Home is wherever I'm with you (but it's nice if sometimes you are not here too

Beau just took AB to Mom's Morning Out. Do you know what this means? I am sitting in my own house BY MYSELF!!! I don't know what to do first: run around naked, take a nap, blast some music, meditate? 

Truthfully I only have about 45 minutes before I have to be out the door and on to the next activity but I had to sit here and churn out a quick blog to celebrate this time.

Parents you understand the euphoria that comes from an empty home especially if, like Beau and I, you live far from family. There is no grandma that lives around the corner that can whisk my daughter away for the afternoon or evening. And rightfully so a babysitter would be weirded out if I suggested dropping AB off at her house to spend the day.

So these moments are few, far between and highly cherished. I love my family desperately but there is something to be said for a few moments of solitude in your own home.

Give me life, give me real life

Dear moms and dads of Social Media,

Can you do me a favor, please? Can you stop posting pictures of glamour and start posting pictures of real life?

This is not to say I don't want to see vacation picture from you, that I don't want to see you and your spouse dressed up for a big night out.  In fact, I love to see you those moments but I want to see them as they are scattered amongst your real life, few and far between like they should be. 

I love you and your family! That is why I follow you on social media. I want to see your children messy and surrounded by a pile of toilet paper. I want to see your son or daughter with peanut butter covering their face (and half your furniture). I want to see the laundry you haven't had time to fold because you've been snuggling all morning. These are the moments! 

And if we are being truthful with one another, don't you want me to want to see those real elements of your life? If I only like the dressed up, sophisticated, spic and span you; do I even know, even like the real you? I know for me, the answer is no, you don't know me but I want you to.

I want to know my friends like all of me even the dirty, sink full of dishes me.so give me life, give me your real life. And I will give you mine.

Your real, true friend,

Jolie

P.S. Just to let you know I will keep my promise to be your friend even when life isn't characteristically pretty and your kiddo's face isn't clean, here are some pics of my real life.

Motherly musings: true sympathy

There is no one more sympathetic to your plight than a toddler.

It has been a tough week around here. We have been dealing with some family drama as of late and if I am being truly honest, it has been a rough couple of months. 

Try as I might to not cry in front of my sweet daughter, there are days when the tears overtake me and I am forced to let her see me suffer. 

These in my opinion are some of the toughest parenting moments. They are your child's first inkling into realizing of their parent's humanity. Our children look to us as super heroes and it is not until life goes on that they realize we are just as human and fragile as they are. 

One day they will embrace that humanity and relish the comrodity of it but when they are younger seeing their parents in a vulnerable state can be downright scary. 

However, it was in this last few, hard days when the tears chose when to fall for themselves that I realized the beauty of my daughter's sympathy. Children, especially toddlers, are by far the most sympathetic people in our lives. When I cry, she cries not understanding why. In that moment she is too young and our communication too limited, the emotions too complex to convey to her why I hurt so instead of grasping for understanding she chooses to simply hurt for me. 

When is the last time you truly hurt for someone? I can think of only a handful of times that I was so sympathetic as my daughter to someone else's plight. True that is not always what people need either, but how wonderful to be able to sit there in the moment of despair and be able to truly feel for someone.

I still don't plan on making it a habit of crying in front of my sweet girl. I do plan though to make a habit of trying to embrace the level of sympathy she has and to better be there for my friends and loved ones when they are in pain.

Motherly musings:mall-walking

Even the smallest mall in the world is like Disney to a newly confident walker. 

Friday morning we headed out for an early breakfast with some sweet friends for my birthday. When we were done eating the day was still young and AB was still hours from napping, not to mention full so we decided to run a few errands. 

First you have to know that we live in one of those small towns that attempted to make a mall work and make sense but failed somewhat miserably. Our malls flagship stores have mostly disappeared and have started to be replaced with chains that make more sense like Jo-Ann Fabric, TJ Maxx and Tuesday Morning. 

This is all well and good with me, not to mention it makes a ton more sense for the community. The other thing this mall is overflowing with besides sensible stores is mall-walkers. 

After hitting up Jo-Ann Fabrics AB had some extra energy to burn so I took her out to the middle of the mall and let her loose. 

You would have thought we had just hopped off the monorail at Disney by the smile on her face. She loved making her way down the carpeted mall floor and smiled and said "hi" to every passerby. 

Not only did it make her day, but I really think it brightened the day of many of those elderly mall-walkers. They loved watching this new walker bumble up and down the mall path.

Seriously though, who could resist this cheesy grin?

Next time you need to help your new walker burn some energy or you just want to hear 1 million people tell you how adorable your kiddo is, head to the mall in the early-ish morning for some mall-walking fun.

