2014

Happy two weeks into the New Year! I wanted to spend a post making note of some thoughts that I have for our family this year. Prior to the new year, I had printed out a list of questions that were different from standard ‘resolutions’, but more like goal setting, and just generally thinking about some different aspects of your life and where you are vs. where you want to be. It was a great way to think through some things, set some goals, and get some plans set in motion. This will be quite the text-heavy, picture-light post. I’ve got lots of thoughts running around in this little brain of mine. Let’s discuss. In no particular order.

Running

Some time in October, I decided against my typical workout routine and started doing a couch to 5k running schedule. I consulted a master runner friend at work, who helped me picked an exact schedule to use, and got some of her thoughts on how to successfully follow through on such things. I used this schedule in particular, strictly because it had the simplest intervals of running/walking. (As compared to some that were more like “run for 45 seconds, walk for 15, repeat 5 times”….who has time to remember all that?)  Now, bear in mind, I am NOT a runner. It has always been something I wished I could do, and I have dabbled here and there, but never done anything consistently. This schedule was FANTASTIC. Doable time-wise because it required a mere 3 runs per week, and a very doable gradual increase in running amounts. Having said that, on day 3 when I ran a total of 7 minutes, I never imagined that I would be able to run for 30 minutes in 2 months, but I DID. And more importantly, I enjoyed it. There has been something really wonderful about (bad parent alert) leaving the house and going for a run all by myself. I’m rocking my 10 year old iPod Shuffle, and no, not the little colorful one that is the size of a quarter and clips onto your shirt, the old-school, giant thumb drive one from back in the day. Sure, the sound comes out louder in one ear compared to the other, which gives me a slightly off-balance-feels-like-I’m-running-in-circles feeling, but you can’t tell me you could keep from smiling and fist-pumping when “Cotton-Eyed-Joe” comes on. (New Girl, anyone?)

My original goal was to work up to that last 30 minute run and then just continue to run 30 minute runs 3 times a week. It seems like a reasonable workout, when done on a regular basis. However, since I really have enjoyed it, I decided to get all crazy and pick up right where the 5k schedule left off and bust a move up to the 10k. I’m boggling my own mind here. I NEVER thought I would have a desire to do this. I am not competitive, I have absolutely no desire to run in races (which there are GOBS of around Eugene….hippies), but I am honestly continuing on because I am ENJOYING IT. Who knew. Not me. So, if all goes well, this schedule will take me to the 10K level by April.

Side story to this. Since I am not a true runner, I have mostly cheapo workout gear. I do have my go-to awesome Nike cropped pants that I wear basically 100% of the time (gift from my sister), and a 1/4 zip stretchy cheap Old Navy pull over that has been great running in the cold. I swap back and forth between 3 year old Nike shoes that fit great but are old and have holes worn on the insides, and newer but super cheap Clearance at Freddies Nikes that are fine, but….cheap. SO. When my boss generously gave me $200 in sweet sweet cash for Christmas, I selfishly started plotting what I was going to buy myself, and only myself, with my money. At the top of my list were a pair of full length running pants….a little somethin’ somethin’ like this, and maybe a new pair of shoes. My dreams were quickly squashed flat when I carelessly, lazily, stupidly, OH SO STUPIDLY, rammed the bumper of our wonderful, shiny new truck into something leaving the parking lot at work. After Justin spent $300 and the only free hours of his over-time filled weekend with the very frustrating task of removing the smooshed pumper and putting on a new one, I hardly think I can put that money toward anything but the new bumper. Shoot. Old stuff it is.

Homeschooling

Let’s just slightly change the topic and discuss this crazy notion. I think I am going to homeschool the boys. I NEVER thought I would go this route. I am sure you would have never guessed from my limitless grace in social settings, but I was, in fact, homeschooled. As were the rest of my siblings for the drastic majority of our education. I did take some very awkward classes in high-school, and then took college courses at the community college in town my Junior and Senior years of high school. And yes, I successfully went on to a private university, and ultimately optometry school at that same University. There are pros and cons of homeschooling, but there are definitely some pros and cons of public schooling as well.

When I started writing this blog last night, I listed out some of my reasoning behind considering homeschooling. It sounded really preachy and like I think I know a lot more than I probably do. So, I won’t go into bulleted lists of why, I will just say I think it may be the right thing for our family. Like I said, there are pros and cons to everything. I do like the idea of teaching my kids on our own schedule, our own timeline, our own subject matter, etc.

