Thoughts on Motherhood

I started writing this post, thinking that I had some inspirational insights to motherhood. Then I realized that this whole blog is about motherhood. It is something I am and I practice everyday, 24/7. I craft for my kids, take photos of them, advocate for their education, cheer on their accomplishments, encourage them with their challenges, and teach them everything I know.

Mother's Day is a reminder that even though my own mother was not a good example of parenting, I will be a good example to my girls, setting them up to be good mother's themselves someday. Being a mom is a tough job, I don't think anyone will argue with that. But for me it is something that I wanted to be more than anything and I never forget that not everyone is as lucky as I am.

These three little girls who call me mom are my world. They inspire me, challenge me to be the best "me" possible, and love me the way no one else can.

Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow moms, mom-to-be, mothers of angels, and mother's in spirit. Enjoy your day!

5 Things I Know for Sure

There are some days when I feel like I don't know a darn thing, but here are 5 things I know for sure:

1. Nursing clothes are pretty blah unless you know where to look... I NEED this sundress in orange and this awesome nursing bra! Who says you need to dress plain and dull if you are nursing?!

2. I am over all the rainy weather Cleveland has been getting! This fort-making bag makes a super gift and until we can garden for real I am making this gardening sensory bucket for the girls to play in.

3. There is something about homemade sweet tea that just makes everything right in the world. This awesome white tea make such a refreshing cold brew! And if you are needing some activities to do with your tea-drinking kids, check out this month's Action Pack from Whip Up. (Pssst... go here to get a code for 20% off the $5 Mini-mag... what a steal!!!)

4. Days are flying faster than I ever thought possible. My oldest girl now can ride a bike without training wheels and my baby is 5 months old today. When people tell you to cherish these days because they fly by, believe them!

5. Even when life gets a little crazy, fate hands you the tools to right yourself again. I have found my parenting inspiration, got an additional job teaching at a local dance studio, met new neighbors, planted flowers that will make my days sunny and colorful, and am surrounded by great music that lifts the spirit.... it is so very good here.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.For more moments, visit SouleMama

No More Yelling Over Spilled Milk!

 

No, that isn't my playroom... but it could be any given day.

What is the difference from last week until now?

How I react to it.

Remember this post that I wrote about a few days ago? 

How I noticed that I am not being the calm peaceful parent that I want to be 

because I am yelling all the time...

Well I took it to heart and can honestly say that 

I wish everyone would read it and realize what truth there is written there.

Since reading that post by my fellow mommy and homeschooler

my days are 100% smoother,

my girls actually listen to my words instead of tuning me out,

the lying has stopped,

and there is a "niceness" to everyone's demeanor.

No, it isn't a miracle drug and no, I haven't started spanking, using timeouts, or any other punishment.

In fact, all punishments and threats are gone. 

Of course I still parent and pay close attention to how my girls are acting.

But where the old Connie would have FLIPPED out at a mess like above,

the new Connie simply turns on the clean up music and has everyone work together to pick up.

Simple right?! 

I realized that I am setting the tone for the day,

when I am stressed and yell, 

the kids get just as frazzled and then the day goes to hell in a handbasket!!

And in the end, it is all small stuff...what is really worth more?

A trusting and loving relationship with my kids,

or a playroom where nothing gets played with because I want it to stay clean?

(Who the heck cares anyhow?!)

So there ya have it...

and I promised my girls out loud that I am no longer yelling,

so I am held accountable by them

and remember that I made a promise.

I am pretty sure everyone is a lot happier that there is no more angry mommy in the house!

(If you want to read more from the genius, this is a good post... and this one... oh what the heck, just read it all!!)

A Homeschooling Post

With the formal school year winding down I have been thinking a lot about our adventures in schooling this year. We started out in the norm... waking up at 7:15, hurry through breakfast, lots of chaos and stress, going to a public school with a great reputation, homework and PTO meetings... even though my heart told me that this wasn't right for our sensitive, dreamy eyed oldest girl.

Today we have an eclectic, non-conforming routine that involves weekly library trips, singing scales in the car to teach music, throwing bananas at knives to demonstrate gravity and velocity,  and go more with the flow of life. It is wonderful, scary, funny, frustrating, fun, tiring, challenging and rewarding everyday.

What I enjoy most though is the HUGE amount of resources available for kids to learn from, not just homeschoolers. There are so many great places that supplement an education... here is a quick list of some of our favorite tools, site, and books!

Gabby is really into birds so we are participating in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Celebrate the Urban Bird study. You sign up, they send you a kit, and then you get to bird watch and send in your observations. A great introduction to nature studies.

Polymers are pretty interesting for kids and this is a great experiment to do that looks at color and polymers.

Reading is a huge part of our day and now you can register your homeschool in the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program. Yay for books and pizza!

Speaking of books, we love the "You Wouldn't Want to be..." series! The books introduce periods of history in ways that interest and engage kids, plus shed some light on some pretty overlooked people... I definitely wouldn't want to be a servant in the Victorian era- yuck!

Another cool series is the "See Inside" ones by Usborne. So many flaps to look at and another interesting way to look at the body, how things work, and inside buildings.

Science really interests Gabby so I think that this homemade Lava Lamp experiment is perfect to try!


