Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Mommy-Anna Claire Time

Anna Claire always refers to time without Madeline as Mommy-Anna Claire time. 

When I think of all the intangible gifts I can give her, what she wants most is time and attention! Heck, I need it too! 

With Madeline teething for weeks on end and catching virus and virus, she has monopolized most of my time and Anna Claire has been extremely tolerant and understanding and SO deserved a little one-on-one time! 

Madeline is transitioning to the Chick's class right now so it is wise for us to take her in a little while each day so she can acclimate before I go back to school. 

This gave me the perfect chance to hang out with AC. 

Monday, we exchanged and returned some gifts and spent some of her Christmas money. She was so excited to finally get her Taylor swift cd. She also loved lunch at zaxby's. 

Tuesday she loved lunch with mommy at Cheddars and going to see annie the movie. We watched the original this weekend so it was very perfect and timely! 

I could think of a million things I should have or could have done instead but none that I would've enjoyed more. Which is probably why I won't see a lot of  progress professionally until my kids are older! They come first. 

New Years fun

As Anna Claire gets older she so desperately wants to be included in the New Years excitement.

With two little ones under five though, Larry and I have become homebodies. That doesn't mean we can't have fun! I have plenty in store for Miss AC tomorrow!

For one thing: We're gonna count down till noon instead of making her stay up till midnight and be grumpy the next day. She will love counting down till 12:00. I've blown up balloons for her to pop each hour to make it even more fun. I've printed off a time capsule form for her to fill out all about her favorite things from 2014 and a form for her to write her resolutions. We're also gonna play a Frozen scavenger hunt and make her mocktinis and blast silly string at each other. Good times.

Most of the ideas posted here came from http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2014/12/new-years-eve-party-ideas-with-kids.html.

New Years fun

As Anna Claire gets older she so desperately wants to be included in the New Years excitement.

With two little ones under five though, Larry and I have become homebodies. That doesn't mean we can't have fun! I have plenty in store for miss AC tomorrow!

For one thing: We're gonna count down till noon instead of making her stay up till midnight and be grumpy the next day. She will love counting down till 12:00. I've blown up balloons for her to pop each hour to make it even more fun. I've printed off a time capsule form for her to fill out all about her favorite things from 2014 and a form for her to write her resolutions. We're also gonna play a Frozen scavenger hunthttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7u0z9INCiFCbGNlRDh2Y0FYTFU/preview?pli=1  and make her mocktinis and blast silly string at each other. Good times.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Kindergarten Christmas Party

It's hard to find the silver lining when you have a sick baby, but for me, this year, it meant being able to go to Anna Claire's Christmas party.

Madeline had a stomach virus which kept us both home, but then she oh so luckily started feeling much better that afternoon so Larry kept her while I went to the party.

The look on Anna Claire's face when I walked in was so worth going. I underestimated how much it meant to her and it melted my heart to see that a simple gesture from me could make her that happy.

Here are some pics from the fun.









Monday, December 15, 2014

Famous Cooker, Like her Daddy

Anna Claire often tells me that one day she wants to be "a famous cooker" like her Daddy. We realized some time ago that AC thinks "famous" means really good. I guess we just never corrected her thinking that was pretty cute.

Anyway, she recently started backing up her dream with action. She's been asking Larry to help with dinner and he's been letting her... Much braver than me!

This week she has washed, peeled and de-rooted potatoes. And she has topped and tailed green beans. She has been so proud to have helped. She told me she made the meal and that Daddy just watched. Lol

Sunday, December 7, 2014

The Santa Experience

Must be nice to have enough money for fancy Santa pictures. I would mumble this under my breath the past couple of years when admiring the beautiful Santa photo sessions of others, while mine were the classic ones you get taken with the mall santa.

Absolutely nothing has changed from last year to this year, but this year I indulged and took the girls for a fancy session. I may never do it again, but Anna Claire is peaking in her belief and excitement about Santa and I wanted that captured and preserved for all time.

They were crazy expensive and I left with a knot in my gut after writing the check, but they turned out beautiful and literally brought tears to my eyes when I saw them.

