Can't Do It All Myself...

Mondays are horrible here. 

Just horrible, I tell ya. 

Ugh...just thinking about yesterday exhausts me...that's how bad Mondays stink. 

Here's the schedule...

Take Cal to preschool
Come back home for homeschool
Pack Emma's lunch, pack her swimming bag, throw her in car
Pick Cal up from Preschool
Rush across town to Homeschool Gym while Emma eats her lunch in the car
Drop Emma off
Take Cal home
Make a super quick lunch
Rush Cal to Speech Therapy
Come home for Cal's nap
Usually I have to wake Cal up to go pick up Emma
Pick up Emma and come home
20 minutes later we leave for Emma's gymnastics
Drop Emma off at Gymnastics
Go to the bank to do the Girl Scout banking
Go home to start dinner
Go pick up Emma from gymnastics
Come home and meet my parents there
Feed childen, leave them with my parents and leave for grocery shopping

Whew!  It's a busy day indeed!

Last Monday after we got the children to bed I basically collapsed on the couch with Nick as I sobbed about what a failure I am at all of this. 

As a mother. 
As a wife.
As a homemaker.
As a teacher. 
As a Christian. 

Perhaps it's that perfectionism that always seems to creep up, or perhaps it's something else, but I cannot seem to see what I've accomplished, rather I only see what has not been done...

the dishes that are still on the dining room table from the night before (yikes!)
I am a day behind in my laundry schedule. 
I didn't fill the workboxes for school the night before.
I am way behind in ebaying.
I haven't showered in two days (sad but true). 

Last week I didn't blog.  I thought about it a million times but somehow Monday threw me off track and the rest of the week snowballed out of control.  It's hard for me when that happens because as you can see I focus on what I am doing wrong and suddenly instead of one whole day going wrong, it is an entire blasted week. 

Eek. 

I read a mom blog this week that really convited my heart.  It talked about how I will never ever have the strength to do all of this on my own.  I just can't.  Some days I am doing the work of what feels like 5 moms. 

But Christ has the strength. 

And it penetrated my heart so much that I can't find the blog to save my life.  Pathetic, right?

I was directed to 1 peter this week.  As I was reading the last part, I felt like God was hugging me as I read 1 Peter 5....

1 Peter 5:6,7 (NIV)
 "⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

Well duh.  I know this.  I mean, I KNOW this.  Really well.  So many times I have felt like I couldn't do it anymore.  And I've cried out to God to help me. 

I'd like to use a lifeline...

And of course the Lord helps me.  But for some reason I've forgotten to actually ask God for help.  I've complained to him.  I've ranted to him.  But I've never boldly approached the throne to ask for some of His strength. 

Again, you may now call me an idiot :)

And of course God continued to reassure me that He's got my back...

 1 Peter 5:10, 11 says...

^"10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen."

Help is on it's way. 

And it really was.  Wednesday night I relied on God and was able to hack away at organizing the classroom into a useable area, I got school papers ready for the next day and was able to rock school Thursday and Friday.  I also managed to not forget any other obligations like I had been before. 

So hopefully this week will be awesome.  I'm going to rely on God and ask him for His strength to sustain and lead me. 

If you have more on your plate today, I encourage you to read 1 Peter 5 and to go before God and ask him for his strength and grace.  He's waiting to be asked and He is crazy in love with you!!!

Happy Monday!

My Thoughts on the President...

I have none. 

Honestly, people are way too wrapped up in the Presidential elections. 

It's been kind of sickening to see and listen to people talk about the president relentlessly.

Here's the truth about my life...

I am a busy mom. 

A Super Busy Mom as you may have picked up from the title of my blog. 

I have too many things to worry about during the day to spend an exhausting amount of time arguing about the president.  Or what I like about the current president.  Or don't.  Or like about the future president.  Or don't.

I am too worried wondering if I remembered to get the porkchops out of the freezer for dinner.  Or if I paid the electric bill.  Or trying to remember where the drycleaning bag is.  Or who put silly putty in the dishwasher...again.  Sanctuary!!!

The truth is I am neither a demorcrat or a republican.  I spend time praying about who I should vote for, who has Jesus in their heart and then I choose.

