The Balancing Act

There is no doubt that I have early birds living in this house. It doesn't matter what time my kids get to bed because they get up early regardless. Early for me? 6:30 am even 5:45 am sometimes.

I am thankful now that I do not have to rush to be anywhere. I can take my time making the kids breakfast and even do some of the morning school stuff with them all while still in PJ's. I realize that in just a few more months this will change.

I always say that being a mommy is the hardest job I have ever had. It's only been about a year and a half since I have been a "stay at home" mommy and I am still getting used to the balancing act.

I have moments when I feel truly overwhelmed by everything that I need to accomplish. I like a clean and orderly house, I like to do art with the kids, I love to teach them, I HAVE to cook, there is laundry to be done and the list goes on.

Balancing being a mom and JUST those duties alone is a tricky job let alone the other commitments I have in my life. I don't ever want to make my kids feel like I would much rather do something else than be with them. If I can put something aside to give them my full attention then I try to do that.

There are times when the kids do need to do things on their own because obviously NOTHING would get done If I sat around and played all day, but some days are meant to do just that! I am reminded that these moments are precious and I need to truly make myself sit down and enjoy them. It is hard with my tendencies to be such a neat freak and want to get things done, but I am learning to balance it all and enjoy my TIME.

This is a beautiful poem I read in a book and the author is unknown but it touched my heart.

LOVE

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in it's place, but have no love-I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have no love-my children learn cleanliness, not Godliness.

Love leaves the dust in the search of a child's laugh.

Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.

Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.

Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through trials.

Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive. As a mother there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of these is LOVE.

-Unknown

I am still learning how to balance it all, keep the house clean enough and spend time with the kids. Not just hanging out but quality time, the kind that makes them feel like I truly care and I'm truly listening to them and their heart. I never want to make them feel unimportant or disregarded by me I want them to know I love them more than anything else and NOTHING is too important for me to stop and listen to them.

I am thankful for God's grace in allowing me to be the best mom I can be and for his help in the toughest job I have ever had.

* Growing and Building *

The only type of carpentry experience I have is from wood shop in sixth grade. I recall making a clock that I gave to my mom as a gift (doubt she still has it) and a stool that I still have in my closet that I have re-decorated and painted a million times through the years. That reminds me that I should add it to my "spray paint white" list.


Since July of last year, Samuel has been attending the free Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics. I wanted to register him because they were free but also because I felt it would be fun for him to practice a new skill. The kids receive a free apron and goggles upon registering for the clinic on their first visit. They are typically for children five and up but most projects can be completed with a supervising adult. Since then, Sam has completed about a dozen "projects" with his dad's help. Some of the things include; a boat, castle, dinosaur, choo choo train, binoculars, tow truck, fire truck, police truck and plenty more.


At the completion of each project he gets a small badge that he can add to his apron. You can imagine how colorful and wonderful his apron looks by now. He is very proud of himself every single time he completes a new project. Here he is at yesterday's clinic after making a dinosaur.



Carlos is the talented carpenter in our family so it was no doubt that he would be the one to accompany Sam to make these projects. I know that these trips to Lowes will serve for special moments shared with father and son but I also hope that they help to develop a love for carpentry and using tools for Sammy. It would be very "handy" to have two skillful boys in my house right?

* Driving through the Country *

We were invited for a fun play date today. Our friends live in Aguanga and it was our first time coming over to their home. It was a lovely drive up the hill and literally through the woods. Samuel was excited to find out that his buddy lived "in the mountains".

It was quite windy today but we were still able to take an amazing walk in their back yard. They have about five and a half acres of land with lot's of things to explore. My kid's had a blast looking for sticks and special treasures to bring back inside the home.

We played for a while in their trampolene and Samara practiced a little bit of her jumping skills even though it was tricky to do so when all the other kids kept jumping and knocking her down.