Santa was perfect. This is the face I picture when I think "Santa." I can't imagine a better one.

The girls, (sure I'm biased) were photogenic and had the most amazing expressions and hand postures. Madeline did not smile, but she was also not digging Santa. She cried most of the photo shoot, so it is miraculous that Daphne caught any sans tears.












Friday, November 21, 2014

Thanksgiving Feast.





I was so glad I was able to make it to Anna Claire's Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast. Everything about it was so precious. The children were dressed like indians, pilgrims, or turkeys. They made their own necklaces and placements. They were all so excited to eat their yummy desserts of pumpkin pie, apple pie, and chocolate brownies.

I enjoyed seeing former Red Barn parents and their kiddos as well as other friends I hadn't seen in some time. I had planned on taking pictures of everyone and even brought my big camera, only to find it needed some major cleaning after getting some sand blown in it at the beach.

Mommy and AC selfie!
Anna Claire's sweet placemat.
All of the kids were excited to discover they could scratch their names on their solo cups. Ah, it's the little things.
Anna Claire and her best friend Cassidy.
Anna Claire and her sweet Red Barn friend Avery.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Little Chef

Anna Claire's favorite book right now is a cookbook that belonged to Larry's grandma, Mimmie. I keep finding it in random places and putting it back in her bookshelf only to find the next day she's gotten it out again! :

Last night she told me she was going to learn to be a famous cooker like Daddy.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Pout-Pout Fish

Thankful for Anna Claire's innocent sense of humor. She was looking at a scholastic book catalog and read "pout-pout fish" as "poot poot fish" and cracked up laughing. I still cannot convince her it says "pout."


Also, at kmart yesterday I said, "Let's go look at the underwear." She whispered, red-faced, "Mommy! Don't say 'underwear.' Somebody might hear you!" 🙊

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Sunday, September 7, 2014

First kindergarten assignments

40 Acts of Kindness for the Big 4-0



I'm posting this to ACs blog because she has been such an active participant in helping me accomplish this. Warms my heart.

I decided what I wanted for my fortieth birthday was not to feel sorry for myself: "I'm old." Nope. I want to get better with age and believe the best years are ahead of me. 

I also know I could afford to be kinder to others and I want more than anything to be a good role model for my kids. This doesn't happen for me without conscious effort and intentionality and I'm aware of this about myself.

So what I want more than anything for my birthday is just to be a better person! I am hoping in the process of doing 40 random acts of kindness to represent each of my 40 years of life will help me become more intentional about just being kind and thinking of others on a daily basis. I'm only on kind act # 6 as I type the intro to this post and I can already see how this could be habit forming! It feels so great to see how small kind acts have a huge power to bring happiness to someone else's life, to make their day!

Here are my 40 kind acts:

1. Pay for the person behind me at Starbucks. I wish I'd been quick enough to snap a pic of him waving and smiling when they told him. He had the biggest grin!


2. Gave a blessing bag to this sweet guy. He was so grateful!


3. I offered to do dishes. (Normally Larry does them while I get the girls ready for bed.)


4. Don't underestimate the power of a small act of kindness! AC has been begging me to trade her my pink spray bottle for her green one for months. I finally thought to do it today as a small kind act. You would've thought I gave her a new bike, she was so happy. It's the little things...


5. Passed these on to our favorite "A" named munchkin. 


6.  Took balloons for a sick little boy at the hospital.


7.  Left a dollar and a note on the snack machine at the hospital. 



8. Put this note in Anna Claire's lunchbox.



9. Took the time to talk to the attendant at Sango Market this morning. Normally I'm in much too big of a rush for dialogue.


10. Bought coffee for my 6th grade math teacher friends. So fun.


11. Fed the meter for this car beside me whose time had expired.


12. Remembered to give my Lambs and Ivy guest passes to friends this time. Normally I forget!


13. Left a pack of wipes at diaper changing station.



14. Caught and rewarded a student doing a random act. A little boy who often bothers kids around him and is rarely prepared for class needed a pencil. The boy beside him gave him one without him asking. I went and got a snickers out of my desk drawer and put it  on his desk. People often apologize to me when I tell them I teach middle school, but my 6th graders are so sweet.

