Meet Me on Monday

Questions:

1. Did you watch the Superbowl?
Most of it. I watch most of the second quarter, the halftime show, and the last quarter. I also got to watch the Post-game GLEE!

2. What is the last book that you read?

I read this amazing book about being a mother. I sat there reading and thinking..."Oh My GOD! This is so true! Why didn't everyone ever tell me that was true for so many people!!!" I wish I could think of the name of the book. I know that it was written by an English writer.....I just can't think of it!

3. What is your favorite kind of cake?

Chocolate cake....super rich...with super rich chocolate frosting the the middle of awesome layers....with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side!

4. Do you snore?

Apparently I do!

5. Do you play an instrument?

I do...in the broadest sense of the term! At one time I took piano lesson and clarinet lessons. I can "play" them...but not well.

Gettin' Down on the Floor!

Friday we needed to burn off some energy in our house! I keep hearing bloggers say that they are taking their couch cushions and blankets and making obstacle courses. I don't think I have seen any pictures of this though. So, I keep wondering what they look like.

Here is what it looked like for us. We use all of the cushions from our couch, a chair cushion, a couple pillows, a body pillow and the ottoman to hold it up. Matthew loved it! Once he started tunneling through he was so excited that he kept yelling "Time tunnel approaching" (Dinosaur Train reference).

I highly recommend that you do this. The best part was at the end when we gave him cushions and had him put the back where they go. It was almost like a giant puzzle. Great idea! Thanks to so many of you that suggested it!

PLEASE help me out!!!!

I am a bzzagent. What does that mean? I signed up on the site to try out and review different products that they give to me. Sometimes I get food samples, sometimes it is "stuff" like the label maker that you saw a couple weeks ago, once I even got candles. I love it!

Today, they are asking us to do a challenge that I can't pass up! There is a campaign coming up that will let you try and review the FLIP camera. To be in the running for this campaign, I have to be one of the bzzagents that gets the most traffic to the a list of Chevy-Superbowl commercials. I would really, really love the chance to own my own Flip, so I'm asking for your help! Please click on what you see below and watch some or all of the commercials! I would just really appreciate it!

Also, which one was your favorite?

Trying out Linky Tools!!!

Today I was blog hopping and decided that I want to try out this blog hop/ link up stuff. So, I guess you can call this a test!

Please first, follow my blog.
Next, link up below with a picture from your blog and a caption.
Last, please take some time to check out some of the other links.

If I am not already following you, I will follow your blog if you link up below!




PS....Also! I want to make sure that I thank Snack Bar Review for inspiring my trial of Linky Tools!!!

Blog Hopping

I'm hopping around some blogs today!

Cheap Field Trip

We are still getting used to Daddy working on Sundays. This past Sunday, I decided it was time for a short, cheap field trip. This is where we went:

Seems weird, right? I've been taking Matthew to Animal Friends since before he was a year old. Our Animal Friends is just about 5 miles from our house and is very nice! I first decided to take Matthew there when he was really getting in to animals. I am not an animal person. It's not that I don't like animal, I just never really had them growing up so they kind of freak me out! I would equate it to someone that has never taken care of kids and just doesn't know what to do with them. I did not want my son to be the same way, but getting a pet is not on our list right now.

When we got there, we always walk ourselves around and visit ALL of the cats, ALL of the dogs, and ALL of the bunnies. If Matthew is able to get close enough to pet something, he certainly will!

This is never a long trip. We probably aren't there for more than an hour, but it is fun and Matthew enjoys it. We had to take a picture of the new cat room. It's kind of blurry, but I didn't want to use a flash and scare any kitties.

Also, you may have noticed that I titled this "Cheap Field Trip" and not "Free Field Trip". It really can be free, but we always take a bunch of change to put in their big bank to help the animals.

Bringing the Snow inside!

Yes, that is real snow!

Over the weekend, Matthew seemed to be getting bored with the usual. I had seen another blog where someone brought the snow inside. I thought that Matthew would love to play in this sensory box, because he just loves to play in the snow. Sadly, that was not the case. It was pretty much just Mommy and Daddy playing in this one.

One neat thing did happen though. When I realized that this was pretty much a bust, I started to put the box in the sink. When I did, Matthew became interested and jumped up on a chair to see what I was doing. It turned into a little science experiment!

I wanted to show Matthew that the snow was going to melt when I added hot water. He may not have got that, but he did seem to be interested in seeing how the hot water changed the feel of the box when it was added. I would add a little water and then turn it off. He would dip his fingers in and say "Cold Mommy." We did this three or four times. The last time, it was warm enough for him to say "Hot Mommy."

While were were doing all of that water adding, I was talking to him and telling him what was happening. Obviously, I know that he doesn't get it, but one thing that I learned while teaching is that introducing an idea even before someone is ready can spark an interest that you could never imagine was there.

