No Pinching in my house!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!!! I hope each of you have celebrated this wonderful holiday in all it's glory. Like I said in my post yesterday, this is my favorite holiday. Green is my favorite color and this holiday gives me a great excuse to go crazy with it!

The holiday started off with my take on "green" nail polish. It's called "Need a refreshing Mint?" by Wet-n-Wild. I know, again, with the Wet-n-Wild. Inexpensive nail polish (This one I got for $.99!! with a coupon of course), but this is seriously an awesome polish. It has this great flat brush that lets you paint your nails incredibly fast and it stays on your nails great. All-in-all, I like it.

And I digress....anyways, there is this book I love for St. Patrick's Day called, "Twas the Night Before St. Patrick's Day". It is a twist on the "Night Before Christmas" story. In short it is about 2 kids who set traps to try to catch a leprechaun to find out where he hid his treasure. The leprechauns make messes and in the end still tricks them in a cute way.

So for the past few days the "Leprechauns" have come and made messes in our house with my boys toys and left "footprints" to prove it. Our son loved it and wanted to catch the leprechaun. The fun ended with him getting to still have a piece of the rainbow and some of his "treasure"(Rolos). We had a lot of fun with it.

The Leprechauns messed up our son's beloved cars..."Look Mom! Leprechaun footprints!"

Our food for the day was themed also.....Green chili egg "muffins" and a Green Monster Smoothie for breakfast, Shamrock shaped sandwiches(3 heart shaped sandwiches formed into a shamrock with a stem), fruit rainbow :), Mint M&M cookies, and fabulous Green cupcakes my dad brought from Oklahoma. The Hubbs and I had a FUN date night/game night with friends from church tonight and had green themed food. We brought Bacon Brown Sugared Green beans and a Pistachio Cake/Pudding Trifle(I make this every year!). We had so much fun!

Some other pics of the day.....

My awesome Dad...Some of you wonder where I get my "spirit" from?!

Starting the kids off right ;) Our youngest in his "Kiss Me" Tux...

I think it is fun to take an ordinary day and make it a little more special and out of the norm. It makes life more interesting. I hope you all have had a good "no I didn't get pinched, I wore my green!" type of day.

THIS girl is in love...

Friday was a wonderful day in our house....

THIS was brought to our house by my handsome husband...

I'm in love :)

Our oldest "helped"  the hubbs set it up and then they upcycled the box into a Car Garage(Caden's choice). 

The box is always the best part of big items for the kids! We'll see how long it lasts around these rowdy boys....

New Look!

Don't worry! You're in the right place!

To go along with my "theme" this week of cleaning out and reorganizing, I am also mixing up the blog a little. To tell you the truth, I'm not too sure about it. I'll probably play with it more over the next few weeks, so let me know what you think(be honest!)!!

Not only did I clean out and re-organize our master closet and rearrange our room this week, yesterday, to top things off, we (okay, I) decided to rearrange and clean out our oldest's room and closet. The room was a mess, and had way too many unnecessary things in it. After a loooong day of cleaning out, throwing away, sorting, and rearranging IT was finished. This "new" room as my oldest calls it will at least last him until we move our youngest into his room at the end of the year and redecorate(woo-hoo!).

 

Amidst the chaos...after rearranging, the closet exploded

Pryce found a monkey backpack

The oldest in his "clean" closet...if you would have seen this before you would not recognize it!

We moved his dresser into the closet to make more room for play and all of his toys, pushed his bed against the wall (mattress and box springs are still on the floor because he likes to run and jump on it), put an extra table by his bed, and spread out his tons of toys.
Overall, we are happy with it....it's functional for a 3 year old and that's what we needed!

"Some" in moderation

Do you ever just want to pick up and take your children to a place where you can shield them from all of life's influences?! Sometimes this seems like the only option if we want them raised the way that we feel is best. Even the "good" things in life can become bad if done in excess...

Too much TV
Too much food (not that I don't want to feed my children all they want, but sometimes just having what we "need" needs to be enough)
Too much stimulation from toys, video games, technology...

We don't want them to be raised by getting everything they want, we believe this sets them up for failure and over indulgence later on in life.

We have come to the conclusion that, of course, we can't and shouldn't go move into the middle of no-where just to help give our children what we believe is a good foundation for life.

Something my dad has said often, "everything in moderation" has stuck with me and has become what we are trying to keep as a rule in our household.

Yes, I like chocolate chip cookies, but no I don't need 10 of them and neither do our kids.

