Tuesday Topics-Three Favorite Quotes

I have a book full of quotes I've collected since I was a teenager.  Luckily, I can't find it right now because that would mean that I'd be up all night trying to narrow it down to three.  I had a hard enough time as it was.

Without further ado, here are three of my favorite quotes:  

Source: skariann.blogspot.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Because let's face it, when a problem hits us, we reach for the phone first, right?

Source: ibibleverses.christianpost.com via Lewis on Pinterest

My favorite Bible verse.

Source: babygoodbuys.com via Hannah on Pinterest

I cannot stress this enough!!  I know too many people who are more interested in giving their children stuff instead of their time.

What's your favorite quote(s)? 

Random Monday-July 8, 2013

I was feeding Star a jar of baby food and when the jar was finished, she started begging for more.  I gave her some Gerber puffs and asked her, "Where are you putting all this food?!?"  Across the table from me, Little Man answered my rather obvious question...
Little Man: "In her mouth!"

I gave Little Man a toddler spoon with his applesauce.  He looked at it and said in disgust, "Mommy, 'dis a little spoon.  I not little, I big!"

Upon her request, I spread butter on Princess's waffle one morning for breakfast.  She looked at it and grinned, "It's like it has sunscreen on it!"

Today, Little Man was telling me all about his weekend.  Not what we actually did this weekend, but his own version which means he was basically making it up as he went along.  I wasn't paying much attention until this sentence..."I went on a trip and my friend went tripping with me!"
o_O

On a completely different note, I dare you to watch this video of Star and not at least crack a smile.

Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

Happy 4th of July!

Yes, I know it's July 5th today, but I opted to watch the fireworks on tv and go to bed early last night instead of blogging. 

We hung around the house all day until the parade started at 3 pm.  Here are a few of the pictures I took before we left.

My girls

Princess, Star, and Little Man ("Mom, put your camera away so we can just go to the parade already!!")

"It's a bug!! Get it off! Get it off!"

"Whew, that was a close call!"

Finally, I packed up my camera and we headed off to the parade.  Hubby was working, but his mom came with us.

Little Man picking up candy-when he concentrates, he sticks his tongue out.  And yes, those are purple Tinkerbell sunglasses he's wearing.  His sunglasses broke so he insisted on wearing his sister's.

We found a good spot on the curb to sit that was in the shade.  Shortly after we sat down, a group of smokers sat directly next to us (upwind, of course) on the right.  Then, a group of 8+ kids and 6 adults decided to squeeze into the 3 foot long spot to the left of us.  Several of the kids somehow worked their way over until they were right in front of me, and I ended up having to scoot back a few feet on the sidewalk with Star just so they wouldn't step on her.  Most of the kids were older (around 4th grade) and stood in the street so they could pick up the candy before anyone else could, which meant that they blocked our view and got to most of the candy before Princess and Little Man could.  It wasn't until quite a ways into the parade that their parents noticed what they were doing and told them to slow down on picking up the candy.        

Princess picking up candy

Despite the constant cigarette smoke that kept drifting into our faces and the rather inconsiderate group next to us, we still enjoyed the parade.  Star was thrilled with the horses in the parade and every time one went by, she just about catapulted herself out of my arms with excitement.     

You know you live in a rural area when a good portion of the parade looks like this.  That's 4 tractors there and there were several more that followed.

Just a couple of observations about the parade...

Adults throw more candy than kids.  I'm assuming it's because the kids are thinking that if there's candy leftover at the end of the parade, then they can have it.

A local bar had a float in the parade which mostly consisted of children.  Using kids to advertise a place that sells beer....classy.
 
One church had a group of adults and kids walking in the parade throwing candy and carrying signs like "God is love," "Jesus loves you," etc.  Not one person from the church had a smile on their face.  Most looked pretty unhappy to be there, and their demeanor didn't fit with their message at all.  I overheard several people around me talking about the church group.  One man sitting a few feet from us commented that based on what he just saw, he had no interest in ever visiting that church.    

A few of the floats threw Freezees.  Star couldn't get enough of hers!

Little Man picked a blue Freezee

When the parade was over, we headed to my in-laws' aka The Farm for supper.  The kids spent a lot of time playing outside.  It was over 80 degrees outside, but there was a cool breeze so it was a beautiful day.

As a bonus, at the end of the day, the kids were all so tired that they fell right to sleep which meant that I got to go to bed early.  That officially made it a good day for me!


Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

Tuesday Topics-4 Things I Have Learned Outside of School

This one is kind of tricky for me.  You see, I was homeschooled and so most of what I've learned in life, I was taught as part of my schooling.  When your mom is your teacher, and she's the one who taught you pretty much everything you know and believe as an adult, it can be hard to distinguish between what was learned "in" school and what wasn't. 

Somehow, I managed to come up with four things though.

1. Sew. 
My home-ec class one year involved me running the house (cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, etc) for one whole week.  Very educational for me and very smart of my mom who got a week off.  The one thing my home-ec class was missing was the sewing portion.  My mom can sew, but she doesn't like doing it so she didn't teach me.  I'm pretty much a self-taught sewist.  

Dress and shirt made by me and modeled by Princess and my nephew

2. How to drive.
My mom was too smart to get in a car with any of us kids while we were learning how to drive (unlike my dad who let my newly licensed brother practice driving a stick shift in downtown Minneapolis during rush hour).  Because we kids were required to pay our own way for the most part once we were old enough to have a job (this parenting technique not only saved my parents some money, but is a super way to teach kids responsibility and appreciation for things), I opted to wait until I was 18 before learning to drive so I didn't have to pay for the driving class.  At the age of 19ish, my then-boyfriend/now-husband and my dad taught me to drive so I could take the written test (twice) and get my license. 

3. Blog.
Okay, I don't know if I can actually count this one since I learned how to write in school, but blogging didn't exactly come up back then.  Was blogging even around in the 90's?  I don't know, but anyways, I didn't start my blog until 2009.  Of course, at the beginning, I assumed that blogging was just typing up a post and hitting the "publish" button.  Um, yeah.  If you want your blog to really go anywhere, you need to learn social media, html, networking and so much more.  Also things that weren't covered in school and that I have learned to utilize.

4. Choose Joy.
My mom will tell you that I've always been a definite a bit of a Negative Nellie.  In the past few years, I've learned that (just like my mom said!) I have the freedom to choose how I will respond to a situation.  I can choose to respond with worry, fear, anger, etc. or I can choose to respond with joy.  I'm not perfect yet, (although that's coming any day now!), but realizing that I have power over how a situation affects me is very freeing.     


Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

Random Monday - July 1st, 2013

Little Man LOVES to cut paper up with his little safety scissors.  Last week, I gave him a catalog to cut up.  He was thrilled until the first time he cut through a picture of a person in the catalog. Bringing the catalog to me and showing me the cut through the person, he sadly informed me that he "cut a people up and they are crying now." 

Because of some tractor rides with his Daddy and Grandpa lately, Little Man has really been into playing with his tractors.  When a trailer wouldn't stay on the tractor, he brought it to me and asked if I could put a band-aid on it for him.

Princess had kind of a rough weekend.  On Saturday night, she put herself to bed at 5:30 pm and only woke at 7:30 to take a nebtreatment before going back to bed for the rest of the night.  She had a pretty high fever, but no other symptoms so she spent Sunday relaxing on the couch.  Today, she's back to normal-which means refusing to sleep no matter what.

Speaking of Sunday...Star learned to crawl on Sunday!  I took this video of her crawling for the second time.  Sorry about the video quality-usually my camera does a much better job than that.  Oh, and that's Josh Groban singing in the background.  He was hanging out at my house on Sunday, well, at least in the form of a cd. 

My sister and I have been toying with the idea of starting a review and giveaway blog together for a while.  I've wanted to do more reviews and giveaways, but didn't want to turn this blog into a giveaway blog.  I like running occasional giveaways here, but for the most part, I'd like to keep this blog more personal.  Anyways, we're currently in the process of getting everything set up and are hoping to get the blog off the ground sometime in July!  We may even include our super stylish little sister to do some fashion posts.


Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

5 Things To Do With Leftover Frosting

When I make cakes for the kids' birthdays, I usually end up with some leftover frosting.  Sometimes it's leftover homemade frosting, sometimes it's from a can of frosting, and sometimes it's a little leftover from a tube of decorating frosting.  No matter what kind it is, I firmly believe that frosting is the best part of a birthday cake, and that the cake is pretty much just a carrier for the frosting.  No way am I throwing frosting away. 

Here are 5 things you can do with leftover frosting:

1. Eat it straight out of the bowl/can/tube. 

2. Make graham cracker or saltine cracker sandwiches.  The kids love this.

Princess enjoying a graham cracker frosting sandwich

3. Feed it to the kids right before they go to Grandma's for a few hours.  Call it sweet revenge.

4. Make cookies.  This recipe is genius!

5. Melt it in the microwave for a few seconds and drizzle over ice cream.

What do you like to do with leftover frosting?  Which do you like better...the cake or the frosting?


Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

Tuesday Topics - Five Songs That Bring Back Memories

This week's Tuesday Topic is 5 songs that bring back memories.

1.  "If You Could See What I See" by Geoff Moore and the Distance
My husband's aunt played the guitar for and sang this at our wedding.

2. "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas
My great-grandma had a little figurine that played this song and every time we'd visit her, she would play it for me.  I'm not sure who got the figurine after she passed away, but I managed to find another one just like it on Ebay.  It may not be the original, but it reminds me of her whenever I see it.

3. "His Cheeseburger" sung by Mr. Lunt
My best friend in high school and I had an addiction to cheeseburgers back then.  Therefore, this kind of became our theme song.  Ahhhh, good times!

4. "Mmmbop" by Hanson
My sister and I LOVED this song when we were younger :)

5. "Horse With No Name" by America
My dad plays just about every stringed instrument there is, but when I was a kid, it seemed that he played accoustic guitar the most often.  I loved it when he would play and I remember falling in love with this song because he played it quite a bit.

Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!

Random Monday-June 24, 2013

Little Man went to the Mayo Clinic last Monday to have an orthopedic surgeon check his feet.  He's very pigeon toed and often trips over his own feet while he runs.  As I suspected, the doctor didn't think we needed to do anything for his feet except for keep an eye on how he handles being pigeon toed as he gets older, but I feel better knowing that. 

Little Man was given a sandbox playset by his secret Kid Kare person at church.  The set included a rake, shovel, bucket, and a few fun shaped molds.  We don't have a sandbox so I figured the kids would just have to pretend.  Apparently I underestimated the kids' resourcefulness; this is the area under the deck on the second story of the house we live in.  The kids decided that the gravel would be perfect for digging in.      

Last Wednesday night we were at the Bible study and prayer meeting at church.  When I say "we," I mean me and the three kidlets since Hubby was working.  I don't know what came over 5 year old Princess, but her behavior that evening was appalling to say the least.  From a young age, we expect our kids to sit quietly in church, and the two older kids are usually pretty well-behaved.  Princess was sitting on my dad's lap and was goofing around with a little girl in the pew in front of us so my dad gently tried to get her stop.  She responded by elbowing him in the stomach so I pulled her over to sit by me.  An out-of-character fit ensued and I stood to take her out of church to deal with the behavior.  The next thing I knew, she was running across the church away from me.  I followed her and tried to catch her, but she ran around and between the empty pews on the other side of the church.  Naturally, everyone was watching our little game.  I finally caught her and dragged her kicking and screaming downstairs where a 10 minute screaming tantrum followed.  Finally, she was calmed down and ready to go back upstairs.  She sat on my lap (I was afraid to let go of her at this point!) and for some reason kept grabbing at my chest.  In church.  While everyone was watching to see what she was going to try to pull next.  Did I mention that I also uncharacteristically chose a seat near the front of the church that evening?  Ugh.

I found the cutest outfit for Star on clearance at Target last week.  I've always loved the nautical theme for kids' clothes and am thrilled that it's in style right now.  It's kind of hard to see, but the top is navy blue with white anchors printed all over it and an attached yellow rosette.  The skirt is three layers of white eyelet ruffles.

"I just don't know why you insist on taking so many pictures of me, Mama."

"Oh that's right. It's because I'm so cute!"

I just finished designing the first draft of my latest pattern for my shop, Little Owl Patterns!  It's an easy, quick sew project that kids love to wear because it's so comfortable!  It's made with knit fabric, but you don't need a serger or any special tools to make it.  The pattern hasn't been released yet and is still in the testing stage.  If you're interested in testing, you can request to join the Facebook testing group here.   

Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter! 

How to Avoid the Hair Brushing Battle

You can read an updated version of this post on my new blog, Sunshine and Spoons! I hope to see you there!

It's Hard No Matter Where You Are

My sister and I, with our four and three kids respectively, occasionally think back to our one-child or two-child selves.  "Remember when we each just had one baby and we thought that was hard?!?"  "Hahaha, remember when we only had two kids each and we though that was hard?!?!"  *incredulous laughter*

But you know what?  It was hard.  When I think back to when I only had one child, I think about how difficult it was to adjust to life as a mom, how new everything was to me, and how much I worried.  It was hard. I think back to when I just had two kids and they were the same ages as my youngest two are now, and it was hard because it was JUST me ALL the time.  Now, my oldest child is able to help out in small, but valuable ways that make taking care of the younger two just a little bit easier.  
.
.
.
You can read an updated version of this post here on my new blog, Sunshine and Spoons! I hope to see you there!