Our mornings start before the sun comes up. Pirate has to get up at 5AM to get ready for school! I usually make us both coffee. Then showers and breakfast. Packing her lunch. Putting her shoes on. Making sure she hasn't forgotten anything, and out the door we go. And a big fat yes, my 6 year old drinks coffee. Did I mention how early she gets up?



Usually, this is when I get to snuggle up with Tootsie Roll and go back to bed. However, this morning she had an appointment with her pediatrician. Wake the baby. Feed the baby. Dress the baby. Find my wallet. Rush through the gas station. Sign in at the doctor's office. And...... wait.

By the way, whoever invented these toys (below) for the little ones was a G E N I U S! Tootsie Roll thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then again, she only discovered sliced bread a few days ago!

My Busy Town Wooden Activity Cube Click HERE to see it on Amazon! Her fun was cut short, though. Shots! Tears! Bandaids! This girl was having none of it. Her healthy little lungs made her point clear. It was barely after 9am, and Monday had been a beast!

Why did it have to stay that way? There's no rule saying that just because there are sticks in the road that you have to run off into the ditch? Life happens.

That's what this was. A stick. But we were going to make the best of the day we had been given. We were going to enjoy things we loved; not wallow. A happy bucket list for our Monday emerged.

I was in desperate need of caffeine. Desperate. Need. I ran through McDonald's and got myself a chocolate chip frappe. With an exaggerated ten pounds of sugar per ounce, I no longer worried that I'd fall asleep driving. Also, because chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate.


We got home and binge watched the Wiggles. Kicking and screaming turn to bouncing and laughing. Say what you will about The Wiggles; they bring Tootsie Roll immense joy. And joy was what we were seizing!

You know you need to check the Wiggles out!  Click here to find this on Amazon.

Tootsie Roll devoured some cereal and snacks, I had some lox and bagels. Because yum. And all was right about our Monday.

1. Go to the park.
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Pirate's snowman melting under a palm tree. It was a sunny day.

My snowman melted on a beach.

  

Pirate playing in the first sprinkling of snow.

Pirate and her coffee snow slushy.

“When an action doesn’t come naturally to you, it is a greater expression of love. Ultimately, comfort is not the issue. We are talking about love, and love is something you do for someone else, not something you do for yourself. Love is a choice.” — Gary Chapman (The 5 Love Languages)

Snowballs. Snow angels. Snow coffee slushies. Frozen toes. Chattering teeth. Time with my children and filling their little love tanks. That was just the beginning to our snow day!

Cloth Diapers

Now let me start by saying that I wasn't always on board with cloth diapers. My first thought was like so many others, I cringed and then thanked God for Pampers. Then one night I Googled cloth diapers, really I was looking for a train wreck. I was fully expecting that my search would only re-enforce my loyalty to modern convenience and further alienate me from the "cloth diapering freaks" of the world. I thought I was going to see children crying from being poked with dull safety pins.

Wow, cloth diapers were not what I expected! For starters, where were the safety pins? The plastic pants? What about the huge flat white pieces of cloth? Today's cloth diapers are almost as easy as disposables, you can snap them, velcro them, if you really want to you can pin them. You can get all different sizes, or one-size diapers and adjust them to fit your baby as they grow. And can we talk about the adorable patterns?! MIND. BLOWN.

I obsessed over cloth diapers. I lived on YouTube and learned everything I could. By the time we ordered our baby's fancy poop catchers, I felt like an expert. Cloth diapering felt very doable.

Our diapering journey officially began because we were some broke, young, soon-to-be parents and the cost of disposables adds up and never ends. I had read somewhere that, on average, it costs in the neighborhood of $2,000+ to diaper a child for the first 2-1/2 years. Or something crazy like that. And did I mention that we were young and broke? We ordered 25 diapers and spent a grand total of $217. We spent $15 on a kitchen-sized trash can to use as a diaper pail, and we were off and running! Well under $300 and we had diapered our daughter. Suddenly, poopy diapers weren't so scary to wash!

