Pickle Jar Jack-o-Lanterns

Halloween! I love it almost as much as my 3 year old does.
Amazing that someone who has experienced 3 Halloweens knows the significance of a pumpkin with a face.  I guess when about 25% of your life focuses around candy, Halloween is a big deal.  (I would say the remainder of his life focuses around his bike, Popsicles, and apple juice, in even percentages.)

Anyway, the other day I was cleaning out the fridge and emptied 3 jars of pickles with one pickle in each jar (I like pickles, ok?). While I was dumping the juice down the drain, I thought that it would be a waste throw the jars away, and I searched online for something to make with them. Most of the results were for flower vases, but they made me think of painting the jars, and since Halloween is around the corner, Jack-o-Lanterns were the natural stopping point for my brain.

First, to remove the labels, I tried to run the jars through the dishwasher. This removed the paper label on one jar, but the other two had plasticky labels that I had to scrub off with a dish scrubby.

 



I bought two colors of Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Acrylic Pearl craft paint: School Bus and Tiger Lily. I mixed the two of them to make a third "in-between" color, and dabbed the paint on the jars with a sponge brush.

I let this dry for about 3 hours and then used black fabric paint to make faces on the Jack-o-Lanterns.
I used planter's wire to create handles (it is very easy to bend) and tied a Halloween ribbon around it to cover the lip of the jar, which I did not paint.

In goes some tea lights, and below is the result:

 

Happy Halloween!!

Fall!

I love September for many reasons... my birthday, warm days, cool nights, backyard fires, jeans, sweatshirts, leaves, my cowboy boots, apples and pie, and the list goes on and on.
For some reason the fall gets me into the crafting mood. Lately, my mind has been full of ideas for old pickle jars, hemp, vintage picture frames, fishing poles, beads, and the list goes on.
The other thing I want to do is make apple pie. Which leads to finding an apple orchard to pick apples, which leads to finding a pumpkin patch, which leads to Halloween, and so on.  All great things! Best time of the year!

On my drive home from work the other day (where much of my thinking time occurs), I remembered that I also have a blog! So when I went to it this morning, I was surprised that I had actually posted 5 times. It is funny to read through the posts from 6 months ago.

Since then, we have moved halfway across the country from Virginia to Kentucky, changed jobs, sold one house and bought another, and all of the little details that go along with such a move.  Jace started preschool this month, and Logan is now walking all over and sleeping through the night for the most part.

 Now we are settled and I am going to resurrect my blog and hopefully my creative skills!

in my kids' heads

A while ago I read a blog about the thought process of someone's kid.
I can't remember where I read it, but the thought occurred to me yesterday, "I wonder what he's thinking?"
A lot of our day over here revolves around Hotwheels cars. This is how I imagine my kids' thought process goes.

Jace: Where's my cars? Can you line up my cars? Can we race my cars? These are my sweet cars.
Logan: Must. Get. Car.
Jace: Logan's getting my cars, Logan's getting my cars, LOGAN'S GETTING MY CARS!!! MAMA!!
Logan: Must. Bite. Car. ~I intervene to take away the car, since I have a fear of the wheels coming off the cars and choking him.~
Logan: Mama! Must. Stand. Up. Mama! Stand me up! Mama! I will try to crawl! Mama! I am stuck on my belly and I STILL can't crawl!
Jace: Logan is stuck. I better carry him. I will grab Logan around the neck and try to stand him up.
Logan: MAMA! SAVE ME!
Jace: Mama needs to race cars with me. I'm thirsty. Where's my apple juice? No, lemonade. I need lemonade very bad. MAMA!
~beverage distributed~
Jace: I need to go pee-pee potty! The light is off. I can't reach. I need to go pee-pee potty. I can't see. It's dark. I not scared. There's nothin scary. ~gives his best aim at the potty.~
Logan: Where'd Jace go? Mama get me! Must stand! Must take steps! Hold my hands! ~I hold his hands~ YAY! WALKING! WALKING! Oooo, Jace's juice. I need cup. WALKING TO CUP! YAY!
Jace: LOGAN HAS MY CUP! MAMA!
Logan: MAMA! Need cup! Must crawl to it! Still can't crawl! MAMA! I'm stuck again! ~I sit him up~ I try again! Stuck again! (repeat a million times... soon he will be crawling, but until then... I will keep re-positioning him every 20 seconds when he is stuck in some odd position)
Logan: Hungry. I am HUNGRY. I NEED TO EAT NOW!!! IT HAS BEEN 2 HOURS! I AM STARVING!!!!! MAMA!!!!!!
Jace: What's Logan doing? Eating? That means I have to go poo-poo potty now....
Logan: Thank God I'm eating. I thought I was going to die of starvation.
Jace: I'm done! Mama! Wipe my butt! I will get "paper towel" (tp). I will get LOTSA paper towel. Mama! Wipe my butt! MORE paper towel! I will stand up now and scoot off the potty. Mama! I'm done!
Logan: What's Jace doing now? I'm hungry. No, I need Jace. No, I am hungry. But what is Jace doing? What about the dogs? What are they doing? Oh wait, I am hungry. DON'T PUT ME DOWN! I AM HUNGRY!!!
~I take care of Jace and try to roll the TP back onto the roll~
Jace: Where are my cars? There they are. I will sit right by Logan and dump them all out. LOGAN! DON'T TOUCH MY CARS! LOGAN! MAMA!

