Good Enough

If you follow my blog I'm sure you've noticed that more than once I've mentioned that I used to be a perfectionist to a fault. If I couldn't finish a project precisely the way I hoped then I wouldn't start. This lead to complete chaos, disorganization and a consistent mess.

Over the years I've learned to let go a bit. If I don't have time to scrub the bathroom from ceiling to floor then I will at least wipe down the mirror and give the inside of the toilet bowl a swipe with the brush. Same with the laundry. I no longer arrange my closet by clothing type and color, I'm happy to simply have the laundry put away. I'm proud of this progression.

Something just happened that made me look back on my housekeeping journey. I had a guest. An unexpected, unannounced guest. She couldn't stay long but while she was here we had a pleasant visit. I was able to focus on her and our conversation rather than apologizing for the state of my home. It wasn't perfect but it was acceptable. I didn't want to close the curtains and pretend I wasn't home.

Of course after she left the old perfectionist voice kicked in and over analyzed everything. Littlest's shoes and coloring page was on the floor, so was the novel Biggest has been reading, the throw blanket was left unfolded on the couch-oh my. And of course being that today is The Day After Co-Op, our down day I am clad in my stretchy lounge pants and am not wearing a stitch of make-up. Not to mention when she arrived I had just finished chopping a mountain of onions for the French Onion Soup we're having for dinner tonight so I had tears streaming down my face.

After I over analyzed everything I waited for that old pang of guilt and anger to pierce my mind...but it didn't come. I looked around and thought "You know what, I'm okay with this. I'm okay with me"

For RivkA

RivkA from Coffee and Chemo asked for a photo of my new sunglasses. So RivkA, this is for you. First the blessedly bling-less sunglasses:

Next, an unflattering photo of me in the bling-less sunglasses. I had the biggest urge to put on a platinum blonde stripper wig and bright red lipstick, but I didn't have the lipstick. Ba-Dum Dum Dum! Thank you everyone, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waiter.

Be sure to check out RivkA's blog. She shares funny and heart wrenching stories about her walk with cancer.

A Little Less Bling Please

This afternoon Hubby took both boys to Biggest's guitar lesson. I had some time on my hands. What was I to do? To word it better--what should I do that I usually can't do with Littlest in tow?

I decided to go get a new pair of sunglasses. If you have little ones you know how productive shopping for sunglasses with them can be. It's fun and hilarious but you can't really find a decent pair of sunglasses for yourself when you're laughing so hard tears are running down your face because your 2 year old is running around with big black granny-goggles.

So off to Walmart I went; I try to support local business whenever I can but I needed sunglasses and celery...where else was I going to find that combo? Last summer I bought a pair of sunglasses I really liked only to lose them by fall. I was hoping to find a pair just like them. Sure. (can you hear the sarcasm?)

After searching 6 spinning racks of sunglasses that looked oh-so-different yet exactly the same, with all kinds of crazy bling, I finally found a pair I liked. The tortoise-shell look of them was a bit bright for my taste but by this point I was tired of looking and I figured they'd do. But then, when I took them off, I realized they had this wacky teal star and lots of oh-so-lovely rhinestones all along the arm.

UGH! What is with the bling? I am not 15, I am not J. LO, give a girl a break. Hello, Walmart? I'm calling to tell you that you have MOMS shopping at your store. You have a huge demographic of sunglass shoppers between the ages of 15 and 90 so you can carry more than bling-glasses and granny-goggles. Sheesh!

After another eternity of searchingI did find a pair I like. The lens shape isn't exactly what I'd hoped to find but they are actually quite nice and you couldn't beat the price-$15. I've long since given up on paying $200 for Tommy Bahamas :)

Weekly Wrap Up

We had a fun and interesting week. Not much different from the week before except we were all off our schedules because Hubby was working nights. That and we made the front page of our local newspaper! :) Biggest also helped Granpa with our renovations again. The novelty is starting to wear off. He's also tired of doing double school work days to make up for the time lost-I don't blame him. So again a quick summary because I'm crazy busy, I can't wait for our schedule to slow down a bit...

Monday- We took the morning off to spend some time with Hubby. He didn't go into work until the afternoon because he was working all night. He is in security systems and they had to put some systems up in a court house holding room, they couldn't do the work with the convicts in the room :) This afternoon we had an interview with our local paper. We participated in a cloth diaper awareness project called Global Fluffy Bum. You can read my post about it HERE.