The peon elections (the local people I have no clue who they are)  I close my eyes, put my hand on my eyes, wave my pencil around and stab the paper to choose.  It's a complicated system I've got going on here, folks :)

You know see why Nick doesn't like to go to the polls with me :) 

Here's my confession in this blog (which it always seems that I am putting some type of confession in here, doesn't it?)  I used to care about elections but I had to stop.  My personality is one that I care too much and then have an anxiety attack about things I cannot change and then obsess over things I cannot change and am upset about. 

Basically my self help for this has been to just swing in the opposite direction and just not care.  It's worked marvelously with having kid as I am so busy now anyway.  I used to care about dishes too but had to stop that too.  And laundry.  Boy I wish.

This is the most political junk you will ever hear me talk about.  I just don't like it.  Let's talk about something fun.  Like purses.  Or diet soda. 

So there you have it, lessons we've learned today:  I honestly can't say I am a democrat or a republican...this drives my husband crazy.  And I am insane.   Lesson over!

It's a Cozy Little House

When we left our family in South Carolina we were faced with a 15 hour car ride. 

Yee-haw. 

The entire time we were in the car we all kind of bickered and kept to ourselves and much as we could.  The truth being, enough was enough and we all wanted to be out of the car and away from one another.

We wanted to be home. 

I know I really wanted to be home.  I was a little worried though. Had I idolized it a little too much?  What if it smelled weird from being gone so long?  What if something needed cleaned?

My evidently insane fears were put to rest when we got home. 

Goodness I love our house.  I love the grace and charm it exudes for us.  But most of all I love that it is a tapestry of our lives.  It's something Nicholas and I have pieced together and it reflects us and the love of our family. 

It feels so good to be back in this safe haven of ours.  It's amazing how I was so excited to go on vacation and now I never want to leave. 

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

As I've blogged about before, I am a big proponent of the smoothie.  As a busy mom it is a rare treat for me to have time to sit down with an egg and a piece of toast for breakfast, so I often run out the door or go up to the classroom with a smoothie in tow. 

You can read about a fruit smoothie I make here.

The thing I love about smoothie's is that there is no hard and fast way of how to make them.  You just throw in whatever the heck you want and go to town. 

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy folks. 

I started the South Beach diet back in August and in phase one of it you can't have any sugar.  Zilch, nada, none.  Being a lover of all things chocolate this was a huge problem. :)  When I made it to phase two and was able to have fruit (yee-haw) I started making this smoothie. 

LOVE IT!  Here's the recipe...I'll give you my taste's tolerable recipe with side notes on how to make it better (I've really sold you on this thing, haven't I?)

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Smoothie

1 cup milk (you can use anything here!  Yogurt, soy milk, almond milk, icecream...if you use icecream don't tell me...I will want to kill you in my jealous rage :) )

1 cup-ish ice

1/4 cup natural peanut butter (the obvious yummier choice would be to use peanut butter with sugar in it :) )

2 tbsp. dark cocoa powder (if I am really naughty I will use the light chocolate syrup instead and if I am REALLY naughty I throw in a couple tiny squares of dark chocolate for some chunks)

2 bananas

Whirl and enjoy.  If you want to pare this down you can. this will make you an entire blender of smoothie so it's perfect to throw in the fridge and enjoy through the day (as I do because Cal has the dumb peanut allergy) or you can share with friends and family. 

Okay now that I'm on my smoothie box I have to tell you some things that I have smuggled into smoothies. 

Back in the day when Cal wasn't talking I was DESPERATE to try anything!  My mother-in-law told me about Salba (which you know also as Chia seeds, you know from Chia pets...Obama hair???) and Kelp.  Both of these things are packed with nutrients but seriously how was I supposed to get those into Cal?  My solution was the smoothie.  I would take kelp (which comes in pill form by the way) and Salba, grind them up in an old coffee grinder and then keep that in an air-tight container.  I then would sprinkle about a teaspoon into a smoothie.  You cannot taste it at all, promise!!!  I was especially leary of grinding pills of kelp but they are tasteless (at least in smoothie form). 

My other go-to secret is spinach.  You can thrown TONS of the junk into the blender and you cannot taste it.  I was a little scared of the BRIGHT NEON GLOWING GREEN color it produced but the kids actually found it to be awesome so it was a win-win.  They get the nutrients of spinach and a fun color. 

