting off the train. People mostly ignored him. I thought it was cool to see a young guy passionate enough about his art that he's willing to perform in the most random of places.

So this is Paris?

2011-08-07T12:14:00.007-04:00

It is as I had hoped it would be. Very few American brands. Sure you have the token McDonalds on the Champs Elysees but Starbucks could only be found on the inside of a building, in other words, it didn't have an outward facing sign. Other than these two, I didn't see any other mainstream American restaurants - to which I'm eternally thankful. Nothing more disappointing than seeing your own food pop up every where you go.

We started our day at a lovely cafe that served breakfast that seemed to be in Parisian territory, not tourist zoned. During our hour long stay we watched as families would pass us, then 15-20 minutes later pass again with baguette. I noted baguettes stuffed into backpacks, purses, in arms - none ever with paper. We are such a paper society in the US, everything wrapped in paper.

Post breakfast we walked from noon - 5pm! Just walked and walked around the city, saw the Eiffel tower, line was too long to actually go up but it was really neat walking under it. I'm not sure I ever really appreciated the architectural value until I stood under it and exclaimed "it's like a park UNDER the tower, how cool is that"! The space is so open and friendly under the tower with it's broad legs heading 4 directions and made of steel bars that you can see through that it just seems like a giant sculpture, with beautiful arches and giant feet to stand on. The surrounding area is a giant park filled with people lolling about on the grass. I amused myself by taking odd angle photos of the tower.

Directly across from the tower was a festival where we had lunch of the most amazing sausage link and onion sandwiches one could hope to have. The smell alone brought us into the area.

Did I mention the weather yet? While we roast back home in the 90's, it's 70 max here! Just an absolutely perfect day for a stroll outside.

So aside from little sleep on the plane and quite tired from walking all day, I'm really enjoying myself.

Thoughts on Paris

2011-08-07T12:03:00.003-04:00

As I sat in the plane awaiting take off I had a flash back to myself in high school, taking French classes, never thinking I'd actually every go and visit France. I didn't even have a passport. Then I thought, what if I had taken it more seriously and saved up the money to go on a school sponsored trip, I'd have been sitting in the plane awaiting take off with all the giddy excitement a teen can muster. Then I looked at myself now, 35 years old and exhausted at 5:35pm. Sad from leaving two small children with their first babysitter (non-family) and I had to smile at the difference 18 years will make.

Next trip booked before boarding today's plane!

2011-08-06T10:25:00.003-04:00

It's the story of my life this year. For every trip I've gone on, plans for the next one have been fast-tracked so that I'm booking the next one before completing the current one.

Due to circumstances out of our control, husband cannot go with me to my mom's wedding on the 20th so he's staying home and I'm now booked to fly home with a three year old and one year old in my lap. I'm terrified - to say the least! And desperately hoping for a 1/2 full plane so we have some room to maneuver. We will survive - right?

My bags are packed for Paris!

2011-08-05T21:57:00.002-04:00

Leaving tomorrow at 5:45pm. Such an odd time of departure. I'll be sleeping on the plane (I hope) and arriving to Paris at 8:45am. Sound discombobulating.

The kids will have their first ever babysitter (non-family) from 2:30 - 5:30. Think she (the babysitter) will survive? I hope so!!

I work a 1/2 day on Friday's and husband works the other 1/2. Today I managed to get 2 hours of two kids napping together to put away laundry and finish packing. It was like a miracle!

Upon waking I made a Peach Coffee Cake for the family, because I'm nice like that. It makes for a quick breakfast in the mornings. It took forever to make. I swear I started at 4:30 and didn't end until 7pm. I had promised Charlotte a trip to Chick Fil A and she's of the age where she remembers stuff so she held me to it - even though we got there at 8pm. Surprisingly there were a ton of kids playing. We stayed 20 minutes and left. At least we did it! I can't leave for a week and not keep a little promise to my princess.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-03T21:35:00.003-04:00

Working Mommy Wednesday

2011-08-03T07:17:00.001-04:00

This week's prompt:

What tools or habits do you use to keep organized?

My favorite tool is Outlook folders. I file every email I receive in a folder system that is: Clientname with sub folder of project name. I only file the email once it's been read and action-ed/answered/etc. Beyond this, I have client charts with all current projects listed. Go through it several times a week.

Have a great Wednesday ladies!

Random Tuesday

2011-08-02T07:13:00.002-04:00

Just another day in the office.

Trip to Paris

2011-08-01T22:10:00.003-04:00

Strolls into bosses office, asks "um, would it be okay to leave my computer behind during our Paris trip next week?"

Boss looks in horror like I've suggested employing child labor. "No, you cannot leave your computer behind, this is a WORKING trip".

But we are going to be walking a lot, going into stores and not having much time on the computer anyway. Less to pack right?

Clearly I've not thought this one through. No computer means no SKYPE time with family and Facebook! I can't live without social media! What was I thinking???

Thank you boss for saving me from myself.

Happy Birthday Sam - 1 year old!!!

2011-07-29T08:30:00.006-04:00

Happy Birthday Sam!!!

I came home from work to find this glorious collection of balloons connected to a giant teddy bear! Present from Texas grandparents. The kids were giddy with excitement over the balloons.

Hey Ya'll! It's my birthday, it's my birthday!

Okay what's next, I heard a rumor there would be cake!

Oooooh pretty light....

JACKPOT!

What better way to end the day then a visit to the beach! No fear mamma, I'll crawl directly into the waves!

Cool birthday mom and dad!