The Big Changes in Our Life

So much has changed in the last four months of my life. I am no longer a full time stay at home mom. I now have a job, it is only a part time job for now but it is fast paced and quick moving and even though the hours make me a little sleepy during the day (3am-8am) I love it! I am glad that I can finally contribute to our home and make a difference in our lives! Plus my hours for the most part work with DJs hours so I am able to take care of the kids when he goes to work and he does the same for me! It has been working since I started on the 16th of last month. The only downside to it is that we no longer qualify for low-income housing, which is just plain stupid because we are still a low-income family! Ugh! But it is just a big WHATEVER because we are going to push on and keep chugging along in our little train of life!
Another big YAY is that Andy gets here in about 4 days now! He arrives on the 29th and stays until the 29th of next month! Its only a month right now which sucks but I have to make the most of it because living without him for 11 months through the holidays and such nearly kills me! I miss him so damn much! Hopefully we will be able to do some fun stuff while he was here, I know we have some game cards for GAMEWORKS and we can probably have some picnics and park trips, perhaps even have a chance to go to Wild Waves if we are lucky!

Anyways I just can't wait to see what the summer brings, whether we move or not and with Andy here is it sure to be full of adventure!

#changes #family #summer

Been a While, Been VERY BUSY!

So here is a quick list of what I have done lately:

Started a new fitness/health regime

Organized my paperwork and such

Deep cleaned various parts of the house (even the bathroom YUCK!)

Made a new chore/job list for Mckenzee and her allowance

We got 4 new fish, one betta, 2 mickey mouse platys, and a red wag platy
   (their names are "Princess Pinkheart", "Nemo", "Merida", and "Tony Shark")

I also started cutting out squares for my Spencer's quilt because I have a new sewing/quilting machine!

I was so excited to get this it is something I have always wanted, and now I can repair and make lots of things (once I get some fabric) and I cannot wait!

DJ and I had an awesome Valentine's Date! Dinner, Ferry ride, two grown adults having a kid-free blast at an arcade! Much needed fun!

This is us in a 3D Zombie Killing Game! It was awesome and scary and totally the best!

Oh and one of the best parts:

FRIED PICKLE CHIPS!!! These were so incredibly awesome! Of course DJ is not a pickle fan so I had these babies all to myself and I wanted to finish all of them because it just seemed like a shame to waste any of it but I was unable to...and because they would have been no good had I tried to bring them home since just the ferry ride alone is an hour long, I left some behind...sadness.

Valentine's Day Plans (looking forward to for once)

Now before you get all anti-Valentine's Day on me you have to understand that for the most of my adult life I have completely HATED this holiday! Out of all the years of which I have been a grown up only a handful of February 14ths have been worth remembering. I do remember some of the worst ones.  I was in court on one in 2003 because of a stupid misunderstanding with someone who shoplifted. (Not me) Another I was so sick I could barely move and ended up in the hospital.  Yet another one I was cheated on AND broken up with (within hours). So I can say that for once I am truly looking forward to it! 

DJ and I have made some plans to go out and have fun without the children.  We rarely go anywhere without them and I think the last "date night" we actually had was back in July after Andrew went back to CT to be with his dad. It was a pretty great night that really helped with how I had felt at that time. (Thank you DJ) 

Anyways, this time I am not depressed, I am not feeling lost, and the date night will hopefully go well! 

We have a babysitter set up, a plan for dinner for the kids, and then a ferry to catch to Seattle for OUR fun. 

On Friday since Mckenzee doesn't have school and DJ is off work we are going to spend ACTUAL Valentine's Day together doing perhaps a day trip or something fun as a family! That should be awesome and something new for us that I am thinking just might be one of those tradition things. Heck I don't mind doing the ADULT Valentine's date on the 13th and then a family one on the actual day. Oh and just to warn you who actually READ my blog....I will be posting pictures probably both on Facebook and here in my blog when I write up how the next two days go on probably either Friday or Saturday night! So you can feel free to skip over those posts and watch "The Notebook" instead! ....Which is probably what I would be doing if I were back in CT away from DJ or single, oh and I would probably be eating my favorite chick flick snack mix of Cool Ranch Doritos and peanut M&Ms. Of course even NOW I love that as a snack (some pregnancy cravings NEVER go away). 

Ok well I have a busy day tomorrow because I plan to get up early and shower before getting Mckenzee up for school and then DJ and I have some shopping to do (I am hoping to get a new outfit for our date!) and maybe even that thing I was talking about in my previous blog post (fingers crossed). So I must be thee all G'night and try not to miss me too too much! 

Until next time!!!!

Out with the Old, Now I got me some new!

