31 Days to a Better Me day 17

WAHOO!! we are more than half way to being over with the 31 days series!! 

Okay, now back to what I started this post to talk about.  Let me set the scene for todays post.

Me:  Angel, where are your shoes?

5 year old:  I don't know?

Me:  well, you're going to need to find those so you can eat breakfast!

Now my first instinct is to franticly search the house looking for the lost shoes, grumbling about how he is so irresponsible. 

He goes to look for his shoes.

5 y/o:  (growing more frustrated, yelling, clinched fists) I am going to miss breakfast!!

Me:  I am so sorry sweety, but your shoes are your responsibility.  Where did you leave them?

5 y/o:  I don't know!!  (walking away, yelling something indistinct)

He finally found his shoes, and all is well right?  Not exactly.

Me:  Angel?  Where is your lunch bag?  I can't make you a lunch if I don't have a lunch bag.  Better go find it.

Picture a very angry, hungry, yelling five year old.  You pretty much get it. 

Ultimately, he missed breakfast, and had to eat hot lunch (he hates hot lunch).  Which sounds really mean right?  But the bigger point is that I taught him a lesson in responsibility.  I am normally the kind of mother that would do everything for my kids.  They would normally never leave the house without breakfast or with mismatched clothes.  But I have been taking a parenting class recently that pointed out to me that though that may work in the short term, long term I am not preparing them for the real world.  I have to let them own their own problems.

I went into school and talked to his teacher and explained the story.  I was thinking that she would think that I was a horrible mother.  How could I let him go to school with no breakfast?  Instead, she congratulated me on making my son be responsible for himself.  She assured me that he would have a snack after morning recess, so he would not starve to death.

Ultimately my job as a mother is to give my boys the tools that they need to survive in the big world.  Not to hover over them and make sure that everything is perfect for them.  Instead of grumbling about my son not being responsible, I made him a little more responsible.

Just to let you know, he puts his lunch bag on the counter first thing when he walks in the door.  His shoes are put in his closet, and if they are not he looks for them himself. 

By making him a better person I make myself a better person.  I taught my kid something!  

If this is your first time here, Thanks for coming!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I am very responsible about reading them!

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 16

There has been a journey going on in my life for a couple of years now.  It has been a long road but I am happy to report that the road has ended.

For about two years now I have been looking for the perfect riding boots.  I found lots that I loved online, but in person they would fall short of my expectations. 

One day I was browsing online at Vonmaur.com and stumbled upon some great looking boots.  They were called the Hobart riding boot made by Ecco.  They looked good online but the true test would be when I saw them in person.  One day I stopped in the Von Maur and thought that this would put an end to it.  Much to my surprise I loved them more in person than I had online.  RATS.  Now I knew that I really wanted them.

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The problem is that now I agonized over these boots for weeks, wanting them but feeling guilty about spending so much money on myself.  My husband told me to just go and get them, but something was holding me back.

Then one day I was whining  talking to my mother about how  I wanted these boots, and had been looking so long...and on..and on.  Then my mother said something that made real sense to me.  She said that we as mothers spend so much time caring for, providing for other people that sometimes we forget to care for ourselves.

The truth is that I spend so much time in the mommy trenches cleaning, laundering, wiping up, cleaning poo, taking temperatures etc that I don't feel special most of the time.  Every once in a while if I am able ($) it is okay; if not recommended, to provide for myself and make myself feel special.

If I feel good about myself, I will be a better mother, a better person, and that will provide for my children too!

So I got those boots, and they are YUMMY!

Today I am being a better me by treating myself once in a while. 

Thank You for visiting today,  Feel free to leave me a comment!  Reading them is like treating myself!

Sunny

Ugly dresser turns CUTE

This is a story of doubt, regret, blood, sweat and tears.

 If you didn't know I have three boys.  I live in a 3 bedroom house.  This means that at any given time 2 of my boys have to share a room.  This has occured in a couple of different configurations, but this summer my oldest moved into his own room.  In the past my two older boys shared a room and in that room was 2 dressers.  The youngest was in a room by himself and since he had little clothes I just folded them and put them on a shelf in the closet.  When my oldest moved into that room the shelves were not going to work, so he needed a dresser.  Now pre-blog reading I would have thought that I had to spend like a thousand dollars on a good dresser.  Now I know that I have the ability to do things, cool things.

One day after dropping the older boys off at school,  the little one and I stopped off at an estate sale.  Believe it or not I had never been to an estate sale before.  The boy and I ventured around the house looking for treasure and I was about to give up, then in the basement there it was.

The ugliest dresser I had ever seen.  But is had dove tails all the way around the drawers and it was solid.  I knew that it would hold up to my 7 year old.  Price $17 and it was going home with me!!

