Don't Blink...

....or you just might miss something.

Sometimes I really feel that way. Like I blinked and my two little ones changed in an instant.

A few days ago I was watching old videos of Stephanie and feeling nostalgic. One of them wasn't that old, taken back in September. As in, two months ago. As I watched and listened to her talk, I realized she doesn't talk like that anymore. Her words are so much clearer and more articulate now.

It made me pause and think about some of the things my kids do and say right now that I take for granted. Things that I assume I will always remember, but know that I will likely forget. Things like:

~How Joseph will drop whatever he's doing and run to the window shouting "bye-bye" and waving frantically whenever a truck goes down the road.

~How Stephanie will sing "We are family. Mommy, Daddy, Stephanie and Joseph." Whenever we are all together.

~How Joseph will say "HI!!! DADA!" with so much excitement whenever Dan walks in the door or we wake him up in the morning.

~How Stephanie asks 1,000 questions every time we get in the car. (Where we going? What town we in? What town we going to? Where are all those cars going? etc. etc.)

~How Joseph runs after his sister in a desperate attempt to keep up, giggling and shrieking at her as if it's the most fun game in the world.

~How Stephanie says "fwished" instead of squished.

~How Joseph puts his two index fingers together as his version of the sign for "more."

~How Stephanie's pretend phone conversations always go the same way "Hi. It's Stephanie. Bye."

These are just a few examples. There a thousand others that happen all day long. They are the things that are so cute but when they stop happening you don't even realize it. Just like I have no idea when Stephanie started pronouncing her f's as f's instead of p's. (I loved when we would say prayers and she would say "Dear God, thank you por..." Now it's "Thank you for" clear as a bell.)

I love that I can use this blog as a way to remember these little parts of their childhood that might get lost as the years go on. What are some of those little things that your kids are doing now that you'd like to remember?

Today I'm linking up with my friend Debi over at The Truth About Motherhood. She's starting a new meme called Mommy Moment Mondays. She wants happy, positive stories of motherhood. So often it's easy to write about the negative things, the things you want to commiserate with other moms about. But on Mondays she wants to hear some of the MANY positive aspects of Motherhood. I loved thinking about the cute and adorable things my little ones are doing right now, and look forward to reading other women's positive Mommy Moments. 

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Rhode Island Beach Memories

Happy Friday everyone!

Today, my friend Carla over at All of Me Now is hosting our weekly Rhody Blog Hop. Today's prompt:

"In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Rhody Bloggers are linking up honoring and celebrating the beautiful beaches of Rhode Island. We’re each sharing a cherished memory of an Ocean State beach. You’ll find links to a wonderful collection of beach memories at the end of this post"

I love Rhode Island. I always have, and always will. It's my home state, and the place I hope to stay forever. It has my heart, this tiny little state. 

I was blessed to grow up 5 minutes from the gorgeous beaches of Rhode Island. When I was a kid, I took it for granted that we could see the ocean whenever we wanted. I couldn't fathom that there were people who had never even seen it once. As I grew older, I began to appreciate the vastness and beauty of the ocean. The local sea wall became the place I went to calm down, to seek refuge from any challenges I was facing in my life. The ocean was a balm, soothing my soul from any heartaches. 

When my children were born, I was eager to introduce them to the sea wall. I took Stephanie for walks in her stroller when she a tiny baby. My mommy friend (Stephanie's best friend's mommy) and I met along the wall once a week while she was on maternity leave so we could walk with our little ones.

When Joseph was born, it was close to winter and we didn't get to the wall until spring. But I loved introducing him to one my favorite places when we finally made it there. I spent this last summer walking the wall 3-4 times a week, trying to lose more of my baby weight. The kids loved watching the water, and I was thrilled to be instilling a love of the ocean in them at such a young age.

One of the landmarks along the Sea Wall is the Coast Guard House restaurant, which also holds a special place in my heart. Dan and I went to brunch there for our 2nd anniversary celebration, and for Father's Day when Stephanie was 1. I attended a baby shower there for a friend whose road to motherhood was paved with heartbreak and devastation. There are memories of that restaurant that I will hold in my heart forever.

 

Most recently we took Dan's family there for brunch when they were here from NY to celebrate Joseph's 1st birthday. Just two short weeks later, the restaurant looked like this:

Photo courtesy of the South County Independent

Photo courtesy of the South County Independent

Parts of my beloved sea wall collapsed as well.

Photo courtesy of the South County Independent

It is very sad to see these pictures, but I know that our state will rebuild. We will come out of this stronger than ever. I for one am thankful that it wasn't worse...because it definitely could have been. There are others along the East Coast who suffered much greater devastation, and my heart goes out to them as well.

Hurricane Sandy did a number to Rhode Island's beautiful beaches. It also affected many, many families in our little state, who are still suffering the after effects of the devastation. If you want to help, click here to connect with Serve Rhode Island, which is coordinating efforts to help families affected by Sandy. (Thanks to Carla for sharing that information with everyone!) 

You can read other stories of Rhode Island beach memories in the link section below, and if you have a post to link up, I'd love to read it!