Yes, I like movies, but no I don't need to watch them all day, and neither do our kids...not to mention most movies today aren't wholesome, let alone "clean."

Yes, I like(okay, love) computers, but no I don't need to be on them all day long, and neither do our kids.

If I  struggle with these things, I know my kids will and have already seen how much of an addictive personality my oldest has.

..."everything in moderation"...But ya know what? We don't really need "everything". Sometimes it just needs to be "some" of "everything" in this life because even moderate amounts of some things can be destructive.

I hate having to say "no" to things or people for that matter when it comes to my children, but I am finding myself having to do that more and more. How do you explain to people that when you say "no" it isn't personal, or when you chose one thing over what is considered the "norm" in society, that it is just the best decision for our family. Okay, well maybe I said it right there, "it is just the best decision for our family"...but that is still hard to say without hurting feelings.

But the truth of the matter is, My husband and I, and only us, are responsible for how we raise our children. In the end WE are responsible to our children and to our Lord.

If addicted to anything, we want our children to be addicted to God and serving His Kingdom. Something I believe each of us crave(God) without realizing it, but fill it with all of life's "stuff" (I do this all the time). But let's face it, it's hard to push out all the stuff...it's something we struggle with each day. But we keep pressing on and keep trying to live a "some in moderation" type of life style.

Defeated

Have you ever had those days where you just feel defeated? A day where you feel that nothing is "for" you. Not your kids, your own body, or even your dog? Yeah, been there.

Kids are one of those things in your life where you love em and then you have the moments where you think you will lose your mind. They have their own agenda and then you have yours...typically on polar opposite ends of the spectrum.

Body. Wow. This past year I have thought "Why does my body hate me?" one too many times. I don't think I have written about this since my "Hooray for being girl?" post. I was originally diagnosed as having post-pardem thyroiditis, but after further tests the doctor found out I had Hoshimotos disease. It is an auto-immune disorder of the thyroid where your body basically is at "war" with your thyroid. Eventually I won't have a thyroid at all. It is crazy to think that that your own body is always "at war". Along with my doc we still have not found the right dosage for me because the dosage I need is not available, so I'm either too high or I'm too low.  I never knew how important your thyroid was until mine wasn't working like it should. I know I'm not alone in that and I also know that I am so blessed that I do not have a life threatening disorder, but things have been a lot harder than normal.

I say all that to say this.....How easy is it to just give up when you have those days that just seem crushing? Lord knows there have been many days where I just wanted to ignore all responsibilities, curl up, cry, and watch Gilmore Girls just to retreat from my own life for a little bit. I also know, again, I'm not alone.

But do we, just give up? Immaturity tells us we can. Self-centeredness tells us we can. The Godless world tells us we can. But, no, we don't. Nor should we.

After stepping back a second and taking a look at your current state, what you consider crushing, you realize giving up won't solve anything. You will only let yourself down and let down those closest to you.

I am, however, a BIG proponent for taking a break every once and a while to rejuvenate, and well, regain sanity :) You have too.  It makes you a better parent, wife/husband, and friend.

I say all that to say this (for myself more than anything): don't give up. You are worth more than how you currently feel, your family and friends are worth more to you than that.

God has not given up on you. Jesus gave his life for you because you ARE worth THAT much to Him.

Yes, we have our days. I believe it is okay to be upset, but don't let yourself stay there. It is debilitating. Try to take a second, step back, regain perspective, and take a break if you can, THEN keep pressing on.

Sun-shining....

It's amazing what a little sunshine can do for the soul. Today it is sunny with a high of 68 degrees. Sounds beautiful, doesn't it? Well, it is. Today I also have no plans except to stay home, enjoy my boys, and take care of some things around the house that I have been meaning to do for a while. I intentionally asked the hubbs to take the car to work with the carseats in it so that I wouldn't be tempted to go anywhere (don't worry though, in case of an emergency we have extra carseats, I'm just too lazy to put the seats in my hubbs' car unless I have too!)

As much as I love Winter, days like this are incredibly refreshing-- especially after a busy holiday.

Today I took time to drink my coffee, snuggle with my boys, did laundry (a necessary evil), organized our room *a little bit*, and played outside with the munchkins. The rest of my day consists of an adventure to the park, pizza and movie night(Cars, our oldest's choice) with the fam, and my brother coming into town to visit (love his visits!). All are low stress and somehow relaxing to me. This day hasn't been without it's sibling fights, fits or "did you really just do that?'s" but it was still wonderful...and intentional. Intentioned to slow down, let things not get to me as easily, and enjoy this rare, warm, sunny day in Winter.