Here's some of the pictures of the changes that our little snow bin made when we added water.

Feb Plan

I had this at least half done when I did January. So, then, why did it take me so long to crank out? I've probably put another 3 hours into it over the last couple of days, because of guilt. That part of me that says "You're not doing enough 'stuff' with your son" keeps me thinking that planning one little goal for the day is such a low and lame expectation.

So instead of posting, I spent extra time looking up what is going on around town, at the local Y, at all of the museums and stuff. I wanted to make sure that I was taking advantage of all of the good opportunities. As it turns out, in doing that, I realized that I was much happier with my one goal a day idea and just adding the rest of the stuff later. I know that I will add more activities with our "Letter of the Week", which you will not see listed on the , we will also take additional field trips, and learn new songs.

I had to stop and think about my goals. My goal above all was to make sure that I had some direction each day for what I wanted my son to be learning. Instead of thinking "Good God! What are we going to do today!" I will have a plan in place and I will be able to prepare ahead of time.

That all said....I present you with "The Feb Plan". If there is anything that you are curious about or any ideas that you have for anything I am doing, I would love your input.

5 more!!!

Last night, I decided to make an extra stop on the way home. I was able to score 5 more Lay's Stax! I used my $5 reward from earlier and got 5, $1 rewards back!

Bonus....This time they had cheddar!

I guess I'll be bringing Stax to gatherings for a while!

Why do you homeschool?

You all know how much I love No Time for Flashcards. This week, the woman behind the site posed a question on facebook. She asked: "For my readers who are homeschoolers - what is your number one reason to homeschool?"

I was intrigued by this question, but more by the answers. Scott and I have been discussing homeschool our son when the time comes. I have joined a few forums in my area and I kind of lurk around to see what other homeschool parents are doing and the issues that they are having so that I know what to expect.

As I read the above questions, I asked myself "Why do I want to homeschool Matthew?" From my readings, one of the things that really resonated inside me, was that homeschooling Matthew would give us time. We would not need to be constantly beating the clock to get get up at a certain time, get on a bus at the right time, rushing to do homework before we raced the clock to get to afterschool activities, and planning our vacations around his school schedule. I honestly did not feel like this was a good reason to homeschool though...and maybe it's not, but it is a answer that a LOT of people seemed to give for wanting to homeschool.

One person even mentioned that her husband works Saturday and Sunday and has off on Tuesdays and Wednesday. She said that if they didn't homeschool, her children would not have much time with daddy. How sad!

My primary answer (in a nutshell): I used to be a classroom teacher. I have taught hundreds of kids in different capacities, why would I let someone else raise my kids for me? Why would I not use my knowledge to: 1. teach my son 2. help him excel at what he is good at 3. give him the attention that he needs when he's not good at something? It makes so much sense to me.

I am so glad that NTFFC posed that question, because it reminded me that I'm not alone on this journey. I hope that those of you that are also homeschooling families with share your stories in the comment below.

Thanks!

PS....My husband and I have also had a lot of discussions about how me not going back to the workforce will mean that we will not be "Keeping up with the Jones". That is hard when friends are able to buy nice houses, cars, and amazing new-on-the-market technology and we are just scraping by with help. How do you manage when others around you live a different lifestyle?

Hats off to an amazing SIL

My sister-in-law....I'm pretty sure she is Superwoman! I've known her for a little over 10 years. When I met her, she was about the age that I am now, married to her "Highschool Sweetheart" (actually more like Jr. High, but who ever says that), and living the one of the scariest parts of Pittsburgh so that they could work, make ends meet, and fulfill their dreams for the future.

Today, she is still married to the love of her life, lives in one of the most beautiful, yet practical homes I've ever seen, and has three of the most awesome kids EVER!

Jen and her husband own and operate their own Dental practice. Jen is one of the millions of working moms, but something about her is just amazing! Some working moms seem to (I know that they don't, but it seems like that sometimes) put so much time into their job that they have no time to do the housewife things or things that a stay at home mom would do. What do I mean by that? Let me try to clarify if I can....

While a SAHM might mix up a chicken noodle soup from scratch for dinner, WM might open a can of Campbell's.

Where WM might run late or miss their child's dance recital, SAHM has been there since late last night helping to make sure that the programs are in the right place and finishing up sewing or pinning up the last of the tutus onto the pink leotards.

I think you get my point. And I hope that you know that these comparisons are not true to everyone! I know that even SAHM will put soup on the table sometimes and be late for a dance recital. I also know that WM will cut into her sleeping time to stay awake to make some extra healthy for her children when she can. She will also take days off from work, because her little pumpkin said (with puppy dog eyes) "Mommy, Ms. Dance Instructor said that they need help with the recital. Can you do it, please?"

My point, SIL Jen is an amazing combination of the two! When I see what she's been up to, I think to myself..."Dear God in Heaven! She must NEVER sleep!"