Now I have to tell you that I did this project in August in southern Kansas, in the hottest summer in 31 years.  This is where the sweat comes into the story.

Yes the temperature says 110 degrees!! Nothing will stand in my DIY way.

So I drug the blue dresser to the back yard and began sanding...and sanding...and when I got tired I made the 2 year old sand.

Not really,  he just wanted a turn (because doesn't it look fun?)  Trust me his help lasted as long as it took to take this picture.

Remember the dresser drawers in this picture it will lead to the tears portion of the tutorial.

So when I got it sanded to a point that I was happy with the smoothness I painted it with a black tinted primer.  I don't have pictures of that because I was so hot I was delirious and forgot.  I left them outside to dry that night.  The next morning I headed out back to begin the painting process, at 8:30 am it was a balmy 91 degrees and too hot to paint outside.  My husband was out of town with the military and I had no help getting the dresser in the house.  However the desire to get back into the air conditioning was enough to grant me super human strength and I carried it in by myself. 

Inside I gave it 2 coats of Tuxedo Tie an Eddie Bauer color from Lowes sanding in between coats.  Again no pictures (at this point I just wanted it done and to take a nap).

I didn't want to just have a plain dresser, and I love when things have letters or numbers on them so I decided to add some numbers to the dresser drawers.

 I printed out numbers in a font and size that I liked onto card stock.  I cut out the numbers and made a stencil.  I took a pencil and traced the numbers onto the dresser drawers.  Then I took some cream colored paint and hand painted the numbers onto to the drawers in "order". 

When that was done I gave the whole thing a gazillion coatsof Polyrcyllic, sanding in between coats.  Apparently it is supposed to be better over paint than polyurethane.  Discoloration.  I didn't love the Polycryllic.  I was using a foam roller and it left like a million bubbles that left the surface bumpy when it dried.  Maybe it was user error but whatever I tried nothing fixed the problem.

I love the way that it turned out.  Are you ready for the tears portion?  I thought that I had kept the drawers in order...but at some point the top right and bottom right got switched.  The numbers were supposed to read 03 23 04 my sons birthday.  Oops!!  Someday when the hurt goes away I will sand off the numbers, repaint, and renumber in the right order, it still just hurts too much. 

My husband got regular updates on the "dresser" by phone.  I found out later that he had serious doubts about how cool it would be, but now he totally loves it.

My regret:  I wasted so much time thinking that I had to spend a bunch of money to get my son a cool dresser that would last!!

Hope you enjoyed visiting!!  Feel free to leave a comment...I promise to read them in the right order :) 

Sunny
I am linking to these:
 Primitive & Proper Piece of Work Wednesday

31 Days to a Better Me day 15

I said yesterday that I was going to go to Oklahoma and pick up my Jeep. Well, yesterday morning I loaded up the kids, trailer, and Hubby in the truck and headed the 3 1/2 hours to get there.

When I got there I found that my Jeep didn't have windows, trim, interior, or a final sand and polish. The time, money, and aggravation wasted left me speechless!

 Another 3 1/2 hours in the truck with my 3 boys pent up and bored was just the icing on the disappointment cake!!

I was satisfied being upset and cranky, then I realized that I needed to search for contentment and thankfulness!

 So I silently spent a few minutes finding ways to be thankful. I was able to be thankful that my family was healthy and could make the trip. We had the money to afford the trip, and a good truck that got us there and back safely. Thankful for the ability to have a spare car to turn into a dream car. And a wonderful family to share the day with!! When you take a few minutes thinking about things to be thankful for it is hard to be upset about the things that go wrong.

Today I want to be a better person by being thankful for all the things that are going right!
Thanks for visiting!! Feel free to leave a comment I am thankful for them!

Sunny

This post brought to you by my new iPhone!!

31 Day to a Better Me Day 14

So amongst other housey projects that I love to do I also love to work on projects with my husband.  He is a big car guy, and loves to tinker.  He and I have started a new project together that I am very excited about!! 

This is our Jeep.  Well okay technically I guess that it is his, he bought it when he was 19.  But we are married now so all that "what is mine is yours" stuff...

This Jeep used to be my husbands everyday driver.  Then he upgraded and the Jeep just sat around.  we thought about selling it but for some reason we just couldn't part with this part of our youth.

I always wanted to have a Jeep of my own.  My plan was to buy a brand new one when I graduated college.  Instead when I graduated I planned a wedding, went to work, and shortly after getting married I got pregnant.  Goodbye Jeep dreams.

That is what I thought until this summer my husband suggested that we redo it together.  Now I think that cars are cool but my home is my passion.  The truth is that I want to both fulfill my dream of cool Jeep ownership, but I also love the idea of spending more quality time with my husband. 

