TGIF v.47

Posted in TGIF by

A high of the week was getting they vinyl decking installed on our new deck! Now we just have to get the railings up and it will pretty much be complete! (As complete as we need it to be to be able to enjoy it.) Not going to lie though, it’s pretty nice having an unobstructed view of the hill behind our house. Too bad glass panelling is expensive! (And a pain in the ass to keep clean.)

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And a bonus shout-out to the amazing weather we’ve been having all week! I know it’s been insanely hot back east, but the weather here has been absolutely perfect.

A low of the week was Norah’s sunglasses going missing. She was wearing them yesterday morning while we walked Isla to school, and I don’t know if she tossed them out of the strolled on our way there or if someone swiped them while we were going inside the school, but they’re gone :( We even re-traced our steps and walked the same way home, but I didn’t see them anywhere. Oh well, they lasted a surprisingly long time, so I guess it’s okay.

An internet find I loved was the latest edition of Jimmy Kimmel’s Mean Tweets. The last one? DYING!

The best money I spent was on the fresh mozzarella I picked up to make homemade chicken parmesan. The fresh stuff is SOOOOO much better than that plasticky garbage that comes pre-shredded in the bags.

My favourite Isla and/or Norah moment was getting Norah on the potty training train. I don’t know if it’s my absolute favourite moment of the week, but it’s been one of those milestones that I’ve been putting on the back burner for far too long now. We’re a few days in and things are going fairly well. *knocks on wood*

A song that has been stuck in my head is “What About Us” by Pink.

My meals of the week were meatballs, barbecued pork chops, baked chicken parmesan, carne asadas. Tonight’s meal is a mystery for now.

My plans for the weekend are playing in the final slo-pitch tournament of the year. Wish us luck! (We’re going to need it!)

How’s the weather where you are? Sun? Snow? Rain? Wind?

Mom Voice

Posted in Moments of Motherhood, Parenting by

Parents: You’ve been there. You’ve ALLLL been there. Don’t lie to me and say you haven’t. You’re in the grocery store and your kids are being little demons. You tell them time and time again to stop and they do, but it lasts a solid 5 minutes before they’re at it again. You’re clenching your jaw and making your way through your list while ignoring your kids as they ask beg for everything damn corn syrup-laden snack item on the shelf. You think you’re doing great until you’re organizing your wallet when your precious angels start bickering over who gets to hold the receipt when you suddenly snap and scold them, telling them to knock it off. Then you look up and realize that everyone in the vicinity is staring at you and you feel like you’re being judged harder than Kate Middleton.

“George, so help me God don’t make me use my Mom Voice in front of all this press …”

Okay, full disclosure time: That person in the above story? It was totally me. About 95% of the time both the girls are great when I take them grocery shopping. I’ll toss them a snack (the store we frequent offers fresh fruit or a cookie to their “young shoppers) and I can usually get my shopping done with very few issues.

I don’t know what the issue was during this particular trip, but everyone (myself included) seemed a bit testy. Isla wanted to buy every snack item possible, Norah insisted on holding every item I put in our car, and by the time we were at the checkout they were at each other’s throats. I couldn’t nose breathe for much longer but I knew we were almost done.

It wasn’t until I was putting my change into my wallet when they started screaming at one another when I finally lost it and the “Mom Voice” came out. I snapped at them. When I looked up, I saw a dozen heads turn the other way and knew that I had just drawn a crapload of attention to myself.

I’ll admit that at first I felt a little awkward and embarrassed by my outburst. No one ever sets out to be “that” parent in the public but sometimes it happens. I’m sure I was judged and labeled for being an awful parent by some of those shoppers, but I hope that the majority of them will take into consideration that they have no idea who I am and what was going on in my life at that point in time. I know I try my hardest to think that way when I witness similar situations.

