Beauty

Until I had a daughter I never really noticed or cared about the pressure placed on women to be thin and young and perfect.  Although, I have certainly felt that pressure weighing down upon myself as I have grown older.  As I began the new year, I, like a billion other people, resolved to get thinner.  At meal-time with Harley, she noticed that I wasn't eating as much as usual and she asked why.  My response was, "Mommy's chubby and needs to lose weight."  I think I even mentioned leather pants in one of our conversations.  JEEZ!  What an example!  I realized the error of my ways when my perfect daughter was getting dressed one morning and told me she wasn't skinny enough for her skinny jeans.  She's 3!  When I think of all my duties as a mother, I think that instilling self-confidence in my children is one of the highest, if not the highest priority.  Confidence is the key to accomplishing so much in this life and lacking confidence will close doors and opportunities that should and could have been ours.  Confidence is beauty. Knowing we are daughter's of God is beauty. Kindness and love is beauty. Therefore, I will not talk about my chubbiness or dieting around my daughter. I will make sure that she knows that we have more to offer the world than our body.  We will focus on being healthy, developing our talents, and trying our best everyday.  I want to share with you this amazing video created by DOVE.  I think it really drives home my point. 

Thank You Cards

I have at least 2 requirements for my future daughters-in-law. First, they must write Thank You Cards and second, they must help in the kitchen.  I am pretty sure if a girl does those two things one can assume that she is caring, considerate, organized, ambitious and AWESOME! Okay, it might not mean all of those things.  We just barely finished our Christmas thank you cards last night. We used the wonderful printable cards below. Everyone finished their cards with minimal grumbling. Now if I could only remember where I put the stamps, maybe I will actually get them mailed.

 

 

Favorite Snow Day Activities

What do you do when the weather is too rotten to go out?  My kids love playing Monopoly. They also have a new game that we based on one of our favorite books, Scrambled States of America.

 But they also love Masking Tape.  Making tape cities is one of their favorite cold day activities. Last week I gave them each a roll of tape and it kept them busy for most of the day. They have been doing this for a few years, (see here) but now they can do it all by themselves which makes it great for everyone.

Letter From a Concerned Consumer

Dear Costco Trail Mix,

You are making me fat!  How can 3 Tablespoons of your scrumptiousness be 160 calories, when I still want more of you after eating 17 handfuls?  Life isn't fair.  If I could play you a song to help you understand how I am feeling I would play  U2's, With or Without You, because I love you and hate you at the same time.

Your Angst Ridden Fan, 
Melisa

Baseboards & Boot Buttons

Over the holidays I attended a Christmas party at the home  mansion of a close acquaintance.  As some of my friends and I sat chatting about how beautiful the home was, someone asked the question, "What about this place do you envy the most?"  One woman said the woodwork in the library, another said the artwork, the pantry, the music room, the list went on and on.  Then it was my turn and I said the baseboards.  "The baseboards. What is so special about the baseboards?"   I said, "Look how clean they are! Not a scratch, not a scuff.  Look at the walls not a finger print or nail hole.  I have never seen such pristine baseboards. I would love to have clean baseboards."  Needless to say everyone thought I was crazy, but I was completely serious.   Life with young children is all about survival.  I cannot remember the last time that I had the time or the energy to pay attention to my baseboards, to de-scuff and scrub.  I am so proud of myself if all of the toys are put away at the end of the day and the toilets are all flushed.  Baseboards! They are a pipe dream for me now, but someday I will have those pristine baseboards and along with those pristine baseboards I will probably only have the memory of a pair of boots that were bedazzled by my little girl.

Harley has spent enough time with me to learn how to be very handy with a glue gun.  Using those skills in a completely loving way, she decided to replace a button on my new  boots with something "more beautiful and pink!"  I guess I could have taken off the pink button and found the UGG button to fix it, but I just didn't have the heart.  While I loved the boots from the first moment I slipped them on my cold feet, they mean  more to me now.  Someday my baseboards will be beautiful, but my boots won't be nearly as fancy. So, for now I am just going to enjoy my pink button and save the baseboards for another day.

More PEAS Please! Dinner with the Animals

Monday night we were observing how we all eat our peas. Scott told a story about his older brother who hated peas, but was required to eat them so he stored them in his cheeks and sat at the table for hours without swallowing.  I personally cannot eat peas unless they are mixed with some other food thus, masking the taste. Harley and Nash opt for the skewer method of PEA eating.  While Atley shovels them into his mouth with greasy fingers.  We discovered that Scott is the only normal pea eater in the family.  I thought it was so cute the way Harley was sliding her peas onto her fork with her chubby little digits. I couldn't resist reaching for the camera. However, at our zoo if one animal is being photographed they all want a picture. This eventually led to a whole bunch of bizarre dinner photos and the removal of several shirts.  What can I say, I'm raising a pack of omnivorous fame-seeking baby wolves.

Adventure Park USA

During break we took the kids to Adventure Park, in Newmarket Maryland. Let me warn you, it is in the middle of nowhere and we were pretty nervous that it was going to be a very sketchy place until we got inside. The kids had a total blast. Harley could have played on the indoor playground for hours-imagine a McDonald's playground multiplied by 50 with a 99% less likelihood of getting a staff infection.  Plus there is a rock climbing wall, bumper cars, and an indoor rope course, not to mention lots and lots of video games and those really fun Chuck E. Cheese tickets you get to exchange for a piece of plastic fun at the end. In the summer there are outdoor rides, go-karts, miniature golf and more. I am not sure how it is in the summer but it was not crowded which for the D.C. area is a rare commodity. (No, I am not a paid spokeswoman-Price $50)

 

Christmas Break

I am doing my very best not to get all down in the dumps now that the kids are back in school and Christmas Break is over.  It is helping that school is cancelled for tomorrow because of EXTREME COLD.  I thought I had better post a few of the things we did during break before they become totally irrelevant.  Although the Christmas crafts are definitely past their prime. 

Atley had his very first piano recital. He played Good King Wenceslas and it was perfect. Not a single mistake.  We were really proud of him for all of his hard work and practice.

Harley and her preschool friends made Christmas ornaments.

We built our Gingerbread houses.  For future reference, IKEA sells the most adorable Gingerbread houses for $3.  They don't include icing but they really are perfect and might I add, quite tasty.

We enjoyed the snow.  Although this is the outfit Nash came up with when I told him to get his snow clothes on.  I'll admit it, I'm a little nervous about his future.

 

We used up our left over 4th of July Fireworks on New Year's Eve and we were all in bed way before 10PM.

The cat was never so happy as she was when this mischievous boy climbed onto the school bus this morning. I think she definitely needed a break.