Friday, December 27, 2013

It's almost New Years!

Is everyone ready for New Years?!  I'm ready in the sense that I'm ready for 2014, not in the sense that I'm ready to celebrate another holiday ha!  Right about this time of year every year, I remember why I love late winter (Feb/March).  It's because all the hustle and hype from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years is over!  Don't get me wrong, I love those holidays, I'm just worn out by the time New Years gets here.

I'm not big on the whole New Years resolution thing, but I am interested in the idea of setting goals for the next year.  

Last year my goal was to garden more through spring and summer.  I did just that!  And by end of August I was wiped out.  So this next year, I will garden.  But my goal is to keep it ridiculously simple...to keep all things simple.  I tend to take things to the max when taking on something new (although gardening itself wasn't new for me, it was the giant garden I planted last summer that was new..and overwhelming!).  That's just how I am though, all or nothing.  I like trying everything!  But this next year, I will try those things, and keep it simple.  If I keep it simple, I will have more time to do things I like to do but am usually worn too thin to really "give my best".  

I decided to start the simpler living idea earlier this month.  It seemed like as soon as December hit, so did the flu/cold in our house.  It circulated through about 3 times in all sorts of ways, starting with the colds and ending with the stomach bug...which is pretty effin awful when Eric and I both got it at the same exact time..thank God the grandparents were able to come to the rescue and watch the kids that day!

That being said.. we have had a busy holiday season on top of all of that.  Usually I make 2-3 large batches of my grammy's fudge, 2 batches of homemade pumpkin peanut butter dog biscuits, Christmas cookies, peanut butter fudge, pies, and gingerbread houses with the kids.  All those treats go to the kids' teachers, caregivers, neighbors, friends, family, and to the family Christmas parties.

But this year I was like oh, hell no.  Nope.  Nope.  Nope!  Even though the time in the kitchen with the kids is awesome, it is usually me flying solo after 20 minutes of stirring fudge or decorating cookies.  So this year, we skipped ALL that.  I didn't do any treat making except some candy cane reindeer.  And you know what?  I didn't miss the fudge, the cookies, the pies, the treats...ONE BIT!  We did store bought treats from Trader Joes for the parties and it was perfect.  On top of that, I had more time for me, and didn't lose my sanity!

Not that I won't do those things in the future, it's just about making it simpler when it needs to be.

Next, I'm trying out new ideas in the kitchen.  My goal is to keep it simple.  Just because I am trying out something new, doesn't mean I have to wear myself out by taking it to the max.

The word for 2014 is Simplify.  

xoxo

Pin Your Heart Out!

Well it's been a bit since my last post.  I have no excuses...life just gets busy like that sometimes.
But I have been pretty busy with my new little business that I am excited to share!  A while ago we came up with the idea, and just recently we put it into action.  I have started a button/magnet business!  It's a small idea that could turn into something pretty awesome.  My online shop features unique original items that you wont find elsewhere and I even do custom orders!

Check it out!! ----->> www.pinyourheartout.etsy.com


These two are the first of my hand series.

Insects.  My favorite is the bee hive.

Eyes.  I have quite the assortment.

Probably one of my favorite sets.  Recently sold some magnet sets of these.  
They are SO cute!

Gave this magnet to my sister :)

Fun new set.

Newest set of magnets.  Kitchen themed.

See where I'm going here?  The variety is endless.  I have done custom orders as well.  I can do small runs of individual styles or large runs of one/two designs.

Have a company/group that you'd like pins or magnets made for?  Head over to my shop and contact me!
I would love to make some awesome merchandise for you!

xoxo





Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Having kids doesn't mean no fun.

Having multiple young children and traveling are two words that you don't always see together unless it includes Disneyland, some sort of family resort or a trip to the grandparents house.  
Most of you know that Eric and I are not cookie cutter parents.  We like to take on things that keep some parents bound to their house and feeling like they're missing out.  There is a happy medium.. you have to dare to take your kids in public!  This doesn't mean that you have to be the person that forces it to work.  By having patience, some set rules and exposing your children to life outside, you will find yourself with well mannered and respectful children that are easy enough to travel with.  If your kid is tired, you have to come to terms and figure out something creative to do at home.  But the other 85% of the time, you have to dare to be out there with your kids trying new things and attempting to travel.  Yes.  Travel with your children.

Eric and I don't take big vacations, in the last four years we have only gone as far as Costa Rica and Vegas (which we went alone and paid for child care).  Our "vacations" consist of a weekend at the coast or anywhere within 3 hours of Portland.  

Preparing for these little trips isn't hard, and neither is the traveling part (minus the little arguments between our 5 and 9 yr old).  It's the actual stay that can be a challenge.  See, Hattie (our 2 yr old) will fall asleep easily for us anywhere..as long as no one is in that room, we have her sound machine on, and she has her own blankets.  Simple enough right?  Wrong.  We can't just make simple reservations.  I have to call and double check that the second "sleeping area" is an actual separate room with a door.  

