Teaching Our Little 'Man'

My husband is kind of okay : ) I’m very grateful for the husband and daddy that he is, and I’m so glad that Judah Bear has such a good guy to show him what it means to really be a man.

One of the things that makes my teeny tiny heart melt is the way Mr. Bug is teaching our son how to treat women. He’s teaching him to hold the door for his big sisters and his mama, so every time he props the screen door open with his little rear he says, “Here you go, yadies.” He’s showing him how to be a gentleman and help his sisters on with their coats when we’re out. And then my sweet husband holds mine for me. Almost every time we go somewhere as a family, Landon will pull up to the curb to drop off the girls and I, and remind Judah that it’s good manners to drop ladies off before you go find a parking spot. 

We’re not teaching Judah—or the girls, for that matter—that women are helpless or that we need a man to do everything for us. Since Landon is gone so much for work my kiddos know that I’m perfectly capable of doing things for our little family. We’re just hoping to teach them what it means to respect and honor, even when we don’t feel like it or it seems inconvenient.

I feel incredibly blessed. I’m hoping that Judah will watch his daddy through the years and learn from him. Sure, there are things that my hubby needs to work on. He’s human. But he’s bound and determined to teach his son what it means to be a real man. And I love him for it.

Yearning for a Pretty Soap Pump

This post is not going to be relatable for some people. Sometimes even I can’t get my head around my weirdness, but here goes nothing. 

I’m a total cheapskate. Like, seriously. It’s ridiculous. I will buy the cheapest option of most things and not even think twice. There are some exceptions to this, but for the most part it’s true. 

I have been crushing on this soap dispenser for about two years. You think I’m kidding, don’t you? I’m so not. Believe me, I wish I were. But I couldn’t bring myself to spend $9.99 on a soap dispenser. Not when I could get a throw-away pump of soap for $.97 that came with soap in it. I would literally walk by the soap pump almost every time I went to Target thinking ‘This is silly! I’m just going to buy the dang soap pump!’ But I could never bring myself to do it. It just felt too frivolous.

I thought I could settle for something a little cheaper but still pretty like this, so I went for it. It was pretty, the soap that came with it smelled yummy, and it was less than $4. Can’t beat it, right? Well the problem is this: a tall plastic soap dispenser tips over reeeeeally easily. Especially when you have three kiddos 'washing' their hands multiple times a day. So this poor thing spent the majority of its little life flat on its back on the bathroom counter. 

But I was willing to work with it! I even refilled it with some equally yummy-smelling Method soap a few times. All the while, my beautifully simple glass soap pump beckoned to me from the shelf.

That all ended yesterday. Passing through Target while picking up a baby gift for a friend I saw this little beauty. She was on clearance for $5.58, she was pretty glass, and she was already filled with soap! After a quick check to make sure I’d be able to remove the label, that baby was in my cart and I was sprinting for the checkout. I may or may not have embarrassed my children by shaking my behind in a little victory dance. 

Now she’s sitting in my bathroom and she’s so happy to be there. I even discovered when I was removing the label that she even has a little rubber ring on the bottom to keep her from sliding around! It’s like we were made for each other. 

The moral of the story? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not certain it’s healthy to long for a $10 soap pump for two years, but I’m so excited to finally have a simple and pretty soap pump in my bathroom. And I like to think that I’ll appreciate her all the more because of the wait. : )

#KidsAreWeird

Popping in with what may become a repeat post. My kids are strange. Your kids (if you have any) are also strange. Let’s go with that.

 Eden starts out the school week pretty well usually as far as getting up on time. I’ll wake them up at about 7:00 so we can all be out the door by 8:10(ish). When we get to Thursday morning though it’s like pulling teeth to get her out of bed by 7:30, and Friday morning is just a crazy mess of tears and cereal bars. Here’s the kicker: every.single.Saturday.morning, this freaking kid is up by 6:45 at the latest. What gives??

Judah really likes to ‘clink’ his cup with his dining companions from time to time. The procedure goes like this.

Judah: Mommy, will you cwink wif me?

Me: Sure, Buddy. Let’s clink.

*cups clink together*

Judah & Me: And then we drink!

Judah: No, Mommy! I say that!

Me: Oh! Sorry, Bud. You can say it.

Judah: And den we dwink! *Big Smile*

Adaleine loves Francine the KitchenAid. I will often walk into the kitchen to find her making faces at herself in the reflection off the mixing bowl. She always giggles and goes off and does something else, but I will usually find her right back in the same place within an hour or so. I’ll take cheap entertainment for $200 please, Alex.

Being Their 'Mommy' For Now

“Mommy? Can you please help me get this dress on Ariel? I can’t get it,” said my little six-and-a-half-year-old girl. She’s not unhappy, she’s not whining, not frustrated. She just needs a little bit of my help with this darn doll dress. And she called me ‘Mommy.’

Eden is getting bigger every second it seems. She doesn’t need me to read to her anymore, she can bathe herself, dress herself, brush her own hair. She can come up with some rad beyond belief outfits that are way cooler than anything I could pull off. She is doing awesome in swim lessons and I’m being completely sincere when I say she’s a much better swimmer than I am. She is halfway through first grade and she’s absolutely thriving. I love it.

But there are little flashes every once in a while where she still needs her mommy. She can’t quite get her doll dressed. She isn’t totally sure which loop goes where on her shoelaces. She can’t quite figure out the right peanut butter to jelly ratio. And then she calls for me. Because when you just can’t quite get it, you want your mommy.

I want my girls to be strong. Independent. Capable. I want them to be able to take care of themselves because sometimes that’s just what you have to do. But I also want them to know that I will always be their mommy. The person they can call when they just need a little help. I love being there for them now, and I can’t wait to hear their voices on the other end of the line when they get older. “Mom, how long do I boil chicken?” “Mom, what do I do in this situation?” “Mom, I’m so tired and this baby won’t stop crying!” I want to be that call. 

So I will answer their ‘mommy’ calls now. Because in just a few years, I want them to know they can ‘just call Mom.’

Quick Craft: Gold Herringbone Mirror

I’ve mentioned it before, but Young House Love is one of my favorite blogs out there. I’ve been quite inspired by a lot of their projects, and today’s post is no exception.

A few weeks ago, they posted about hanging a little mirror low on the wall so that their daughter could see herself in it. I thought my girls would enjoy that so much, but since we have little kiddos at our house just about every week I knew any mirror we hung needed to be super light. 

On a miracle solo trip to Target last weekend, I found just what I was looking for. I picked up a little plastic white mirror for about $5 measuring just under 16” across. The plain white plastic frame wasn’t doing it for me, but that’s where YHL came in again.

Taking a cue from their herringbone doll cradle, I bought a set of gold Sharpies (on clearance at Target for only $.88!) and dove right in. All it took was my mirror, my gold Sharpie, and a straight edge—in my case, I used the side of the box of our Mousetrap game. Mr. Bug hung with me and I knocked it out while we watched the newest Mindy Project episode. 

It’s not perfect but I was happy with the results and the girls were really excited. Not sure if I'm going to add any paint colors to any of the sections the way they did or just leave it as is. I'm also pretty stoked that I got this whole project done for around $6!

It’s not hung in their room yet, but I’m shooting for getting it up there in the next few days. I’ve had some sort of weird cold/fever/nausea thing the past couple of days so I’ve taken a break from all things housework-y. I haven’t even put away all of the groceries I got at the store yesterday. No judging, please : )