Any time I tell someone that I was homeschooled, I almost ALWAYS get the comment “you seem so normal”, as if they would have expected me to have 3 eyes or something. That was maybe a little hard to hear from other kids as a impressionable teenager, but now it really doesn’t bother me. Knowing that if we do homeschool, and that my kids may be questioned the same way, I have comfort knowing in my heart that, it’s okay to NOT be normal. To not be what the world thinks is “normal”. To not “fit in” with the cool (or not cool) kids. To have your own standards and ideals, and keep those things your focus.

Anyway. Enough said. Again, it’s not for sure. We have 3 years before we would have to formally tell the state anything about what we are doing with our kids’ education. In the meantime, we are finishing out our Preschool Alphabet schedule, which we will complete in May, and figure out where we go from there. Lately, I am quite intrigued by this Magic School Bus curriculum. So many fun topics an ideas. I bought the boys the whole MSB series on DVD for Christmas (40 episodes!), and am thinking this may be a cool plan to follow in the summer. Summer screams “science”, am I wrong? I also want to start incorporating Bible lessons into our daily schedule and have found some good resources, but nothing I have decided on for sure yet.

Friday Nights

Something else that I thought would be super fun to implement are pizza and a movie nights on Fridays! The boys are both big enough now to appreciate movies, and there are SO MANY that are great that they haven’t seen. I need to scour the library and see what their selection is like, but we have yet to take them to a movie in the movie theater, so anything remotely new they haven’t seen either.

Making popcorn on those nights will also be a fun addition…and you best believe that this Salted Honey Butter Popcorn recipe is first on my list.

How can you go wrong with that, I ask you?

Date Nights

Closely tied into Friday pizza/movie night, is my scheme for a date night. I had this brain storm while sitting in church this Sunday. (I promise I was ALSO paying attention). My idea is this: We have good friends, whom we will call “the M’s”. They also have 2 small kids. Upon getting approval from all 4 adults involved, we have a plan to every last Friday of the month, accumulate all 4 kids at one couple’s home, let that couple feed and movie the children, while the dropping off couple goes out on the town for a blissful 2 hours of free time. The next month, it’s the other couple’s turn to watch kids. Done.  I feel like this encourages friendship from the kids and adults alike, as well as lets the spouses enjoy rare dinner dates. Honestly, I can’t even tell you the last time Justin and I went out to dinner alone. Not that we are suffering, but I do want to make sure we are focusing on our marriage, and not always falling back on the easier option of eating at home with the kids. Plus, with this plan, kids are picked up before bedtime and all parties can put their own kids to bed in their own homes. I don’t think we can go wrong. Especially since we are first in line to go on a date….sucka!

Master Update

Justin, don’t freak that I’m putting this on here. But I am dreaming of finishing our bedroom. Not that there is anything really “unfinished” about it, but it is one of the last rooms in the house that doesn’t have new white molding, and hasn’t been painted since we bought this house (gasp) 5 years ago (fools!).

Here’s what our room looks like right now. As in, literally, right this minute. Yes, that’s Thad napping on the bed. He didn’t even stir.

It’s not BAD, it’s just totally BLAH. I made that quilt, and I have always hated it. I hate the colors and I hate the pattern. The curtains are blah and awful as well. The shelves were my Grandma’s, they will stay, but will be transformed (love you Justin!). The rocking chair will probably also stay, because our policy is to never get rid of furniture. Or buy new furniture, apparently, since now that I’m thinking about it, that chair was from Grandma too. And the dresser, not picture, but to the left of the window, came from my mom’s childhood bedroom. Nothing but the best for the ‘ol Crosslands!  So. That’s what it is now. Here is my inspiration picture: (from this blog….please don’t read it, this woman clearly has too much money…just linking it because I think that’s how you’re supposed to do things in internet world).

Yes, I realize this is a nursery. But I love love love the navy blue walls, the natural looking wood. and the white door. Love it. So pretty. And those shelves of Grandma’s? We won’t change their color, but will add a shelf between them, and put lights in the shelf, similar to this idea:

Sorry, this one doesn’t have a link. It was pinned, and didn’t really go anywhere. Anyway, you get the idea. So, picture that wall color, a light neutral bedspread, long shelf linking the two big shelves….eh? EH? Should be pretty.

One other thing that I will incorporate are these pieces of artwork that I love, which were given to me from my Great Uncle Howard’s belongings when he passed away this summer.

