Snow Day

Yesterday morning we woke to find four inches of snow on the ground, and it snowed at least another four  inches by noon. A few roads were closed. Schools closed around noon, as did Justin's office. My work released us early to drive home while the daylight remained.

It was as much of a snow day as we get around these parts.

Justin and I hurried home and took the kiddo outside for some fun.

The last time we frolicked in the snow in our back yard Kendry whined each time any snow found its way onto his skin, as in snow getting on his face or between his glove and jacket sleeve. After five or six whining incidents in the span of a half hour I was seriously thinking to myself "And this is why we need to move to Alaska, so my kiddo can toughen up a bit. Its just snow, for Pete's sake!"

Alright, so that thought probably won't win me Mother of the Year anytime soon, but at least I'm honest. 

You can't blame the kiddo though. Our valley gets maybe one really good snow a year.

But wouldn't you know it, Alaska appears to have toughened him up. Kendry didn't whine one bit about the snow when he went sledding (and flying out of his sled face first) in Alaska. Nor did he whine when we ventured out to my parents' hot tub in nothing but our bathing suits. 

Yesterday I saw Kendry get snow between his glove and jacket sleeve countless times; he simply paused to brush it off and then kept right on playing.

Atta' boy, Kendry!

Pillow Talk

This weekend my BFF Amanda visited from Seattle.

As always, we had a wonderful time chatting, eating goodies like Red Velvet Cake and ice cream, drinking some delicious wine, more chatting, rollerblading, scavenging Martha Stewart books for inspiration and, of course, crafting.

Thats how we roll.

We like to plan a craft or project to do when we're together.

The last time Amanda visited our home she helped me paint our entire guest bedroom.

This visit we chose pillows.

This was my inspiration and tutorial:

(source)

TAA-DAA!

Pillow #1 front:

And back:

And Pillow #2 front:

I am in love!!

Thank you to Amanda for a wonderful weekend! You inspire me in countless ways, and I love you dearly!

And thank you to my sister Jaimee, who gave me the beautiful blue floral fabric for Christmas. Love you, Jaim!

The Art of Running Late

I have to give credit where credit is due. I hijacked the title of this post from the novel I read just before Thanksgiving, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Its a touching and funny story about a family written from the family dog's perspective.

 

It was a fitting theft since my time spent reading this book contributes to the very topic of this post: TARDINESS.

I confess, I am one of those people who is late less than prompt to almost everything. I would blame it on having a kiddo if I could, but the truth is I was late perpetually tardy long before parenthood, and marriage for that matter.

Dang! There goes my excuse for blaming Justin too.

 

Is it just me or does the very word 'late' sound rude?

 

Doctor's appointments, parties (for which I call it 'fashionably late') and yes, even work and church.

Its bad.

And it needs to change.

Parenting finally showed me the light.

As of late, I have had one two many mornings that by the time I get Kendry into the car I have already gotten horribly impatient with him. Granted, his independent streak that demands he put on his own shoes and climb into his car seat by himself requires superhuman patience in itself. But when we're I'm already running late these little hold-ups nearly put me over the edge.

And thats not the mom I want to be.

 

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

~Galations 5:22~

Case in point:
I started reading The Art of Racing in the Rain on a Wednesday night and simply could not put it down, which means I didn't fall asleep until 11:30pm. Kendry is usually up around 6:30am.

lack of sleep + toddler 'slower than a snail' eating behaviors + poor time management + toddler independence =  unnecessary stress

unnecessary stress in the morning = tardiness = a grumpy and snippity momma

And as we all know:
When momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy!

The irony is that every time I am on time or {gasp!} early, I think to myself:

"This is nice. I don't feel rushed or stressed."



"I think I'm even a nicer person to be around when I'm on time."



Apparently the trend for 2012 is to come up with a 'word of the year' for yourself - a more specific New Year's resolution, if you will, all summed up in a single word.


My word for 2012 is:
Time Management


Okay, thats technically two words, but I don't care.
It fits.

God has been challenging me to re-think my priorities and identify where I am spending my time.

Am I a good steward of the time He is giving me?

Are my priorities centered around the things this world demands from me as a wife and mother?

Or are my priorities centered around things with eternal significance?

Are my priorities centered around God and the calling He has placed in my life?



