Adventures with Olive and Georgia

I have always been big on traditions, and Tony is even more adamant. When he likes something, he always says "We should do this every year/month/week." Since we've been married, we have established many; matching shirt fall family photo, big Christmas breakfast, watching fireworks from our backyard, meatball Monday, crazy Christmas card photo... So, the girls are three this year and they are old enough to keep the memories we make this Christmas. That coupled with the fact that all our family is too far away for easy visits, I want to establish some fun (affordable and EASY) Christmas traditions that we can enjoy for years to come. I'm not looking for Pinterest-Worthy recipes and activities for every day of December, just some things to look forward to every year. Here are my ideas so far: Cinda the Christmas Angel- She comes in early December to remind us of the love and joy Jesus brought to the world. She leaves messages each day of kind things we can do fo

Welcome to our classroom!  (Disclaimer: My photos are not great quality and the room is always a work in progress.) Doing morning work at our various workspaces. We have named the areas; the shortie table, the kitchen table, the high top table, desks, the blacktop table, the yellow table, and the coffee table. The couch and recliner are only for independent reading when work is finished. Whole group lessons are always done while gathered on the carpet. The flexible seating has taken a lot of guidance, but its going great now.  The sink area cabinets are decorated and I love it. It's like having even more books! Everything is labeled for my ELL student, and so all my students can be problem solvers and find things for themselves easily! Life saver. Supplies, computers, expectation posters, and watercolors. Turn in trays for each class- I decided to put it far from my desk, because kids always want to lay stuff of the desk or put it in my hand. BIG MIST

I keep seeing all these blogs and articles about how moms are sad or mad or down on themselves because their children are growing up in a world so much different than the one they grew up in. You used to be able to hang out with neighbor kids and now we have to schedule play dates. You used to have free time and now you feel the need to schedule every second of every day. You had siblings that were close to your age so you want to have biological playmates for your kids. Etc.  I actually have the opposite problem. I am the mom trying to make up for what I now realize I missed in my childhood. I lived in a very rural area. There weren’t many activities or kid friendly places to go. Even if there were, my mom was often babysitting more kids than could fit in her Astro van and my dad was making a living for our family and wouldn’t be home until the weekend. We were stuck at home for two months of summer (except for county fair week, of course). But you know what? I didn’t know any dif

I’ve read that there are no vacations with kids, they are now called Family Trips. I’ve read that moms should put on the bathing suit and have a good time. Stop worrying about your size.  I was told, “Don’t take those babies in the water!” “We had a horrible time on the beach.” “They are going to hate the sand.” “You will need a vacation from your vacation.” I was more than a little scared of our first “family trip”. Actually, when I read my sister’s text in January asking if we would go, I laughed and said “Yeah right.” Somehow we decided that we would go to Hilton Head with my family, probably because it was 4 months away at the time. I was scared, nervous, anxious, and self-conscience for 4 months. .......................................................................... Let me tell you though, we had a great time. When we got onto that beach and the girls immediately started building castles and looking for shells, I forgot about all the stress I was suppo

This morning, like every morning, I got the Facebook notification that I had memories with so-and-so and yadda yadda. It is one of my favorite parts of the day; to see all the fun pictures, reminisce in the sweet memories, and laugh at the silly old jokes. Some posts from the past bring back bad memories though. Even when looking at photos of seemingly joyous times, the senses remember the negative feelings that no one else could see. I might have hid it from everyone else by smiling in the photo or typing up a cute and lighthearted caption, but I remember. "On this day" three years ago I was SUFFERING from what some people call the Baby Blues. I'm not so sure it was bad enough to be Post-Partum Depression but I was terrified, anxious, lonely, sometimes angry, and mostly hopeless. I felt all this even with two healthy babies in my arms that I wanted so desperately to love better, and this only added a heaping amount of guilt to my list of bad mommy feelings. Good

My Ollie Sue Magoo, You are growing, and learning, and becoming more and more yourself everyday. I hate to see the sweet little you go, but I'm so excited to see the bigger, independent (hopefully even sweeter) you come out. You are silly. You love to make everyone laugh. You change the lyrics to songs, you play tricks on us and say "Just kidding!" and you just make me laugh all day. You are into bathroom humor lately. Everything ends with "poop" or, the double whammy, "poop and pee". You are probably the sweetest person I know. You care about everyone's feelings and health and well-being. The other day I had scratch on my hand, and you kept looking over at it and saying "Let me see that. Does it hurt you?" After about 5 times, you hugged me and said, "I don't want you to have a boo boo, Mom." When we go out in public, you are my calm and cool child. At home, you are NOT. You tend to whine and pout a lot. A few days a

My sweet little Peach, You are growing up. I didn't realize it as it was happening, but now when I look back at photos of the past year, I can see that you have gone from a little, chubby cheeked, short haired cutie to a tall, lanky, knobby kneed, red locked beauty (still a cutie though).  You are still my assertive, sometimes aggressive, diva. You change clothes about 8 times a day and you love pink, wearing twirly dresses, glitter, sparkles, and sprinkle donuts. You are a boss. You tell everyone what to do, and you always know what's best for your sister (so you think). You are also a good little mommy. You check on and console Ollie when she is sad or sick. You call her "Sweet Honey" and tell her what she should and shouldn't do and take care of her when she needs someone to pick out her clothes for her. You have a sweet smile, and the cutest little lone dimple. You're talkative and outgoing, but you have a raspy little whisper voice. You have been s

I did’t see it coming. I had ignored the glaring warning signs. I thought I had time.  The other day I was walking down the hall, and I turned to see it behind me, following me… A LITTLE GIRL.  Olive was following me to the bathroom, and when I glanced back at her, I was shocked. The saying I have heard so many times became truth right before my eyes. They really do grow up too fast! So fast, one day you don’t even recognize them. At that moment, I didn’t see my chubby baby. I saw a tall lanky girl. I didn’t see sparse red fuzz on her little round head. I saw a mass of messy strawberry locks. I didn’t hear coos and giggles and baby jabber.  I clearly heard and understood, “Wait Mom. I need to use the potty too.” She was suddenly not a baby anymore. She had become a kid! It had seemingly happened over night.  Apparently, when I normally look at my girls, I must choose to see them as my cute little babies and refuse to see these big girls that they are becoming. They still often whine an

I've been cooped up in the house for the majority of this week with Strep Throat and then with three snow days and a pretty snowy Saturday. It's been a pretty delightful break from work and daycare, other than the coughing and snotting and refusing to nap. I've gotten to spend lots of quality time with my little cheese balls as well as watch and listen in on their personal arguments, discussions, role playing, and problem solving (in totally wonder and amazement, and while totally biting my tongue to keep form laughing out loud). I've tried to keep some of these little scenarios listed in the notes on my phone so that I could compile them and share them. I'm sure I'm missing a lot and some are just those "You gotta be there" moments, but here you go... From the Lives of Georgia and Olive at 2 years and 8 months  (Yes, that means they are going to be THREE soon. It's just not fair.) Olive's usual prayer: Thank you Goddess for this