So this is blog post one from my new laptop. To anyone who knows me this is probably a shock to hear but I am not usually a fan of laptops. Call me old fashion but I have a soft spot for desktop computers. I don't know why, maybe because it is just what I have always used, I have never owned one before but wherever I either lived or went I had some kind of access to one. Now however this is MY laptop, DJ has his own so I technically don't have to share. (I am a bad sharer, I can't share my blankets, my pillows, my stuffed frog) Don't judge you know you have at LEAST one stuffed animal hiding somewhere *wink wink*.  

I am also looking forward to getting something else I have wanted for a while and that will come in really handy for doing some homemade items for gifting and such.  However until I have it I am not going to be disclosing exactly what it is, though I am sure some of you can guess if you know me well enough. 

Oh and one of my most favorite new items!! A PRINTER! YES!! That's right I can finally print things out at home! Coupons, binder pages, Resumes, fun coloring pages for Mckenzee (and me), and other things I have come across here and there that I have wanted to print. I am so excited and it has inspired my organization and downsizing plans! I am well on my way to becoming a better person! Soon I will be working on my resumes and application letters so I can get a job and help out around here more.  I worry that DJ might think I am not doing enough no matter how much laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc. that I do!  I don't want him to regret me coming out here or be disappointed in me.  Although it is a possibility that I am projecting my own feelings of inadequacy into this but I don't know.  Honestly if I could have my own way I would find some way to get certified in child care I would do my best to find a way to start my own child care business.  It is something I have always wanted to do and I think I would be good at it. 

It is a dream......a BIG one, second only to taking my family to Disney Land once Spencer is old enough to enjoy it like his brother and sister will.  Well I just realized my thoughts have become a bit of a rambling of sorts so I am going to end this here for now. I am hoping to start a new fitness regime tomorrow and I am proud to say that I have been doing better with my eating habits!  I will let you know how it all goes soon.

Keep making it work!   

We Made It!

My Cookbook

So today we did our first home made projects!  I have been wanting to do some home made items for a while now but it always seems like time and supplies are never fully on hand.  HOWEVER, today I made sure I was fully prepped and ready to go....I had my recipes,

Our Supplies!

and my supplies, 

The Happy Helper

and my happy helper!


First Mckenzee and Spencer had their yummy lunch (which I am proud to say Mckenzee made all by herself) of a ham and cheese sandwich and chips for her, and roasted chicken, mickey mouse cheese faces, and apple juice for him. I myself am also proud of what I have since I am doing my best to eat a lot better.  I had a salad of chicken, cherry tomatoes, greens, Parmesan cheese, and Caesar dressing on the side. I also put a little black pepper on my salad which made me rarely even use the dressing so I was kinda glad of that. I had an ice water and a clementine to round out my lunch which was totally awesome!

Needless to say everyone ate it all up and we were ready in no time to get started!


First we started the finger paints I measured everything out and let Mckenzee add it to our pot on the stove. Here is the recipe I used :

Original Finger paint

Ingredients

1/2 cup cornstarch

3 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups cold water

food coloring

Directions

In a medium pan, mix all the ingredients together to make the finger paint. Cook over low heat 10 to 15 minutes. Keep stirring the finger paint mixture until it is smooth and thick. After the finger paint has thickened take the pan off the stove and let the mixture cool.

After cooling, divide the finger paint into storage containers depending on how many colors you would like. Add a few drops of food coloring to each container. Stir the coloring in to the paint to determine the shade of color. You're ready to finger paint! Cover tightly when storing.

Find recipe and more at :: http://www.creativekidsathome.com/activities/activity_42.html#Original%20Fingerpaint

Stirring the pot!

 Mckenzee begged me to let her do some mixing so I did, she was very careful and had fun until her hand got too hot.

Mckenzee squeezing the syrup into her hot water int he jar.

While we were waiting for the paint to go from a thin liquid to the think consistency we needed we got started on the calming jars, one for Mckenzee and one for me!  This is the recipe we used to make our Calming Jars::

Mason jar or baby food jar.  Really, any kind of watertight jar will work.

added the food coloring...

Hot water

Food coloring

Glitter

Glitter glue

Karo/Corn Syrup

and glitter!

“Mix 1 Tbsp of pink glitter-glue with about 1 cup of hot water, fill jar the rest of the way with corn syrup,  then add food coloring and a tiny tub of glitter. The glue and corn syrup makes the water so thick and gooey that the glitter just slowly and gently swirls around, it takes about 5 minutes for all the glitter to settle, perfect to gather your thoughts!  - See more at: http://www.dumpyourfrump.com/2011/09/29/use-a-mind-jar-to-calm-yourself/#sthash.kmN3pGIJ.dpuf

Mckenzee had a little trouble making sure to get glitter in JUST the jar but hey she is a "sparkly" girl so why not let her sparkle right?   She also liked the way the layers didn't mix until we shook the jar! Once we glued the lid on (to keep a child from opening it and spilling it I would recommend doing this yourself) she shook the jar and couldn't stop smiling!

