Turning Old To New

When we bought our home 2 years ago, I had big plans. I was so tired of renting because I hated plain white walls. So when we moved in I just couldn't wait to start painting, then life happened. Soccer practices, dance classes, working, and everything else just got in the way. The only room that ended up getting painted was Alanna's room because we switched her into a big girls bed. I still plan to paint but who knows when I will get around to it.

So this spring I have decided to start on the outside. We have a big yard and nothing to keep the kids busy. My plan was to get all different play things for the kids but it hasn't happened yet. So I've been scoping out some "online yard sales" on Facebook and I found this old Little Tikes playhouse that someone was selling for $15. Now I am a Pinterest junkie like everyone else and I saw that someone had repurposed a little picnic table. So I decided to clean and paint it for the kids. All I can say that I am more than pleased with how it turned out. The kids are super excited to finally have something to play with and so am, I because they keep using beach shovels to dig holes all over my yard. My next adventure will be a swing set and then my flower gardens. I am hoping by Summer the outside will be how I want it, then we will tackle the inside.

It was relatively easy to do, but a lot of work. First I took it apart and scrubbed it with a scrub brush and hose. Then I used Rust-Oleum Indoor/outdoor spray paint and let it dry. It took about 2 days because I let it sit and dry but it didn't take that long to dry.

How To Make Resurrection Rolls & Teaching The Kids about Jesus' Story

Last year I found the idea for Resurrection rolls online. I thought it would be a cool way to show my kids the story of Jesus, and start a new tradition. What better day to make them then on Good Friday, right? Most people have heard of The Easter Story, or some variation of it. It's something that is important to us and something that we want to instill in our children. Easter isn't all about the candy and a giant bunny but about Jesus and what he did for us. He was beaten and hung on a cross so that we can be forgiven. So today we sat down with the kids and my nieces and told the story and let them each make their own roll.

What you will need: 

1 pack of crescent rolls (the linen they wrapped Jesus in)

 big marshmallows (Jesus' body)

1 tbls of melted butter 

  2 tbls of cinnamon and sugar (the spices they used when they wrapped Jesus)

First preheat the oven to 350 or 375 according to what the package says. While you are waiting for the oven to be ready read John 19 (we use a children's Bible)

Once the oven is ready let each kid take a marshmallow. We explained that Jesus never sinned but He died on the cross for us because we are sinners. The white marshmallow represents His body without sin.

Then they dipped each marshmallow in the butter and cinnamon sugar to represent the spices they brought to wrap Jesus' body, and wrapped them in the crescent rolls.

Once the rolls are done we put them in the tomb (the oven) for 11-13 mins and while they baked we read John 20:1-18 

When the rolls are finished cut open the roll to see that the marshmallow is gone! Jesus has RISEN! 

The kids loved making them and they were really yummy too! 

We finished up with reading 1 Thessalonian 4:16-18

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him shall not parish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. - John 3:16-17

Getting Organized, One Day At A Time

My life is pretty chaotic between dance classes, soccer practices, church events, and birthday parties I'm lucky if I can remember what day it is. So for the last few weeks I have been trying to organize my life and I started with this......

It's our family command center. I'm obsessed with it and I can't begin to tell you how much of a life saver it has been. I need notes....everywhere.....to remind me of everything. I'm so forgetful and since I've had the kids I swear I have lost even more of my short term memory. So this was exactly what my chaos needed. The whole thing cost me about $25 including supplies to decorate the kids chore charts and I bought everything at Walmart and the dollar store. The first thing I got was the split cork/whiteboard  ($9.97) and the whiteboard calender  (also $9.97) Now, we have had chore charts for quite some time but like everything it was put on the back burner and forgot about. So I decided to revamp them and make it fun. I used 3 baking sheets from the Dollar store and I bought some foam letters and squares to cut the stars out. I already had a sheet of magnet that I cut and put on the back of the stars. And I bought the Family decal at the Dollar store also. 

I decided to try a point system in our house, if you get up and get dressed and ready for school without being told to get your shoes on 100 times ( let's face it, we all deal with that) then you get a point. At the end of the day if all of your chores are completed, you get another point. And if you do something without having to be told , ie: clean off the table, wipe off the counter , ect , then you get another point. You can also lose points, for not following directions or misbehaving. All we have to do is say we are taking away a point and they usually stop whatever they are doing at the time. So far I can say it has worked great! The kids are excited to do their chores and move their stars, they are eager to help around the house and they are even getting up and getting out the door in the morning without a fight. Not to mention the kids are starting to take on some responsibility, which is awesome.

