Turning Thirty-Two

I turned thirty-two ten days ago. And, surprisingly, I don’t have the slightest urge to complain about it. I mean, what is there to complain about really? Thirty-two is not exactly old, and, as I often remind myself, many are denied the privilege of growing older. Still, each birthday is a sign that time does keep on moving, often faster than I’d like. These moments don’t just come on birthdays. They come when I think it has been ten whole years since I graduated from college. They come when I realize my little brother will be twenty-nine this year. They come when I’m flipping through family photo albums of my parents and their friends when they were in their thirties. These memories are so clear that it’s crazy to think we are the parents now. And as quickly as these years have flown, they will continue to fly. My kids won’t be little forever. Someday, in the not so distant future, I’ll look back at this post and think, you thought you had perspective at thirty-two? You sounded like an asshole. :)

I can’t remember a bad birthday, but I can say that my thirty second birthday was a great day. I took a nice walk with the boys in the morning, complete with a trip to the playground and some frolicking in the backyard. I took a guilt-free siesta while the kids were napping. I checked facebook to see that so many of my friends, past and present, and family members had wished me a happy birthday. As cheesy as it sounds, it was truly touching to see how many people reached out and to reminisce about the role each person has played in my life.

That night, after some cake with my guys, I went out for dinner and drinks with some of my favorite women. My best friend, Marissa, organized a girls’ night at Unwined to celebrate all of the summertime birthdays in our family. Joining in on the festivities with Marissa and I were my mom, my Grammy, Auntie Ava (my godmother), my cousins, Kelly, Shannon, and Vickie, and my sister in law, Brittany, and her mom, Anne Marie. We drank, we ate, we laughed. And I was reminded of how lucky I am. If I think about all of the awesome ladies in my life, we could have filled several more tables. And that’s just the females. Don’t even get me started about all of the amazing males in my life...

...I’m starting to ramble (must be the wine), so I’ll end with a heartfelt thank you to each and every person that brightened my day. Life is good.

xoxo J

Mama: Rainy Day Basement Art Studio

My daycare provider and cousin, Miss Vickie, and I decided to do a kid swap this week. For all you moms or dads out there who need a day (or two) to get things accomplished without kids in tow, this is a cheap way to get it done. I plan to watch her kids one day, and she’s doing the same for me the following day. The weather is calling for thunderstorms and rain all day, so the typical trampoline, kiddie pool, sprinkler, swings, walk to the park routine isn’t going to happen. Rainy days can sometimes be great for cuddling, movie watching, reading, and puzzles, but I wanted to go above and beyond the normal indoor novelties in honor of our special guests.

Since her two girls, Kaelyn (7) and Corynn (5), are older than my boys I wanted to come up with some activities that would keep all ages entertained. I also didn’t want to spend a ton of money. I looked on Pinterest for ideas and found a couple I thought seemed pretty cute and “doable.” Here are the original links and our spin on them:

Rock Monsters

Supplies

• Rocks. The original pin used river rocks, but we substituted rocks from the yard, trying to find ones with at least one pretty flat side for the face. I just washed them off the night before and let them dry.
• Paint. I used Crayola washable paint. Other, more permanent types of paint will work, but I think it’s pretty obvious why I chose washable.
• Paint Brushes. I used three larger paint brushes for the kids, but also bought an assorted pack of smaller brushes in case they wanted to add a design to their monsters.
• Smocks. In lieu of actual aprons, we used old, oversized t-shirts.
• Paint Pens or Sharpies in black and white for the teeth. These can also be used to draw eyes if you choose to forego the googly eyes.
• Googly eyes. I bought a package of assorted sized eyes at Michael’s. Oddly enough, I will need googly eyes for a baby shower gift I’m working on, so I killed two birds with one stone.
• Hot glue gun.  If you want to glue on eyes, hot glue works best. If you use a paint pen and draw them on, you can skip this.

How We Did It:

• First, they all chose a base color for their rocks and painted them. I helped them to use their brushes to spread the paint out over the rock.
• While we let them dry, the kids painted wooden masks that Chace spotted at Michael’s while we were purchasing supplies.
• Once the first coat was dry, we did a touch-up coat to make sure the rocks were covered. I also let the kids add polka dots, stripes, or any design they wished to their monsters.
• While we let the final coat dry, we washed up and headed upstairs to watch Monster’s University and eat some lunch. It does not take long for the paint to dry, so there is no need to take a movie/length break; it just worked well with our daily routine.
• After lunch, we headed back downstairs. I let the kids choose and position their googly eyes, and then I hot glued them to the rocks.
• Once the eyes were in place, we used the paint pens to add the mouths and teeth.

Once we completed our rock monsters, we wanted to let the final touches dry. So, we moved right on to our next, less involved project--paper popsicles.

Paper Popsicles

Supplies

• Popsicle sticks. Any size will work. I didn’t have any on hand, so I got the larger, tongue depressor size.
• A variety of construction paper. I cut out the popsicle shapes for the kids, but kids could also do this themselves, depending on how well they use scissors. I used the scraps to cut out some basic hearts and triangles that they could glue on.
• Embellishments. I used markers, crayons, foam stickers, and paper cut-outs. This is a great project for using whatever random crafting supplies you have around.
• Glue, if necessary, for embellishments. You will also need glue to attach the popsicle sticks to the “popsicles.”  I provided glue sticks for decorating purposes and used a hot glue gun for the sticks.

How We Did It:

• This project really only has two steps, decorating the popsicles and attaching them to the sticks. This can be done in either order, but I opted to have the kids decorate the popsicles first, so the construction paper could lay more flat on the table.
• As they finished decorating them, I attached the sticks using the hot glue gun.
• I then offered up Sharpies where they could write their names or any other message of their choosing on the sticks.

I even grabbed some wooden masks for $1.00 each to keep them busy for longer. All ages seemed to enjoy themselves!

Bookworm: I Just Finished... The Book I Kinda Liked, Even Though It Made Me Stall Out (June/July 2015)

Binary Star by Sarah Gerard

I honestly don’t even know where to begin with this one. To start with the positive, Sarah Gerard is clearly a talented writer. It’s obvious from start to finish that she has that artistic flair and skill. With that being said, this book was definitely told from a stream of consciousness point of view, but not a Go Ask Alice-esque diary vibe. It wasn’t exactly confusing, but it sort of felt disjointed and ambiguous and just not how I was expecting it to be. Probably the most shocking fact I realized while reading this book was that it was only like 95-97 pages. That has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m addressing in this post, but I felt I couldn’t not mention it.  I didn’t like the novel at one moment, but then I did appreciate it as a piece of art and as an honest portrayal of our nation’s dependence on anything. Addiction, depression, etc. are issues that are not clear cut, so I thought the writing style stayed true to that point of view, but if you are crawling in bed at night looking for a story with a complete plot, it wasn’t that. I’d recommend it to my more artsy fartsy friends who enjoy books that are quirky and unique. I don’t necessarily think it would be something that would appeal to the masses.

Even though this one was so short, it took me a while to get through. That, added to a pretty busy schedule recently, have put me into a bit of a reading lull. I’m excited to get back into it with my two most recent downloads by Judy Blume and Toni Morrison, which I’ll post about as soon as I finish.