Like I said, Jen has three awesome little girls. She is always excited for birthdays and is usually the first one to start chanting "Presents! Presents!" Every child has her own birthday party with her own birthday cake. Jen has created all of their cakes for every party and I want to show off some of her talent!

The amazing rainbow cake that you saw above is made up of a bunch of 14inch rounds.

This the the recent "rainbow birthday" for her youngest.

Rocket Man!

Do you see this?



That is one happy kiddo!!!

All that I've been hearing about lately are Disney movies, trains, and rockets. If you take a look at the "Jan Plan", this week the theme was "Rockets". My son has been the "Rocket Man" all week! We've read about "Rockets" and I've spent some time pointing out astronauts, planets, and stars in the books that we've been reading.

I did not get around to making a rocket with Matthew on Monday. We did some other things and that just got moved back. On Tuesday, I had to work, but now my husband has off. I know that my husband enjoys doing artsy stuff and so I took a chance that he and Matthew might enjoy making a rocket together.

I left a bunch of stuff on the table and told my husband to just be creative! I asked him to let Matthew color a little bit on the rocket, but aside from that, anything goes! I have to say, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised!

That night, around 6:30, I received a text video on my phone from my husband. He was taping Matthew with his rocket. I started to cry! I have sent a lot of videos to my husband at work of Matthew and I doing fun stuff, but I do not often receive them....nor do I ever have to miss out on an activity that my son is doing.

Scott told me that he's really looking forward to Tuesday night "Matthew and Daddy Time". I am too....even through the tears.

Safety first....bonus when it's free!

Remember this super cute picture?



Safety comes first with a toddler!

Back in November, Scott had to do the yearly changes to his health and other benefits. We took a lot of time on "Which plan would be most helpful to us if...." You can fill in the blank with just about every ailment under the sun! I'm a worrier! What can I say!

After reading through all of the health benefit options, we chose the same Highmark plan that we already had. It figures! I decided to look through and see if there were any benefits that I was not already taking advantage of. It turns out that there was something that we missed.

There is section about health, wellness, and safety. Highmark (at least with our plan) will reimburse you up to $25 per person for buying bike helmets for members of your family. I decided that this was certainly a benefit that I was going to take advantage of.

Of course, time flies and the mind forgets. I forgot all about buying the helmet for months. Then, the day of the skating party we decided that we'd rather be safe than sorry and bought it. Today, I am finally filling out the paperwork and getting my $20 back!

My suggestion to you? Number 1. Consider buying a helmet for your child. 2. Check your health insurance and if you can also be reimbursed for it, by all means, buy the helmet and either save it for when the Easter Bunny comes or (if you're child is just too little now) save it for next Christmas.

You never know when you might need it.

Time out and Two...

Do you see that?

That is the hole that my sweet little two-year-old put in the wall.

Here's the story.

Apparently, my son is getting some of his two year molars in the back. He started biting over the weekend and I could feel where one came up, but there are three others that are still coming.

So, he's biting.....Scott (actually in his lefty....which was REALLY, REALLY, awful! At least that is what I hear.)

So, he goes in time out.

I tell Scott that I have started sitting him on the step and walking away. I usually stand by our door in the hall so that I'm not longer holding him in my lap on the step while he is in time out, he is taking control of himself.

Scott decided to walk back into his (Scott's) playroom and check something on his computer. I was in the living room on mine. After two minutes, I said "Scott, it's been two minutes. You need to get Matthew out of timeout."

Scott goes out into the hall and say "Um...Babe, come see this."

I walk out to find that hole in the wall.

Awesome!

I made Matthew help me hold the vacuum to clean it up. Scott was concerned that he might exposed to something that might be in our plaster walls. Maybe, but if he was, he was already exposed when he stuck his little destructive fingers in there! This was just another one those times, where we disagreed. And even though I thought that Scott was probably right (don't tell him I said that), I have gotten in the habit of making Matthew fix things that he does wrong and help me clean up his messes. I feel that it helps him to be responsible for his actions. I decided that this was kind of a big thing to do wrong. The kind of thing that if he goes into time out again and keeps messing with that hole, we are going to have a very serious problem.

Matthew was a great helper. He held the vacuum end and helped me sweep up the 4 steps that had plaster on them. Then, Scott fixed the wall.

Gotta love boundary testing, right?

You just gotta LOVE Cosmo! I can remember sneaking it in high school and then loving it in college.

Go here to get it for just $5!!

Party Ideas!

I love kids books! The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a great one! The pictures are amazing and it has a lot of educational pieces to it. Here's how one Mom turned it into an awesome party!!!

Be Different, Act Normal

Bring it!!!

I'm really excited!

I am not a New Year's resolution person. I can SAY that I am going to lose weight or eat right or whatever....but just the idea of a New Year's resolution is an epic fail! I think people do a better job of giving up something for Lent than they do a New Year's resolution.

