Sandbox Zen

One of our projects this week was rehabbing the sandbox. We have a cute little table that looks like a picnic table, but opens up to be a sand and water table. I think combining sand and water on purpose is a terrible idea, so we just put sand in ours. Over the course of the summer, the sand table has turned into more of a swamp table. Fairly disgusting. Now, Lyla has loved playing in the swamp, but I figured it might be time to clean out the cess pool lest someone get a fatal disease on my deck.

Drew and I headed to Home Depot to get a 50 lb. bag of play sand and one other item. I purposely went to the check-out line near the sand and asked specifically if someone could load it into my car. The lady took one look at me and said, "Oh honey, of course." Apparently Home Depot employees have been trained to avoid women going into labor in their store at all costs. It took us a while to get to the car since Drew insisted on carrying the bag. And then, some builders who were CLEARLY in no hurry to get to the job site sat in the lane where you have things loaded in your car for an additional 10-15 minutes. Guh. I tell you all of this to point out just how much time Home Depot had to find someone to load my sand. When I finally pulled my car next to the sand, I hopped out, optimistic that someone would be right out to help. After 10 more minutes of waiting (we are now up to nearly half an hour of waiting for a $3.99 bag of sand) I started muttering, grabbed a cart, loaded the sand in and loaded it in my car. I'm sure it was a sight. About that time, a guy came sauntering over-LAUGHING- with a snack in his hand, and said, "Huh, guess I'm 5 minutes too late." Har-dee-har. He was young. Clearly he had never experienced the wrath of a sweaty pregnant lady. I just rolled my eyes right in his face. And thought long and hard about writing a letter to headquarters, but I was too tired from all the manual labor.

We got home and I loaded the sand in the wheelbarrow and filled up the sand table. Yeah, I could've waited for Dan to do it, but I'm not so hot at waiting to check something off the list. It's been great having clean sand. Drew kept saying, "Mommy, it's so soft!" I think he meant, "Mommy, my hands are in no danger of rotting off when I play with this!"

Yesterday we spent a lot of time playing in the sand box. I found myself using the little rake and just raking lines over and over, in sort of a trance. I could feel myself relaxing more by the minute. It made me think of one of these:



I know nothing about a Zen Garden, other that what I've seen on t.v. dramadies, but I'm pretty sure you don't really need one. Seems like a plastic sand table and some clean sand will lead you to that place of zen just fine.

Blog Salad

This post is about to be all kinds of random. One time, at my old job, we had a discussion based around stew versus salad. And no, I didn't work in a restaurant. It was another way to try and describe how people come together-some like a salad, existing together, but not flavoring one another and some like stew-all together making each other delicious...or something. We were working towards stew. No wonder I was so exhausted!

Anyway. This blog contains all sorts of bits floating around in my head that will exist here together, but not really flavor one another. Feel free to leave and go check Facebook!

1. I'm really proud of my new ability to hyperlink. At least I think that's what it's called. So, in honor of my new talent, check out a couple of sites. First, my friend Laura just returned home from Ethiopia with her new son, Sol. And, oh my gosh, he is the cutest thing I've ever laid eyes on. Their story is amazing, and now she is raising two babies and a toddler. All I can say is, Bless Her Heart!!!

Second, I have found a new craft site for preschoolers. It's called The Crafty Crow and it is fantastic. This link takes you to the main site but there is a special section just for preschoolers. Drew and I are in the middle of a project I saw on here. I'll let you know when (if) we finish it!

2. Have you ever eaten at Famous Dave's? It's a BBQ joint and my husband loves it. Back BD (before Drew) we ate there more than any humans ever should. This is kind of a schtick of ours. We get going on a place and sort of wear it out. We have not been to Famous Dave's since...I have no idea. But, we went on Saturday and I'm a little bit in love with them. You want to know why? While you are waiting to be seated, they will give your child a snack!! And you have a choice! Goldfish, Saltines or Oreos. While we waited to be seated, Drew sat quietly and ate his gold fish. Big, giant smack-a-roonies (that's kisses...) for whoever had that idea!!

3. I read the book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett over the weekend. I read about it on another blog and it sounded like most people liked it, so I bought it. And read it in two days. It is great. Beyond great. And hilarious.

4. I've been working like crazy trying to come up with activities for Drew and I to do during the day. I was given the very helpful advice (note the dripping sarcasm) that my son won't play by himself because I won't make him. Ahem. I just love advice like this. Lots of really mature things (like "Bite Me") pop into my head any time someone says something like this to me. What I know is that our day goes a lot more smoothly if we are both kept busy. Thank ye Lord for the internets!! And never underestimate the power of one inflated balloon!

Attic Purge Fashion Show

So...I decided the dead of summer would be the ideal time to purge our attic. Because, I'm not getting to the spa nearly enough for sauna visits, so I just hang out in the attic until I've sweat out all of my impurities. And believe me, these days I have a lot!

I think it's the nesting urge looking for something to nest. At any rate, I have been saying good-bye to all sorts of useless stuff and encouraging my husband to do the same. Both of us kept a completely unreasonable amount of school papers and work papers. I guess when we moved four years ago, all the hard work of it all was so fresh. Now, I could give a care! And, if by some strange chance I end up back in Children's Ministry, you can bet your bottom dollar all of those articles I painstakingly filed will be obsolete. I think I'm going to have to drop off recycling every day.