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Thankful Thursday!

Happy Thursday! I have a lot to be thankful for every day, but I always love the opportunity to write down things that I'm feeling especially thankful for each week. This week I'm thankful for:

~My wonderful husband. Today is our 4th wedding anniversary and not a day goes by that I don't thank God for putting this man in my life. We have grown up together, built a life together, and brought two beautiful children into this world together. 

~Friends who are willing to watch my children for me so I can surprise Dan with an anniversary dinner out, just the two of us.

~My mom, who was willing to watch the kids for me last minute while I attended a pre-opening event for the new Nordstrom Rack at my local mall. (I didn't end up going because of the Noreaster that hit us, but I'm still thankful that she was willing!) 

~Being able to cuddle with my kids in our warm apartment while the snow fell outside and the wind howled and shook the building.

~That election season is over. So much nastiness comes out during these politically heated times, and it is quite disheartening to see people attack one another because they support one or the other candidate. 

~The right to vote. So many people worked hard for me to have this right, and I don't take it for granted.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Feel free to share the things you're thankful for in the comment section. If you blog and wrote your own Thankful Thursday post, i'd love for you to link up! As always, a huge thank you to Joanna over at Baby Gators Den who hosts Thankful Thursday each week. It's one of my favorite posts to write.

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Thanksgiving Countdown

On November 1st I wrote a Facebook status announcing my excitement that the holiday season was here. It's my all time favorite time of year.

In the past people have scoffed at my excitement and rolled their eyes at me, claiming i'm "forgetting all about Thanksgiving." This year I wrote a disclaimer in my status, stating that I wasn't forgetting Thanksgiving...it's part of the holiday season!

And it really is. I adore Thanksgiving just as much as I adore Christmas. I love the traditions, the food, the excitement that's in the air when we wake up in the morning. I love the football games and the parades, the family time and the "official" start of Christmas shopping. (Well, for most people. I try to be done by Thanksgiving.)

Thanksgiving also means I get to decorate for Christmas. I would love to decorate the week before Thanksgiving (My friend Melissa from Growing up Geeky has decorated her house already! I have to say i'm jealous.) but my husband would have a fit. So I resign myself to waiting for the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Stephanie is already excited for Christmas. She talks about Christmas morning, about visiting Santa at the mall, about watching Christmas movies, reading Christmas books, listening to Christmas music and writing her Santa list. While I love her excitement, I also want to make sure she doesn't forget about Thanksgiving, so we've been talking about it a lot.

We borrowed a ton of books about Thanksgiving from the library and have been reading them every day. We talk about things we are thankful for and how Thanksgiving is a day set aside to reflect on all of our blessings. We talk about the trip we're going to take to NY that day, and the yummy food we're going to eat while we're there.

All this chatter has led her to ask, every morning since Halloween, if it's Thanksgiving yet. Yesterday I must have said "not yet" at least 25 times. Before 7am. Finally I decided that she needed a visual to see exactly when it would be Thanksgiving. Our traditional family calendar is high up on a wall, and isn't the easiest thing for a 2 year old to understand, so I made my own. Here is "Stephanie's Thanksgiving Countdown"

Every day from now until Thanksgiving she can put a sticker in that day's box. Once she puts her sticker on, we count how many days are left. She decorated it with crayons, and was jumping out of her pants excited to show "MY Thanksgiving calendar" to Dan when he got home from work. It was such a simple thing to make, but she is filled with pride over having her very own countdown. (She still asked me about 15 times today if it was Thanksgiving yet. So it didn't entirely fulfill it's purpose. But it's still fun.)

Are your kids excited about Thanksgiving? What kinds of things are you doing together in anticipation of the day? 

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Monthly Meal Planning: November

At the end of September I wrote about how I'm meal planning on a monthly basis now, to save money, save time, and be healthier.

I'm on my third month of meal planning this way, and November was definitely the easiest. I started the process half-way through October and it felt more organized and stream-lined. It's still a lengthy process, but I think it will continue to get easier each month.

Here are the steps involved in my Monthly Meal Planning Process:

1. Enter meals into my calendar.

2. Go through meal-by-meal and make a list of all the ingredients I need for each meal. (This will turn into the master grocery list.)

3. Write down things we need for breakfasts and lunches (I only meal plan for dinner)

3. Cross-check the grocery list with what I already have in the cupboard and freezer.

4.  Go through my coupons and pull out any that correspond to items on my list.

5. Organize the list based on what I'll by at each store. (Since i'm on my third month, I have a general idea of which store offers the best prices for different things.)

6. Spend one day going to three different stores and buy everything that is either non-perishable, can be stored in the freezer or will last the entire month. (I highly recommend doing this without children in tow! I've convinced Dan to take one Thursday morning off each month. I drop Stephanie at school and spend the entire 2.5 hours getting our shopping done.)

I now have all of our food for the month, except for fresh fruits/veggies, yogurt and milk. I'll be buying those things on a weekly basis, and am hoping to keep those weekly trips to $25 or less.