Here's hoping that if you weren't able to slow down today, that you will make a day for it sometime soon. It's okay to give yourself (and your family) a break every once and a while.

This isn't from today, but this is one of my fav Sun-Shining pics of our littlest



When the Music Fades....

This post I guess isn't so much about being a "girl", it's more about being a mother. I probably could post something else on the "girl" side, but this is what is on my heart right now.

Yesterday I had a....well, quite a day...with my almost 3 year old. Anyone who has had a child this age probably knows what I'm talking about when I say this. It was explosion after explosion and it left me wondering who this child was and it also left me really disappointed in myself and how I handled some of his wild fits. After a much needed nap and some time to reflect on this day, last night I remembered when someone told me that their fits are usually because there is something going on inside them that they aren't able to communicate well. This makes sense because during one of the fits when I was trying to get him to tell me why he was getting upset one of the questions I asked him was if something hurts and he said, "yes, momma, my feelings hurt." Break. My. Heart. His feelings were hurt, and possibly because of how I handled some of his outrages. I handled them more with discipline that with "care."

Typically I am the type of mom that believes everything can be fixed with a kiss and some "snuggle time," (at this age anyways!) and have in a way "taught" this to my oldest who now requests "snuggle time" often. But on days when I feel like there is a lot to be done and accomplished "snuggle time" isn't made an importance...my son on the other hand, still needs it. I realized that all he wanted me to do was to slow down, put the chores and errands aside and spend some one on one time with him. Not to say that this needs to happen all day but a good balance is necessary for him to feel secure in his day.

This morning during my quiet time I opened a paper that I keep to mark my place in my Bible. It has the words to some of my favorite worship songs on it. The song "When the music fades" stood out to me and I read/sang it through.

Verse 1
When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless your heart

Bridge
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Chorus
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus

Verse 2
King of endless worth
No one could express
How much you deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is yours
Every single breath

*Bridge*
*Chorus*
*Chorus*

I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
More than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
You're looking into my heart
Looking into my heart
You're looking into my heart
Into my heart
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song
I'll bring you more than a song

With my mind still on the day before and "parenting" still on the brain I really connected to it and began correlating it to our TRUE mission as parents to our children in this world.

It is so easy, as parents, to get caught up in the....Schooling, "Sporting", Clothing, Socializing, "Manoring", Fine motoring, Gross Motoring, "Erranding", etc....that we lose the true "heart of parenting."

"All is stripped away

And I simply come

Longing just to bring

Something that's of worth

That will bless your heart"

What is something that is TRULY of worth to our children and their hearts? I believe it's the Love of Jesus and our God. "Above all, Love."

"I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about You

It's all about You, Jesus

I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it

When it's all about You

It's all about You, Jesus"

 I was told once that children are given to us only for a time, but that they will forever belong to God. What a precious and important gift! (Along with that paper with the lyrics on it I also keep a picture that someone gave me of my first born asleep in his carrier next to their Christmas tree and all of the presents underneath it. This picture is a constant reminder to me that "Children are a gift," even though a temporary one.)

If teaching and showing our children the Love of Christ is the most important thing we can do for our children, why do we cram their lives FULL of all these other things? It's easy to do because most of these things are fun, but collectively it can get to be TOO much. A balance perhaps is the best choice?

I am realizing now that yesterday my son's "world" was not balanced. Love was not the primary focus. In my head right now I am envisioning a balance (like the one in a science class) with "God's Love" on one side and all the "Others" in our lives on the other (If I wasn't computer challenged I would design that up for you!).  This is going to be my personal goal for my life and my children's. I realize it will take saying "no" to things more often than I say "yes," but I guess that's what being a parent is all about...not always making the easy choice for your family, but making the right choice for your(every family is different) family.

Rambled enough? I think so :) But I hope you can also do some reflecting on your parenting "goals" (or life goals if you aren't a parent) and try to realign yourself if you have fallen away from the track.

 

Girl: Gilmore Style.....

This last weekend I was soooo over this heat and decided to transport myself into a quaint and quirky northeastern town named Stars Hollow. Whenever I am watching this show it just screams FALL and cool weather...quite the lovely notion in this 100 degree weather. Gilmore Girls is one of my all time favorite sitcoms for so many reasons, mainly because not only does it scream FALL but it also exudes GIRL. My husband can appreciate the show for it's humor but ultimately does. not. get. it. I understand and relate to it perfectly :) I decided to share with you 10 reasons why I ADORE this show.....