After a while outside, we headed in for lunch and to get cleaned up from the dirt. Samara had a blast playing with Abbie who is the exact same age as she. They were both born on September 3rd, 2009. Samuel and Jaziel are the same age as well and they are best friends "brothers" from Church. Samuel likes to pretend that they are brothers and he was super excited to get a chance to play with his buddy today.

We had some yummy home made fish tacos and avocado and the kids ate sandwiches and watched a short movie.

It was a beautiful day in the country and the drive wasn't bad at all. It took us about thirty minutes to get from the city to their home. We look forward to another visit and some more new adventures with them.

* Pennypickles Workshop *

Pennies and Pickles everywhere! Today I decided to take the kids for a local adventure. We visited Mr. Pennypickle's Workshop in Old Town. This is a children's museum that has been voted number one by Nicklelodeon kid's choice. It's been around for a while and I have been waiting to go. Yes "waiting".

I wanted Sam to be old enough to enjoy it and now that he is four I thought it would be the perfect time. Children two and under are free so of course Samara came with us too.

It was a beautiful day perfect in the sense that it wasn't too hot or too cold. We arrived on time for the first session and it wasn't crowded at all. While inside, we discovered multiple rooms with small hidden crawling spaces that led to other rooms. This was a highlight for Sam not so much for Samara. They had a glow in the dark room and a ton of hands on experiments and things to explore. They even had a science presentation for the children.

I think we were at the museum/workshop for about an hour and a half before the kids started to get a little bored. There is plenty to do in Mr. Pennypickle's house and even adults will be entertained by all the neat experiments and optical illusions. One of my favorites was looking through a peep hole into a long "Willy Wonka" type corridor. Samara's favorite was a giant wardrobe that you could step in to that had a magic mirror inside. It was really just a two way mirror but she loved it and kept saying it was "Narnia". Samuel of course enjoyed all the buttons and knobs that were available for him to play with and explore.

I would recommend this place for anyone looking for something fun and inexpensive for the kids to do. I am sure that weekday's are probably best since it's probably not so crowded. I will definitely take the kids there again perhaps again in the summer when it's too hot to be outside anywhere!

* Shopping Made Fun *

I would much rather do household shopping on my own than with my two children. Don't get me wrong I love being with them, but sometimes shopping takes a little longer when having to stop and "look" at everything or when we have one too many bathroom breaks.

However there are a few stores that I truly enjoy taking my kids to because they make for a fun shopping experience. Here is a list of some of the one's we enjoy together.

We love the yogurt from Trader Joe's and usually have to make a bi-weekly trip to stock up on that delicious yogurt. The kids also love the fruit leather strips and the ceral bars. There are way too many things I personally enjoy from there to name but it's one of our favorite places. Another fun perk is that the kids know they have to search for a certain stuffed monkey. This stuffed monkey get's hidden through out the store in different spots every day. The goal is to find him and when you check out tell the cashier and she or he will give you an ORGANIC Lollipop. Is that fun or what? They also have monthly themed coloring pages the kids take home bring back and then get hung on the wall at the store. When there are holidays they also have holiday themed stickers and the kids usually get a roll of them when we visit.

Another store that I don't mind taking the kids to is Walgreens. Now I visit this store weekly due to my couponing and Register Rewards that I talked about in my bargain blog. This store is fun because the staff has come to know and love the kids. They know them by name and they are usually so sweet and nice to the kids and that in itself makes for a pleasant shopping experience.

We also like to visit Sam's club. Samuel thinks this place was named after him. One morning after some of the employees finished a brief morning meeting, they did a Sam's club cheer. Samuel got excited and thought they were singing about him. "WE ARE NUMBER ONE, S.A.M WHAT DOES THAT SPELL?" ha ha. When the manager learned what my son's name was, she made the employees sing the cheer again just for my Sam. I wish I would have taken a picture of his face it was priceless. Needless to say we enjoy going to "Sam's Club".

