My Perfectly Not-So-Romantic Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Mama

Well, I can’t say it was the most romantic Valentine’s Day ever, but it definitely was a good one because I got a little boy time, a little girl time and even a little just-me time.

I woke to Valentine wishes from my husband and son and the aroma of blooming paper whites and tulips before I barely wiped the sleep from my eyes. I received two pots of flowers, two wonderful cards and one mega-fast portable phone charger. Utilitarian? Yes. Needed? Definitely! After all, I only gave my husband two mini boxes of candy and a folded slip of paper tucked inside a card. Okay, the paper had a big ol’ bass on it and a promissory note for an out-of-state fishing license. Romantic? Not really, but he thought it was pretty cool.

Since this was the second weekend of the month, which means Second Saturday Sewing at the church, my boys took me to breakfast at IHOP (which we now call Pancake City for some strange reason lost on me) before dropping me off for a morning of quilting and girl talk with the church ladies. It was a small group, but it’s always fun. Thankfully, I finally finished piecing the quilt started over three years ago (no thanks to a Jo-Ann’s quilting class) and I started the border.

After my boys picked me up, we had a quick lunch and both of them went down for a nap. I weighed my options and decided to set up shop in the basement and continue sewing. By the time the boys awoke two hours later, I was sewing the last of my border pieces and was thrilled (and I do mean, very excited) to finally complete my quilt top! Next step? Pull out The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quilting. Yes, I own it.

The day was capped off with a botched attempt to eat at Dave & Buster’s by a really large crowd and a very rude patron, but dinner was salvaged by Chick-Fil-A, which is always a winner for our son.

Chicken nuggets + Indoor playground = A good time.

photo credit: Catrin Austin via photopin (license) and altered by Small Talk Mama

My 2015 Resolutions: A Step in the Right Direction

Posted on January 3, 2015February 2, 2015 by Mama

So it’s the season of resolutions, and I began these days of goal setting by focusing on three areas of life improvement. . . which quickly became five, no eight, no ten and so on. So I started thinking about how a girl who clearly doesn’t have it together can possible narrow it down to so few areas of change. I mean there is always do these things less, do these things more, finish this, be a better that and lose weight. Yes, the weight thing is always a given.

For example, the wonderful photo collage hanging in my living room was a great, yet slightly expensive, project of mine this year. The conglomeration of frames is nice, but when your four year old starts asking who all those people are, it’s probably time to fill them with actual family photos.

I have three partially started scrapbooks begging to be touched, but instead I keep creating cards because they take far less focus to finish. Of course if I wrapped up the remodel of my craft room, I might find more space and time to work on said projects. Oh, oh, I also want to create one of those cute little “Favorite Moments” mason jars posted all over Pinterest. . . for three years I’ve wanted to make one of those cute little mason jars.

Oh, here’s a good one. . . we have a bathroom light, heater, fan combo for our master bathroom that has been sitting in the floor of our closet for over a year. I can install it, but I can’t wire it because of it’s special needs, so instead of calling the electrician I just look at it longingly and wipe the steam off my mirror after every shower.

I bought a gym membership in October but I haven’t worked out in three weeks, and apparently I partook of way too many Christmas cookies and candy canes. So included in my list of “do mores” is to exercise more, along with read books more, study my Bible more, be a good mom more, finish projects more, scrapbook more, clean house more (that cleaning thing is kind of just an alternate goal). More, more, more, but when I’m already behind, shouldn’t I be more focused on less, less, less?

Ah yes, the “less” column, which includes eat less, procrastinate less, start fewer new projects, lose my cool less, bite my nails less, go to bed with makeup on less, watch TV less and how about go out for family dinner less. I mean these lists could just go on and on.

So after some thinking (which apparently doesn’t need to go into the “more” column — I find plenty of time for just that), I finally came up with a few life-changing resolutions for this year. Mind you, I’m not holding my breath that I will permanently be able to mark any of these items of my to-do list, but I figure if I’m at least headed in the right direction, that’s a good place to be.

My 2015 Resolutions:
• Put God and Others First
• Simplify
• Follow Through

The Bait and Switch Christmas Tree

Posted on December 22, 2014February 2, 2015 by Mama

We opted for a real tree this year and planned a whole family outing to the local farm complete with sleigh ride, hand saw and cocoa, but when we suggested the idea to our four-year old he immediately wanted to know how we would get the tree out of the ground. When I explained that we would chop down the tree and bring it home, he became upset at the thought of hurting a poor live tree just for our Christmas wishes. Although I tried to explain that this was a Christmas tree’s destiny and they were grown for this very reason, he still had problems seeing it my way.

So instead of visiting a farm, obviously hurting a tree and crushing my poor son’s heart, we decided that a lot with already chopped trees might be a better choice. So off to the Boy Scouts’ place up the road we went one very cold night. Our little man ran around the lot and through the trees more than once and settled on the ugliest, short and plump tree with a severely crooked top for way too much money. Hmmm, what’s a parent to do?

I’ll tell you what we did. We suggested a dinner break, went to Ace Hardware and picked out a cheap tree by the glow of headlights for a lot less money. In the immortal words of Jack’s Big Music Show, “It’s win-win, baby!”

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