7 Quick Takes

I sit at the end of this week just completely devoid of energy. Technically right now, I need to be getting my rear in gear and working out with Jillian Michaels since I missed the gym today and yesterday, but I just don't have the energy. Instead, catching up on blogs and actually blogging on my own blog seems much more appealing.

1. All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day, and it is by far one of my favorite feast days in the Church year. What I think is particularly cool about today is that it is a day when we celebrate ALL the Saints of the Church, known and unknown. Everyone in Heaven is a Saint, but some have not been declared Saints by the Church. So it's nice to have a day like today when we recognize those who have reached their eternal reward. Someone told me yesterday that they would be remembering Abby today when they were at Mass, and the comment made my day. 

2. Halloween

In all, the boys attended two Halloween parties (three if you count Zoo Boo), and trick or treated for a good hour last night. The weather could have cooperated better, but the rain just made things more interesting. We made it through one whole street and then headed home. Somehow between all the events, we now have enough candy to last us a lifetime. Seriously, it is insane. And most people in the neighborhood where we go give out full size candy bars or packages of candy. I am going to gain ten pounds just looking at it all. 

The morning of Halloween before the Preschool Party.

Mike and Sully ready for trick or treating.

 3. Noah joins Preschool

Matthew's preschool party was on Thursday morning, and I am a homeroom mom, so I stayed to help out. Of course, Noah had to tag along as well. He was intimidated at all. In fact, when it was story time, he just pushed through the crowd and plopped down right next to Matthew and continued to listen to the story. He fit right in.

4. The Weight Game

I had a doctor's appointment this past week (two actually), and I had gained five pounds in six months. Gasp! I wasn't all that freaked out. In fact, I kind of expected it. I have been training with Christi, and I am definitely losing inches, but I'm also gaining major muscle. And muscle weighs a lot. Anyways, the second doctor was quite concerned and really had me worried. Christi tried to give me a good pep talk, but I was still feeling all chubby and yucky. Then, at the gym on Wednesday an older man who hadn't been there in about a month was suddenly back working out. (The gym I go to is pretty small and you start to recognize the people who work out when you do. You make small talk sometimes, too.) And he stopped me and very sincerely proceeded to tell me how impressed he was that I had lost all the baby weight and then some. What a nice thing to say! And I sooooooo needed to hear that. I am nowhere near my prepregnancy weight. But I feel like I am actually healthy for the first time in my life. If I keep working with Christi, I'll get leaner, too. And the best part? The OB okayed my entire workout with Christi (including my 5K) to continue during pregnancy in a few years when, God willing, we decide to have another baby.

5. A Friendly Visit

Last weekend Matthew's Godfather came to visit. We had a very busy weekend, and we had a lot of fun. I am quite certain he went home way more exhausted than when he arrived. Matthew loved having him visit. And it was adorable when after Mass on Sunday he proudly walked over to Father Jim and said, "This is my grandfather." He meant Godfather, clearly, but it was oh so cute since his godfather is nowhere near old enough to be a grandfather!

6. Monsters University

Monsters University came out on DVD this past Tuesday, and the boys and I could not wait to bring it home. I never thought I would be one of those parents who runs to the store the first day something is released, but I am! Monsters University is really such a cute and fun movie. I was anxious to get to see it again. I think I even like it better than the first. And the boys love it. They enjoy sitting and watching it and also trying to scare each other like the students in Scare Class. I would highly recommend watching it.

7. Bam!

The following sums up everything about why we use NFP:

 

Have a fantastic weekend!

7 Quick Takes

The blog has been pretty quiet recently. I've found lots of things I'd love to write about, but I just haven't had time. Since we returned from our anniversary getaway, life has been crazy. And next week looks even crazier. So I had to take a break from all the craziness today and share my seven quick takes. I apologize in advance for the photo bombing that's about to begin.

1. Matthew has outgrown his toddler bed, and Noah has almost outgrown his crib. So we had some major decisions to make about the bed situation. We plan on moving in the spring and buying a house (God willing), but until then, we will need to set them up in this house for sleeping. After a lot of research and discussion, we decided to go with bunk beds. This means that Noah will completely skip the toddler bed phase, and I am okay with this. We found a black wooden bunk bed frame from IKEA, and we will add a bed rail to the bottom bunk to keep Noah safe. I had so much fun ordering the kids bedding this week, and I have been picking up wall decorations when I see them to redecorate their new room. Goodbye, Elmo and Pooh. Hello, Steelers! :) It is going to be great. :)

 

2. Matthew's first preschool pictures came in this week, and they are adorable! I love the group picture the most. The picture is adorable and so funny. I love how Mary is behind them all. It's awesome.