Blended: Beating winter blues and bugs

I know there is lots of talk these days about essential oils and they are quickly becoming the "next big thing". As I read more and more articles, some from credible sources, some from people with experience and some frankly from mommy bloggers like me; one thing is becoming more and more clear and that is that you need to do a LOT of your own research before using them in your home and on your family.

I suggest reading up, reading reviews and just plain researching. Take into account what types of medical conditions you have going on with the members of your family and whether or not those conditions could be negatively affected by oils that you may use. Also PAY ATTENTION to your body after oil use. If something doesn't feel right, or look right after use of an oil, discontinue use. 

All that being said, my family and I have had some great experience with using oils in our home. We have in no means replaced all conventional forms of medicine by oils but it does give us one more option of "home remedy" to try before reaching for a traditional, and let's be honest chemical-laden, product. However, sometimes OTC medicines and remedies are just my best and first choice. Like I said, you have to do what is right for your family.

Two big pieces of advice that I can give to folks that are just starting out or want to start out using oils are these: DILUTE & DIFFUSE!

If you are nervous about trying something new with your essential oils dilute it like crazy with a carrier oil. I use coconut oil for this at my house but do your research because there are tons of other options. Diluting the oil is a good idea anyway. Try to NEVER use a straight oil on your skin despite what some sites/companies may tell you. In reading up on some articles on folks that have been practicing aromatherapy for many years, they all say to dilute. You can also use the aromatherapy point on your foot instead of directly on your chest, face, etc.

If you are still nervous to try something, why not just diffuse the combo? You can get a diffuser for around $40 and try various combinations of oils. Diffusing allows you to get the oils in a much gentler way.

Speaking of diffusing, that gets me to the point of today's post...wait, the point wasn't to get an EO research soapbox? Surprisingly, no. It was to tell you about one of my favorite blends as of late that I call the "Beating winter blues and bugs" blend. Super original, I know!

I have two diffusers in my house and I have this blend going on and off throughout the day in the main area of our house. It is a blend of Doterra's On Guard, Bergamot and Lavender. I use about 5 drops of Bergamot, and 3 drops each of On Guard and Lavender. Both the Bergamot and Lavender fight depression and anxiety and the OnGuard fights all sorts of bugs. I am not going to say that it has kept the bugs away completely but it has kept our immune systems a bit stronger and better able to fight off winter germs.

It has definitely helped to ward off winter blues for EVERYONE in our house. My husband deals with lots of stress at work and I have noticed a big difference with his mood every evening when he comes home since I've been diffusing this blend.

The blend of those three also smells pretty light and refreshing. I love On Guard but it can be a bit spicy smelling for me at times so the Bergamot and Lavender really help to lighten it up.

What blends are you loving this winter?

Thinking outside the box: birthday cake shoebox project

As I have said many times before, AB loves boxes of all shapes and sizes. She comes up with lots of creatives uses: cars, push toys, cradles, etc. Most days I just let her stake her claim on whatever newly emptied box we have in our home but every once in awhile I get an idea for how that box can be upgraded. That's what happened with this adorable, little size 2 shoebox. I thought this would make a great fine motor skill builder. 

Supplies needed:

Shoe box (or other small but sturdy box)

Straws

Scissors

Optional-contact paper, scrapbook paper

All you do here is use the scissors to poke a number of small holes in the box. Poke the straws in/out of the holes you have created. Since our box was small, I cut our straws in half. After several weeks of having this "toy" around our house I decided to make it a bit prettier and sturdier by covering it with scrapbook and contact paper but you can skip that step if you want.

AB loves fitting the straws in the different holes and my genius mother pointed out that it looks like a birthday cake with candles in it. When AB gets a bit older I will add the modification of using different colored straws as candles and color-coding the holes but for now she loves this "toy" as is.

Motherly musings-chicken nuggets

Oh to be a one-year-old and to languish over the irresistible taste of one, singular chicken nugget instead of scarfing down a six-pack in less than a minute. 

I wish I had the self control that my daughter has when I am trying to get her to eat lunch. If they could bottle it up I would buy it up in bulk. Can you imagine? It would literally solve weight-loss issues around the world. 

Until that day, here is an adorable picture of my daughter burning off the calories of that one chicken nugget by playing with my husband before dinner. I am not pictured as I am still lying in the floor in a chicken nugget, binge-eating state of laziness. 

Happy weekend!

Old favorite/New favorite: Audiobooks to Podcasts

Old Favorite: Audiobooks
My old favorite thing was listening to audiobooks. I used to be in sales and had to drive all across the Southeast to various appointments. I got so bored driving around, most of that time was spent driving during work hours so all my friends were at work and I could only take so much of my mother's time up chatting to me on the phone.