Gilmore Top Ten

1. As previously mentioned, the weather! No matter the season it always seems pleasant and manageable. And let's face it, Fall in the Northeast is BEAUTIFUL and it stirs up feelings of "home."

Thinking of this makes me want to go to a pumpkin patch and make fresh apple cake...torture, sorry.

2. Lukes. Small town diners have a special place in my heart. I enjoy "Lukes" because it represents great, REGULAR, coffee...it is a place that still keeps sacred the notion that it is rude to be on the phone while you are in the company of others... fabulous, yet simple, food(he is passionate about that one)And I must say I love the owner's stubborn, "I'm not going to put up with that" attitude.....(not to say one should be like that all the time, I mean, I'm still a lady).

3. Kirk. Strange, multi-talented, sleepwalking...Kirk. Everyone needs a friend like him.

4.The Dragonfly Inn. I believe Inn's were made for girls. Homey, quaint, fantastic food by Sookie, and it seems like there is always something interesting going on there. And let's face it, they have the most interesting concierge...

5. The Town Square. If they are looking for someone, where do they go? The town square. If something crazy is going on, where is it usually taking place? The town square...because the town revolves around it. I love that. They don't write it off as the "old part of town," it is important and considered the "core." (Okay, I get that it could just be the studio's efforts to save money by using the town square set repeatedly, but dream here with me....)

6. Lorelai's parents. They care, right? Pushy, loving, and let's face it, they are loaded. I'm not going to dive deeper on this one...

7. Yale. Love the school pride. Love Rory's college years. Love the coffee cart that seems to be all over campus. Love that darn cute bulldog.

8. Mrs. Kim. Wow, she's a lot to handle. She's like the Soup Nazi of antiques. Props to Lane for surviving in that house. And I love finding out the quirky and surprising side to Mrs. Kim in season's 5-7...just sayin.

9. The lack of food in the Gilmore household. Correction, there is leftover pizza, Chinese, burgers and, of course, Pop-Tarts. But what I mean is food that you can actually make (not just order) a meal out of. Lorelai is dead set on not cooking, which honestly is kinda lame, but at the same time pretty funny and understandable considering she had maids and personal chefs doing everything for her while growing up. They are lucky they have Sookie and Luke in their life.....

10. The quick, witty, and straight-forward banter they ensues not only between Lorelai and Rory, but between most of the characters on the show. The characters don't take themselves too seriously and at the same time seem comfortable with who they are. They don't hold back..If only we had the kind of courage to be who we really are without reservation.

Now I know there are more fellow Gilmore Girls addicts out there, so I'm wondering what is your reason for adoring this wonderful show? And yes, men are encouraged to dwell on this as well....

Here's to hoping cool weather comes soon.......

If you don't like it, get rid of it!

No, this is not my motto for life. BUT it is my motto for my household objects this past week.

In true, Tasha fashion (I say "Tasha" fashion mainly because I'm not sure if this is necessarily just a "Tasha trait" or if it is an innate quality of all girls), I took a quick look at my kitchen and decided, "I don't like it." So what do I do? I strip it bare of all decor and decide we're having a garage sale(and I may have also striped our bedroom as well of some objects in preparation of my *project* next year). And yes, I informed my husband of all of this after the fact. Surprise!

I decide to start with only the colors I love (which involves many...)...orange, green, yellow, red, and some browns. I just happened to be going into one of my favorite boutiques that day the pick up some things that my in-laws requested when I happened across some dishtowels that also, coincidentally, have those same colors in them! Deciding I had some of my "fun money" to use anyways, I purchase them (pretty darn FUN to me!). It was somewhere to start.....



Later that day when staring at my kitchen again trying to think of where in the world I was going to go with this "operation redecorate," I realized that a rug I have had my eye on for a while would go perfectly with the colors I had in mind and would be a great place to start.  The rug: beautiful, perfectly colored, and yes, girly(g****).



Cute, right?!