Ralphs is a store we visit on occasion when they have good sales and I have good coupon matchups. However when we do visit, we tend to have a pleasant shopping experience because Samuel get's to push around a "real" shopping cart sized just for kids. I put certain things in his cart and he absolutely loves it. They also give him and Samara a balloon at the end of the shopping trip.

Albertsons is another favorite and again I only shop there when I have coupons and good matchups. We like it though because the kids are part of their FREE Healthy Eater Club. This means they can choose up to one free snack per visit. This includes; bananas, bagels, cheese and apples. They also like it because they have a cart that has a car in the front. So they can "drive" while I shop.

We have discovered ways to make shopping fun because sometimes I don't have a choice and must go with the children. On the days when I can go by myself, I choose Target and Walmart so I can take my time browse and coupon. It is nice to know though that God extends grace to me when I shop with the kids and sometimes feel overwhelmed and i'm thankful for the places that I know will be fun for us all.

* BFF *

I consider myself to be friendly by nature. I think I have approached everyone whom I have befriended in my life. In fact my two oldest friends were approached by me and well the rest is history.

I have known Melinda and Tiffany the longest. Fifth grade must have been a good year for me because I was blessed with meeting both of them. It isn't too common to come across someone who has had a friend a "good" friend for that long. I am thankful for them.

Through the years I have been blessed with even more extraordinary friendships in High School, Church, College and even my early years as a teacher. Some of which I am still friends with and some of which were in my life for a season. (Maria, Dionne, Giselle and Mary you would fall into these categories).

Friends are treasures and I hope that even if you only have 1 close friend in your life that you can view them as a treasure.

We have grown up together and have become; graduates, professionals, wives, and mother's. It is so exciting to still be a part of the lives of those once little girls you played games with.

It is trickier now to get together to "hang out" but I believe that making time for friends "good" friends should always be a priority.

I love my friends! No drama just fun and of course God's grace.

* Different *

Since last night I have had a strong urging to pray for my family, my in-laws and for my friends. It's been heavy on my heart that some people who I love dearly are going through some rough times right now. My job as a friend, daughter, mother, cousin, daughter in-law, wife and grand-daughter is to encourage in everyway that I possibly can.

There is no exeption to being a Christian. I can't say that I'm a Christian EXEPT for when I don't think it will be convenient for me. I am a Christian all the time and the truth is that I need to be Christ LIKE in every way possible. It isn't difficult for me to share about what God has done in my life and to encourage my family or friends with what God say's when they need to hear it. I would like to think that sharing about God should not be a difficult task when it comes to unsaved family or friends but sometimes it does get tricky.

My prayer is that I can continue to grow myself so that even in the "tricky" situations God can be glorified. I know there is power in prayer and when I tell someone that I will pray for them I always do. I've seen first hand miracles happen in my own life because of prayer and this year is no exeption.

I believe that this year has started a little bit rough with some relationships in my own family as well as with my in-laws but I know that God's promises always stand true and we can get through this season of battles. I also know that breakthrough's are just around the corner I am bracing myself for some amazing things that I know are going to take place. Prayers are going to be answered!

Yesterday I prayed and asked God to give me a fresh anointing in my life, to help me see with his eyes and to be a blessing to everyone I share my life with. Today our Pastor talked about being ALL IN. Meaning living a life for God and no matter what giving him the Glory, in the good and the bad.

A dear friend came up to me and shared that God put it in her heart that he was "increasing my territory". We both have no idea what that means, but I do know that I am ready for whatever God want's to do in my life. I know that there is more to come and I am so excited. I wanted to blog about this because I hope to someday look back on this post and remember the anticipation I felt and knowing God was getting ready to do more in my walk with Him.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Romans 12:2 and it say's " Do not be comformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I don't want to go with the flow and do what everyone else does, I want to do what God tells me to do even if it means I'm different. I want my mind to be renewed and become a better mother, wife, friend etc. God has a lot of work to do in me, but I'm so grateful because day in and day out he shows me everyday grace.