Love them!

Terrible twos!!!

I am sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, browsing the internet, and ignoring the mass chaos of Jace running around like a tornado.  Sweet Logan is sitting in his high chair playing with a little ball that has chimes in it.
I get about 30 seconds of peace and I look over at Logan to see that the ball is gone.  I turn my head to look toward the living room and my peripheral vision sees (in perfect slow motion) Jace wind up and complete a Major League Baseball pitch with the ball right into the window. 
The ball bounces off, and he runs to Logan, grabs onto the poor baby's foot, and pushes it into the high chair as hard as he can.  I yell, and off Jace goes to go sit in the corner.
About 2 minutes later he informs me that he has to go poo-poo potty.  Okay, I say, tell me when you're done. 
As he is doing his business, I hear him from the bathroom, "Where is my cereal?" 
After he is done, he runs around for a couple minutes and then turns into the sweetest baby he USED to be and says, "Mama, I want you!" and climbs in my lap.  Whew! The first tornado of the day has passed.  I better gear up for round 2.

A friend of mine just posted on facebook about attending an online parenting seminar to get some tips on how to handle her 2 year old boy.
I was interested, but honestly, I am scared to even know what I am doing wrong with mine!  I would probably have to lock myself up!

What's my New Year's Resolution? EMBRACE the TERRIBLE TWOS?!?!?

The Night-time Circus

So I have dubbed the nights at my house "The Circus".  It is a 2-ring act with alternating performances. See the showtimes below:

8pm: Start discussing bedtime with Jace.
 "Time to start calming down."
"NO! I don't wanna go ni-ni!" *a flurry of activity follows to prove that he isn't tired, including jumping, stomping, car racing, and the hokey-pokey. Logan eggs him on.*
"I'm not sleepy!"
"Let's get your jammies on."
"NO! I don't want jammies!"
“Do you want the car shirt or the train shirt?”
"I want a cookie"
"I want apple juice"
“You can have water.”
"I don't want water!"
(Jace’s words are in bold to emphasize the fact that he cannot speak softly. Ever.)

9pm: Logan is bawling.  Feed Logan. Put him to bed.  Tiptoe out of the bedroom and shut the door.  Ahh, one down, one to go.

9:15pm: Jace's laps up and down the hallway wake up Logan. (Think of the noise an adult hippopotamus would make if it ran inside your house.)   Look for Logan's paci. Move Logan's crib 4 feet to find the paci. Turn on Logan's music.  Hopefully Logan will go back to sleep.  Ahh, one down again.  Still one to go.

9:30pm: “Let’s brush your teeth.”
“I don’t wanna brush my teeth.”
"If you don't brush your teeth I will take away your cars."
"I want my cars!"
"Ok, brush your teeth."
"My do it."
How clean are the teeth?  I dunno.  We’ll see what the dentist says whenever I finally have time to take Jace to the dentist.