My husband on the other hand was completely perplexed as to why I would ever think of putting a "flowery" rug in our house.....apparently that is not manly or something. I told him, "because.....I like it, that's why" (deep, I know). He then tried to talk me into getting a rug that also had the colors I wanted in it, but.......it consisted of.....SQUARES. I then went on a long explanation that that is sooooo not the look I was going for because, a) that is contemporary in my opinion, and anyone that knows me knows that I am anything but contemporary....squares signify straight edges and "in a box." I am fluid, a little wild, and, well, a little loud. Squares did not say that to me! b) he wasn't going to be looking at it as much as I was anyways and c) I AM allowed to have some g**** in the house... and because I think he was simply tired of hearing my rant, he gave in :)

So now my kitchen consists of a rug, dishtowels, and lately, me, because I am usually in there trying to think of where to go from there (We also put away our toaster oven because it took up tons of space thus making room for my looovely, red Kitchenaid mixer and a lot more counter space to create incredibly yummy and craving-satisfying food). Somewhat blank, but I like it. It looks clean and gives me a *new* project.

My poor husband doesn't understand this urge, but does like the fact that it inspired me to shed things that we don't use any more...I feel so much lighter! It's almost as good as losing weight.......okay, not that good.

Any suggestions, or decor ideas that you have or come across would be greatly appreciated :)

Next year:  "Operation Redecorate Bedroom." Somehow I am going to try to convince my hubbs that we should have zebra print and giraffe print in our room(TASTEFULLY of course).......I could argue it as an educational experience for our children--"no need for that expensive trip to Africa on safari, honey! Look! We could have it right here in our bedroom for the smaller price of..."

Ode to Coffee...

On a day that I looked forward to welcome--mainly because I had zero set plans for the day (a complete joy considering the past week has been packed--of wonderful things of course)--I felt....blah....nothing. Determined to not waste this "beautiful day the Lord has made" in a sleepy fog I set out to rev my (I would say engines, but that is utterly NOT girly, so...) dancing feet (make sense?).

Goal 1. Jog....successful. My eyes opened and saw a gorgeous day

Goal 2. Play with kiddos, finish some projects, pack for upcoming trip........UNsuccessful.

I had NO idea what the problem was. Usually jogging will wake me up and send me on a energy induced morning (I usually crash once the wild things take a nap), but that definitely wasn't the case today. Call it complete exhaustion from the prior week or the fact that we wake up 3, 4, 7 times during the night because of an infant and a toddler who hears alligators in his room...I was tired AND was getting irritable.

All of a sudden a light bulb went off..........I hadn't had my COFFEE yet. WHOA, stop everything, that was the missing piece! I forgot that usually I wait till after our jog to make my coffee(obviously a necessity in my day). As quickly as possible, coffee is made, sugar and creamer are in my pretty (a must), pink, black, and white mug (that was given to me by a wonderful old friend) and it is sipped (ladies don't chug, right?!) VERY quickly.  Minutes later, my senses were awakened and all of a sudden I found a game of catch with both of my kiddos(yes, a 5 month old can play catch...he actually liked it...well chewing on the ball anyways...) extremely entertaining and reveled in the sweet laughs of both boys.

Excited again about my day of possibilities I begin to feel an urge of girly(g****) again. In that instant the word, "naaaiiil polish" whispers through my head. "I want new (teal) nail polish!" I decide. Such spontaneity, such fun, soooo summer! Typically this "girl" sticks to dark colors and the occasional pink, but Teal sung to me for some reason. I called up my very pregnant friend(deciding she needed to walk to induce labor anyways) and off to the store we were a little while later.

The lovely find,  "Teal or No Teal" by Wet n Wild, a brand, by the way, that I haven't purchased since High School...mainly because it's cheap and I figured that if I didn't like it, I would be out much $$. A bold choice, yes, but bold is good, right?!

I have yet to adorn my toes with this lovely color because, well, a quick trip with a good friend, turned in a loooong, and much enjoyable, 2 1/2 hour trip ending with a wonderful fashion show of cheap, bug-eye sunglasses. Which, admittedly, I am now the proud owner of not just one, but two pairs...$5 dollars each! Great deal, AND I was still sporting a (cheap) pair all the way from college that I managed to not lose. It was about time. I digress....

Needless to say, my husband was quick to laugh and give me the "look" as soon as I admitted to the female-exuding loot I was smuggling into the house.....

The day that started off slow turned into a spirited and very colorful (literally) day.....Also a day that resulted in the quickest I have ever packed a family of four, a dog, and a fish for a road trip. Here's hoping we didn't forget anything! And yes, I am considering painting my toes in the car....Please drive steady, babe!

Coffee, how I love thee...let me count the ways.....