Getting Crafty

Everyone that knows me also knows that I enjoy doing crafty things. I do them with my kids, for other people and just for fun.

I love to look up ideas online and come up with my own twist to them, especially for birthday parties and parties in general.

Recently I had a few friends send me invitations to join the latest and greatest site called Pinterest. In the beginning, I had no clue as to what the fuss was all about. My friend Maria suggested that I give it a try and yes I fell in love almost immediately.

Now, the funny thing about Pinterest. It cracks me up when I hear people saying "I found this on Pinterest" or "I got this from Pinterest". NO, you got it from the Internet! Pinterest really is a super cool search engine with awesome features. I basically do the same thing on Pinterest that I would on Google, like look up "Mulan Birthday Cakes" and I am shown multiple images to pick from.

The perks however, are that you have a "virtual" pin board that serves almost as a bookmark to "pin" your favorite ideas and or photos from any given site all over the net. There is a search feature but the neatest part about it to me, is that you can view your friends virtual pin boards. You can have a list of friends that you "follow" on Pinterest view their pins and even comment on them and re-pin them yourself if you choose. This I love!

Now all I would like to see is how many of those "ideas" and or "things" I'm actually going to get to try and do. There are some amazing things sitting on my pin board right now and tons more waiting for me to discover them.

It really is a great new site and it can become addicting searching other people's pin boards and the site itself, BUT if you actually get to some of the projects you pin it's definitely worth all the time spent searching and re-pinning.

Today's agenda; making heart shaped favors for some ladies at Church. Happy crafting everyone!

Back to School

YES! I went there and YES I am thinking about School already. You see this is a big year in our family. My oldest will start Kindergarten this year and it's exciting and scary all at the same time.

Because of my background in early education I have enjoyed doing "fun" and educational work at home with both of my kids. I have had the opportunity to do that more in the past year since I have been home full-time with the kids. It has been so special to see Samuel grasp concepts that were once foreign to him and develop new skills as we work on different things. He now can write his name, recognize all the letters and consonant sounds, count up to 30, months of the year, days of the week, shapes, colors in english, spanish and sign language, matching, sorting, spacial concepts and even a little bit of math. In the beginning of this year we started learning sight words together and he already recognizes at least 4 of them. I am amazed at how quickly he has learned but even more special to me is the fact that I have been his teacher and we have learned together in a non structured but fun way.

I know that he is ready all around to start Kindergarten but the true question is am I? It amazes me how quickly days and months fly bye and even more amazing is how early Kindergarten "stuff" starts to happen. In February I have to already start filling out the enrollment packet for him to attend a public school and an application for him to "hopefully" attend a Charter school.

I have decided to start praying now and trust in God and believe that he will be able to attend the right school. If it was my way I would choose the charter school but I have complete trust in God because he knows what will be best for Samuel and I. Also even now, I pray over the teachers he is going to have, and friends he is going to make.

I know God's grace is with us each step in this adventure. In the meantime I am enjoying my little boy as much as I can and loving the slow mornings not having to rush any place.

Before I know it, I will be blogging about his first day of school. I hope it doesn't come too soon though!

Road side assistance

This morning did not go as planned. I had intented to take the kids to the Library for story time but before that I had to make a quick stop at Target. I probably shopped around for 20 minutes before I headed back to my car. Everything was going according to plan except when I turned the key my car wouldn't start.

Here I was in a parkling lot with two little one's and a non running car. It's funny how in those moments when we have to think fast we think "Who can I call?". I called Carlos first to inform him of my car trouble. I did have jumper cables but somehow the way he explained it to me sounded way too complicated and I decided that I couldn't do that on my own.

My mom arrived shortly after but she didn't know how to use jumper cables either. Rather than leave my car in the parking lot I started to think about who could help. My friend Heather gave me a ring and I shared with her my dilema. Now she was explaining to me the exact way I was to jump start my car. This was a REVELATION! I understood what she said.