Overall I can say this has been the best $25 spent, and my sanity is slowly coming back (yea right!)

I also made this magnetic behavior chart for my nephew. He's been having some trouble and I thought it would be helpful if he had some positive reinforcement. Everything I used for this came from the Dollar store as well. Like with the chore chart, I used the metal baking sheet and put stickers on the pieces of foam and added a magnet so they could be moved. Because let's face it, those printable sheets are time consuming. Oh and I used command strips to hang everything, those things are amazing!

Happy organizing!

Perfect Parenting

Yesterday I was insulted and called a bad mother and a few other ridiculous comments, not by anyone of importance, and it was by a person that I have less then zero respect for. So I wasn't really hurt by his ignorance, and anyone who knows me can attest that this isn't true but it has made me think.

Before you have children you think you know it all. You say my kids wont do that, they will never behave like this. Man, you get a wake up call when that time actually comes. Truth is you have no idea what is in store for you and how your life will change. When I had Madison, I was barely 20, and clueless. Of course I thought I knew what I was doing. I baby sat most of my teens and I knew it would be different but not that much different. Boy, was I in for a wake up call! What I wasn't prepared for was a newborn waking up every 2 hours to eat, be changed, and tended to. I wasn't prepared for living like a zombie for the first 6 months of her life, not remembering if I had eaten or showered half of the time. I was not prepared for the terrible twos to start at 13 months, and I surely had no idea what was in store for me when I added another newborn into the mix. To say that Maddie was a handful was an understatement. I have some stories...but that's for another time.

 I remember sitting up at night and crying because I was so overwhelmed. I wanted to be a mom so badly and yet I cried every night. I just didn't know what to do. But we took it one day at a time and made it through and things got easier. I got older, I learned patience, and understanding. I learned to deal with things differently. Now don't get me wrong, there are still days where I sit and cry because I am overwhelmed. There are days that I look forward to bed time because the kids are diving me crazy, and there are days that I think I have no idea what I am doing. But at the end of the day, when I am tucking my kids in and saying bedtime prayers, I am thankful. I love being a mom, and while I may not do it right all of the time, I am still learning.

By no means am I perfect. I am not a perfect person, wife, and definitely not a perfect mother. I make mistakes. I yell too much, I overreact too often, my house is often messy (you try keeping a spotless house with 6 kids everyday.) But I am learning. I have come so far in these last 8 1/2 years of motherhood, and I still have a long way to go. Truth is, no one knows what they are doing. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and judge others. To see a messy house and make a comment about how dirty it is. To see a child throwing a tantrum in the store and quickly say, "if that was my child they wouldn't act like that." It's so easy to cast judgement on others (I am also guilty of this) but you don't see the big picture. My pastor was speaking on Sunday about Life Application. He was talking about parenting and living your life with love. He said if you do one thing different today and yesterday then you are making progress. And I try to apply that to my life. I may yell, and overreact, and be in a bad mood but I am learning. I am growing. I apologize when I am wrong. I admit when I make mistakes. And I am learning to live my life with love. So think twice before you quickly cast judgement on others, because we are all learning and growing, and striving to be the best parent we can be.

Happy Birthday Caden!

My little man turned 6 today! I can't believe how fast time flies! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was giving birth to my little 8lb 6oz little boy. And now he is SIX! We had such a busy day, we celebrated his birthday at Skateland (Pirate themed) with some of our friends and family. In spite of a few bumps and bruises he did really well out there on the floor, and he had a blast! After his party he had a soccer game, and then he went with Leo to see the Baltimore Blast Championship game. It was quite the day!

Happy Birthday Caden, you are my pride and joy, and I love you more then words can express! You make my life so much brighter and I love being your mommy! I hope you had the best birthday ever!

Here are some birthday pics:

Birthday boy & Daddy eating pizza

Caden's awesome Birthday cake that his Godmother made

Time for cake!

Caden , Alanna & Maddie

Birthday skate

This one is blurry but you get the idea

Judgmental, Bible Thumping Christians

I don't often speak about my faith or beliefs unless it's with close friends. I've always been afraid to rock the boat. I've always been open that I follow Jesus but I never wanted to come across as an uptight Christian. It's one of those things that I chose not to bring up because I am not a theological person and I can't always back it up with the word of God. It's something I have always struggled with, and I've always lived life on the fence so to speak. I have my church friends and my other friends, and I have a hard time sharing my faith with my other friends. If they ask I will gladly talk about it, but I never brought it up. I have been asking God in my own time with him to really just open me up. I don't want to be one of those hypocritical, bible thumping, judgmental Christians, but I want to share his love with all of my friends. I want to do it in a real way. Not preaching, or throwing scriptures in peoples face, but in a real, one on one, friendly conversation. It's something that has been weighing on my heart for a while but I just don't know how to execute it. I see so many of my Facebook friends posting about how God isn't real, I even see people who used to be Christians and are now atheists. They post so openly about their beliefs, so why is this something I struggle with?

