Welcome to spring in WI!

We had a beautiful warm spring weekend here this past weekend it was up into the upper 50's and then there was tonight. I was putting my girls to bed and heard a loud rushing sound, So I ran to the window and peeked out to see a windy blowing snowstorm. What! It didn't last long and didn't drop much other than  temperature. But it did confirm that I am ready for spring. I even saw our first crocus  this afternoon. Someday Spring will come. I well post soon about our St. Patrick's day and Easter fun.

Toy control needed...help!

So this is the chaos that my kids have created in my living room. They have this little corner of our living room but it seems to be growing and trying to take over.

So I knew it was time to do something otherwise my children would take over and my living room would be lost in the jumble of toys.  I decided to take action and foil their planned take over. (Insert evil laughter hahaha)

Now to address what to do...I had been considering getting a unit you can put the canvas bins into them. My dilemma comes from whether or not to do all this organizing and redecorating because of having our house on the market. Finally  decided to go ahead and do it. So off I went to buy a new unit. I found one I liked and for a reasonable price at Target. (I love Target by the way.)

So after a couple nights of clearing and reorganizing and getting rid of some stuff here are the final results. What do you think? I will say I am happy with the way it turned out and the kids are doing a good job of keeping it up even have more room to play. :)

Mother daughter date.

Last Saturday my oldest daughter and I had a morning date. We started out our date out at Home Depot. Why Home Depot you ask, well the first Saturday of every month they offer a Kid's workshop. At these workshops kids get to build a given project for free. They are given a Home Depot smock, a project kit, and a pin for their smock. There are long tables set up with all the tools, safety glasses and paints the kids may need to do their project. This is a great way for the kids to learn building skills. They learn to use hammers, screwdrivers and other tools that are needed to make the projects. These skills are skills that the kids can use later in life when they have their own homes.

So the project this last week was to build a race car. We had to glue pieces together, then nail then together, put the wheels on and then decorate the outside of the car with decals. Our car turned out great and my daughter had a lots of fun. She loves getting the pin at the end and the feeling of being able to have something that she made herself.  I would highly recommend it to any other family.

The second part of our date was to go to Marcus theater's Kid's Dream film series. They offer a movie on Saturday or Sunday morning for a great price. So off we went to the movies. The movie last week was Hotel Transylvania. It was a lot of fun and we both enjoyed the movie and the time we spent together.

Why do I think this was such a fun and great day with my oldest? Because this gave us some time to spend together just her and me apart from the rest of the family. It also shows her that she is important to me and I love . It also gives her quality time with me away from her little sister.

So my advice to all is to take special time with each of your children alone. Show then how much they mean to you.

A whole new Wardrobe!

This weekend I undertook the task of changing out my youngest clothes. It is one of those projects that can take all day especially if you have kids "helping" you. Granted these clothes are mostly hand me downs but they are still new to my girls.

This got me thinking when was the last time you got a whole new wardrobe?  My girls don't know how lucky they are. I wish that I was able to get a whole new dresser and closet full of new clothes every few months to every year.  About the closest I have ever come to getting a new wardrobe was when I was pregnant. Even then it was more of a necessary because I could not fit into my old clothes. Even then these clothes I only got to wear for a few months.

So I think its time for one Mama to go shopping and buy a new outfit! I will do this to celebrate the life that I lead and celebrate bringing two beautiful girls into this crazy world. They are one of the highlights and definitely part of my chaos. I also am going to do this to celebrate myself and make myself feel good.  I will let you when and what  I find for my new outfit. If you would like to join me let me know what you get.

Embrace life and love and celebrate yourself.

Family fun in the woods.

This afternoon we spent a wonderful family afternoon in the woods.  We finished our errands this morning and headed out for a wonderful dinner to fulfill mom's steak craving. It was delicious and my craving was fulfilled.

After lunch we headed over to our friend's farm to head out into the woods with the 4-wheelers.  It was a great day  to go for a ride. This week we received a couple inches of snow but not enough to make it difficult to go for a ride. My oldest and husband headed off on one, while my youngest and I followed on the other one. We started out ride heading down to the dog, the calves and then by the cows. Both girls love to see the animals, so we had to make a pass by them. Then off to the woods we headed.

The woods for me is a bit of a retreat. It is a place that I feel recharges me and a place that can calm and recenter me. It always has been and it has been a long time since I've had a recharge.

We rode all over the different parts of our friends land over fields, creeks and woods.  It was a beautiful day, not too windy or cold and cloudy enough that we weren't blinded by the sun. We saw a couple of birds and lots of other animal tracks but no other animals.  My youngest was really enjoying the ride. She is little enough  that when she ride in front of me she rests her feet on my calves. She was so happy and excited that she kept bouncing during the ride. I will definitely be looking to see if I have bruises in the morning.

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon enjoying the great outdoors as a family.

A year later and a stronger love.

A year ago tonight I was sitting in the ER with my husband who had been thrown off one of our horses. A friend of ours wanted to go for a horseback ride for her birthday. My husband put her and her husband on calm old horse with COPD. He is a gentle boy and was good for them. My husband got on our other horse who is a bit of a handful. He has a history of being trained as a cutter horse, a barrel racer and was roughed up at a place where he was previously boarded. He has made great improvements living with us but he is definitely a handful and can spook easily.  So all in all it was a bad idea.  That said I will move on.

Thankfully our friends husband is an EMT and recognized that my husband showed signs of a concussion. So our friends proceeded to head to the hospital with him. I called my mother in law to let her know what happened, so she came up with my niece to watch our kids while I went to the ER.

I sat there for hours with my husband who couldn't remember what we told him 5 minutes ago. He knew that our daughter had been born but couldn't remember when. He literally, until about 2 o'clock in the morning, asked me the same 5 questions  over and over again. I could hear and almost see the wheels in his head working trying to fill in the missing gaps. I could see how it bothered him and how he couldn't rest until he figured it out.

In the end everything was okay, my husband is back to normal other than missing 8 hours from that day.  But that day reminded me how much I Love him and how thankful I am the family and life we have together.

Always take time to tell the ones you love that you love them because you never know what could happen.

Happy Valentine's

Here is a little Valentine's love from my oldest daughter. We made celery roses to send to our family for Valentine's Day. They are very easy to make.

1. Cut the celery stalks off close to the base.

2.  Then simply dip the cut end of the base into paint and stamp it on a piece of paper.

Enjoy!