Tuesday- Co-Op day! Nothing great, nothing bad.

Wednesday- Biggest had a double school work day, he made it through alright. We started reading a really great book called Seven Daughters and Seven Sons.

Thursday- Biggest and his grandpa worked on our bathroom-to-be and made some great headway. Yay! The article about the cloth diapers came out today. You can read it HERE.

Friday- Another double day for Biggest-ugh. But we made it through. It was difficult being that the weather was so beautiful Once we got through the academics we spent a lot of time outside woo hoo!!

7 Things You May Not Know About Me

This is a crossover post from my food and allergy blog. I thought I'd post it here too because some of the mamas I have tagged know me through this blog. :)

Forever and a day ago Jessie from Blog Schmog tagged me for the 7 Things You May Not Know
About Me game. I LOVE stuff like this but it came to me the weekend my Biggest was turning 13 and I put it off until I had more time. I'm ready now so here we go! The rules are simple. Link to your original tagger and list these rules in your post. Then, simply share seven facts about yourself in the post. Tag seven people at the end of your post and let them know they've been tagged. And have fun!

7 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I can't read music. I never really understood the concept in school. Now I understand the basics and hope to learn one day soon.

2. In high school my favorite sayings were "Silly Goose", "Cool Beans" and "Irk-E-Dirk". Yeah, I was that cool.

3. I love to drive. Whenever we go anywhere Hubby is usually in the passenger seat.

4. I have a strange love of squeezing-gently of course. I squeeze my kids hands, noses and cheeks. I squeeze Hubby's fingers. My animals run from me when they think I want to squeeze their paws.

5. Hubby's nickname for me used to be Lucy. As in Lucille Ball. I used to be perpetually disorganized and would find myself in ridiculous predicaments. I'm not perfect, but I'm much more organized now. I haven't been called Lucy in quite a while.

6. When I was in middle school I wanted to be the interesting combo of a famous actress, singer and physical therapist.

7. I love to constantly change my hair. It's been varying lengths from my waist to an ultra-short pixie cut. And several colors, shades of brown and blonde as well as bright red. I want to shave my head one day just for the heck of it. And I also want to dye my hair bright pink and platinum blonde. I'm waiting for Littlest to get a little bigger, at his age these changes may scare him.

I will now tag a few ladies I'd like to know more about:

Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Cessie at A World to Experience
Mmle-Gonzo at Jersey and Beyond
Becca at One Word at a Time
Gina at The Gluten Free Gourmand
Mary at Mommy Maestro
Lisa at Our 7 Qtpies

Global Fluffy Bum Article

The article is up!! My baby looks beautiful!! And the diaper looks good too! Check it out at:

http://www.therecordherald.com/community/x297235629/Waynesboro-toddler-sports-a-Fluffy-Bum

Ready For My Close Up

We had an exciting weekend here, we participated in Global Fluffy Bum! Global Fluffy Bum is an effort to raise cloth diaper (CD) awareness in which a diaper cover is mailed around the world. Each participant takes pictures of their child wearing the diaper cover and the images are shared on a group blog. The diaper started in California and has worked its way across the US. There was a second diaper started for those living outside the US, so they wouldn't have to wait so long for their turn. It is currently in Canada and will then move onto Malaysia. This project was started by a cloth diapering mother, Halli, in California. Through an online CD forum she gathered the names and addresses of fellow CD moms who were interested in participating. A custom embroidered diaper cover was made and donated by Smarty Pants and the journey began!

I know I've never really shared photos of my kids on my blog but this is such a great project I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and post a few photos. You can view our photos, read all about our turn with the diaper, as well as the fun times it had with the other participating mamas at the Global Fluffy Bum site. We're the April 21st entry.

To further spread the word we had an interview with the local newspaper! The article will be available on the paper's website. As soon as it is up I will share the link. I'm over the moon excited. Cloth diapering isn't exactly mainstream in my area so I'm really proud to be a part of this initiative and share our cloth diaper success. Leave a comment, let me know what you think. If you are curious about CD and have any questions feel free to ask!

Ugh! My photo jobby isn't cooperating. I'll add the photos once I straighten it out. :)

Update-It's working! Here's some photos. First, the diaper cover.