Now that we have a system, we know what we need to make our travels smooth.  

So this last weekend we made a trip to Tacoma, WA.  We were only going to be there for the night.  I found a hotel with a great price and decent ratings.  I called to double check the details of the second room and we were set to go.  Sweet!  A fun little getaway!

After we made it home Sunday afternoon, I realized how comical it is traveling with 3 kids.  I say comical because it wasn't hilarious (to us anyway, it probably will be for you readers), and it was more often than not..difficult, yet we still enjoyed ourselves.  Yeah, we're nuts.

Here's a little look into staying at a hotel with 3 children ages 2, 5, & 9:

We walk into the room, set our bags down, and look around for the light switch.  "Click!" the lights are on..I look around and the kids have already found the beds (children have night vision, they're like little cats) and they're jumping from bed to bed.  Now that I feel at home (Our nicely made bed is all jumped on and crumpled), I check out the amenities  **To be clear, I don't mind that my kids want to jump on the beds, that's what hotel beds are for :)**  When I walk back into the main room and your 5 yr old is on the phone.  She informs me that she is calling her friend that recently moved to Pittsburgh (this happened about 28 more times during our stay..kids are enthralled by real phones).

Next is the question the kids have already asked us 45 times during the drive "when do we get to go swimming?!"  Well kids, the front desk failed to tell us that the pool is actually outside and that it is closed for the winter (why do hotels in the NW do that?).  So now you are hoping and praying to God that they have decent cable with cartoon network and the Disney channel.

By now I have sent Eric out (to give him a break and..) to get dinner.  There are two bathrooms, so I put the oldest in the shower and the other two in the tub.  I pause between the two rooms and take a deep breath.  The dogs (yes, DOGS..we're absolutely crazy) are giving me the "we really have to go pee!" look, which really means "we have to go smell every square inch of the grass again even though we did that five minutes ago".  

During this short pause to gather my thoughts the kids have opened all the plastic covered cups (we stay at very classy hotels obviously) and have them all in the tub.  Better hope we brought in the bottled water, because all the cups are now covered in soapy bath water.
I let the kids be kids and have a fun time (within reason), which usually includes them splashing around in the tub making noise.  

I'm sure the guests in the room below us are loving life right now.

Are you relaxed and having a good time yet?!

Okay, now the kids are clean and I have them all in ONE room watching TV.  I start to assess the rooms looking for the prime spot to set up the playpen.  This is important, the playpen has to be against a wall so Hattie will feel at home.  I set up the playpen and sit down to have a moment of peace.

Eric walks through the door with dinner and wine in hand..he's a good man!  We eat, we laugh, we let loose.  We watch some TV and hang out as a family.  THIS is what makes it all worth it. Hanging out, enjoying life together.  After a while we put Hattie to bed, then the other girls followed.  What time is it now?  Oh, it's 10:30 pm.  We walk the dogs one last time.  At home this would all have been said and done by 8-8:30 pm.  But this is how it goes when staying at a hotel with 3 children and 2 dogs.  

Eric and I relax, drink some wine and watch some cable.  At home our kids usually wake up around 7am.  In hotel-land they wake up early-er because "it's so exciting!".  Hattie woke up at 5:30am.  We brought her in bed with us, which is like inviting a kangaroo in bed with you.  She's all over.  Jumping, climbing, watching 2 minutes of funny cat videos on my phone, jumping, climbing,...and on it goes.  By 6:30 all the kids are up and we're pretty much forced to get up and ready for the day.

We head out to investigate the continental breakfast.  Kids love the free breakfast as much as the parents do.  We file in and sit the kids down near a large TV.  Me, being the morning person that I am (full sarcasm here) seeks out the coffee.
Let me tell you something, hotels would make bank if they served free espresso (good stuff not gas station espresso machines) with breakfast.  Moms like me would kill for good coffee after getting lousy sleep while on vacation.

I locate the coffee, fill my cup and hope for the best.  It turned out to be okay but my eyelids still felt like they weighed 10 lbs each.  But we powered through it.  We ate and enjoyed being together in that odd little hotel dining room while eating pastries and cereal.

When we got back to our room we let the kids watch TV while I packed up our bags.  We hopped in the car and spent the morning exploring the town, getting coffee, and playing at a park before hitting the road back home.  

So much fun!


I know, this probably sounds like the worst trip ever or like something that would keep anyone from traveling with children.  But you HAVE to go for it!  It does get easier, you learn, the kids learn, and it is so worth it.  We came home tired, but our hearts were full.  We spent quality time together with the kids and took on a new adventure.  