I really love them for some reason. He had lots of different pictures, but these two I thought were a great combination. They contrast each other a lot in their style, but have the same subject matter. Pretty.

So, that’s my mental plan for our bedroom. Including, for the love of all that is good, new carpet. Which I almost hesitate to get since our bedroom is Sebastian (the cat’s) favorite place to puke up hairballs. How long do cats live, again?

Downsizing Bills

Last but not least on the topic list: Crossland’s are decreasing expenses. That’s right, we are going without cable tv. Crazy? Possibly. Painful? Yes, definitely yes. I miss my DVR already. But, we have decreased our media (home phone, internet, TV) bill by literally more than half by doing this. We will survive. But will someone please tell me what happens on the rest of this season of Parenthood?

It will be a missed crutch when dealing with cranky kids, but probably a good thing. It will also free up Justin’s and my evenings from wasting away our kid-less time on stupid TV shows. Hopefully I will get some long-awaited sewing projects done, and some of my long list of books read. Maybe I’ll get crazy and even do some exercising on my non-running days. Who knows. We still have antennae-style local stations, so goodness knows the kids will still watch PBS in the morning. We aren’t going without TV altogether. Just the good stuff.

Another bill we are dramatically decreasing is our cell phones. Both Justin’s and my phones are gradually dying, and after researching different options, we decided to go with a wireless company that uses a wireless connection whenever you are in wireless range, and our old Sprint service any time you go out of wireless range. HUGE decrease in our monthly service fees (we’re talking $10 a month, people!), with the caveat that you have to buy one of their particular $300 phones. Over all though, like the media bill, it’s going to even out to less than half our old bill. AND, we get to join the rest of the world with smart phones! The only thing that a current smart phone person wouldn’t like is that you only get data when you are in a wireless range, not the sprint service. But not being used to ANY data, this is still awesome for us.

So, there you go. New year, new us. No, not really, but making some changes that will continue to lead our family in the right direction. Overall, my big picture goal is to keep on track pursuing God and making sure we are focusing on the things that He is focused on. Keeping our family life at a high priority, taking care of each other, minimizing “business” in our lives, and doing our best to keep our lifestyle from getting too hectic and full.

Happy New Year!

Brother Bear’s Room

I have always loved Thatcher’s room. It’s cheerful and bright and reminds me of him. At the same time Thad’s room was getting a makeover, Thatcher’s did as well. New carpet, new paint, new molding, and some minor decor updates.

We took out the rocking chair (kind of sad) and put in new bookshelves. I got these babies from my sister’s garage sale, Justin kindly repainted them for me, adding a dark gray the the back board to make them a little more interesting. I was in love with this idea and thought it would look awesome with the woodland animal vibe, but forever the voice of reason, Justin assured me that just painting the back boards would be a billion times easier. And I’m sure it was. But I’m keeping the other idea on my pinterest board. He can’t stop me.

Justin and I were happy how Thad’s window cornice had turned out, so we decided to do the same thing in Thatcher’s room. The fabric I got at Joanne’s and it’s one of my favorite things in his room. I used the same fabric to cover a mat in one of his picture frames too, which is a super quick and easy way to add some fun to simple pictures.

In the next few months we will pack up his crib and transition into a toddler bed (waaahhhh!). Not that I am sorry to see baby days behind us…it’s still a little sad though. I’ll keep his bedding the same. Can’t beat an owl quilt made with love by Grandma (or pillows made with love by mom, obviously).

Another big addition is these shelves above his dresser. They are just extras we took out of his white shelves to put more space between the shelves. We got simple metal brackets, so this was like a 3 dollar project. (Plus Justin’s time, which is PRICELESS, Justin, you’re PRICELESS :)

Looks like you still need to paint the edge of that lower shelf there, Justin. Can you spot the super cute little hedgehog peeking out from the top shelf? Found that gem at St. Vinnies, along with the raccoon. Also, please appreciate the real owl pictures taken by my sister-in-law while tromping around in the woods doing owl surveys. Hard to see, but the top picture is fluffy baby owls. (Owlets? I think so.) Thatcher’s room also gets to house our growing collection of chapter books, which I am in love with. We are just finishing Charlotte’s Web. I have compiled a master list of wished-for books from various “you must read these books to your kids if you want to be a good parent” lists and gave a copy to my garage-saleing mom.  Does anyone remember Mrs. Piggle Wiggle? Keep your eye out for that one for me. It’s high on my list.

