Sophia's Garden

This must be a hint that Mom's been gardening alot, when Sophia plants herself like a flowerpot. Earlier I caught her watering the stairs INSIDE! She was quick to point out that she was using her sippy cup like I use a watering can. Watering her feet on each step of my carpeted stairs.

I guess I can take a hint--ohkay sweetheart you win. Let's go to the park. I don't think my house can take much more indoor gardening.

What difference an afternoon makes!

Problem: How to redo a room when you have a seventies green kitchen and pink walls? (No comment on the previous owners state of mind when they decided to paint the living room pink.)

Solution: New curtains, new cover on old chairs, a coat of paint on the bottom half of the table. Spray paint a lamp black and use left-over polka-dot material to redo lamp shade. Hang up a picture and an old guitar, fill the shelves with games the couple love and you have a room thats as fun and free as Dave & Tayelor.

Tayelor & Dave Jarret recently moved into to a cozy apartment on the top-level or a 50's style cape-cod. On Monday, Tayelor invited Sophia and I over for lunch-a few hours later and Voila! All it took was new coat of paint, some left-over material from the scrap table at a local store and we had a whole new room that fit our friends inspite of the bizare color choice. The best-part was that it only cost us $16.oo and Tayelor and I learned how to upholster those great kitchen chairs! Nothing makes me happier than getting to shop, get a great deal, decorate, use my tools, and even break out Grandma's sewing machine all in the same day with friends. It's also really cool to be able to use my freakish-obsessive creativity for something that will really benefit such great people!

Mommy Milestone!

Attention Attention!

The day has finally arrived! Pre-baby pants didn't just hang in the back of the closet they actually made it out into public!

I've been able to zip them up for a while now but it was only for me--since I didn't want to look like Hoochie Mama--instead of Skinny Mama!

But thanks to my Mother's Day gift (an IPOD Nano to listen to my speeches) going the extra-mile is a lot more fun! It's also encouraging to see other mommies out there with the jogging-stroller/IPOD combo!

Sophia lately has mimicked EVERYTHING I do in her pressence and it's made me highly aware that I want to be teaching her good habits--a lifestyle that will serve her well. So we're a team now--she's my navigator, my mascot, and my cheerleader!

Vacation Hike in Ha Ha Tonka State Park. New found die-hard attitude coming from prayer. With His help I never want my size or how I look in something to keep me from any part of life!

Commentary on a Comment!

In a previous post I listed all the mommy blog's that inspire me & Jacks--recently commented
"Not That You Asked is a GREAT blog. I've been a faithful reader for about a year or so now. She's got a great sense of humor! " http://captainhambone.typepad.com/not_that_you_asked/

This blow's my mind--I know that Jacks is here in Cedar Rapids and said blogger is in D.C.??
In fact, she's actually the sister-in-law of my college roommate Elisa Palmer.

Sfo the questions is--do six degree's of separation apply in the Blogger-land?

Mommies are people too. . .

One of my favorite books is called “Goodnight Nobody” because it combines one of my favorite authors, Jennifer Weiner (author of In Her Shoes) with a mystery, another favorite, with the phenomenon I’ve recently discovered of a secret group of people who haunt library’s, parks, grocery stores and malls while any other self-respecting person is work. No were not homeless, were mommies. But sometimes I feel just as invisible.
It’s hard enough that my one-year old steals the show no matter where we go-- she can’t help it! Self-respecting people suddenly stop what they’re doing and coo, or stare at her—it’s like paparazzi only these are normal people drawn to strollers.

On top of that, I find myself avoiding typical mommy habitat’s b/c I feel I don’t know the unspoken rules. This is getting better as I realize there is no manual to parenting that I somehow missed. Seriously, how is it that something as simple as children playing can make me forget I am a college educated, self-sufficient, capable and creative person? All the other mom’s probably feel just as out-of-the-loop as I do? Right? It wasn’t like I skipped school the day they covered ‘How-Kids-Should-Behave-Towards-Others’ in school. Right? I keep telling myself, all the rest of us are doing the best we can. We’re all trying to make sure our kids have enough sleep, food, water, interaction and love in their lives so they have a fighting chance at this thing called life.
Then yesterday, as I was developing a blog, that turned into an article, that may turn into a chapter in my next book, it hit me. All these little adventures/mishaps in the mommy-world aren’t just my mistakes. They’re copy to be written-up and shared with the world. Don’t believe me checkout the following extraordinary sites by mommies and daddies that inspire me.
www.ericandannikadurbin.blogspot.com
www.thedarjeantimes.blogspot.com
www.littlesancho.blogspot.com
www.mcdonnellplace.com
www.martinmemories.blogspot.com
www.thedudleyfamily.blogspot.com
www.captainhambone.typepad.com/not_that_you_asked
www.parisbabies.blogspot.com
So now with a new purpose—I think I’ll go to the park are scout out some new material. It’s not a play-date any more . . .it’s research.

Congratulations Dana, Graham House & Friends!

 

 

 

 

Wheaton Reunion

 

 

 

 

The lamp post was the closest Dana, Minga, Nate & I got to the famous C.S. Lewis wardrobe inside the Wade Center. Ironically,in the nine years that a Wollschlager was at Wheaton, neither Dana or I have made it inside. In my defense, it was under construction while I was there, maybe next time!