If your kids won't try smoothie (the recipe above is brown from the chocolate) I recommend putting it in a sippie cup or travel mug.  I do this a lot with Emma and Calvin.  A lot of times if they can't see it, they'll drink it willingly (boy are we in trouble when those two hit college!)

So there are some of my tips for smoothie making.  Please let me know if you have any recipes to try or tips...I love new things! 

Enough is Enough

Sometimes I think I am becoming obsessed with the computer...does anyone else ever feel this way?  Surely it can't just be me.

In this day and age (gosh I sound like old people) with the computer such a part of our lives, it becomes so easy to just wile a day away in front of the laptop. 

I am lowering my head in shame and raising my hand to tell you, I am guilty of this. 

Well, not a whole day. 

But some of it. 

I was the woman/wife/mother/girl who would sit down on the couch with the computer to "check facebook/yahoo/blog/plan lessons" do something and before I knew it the entire afternoon would be gone.  An entire naptime of the children's had suddenly disappeared and I had nothing to show for it. 

Before we went on vacation I was doing this a lot. 

I didn't realize it until during vacation when I was unplugged.  I remember I saw the laptop in the hotel room and instantly thought "I HAVE to check facebook".  But then I stopped. 

No I don't.  There is no earthly reason why I HAD to check it.  No one was trying to get a hold of me.  I was not a part of anything that needed tending. 

And so I didn't.  It felt Mauvelous! 

The week and a half that we were gone really helped me get over me dependency on the computer.  Today I am sitting down to write this, keeping an eye on the clock to see when the 15 minutes I've alloted myself is over. 

And I am going to try to keep this up.  Because truth be told, no matter how lonely and without adult interaction I may feel during the day, facebook checking isn't going to solve anything.  Neither will pinteresting. 

If anything it was making me kind of jealous of people.  And not in a way of "oh I wish I had those shoes" kind of way.  But in a weird, back door way.  Like, if someone posted something they did with their kids that was fun, I would suddenly be envious of so-and-so that she always comes up with the most creative ways to spend time with her family while I always have to copy people.  Ugh, I want to be like that I moan, and then I look some more.  And then so and so is talking about how their husband is amazing and then I secretly wish MY husband was amazing (which he already is, duh!)

If I see someone on Pinterest posting things, I secretly wonder how they even FIND the neat things to post on pinterest and then I wish that I had that much time to search for things and wish my brain would think of the right search words to type in that generated those things to re-pin. 

In short, I completely understand if you now think I am out of my mind nuts, but I am guessing there are a few of you who completely understand what I am saying here. 

Over our time away I realized that I don't need to want someone else's creativity or cute boots or dorky awesome husband, or anything else anyone has.  Because I have what God gave me.  He's pretty great you know, and looking around I see that I have it pretty great too. 

So I guess what I am trying to say is that I am going to try to stop living up to the expectations I put on myself by idolizing what everyone else has or does on the computer.  I am going to do that by not spending so much time on the computer.  Which in turn will help me to have more time around the house and get things done and use my brain to be crafty awesome in my own right which will in turn help me to be happy with myself. 

It's a full circle around here, folks.  Full Circle. 

Signing Time

Sign language.

Our good old friend has managed to stick around.

When Emma was little, little we began teaching her signs.  Not that I had any idea what I was doing...it was more through looking at books and watching Baby Einstein videos together.

She learned milk, more, done, and of course as displayed above, I love you.

When Cal came around and refused to talk it became very clear why God had led us down the path of signing.  We had to sign everything with that kid.  And suddenly instead of signing just for the fun of it and learning new things, we were signing out of necessity.

When Cal was two I was learning how to sign complete sentences...researching signs for emotions and how to sign what he needed to do.  My dear sister in law had taken sign language in color and was there to offer signing text books to me and help me with questions.

It was a hard, hard time in our life.

And then Cal started talking.  Then he stopped talking in favor of signing so we basically stopped signing all together.

Today we hardly sign at all.  We have discussed teaching the kids sign language as a language, but haven't completely decided.

And even though we hardly sign around here, the good old "I love you" has stuck around...I think that one's here to stay.

Road Trip

Well we are home from our vacation!  We had such a great time!  We spent over a week and a half  going to Disney and South Carolina.  Over the last few days weeks I am sure I will be filling you in on the time we had.  With the new camera we have found that taking pictures is so much easier...so much so that we took over 4000 pictures!  That's a lot of editing and narrowing down! Whew! 

