Author Archives: Jen E @ mommablogsalot

High Five for Friday: May 17, 2013

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highfive5-17

It’s been one of those mornings. Momma woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and I’ve been struggling to find my good temperament so we can get on with our day. I knew the cure for rainy day blahs was a good cup of coffee and a little power of positive thinking! Thank god it’s Friday – I can cling to the promise of a weekend coming and join Lauren Elizabeth and all the lovely bloggers participating in High Five for Friday this week.

Want to join the fun? Just share five good things from the past week and maybe some pictures to go with. Here are mine…

1 – coffee, thank god for coffee on grouchy, rainy mornings like these. My CBTL coffee maker is still going strong and making me a happy momma each morning!
2 – listening to little BB “read” me stories -whether she has memorized the words or is just making it up as she goes along, listening to the sweet lilt of her voice and the inner workings of her imagination is priceless.
3 – we had some truly beautiful weather this week, taking BB and Doc to the park Monday morning was such a nice treat. The temperatures have been all over the place lately but most of this week has seen beautiful Spring weather.
4 – looking at the pictures Dan took at the cup scout camp out last weekend. I know these are technically not from the past week, but I haven’t gotten to share them yet and they bring a smile to my face – the boys had a great time. Isn’t that a cool little teepee fort?
5 – s’mores at last night’s Den meeting – he got marshmallow everywhere! Every time he tried to get some off, he just ended up with more somewhere else. Of course his loving mother laughed and took pictures. A nice treat on a beautiful Thursday night.

Have a great weekend guys!

On the size of the universe and those big blue eyes.

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Every time one of the kids gets a hair cut, they seem to instantly get older. BB had a massive growth spurt in my mind after her haircut last weekend and I’m noticing it more and more each day now. Adorable hair cut, huge blue eyes that could make or break your heart and a wiseness beyond her years.

She is amazingly clever and witty these days, and surprising us all with little jokes and insights. Maybe she’s always been this witty and we’re just starting to notice.

Yesterday we went to one of our favorite coffee shops together and I took out an apple sauce pouch for her, as I often do. Her face lit up and she exclaimed, “Go go squeezes are my favorite in the UNIVERSE!”

I laughed and asked her how big the universe was. She held out both arms about as wide as she is tall and said confidently, “This big.”

So fitting – to a three year old, the universe is pretty much a bubble that they alone fit inside of – it’s kind of their defining characteristic.

Meanwhile, I’m still in awe that my three year old says words like “universe” and seems to have developed a sudden understanding of addition and subtraction when we weren’t looking. We may be in for it with this one.

Announcing: the Summer Reading Challenge @ mommablogsalot.com

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summer reading challenge @ mommablogsalot

The other day I was perusing the websites for my local libraries and thinking about signing the kids up for Summer Reading Challenges. We’ve done them in the past with MM and he always enjoys them so I think I may sign up BB, too. Then I thought, “Why don’t I get a summer reading challenge?”

I’ve come to really enjoy the seasonal reading challenges that Kat @ Callapidder Days has done in the Spring and Fall and this summer I feel like keeping the momentum going with a personal challenge to read more this summer – and to read more of the books I already own.

I’d love it if you would join me and challenge yourself this summer to read the books (or magazines or newspapers, etc) that you have been meaning to read. Nothing complicated – pick some books or pick a number or any other reading related goal that you want to tackle this summer and go for it! We can check in with each other over the course of the summer and cheer each other on as we reach our goal!

I’ll try to figure out the whole Mr. Linky thing so that you guys can link up with me easily and we can all keep track of each other. In the meantime, start thinking about your reading goals this summer and typing up a post about it if you plan to join in. Want a cute button for your posts and sidebar? Feel free to use this one:

summerreading-button

I know the summer season is a little different for everyone, depending on when your kids get out of school, so feel free to hop in on the challenge whenever you like. I’ll plan to officially start the challenge June 1st (a Saturday) and finish on September 1st. I’ll post a linky on June 1st where you can share your summer reading goals and another linky on September 2nd where you can submit posts about how your challenge went.

-update - I have been thinking about possible giveaways and prizes for the challenge and then I thought to myself, “Self, what do people who love books like to win? MORE BOOKS!” I think I can totally make this happen – more details soon!

 

Do you tend to read more or less in the summer months?

Are you planning to join the challenge? Let me know in the comments section below!

What I’m Into Lately: May 13, 2013

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flowers

I decided to try my hand at gardening this year. I picked up some planter thingies and bought some pretty flowers over the weekend and set about planting them in the front yard. I quickly discovered that you need a LOT of potting soil for container gardening. Like damn. Like I didn’t have nearly enough. I filled in with mulch, switching the ratio of soil to mulch up a bit in each container because I have no idea what I’m doing and figured maybe one of them will survive. This will likely be the bad pancake year of gardening but hopefully I’ll learn from my mistakes for next year.