My husband is my best friend,  he has been since just shortly after my 15th birthday.  He and I were practically inseparable right up until parenthood.  After we had children it seemed like our time together got less and less.  I miss the old days.  If being in the garage timkering with my husband is how I get special time back I gladly say yes!!

This summer we dropped it off to get painted and today I am going to go and pick it up.  Above is what it looked like the last time that I saw it.

This is a picture that the painter sent me.  We still have a long way to go, but I really think that the journey with my husband with be the real prize. 

Making time to spend with my husband, even if it is doing something that is not quite my cup of tea will inevitably make me a better person.  Not only a better person but a better wife! 

If this is your first time here Welcome and Thanks for coming!!  Feel Free to leave a comment, it is as cool as getting my Jeep back!!

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 13

When I thought about joining in this 31 day series I first sat down and wrote out 31 topics that I would potentially talk about.  I did this for a couple of reasons: first so that I knew that I had enough ideas to make it to day 31, and second, to have a guideline to follow (less thinking). 

Todays topic is learn something new.  I had no idea what it would be that I wanted to learn about but I figured that I would figure it out.  So today I thought about what I would want to learn about.  I have two things actually, the first is something that I am actively doing, and one that I want to do.

The thing that I am actually doing is I am taking a parenting class.  It is called "Parenting with Love and Logic"  some of you may know about it.

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It is based on the idea that children will learn the most from the natural consequences of their choices.  If the child chooses not to eat, they will be hungry until the next meal is served.  This class has taught me a lot about myself and my children.  I am the kind of mother that tries to do everything, think of everything, and provide everything for my child.  I want my children to be responsible, but I have not been teaching them to be responsible for themselves.  I am working on it!!

The second thing is more fun!!  I want to learn how to garden.  I have always wanted to know how to garden.  I kill everything!!  Over the winter months I would like to read books, take classes, and network with other gardeners to learn what I need to know about how to be a successful gardener . :)

                                                          source I love this kind of gardening.

                                                                                    source I want to some of this kind of gardening.

Knowing how to do this wouldn't be bad either!!

I feel like when I was born I had a natural talent for interior design, and a creative personality.  I feel completely overwhelmed when it comes to choosing plants, placing plants, care of plants, soil (?) the list goes on and on.  So I am going to tackle my fear/desire of gardening, and learn what I can. 
So my 13th way to a better me is to learn something new!!

If this is your first time here Thanks for coming!!  Feel free to leave me a comment its like a learning opportunity! :)

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 12

Todays topic for me becoming a better me is simplify my life in some way.  I think that most people would be open to simplifying their life , and I am no exception. 

Side note:  I really need to figure out a better way to start 31 day posts other than "Today...."

So I thought about ways that I could simplify or that I had recently simplified, and it reminded me of the new way that I am cooking. 

Last spring the Borders Books was going out of business and I had a gift card so shopping I went.  Let me set the scene:  3 boys gone wild, bored husband, sister on the phone with personal crisis, and books VERY picked over.  Sounds fun right?  There is one good thing that came out of it I got a new cookbook.

It is called "Quick Fix Meals" by Robin Miller.  You know from Food Network.  Anyhow I got the book and it kinda went in the cabinet and got forgotten about. Then the other day I got it down and was thumbing through it. I thought that maybe I would try her program out. 

So it goes like this: cook a lot of meat on the first night, then for the next 3 nights use the left over meat to create new meals.  I set down with the book and picked 2 different 4 night recipes and wrote a grocery list. Then I tried it out.  It really simplified my evenings. 

We have commitments basically every night and it has been so much easier for me to not have to think about what we are going to have for dinner!  Here is how I used to do it:  spend all day thinking about what protein I have, wonder what ingredients I have to make said protein into something that passes for dinner, make trip to the grocery to get other things that I didn't have, get frustrated, give up and grab something.

Now I know that I have all of the stuff, I don't think about what we are having I just make the recipe of the day.  I have dinner on the table by 5:00 so that we can be to soccer/boy scouts/ church/ whatever else by 5:30. 

Plus, the recipes so far have been great.  Some better than others but that is always the case.  The recipes are easy , healthy, and can take variations depending upon your families likes. 

The only thing is that I don't think her proportions are quite right all of the time.  I have to increase the amounts just a tad to accomodate my family of 5 but that doesn't take too many brain cells.  Thank goodness. 

I know that this is not a new concept, but it is new for me so I am amazed!!

I don't get paid for this, I just think that it is helpful!!

If this is your first time here I want to say thank you for coming.  Feel free to leave me a comment,  I have more time to read them now that I am not thinking about what's for dinner!!

Sunny