Chalkboard Sticker: Things I Love Thursday

It's Things I Love Thursday and I love to write on the walls. At our last house I took a permanent marker to our ugly kitchen walls...until we remodeled it that is. In our current state of ugly, I've refrained from permanent marker by using this cute chalkboard sticker.
I applied it to our refrigerator and it's turned out to be a great place to make grocery lists, write notes to the babysitter, make to do lists and so on. It was fairly easy to apply and I was able to reposition it to fix a wrinkle I made. Because it's made from vinyl it won't damage your surface area either.
I bought my chalkboard sticker at a local Hallmark store but you can get this one at Mushi.

You can find many more things to love at The Diaper Diaries

Too Quiet to Think

It's so quiet in our house right now that I can't even think. I'm conditioned to living in an environment where my thoughts must compete with a sometimes shrill, ear spitting racket. Now my thoughts seem to boom and echo through the hushed noises of the house. With our oldest off to 1st grade and our youngest quietly playing by herself, I can't get anything done let alone think.

Really, there is noise. Noise that has eluded my ears for awhile. The trees are swaying in the wind dropping leaves like they've been caught red handed. Acorns are falling onto our roof making me fell like Henny Penny, and there's a slightly disturbed woodpecker who cannot distinguish the brick of our house from...wood.

I vaguely remember this variety of quiet. It's been a long time and truth be told, I'm not sure that I like it. It makes me feel lazy. It's beckoning me to have one more cup of coffee, read one more chapter, or even *gasp* take a nap.

My eyes keep darting to the clock with the silly fear that I might forget to look for the bus at drop-off time. My mind keeps wandering off to his 1st grade classroom, wondering what he's doing. There's nothing load enough to distract me from missing my 1st grader.

Flip Flops and the President

I have strep throat. I've had no trouble feeling sorry for myself either. It's a holiday weekend and I'm missing out on a friends s'more party and possibly another friends out door movie party...wahhhh. To top it off, this is my kind of weather...it's jean and a sweatshirt heaven out there.

Even though I'm knee deep in self pity, there's 2 things that have put a smile on my face . Number one, we have the most hilarious neighbors across the road from us who are entirely fed up with the neighbor next door to us. They're not alone of course! Mr. next door likes his rock and roll and he likes it loud. I feel like we live in a horrible B rated movie when I look over and see him on his porch, no shirt, beer in hand, scruffy beard, and long stringy hair, rocking out to The Rolling Stones. Anyway, in protest Mr. and Mrs. across the street have started to play speeches of President Obama, knowing full well that Mr. next door cannot stand anything milady Democrat let alone the President's voice. It just makes me smile with a low chuckle, and a slight tilt of the head. And just to be clear...we live on the good side of the tracks.

Secondly, my daughter who is now 3 (do you know how much I love 3?!) Anyway, the same child who struts off to her bedroom, arms crossed , a look of pure defiance on her face, yelling no and even daring to slam the door behind her is the same child who can change my mood with one word...well, maybe it's two. Flip flop, only you have to say it with the pronunciation of a 3 year old....plip plop. I swear, it's the cutest thing you've ever heard.

So, to sum it up, I'm laying on the couch listening to the muffled sound of the President's voice, sucking on Halls, and asking my daughter to say flip flop. Awesome, right?

A Mother's Song

I've had some good old fashioned Dutch guilt about not posting anything lately. Nothing seems important enough to post and some things seem too important for a casual post. Anyway, 2 nights ago someone asked me what I would want my kids to say about me 30 years from now. I think more than anything, I would want them to say I laid myself down for them.

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel

When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all

I'm on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you

I'll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on Silver Girl,
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way

See how they shine
If you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

What about you? If I ask your kids, 30 years form now, about your parenting....how would you want them to answer?

Loving the Mess

So today my mom picked up me and the kids and hauled us to Meijer, Payless, Sears, and Cosco. Now that I'm not driving, I'm more thankful than ever to live by my mom. I'm even more amazed that she loves my kids because their behavior, was at times, down right embarassing.

Now, I've always known that my mom loves me. She's always made that very clear but the fact that she loves my brood is beyond me. Today, there were moments when even I wanted to pretend I didn't know them. Like wwen my oldest found the hand sanitizer in her car and helped himself and her car to gobs os it....and then proceeded to blame his sister. Aye!

I think it goes to prove that nothing warms a mother's heart more than when somebody loves her kids. Nothing makes us feel more accepted, more understood, or more valued. So to all the people who can see passed the mess and the sass...thanks for seeing their hearts and loving them!

Free Babysitting

I'm a big fan of date nights but between dinner and a movie and then paying a babysitter, they can be a killer on the budget. Not to mention, how many times can you really hit up your mom to watch the kids...Here's the solution. Free babysitting or really a babysitting co-op.

When our oldest was all new and snugly, we set up a system with a group of our friends who were in the same boat. We traded babysitting and to keep it fair we
Here's how to set up your own group...


1. Find like minded friends who are also looking for babysitting. You can include as many families as you'd like to but you really only need 2 families to pull it off.

2. Set up the payment plan. We decided that 1 Popsicle stick was good for 1 child per hour. That way if you have 2 kids and your friends have 4, it's still fair. So, for an example, if a family with 3 kids needs babysitting for 4 hours, they owe 12 sticks.

3. Make the sticks (i just used a permanent marker on craft sticks) and start out with an equal amount. We passed out 6 sticks per family to start.

4. Use them. The system fails when only one family is really using the sticks. Make sure that you call your friends for free babysitting and when you're getting low on sticks that you invite friends to take advantage of your babysitting. Also, if you and your spouse are already babysitting for one family why not call and ask another to join in on the fun and earn more sticks!

Of course, you can still use a driving babysitter for those late night dates but this is a great way to pad the calendar with dates!

Can You Hear Me Now

I thought communicating with my 5 yo, mind of his own, son was static-ky but put us both on a bike and watch out! Even on our own 2 feet we often but heads about who's in the lead, where we're going, and what's next. Being on bikes together is like taking all of that and putting it under a magnifying glass.

There was a moment when, after we had agreed that I would go first with his sister in the trailer, he passed us...in an intersection...realized his mistake, hesitated, and then rolled out into the next intersection. Holy pajamas, I don't know if I was more scared or mad. He Huffied it back to the bike path and took one look at my face, dropped his head, and walked his bike up to mine. We put our noses together and that's all. Sometimes, when you want to yell, and lecture, you just need to put your noses together. He knew I felt angry and terrified and I knew he felt foolish and regretful.

Let's hope that our next biking adventure isn't so traumatic but still produces a nose to nose moment.