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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

7 Quick Takes volume 4

1. Wow! It has been a busy month or two. My 2010 has been moving so quickly I can barely catch my breath! We have been house/dog sitting this past week. It has been a fun time, and although I dearly miss my king-size bed, it has been a nice time to be a little family of 4 again and gives my parents and siblings a small break from all the chaos we bring as well.

2. With this treat of family time, I've also gotten a good dose of TV. I don't miss TV, but when I get a chance to watch it, I do enjoy it. I've been watching a lot of "Say Yes to the Dress" and "What Not to Wear" along with the cake-off shows and a random thing here and there. Mr. 2-yo has enjoyed a little Playhouse Disney each morning after breakfast as well. I've also been able to do much of this while exercising on the treadmill. I do NOT like treadmills. ;p

3. On a more spiritual and much deeper note, this Lent has been unbelievable so far! In a very positive way. My dear husband and I have been journalling and meditating on a specific topic each evening before bed and then share our thoughts in our journals and discuss afterwards. It's been a truly blessed time together and I am so thankful that he thought of doing this.

4. Our new obsession in this house is stickers on the face. Both Mr. 2-yo and Mr. 1-yo love putting little stickers all over their faces and request that I join in on the fun. It's been pretty funny to see us all walking around with random dots all over our faces. My husband was shoveling the walkway yesterday and we were watching him from the front door. When he got the front porch, he looked up and was startled to see our stickered-faces. It made me chuckle.

5. Back to being on our own...it's also been nice to cook and bake again. I know I can do it still with my parents, but there's no need for me to do much because my mom handles it all. I don't mind having the break, but there's something special about fixing a meal that is especially meant for your husband (and your children...) after he's had a long, hard day at work. Thursday night I made chili dogs (which isn't hard but the husband requested it), spaghetti and strawberry cupcakes. He was so touched and that made my day!

6. Has anyone played Settlers of Catan? My husband and I are boardgame junkies and this has been our most recent favorite. We have been trying different ways to play this game and it's been a lot of fun. We found out from some good friends of ours (who we frequently play boardgames with) that you can actually buy "expansion packs" that offer even more varieties of playing this game. Now, I know what to buy the husband for his birthday :).

7. Anyone super-coupon? I was really into it for awhile and then we moved in with my parents who buy all the groceries and don't buy much junk food (which is a lot of what you buy when super-couponing, it seems), so I stopped. I got back into the toiletries part and now with one of our local grocery chains offering really huge deals, I want to enter back again. I'm a little scared and overwhelmed, but I know I have to get past my inhibitions and just go for it. Hopefully, I will!

Check out more 7 Quick Takes over at http://www.conversiondiary.com/!

We're All a Little Nutty Around Here...

I have been searching for the perfect laundry detergent. For my diapers. I could probably use anything that does not have a fragrance for my clothes, but my diapers and their stinkiness have been a sore issue with me. I love cloth diapering. I would not do it any other way. They've saved us money, are incredibly cute, and eco-friendly, but they have their downfalls too. The main one is stink. For some reason, I have had constant stink issues in the last year. It's been beyond frustrating as I go through detergent after detergent after detergent to try to find one that will work without me resorting to bleach. Well, I think I've finally found one I love and I wanted to share my find :)...



Soap nuts. I found these little nuts (literally) through one of my local and favorite cloth diapering stores. The lady who runs this business came to do a demonstration and I thought, "I've tried everything else; might as well see what this is all about!" So, my dear husband and I took the kids and went to the demonstration. Now, I have to tell you that my husband is not one to be convinced just because a product is said to be "natural" and "organic." We are still going over the pros and cons of organic food vs. non-organic. When he saw these, he was not only intrigued, but thought trying these out was a great idea! We took a couple samples home and I loved them so much, we went back and bought a bag, along with the brightener and stain remover to try those out as well.

Soap nuts are organic and natural. They are not a detergent, but act like a detergent does in that they clean and sanitize your laundry. They are not expensive at all ($12.99 for up to 85 loads!) and they do not have all those additives and fragrances that seep into your skin and blood that normal detergents contain. They also act as a natural softener as well. I've never been a huge fan of fabric softeners and haven't ever used dryer sheets, but these little nuts make my clothes incredibly soft! Using the brightener with the soap nuts for my diapers has FINALLY gotten rid of the stink! And an added bonus is that my diapers are brightened and look so clean! If you'd like to learn more, visit Yoreganics website. Enjoy!