I know its going to take some serious discipline and prayer,
but I am so excited to see what God will reveal to me as I honor Him with my time.



What is your word for 2012?

Testing Out My Carpentry Muscles

Know this:

if you haven't been to Ana White's site you are seriously missing out.

If thats you, head over there right now and take a few minutes to see what all the fuss is about.

Go ahead, I'll wait.

source

Please tell me you laughed at that photo.

Ana's site is pure gold to us DIYers who desire cool furniture on a tight budget. 

You don't even want to know how many furniture plans I have on my to-do list over there.

But as crafty as I might think myself to be,

building furniture is still a bit intimidating to me.

So I decided to start small.

This is Ana's vintage step stool.




So very cute and functional!


If you recall, we have a toddler who is at the tail end of the adventure called potty training,
and doing a mighty great job of it if I do say so myself.

Chalk it up to incredible genetics.



Lucky for us, Kendry's bathroom was apparently designed with kiddos in mind; the toilet and the vanity are below the standard height.

But the kiddo could still use a little help at this stage;
after all, his current motto is "I can do it myself!"

Ana's step stool made perfect sense as the first true test of my building skills. Plus, I don't think you can have too many step stools when you have a kiddo in the house.

I used our circular saw and jig saw to cut my wood, all of which was pulled from our scrap wood pile.
{ Three cheers for saving some moolah! }

I did modify Ana's dimensions a bit as I didn't want my stool to be quite as big as hers.

Then I pieced it together with wood glue and screws. I coated it with some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Cream, did a little sandpaper distressing and coated it with Annie Sloan wax.

Here is my final product:

Kendry loves it. Hooray!
It allows him to reach his bathroom sink perfectly.

The toilet, not so much.
With two steps this step stool is actually too high for his small toilet.


You know that game where you fall backwards and trust that the person behind you is going to catch your fall?

Now picture Kendry as the faller and the toilet as the catcher.
Kendry reaches the top step but then he has to fall backwards to sit on the toilet seat.

Not quite what I was aiming for.

You mommies of little boys know exactly what I mean when I say that my son does not need any more distractions in the bathroom than he already has.

Case in point:
A few weeks ago Kendry was on the potty when Daddy called out from the other room.
DADDY:  "How you doin' in there, bud?"
KENDRY:  "I'm washing my leg!"

Uh-oh.

Potty Training 101: toilet water is icky!
Icky icky icky!


Anyway...
back to the step stool.

As much as I love it, this particular style may not work after all for Kendry's bathroom. I may send it off to Grandma Mikki's house, where the three grandkids can use it in her bathroom.
(Surprise, Mikki!)

Then I think I will head back to the drawing board and modify Ana's plans to make a stool with one step instead of two.

But hey, I can build furniture!
Who knew?!




Before I go, here is the kiddo after he barged into my photo shoot.

Am I the only one singing "Fat man in a little coat...fat man in a little coooat..."?

{I dedicate that song to Justin and Angel - lotsa love to you both!}

A Few of Kendry's Highlights

Blog slacker that I presently am, my post on our Christmas in Alaska adventure is still in draft form. And instead of working on it and getting it posted for you this weekend, I opted to purge and reorganize my pantry on Saturday {woot! woot!} and finish a fun project this afternoon which will, coincidentally, be a blog post in itself. I'm sorry, but if it comes down to blogging or playing with my label maker, well... the label maker usually wins out.

I'm geeky like that.
And proud of it.

In the meantime, I thought I would post this little glimpse of Kendry's Christmas.

This is my second year of making his Christmas jammies, a tradition that still has me tickled pink, even if I was whipping them together at the very last minute.

Procrastination is my middle name.

As I sorted through our photos from Christmas I really got a kick out of this segment.

OUCH!

Poor kiddo learned the hard way what it feels like to have the rubberband snap off one of these giant balloons.

As for video, we missed the opportunity to capture the one lone moose we spotted beside the road, but Justin did get footage of me learning to play Dance Dance Revolution - footage that was taken without my knowledge and will not be shared in this forum.

You'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you I have some mad DDR skills.

Together with seven of his cousins, Kendry opened his Christmas presents on Christmas Eve this year.

On Christmas morning the three of us opened our stockings as a family.

But my favorite video is from our traditional Hilltop breakfast with Grandpa.

More details and photos from our Christmas trip to come this week!