I also have to mention our newest owl in Thatcher’s collection

That little guy on the left was given to us from my Great-Uncles belongings when he passed away this summer. So a little piece of Thatcher’s Great-Great-Uncle Howard lives on in his room.

Neither of the boys’ rooms are big, but they are cozy and sweet, just like the people who live in them!

Humpty Dumpty Day

It’s working! Sorry for the short, choppy posts. I guess maybe my original post was too lengthy, too many big picture files, it just bogged the publishing down. So instead of a nice cohesive update, I will continue to post my original post in small sections. Wouldn’t want you to miss anything. :)

Without fail, the days that I think we have the fewest activities and the least fun in store, are the days the boys love the most. For instance, Humpty Dumpty Day. I guess you can’t go wrong when you’re letting your kids drop raw eggs of a mega block tower they built.

Poor Humpty. It got worse for him too…

It also got worse for me…Thatcher’s Humpty dropping aim is not great.

But I saw that one coming from a mile away…hence the towel. Mama didn’t raise no fool.

Thad’s favorite part of the day was Humpty Dumpty repair. He drew and cut out a Humpty, and we put him up on the fireplace mantle (a “wall”). When they were distracted elsewhere, I cut Humpty up into big pieces and told them Humpty had fallen. Thad’s job was then to re-assemble him with bandaids. He thought this was so funny and awesome that we had to make more, and use up about 30 bandaids.

Thad’s Bedroom Update

I’m having major difficulties getting my blogs to publish. I don’t know why, or how to fix it. We’ll see if this one works.

This last summer, we updated the boys’ rooms with new carpet (thankfully…the original carpet was GROSS), new paint, new baseboards, and for Thaddeus, big boy furniture.

Prior to the update, Thad’s furniture was really sparse. A toddler bed, a small bookshelf…I can’t even remember what else. Toys piled everywhere, I’m sure. Somehow I don’t have a “before” picture. But, here’s the “after”:

The bookshelves actually came from our bedroom, as did the desk, which my grandparents bought me as a child from a garage sale. I refinished when I was in highschool. The bed frame is also a hand-me-down from my child-hood, also from a garage sale. Nothing but the best for my kids!

The bed frame actually looked quite different when we got it from my parent’s garage, and Justin spent HOURS sanding and restaining, and now it really looks beautiful.

 

Some of my favorite things in his room are:

The world map showing animals from each continent (bought by my parents from Costco).

The Jesus Loves Me print that I duplicated from an idea I saw on Etsy. (My niece and nephew also have a copy, in their room colors)

The dino-fabric-covered window cornice (fancypants!) that Justin and I made together (instructions are similar to what is in this post, I can’t find out the original, but holy cow, check out the playroom in this post!)

The magnetic white board we bought from Amazon for his 3rd birthday maybe? Mostly we have used it for magnets (not all white boards are magnetic…do your research!) because Thatcher is not to be trusted with markers of any time in a room with carpet.

His super cute safari sheets that my super-shopper sister found at Target (2 out of the 3 of his favorite animal trifecta! Hippos and Rhinos…just missing Buffalos!)

Speaking of super shoppers, I also love the train bookend my mom found garage-saling. Going to garage sales is her ‘thing’, so I supply her with a list of garage sale items that I am looking for. Since, you know, I’m too lazy to go to garage sales, I’ll make my mother do the work for me. Nice.

Still to be done:

We snagged some beautiful big pieces of oak boards from my parents garage that I’m convincing Justin should be made into shelves above Thad’s desk. That may be a summertime project. 

Justin’s mom is in the process of making Thad a dinosaur quilt for his bed. This has been in the plans for a while, but knowing what the quilting process is like personally (i.e. it can take longer than planned!) I went ahead and bought Thad a bedspread from TJ Maxx. (20 bucks for a cute quilt-looking bedspread in the right colors!)

Hat Day

Okay, I’m trying this differently. I’m reposting my original post I wrote earlier this week into small sections. We’ll see if it works.

Today is Tuesday. On Friday, we woke up to over 6 inches of snow, and it hasn’t been above freezing since. I keep going back and forth in my head thinking “Oh my gosh, my kids haven’t left the house in 5 days, I am stunting their social development” to “This doesn’t seem that much different than when the roads aren’t covered in ice”. Perhaps what I need to get out of that, is that my kids need more outside activities under normal circumstances.