And now the good part:

November Meal Plan

1. Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes and peas.
2. Crock-Pot Sausage and Peppers over egg noodles
3. Eating out
4. Homemade calzones
5. Leftovers from the past 4 meals
6. Barbeque Chicken
7. Pasta & Homemade Sauce
8. Tuna sandwiches, pickles and celery sticks
9. Tacos
10. Ham, baked beans, greenbeans, cranberry sauce
11. Leftovers
12. Chicken Pot-Pie
13. Macaroni & Cheese, carrot sticks
14. Crock-Pot Hawaiian Barbeque Chicken, rice, broccoli
15. Soup & crescent rolls
16. Rotisserie Chicken, cranberry sauce, green beans, stuffing (I didn't realize how chicken-filled this week was until just now. Oops!)
17. Pasta and Sauce
18. Crock-Pot Beef & Broccoli
19. Breaded Pork Chops, applesauce, corn
20. Waffles & fruit
21. Leftovers
22. Thanksgiving (We'll be in NY with Dan's family)
23. New York
24. New York
25. English Muffin Pizzas
26. Chili
27. Macaroni & Cheese (Dan isn't home on Tuesday nights, hence the "kid food" you'll notice each week.)
28. Chicken Pot Pie
29. Crock-Pot tortellini stew
30. Lemon Pepper Pork

*Let me know if there's any meals you're interested in seeing recipes for! And if you have any simple, easy meals you'd like to share, I'll be thinking about December before you know it.

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Kids Art Activities: Toddler Style!

Thanks to the stormy weather, we've had a lot of indoor time lately.

We are typically on the go constantly, so I do love those rare home days where we have no plans and can just hang around the house. But when we're forced to stay home, I find myself climbing the walls by 9 am. To try and keep some sanity, I always have an arsenal of art activities that I can pull out for Stephanie when the boredom hits.

These things are perfect for two year olds. Pinterest is loaded with fun crafts to do with kids but a lot of them are just too complicated for her age group or are things that I need to help her with. And while those types of activities are wonderful and  can be very fun, our reality is that i'm often busy chasing after Joseph while Stephanie is trying to do art. Therefore, I need to have things available that she can do all by herself.

I've put together a box of supplies that I have readily available to pull out at a moments notice. And Stephanie has access to it, so she can get to work on an art project whenever the mood strikes.

The things I keep in the box include:

~Construction paper

~Glitter Glue

~Markers

~Crayons

~Stickers

~Glue sticks

~Torn paper (I take the leftover pieces of paper from projects and tear them into pieces. Hand Stephanie a bowl of them, along with a glue stick and a big piece of paper and she will make a masterpiece. We call it Torn Paper Art and it keeps her busy for a long time!) *Letting your child tear the paper him or herself can be a fun project too!

~Coloring Books

~Paintbrushes (she uses them with her glitter glue. After she squeezes globs of it onto her paper, she uses the paintbrush to swirl it around.)

~Foam shapes (she decorates them with stickers and markers. Craft stores have seasonal ones. Right now we have pumpkins, ghosts, witches hats, etc.)

~Toy catalogs and pens (she circles things that she wants to ask Santa for. That's the idea anyway. She tends to just circle everything, but she has a blast doing it!)

I find it best to pull out one or two things at a time for Stephanie to work on. If she is presented with the whole box at once she can get overwhelmed. But it's nice to have everything together and ready whenever we need something to do to help cure our "stuck in the house" blues.

Over the next several months, as Stephanie gets a little older, i'll be ready to leave her alone with things like elmers glue, pom-poms, googly eyes, etc. I'll be looking for ideas for new things, so I'd love to hear what art supplies you keep on hand for your little ones!

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Thankful Thursday: Hurricane Edition

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I have so much to be thankful for. There are so many people suffering from the devastating effects of this storm and my heart breaks for them when I see the footage on TV. It truly does make me feel blessed and grateful for the safety of my loved ones and friends. So for this week, I am thankful for:

~Not losing electricity

~Being able to have my parents over for a hot meal and shower, since they are still without power. *I was just notified by my mom that when they arrived home from dinner at our house, their power was back. Hooray!*

~My husbands job. He had to work during the hurricane, but since he works on the college campus where we live, he didn't have to drive through the storm. Thank goodness!

~Facebook. I was able to keep tabs on all of our friends and family and see how everyone was weathering the storm. It was good for peace of mind to know that loved ones were safe and sound.

~The fact that we suffered no damage to our apartment. Other buildings on campus and throughout the state were hit by trees, but we were blessed not to have that happen to us.

~The fact that everyone we know and love is safe. That is the most important thing. A few days of no power, even damage to homes and vehicles....nothing matters more than the fact that those we love are alive and unharmed. I've been saying extra prayers of thanks for that, and today, on Thankful Thursday, i'm happy to take a few extra minutes to remember what really matters.

*I hope you will join me in sending prayers and good thoughts to all those that didn't fare as well during this storm. So many towns are under water, so many homes caught fire, and so many lost everything, and it's important not to forget about them.

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