Playing in the dirt!

Fussball anyone?

Ahh, the smile Mommy can't resist...

Weekly Wrap Up

I have very little time, this has been a busy weekend-in a good way. But I wanted to take a quick moment to play along being that I missed last week. What's everybody been up to? Our Easter week in a very small nutshell:

Monday: Double school-work day for Biggest because he would be busy on Thursday. All went well except we're still moving s-l-o-w-l-y through Around the World in Eighty Days. It's finally starting to get interesting enough that my skin doesn't tighten when it's time to read it. :)

Tuesday: Co-op day. We had a great day at co-op but nothing too interesting to share. After co-op I got some work finished in the garden. I'll try to get pictures up later in the week or for the next weekly wrap up. I can't tell you how good it felt to really get my hands in the dirt. I've been without a veggie garden for two years, since I was preggo with Littlest. And the year before that I let it turn into a giant weed bed. This year I'm adapting a new (to me) method called square foot gardening. I'm a little apprehensive, but we'll give it a go.

Wednesday: A great school day. Biggest was very much on task and driven being that he knew he would be doing NO school work on Thursday. Today I realized Easter was this weekend...oops, better get moving.

Thursday: Biggest helped his grandfather work on our garage conversion, we're turning it into a VERY SMALL but much needed bathroom/laundry room and office. Woodshop anyone? :) I went Easter shopping.

Friday: Biggest helped his grandfather again as they didn't get as far along as they hoped. I did some planting in between chasing Littlest out of the neighbor's yards and general house cleaning. We went to visit my Mom, Step-Father and little brother for a pre-Easter get together.

Saturday: I did some shopping and baking and we spent the afternoon and evening at my Dad and Step-Mother's house for their Easter get together. Dyeing eggs, egg hunt all the good stuff. This evening I had my chocolate mishap, oy!

Sunday: Easter! My MIL and FIL came down for a yummy Easter meal and we all got fat and happy while celebrating the holiday!!

Skin MD Naturals with SPF 15

I recently had the opportunity to try out a new lotion with
light sunscreen by Skin MD. Here's a few quick facts I appreciated about this product:

No animal products or testing
Dermatology tested
Fragrance and colorant free
Hypoallergenic
Paraben free
Non-comedogenic

I was excited to try this product, but to be fair I must admit that I didn't have high hopes for it. I use sunscreen regularly from spring through fall-but I don't enjoy it. I generally don't care for lotions with sunscreen as they are usually heavy or sticky and often cause my sensitive skin to become irritated or break out. I've tried many products through the years and I've come to accept these occasional side effects as necessary irritations.

Skin MD Natural with SPF 15 well exceeded my low expectations. The first benefit I noticed was that this lotion was not heavy or greasy. Being that the weather here has still been quite cold I mainly used Skin MD Natural with SPF 15 on my hands and face. Wearing it under my make-up I hardly knew the lotion was there. It was also not sticky. You know that feeling where your fingers feel tacky for hours after applying some lotions? You won't have that. And to top it all off it has a great light scent that reminds me of summer afternoons.

Now much to my husband's chagrin I was not the only one to sample this product. When I received the lotion it arrived with literature explaining the benefits of Skin MD's products. One of those benefits was help with skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. My husband suffers from eczema on his shin. Although I did not have the shielding lotion, which is the one specifically recommended for eczema, we decided to give it a try. Hubby was happy to find that the lotion moisturized the eczema which lessened the itching and greatly reduced the inflammation. If you'd like to read more about Skin MD and eczema you can click HERE.

Still not convinced? Read more reviews HERE. You will not be disappointed with this product.

Easter Eve

How did you spend your Easter Eve? Stuffing Easter baskets? Watching a movie? Visiting with family? Reading the Lord's Word? Preparing sumptuous dishes for Easter day? Know what I was doing? Scrubbing chocolate off my ceiling. Yea. This Easter will forever be known as The Easter of the Chocolate Mishap.

Last month after watching a demonstration at Hershey, PA, I decided to try my hand at making edible Easter baskets for the boys. I decided to do this because Littlest is allergic to dairy and treenuts so his candy pickins are slim. I use dairy free dark chocolate for the baskets. Well, they're actually more like bowls than baskets. The how-to demonstration looked quite simple, famous last words right?