That said, I do like to make new goals for the year. My biggest goal for 2011 is getting organized! More specific than that is getting my kitchen organized! I walk into my kitchen each morning and just wish that I could move! It never fails that there are a ton of dishes on the sink, the silverware is unorganized, and I can't get a pot or pan out of the cabinet in less than 5 minutes. I HATE IT! So I'm fixing it!

I started over the weekend with my "junk" drawer. Until then, my junk drawer housed a ton of junk, toothpicks that went wild, and my son's dishes and bowls. This drawer is really in an odd place and hard to get to. Even more difficult to make functional whenever Matthew's dishes are stacked so high that they keep the drawer from opening.

NOW...I have a drawer that has a couple organized containers that house things that we like to have close by, but don't need to be easily accessible. For example, candles, wine opening and closing devices (we could almost get rid of these for as much as we drink!), matches, and silly straws.

This morning, I took on the silverware/kitchen tool drawer. Job 1 was getting a silverware organizing device. Yes, sadly, after two years at this house we haven't even done that!!! I was also able to put a couple other little storage containers that are taking care of stuff like measuring cups, spoons, food processing parts, mixer parts, and orange peelers. It looks awesome!!! I was so excited that I did all of the dishes just so that I could have all of the silverware to fill up the little spaces.

I also tackled under the sink. I did that sometime last year and had some big of organization under there, but there were certain containers that were the wrong share for the space and/or were breaking. I fixed that and purged just a few things.

I am going to keep working on this. Maybe I will show you the end results, but I have to admit....I don't see any before pictures coming your way! My befores are so horrible that I'm embarrassed to show them!

Site that reads to your kids $99 value for free!

I found out about Mighty Books Jr. from this site: Confessions of a Couponer. If you go onto Mighty Books, you can sign up for a membership that allows you to access a ton of education material. The normal price is $99, but if you enter code: learntoread you can get it for free! I know that Matthew will enjoy watching and listening to these books.

Up at 4am....

Ever since I got sick New Year's Eve, I have been sleeping really weird. Sometime over the past year, we started making a habit out of going upstairs with Matthew around 8pm and watching an episode of Little Einsteins, Go Diego, Go!, or some other show. Lately, I can't stay up until the end of the show. I keep falling asleep while he is watching.

Let me say, I'm not one of those people that can very easily take an afternoon nap. I don't even have an easy time going to bed at a normal hour, but I have just been so exhausted that I literally cannot do anything to keep myself awake no matter what I do!

That "symptom" alone, was what cause me to take a pregnancy test earlier this week. I knew I had been sick for a while, but I have not had this feeling of complete exhaustion since weeks 6-12 of my pregnancies. I remember being pregnant with Matthew and one afternoon, while about 6 of my students were watching a movie (we had something going on that day that all of the other kids went home early with their parents), I started to feel exhausted. I sat down at the back of the room to just try to relax. Then, I fell asleep! I was mortified when the janitor nudged me and I realized that I had been out for 15 minutes! ****Side note, I do not make a habit of 1. taking naps basically EVER 2. Ignoring my class to nap****

The really annoying part of then (and now) is that after I would feel that complete exhaustion, I would fall asleep around 6pm and wake up at midnight and not be able to get back to sleep! It was a horrible cycle!

I feel like I'm dealing with that again...for whatever reason! Only now, the most horrible part is that it means no time to myself. Let me start by saying I VALUE, THRIVE, DESPERATELY NEED time to myself. I always have! I remember being in high school and loving the days/nights when everyone was out of the house and I could just sit and be! Being alone in my home always makes me feel this amazing sense of rejuvenation! Anymore, that doesn't happen a lot though. So, after Matthew was born, I got in this awful habit of staying up until 1am or later just so that I could feel like I was alone. Sometimes, I would still get up at 6am just so that I could have the time from 6-7 where my son and my husband were still in bed and it really seemed like I had the house to myself. Even I wasn't just sitting and relaxing, it seemed like getting laundry or dishes done at that time was so much easier and worth being up early to not be interrupted.

Well, tonight, I went to bed at 8, woke up at midnight...and it's 10 to 5 and I have checked everything online, watched a couple of episodes of George Lopez and then turned off everything and tossed and turned in bed for a while thinking about just a ton of things that annoy me!

I know that this will probably be my most productive time today. I have considered doing laundry and some dishes (probably will after posting), but I hate that I'm going to spend the rest of the day tired, impatient, annoyed....AND when 8pm rolls around, I'll probably be asleep before my son again!

What am I gonna do?

PS....I'm NOT a coffee drinker...I HATE the taste!

Thifty Valentine Craft

I found this amazingly simple and thrifty wreath on The Thriftress

Seriously, you'll never guess how simple this is!