3. I am obsessed with Sara Evans' new video, Slow Me Down. She is by far my all time favorite singer. I have met her twice and seen her in concert numerous times. She is one of my idols, and it has been three years since she put out new music! That's too long. Take a second to check it out. You will be happy you did. :)

Me and Sara Evans in August of 2004....wow I'm old!

4. I made some time this week to bake for my dad's company's Cash Bash fundraiser tonight. They do a dinner buffet and dessert table and are always looking for donations for the dessert table. Since I love to bake and inherited my grandma Kay's baking skills, I always volunteer. This time around, I came up with the cupcakes below. Seriously, they were soooooo easy to make. And they're cute. 

5. Brian gave me the sweetest, most romantic anniversary card ever last week. Most of it will remain private, but I just had to share the fact that inside the card he taped two tickets to a football game we had attended 6 days into our relationship. Later that day, we prayed together for the first time and later that night, we said I love you for the first time. It is a day I will never forget....and apparently Brian didn't either. I didn't even know he still had the tickets. It really made my anniversary. 

6. Matthew gave one of his closest friends a birthday gift this week. He loved the entire process of gift giving. He had such a blast picking out the present, wrapping it, decorating the card, and then finally presenting the gift. It was so cute to see how much joy he had in the whole process. At the end, he totally attacked his friend with a hug. He's a little more of a hug person than she is apparently, but it was still cute. If only arranged marriages were still the in thing....

7. This picture pretty much sums it all up. This is my goal at the end of the day. I fail almost daily and sometimes hourly at doing this, but I am trying. And I saw this graphic on facebook a few days ago and just really liked it. I think we will be using it in our talk on NFP. It says it better than I ever could.

Have a fantastic last weekend of October! Time is truly flying by! :)

DIY: Preschool Snacks

Since Matthew started preschool, I have felt all kinds of crafty again! :) I used to be very into crafts when I was younger, but lost touch with the crafting world through high school, college, and the early years of  young adult life. Now, however, I'm back at it, and I'm loving every second! Matthew's first turn to bring snack to school is tomorrow, so I knew we had to do something fun when he announced that he wanted to bring grapes. I found this idea online, but I added a few personal touches, and I think I executed it really well. Enjoy!

Butterfly Grapes

 First, gather all of your supplies. You will need snack baggies, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, clothes pins (we chose multicolored clothes pins to make it more fun), and a hot glue gun. And of course, you need grapes. I found every thing at the Dollar Store, except the grapes and glue gun. The glue gun cost a mere $3 at Walmart, and I have a feeling I will be using it a lot more this year!

Next, you want to measure and cut apart the pipe cleaners and then fold them into antennas for the butterflies. There are only nine students in Matthew's class, so we didn't need too many. You could even get fancy and make the antennas swirly, but we kept it simple this time around.

After you have twisted all the antennas, it's time to glue them to the clothes pins. The hot glue worked really well to do this, and I would NOT recommend using craft glue. It takes too long to set and I'm pretty sure our antennas would have fallen off instantly without the heat of the hot glue.

Add on the googly eyes with the hot glue once all of the antennas are in place. Hot glue dries very quickly, so we didn't have to wait long before we could add the eyes. Some of our eyes we even glued on top of the antennas. I liked the look better that way.

Finally, you fill the snack baggies with grapes. (We put 16 in each baggie. Even numbers are easier to split.) Then, divide the grapes into the two sides of the bag and pinch it closed in the middle with the clothes pin. And magically you have Butterfly Grapes!

This project was easy, cheap, and fun. Matthew even got to help out a bit, and I really had a good time with that. I am already lining up ideas for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to more DIY crafting projects in the future! :)

Seven Quick Takes

I couldn't let a Friday go by without putting in my two cents...

1. I'M MEETING RASCAL FLATTS TONIGHT! And I'm pretty darn excited about it. I hope I don't make a total moron out of myself. We will see. Why at 28 years old this still excites me, I will never know. But I am pumped. :)

2. Big Brother last night was AWESOME! Totally the best episode of the entire season. Amanda and Elissa left the Big Brother house. Finally! Seriously, I didn't like Ginamarie in the beginning, but after pulling off such a power move, she totally deserves the win the whole thing. I'm hoping her alliance doesn't turn on this week. We will see. It was nice to actually enjoy watching the show again. Okay, so Brian and I always get a kick out of it. But last night just took it back to old school Big Brother when Mike Boogie and Dr. Will used to play the game. It was a great reward to be able to come to it after a LONG night of tutoring.

3. I only got to the gym three days this past week and am feeling like a total slacker. I took a long walk yesterday and took another one today. Plus, I still do the ab challenge every night, but there's nothing like sweating it out at the gym. Oh, well. One rough week won't kill me. I'll get back into the swing next week. But I only realize how much I love working out on the days when I don't have the time/ability to do so. I guess it's good that I miss it since that means I actually like it.