I did manage one really great find for Drew. Daniel and I had accumulated quite a bit of "skit clothes" over time. Why I insisted on keeping them and bringing them to Nashville is beyond me. Somehow "tacky prom" and a 70s murder mystery party don't really show up on a firm's calendar. Which, maybe they should. A little good mood would go a long way at that place! Anyway, Drew was ecstatic to have some of his own dress-up clothes. He puts on outfits and says, "I"m a movie player!" I think he might mean "movie star".







Gotta run. I think Hollywood is calling...

Works for Me Wednesday

I'm trying out another "blog carnival" today. A neat one I have found is over at We Are That Family . I'm attempting many new technical things today, so LOOK OUT!



(Banner added! And a hyper link! Woot!)

My Works for Wednesday is about making cheap and easy photo magnets for your fridge (or other metal areas you keep magnets...) I feel like we get a zillion thin magnets each year with info for some realtor/handyman/insurance agent/banker/lawyer on them. Now, I do have to say that any magnet I get with the UT football schedule on it, I'm keeping! But, what about all the others? I like a free magnet because I love sticking stuff on my fridge. But, I don't really like the junky look of all the random advertisements. So, I started attaching photos to the fronts of the magnets. It is very easy to do, especially since the magnets are quite easy to cut to fit the photo.

So, grab some pictures you would like to look at regularly, cut the junky magnets to size, and attach the photos. I have used both hot glue and scrap booking glue (because I have to use it for something since I don't exactly scrap book...) and both worked equally well.

Makes a nice neat photo montage. For free!
(Noticing a theme here??)

Free Nashville

This Free Nashville post is a little unique, because this is actually a free activity all over the country. Regal Cinemas hosts free movie Wednesdays at our Bellevue movie theater. FREE MOVIES!!! I've been sort of itching to take Drew to a movie. Not really sure why. What about loud sound and a giant picture seems like it would jive with Drew, I ask?? Oh well. I'm irrational.

Anyway, Katy and I decided to give it a shot, deciding that since it's free, it wouldn't really matter if they only lasted 15 minutes. And we could always go to Dunkin' Donuts to kill time. Seriously. Twist my arm about picking up some Munchkins!!

We arrived at the theater super early. This is due solely to my paranoia. I had heard through the mommy grapevine that it is hard to get into the free movies, so we should get there early. Apparently 30 minutes early was PLENTY of time, since we were the first ones in the theater! Ha! I apologized to Katy for my freaky overkill (I have to do this a lot...) but it turned out to be a pretty good thing. We got seats on the front row of the stadium seating, which means there was room for the kids to stand up and move around a little bit.

The kids did AMAZING!! We saw the Veggie Tales Pirate's Movie. Drew and Lyla both love Veggie Tales so we figured it was a good choice. I will say that a plethora of snacks really helps the whole attention span thing. Especially if one of those snacks is Rasinettes. Mmmm. Chocolate. But they have raisins in them, so that's good, right?

Every time we try something new, and it works out, we're pumped! So, two thumbs up for Free Movie Wednesdays!

Drum roll, please!!!

Ta-da!!






The very first tomato from my tomato plant!

The hardware store is having a contest for Bellevue's biggest tomato. Think I should enter it?

One small step for a boy, One giant leap for my Drew

I have some major news to report. We are now a paci-free zone!!! In the words of one of the Little Einsteins, "I CAN-NOT BE-LIEVE IT!" Any of you who have known Drew since birth, like I have, know that he came out searching for a paci and has been passionately in love with them ever since. You may wonder what would possess me to break up a love affair like this one. Am I just the meanest mom ever? Maybe. But not over this.

We have LOTS of life changes coming up. This needed to be done, and like learning to use the potty, I'm sure it's a little trauma he won't remember. I'm banking on it. We've been talking about it for some time now. And the main thing that pushed me over the line of fear was the day he took a nap at Katy's with no paci. Basically, if we go to Katy's I need to plan to stay there for no less than 4 days. He loves her and he loves it there and falls apart any time we have to leave. On the aforementioned day, I had planned to bring him home for a nap. He always naps better at home. But he would have none of it. He wanted to nap in Katy's bed. So, I said to him, "If you stay here to nap, you'll have no pacis." I was FOR SURE he would beg to go home. Nope. So, Katy's bed with no pacis it was. And he did great! Without knowing it, he sealed his paci fate that day!

Our method of giving them up involved trading them in for a special toy. He used his pacis to purchase a big wheel. A Batman big wheel with lights and sounds. After he deliberated between the Batman "motorcycle" and the Cars "motorcycle", we took our selection to the counter and he plunked his baggie of pacis up there to "pay". Oh how I wish you could have seen the look on the cashier's face. He was approximately 17 years old, and had definitely never seen the likes of this little charade before. To his credit, he played along really well. He did sort of just hold the bag of pacis awkwardly until I said, "You can just put those in the t-r-a-s-h." Drew did not miss a beat. He did not cry or second guess his purchase. He just marched proudly out of the store, ready to practice pedaling with Daddy.

Since then he's done pretty great. He still asks for them at sleeping times, but doesn't get overly upset about not having them. He is learning to put himself to sleep without them, which usually consists of his other favorite thing-talking! But, each time he goes down, the time he is chatting to himself gets shorter and shorter.

We also got a "Big Boy Cake" to celebrate the milestone and to celebrate what a great job he's been doing with the potty.





My baby is not a baby any more. I'm sad. But, I'm happy that he is growing into such a great little kid!! Time will tell how many pacis he will steal from baby sister!