But my favorite site for getting worksheets, experiments, poems, writing exercises and more is Education.com. It is a great site, easy to navigate, and has tons of worksheets to help introduce concepts which we then apply to the real world.

So that is where we are with our homeschool... it is a great experience and I know Gabby loves it because she asks to do "school" stuff. Be sure to check the Homeschool Links tab at the top, I try to add sites and such that help me as I see them!  Cheers!

Random Ramblings from a Tired Mommy...

I would love to be in that bed right now... preferably with curtains drawn, lavender lotion soothing me to sleep, and no thoughts of who needed what from me. Just for a moment... then I could get up and continue this dance called life.

Today I met two teachers who were planning on homeschooling their children. Doesn't it say something when even teachers don't want their kids in public school? These teachers lived in pretty affluent cities as well, so it wasn't as if the schools were impoverished. Both were concerned over about different things from the school atmosphere to curriculum and asked really insightful questions. It was nice!

Last week we went to the nature center and it just so happened that most of the schools were on Spring Break. Gabby met a very nice 7 yr old boy who was also in first grade. Inevitably he asked what school Gabby went to... I held my breath to see how the conversation would play out. Gabby told him that she "got to school at home" and you should have seen the boy's eyes light up! He asked how come she got to stay home and Gabby replied, "Because my mom likes to teach me! Go ask your mom if you can to!"

Ok, so I have 2 questions for all you Blogger/Blog queens: 
1. How do you respond to a comment right in the comment section?
2. How do you know who is linking to your blog or a post? I know that people share some things that I write about and would love to see the links!

I really need to get a jump on all the different things I have going... Usborne is up and going again but I need new business cards and stickers to go on the back. Etsy is going really well so I need to add more items and such, plus there is the craft show in June that I will need business cards for... AHHHH! Ok, time to go have a winecooler and paint some fairy doors... thanks for listening to me ramble dear friends!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday all! 
What a week this has been... I had a photo shoot yesterday, discovered that Miss Moira can scoot off her bed and make it all the way into the hallway (!!), had some pretty hefty wind that took out our power, and have been trying to get Miss Gabby back on track with the homeschooling. (She liked Spring break so much that she is not too motivated to get back into a routine...!) Anyhow, here are some coolness that I have found on the web:

We just bought the girls some Legos and are having so much fun building all sorts of things. I would love to build a table like this for them! Also, I am sure they would love to eat out of these Legos and have a Lego themed party...

Like to sew? Check out a month of free patterns here!

We like to celebrate Cinco de Mayo so these little mini pinatas are perfect to give to each girl.

Someday Cleveland will get Spring... until then I may just make my own townhouse planter to bring some green into the house.

The birds are all excited for Spring as well, I think that this Bread Bird Feeder is a simple project to feed our feathered friends and get rid of some stale bread!

Mother's Day is also coming up and I love this simple and pretty Poppy Canvas for the kids to make...

I mentioned that Gabby is in a "non-schooling" mood... my teaching agenda looks like this many days. I may try some of these tips and tricks to make the day more interesting for her to learn without the formality of "school at home". 

With summer comes Gabby's birthday so I am already putting together ideas for a simpler celebration... check out this adorable party supply store... loooooove these candles!

Lately I have noticed that when I am stressed or not feeling well I yell a lot more, something that I don't want to do and don't like about myself. Sure the kids do what I want but at what cost? This is a great article that a friend posted on facebook... it puts everything in perspective.

Finally, remember the cute little butterflies and dragonflies that I bought for the girl's Easter baskets? Well it turns out that they were reeeeaaallly tiny. I mean easily breakable tiny... so I hijacked them and made these!  Very dainty hair bobbies are now in my store and ready to grace someone's head.... I can't wait to make more!

It's a Zoo Out There!

Today we went to the zoo and enjoyed the 75 degree (and non-rainy) weather!

It was so nice to see everyone out and about,

let the kids burn off some of their cooped up energy,

and we got to see a surprise animal- the zoo's new male elephant Willy!!!

The Cleveland Zoo has been working on the new elephant exhibit called Elephant Crossing

for the better part of 2 years, expanding the area and adding new animals to the herd.

This is the first time that we have had a bull elephant since 1962 

and the zoo hopes to breed the elephants in the future.

The kids and I have been looking forward to this exhibit since they started construction

but the opening day is May 5th,

so it was quite a surprise to see Willy in front and the girls in the back!

Here are some other photos of our trip where the kids met a screech owl named Hooty,

visited Austrailian Adventure with the kangaroos,

and toured the Lorakeet Aviary!

Going "Muddin"

Well, with all the rain that we have been getting it was only a matter of time... my girls went muddin'! Gabby isn't one to be prissy about getting her feet wet, and we all know AJ is a fan of puddles... but this was a whole new kind of fun. What started out as a little peek at the flooded park turned into a whole lot of splashing, jumping, and giggling. Hey, if you are going to do something, do it right!

AJ fell over, of course, and earned the name "mud butt" for the rest of the evening! She didn't care a bit though and loved trying to get Gabby even dirtier than she was, lol!

Happy Easter!

 

Happy Easter

from

my family to yours!