4. Now that you're totally falling asleep, we can just skip to the next one.

5. Matthew finished his first week of preschool. He goes two mornings a week, and he LOVED it! Yay! He happily ran off each morning, and he has slowly been telling me more about what he actually does at school. Yesterday they practiced making the letter "A" and painting with water colors. He likes going to the Bike Room the best, and they try to do that each morning. No wonder he is exhausted! He napped for three hours yesterday afternoon and then slept from 830-730 last night. Poor guy. Happy Mommy. :)

6. NFL season kicked off last night and I am thrilled to report that the Ravens LOST!!!! Woohoo!!! Now all the Steelers need to do is win their home opener and we're already a game ahead of the dirty birds! What a great way to start off the season...ahead of Baltimore. I love it. Thank you, Peyton Manning, for totally rocking it with 7 touchdowns last night. You, sir, are my new favorite person. I'll finish this quick take with: HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO!

7. The weather in Pittsburgh the past few days has been glorious. Totally starting to feel a bit like early Fall. I'm loving every second of it. I've had great hair days because the humidity is totally 0. Awesome. That being said, even though the temps drop into the 40's at night, I still have our window unit AC cranked on high. I love sleeping in the ice cold. It's better that way. Brian thinks I'm strange, so if you might think that, too, right about now, I can't say I blame you.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Back to School

Today was Matthew's first day of preschool! What a big milestone. He did so well, too. I walked him into his classroom, and he hugged me and ran off to play. I was the first parent out of the classroom, and I was so proud of my little man. I don't know where the past three and a half years have gone, but they sure have gone quickly!

For our family, this is just the first year of many of Matthew leaving the house to attend school at a school. We may be devout Catholics, but we have chosen not to homeschool our children. (Okay, so after Obama was elected again and DOMA was overturned, I may have seriously considered it in a moment of complete panic, but then I came to my senses.) I want to preface this post by saying that the families we know in Pittsburgh who are homeschooling are doing a beautiful job. (My freshman year roommate from college even spent some time as a homeschooler, and she's one of the coolest and smartest people I know. Guess that's why she's Noah's Godmother!) They are examples of homeschooling done well. And I fault no one for choosing to homeschool. It's your right as a parent. (Just please use a curriculum. :)) Homeschooling has many benefits and can be great when done well. I don't argue that at all. But there's something to be said for sending  your child off into a school building, too. That, too, can have great benefits and blessings.

Here's the thing. I'm a teacher. So lots of times people look at our family and are a little surprised that we are not homeschooling our children. Let's forget the fact that I never, ever want to teach my own children beyond helping them with homework and helping them learn study skills. (Does that make me a bad mother? Probably. Oh, well. Judge away.) But here's the other thing. I am a teacher, and thus, I have a special place in my heart for the tradition of children in America going off to school on a daily basis. I think there's something to be said for sending your child off to school and you serving in a supporting role as the parent. I think someone else teaching our children is a good thing.

I get that schools (Catholic and public) are not perfect. They are not perfect little examples of living the faith on a daily basis. They are fallen. I can completely understand why for some families, dealing with those school failings involves the decision to homeschool. Sometimes it's the only way to make sure your child is getting a good, Christian upbringing. It makes sense to want to protect your children from the things in the world that aren't always the best example of Catholicism. But then the educator part of me kicks in.

I love the idea of public education. Yet, I see schools failing in America. I see students being failed by the school systems. And I just can't stand by and pull out of the system completely as a way to fix it. I feel to fix it, I need to be involved. And I so badly want to fix it. I need my opinions and voice to be heard. By pulling out of the school system, my voice will not be heard, and things will only get worse. Education can be fixed. Catholic schools can be fixed. But we as parents need to pull together with educators who care and fix them. We can't just keep pulling out and away. The whole system at that point is only doomed further. If all the good people pull out, what's left? I refuse to abandon a system that I believe can work and at one point, did work for this country. I refuse to believe that the way to fix it is by pulling out of it. I mean, parts of the Catholic Church are broken, and I didn't just decide to stop going and become a different religion. I chose to stay a part of it, and to try and fix it from within. That's just what makes sense to me.

At some point, it may prove impossible to fix anything by ourselves, and it may show us that it's better to keep our kids home and use a cyber school curriculum. But I'm not sure that will be the case. Only time will tell. I can't really see the above scenario happening, but I know getting involved with a school and having your voice heard is not always easy or even possible. You can speak up all you want and still be shut down. That can get frustrating, and I'm not sure I'll have much patience for that. Having our kids learn at home, however, would not be ideal for us.