What I’m reading:

The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen – This is book two in a series written probably for middle schoolers but the story is fascinating and the main character is witty and someone you find yourself rooting for. Nielsen is a very good story teller, I recommend this series highly.

Movies worth watching:

It was a big movie weekend in our house. In totally late to the bandwagon fashion, hubby and I rented Lincoln last night and it was amazing. I’d been worried the movie would be too dry or hard to focus on after a long, fantastic mother’s day, but it’s very engaging and I can see now why it got so many awards and nominations. Everyone was superb, especially Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. We also rented Parental Guidance with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler – a very cute, sweet, funny family movie. This is a great cross-generation kind of movie that the kids, parents and grand parents would enjoy. We watched Lady & the Tramp with the kids Friday night and they both really loved it. It is such a different experience watching beloved movies from my childhood again as a parent. This one holds up well. Yesterday morning we went to the theater and saw The Croods which was both terrifically funny and also made me cry a few times. I thought Nicholas Cage did a great job voice acting the father in the movie and really thought the movie as a whole was fantastic.

Mothers Day Recap:

Dan spoiled me all weekend with breakfast Saturday morning at the Egg & I, shopping for plants at Olbrich Botanical Garden and then the boys went camping with the cub scouts and the girls went out shopping, got BB a cute haircut, planted a garden (with moderate success) and had dinner at the Great Dane Pub, sharing a slice of cheesecake for dessert that was superb.

cheesecake

Monday morning Dan and the kids brought me breakfast in bed – homemade oatmeal made by my hubby and coffee of course. MM supervised by picking out what foods to bring me and BB helped by sharing my breakfast and being cute and cuddly. MM gave me a cute potted flower that he put together at school – the pot being decorated of course with foam stickers. He also had several drawings and homemade cards for me. Dan gave me a River Song journal courtesy of Think Geek.com so if you were wondering How big of a nerd is Jen? The answer is very. We went to the movies to see the Croods as I mentioned above, did some window shopping at Best Buy (momma is plotting future techy purchases) and ordered Thai food for dinner and watched Lincoln. Low key but fantastic and I felt very spoiled indeed.

after

Items of Note:

The weather has been all over the place lately – with rain and hail and then 60 degree temps, then down to the 30′s with blustery wind and I read that tomorrow we’ll have a high of 91. WTF? I just want to be able to put the winter gear away already, Mother Nature, it’s mid May now – get your act together! Also – needing to take two allergy medicines every day and sometimes reaching for Claritin D also is just evil. That shouldn’t be my new normal.

What I’m Looking Forward to:

My daddy is visiting us soon and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve been missing him and the rest of the extended family a lot these past few months and right now I’m just focusing on his visit and then a trip to MA later this summer to see the rest of our family. I love our home here but sometimes being this far away from loved ones can sting a bit, so YAY for upcoming family time!

what are you into these days? Let me know in the comments below!

hair cut

High Five Friday: May 10, 2013

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high five for friday!

It’s time for High Five Friday, hosted by Lauren Elizabeth! I have to say, as much as this has been a fun week with beautiful weather, I am really glad to see the weekend coming! It’s been a busy week and I’m ready to start thinking Weekend Thoughts, how about you? Before I head to the grocery store, here are my 5 highlights from this week.

1 – My son’s awesome new Batman backpack – little BB is so excited about starting 4k in the fall, she wants to go RIGHT NOW! She really thought she was getting on the bus with her brother Monday morning!
2 – The K/1st Grade Spring Musical was adorable. I love their music teacher – she is a sweet heart and so good with the kids!
3 – MM’s “David Tennant” hair style. He is the Star Student this week and he wanted to look his very best. We got him styling product a few weeks ago and finally tried it out. I wasn’t very happy with my efforts but he was thrilled and that’s all that matters right?
4 – Weather gorgeous enough for spaghetti straps – I took out all the Spring / summer clothes from BB’s closet – yay! It’s like buying a whole new wardrobe without spending any money.
5 – Princesses who do ballet – so proud of my big girl for over coming her fears last week!

Beauty is all around us: LOOK CLOSER.

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new blooms

I look at the world around me and I see a lot of beauty – and a lot of ugliness, too. I guess it depends on what you are looking at and how you choose to look. You can see the beautiful flowers popping up on all of the trees or you can see the discarded petals littering the ground below trees that have adorned their leaves for the year. You can see the lush green grass and pretty yellow dandelions popping up everywhere or you can choose to focus on the brown spots and all those nasty weeds trying to overtake your lawn. Perspective.

Whether something is beautiful or ugly depends entirely on you and your perspective. Whether it’s a couple madly in love and hoping to get married, flowers in your lawn, families finding peace and happiness in a new land, buds on the trees in Spring, a child laughing. All of these things could and should be beautiful. But depending on your perspective you might instead see low life degenerates trying to ruin the sanctity of marriage, weeds overtaking your lawn, immigrants stealing all the jobs, yard waste that needs to be swept and a bunch of kids making too much noise.