I loved listening to audiobooks. In a way, I got so hung up listening to audiobooks that I actually became less of a phone person. I got my books from the library or Cracker Barrel. For those of you who don't know Cracker Barrel has this awesome program where you "buy" a book on tape (really CD but you know what I mean) and you can return it when you are done listening for a rental fee of $3.49/week. It is the best because let's be honest the library audiobook selection isn't always the best.

The deal is that buying an audiobook from CB or anywhere is kinda pricey, like $30-$50 so it is a bit of a commitment (though now there is a service called Audible that helps with that). Then there is the issue of what if you don't like book you just bought/rented, etc. I suppose you could return it but by that time you already feel a bit committed (you know you are a whole $3.49 in at that point). I will say that a few more of the perks are that you do not have to return it at the same store where you rented it and the selection is quite varied and current.

New Favorite: Podcasts
Okay, I realize that I am way behind the times on this but I literally just started listening to podcasts last week and now I am hooked. I really didn't understand podcasts before, which is majorly ridiculous on my part but what can I say. I just didn't. I also was without an iPhone when they first became popular so that probably stood in my way a bit too.

What really peaked my interest was all the buzz around the podcast Serial. I am admittedly "jumping on the podcast bandwagon" by saying that but it's true. I am a huge fan of true crime stories like Dateline Saturday Night Mysteries and 48 Hours so Serial was right in my wheelhouse. I got hooked and binge-listened (I truly may be coining that phrase...you heard it here first folks) to the first season in about 3 days. Next I checked out a podcast by one of my favorite bloggers called Elise Gets Crafty and then went on to find selections based on those podcasts.

Moms out there (and stay at home parents of all kinds) the thing that got me hooked is that I could feel informed and like I am doing something adult (listening to news, true crime, instructional info, etc.) without watching television. We have a hard and fast house rule about not watching television during the day. It is always so much harder in the winter. Podcasts allow me to listen to something of interest to me while tending to Annabelle and feeling much more plugged in to her than if I were bored on a rainy day so I sit around watching Gossip Girl and not paying good attention to her.

The other great part about podcasts is that they are free! And there are podcasts on a variety of subjects from comedy to politics to food. My husband is a Droid guy and he can get podcasts on his phone now too (that may be an archaic and totally incorrect assumption that you used to have an iPhone to listen but I think it is correct). So do yourself a favor and check them out if you haven't already. And if you have already, let me know what some of your favorites are.

Playing in a spider web

Just a small (almost) No Doubt reference there. In this month's theme of AB is obsessed with boxes, today I made one of those spiderweb boxes for AB's toys so she could gain some fine motor and problem-solving skills. 

Lately AB has been getting frustrated when she is unable to complete a task on her own. After doing some reading up on the subject and learning that this is completely normal for this stage, I decided to try and figure out a way to be able to help her through this while still allowing her to learn to problem solve on ther own. Enter the spiderweb toy trap.

This is something I have seen done around the Internet with yarn and usually a laundry basket. Since we had so many boxes left over still from Christmas, I decided to poke some holes in and use one of those. Next I made a simple pattern with the yarn. We added some of AB's toys and had a pretty good time. 

AB was pretty challenged by this at first but it allowed for some great encouraging and bonding. Whenever she would get frustrated, I would offer her some kind words, hugs and cuddles and when she finally got the toys out she was thrilled.

I think that this toy will become a favorite of hers in time. I definitely suggest trying this one out with your little one when they  are ready for a challenge. 

She was so happy to get Cubby Bear out. He is a favorite and he was met with lots of cuddles, smiles and kisses once she freed him from the spiderweb. 

Diaper boxes are better than any toy on the shelf

Without a doubt some of the best days in our house involve me being organized enough to remove the diapers from their box and turning said diaper box over to AB. Some of the uses she finds for diaper boxes include push-walkers, doll cribs, sorters and our newest discovery baby corn hole. 

Earlier this year I made AB some bean bags which she has enjoyed stacking and sorting. Yesterday when Beau and I were outside playing corn hole we discovered that AB loved not only watching us play but also gathering up the bean bags and placing them in the hole herself.

Today I grabbed one of our discarded diaper boxes and cut a hole in one side and now we have our very own indoor, diaper box corn gold game. AB loves putting the bean bags in, taking them out and using the whole thing as a sort of giant shape-sorter to see what will fit.

Sorry about the picture quality here. Most of these are iPhone photos taken on the fly so that AB doesn't see my phone and try to grab it. We used the iPhone a couple times over the holiday for distraction purposes and now we are detoxing her from it.

Do your kids love playing with diaper boxes? What have you used them to make?