As Brian and I continue on our journey as parents, I only pray that we can continue to make good educational decisions for our children. We are both products of public education and consider ourselves to be pretty faithful and educated Catholics. As we forge ahead, we hope and pray that our presence wherever our children attend school will have a positive influence and lead to changes in the education system.

Whether you homeschool or send your kids off, happy back to school! Prayers for everyone for a blessed and successful year!

Friday Quick Takes

Just because I couldn't let a Friday go by without chiming in with my 7 Quick Takes!

1. A woman after Mass yesterday morning asked me if I am pregnant because I look like it. First, the answer is no, and second, how rude! I have been working my butt off at the gym every day of the week and to be told I look pregnant is just not cool. The woman isn't ancient either, so it's not like I can write it off as just a little old lady being confused. And honestly, did this women never learn that the last thing you ever ask a woman is if she's expecting? I was hurt, but then Brian pointed out that with the ages of our kids, people are starting to think we'll be expecting soon. Which I guess makes sense. Even my trainer is baffled. Come on, people! I just bought size six jeans last Friday night. There's no way my pregnant self could ever fit in those. Ugh.

2. Last night I had a night off from tutoring and both my dad and Brian were working late, so my mom and I took both boys to the mall. I know the mall sounds boring, but my kids LOVE it. They love playing in the toy store and fountain. Eating in the food court is seriously the best thing ever in their minds. And it get us out of the house and burns off some energy. My mom and I had a blast! We hadn't taken the kids anywhere just us for a while, and it was nice to spend the evening with my best friend. We laughed a lot. Good times for all.

3.

This picture speaks for itself....Matthew is officially ready for preschool this coming Tuesday! It will be a big deal for sure in our house. I am so proud of my little guy, and he is so ready for school. I can't imagine keeping him home any longer. He is ready to learn, and yes, I'm a teacher. But I could NEVER teach my own kids. I prefer to let someone else tackled that hurdle. :)

4. Do parents ever get to sleep through the night? I mean, my kids are pretty well sleep trained, but if I have to wipe another nose, untangle another blanket, or find another binky tonight, I will lose it. The wake ups only last for two minutes at most, but it takes me FOREVER to go back to sleep. This Mommy is so very tired. I know it could be worse, but I am so looking forward to coming home from Rascal Flatts next Friday night and sleeping into noon the next day since the kids will be at my parents house. A full night's sleep will be AMAZING.

5.

 

Business is good....very good! It just suddenly started expanding last week as many of the public districts started back to school. I actually have more students than time slots at this point. I'm not sure what the solution is to that, but I'm sure I will come up with something. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the hours I'll be gone each evening, but I also feel incredibly blessed. I can stay home with my kids and still help make ends meet. God is good.

6. My Countdown App says that there are only 48 days, 23 hours, and 53 minutes until mine and Brian's anniversary trip to Wine Country in Erie. We leave on our anniversary (a Friday) at noon and return the following Sunday at noon. We will get to Erie in time to visit one or two wineries on Friday before a romantic dinner that Brian is arranging. And we will have ALL day Saturday to go wine tasting. We even plan on venturing into New York and visiting some of the wineries there. It will be a great getaway. I simply cannot wait. Plus, we have the nicest room in the B&B and it has a fireplace as well as its own, private entrance. We won't have to see another soul that weekend, and that's awesome. October 18 cannot come fast enough!

7. Sara Evans is my favorite singer ever. Love her and every single song she has ever written and performed. Her song, Perfect, is great. And you can jam to it...I do it every day on the treadmill. It breaks up the boy band play list nicely. :) Enjoy!

Happy Weekend!

DIY Teacher Gifts

Matthew starts Preschool this coming Tuesday morning. It will be a big day for all of us. In many ways, I feel totally ready to let go and in others, I feel quite protective. He has already met both of his teachers and a few fellow classmates, and he enjoyed every single one.

As a former teacher, I thought it would be nice for Matthew and I to make his teachers a little gift for the beginning of the year. We decided to make Teacher Survival Kits and completed them this afternoon. Here's how the process played out:

We went to CVS and the Dollar Store and bought the fillings for the Survival Kits. We decided to put inside: tissues, TicTacs, Airborne, hand sanitizer, pens, chap stick, notepads, and a cookie from Potomac Bakery. Technically, I could have baked the cookies myself, but for 60 cents a piece, it was worth not having to turn on the oven in this heat! The bags contents total cost about $10 a piece. Not bad.

 I printed this graphic from the internet and then filled in information like the title of the gift, teacher's name, school year, and Matthew's name with Crayola markers. Matthew then used crayons to decorate the labels in his own original way.

 Here are the finished products.We used freezer storage bags as the actual container and since I already had those laying around, they didn't cost anything. Matthew is excited to have something for his teachers on the first day of school, and I think they will be excited to receive them. Not bad for one of my first DIY projects!