Don't let the challenges keep you from living your life.  Learn to adapt and push through the hard  moments.  Most importantly, you have to have a sense of humor.  If you can't laugh when you realize you forgot to pack clean underwear for ALL of your kids, then you're going to have a real crappy time (no pun intended haha) .  Laughing at the small things lets you really enjoy yourself and enjoy your children.


Back to the wine: We didn't have a cork screw and neither did our classy hotel lobby.  
When in a pinch, push in the cork with keys, then add a stir straw to keep it down.
Yes!  Keeping it classy.



Thursday, November 7, 2013

Dog Poop and Broken Hearts

Puppies.  Probably the cutest, sweetest, most lovable things (besides kittens and baby sloths, who are we kidding?) around.  
Puppies.  Probably the most destructive little bastards around.  For reals.

It all started in September, I noticed our 7 year old dog was getting lazy and depressed.  So the animal lover in me was like "well duh!  we just need to get a puppy!" great idea Courtney.
Sometimes my heart and my emotions run about 20 yards ahead of my brain, okay a lot of the time.  Anyhoo..
I adopted a Jack Russel mix from some shelter event.  He was so adorable and sweet.  This is worse than a dude with beer goggles.  Brand new puppies are equipped with magical puppy smell, and magical cuteness that make you forget how destructive they can be.  This is known as puppy goggles.

Example:


Okay, so we now have a puppy that knows his name and most basic commands.  However, he seems to think that he has free reign over what is an acceptable chew toy.  Here's the current up-to-date list of what he sees as acceptable:

The laptop cord
Both heels on my new Born shoes
One of Cadence's brand new shoes
Multiple record sleeves
Roughly 6 doll hands/feet
A USB cord that was brand new
Multiple toys
One baby sandal
Wood blocks
Pens
Pencils
and that's just off the top of my head.

So Tuesday morning we woke up to a giant steaming pile of poop right in front of the front door.  I know what you're thinking..  Oh, well at least he tried to make it outside.  No.  This is not what anyone in their right mind thinks at 7am after only 5 hours of sleep (rough night with baby).  What sane persons would be thinking is, holy crap.. we have to get rid of this effing dog, and we have to get rid of it TODAY!  

So being the person that thinks all things through (*cough cough) I put up an ad for the dog.  Now, I didn't just put up the ad without TOTALLY thinking it through.. this is something Eric and I have talked about a lot over the last couple of weeks.  Mostly after finding a chewed up shoe or a pile of poop.  

Within an hour I got half a dozen calls about the dog.  I set up an appointment with a woman to come see him the next day.  

Later that evening I tell Eric about the lady coming to see the dog and right about then is when our oldest daughter blurts out (like big sisters do) to the younger one.. "We're getting rid of the dog!  He's going to live with some other family!"  Then came the water works.

After finally calming the children down, and taking a long hard look at the situation I came to the conclusion that the dog isn't all THAT bad.  (as long as I have a stock pile of dog chews)

I will take the 'puppy damage' over breaking the hearts of my children any day.
(Just to be clear, our children aren't spoiled.  It's more about learning to live with your decisions instead of giving them away)



Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Looky Looky.. a fresh clean blog!

Hello.
Well it appears as if I accidentally deleted the source of all of the photos used on my past entries..  So here I am to start fresh.  I was getting tired of seeing all those pictures from my juicing phase..  Don't get me wrong, I love making fresh juice, I just don't see it as a life style.

So with this fresh clean 'brand new' blog, I will be on here more than before.  I will be talking about everything.  Not just about gardening and juicing.  

I recently turned 32 (shut your mouth, I can hear you gasping from here), and I just now realized I am in a rut.  Not in a major rut, I am happily married with three beautiful children that inspire me daily.  But in a "I don't know what the hell I'm doing with myself, and how did I get here?" rut.  

See, most people I know know exactly what it is that they are passionate about and those things would fit nicely on a post it note.  Personally I haven't seen a post it note big enough to fit on it, all the things that I am passionate about.  You're like..well maybe you just don't know what it is that really DRIVES you.  No.  That's not it.  I know what drives me...hundreds of things!  I have always had a hard time making decisions, I was that little girl standing at the check out taking FOREVER to decide which 25 cent pack of gum to buy because making a decision always seemed so final.

Final or not, I am here to start making decisions.  There's only one way to find out if the "it seems like a good idea" is going to be the right choice for me.  I have decided to blog my way through my decision making and see where this whole thing leads.  No I will not be walking on hot coals, eating weird bugs, doing the polar bear plunge, or skydiving.  This isn't a mid life crisis, this is a rut.  There's an effin' difference!

I am not asking for pats on the back, or for my hand to be held.  I'd just like it if you'd follow me through this and laugh with me along the way.