My Pastor showed a video of Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller. He's an open atheist and he made a video blog where he shared a story of a man who gave him a Bible. He said that the mans realness, and love touched his heart more then anyone ever has. He also made a statement that has stuck with me he said "How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"


I can't seem to shake that. How much do I hate the people in my life not to share everlasting life with them? I want to be real, and I want to be honest, and I want to give people hope. How can I do that if I don't open up and walk across the room and share my heart? Our Pastor has been talking about sharing your story and so I will leave you with this. This is my story.

I was raised in Sunday school. My parents took me to their Methodist church from the time I was a baby. I learned about Jesus in Sunday school but I never knew him. I had my first real encounter with Christ when I was 14 at our summer church camp. I went every year with my friends and had an amazing time. I learned about Jesus, Christian music, and that it was OK to have blue hair, tattoos & piercings and still know God. It was honestly life changing. I will hold those memories with me for a lifetime and I made some amazing friends there. I went to camp until the summer I turned 18, but when I was 16 I started dating my ex husband and started to go to his church. It was a whole new world, it was Pentecostal, but the crazy hair, tats and piercings were HUGE no no's. That was a sin. They were very strict and I often felt like I played church just to fit in. I don't think I had a real relationship with God because I didn't know where I stood. I had sex, I drank, I did things I shouldn't have, then I went to church and cried and asked God to forgive me. It turned into a ritual. A few years later I was married and I still struggled with who I was in Christ. I was so depressed, in a terrible relationship, and I hated myself. I wanted to die. I cried myself to sleep almost every night, but I was trapped. I began to pray more, but not really asking for help, I asked him why? Why would you allow me to live like this? How could you leave me alone? I was broken and empty and defeated. And then my life started changing. I know it sounds cliche but it's true. God started to pull me out of it. My ex husband and I split up, Leo came back into my life after many years and things were brighter. It took a while to shed my insecurities and heal all of the broken pieces, which I will admit comes back on occasion when I least expect it. And here I am 5 yrs later and it feels like that was a whole lifetime ago. I sometimes think back to those times and it just doesn't feel real. I closed that chapter in my life and I feel like a new person. People who knew me before can attest to this too. But my point in all of this is I thought I was alone and I thought my world was shattered but God had bigger plans for me. I wouldn't be who I am today without being broken. I wouldn't appreciate my amazing loving husband, without all of the heartache. God knew what he was doing and I need to start sharing his love. I am thankful for all He has done in my life and the best way to share that is to just be there for someone else. I want to change that persona that Christians are judgmental,  bible thumping, hypocrites and just be real. And that is my new goal.

I'm going to add the video that I referenced so you can watch it for yourselves.

My Healthy Eating Baking Mishap

So I have been doing pretty well with my dieting and eating healthy. I have found some great recipes, and have overloaded on the fruits and veggies. I'm down 5 lbs so far! woohoo!

So the other day a friend posted a pic of some very yummy looking Paleo Brownies. She has lost over 100 lbs (don't quote me on the exact number, but it was a lot and she looks fantastic) You can check her Facebook page out here: This Mom Is Losing It. Anyway, back to the story. I was dying for some chocolate and decided to pick up the ingredients that I needed and give it a try.

I merrily mixed the ingredients, filled my brand new Pampered Chef brownie pan, and then stuck them in the oven. About 10 mins later I start to smell something burning. It smelled like burnt marshmallows, so I hurried to the oven only to find that my batter exploded everywhere! My square brownie pan looked like 1 giant pan covered in tar. It was all over the pan, my oven racks, and the bottom of my oven. So I pulled it out, wiped out the oven, scrapped the mess off so you could see the squares and stuck it back in. I figured it was worth a second try, right? Well needless to say every time I checked on it, it looked like bubbling tar. I asked my sister in law, who was here at the time, if brownie batter was suppose to bubble and she informed me that in fact it is not. So much to my dismay, my brownies turned out to be nothing but sticky chocolate tar (which you can see at the top. The Left pic is my friends delicious looking brownies, and my tar is on the right.) Moral of the story....brownies are not suppose to be healthy. I will stick with the box kind from now on and have a cheat day once in a while.

Side note: She did make me some and is sending them via mail. I can't wait to try them.