I don't know if the way my husband explained it earlier was foreign to me because he spoke in "guy" language or what, but I understood what Heather said. I followed the steps and my car was up and running again. I must admit I kind of felt very proud and good about myself for being able to do that.

As I drove home and thanked Jesus for taking care of me and the kids I also realized the imporantce of knowing how to jump start a car incase of an emergency. It also made me reflect a little bit on how sometimes we need a jump start in our walk with God.

You see, today I learned that I can take the time to LEARN how to do something and fix the problem without having to doubt my ability to do it first.

It's the same thing in our lives when we go through rough periods and feel like our battery is running on low or has even stopped running. LEARNING how to call on Jesus even when we doubt or feel weary is KEY to getting through any rough circumstance.

We simply can not doubt in ourselves because it is Him in us who guides us and can JUMP START our faith again.

God's Grace poured out on me today as I boldly tried something on my own for the first time.

So although my morning plans were not as I thought they would be, I was able to learn a quick lesson that JUMP STARTED my Faith even more.

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." Psalm 139:9-10

* Bargains *

In the last year or so I have started what you could call "Frugal Adventures". It's merely a way to save money on things that I need to purchase on a regular basis. In the process however, I have discovered a whole group of "Money Saving Mom's".

I don't go out of my way to clip coupons I won't use, I don't spend hours collecting them nor am I a hoarder of "stuff" BUT there are the few perks that come from knowing how to save and make a penny stretch.

I am a big fan of Walgreens and I visit the store at least once a week. Most of the staff by now knows me and my children, infact when I shop without them they make a big fuss. Everyone is friendly there and the deals are great too. Register Rewards are my new best friends, I guess you can say a have a small stock pile of AXE products, but I love to share my loot with family.

Other things I have discovered while saving money are that Target not only rocks just because it's Target but that you can also print Target coupons and stack them with manufactorers coupons. It has been my new revelation and because of that I have been able to save from diapers to clothing to toiletries and groceries shopping there.

Now all this couponing and saving is for a bigger purpose. I am learning to live comfortably with what I have and be content with what I don't have. To always be thankful when I have plenty and to be thankful when I just have barely.

God's so faithful to us and he has never let us go without. If I can be a blessing to someone as often time we donate the toiletries to the homeless ministry at Church, then that makes it worth my time too.

It amazes me still how wonderful God's Everyday Grace is even when it comes to shopping for the home. Yes even when I have to shop with the kids, now THATS another adventure!

* Brand Spankin New *

Usually on New Year's Day there is something in the air that feels new to me. It's always a very quiet day and somehow I can feel the shift to "new". We are only 16 days into 2012 and so it still qualifies as a New Year.

It isn't like me to make up resolutions when a new year begins but I do like to reflect and think about some of the things I would like to make happen in the new year. To me, it's not a resolution because i'm not necessarily looking to change something that is bad, I am simply trying to ADD something that is good.

This year some of those additions to my life actually require subtractions first.

My first subtraction is Partylite. It is a fun thing to do and YES it generates extra income BUT it also takes away precious time. Right now my focus is my family first, friendships and Women's Ministry. There is a balancing act already with just the three and I decided that Partylite isn't on my top priority, maybe I will go back to it later.

Back to my additions. I choose to add; 1. More date nights with my husband 2. Even more special teachable moments that are fun with my children. 3. Hopefully growing closer to my imediate family and creating new traditions with them. 4. Having more fun "girl dates" because a woman can't ever have too much fun with her girlfriends.

Ofcourse every year I strive to grow closer to God and learn more about Him because in turn He teaches me more about myself. He is the one who helps me maintain these relationships and keep the focus on what matters in life.

With all that said, I like the way "New" feels. It gives me "us" an opportunity to look ahead, perhaps plan or set goals and re-evaluate what matters most in our lives.

I am thankful that I can have Every DaY Grace from God and know that each "New" day is a fresh start given to me by Him.