 We left on a Sunday night at midnight.  We drove through the day and then stayed in a small town named Tifton, Georgia.  It was so fun!  Here are how the kids end up when the sleep together...children sandwich!

 This is Calvin excited as we are nearing Disney...it took us about four hours to get there from Tifton Tuesday morning and he was definitely ready to get there!

Here's Emma's "we just got to Disney!" face.  How cute is this girl?

We all had so much fun!  Nick is officially back into his work routine and today we are starting school again.

As hard as it is to get back into our routine, one thing if for sure...we are glad to be out of the car!

About Me

Welcome to my page! 

My name is Lindsay.  I love the verse from Titus, instructing women to be busy at home.  But I'm not busy... I am "Super Busy at home"! with housekeeping, organizing, crafting, homeschooling, being a helpmate, and loving this life that God has blessed me with.

I am married to my college sweetheart, Nick.  We have been married 9 years are vested in to making sure we fall in love again and again.

I am a midwest girl, born and raised.  Lived her all my life.  I have one grandmother from South Carolina and one from North Carolina, so I was brought up on Southern experiences and foods...I like to think I'm secretly a southern belle deep down. ;)

We have two of the most amazing children, Emma and Calvin.  Calvin has Autism which you'll sometimes here me rant and rave about.  Emma is 6 and Calvin is 4...they keep me busy as I figure out all of this Mommy business!

I am an all over the place type of gal.  Finances, saving money, crafting, photography, reading, cooking, baking...I like to try it all.  And you get to read me attempting to figure all of this out :)

Grab yourself a mug, take a coffee break and relax with me for a bit.  If nothing else, it'll be interesting as I chronicle this real-time life of mine!

Still Gone...

We are still on vacation...

I'll be back Monday :)

Morning Routine

With the dawn of the new school year has also come some new implementations to "try" to make our days go a little smoother.

One of the parts of our days that needed some tweaking was our morning routine.  We do the same exact thing every.single.day.  And yet I was having to repeat myself every morning.  Brush your teeth! Get dressed!  Make your bed!  

Gotta tell you, it was getting really old, really quick.  So we started using these for their morning routines.  Calvin's has these little pictures since he can't read yet.  And yes, I know, I can't draw anything to save my life.

No pinterest postings here :)

Calvin insists on following this step by step.  Emma has one in her room too and she switches her things up, making sure at the end that she has done everything.

It has saved so much time and has helped us all so much!  One of the things that I know the children didn't like was teethbrushing.  Emma always had to fight with Cal when they brushed their teeth at the same time...he was always picking on her or hiding the toothpaste, or just in general being a brother :)  Now he brushes his teeth the same time every morning so she doesn't have to do it at the same time as him.  That has cut down on the fighting immensely!  Happiness all around :)

I bought these slot kajiggers from the dollar bins at Target.  They've had them the last 3 years around school time so if you want to do this sometime make sure you keep your eye open next July.

Does anyone else have a morning routine posted for their kids?  Does it help your family too?

Lucy Liu

While we are in Disney my parent's are going to watch Lucy.  We will miss her so much!  I can't believe how in love with this dog I have become!  She has such a love for our family and especially for our children.  She is always watching over them and making sure they are where they are supposed to be.  If she doesn't she whines like none other which is so cute!  It's almost like she's tattling!

Anyway, Lucy doesn't eat when we are gone which is horrible on me!  I just feel so bad for her!  Even when she is home, if we are gone she will wait for us to come home before she eats her food.

We are so lucky to have our little Lucy!

In case you are wondering...

Why yes we are Bears Fans!

Bear down Chicago Bears!

Product Recommendation: Tag Reader

  Cal received a Tag Reader for his birthday.  Nick's amazing cousin Jodee and her family gave it to him.  I was blown away by their thoughtful gift.  I had never thought to get Cal one and it has proven to be just perfect for him.  Cal's tag reader is pictures above.  They come in different colors and I think different themes.  You can check them out here.

 Here are the books we have so far.  Even though it is Cal's, Emma loves to play with it too.  It is so amazing!  Why is it amazing you ask?  Well there are different levels you can set the tag reader at.  It can read the entire page to kids, word by word, or sound out when help is needed.  You can also touch it on a page and get random information on things.  For example Cal has a Cars book and they are racing in China. You can touch on the page and learn all about facts regarding China.  You can touch on the moon and learn about lunar cycles.  It is pretty neat!

