Family Musings

Mary loves her sippy cups. She also happens to love other kids sippy cups too! I'm always trying to watch her at play dates to make sure she isn't drinking after other kids and spreading her cute little germs all around. Enter Applied Labels - dishwasher safe labels that last and last and last. I stuck our labels on every sippy cup in our house a few weeks ago and they haven't gone any where even though each cup has been washed almost daily. We go through a lot of cups in our house every day. I designed our labels to be super simple so both girls, mommy, and daddy could use them. I just put our last name and a star picture on them. This helps the nursery workers at church and MOPS too. No more markers rubbing off or masking tape being peeled off when the edges start to curl. We used to have some stretchy, bumpy name labels, but they were very specific to each child. Also, they were too thick to let us stack the cups unless we took them off before putting the cups a...

Choosing a car seat is a big deal - they are expensive, everyone has an opinion, you don't know how fast or slow your child will grow, and you have to make sure you buy one that fits your car. More than anything though, we want our kids to be safe when they are in our cars. That is the main reason we put so much effort into choosing the best car seat we can afford. I know that I spent a lot of time researching car seats online before I ever set foot in a store to buy one. I read reviews, posted messages on forums, and checked out consumer magazines. In other words, I took it as seriously as any other parent. We've had really good luck with the seats I choose. The girls both started out in a bucket seat (a Graco Quatro Tour ) before moving into a rear-facing convertible seat (the Evenflow Triumph Advance ). And now they are both forward facing in convertible seats.  Several weeks ago I received a Recaro ProSPORT car seat (in Hanna) to review. I knew it was coming and was rea...

I first heard of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day more than a year ago. I thought it sounded great, but making homemade bread was sooooo.... NOT on my radar. Now though, I've spent most of this year making a couple loafs of homemade Amish white bread a week and feel like I am ready to venture into more interesting textures and flavors of bread. After 3 hours of rising in a 2 gallon bucket After a reminder about this book from Tracey (yes the same awesome friend who started an Amazon Wish List for Joplin, MO moms ), I decided to buy Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day. And I don't regret it. I knew I was going to like the bread I made when following the procedures in this book. I even went ahead and doubled the Master Recipe because I knew I couldn't fail. That's how easy the authors made the process. The basic premise is to make up a master batch of dough and then pull chunks of it off to make individual loafs through out the week. The dough can last for up to 1...

What exactly should you get your husband as an anniversary gift for year 13 ? Especially in a year when the schedule is as tight as the budget. The traditional list for anniversary gifts suggests lace. And I can think of some fun ways to interpret that for a husband... but none that I would blog about. The modern list for anniversary gifts suggests textiles or fur. Let's just say, I didn't go that route either. Instead, I gave him something very unconventional. He wasn't expecting it and it still made him smile the next morning when he saw it. What is this magical gift that makes him smile the next day and I can still blog about? I cleaned our master bedroom. Shocking. I know. I'm living on the edge here with my wild and crazy gifts. Seriously though, if you knew what I had to work with, you'd appreciate the 4 hours I spent working on the room to make it look like this: The scroll work piece over the bed is new to us and I finally hung it up. This sort ...

13. It is supposed to be an unlucky number. But not yesterday. Yesterday, Bruce and I celebrated 13 years of marriage. And it was good. Luck had nothing to do with it - good or bad. There were no fireworks, or fancy meals at restaurants with large skewers of meat or pots of chocolate. But it was good. I take that back. There were fireworks. And balloons. Bruce drew some for me on our master bathroom memo board. It was a simple day, simply marked by a meal together as a family and plans to go out on a date this weekend. 13 years ago, the best man at our wedding, Justin, gave a speech. And in it, he called us "a couple that works." I've reflected on this description a lot over the years and think he meant that, even though we weren't obvious choices for one another at the time (to anyone but us that is), we still made sense together to those who knew both of us well. I truly believe that statement is as true today as it was 13 years ago. Bruce and I are...

Sometimes it takes a personal story for us to really see the need when other people are experiencing a tragedy. Today, even though I had been aware of the horrible after math of the recent tornadoes in Joplin, MO, I finally saw the human side of it. My friend Tracey shared about the moms of young children in Joplin who had lost their homes. It hadn't occurred to me, but these moms probably didn't crawl into their bathtub or basement with their baby's lovey or pacifier. And of course, the Wal-Mart suffered a lot of damage so they couldn't just go out and replace these items easily. They can't really do any of the daily stuff of raising preschoolers easily. So Tracey, because she is awesome and responded when she saw the need, created an Amazon.com Wish List for the moms of Joplin, MO . On this wish list are things like pacifiers, diapers, blankets, and other items that moms will need in the coming weeks but won't have easy access too. The MOPS group of Jo...

Several months ago, I came across this simple interview (don't remember where) and thought it would be fun to sit down with Charlotte to capture her answers. She'll be 4 in August (less than 3 months away!) and it was nice to hear her insight on Mommy. What is something Mommy always says to you? - "I love you." What makes Mommy happy? - "When I say I love you and hug you." What makes Mommy sad? - "When there is no love in the house." How does Mommy make you laugh? - "Jokes, like the elephant joke." What was Mommy like as a child? - " You always wanted an apple." How old is Mommy? - "5" (!) How tall is Mommy? -  This tall (she spread her arms out). When asked to tell me how tall that was, she said "19 feet long." (19 is her new favorite number.) What is Mommy's favorite thing to do? - "Snuggle with me." What does Mommy do when you're not around? - "Type messages to me....