I’m exaggerating a little, I know. But only a little. This morning I read one of those dumb “why should I press 1 for English?” comics on my Facebook page. I’ve seen jokes like those a million times probably and never let it bother me but today it did. Why is English the national language of America? Because a bunch of immigrants from England who were being oppressed at home sailed across the ocean to America and tried to build a new life for themselves where they would be free from judgement and persecution. Speaking on behalf of those immigrants, we kinda mucked that one up a bit initially, fighting with the people already living here and making a lot of mistakes. We refused to “learn the language” and weren’t very nice. But we are good people deep down, I think.

We are all of us immigrants here, some more recently than others. And while I agree that being able to communicate with each other is very important, I think compassion is also important. I think that remembering where we come from is important. We are a nation of immigrants – it’s what makes America beautiful. If we could only treat each other equally -  all of us – think how beautiful and amazing we could be.

It’s easy to see something different and judge it based on what we know. To feel tired and cranky and focus on the negatives is a normal, human thing to do. Sometimes we just want to feel the negativity for a little while and really marinate in it.  But then when we are ready, we look again and see how beautiful the world really is – how nothing has changed except everything. The beauty never left, you just forgot to look for awhile. So if you are looking around yourself and seeing nothing but ugliness, look closer. The beauty is there if you’ll just choose to look at it.

Disclaimer: I don’t claim to have all the answers. I can’t necessarily see the big picture and I know that complex issues are just that, complex. But I do believe in equality, love, compassion and kindness. I think we can all agree to abide by those ideals here. If you choose to comment, please do so with kindness and compassion and an open mind.

Tuesday 10: Life Beyond These Early Childhood Years

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reach

I can feel the end of an era coming as my littlest gets bigger and bigger. Even the puppy is slowly turning into a regular old, gigantic, spazzy dog. In the fall my “baby” begins 4k and I’ll be finding myself with a handful of hours to myself each day. Next year, when she’s in kindergarten, that window of time will get even larger. Like “should I maybe get a job?” larger. I’ve gone back and forth in my mind about what I plan to do when the kids are both in school and the truth is, I just don’t know.

What I do know is that I really want to be there when they get off the bus each day which means “Mother’s Hours” wherever I decide to spend my time. I could volunteer in the class, find a part time job, work from home, spend my days in yoga pants at the gym or walking the dog or becoming the Domestic Goddess that I can’t seem to achieve with two kids in tow. Or something else entirely.

Because it’s Tuesday and I like making random lists, here are 10 things that I would like to when my kiddos are both School Kiddos:

  1. Write a novel or maybe a novella or maybe something else entirely. Creative writing of some kind.
  2. Read lots of other peoples’ novels and novellas and other creative writing endeavors and possibly edit them.
  3. Exercise, like every freaking day. Yoga classes, long walks, strength training, running perhaps?
  4. Go on long walks in beautiful places with my camera and not have a small child tugging on my arm while I click the shutter.
  5. Sit in a coffee shop and drink a cup of coffee and read a book instead of drinking my coffee as quickly as possible and telling my daughter to share the toys with the other kids and stop piling all the toy food on my table.
  6. Take the dog for a long walk every day or at least, much more often – explore dog parks together and enjoy some fresh air.
  7. Go grocery shopping all by myself. Nuff said.
  8. Take a shower and not be paranoid about how many minutes it’s been.
  9. Start reading a magazine and finish it in the same sitting.
  10. Do numbers 1-9 and still have ten minutes left over to meditate or watch crappy television before the kids come home.

You’ll notice that cleaning wasn’t anywhere on this list? I said things I would *like* to do, not things I’ll guilt trip myself into doing instead!

What’s on your mind today? Share your favorite things to do without kids in the comments section or just say hi and tell me something totally random! 

On Princesses Who Do Ballet and Drawing Our Own Lines.

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contraditictory ballerina

Today was her second ballet class. It went sooooo much better than last week. She has been eagerly waiting for class all week and was all smiles and confidence as she strutted into class in her new ballet slippers and sparkly tutu. She spent class having a great time, but absolutely marching to the beat of her own drum, unconcerned if her twirls and leaps were not exactly the same as the other girls. She was eager and friendly but definitely giving off that I’m Gonna Do It My Way vibe that I love about her.

Do I care if she becomes smitten with all things ballet and turns into a Swan Lake Super Star? Nope – I just want her to have a great time and learn new things with confidence and poise. To embrace the challenges in her life and never stop trying. I want her to fall down and get back up – to make new friends and know when to let go. I want her to define awesomeness for herself and defend those choices with vigor.

ta da!

After class I asked her if she liked being a ballerina and she said calmly, “I’m not a ballerina mommy. I’m a Princess who does ballet.” I tried to get her to divulge the difference between ballerinas and Princesses Who Do Ballet but she was pretty vague on the topic. I think it has something to do with the skirt? But probably it’s about the attitude. Ballerinas fall in line, princesses draw the line, you know?

my princess

This girl definitely draws her own lines!