Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Songs That Warm My Heart

My husband started a tradition with our sons that he had grown up with in his own family. Singing before bed. Actually, it was really started by both of us - him, because of the memories and me, out of desperation to try anything to soothe my child to sleep. I used to sing the "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" song to babies, even when I was babysitting because it is such a soothing song. To this day, it's my favorite song to sing when one of my kids is upset. My husband grew up with his mom and grandma singing songs to him and his two favorites were "You Are My Sunshine" and "The Alphabet Song." When Mr. 2-yo was about 15 months, he started sleeping in his own bed and Daddy was the one to put him to bed most nights. Thus began the tradition and Daddy would sing those songs to him. Somehow in the mix, "Edelweiss" became a night-time song as well, and to this day, no matter who tucks Mr. 2-yo into bed, he requests those songs. Last night, my mom (his grandma) put Mr. 2-yo to bed because neither my husband nor I were home and instead of requesting those songs, he sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her. We thought it was so precious and so today, I asked him to sing me "Sunshine" as he calls it. Hearing his little voice belt out those words made my heart melt and almost brought tears to my eyes. My little boy is growing up! He's taking those words that have been given to him for over a year and a half now and gifting them back to us. It's moments like these that really remind me of the beauty of being a parent.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Praying, praying, praying!

Praying today that this health care reform bill does not pass...and if it does, praying that our country does not go under.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Kids Say the Darndest Things Fridays Volume 1

As I've been spending my Fridays doing 7 Quick Takes, I thought I'd spice things up a bit here and alternate that with "Kids Say the Darndest Things" from Mystical Rose Design. Today's my start and I know that there are plenty of things I'm sure Mr. 2-yo has said today that would be quote-worthy, but I can't think of any at the moment. So, I'm digging into my archive (I do keep a notebook of updates for each of the boys, although I'm not terribly great at keeping it up-to-date very often)...

Mr. 2-yo: "These cookies make me happy!" Two seconds later..."These cookies make my face red! See?" He then sticks his tongue out to show me the "red" on his tongue. He just ate a gingersnap.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Out of Ideas!

Ever have those times where you're in a posting funk? That's been me for the past couple of weeks. I want to post, but when I try to think of something to come up with, my mind draws a complete blank. In the midst of my lack of ideas, I received some pictures in my email that I wanted to post, so voila! Here's my answer:

A couple weeks ago, I "hosted" a moms' craft night. It was small, but my dear mommy-friends and I had a lot of fun experimenting. We decided to make simple ribbon headbands and it looked way easier on the tutorial than it was in real life, mainly due to my sewing machine that was in constant friction with the hairties. However, we had some great conversations and managed to make a couple and took a picture to show them off :). I used some leftover ribbon I had, but now I want to buy some really cutesy stuff and add some embellishments to them to make them super cute so I can wear them all the time!





Now, I just have to come up with the next crafty thing to do...any ideas?

Friday, March 5, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday Volume 5

This Friday, I thought I'd mix it up a bit and theme my post. I'm sharing with you 7 of my favorite blogs that I follow:

1. bettybeguiles.com - I found this lovely lady over at FaithandfamilyLIVE.com. She's a Catholic mom and wife who has the greatest fashion posts! She shows you how to dress both fashionably AND modestly while making it simple enough so that a busy mom can look cute with minimal effort.

2. testosterhome.net - My dear friend, Elena, found this Catholic supermom of 5 boys (soon to be 6 kids total) who's humor keeps me laughing and humility & insight keep me reading.

3. katiebeverleyblog.com- This blog belongs to a dear friend with whom I attended college. She has her own photography business and has taken some beautiful pictures of my own family, back when we were three (the top picture and profile were taken by her). I love visiting and admiring her work (and wishing I could take such beautiful pictures myself! :))

4. hsjoy.blogspot.com- This is the blog of a friend of mine who was my Confirmation sponsor and my mom's friend growing up (she's still good friends with my mom). She is the mom of 7 beautiful children and I love reading her open honesty and have learned much from her!

5. loveactually-blog.blogspot.com - A very cute blog I happened upon today, actually! It's all about ideas for couples and it's crafty and cute and I'm totally taking some of these ideas for us!

6. organicmamas.blogspot.com - Another blogger from my college days (although, we didn't actually know each other then...our husbands grew up together). Very crafty and such great ideas for educating your child(ren) and living an eco-friendly, natural lifestyle.

7. kari-youcanmakeit.blogspot.com - I LOVE this blog! I want to make everything that I've found on it! This is where I've gotten so many crafty ideas and links to more great crafty blogs!

You can find more great 7 Quick Takes here!