I put together my jar while Mckenzee washed up and once we cleaned up everything from our jars it was time to take our paint off the heat and let it cool.

Mckenzee used that time to get started on her Valentine's Day cards for her classmates, since she decided this year she wanted to make them instead of buying them! (I am very proud of her for wanting to make them all special and different) 

After she did some cards and I washed up the dishes and counters the paint mixture had cooled!  We were finally ready to put it in our jars and color it! 

We started with yellow since it was our lightest color and I armed Mckenzee with a disposable baby spoon (which was a perfect size for the baby food jars we were making the paint in) and some food coloring.  She had a blast watching the white paint turn into the colors and before we knew it we had a rainbow of colors in our little jars! 

She even wanted me to line them up as such so we could take a picture of them to show you! WE LOVE RAINBOWS around here! 

All in all we had a fun little crafty day and hope to do something fun again soon.  I have lots of fun ideas I just have to get the supplies to make! 

 These are our finished jars! Blue for her "Like the Ocean" she says, and green for me well because it is my FAVORITE color!!!

Our Finished paints and jars and the happiest little helper! 

More to come.......

Baby Steps (In more ways than one)

So in a few little ways there have been some changes in the house. First and the most exciting of them all is that my little boy Spencer, nine months old, is a walker! At first it was just a few steps here and there, but now as of this morning he is walking everywhere and even in socks, which was hard for him at first on the hard wood floors.

The next baby step taken was with my organization. I have been able to keep track of things a lot easier, I bought a binder (thank you Alicia for the idea), and have started getting rid of unneeded items and old things that make no sense to hold on to. OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW....(that is how it goes right?!)

I have even starting organizing Mckenzee's things, like her homework items and such, as well as her and her brothers' clothing. (I had NO idea just how much clothing they all had)
Mckenzee also gets these lists of words from her teacher for her to practice and make sentences out of most of which are actually too easy for her and others that are at a second grade level. Since I wanted to make it fun for her to practice these words I made her a word box. We take the lists of words, cut them up, and put them in the box. Then she takes to words out here and there and try to make a sentence out of them.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, but it is fun!
She is getting to be an excellent little reader!

Things are slowly coming together and I am sure that before I know it life will run a little smoother and be a little easier to manage!

....and we will all rest a little easier!! 

Mermaids, dancing, and Tacos

So this weekend I decided I was going to make sure I took some time to spend with each of the kids individually. I find that having more than one that are so far apart in age makes it difficult to spend time together doing something that pleases us all.  My daughter loves things like beading, bracelet making, Legos, and art.  My son likes to knock down block towers, try to walk, and drool. Beads are too small for him to use, bracelet making is too advanced, and Legos and art supplies instantly enter the mouth looking for the quickest way to his belly! So in order for me to be able to do these things with Mckenzee we usually wait until he takes one of his naps.  We have, during various naps, put together two out of three of her new Lego sets and done some painting and coloring.

Yesterday we did some necklace making using two of her new bead sets that she received for Christmas. She wanted to make one for her Gramma and I made one for her Memere and one for me. (I really loved an elephant charm that came in one of the sets and Mckenzee said I could have it.)
She was so cute putting the beads on and sounding out how to spell Gramma. She was even sure to pick the blue string because "That's Gramma's favorite color!"  She was very proud of her necklace and as soon as she finished it she said "okay now lets mail it to her!" (She is so sweet)

Our finished Necklaces

Today Mckenzee had a whole list of things she wanted to do, but we didn't get a chance to do them all. She wanted to:

1. Paint

2. Play with Play-doh

3. Color her giant princess posters

4. Dance

5. Make Tacos

6. Watch "The Little Mermaid"

Now I know these are all things she wanted to do because she used her new easel to make a list of all these things! A habit I think she picked up from me and my need to make lists on my dry erase board.

We did however get five out of the six items completed, and had a pretty good day doing so.  I may not have gotten my laundry all folded or the bedrooms vacuumed like I planned but I would have missed her dancing with her baby brother and making him a birthday cake out of play-doh if I had so it was completely worth it!

Great day....lots of happy!

Christmas is gone and packed away....

So today was a busy one, DJ and I got a semi-early start on what we wanted to get done.  I had a to-do list but unfortunately was unable to complete it.  However, I did get a big chunk of it done: 

I was able to get the kitchen cleaned up, counters, dishes, and appliances.

 The tree was taken down (FINALLY!) 

I was able to get the kids bedding stuff washed and put back on their beds, as well as three other loads of laundry folded. 

AND....that was pretty much it for today, although I did make some pretty kick-butt quesadillas! 

What I didn't get done was the minor things like the vacuuming and sweeping and organizing my desk.  I also didn't get to wash DJ's and my bedding but that is on the agenda for tomorrow if I get a chance. 