You simply blow up a clean balloon and dip the large end in melted chocolate. You then invert the balloon and place the undipped end in a bowl and place it in the freezer to harden. You do this several times until a thick enough layer of chocolate has built up. You make a small hole in the neck of the balloon and slowly release the air, then carefully remove the balloon and you have a beautiful chocolate bowl!

Well, looking back I'm thinking that perhaps the instructions were to place the chocolate balloon in the refrigerator rather than the freezer. Either way I'm quite sure the instructor never mentioned giving the balloon a rest period before placing it in the freezer. Of course common sense could have told me this. But it was late, I was tired and in a hurry. So yes, you guessed it.

I blew up a balloon and put a nice, heavy layer of chocolate on the end. I inverted the balloon into another bowl and carried it over to the freezer. I opened the freezer door, a rush of cold air escaped, flowing over the balloon and POP! The balloon exploded throwing liquefied chocolate onto every conceivable surface of my kitchen.

I was covered, not splattered, covered. Chocolate in my hair and eyes, on my chin, chest and legs. It took me a moment to realize what happened. When I looked around I saw chocolate EVERYWHERE! In the freezer, on the refrigerator, dishwasher, oven, microwave and stand, table, floor and ceiling. Did I mention all my appliances are white??

First thing was a shower for me, then Hubby and I spent a half hour cleaning only the floor. I then cleaned up everything else except for the ceiling and inside of the freezer, I just didn't have the energy. I did eventually get the baskets/bowls made, they weren't as pretty as I would have liked because I rushed so, but they sure tasted good!

The Nap Matrix

Ugh, I'm trapped in the matrix, the nap matrix. It's too early for this, he's too young. Littlest, now 20 months, has been giving me a tough time with his naps, sometimes skipping them altogether. I don't blame him, he's getting the last of his 2 year molars (Hurrah!). Since he was about 4 months old and began teething, every few months his schedule would go out the window with as a new tooth came in. Biggest was the same too, one tooth every few months, lots of fussiness and clingy-ness.

Yesterday Littlest spent from about 1-4 pm attached to the nunny (what we say for nursing or the boob)-it does NOT rhyme with bunny, the "u" makes more of the sound that "ou" makes in "would". Anyway, he was generally miserable and exhausted but refused a nap.

He either wants to sleep all day (then not at night) or not at all. One thing that has helped though is rather than following our usual nighttime routine (nursing in the living room till he falls asleep) Hubby has been taking him to bed with him and playing with him for a little bit. Then I join them, we turn off the lights and I nurse him in bed with us till he goes to sleep. This has helped tremendously with his nighttime sleeping. He hasn't woke up in the night to nurse once any of the 5 consecutive nights we've done this. It's not something I want to keep up, I love co-sleeping but we have always started Littlest in his crib then brought him into our room when he woke so he would get used to his crib and feel comfortable "starting" there.

Luckily Littlest's crib is convertible and I hope for Hubby to convert it to a toddler bed this weekend and I can nurse him to sleep in his own bed. We'll see. I don't have great hopes for that working because he really loves snuggling with Daddy at night...I'll let you know how it works out, if it works out :)

Protecting Our Kids

The world is a wonderful place that can also, unfortunately, hold many dangers. That's why we as parents need to be proactive (not paranoid) about protecting our children. There are certain measures I feel we should all take such as knowing where our children are at all times, having age appropriate curfews, getting to know our children's friends as well as their parents and checking for sex offenders in our area.

I cannot stress enough how important this is. Whether we've known someone for a week or a lifetime we cannot simply assume they are safe. Sex offenders are sneaky manipulators who know what to say, how to act and what to do in order to gain our trust and the trust of our children. That's why I say we must be proactive. We cannot wait until a red flag goes up to check things out. If we wait until something seems amiss it is often too late, if not for our children then for someone else's.

Of course that's easier said than done. We don't want to teach our children to live in fear, nor can we run around accusing any and everyone of crimes. That's why I rely heavily (though not completely) on registered sex offenders lists. I check them a handful of times a year-they're always changing. The first time I went on one I was frightened by the amount of offenders living so near me in my little town. Thankfully they're all "lesser" crimes but it is still unnerving. My complaint about most sex offender registry sites in their lack of information. I want to know what these people did, what is listed as a misdemeanor may not be considered a small crime by me. I want details people-not enough to keep me up at night, but enough to know what's what.