There are, of course, other very good reasons to consider cloth. Maybe you love the environment. It is guessed that it can take a disposable diaper anywhere from 250-500 years to decompose in a landfill. Really think about that. The very first disposable diaper ever used, and oh so many more after that, are still stinkin' up the place. I got that fun fact here, thanks Google search.

 Assuredly as life happens, so do really massive poopies. I'd be amiss if I didn't add that we don't face anywhere near the amount of blowouts (aka - explosive poop! aka - poop up the baby's back! aka - time for a bath!) as we do with disposables.

Now every so often we use disposables. Life happens and, as much as I adore the cloth diapers, I'll be the first to remind myself that they're just really fancy poop catchers. It's all good. I'm a firm believer in doing what works for your situation and your family!

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to know about our diapering/wash routine, let me know!

I love watching Breakfast at Tiffany's. To me, it's the perfect New Year's movie.

I won't take on the challenge of doing a movie review. I'll say that it's a fun and girly move about "faking it till you make it" into a the lifestyle you want!

It made me laugh and pull out my make-up. I think that if  Audrey Hepburn's character had been a real person, and in this day-and-age, she'd have her own YouTube channel and about a zillion subscribers.

Halfway into the movie, it's revealed that Holly Golightly is not quite who she appears to be. Her real name is Lula Mae and she is from Tulip, TX. Anyway, she is just trying to make a new life for herself!

Neilsen's New Year's Resolutions Poll (2015)

It is no secret that millions of these goals are made in vain every year. Maybe a goal for the sake of the New Year being NEW just isn't a genuine motivator in itself.

Real and lasting change has to come from something more than a just fresh calendar. I'm sure we could get super deep with this, but I won't.

I'll sum it up in this: if you're wanting your resolution to last, be picky with what you pick and make it something that's real to you.

I thought I'd take a picture of my wall today. Right now, I have this verse {1 Corinthians 15:58} written in big, bright "look-at-me!!" colors and hanging in our kitchen. 

Every so often, the only nice word I can think of to describe my days is "flustering". Yes, that's the word I chose; it seems most accurate. I find myself just falling short, and losing a Godly perspective on things often.
   

Thank you, Baby Blues!

I'm a wife and a mom. Messes and chaos are a part of life. I'll clean, only to find Little Bit dumping something out onto the floor like she's a two year old. (She is a two year old!) The dishes pile up and wait for me in the sink. And I can't find my toothbrush. That's life. Sometimes though it can feel so unending, and my efforts fruitless and futile.

I usually {always.} find that I adopt the worst attitude and get quickly overwhelmed and flustered when I have put my priorities in a blender and hit puree.  

How quickly I forget that what I'm doing here in my home, as a wife and mom, has more value than the immediate. My family and our home were gifted to me by God - and what a blessing they are! My taking care of my family is my act of obedience to the Lord; I'm ultimately working for Him. And, thank God, He says it's not in vain!! If I'm only mopping my floor for the sake of it being shiny, I'll gladly throw the mop away now because I know someone will walk on it before it's dried!

It comes as no shock to me that when I'm not in the bible, and dependent on God to smother me in His grace and mercies daily, that my world turns into complete bedlam. {In the end, it's okay.} It's usually not nearly the chaotic household apocalypse that I think it is once I get a grip, have some coffee, read my bible, and regroup. I wipe up the floor, often with a little girl's help. I find my toothbrush, usually in Elmo's mouth, and I play never-ending hide-and-seek with a crazy munchkin. Smothered in grace and mercy... it's not a bad thing!

"What's wrong, baby?" I get up and I see that she is holding her plastic cup FULL of milk, she spilled a little bit on the first step. "It's OK, I'll clean it up! It's just milk." I tell her.

She had gotten thirsty and had seen me on the phone. So she went down to the kitchen, got her cup, poured her milk, put it back WITH the lid on, and closed the fridge door. All with minimal spilling. I WAS SO PROUD! I told her so thoroughly! I bragged to her daddy. I bragged to her. I bragged to myself. 