9:35pm: "Mama, it's dark out?"
"Yes, it's dark out." 
"I want it sunny out!"
"Well, if you sleep, it will get sunny." 
"You lay down with me?"
"Okay."

10:00pm: Mama and Jace asleep in Jace's twin bed.

1:00am: Mama wakes up and goes to Mama and Daddy's bed with a sore back from the twin bed.

1:05am: Apparently Logan has super hearing, and even though I QUIETLY tiptoed out of the kids’ room, Logan wakes up.  Logan comes in Mama & Daddy's bed.

3:00am: Mama wakes up.  Jace is sleeping in Mama & Daddy's bed with his leg draped over Logan.  No idea how he got there.  Put Logan back in his crib.  Leave Jace in our bed.

4:30am: Logan wakes up screaming his head off.  Try to find the paci.  It's behind his crib again. Move the crib, give him the paci, turn the music on, walk back to M & D's bed.  Still screaming. Get back out of bed. Logan comes back to M & D's bed. Logan eats.

5:00am: Put Logan back in his bed.

6:00am: Alarm goes off. Press snooze until 6:35am.

6:45am: Sneak out of the house so as not to wake up any children.

7:00am: Work starts.


And Jace didn't even wet the bed in that scenario.
I don't need sleep anymore.  I don't even feel tired today! (But don't try to cross me before I have had some coffee.)

People say that the baby years go by so fast.  This is because you don't sleep for the first 2 years of a child's life.  Basically, it is one long day that lasts a couple years with a few naps thrown in.  "All the live-long day" takes on a new meaning.

Embrace it!

**PS: thanks to my cousin for finding the humor in her night-time circus.  You helped me find the humor in mine.**

babies

"Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience, you are raising a human being."
-Kittie Frantz

"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."
-Proverb

As previously mentioned, I have two kids. Jace is 2-1/2 and Logan is almost 6 months.  If you would have asked me when I graduated college what my life would be like in 4 years, I never would have dreamed that I would have two children.  I didn't even like kids! I never babysat, didn't have any siblings or cousins that were babies when I was old enough to remember it, and if I came across a small child that I was supposed to talk to, it was a totally awkward moment for me and probably for anyone watching.

Then along came Jace.  Clearly I decided that kids weren't too bad, because now Logan is here.

A few minutes ago I was laying on the couch with Logan sitting on my lap.  He was sort of babbling and yelling at me and you could tell he was bored. He made a big screech and suddenly I screeched back at him- and his eyes lit up! He did it again with a different tone, and I copied.  We played like this for a few more reps. You could just see the wheels turning in his head: she can speak my language!!  What an awesome thing for a parent to watch!  My baby just turned into a person! (It sounds bad that way, but come on, how much personality does a newborn have?)

Part of my New Year's resolution to "embrace the day" is to pay more attention to my kids.  I don't mean that I don't feed them, clothe them, bathe them, etc.  What I mean is that at the end of a day of work, it is easy to zone out into the TV or phone or computer with your kid on your lap.  This year, I will make an earnest effort to read stories, race cars, play patty cake, and sing "Rock-a-bye-bye" as Jace calls it.  These baby years go by fast- I better embrace them while I can!!!
(Quotes were taken from the January 2012 issue of American Baby)

Dreams of the day...

I am blessed with a wonderful husband, two cute-as-can-be kids, two (mildly annoying) dogs, two fish (they have an automatic feeder), a fixer-upper house, and a full-time job.  At this time, my blessings do not include a maid, a nanny, a dog sitter, or a cook.  Or even a robot-vacuum.

Some nights, I collapse in bed less than eight (or seven, or six) hours before I have to get up for work and lull myself to sleep with dreams. Dreams of the day when I won't run around like a headless chicken every night after work.  Dreams of the day when the kids can get their own pajamas on.  Dreams of the day when I can afford a maid to do the laundry, and a cook to make dinner.

Suddenly it hit me: this IS life.  This IS the day.  Why not embrace it? 

Beginning in 2012, I will embrace the day.  And I will document it's craziness on this blog.  My hope is, if nothing else, I will make someone else laugh and learn to embrace their day.