The point of this whole post is to tell you that it’s okay to lose your shit in public. Believe me, I subtly told them to behave numerous times before raising my voice but when kids are in “the zone” chances are they’re not going to listen to a Snow White-like voice telling them to behave; sometimes you have to break out the Mom Voice to get the point across to your kids.

It’s unfortunate that the “voice” is usually the only thing strangers hear when you’re scolding your kids. Much like that photo of the Duchess of Cambridge, we’re judged on a single event and criticized for not being able to keep it together. That’s not okay. In our social media-obsessed world there’s too much emphasis on showing off how “perfect” your life and your kids are, and I believe this is affecting how we expect other parents to act and react while in public. We forget that there are as many low points in raising your kids as there are high points because we always attempt to emphasize and show off the good in our lives.

By no means am I saying that we need to start shaming our kids on Instagram, nor am I saying to dial back the #blessed posts either. I’m merely suggesting that we perhaps take a moment or two to remember not to judge if/when you see a parent struggling and scolding her kids in public. They’re trying their damn best to keep their cool so forgive them for not being a picture of social media perfection. Not having a screaming kid > Image of perfect parenting. ;)

Monday Morning Coffee

Posted in Monday Morning Coffee by

Good morning, everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve done a coffee date-style post, so I figured I’d do one today. So go grab a cup of the good stuff and lets make believe that if we were having coffee this morning I’d be telling you that …

… Isla has had a great first couple of days at school! Today and tomorrow she does for half-days (morning then afternoon), and then on Wednesday she has her first full day. On Thursday last week we met with her teacher and she seems great. On Friday I dropped her off for a mini-day (1.5hrs) and she was so chill about everything, from walking to school to going into her classroom. I knew she’d be just fine but I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that I have a kindergartener! Someone hold me.

… I started taking online courses to obtain a Administrative Assistant certificate. I’ve been relatively hush-hush about the fact I’m going back to school, only because when I say that people assume I’m going to a classroom and it’s tedious to explain that the courses are via distance learning. Doing things at home make it easier (and cheaper) to care for the girls and I can do my “learning” when it’s convenient for me. So far everything is going good!

… I decided to take said course to help increase my chances at finding a job. While my journalism degree and work history have provided me with some great skills that are extremely useful for the jobs that I’m after, I feel that I’m still under qualified in many ways. My hope is that having this certificate and the knowledge it will provide me with will help me land a great job in the future.

… Kyle and I booked a trip to Las Vegas next month!! We’re tagging it as our long, overdue honeymoon as we never actually had one and it’s our first trip AWAY away just as a couple. We’re staying at Caesar’s Palace and already have a couple of show tickets booked and I’m pretty excited about it all! It’s definitely needed and well deserved, in my opinion. And a big thanks to my mom for taking the girls for a few nights too!

… Kyle planted 5 tomato plants at the beginning of summer: two grape, one Roma, one heirloom and one “regular” plant. They are OUT OF CONTROL, especially the grape tomatoes! I seriously cannot keep up with picking them and we have tomatoes coming out of our eyeballs. So you know, if you want some good snacking tomatoes, come on over!

… We are redoing our deck out back and it’s going to be so amazing when it’s done! The old one was pretty useless as far as functionality goes; you could really only barbecue and sit two chairs side by side. Definitely not something we wanted to entertain on! Our new one will be much better for entertaining and just “being” on.

… I tried my hand at pickling! It’s been forever since I’ve canned anything, and I’ve always had help, but a couple weeks ago we bought a 10lb bag of pickling cukes. I’m fairly certain that Kyle had intended on just snacking on the cukes as they were, but when I mentioned maybe making a few jars of pickles he said to go for it! I managed to find this simple method and went to town! The hardest thing was finding the dill weed but thankfully there was one local produce store in town that had some still. I managed to get 8 jars out of my brine, although I probably had enough pickles for one or two more jars. Everything sealed, so lets hope in a few weeks time I have tasty pickles!

What would you be sharing with me if we were having coffee?