The "Mompetition" Continues

This is a very funny video, and certainly fairly true to life, but be warned there is some adult language.

Trying to get back in the swing

This poor blog has been fearfully neglected for the past seven (!!) months, and I am trying to get going again and share some of what we've been up to!

(The boys watching a frog one day this summer.)

Today is a busy end to another very busy week, so to start I want to share this wonderful blog post. I cannot vouch for the rest of the content of this site, but this article is a must-read for all parents.

You just broke your child. Congratulations.

Finishing Touches

I put the finishing touches on our new spaces with two ottomans from Target. These were great finds! A blue pin-striped ottoman with storage for the playroom...

Our puppets and stuffed animals are in there.

A small pink and green striped ottoman for the school room. I just love how this coordinates with the carpet and the loveseat. It also opens for storage, but is empty right now.

Play Spaces Revisited

After our creation of a school room two weekends ago, our main living/play space underwent some dramatic changes of its own! Here is a very out-of-date post on our playroom. It changed quite a bit even before our big move this month. I'll have to do a another "tour" soon.

First, we added a train table that we found on Craigslist in the foyer (or "playroom extension"). This is were our four-sided bookcase used to be along with the cozy corner. Now it houses the water table when not in use, a small shelf of toys and the train/play table in the middle of the room. This came with two small stools so we're also using it for play dough and other messy projects.

Since our child-size table moved upstairs along with our four-sided shelf, I moved the boys' arm chairs from the music room/library and bought a small display bookcase for our current reads (non-curricular).

Not sure if it's the librarian in me or what, but I adore this!

We'd finally had enough of our Craigslist couch and ottoman (and the chair in the music room), so I sold them and found this couch on Craigslist instead! It is in much better shape: our old one was very faded and had spots and back cushions never stayed in place or well-fluffed. This one is much better and even came with a "chocolate" slip-cover to help combat kid-use.

Last but not least, after being inspired by Emma and Father John's addition of French doors to transform a dining room into Fr. John's office, we added doors to our music room/library to keep the cats out. This room has been gated and off-limits to the boys their whole lives, but the cats were getting into trouble in there. It was time for a change! This will allow my husband to practice in there as well without disturbing sleeping children or other house activities. (Though we all love to hear him play!)

Before and After: School Room

Totally embarrassing "before" picture. This was our guest/sewing/exercise room and this is what it looked like after I spent time sewing last week and the boys amused themselves with whatever they could find.

After! What a difference in 48 hours! I am in LOVE with this room now!

If you pop over to Flickr, you can read my notes. Enjoy the tour!

Such a peaceful and lovely space...just don't look at the master bedroom for a few more days until I finish weeding out what I don't need from the old room and cleaning off my sewing table!

Just can't do it anymore!

Although the first day of spring is still almost a month away and spring won't arrive in Central New York until mid to late April, I put away all our Winter books today. We're in seasonal limbo until I pull out the spring books.

I'm still intending to share a list of the Winter books we read over the past few months (both what we own and borrowed from the library).

Simplicity Parenting: Interview with Kim John Payne

One of my current reads! I recommend it for all parents.

Wordless Wednesday: Water Table Fun

Candlemas- The Presentation of the Lord

Today is The Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas.

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Luke 2:22-24

We started the day with a traditional breakfast of pancakes and reading about the Purification of the Virgin/Presentation of the Lord.

I share this picture because Sidekick really wanted to dress like a candle (he is very into the "light" part of the feast!), so he wore a red shirt with his yellow sweatshirt.

Later in the day we rolled candles. I hadn't intended on candle making this year since the boys are still so young, but Emma alerted me to this kit. Thanks to Amazon Prime and a $3.99 upgrade to one-day shipping, we were able to "make" candles after all!

We said a simple blessing ourselves and will also take them along to be belatedly blessed next weekend at Mass.

Feast of St. Brigid

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of St. Brigid, part of the February schedule for Catholic Mosaic. We read St. Brigid's Cloak: An Ancient Irish Story and listened to The Life of St. Brigid: Abbess of Kildare presented by the Readings from Under the Grapevine podcast from Ancient Faith Radio. I was very disappointed to see that St. Brigid is not mentioned in any of my lives of the Saints books for children, so I was very glad to have a copy of St. Brigid's Cloak on hand as well as the podcast!

We also baked St. Brigid's Bread from Catholic Traditions in Cooking. It was a very simple quick bread and quite tasty!

Wool Felt Play Food

Over the past two months, I've spent most of my spare time working on felt play food to stock my niece's play kitchen.

Veggies for Christmas...

A three-layer cake with pans for her First Birthday this past weekend...

Birthday fruit...

I have a few more pieces of fruit to make then I hope to move on to some other sets for her and my boys.

I purchase my patterns on Etsy (though a more creative person could easily design her own!). My two favorite sellers are Buggabugs and UmeCrafts.

Fourth Day of Christmas

It was back to work for my husband on the Fourth Day of Christmas and the boys and I had plans to head my parents' for a few days. Unfortunately, a winter storm kept us home! A foot of snow fell in just a few hours! We had a nice day anyway, and were able to play outside and shovel the walk in the afternoon.

The Bilibo is one of our most open-ended toys. It is perfect for using as a scoop, sled, or shovel and also makes perfectly domed snow-creations!

Sidekick attempting to shovel the driveway, or in as he insisted, "snowblowing."

A ride in the sled for the little guy.

Third Day of Christmas

After a morning at church, I was able to leave the boys in the hands of their dad and run some after-Christmas errands. I battled the crowds (worse than before the holiday!) at the mall to do some returns and exchanges. The boys spent most the afternoon playing outside in the snow and helping my husband install another one of our garage door openers.