About a half hour later, I'm laying down chatting with Mr. Incredible and I hear this puddle-y, splashing sound in the living room. I bolt out of our room and to my jaw-dropping surprise, I see a puddle of milk on the floor. I see her cup, a water bottle, and a few little lids and plastic tea cups. ALL. CONTAINING. MILK. 

Then.... I see the gallon of milk that we opened this morning. No cap, half empty. And where is my child? Pouring and drinking her milk like a little waitress. "Husband!!! I'm going to need help," I call.

She sees my shock and squeaks out, "I'm sorry!"
I forgave her, and after we had put some towels down I called her over to myself.

As I held onto her, our little chat went something like this:

"Come here, baby. It's OK. I love you very much.I'm very proud of how big you are, and how you can get your milk all by yourself.  

But with great milk power comes great milk responsibility.
Do you know what responsibility means?" 

Pirate: "I don't know." 

"It means that when we're big enough to be in charge of the milk, then we have to be very careful with it. We have to make sure that it stays safe, and that we don't waste it. 

So we're going to have some very special milk rules. Are you ready to hear them?
(yes)  

1. If you want some milk, you have to ask Mommy or Daddy first.
2. You can only pour your milk into the cup that we say is OK.
3. We can't waste the milk. There are little kids somewhere that don't have milk to drink.   

Can we remember these?"   

Pirate: "Yes." 

OK.  

Can you say, "I will drink milk responsibly."? 

Pirate: I will drink milk re-pom-sim-bly. 

*hug*

I love her receptive little heart tonight. She is just such a little treasure. There will be no crying over spilled milk tonight.

Let me tell you... my husband has never been so proud of my mad parenting skills. He was listening from upstairs and smiling through the entire little lecture.

Can anyone tell me who I quoted? I did, of course, add the word milk where it was necessary. How great is it that kids don't come pre-programmed to know when you're ripping off great lines rather than being completely awesome on your own.

#ParentingWin

I love this age. I love this life.

I spent a good hour of my Saturday afternoon making a very toddler friendly schedule!

Over the last few months, we've seen a huge change in our daughter's sleep schedule and subsequently her daily schedule.

With a little bit of Mommy-Daddy diligence, we are finally coming out of  what I will affectionately call the "ridiculous nocturnal vampire baby stage".

What started (back when she was teething) with letting her stay up until 10pm to see her Daddy after her got home from work turned to 10:30, 11pm, soon it was midnight - and more recently we were struggling with 3am. She would then sleep until noon, have a very late nap, and the chaos continued. We are so very grateful to say that we have finally put a stop to the madness! She has been in bed and waking up at decent hours for a couple weeks now. It's wonderful! 

Now it's time for her to get on a real schedule through the day. We want something that will be flexible and practical for our family. Also, we want it to be something that she won't fight during the transition stage. If it's fun for her, it's easier for all of us! 

Back Story. 
If any of you know our daughter, you probably know that she has insane amounts of love for Phineas and Ferb! I mean, who wouldn't? They have the best days ever and do things like build elevators to the moon, or a roller coaster through Danville (their hometown). Amazing stuff. I'd love to see their bucket list. And lastly, they have a pet platypus named Perry, and he is a Secret Agent who fights evil. Oh yes, they're most definitely a cartoon. 

Back on track.
I give you the "Pirate, I know what we're going to do today!" schedule. A Phineas & Ferb themed schedule full of pictures so she can "read" her own to-do list. It might look a bit overwhelming at first glance; but I think she will LOVE it! 

Each little thing to do is listed on the green door. When she opens the little door, she sees one of her favorite characters doing that task. The first one is "Wake Up" and she will see Candace waking up in her bed. The next one is eat breakfast, and so on. It looks like a lot of stuff, but this includes a lot of five minute things, playtime, reading and relaxing, nap time, there really is quite a bit for a toddler to do!