DJ did quite a bit of organizing himself today including going through our makeshift closet and getting that neatened as well as some other places around the house. All in all a pretty productive day! 

Tomorrow I am plan to kinda chill here and there, I have not been feeling 100% and I want to get some fun stuff done with Mckenzee this weekend. I will probably do some more laundry and vacuum as well and if there is time organize some in her room.  But for now, since I am feeling very fatigued I am going to wish you all a goodnight and get my butt to bed! 

Something New

I have found some new ideas to organize and get my life on a track I am happy to be on.  I am going to make things flow more smoothly, I am doing my best to try and be more calm, more relaxed, and more positive.  I recently joined the "Yell-Free Year Challenge" and for me it is about doing my best to realize my triggers, to do my best to yell as little as possible, if at all.  It doesn't change overnight, I grew up in a home where yelling was the go-to, as was spanking, hitting and other things that I would rather forget. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad.  Once my father left for good things were much better, yelling was really the only thing that never went away.  In my years as an adult I have carried on with the yelling and occasionally when someone would get violent with me I was able to stand my ground (for the most part there). The downside to this all is that I have created in myself a quick anger reflex, I am easily annoyed to the point of breaking and striking out either verbally or physically.  I am not physical with my children and I have pretty much stopped that more over the years but the verbal is still quick out my mouth and sometimes even as much as I wish it wouldn't it hurts others (sometimes my children by yelling) and I can't stop it! 

That is why I am going to work hard to become a more positive person and a more organized person. It is going to be a hard journey but I am determined to make it all work for my family as best I can!!!! 

Now I must take some me time and get lost in my book for a little bit before bed....I have recently started one that makes me lose track of time. :) 

So because I was inspired by my cousin and her wonderful blog: 

 http://peacelovelaundryandfood.blogspot.com/ (these helped me make my choices as well as the FACEBOOK "Yell-Free Year Challenge)

A New Year, New Goals

So this is 2014 and I am on my way to becoming exactly whom I hope to be.

1. I am working on moving my creativity to paper (and computer).

2. I am working on on becoming more organized, more systematic with things.

3. I have also been filling out more online applications and putting feelers out at different places I have found for information on other occupational opportunities.

4. I have also started looking into more healthy options for the family, some that may even be accepted by the kids AND DJ lol (This is still a work in process but I am trying and that is all I can do)

5. One thing I am also going to TRY to work on is my anger issues, I did relatively well today. I didn't really yell at all.  If I can keep it up I will start to feel really good I think. 

So that is just what I am working for this year. I am also looking forward to seeing my family in April and my son again in the summertime!  

Has anyone else got a list of things they are working on this year?  



   

Feeling Wonderfully Surprised!

Today turned out to be a very surprising day for me. First we started our day with a breakfast made by DJ and me, more him though (he made the breakfast quesadillas). Then we got everyone dressed and headed out to get our Christmas tree, Spencer slept through it but Mckenzee had fun! Then after that we went to pick up the presents that were gotten for us by a Sponsor family through the "Angel Christmas Program".  

     THIS is where the surprise came in, see when I have been a part of these programs before back in CT it was usually just a gift or two bought for the kids and they had to be wrapped. Well that is not the case this time around, this time we owe a lot of thanks to the family that sponsored us because they were more generous then I could have ever dreamed.  Not only were the gifts all wrapped, tagged and bowed, but there was a massive amount of them, when I did a final count there were at least 50 gifts! It was crazy! I was shocked, I wanted to cry tears of joy and surprise and immense blessing! When I pulled them all out to stack them and see if any needed repairs (and to separate the ones for Andy for when he comes in the summer) I was literally shaking! My heart was like the Grinch's I swear it grew "3 sizes"! 

     Our first Christmas in WA is going to be even more wonderful, and Spencer's first Christmas ever will be better than I ever thought it would be! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ONE AND ALL!!! 

Another cooking adventure and a Trip to the Bug Museum

Cheeseburger Soup

So I had a new adventure in cooking on Sunday, I made Cheeseburger Soup! 

It seemed to be pretty well received too as I was able to get some "Mommy that was yummy's" out of my picky daughter! Guess I am definitely going to keep Yumprint.com as a place to get all my yummy recipe ideas! 

Tonight was a big hit as well. I made Ham and Scalloped Potato Casserole in the crock pot and it was AWESOME! So out of the three meals I have tried from that site, three of them were great! 

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes

On Saturday before DJ headed to work we took advantage of the fun at the Bug Museum and took the kids. There we were able to use a coupon to get a free caterpillar for Mckenzee to help grow into a butterfly. There was also rock drawing, picture stamp crafts, face painting, caterpillar races, and chalk drawing. Mckenzee got to check out all kinds of bugs from around the world and lots of reptiles as well, she even touched a few!