snow day

 It was really awesome that I caught both kids reading this morning by themselves. Lucas still loves books with babies on them, and Sadie loves his animal book. She was reading under one of my tablecloths that I had set aside to be put away.

 I noticed that my sewing machine started skipping stitches, and google told me my needle is dull. Crap. There goes any more sewing crafts until I can change the needle. Poop.

 We went out for our first snow day today. I was determined to catch it while it was still snowing and not hailing or raining like yesterday. Right after they scarfed down breakfast, we got dressed. Takes a half an hour to get them ready for 15 minutes outside. Sadie loved it.

 Lucas on the other hand fell down a lot and whined. His coat seemed to make him lose his balance. After a while, he gave up and sat in the snow and touched it. Maybe he'll do better tomorrow if its not all slush.

Snow days would be great if I had finished my christmas shopping, but no, I figured we wouldn't get snow so soon and that we'd have time to take the bus down to the mall. BAHHHHH!! My stroller is now snow proof, and we're going to have to wait until the weekend. Not what I wanted. I hate leaving stuff until the last minute. Tony is rubbing off on me.

Snow days are good for baking muffins, cleaning the house, and catching up on laundry/tv. 

encouraging others

The kids and I have managed to give away 2 batches of cookies, and a free coffee to people we either don't know or have only met once or twice. It was lots of fun to surprise my library friend and new Starbucks acquaintance with cookies. We gave a stranger a free drink card, and off we went. I'm hoping to make a few more Christmas cards that Sadie can hand out to the ladies at the veggie market and shoppers. We see them every couple weeks, and they always smile and talk to the kids.

The kids don't really get it yet, maybe when Sadie gives away some cards. Next year, we'll work on it again. It was good to get out of my comfort zone.

This was today. Lucas was feeding Sadie imaginary oatmeal, and they were both giggling and "eating". My silly children. Goal for next week is to take the kids to see the Christmas lights and get my stroller wheel fixed. Stupid inner tube is warped and needs to be replaced. Such a royal pain in the rear. We made some treats for gifts today, Tony and I. He had lots of fun making them with me. I need to make more now so he can take them to work.

such a sad day

We were sitting at a play date, hanging out with some new mamas and their kids, and my friends husband came in and let us know there was another school shooting, this time it was at an elementary school.

My heart stopped. Who would go out planning to kill little children? That was the intent. These were someones babies they were killing.

I took the kids home shortly after hearing the news, they were tired. I felt sick walking home with the kids. After putting the kids to bed and cuddling them, I turned on the news and bawled. I couldn't even imagine trying to deal with any of it.

My heart aches for all those 20+ parents that were told their babies were killed.

I worry for the people living in the USA. I grieve for those children and their parents. Nobody should have to deal with the horror that this community will be dealing with.

I'll be praying today, for the parents, children and all affected by this tragedy. This world disgusts me, and I'm sad to be a part of it right now.

play dates and meeting new people

We had our first play date. There was grilled cheese sandwiches, toys, and lots of screaming and shrieking. They had a blast. We even gave our new friends a load of Christmas cookies as one of our ways to spread Christmas cheer. I'm starting small here folks. Tomorrow, we are meeting someone for Starbucks at the mall (someone new I met at the Starbucks near our house), and I wanna get there early so that we can buy someone a coffee as our next thing.


This whole meeting new people is so scary for me. Its hard for me to break out of my introverted shell. I can do it though. Little steps. I usually tend to chicken out, or am relieved when the other person has. Its bad though. As an adult, making friends is so much more harder than when you were a kid. I remember going up to girls in my class and just flat out asking "will you be my friend?" It always went well. You really can't go up to someone and do that now. Sucks, cause now I gotta work harder at it, but working harder can pay off. So, hopefully my awkward voicemails or text messages dont scare the ladies off.

I'm coming for you! I'm bring treats and toting the children along with me. 

Making little presents

One game Sadie has been playing lately has been Mailman. She takes an old felt envelope I made for her last valentines, and she stuffs some toys in and then proudly presents it to me. I get presents, and I give them back to he. One of her favorite games to play lately.

I figured since shes old enough to kind of understand, we would make presents that she could give away. We decorated and baked a bunch of ornaments, and later we'll wrap them.

Its not salt dough, but a baking soda cornstarch dough that we used. Recipe is HERE . It worked out well as long as you don't make your ornaments too thick.

getting into the Christmas spirit

I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. This year it took me a lot longer to get into the Christmas spirit. I just half heartily decorated the tree, and the other decorations just sat there for over a week on my fireplace. Totally unlike me at all.

To get me out of this funk, I felt that we as a family really needed to look beyond ourselves and get into doing things for others. I was so inspired by http://www.mylittlemustache.com/  Their advent calendar is full of activities that they are doing for others instead of the typical advent calendars with treats inside. While our advent calendar still has treats in it, I've been making a list of things we can do for others that we know, or don't know to help us spread the joy of Christmas. I'm already excited and we have yet to start (although today is going to be baking day).

Our list so far:

-baking cookies for a Sadie's little library friends
-baking muffins for the librarians that we see at a couple times a month
-going out and donating canned goods to the food bank
-giving out homemade cards to the places we frequent the most (little asian grocery market, ect)
-leaving notes of encouragement on the bus
-sending cards and photos to great grandparents

I've yet to think of more, but I'll be brainstorming this week and starting up some of these projects soon. Christmas for me has always been about giving, but our Christmases have always been small at home. I'm hoping by bringing the kids, at least Sadie will pick up on what we're doing and next year will be even better.

If you have any wonderful ideas, let me know!