 Cal loves to do that Tag reader during quiet time.  Sometimes if he is having a really hard time falling asleep at night we'll let him break it out then too.  Some of the features I like about the actual wand thing-y are that, one you can see it is thicker and therefore good for little hands.  It also has a place where you can plug in earphones.  We do that sometimes at night or it is good for car rides.  It also has a volume control too.  When the kids were little we had some toys that were so stinkin' blaringly loud and there was no way to turn them down...don't you just hate that?  This is not that way my friends.

There are all kinds of books for the tag system: i spy books, puzzle books, beginning reader books, foreign language books, learning books.  In addition to books there are maps, flashcards, and games you can use your tag reader on.  We are planning on getting Cal the world map for Christmas to learn the names of country's and fun facts.

If all of this doesn't sound amazing enough, there is more!  One of the things I am obsessed with is the online function of the tag reader.  You can plug it into your computer and it will tell you everything about your child's progress.  Anything and everything you want to know.  How long it takes them to get through a page, which math troubles are stumping them, what they are really excelling at, how long they use it at a time.  Tons and tons.  It helps me know Cal a little better.

The only thing I don't like about the tag is the battery situation.  We have two types of batteries on our house.  The first kind are the cheapys you buy at the dollar store.  When  you put those in the tag and turn it on the first time it almost immediately tells me it is time to change the batteries.  They must not have a lot of juice in them.  The second kind we have are rechargeable and I HIGHLY recommend these for your reader.  Otherwise, you'll go through a ton of batteries.  Ugh.

So there's my recommendation.  If you are looking for a Christmas gift for a little one, I would highly recommend it.  They even have a tag jr.  which is for smaller people.  We got one for our niece...shhhhh.  Hope you enjoy your Tag Reader.  If you have one, let me know how you like it!

*by the way, I was not paid, coerced or threatened into giving a recommendation :)  Just thought you'd want to know*

Art Festival

This weekend there was nothing to do on our agenda!

Heavenly! 

However, I always seem to make the situation entirely too stressful as I don't want to waste our precious time, but also want to find something totally cool to do. 

So this morning we went and did a tad bit of garage saleing...we found nothing!

And then we went to our city's art festival.  We had so much fun!  We first sought out our neighbor's who have amazing art work and who love our kids...score!

We then made our way to an art area where the kids could participate in a project.  We are pretty siked about it. The city took a picture of an area of the city, graphed it out into a bunch of squares and then you get a 12x12 tile to paint your square on.  They are going to put them all together and make it a permenant art work in the city.  The kids are super excited that their work will always be there to see.  :) 

We had oodles of fun.  There were culinary artists and ice sculptures and music and painters and singers and...

What we really liked though were the potters.  We kind of stumbled upon some potters on our way to find a bathroom.  Emma and I watched them for a while while Nick and Cal were in the bathroom.  Then we switched bathroom teams and it was Emma and my turn.  While we were in there apparently Cal watched for a few moments and then blurted out to the potter "I want to do that!" Nick said she loved his enthusiasm and was more than happy to give him a go.

 Cal getting his apron on...isn't it just adorable how big it is?

 Waiting at the wheel...

 And we're off!

 This is his very small, I am really, really enjoying this smirk. 

 Here's the ariel view of his creation

  And here is his in the front. 

The potter lady let us take it home and it is in our secretary now, drying, drying, drying. 

Unless you have a kiln I could use?  No? 

I was AMAZED by this act.  Cal used to never talk to people!  And here he was telling someone he didn't know what he wanted to do.  UHHH mazing!   Also, Cal is in therapy for sensory issues. He has a very rough touch and has a hard time managing his hands. 

Nick and I were stunned that he could do this!  The lady would tell him to put all of his fingers together and press gently and he would do it! 

We are looking for pottery classes for kids as young as he is but so far haven't found anything.  But we're dragging clay out more and more around the house and he loves doing this. 

So those were our experiences at the art festival...it was such a fun day!

**sorry about the horrid quality of these pictures.  Everything is very white washed.  These are cell phone pictures as we forgot the camera.  I very much dislike our phone pics**