I recently heard about a site that offers a Sex Offenders Report for offenders in your area. It does require a small monthly fee but this site looks like it give you information you can use. With the fee you get unlimited access, automatically updated predator reports and notifications, a child ID kit and offender addresses. But what really intrigues me about tracksexoffenders.net is that you also receive conviction information, names and aliases and PHOTOS of offenders. I've not seen that offered anywhere else so I'm considering trying it out. What about you, has anyone tried this site? Share your experience with me in the comment section.

But remember, even if there are no offenders listed in your area, take precautions. The sad truth of the matter is that most child predators have had many victims before they are ever caught. And should you decide not to go with the above sight due to the fee please know that you can get basic information elsewhere for free. Search for sex offenders lists online, they may not offer such wonderfully detailed information but it will at least give you a place to start.

Weekly Wrap Up

Not much conventional schooling this week, it was a bit harried around here. I missed the last WWU due to working on my son's 13th birthday cake. It's not perfect but I'm really proud of it. This was my first square cake, my first tiered cake and also my first real attempt at fondant and gumpaste.

Monday- We cleaned up a lot of the left over party mess today and generally relaxed. Biggest tried to keep up with his reading. He's been reading Shadow Spinner. He was really enjoying it but he said about 2/3 of the way through it got boring and weird...I dunno I wasn't reading along. He also had guitar practice today and took along his mini amp (a birthday gift) to show his instructor and show off :)

Tuesday- Co-Op day. We did another good "experiment", the kids said it was their favorite. We made a working model of a lung. I'll post details below.

Wednesday- Our only real school day, Biggest fit in 2 days worth of everything. Hubby told me he may have to go to Atlanta, GA for a little over a week in May. Field trip! Next week I'll be researching educational spots in case the trip pans out. I'm looking forward to it but I don't know how Littlest will do on a 10 hour trip.

Thursday- Hubby was home sick today, he'd been up vomiting the night before-we think it was something he ate when he went out to lunch with coworkers. My FIL came over to help on a construction project we have going on here. We're turning out not big enough for a car, 1-car garage into a small office and (a much desired) 2nd bathroom/laundry room combo. FIL had been here for about 3 hours when the phone rang, it was my husband's sister calling to say she was having her baby-she was at 8cm! Hubby was heartbroken that he couldn't be there but in case it was something contagious he decided not to go. So I sent FIL home, packed up the boys and drove to Alexandria, VA (about 2 hours away). We arrived and little baby Elliot was only an hour and 15 minutes old. So beautiful, I got to hold him and smell him and kiss his little head! I now have baby fever.

Friday-Today we got up early and drove to Maryland to visit my step grandfather who was recently sent to a nursing home for rehabilitation. A few weeks ago he had a bleeding, pumping ulcer. Not fun. He had to have a surgery and quite a lot of blood. It took a lot of his strength, he now needs to rebuild himself to be able to walk again. He's doing great though, he has color back in his cheeks and is looking stronger. That took up most of our day, the rest was taking care of Hubby who still isn't feeling great, laundry, Biggest's math and that's about it.

That was our week, how was yours? Let us know over at Kris' blog.

Oh! I almost forgot the lung model. You will need:

2 Liter bottle

plastic baggie

balloon

tape

scissors

First you cut the bottom 1/2-2/3 of the bottle off. You then need to cut the zippered edge off the baggie. Then slip the top of the baggie just over the cut bottom of the bottle and tape it on. Push the bottom baggie up into the inside of the bottle. Blow up you balloon and release the air (just to stretch it out) then stick the bulb of the balloon down into the neck of the bottle and stretch the top of the balloon over the top of the bottle. Does that make sense? The baggie should be stuffed up the bottom of the bottle and the the balloon should be stuffed down and stretched over the top. If everything is correct you then gently pull the baggie out the bottom of the bottle then push it back in again. The baggie should act as a diaphragm compressing and elongating the lung (balloon) as it fills and deflates with air.

Great Age

Have I mentioned that I love the stage Littlest is in? He's 19 months. Today while I was washing dishes I turned around to find him licking the side of the stove. LOL. I had accidentally splashed some boiled potato sludge down the side and missed it in my clean up. He found it.