Anyway. I sat down this morning to do a quick update with the snow pictures and our Snowflake Day yesterday, and quickly realized that I am much more behind than that. (Do you like how I capitalize the name of our day? I am either quite conceited, or quite cookoo…I am also questioning how to spell cookoo).

Since my last post was about Halloween, I suppose it makes sense to start with November here, which of course included “H” week:

Books were read, hats were worn, Thad’s favorite: the bunny hat. Not MY favorite…gives me flashbacks of my most despised Christmas movie, A Christmas Story. Hate the whiny kids, hate the narrator’s voice, hate the jerk dad, hate the whiny mom…hate the whole thing. Fortunately, it’s a Crossland family staple during the holidays. At which time I go find something else to do.

Technical Difficulties

When I was working on my Halloween post, I had major problems getting it to post from Windows Live Writer onto my blog itself. Justin helped me trouble shoot, and in the end, it seems to fix the problem when I downloaded a different version of Writer, and re-posted everything. I spent DAYS trying to figure it out, and had put a lot of time into writing the post itself, so I was really relieved when it finally worked and happy the problem was solved. It isn’t. The exact same thing happened with my most recent post. So frustrating. I’m keeping that one saved and starting something new in hopes that it will magically start working again, and I will be able to post this as well as go back and post my last update. We shall see.

Halloween 2013

Since Thanksgiving is creeping up RIGHT around the corner, I figured I’d better get with it and post something about Halloween. Cause, you know, if you don’t post something on the internet about it, it’s like it never happened. And now that I’m really thinking about it, there really isn’t that much to say about Halloween, so the bulk of this will be pictures of 2 cute kids.

We were supposed to go Trick or Treating with our good friends and their little girls. But at the time we were all infected with the Black Plague (seriously, I am STILL coughing), so we had to cancel and keep the germs to ourselves. Instead, we just meandered down our road and to Justin’s Aunt and Uncles house a few blocks away. It has become the tradition to stop there on Halloween. Justin’s aunt always has a special treat for the kids, and who doesn’t get a kick out of seeing small people in costumes.

Ah, I know what will be fun. Let’s do a little Throwback Thursday. Even though it’s Friday. Roll with me here people, and enjoy a couple of Justin’s well executed costumes, circa 2006 and 2007:

And here we have a synopsis of Thad’s costumes over his lifespan:

Thatcher’s lifespan is, of course, a bit shorter:

What you can’t see is this picture is Thatcher’s feet sticking out of the little froggy feet, which I had to cut open so my giant baby (6 months old at the time) could fit into the 12 month costume.

Which brings us to Halloween of 2013. We did some fun days of Preschool the week of Halloween: Bats, Pumpkins, Spiders, Skeletons and Scarecrows.

Here’s Thad making some skeletons using black playdoh (saved from day ONE of preschool….Ant Day), Q-tips and animal shaped cookie cutters. And him with a preschooler-sized printable skeleton that he pieced together. I’m still finding most of my ideas from preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com, but have also found a TON of free printable stuff from teacherspayteachers.org. Any printable stuff that we use I am keeping for next year, and hopefully setting myself up for an even easier process next time around.

The night before Halloween I brought home some pumpkins after work and BARELY convinced Thad to stick his hand inside and clean out the pumpkin. That kid does not enjoy grossness.

Thatcher, on the other hand, was slinging pumpkin goo all over the kitchen

And here are the hoodlums in their get-ups. I’ll post these in sequence so you can appreciate the fact that Thatcher’s smile and posture gets cheesier with every photo that I take.

Could you please have a larger smile and lean closer to the camera, sir.

Their costumes cost a grand total of 3.99, the only thing I bought was a Pocahontas costume from St.Vinnies that I cut up to be Thatcher’s Daniel Boone shirt. My mom had gotten the cowboy chaps, vest and hat at a garage sale earlier this summer, and I hid it away so Thad would be excited for it.

And clearly, he was:

Halloween night was a little drizzly and cold, but since we were close to home the whole time and really not out long, it was just fine. Since when is Halloween NOT drizzly and cold anyway…get used to it kids.

Thatcher most definitely did not understand what was going on. Thad got it, but is shy enough that he wasn’t running crazily from door to do. Mostly we had to shove him up steps and tell him what to say. He was quite happy to see his loot spread out on the counter, but since that night has totally forgotten about it, so it’s all sitting in the cabinet getting slowly picked away by me and Justin.

Thatcher’s really never eaten candy before, so I don’t think he realized the value of what was in those bright little packages. All except the SUCKERS.

Those he recognized.