15.  Left a positive comment card at the Y after reading many posted on the wall that were complaints or suggestions. 


16. Picked up trash. I did this all week, but just now thinking to take a pic of it.


17. I did not tailgate this morning.


18. Let someone go in front of me turning into Rossview complex.


19. I put these up all over town.


20. Gave candy to a student who showed extreme self-control during an alarm that would not stop going off in class today.

21. Helped a co-worker silence his phone at lunch today. He had given up and buried the phone under pillows.

22. Bought Sonic cherry limeade for my hair stylist. I didn't realize she was on a no sugar diet though. The receptionist at Lyndon's ended up being the happy recipient.

23. Bought coffee for Madeline's teacher who had been so sweet to change her hours to accommodate us needing to drop her off by 6:30. 

24. Brought my Baskin Robbins pralines and cream birthday cake into work to share with my teacher friends. Yum!


25-27. I was merciful to students at school this week (more so than usual). Websters dictionary defines merciful as showing extreme kindness even if not deserves and despite fairness. I believe all teachers  are constantly in a position to show mercy. But with some kids it can be very difficult. I made the extra conscious effort this week to be merciful to three students who push my buttons on a daily basis. This was eye opening. I sought to look for the good in them and found it. It's affected my perception of them, possibly permanently. Wow. I'm counting this as three acts for each of the three kids.

28. Took the time to slow down and talk to others. If you work with me, you've probably ran into me or seen me speed walking around the building trying to get things done and so I can home and love on my babies. This week I was intentional about slowing down and taking the time to stop and talk to others as I go about my daily work. I was surprised to find out that I still got all my work done, I was more focused and spent less time spinning my wheels, and was able to leave at the same time each day I normally do. And I felt calmer because I wasn't hurrying! Wake up call! Slow down.

29. Served breakfast with Manna Cafe. I wasn't prepared for how affected I'd be. I was amazed at how the whole operation ran like a machine. And these folks do this every week. Most of all, I was moved by seeing the kids go through the line. They had a sadness in their eyes that I didn't expect. I had to fight the tears back in my own eyes. It was chilly, but I didn't care. My heart was warmed. And I loved doing it with Anna Claire. I loved that the grown ups all around her were complaining about the cold but she didn't once. She is a sweetie and a trooper!


30. Donated clothes to Goodwill.

31. Bought Shipley's do-nuts for my pop-in-law and hubby.

32. Left this mum on my mom-in-law's doorstep, anonymously. She'll have to read this blog post to find out it was me.


33. Left coupons at the places you can actually use them. That was one of the most fun RAOK, surprisingly.


34. A few weeks ago we were in Old Navy at Opry Mills and I gave a fussy baby Madeline a headband off the rack to entertain her for a few minutes. Well, I found that headband, unpaid for, in her stroller a few days ago. I returned it today. Does that count as a RAOK? It was the right thing to do, for sure.

35. Let AC look at the Halloween aisle at Kroger even though it was the last place I wanted to be in the store.


36. Bought Pop the Reese's pumpkins that had been eluding him. He loved them as predicted.


37. Left dollars on toys for kids to find on the toy aisle at Dollar Tree. Wish we could be a fly on the wall to see their faces!


38. The toy aisle was trashed so we put everything back in its place. 


39-40. Tuesday marks a year since my mom passed away. We took a sunshine bag to my Mom's old roommate at Signature and visited with several of her friends who I knew would want to see Anna Claire and the baby. One lady who just turned 103 and begged, "please bring that baby over hear right now so I can see it!" If I'd have known how happy it was going to make them I would have done it a lot sooner! They were beyond thrilled to see the girls!


What I gained from this is hard to put into words. I am definitely changed by it! Each act required a sacrifice of time or money, but it wasn't hard to part with either. In fact, it felt great. Best week of this crazy emotional roller coaster of a year! I'd recommend it to anyone.