Mommy Confession Monday

There are so many things I probably need to confess. I think I'll just make a list instead of elaborating on each one. That might be easier!




1. I forgot to make dinner tonight. This might sound crazy but Sundays are always different since we have such a big lunch with the family after church. At 8:30 I realized we hadn't had dinner so I fed the family Apple Jacks.
2. I spent way too much time preparing and not playing. Is it really worth the prep time if I'm not actually spending time with them while their awake?
3. I've been extremely short with every member of my family this week, especially the last few days. I need to have an attitude check.
4. I bought a pint of Starbucks Carmel Macchiato ice cream at the store tonight even though 1/4 of the container has more then 40% of the fat I should have in one day. I couldn't resist!

Tot School- 23 Months, Week 2

This week didn't include a lot of 'actual' tot time. I spent a lot of the week organizing and trying to get my life back together a little bit. I did manage to sneak in a few exercises here and there.

Playing with a toy while I tended to Corbin.

This is a rare sighting: smiling for a picture!

She helped me make dinner. (If you can say putting frozen items on a stone is making dinner.)
Playing with a Melissa & Doug see and spell.

I love the way she lays on her belly to work. It's so cute!

I've never gotten this out for her because I thought it was too old for her but she wanted to play with it. It was a bit challenging for her but she enjoyed trying to match the shapes.

The week wouldn't be complete without transferring beans.

She did manage to actually use the spoon some this time.

But we always manage to end up with the same result..

Pouring the beans from one bowl to the other.

Corbin was being so good in the swing while we worked.

She practiced slicing bread with the sandwich making set.

Then she slice an apple.

We also did some rock climbing at a birthday party.

She came inside to find me and bring me outside to show off her new skill.

Check out this link for more great Tot School Ideas!

New Classroom - Before & After

I spent a lot of time this week organizing Michaela's school room. My wonderful sister came over to help me tackle this project. It's something I've wanted to do for awhile since my supplies outgrew my original idea for storing materials.

This room used to be my closet. Before I had children I worked as an assitant manager at a clothing store. I had tons of clothes but unfortunately I have outgrown almost all of them either by size or age. It's hard to believe this room was a closet at one point. I had way too much stuff!

Little did I know when I had my Papaw build the shelves in this room that it would one day be an awesome place for my children to learn! (Thanks Papaw!)

Overall Before

Overall After

Wall #1 Before

Wall #1 After

Wall #2 Before

Wall #2 After

Wall #2 Shelves: Tot Trays/Montessori Work

Wall #3 Before

Wall #3 After
Wall #3 Shelves: Bible, Art, Music and Misc. Educational Toys
Wall #4 Before
Wall #4 After: Finally a nice place to "plan" the week.

We did our trays in the kitchen for a long time. Please understand that it is not necessary to have a space like this to play purposefully with your tot. All it takes is a parent who wants to spend time with their little one and help them discover their world. I just like to see how other Momma's organize their supplies and thought that I would share.

Adding a signature to your blog

I'm stuck sitting at the computer printing many, many pages for a montessori album. I decided to try to learn how to create one of those cute little signatures that I see on other people's blogs. I am amazed to see that I could accomplish this! However, I am not smart enough to explain it to you. Here's the link to the how-to that I found thanks to Peter.

Tool for Learning Colors

I was reading about Rocker Mom's connect four cards and it reminded me to post about the color cards I made. We are on a tight budget and cannot really afford to buy colored ink for the printer. Hence the homemade matching squares. This is a super easy idea and you could use any colored items to match your papers.

I chose to use these small wooden blocks for matching.
I made some cards with a single color to focus on the individual colors

And cards with a pattern for more of a challenge.

Final Product:

Click on the button below for more great Tot Tools!

Has it really been THAT long?!?!?

I just have to admit that I am the world's worst blogger. I just seem to fall of the invisible internet world and then randomly appear again. This time I have a good reason. Well, I guess first trimester pregnancy is an okay excuse but this one is better.

(This turned out to be a looonnggg post but the end is worth it. God is amazing!)

First of all, we had our second child. Corbin Isaiah was born on April 8, 2009. The birth itself was awesome! Thank God it went exactly like I had envisioned, with the exception of induction. I had developed high blood pressure and it was becoming dangerous for the baby and myself. The contractions started at 4 pm. At 8 pm I was 3 cm and then at 9:00 I was 10 cm. Corbin was born at 9:34. I was even able to have him without an ephideral because my husband was a wonderful lamaze coach! Thanks honey!

Everything seemed to be going great. They seemed to be able to get my blood pressure back down and everyone seemed pretty healthy. The night before I was to be discharged from the hospital they told me that Corbin was not going to be released because he had lost more than ten percent of his birth weight. Since Corbin was going to be kept one more day, the doctor said he would let me stay another night. God knew exactly why Corbin lost the weight: I needed to be in the hospital the next day.

That morning my blood pressure started to rise. The doctors started medication that morning but it still wasn't working. They decided to go ahead and give me a shot. About 30 minutes after the shot, I started feeling pretty bad. My heart started to beat exceptionally fast and I was becoming short of breath. I paged my nurse and waited for a few minutes. I pressed the button again but by the time she got in the room I was barely breathing and my heart rate was 190.

After many tests and 24 hours in the ICU, the doctors still do not know why this happened to me. I do know that God made sure that I was still in the hospital when this happened. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I would have been at home! I am so thankful that Little Man lost enough weight to justify being in the hospital another night.

We spent a week in the hospital and then it just took me a while to get adjusted to "normal". I didn't mean to let blogging, or Michaela's school for that matter, go for so long but it just happened. I was about to start again but...

We decided to go to the zoo one day. The day seemed like any other day until we decided to get on the train. Chris was sitting in the cart in front of me and I was holding Corbin on my lap and I had Michaela sitting next to me with my arm around her. As we went around a curve the train derailed.

I don't want to go into too many details, but everone in the family except me was hospitalized that day. Michaela had some bleeding on her brain and had to have plastic surgery. Corbin had a fractured skull and Chris, who had been pinned under the train, had broken both bones in the lower part of his leg. He also had severe road rash on both legs. (This is not a full list of the injuries but this gives you the gist of what happened.)

I spent the next week living at the 2 hospitals. We have an AMAZING children's hospital right here in our city and it's only 3 blocks from our trauma hospital! The kids were released about a week later and Chris was there about 3 weeks total. We are all home now and everyone is recovering beautifully. God is so good and faithful. It has been amazing to see the great physician work in our lives.

Today I got to think about something though. I started to think about the children's names. Michaela's middle name is Grace. I can tell you right now it is only by the grace of God that she is still here. It is only by the grace of our wonderful healer that the bleeding was stopped on her brain. It is only by the grace of God that I get to see my baby turn two next month.

Corbin's middle name, Isaiah, means "saved by God." We chose that because Corbin means "dark and bruding" and we wanted something to balance it out. (Can you tell that we really like choosing names because of significance and meaning?) Anyway... I was thinking about Corbin's short life. Within the first few days God used him to possibly save my life. He was the only reason I was at the hospital when I had my 'attack'. Then just a few weeks later God used me to help save Corbin's life. As we were falling over, I can remember pulling him close to me and wrapping my body around his while I was grabbing Michaela. God has already saved him and he has been used as an instrument to save someone else. I pray that God will continue to use him to save many more people!

So needless to say, I haven't had much time for blogging lately. But I think I'm back.

Food Guide for Preschoolers

Do you have trouble remembering exactly what your preschooler should be eating every day? This website will give you a personalized food pyramid for your LO based on age, gender and activeness.