Summer Bucket List

I don’t know about you, but I have a list of things that are quintessentially summer that just need to happen in order for my summer to feel complete. I like to roll with it, for the most part. But I do have a running list of things we need to accomplish in just two(ish) short months!

• Sleep late.
• Stay at the pool until our toes are wrinkly.
• See a baseball game.
• Eat ice cream for lunch.
• Catch fireflies.
• Ride with the windows down.
• Sleep in a tent.
• Spend a day at the zoo.
• Go on a road trip.
• Have a picnic.
• Chase down the ice cream truck.
• Make milkshakes.
• Watch fireworks.
• Roast marshmallows over an open fire – bonus if we makes s’mores with them!
• Have a water balloon fight.
• Take a turn on the slip ‘n’ slide.
• Grow something.
• Go to the fair.
• Eat a snow cone (or shave ice).
• Blow bubbles.
• Make sun tea.
• Fly a kite.
• Play mini golf.
• Eat from a food truck.
• Have a movie marathon on a rainy day.
• Make ice cream floats.
• Go on a bike ride.
• Listen to an outdoor concert.
• Visit an amusement park.
• Send a postcard.
• Shop at the Farmer’s Market.
• Host a BBQ.
• Paint something.
• Find a rainbow.

What have I forgotten? What are your must-do summer bucket list items?

The Last Day of School

It’s the last day of school. When I see my kids again, they’ll no longer be a 3rd and 6th grader. And don’t they look really excited to be just a day away from summer break? (ha!)

This transition is giving me lots of feelings. Next year, for the first time since they began school, my two kiddos will be attending different schools. Aidan will move on to middle school and leave Neely behind in elementary. The next time they attend school together will be Aidan’s senior year of high school. 

I don’t know why that feels like such a big deal to me. Maybe it’s because my brother and I only went to the same school for one year. He was in kindergarten, and I was in the sixth grade. I probably wasn’t nearly as nice to him as I should have been. But I’ve seen my kids get excited to pass one another in the hallways at school, give each other high-fives and hugs. It’s sweet, and I’m fairly certain the dynamic will have changed greatly in six years. She’ll always be the pesky little sister, but will senior Aidan want to give freshman Neely an encouraging high-five in the hallway of their high school? I hope so. And yes, I know I’m borrowing trouble from years in the future.

Staying Ahead of the Calendar

The month of May. It’s insane. We’re in the throes of the last few weeks of school. We’ve got band concerts and soccer practices and middle school open houses and soccer games and doctors’ appointments and finding the perfect Mother’s Day gifts and field day and trips to the dentist…and, oh, by the way, all the other regular stuff like work, laundry, grocery shopping, and house cleaning have to happen at some point as well.

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

I have a long, crazy list that I’m using to try and keep my life together. And a paper planner. And the calendar in my phone. And about a billion and one reminders and Post-It notes. Despite all of that, I know that at some point, I’m going to forget something. I just hope it’s not something earth-shattering, like the snacks for the soccer game, or to leave my makeup on for my Zoom conference meeting this evening, or to mail those Mother’s Day gifts on time! My mental load is through the roof, and that’s with all my handy helpers like ClickList and Eat Fit Go.

Hit me with your best tips, tricks, and time savers for when life gets a little crazy!

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Halloween Cookie Extravaganza!

I went on a bit of a baking binge this week. It was partially driven by the fact that I’d volunteered to donate treats to the school for Spooky Story Night, and also by the fact that I went 10 days without an oven.

If you want to make something quick and easy this Halloween, try out these Gooey Monster Eye Cookies. I found the small candy eyes in the baking section of my grocery store, and the larger candy eyes came from Hobby Lobby.

Gooey Monster Cookies

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

green gel food coloring

powdered sugar

candy eyeballs

1. In a stand mixer, combine butter, vanilla, egg, and cream cheese. Beat until fluffy.
2. Add cake mix and stir until combined.
3. Add food coloring. Once the mixture reaches the desired color, chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Roll dough into 1 and 1/2-inch balls, then roll in powdered sugar. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, and push candy eyes into cookies while warm.

The original recipe comes from Lil’ Luna’s blog.

These cookies are really gooey and delicious. The next time I make them, I’ll probably try using white cake mix instead of yellow. I wanted more of a Mike Wazowski green, and what I ended up with was a bit more Oscar the Grouch.

My second cookie project of the week was a bit more involved. OK, it was a lot more involved.

Ready to roll!

Cookie Army

First outlines

Almost finished!

Mummies

I have a good friend who is a cookie master. I tried decorating sugar cookies myself years ago for Neely’s Hello Kitty birthday party, and the results were horrible. Helene saved the day! Since then, she’s shared her cookie-making secrets with me and taught me a thing or two about royal icing.

This was my first attempt all on my own. I definitely have room for improvement, but all things considered, I’m really happy with how these turned out. I may not have been able to cook dinner for my family for two days with cookie accoutrements spread all over the kitchen, but I have desserts for days!

Moving Day (is tomorrow)

On the surface, a move looks like fun. Especially when you’re moving from a cold, small-ish place to a warmer, larger place. The reality, though, is that we’re leaving a lot of friends behind who have come to feel like family to us. We spend holidays together. We celebrate birthdays together. We get together for a drink at the end of a long, horrible week. We get together, because we’re bored. While I am SO thankful that we do already have friends where we’re headed, it’s going to be really sad to leave people behind.

I have loved our time here in Minot, North Dakota. That might sound crazy, especially since there are a whole lot of folks who avoid this place like the plague, but I have. It’s sad to leave home. Again.

I’ll leave you with a fun collage of our 3+ years here…and go cry myself to sleep. I hope our paths cross again, friends!

Why wouldn’t you punch a dinosaur in the stomach?

We’re scared!

Seven.

This cute little thing celebrated her seventh birthday today. Seven! I am officially a big kid mom.

We had her birthday party last weekend at the indoor pool. The kids had a lot of fun.

Neely’s party theme was “Teen Beach Movie” this year. I cannot take any credit for the cake this time around. I took a photo to Cookies For You and handed over my credit card. I wanted a low-stress party without spending days working on a cake. I didn’t realize that driving the darn thing home was going to give me an anxiety attack.

For today, of course, we had to make cupcakes for Neely’s class. I think you get kicked out of first grade and shunned by all the other children if you don’t bring treats on your birthday. I baked, and Neely decorated. She’s a great helper.

See? A cupcake masterpiece.

After school, there were two last birthday requests to fulfill. 1) A trip to the zoo. 2) Dinner at McDonald’s. (no photographs needed)

We brought half the kids from our street along with us. The zoo was pretty empty, so they had a blast running around like they owned the place. I think every animal has a name now.

Aren’t they a good-looking bunch?

We’ll probably keep them.

One more for the road – me and my girl. It’s nice to have a friend to man the camera every once in a while.

Happy seventh, Neely Bug!

Back to School: 2015 Edition

After what may have been the shortest summer ever, my kids started school again this week. It’s always a bittersweet day. Combine the excitement of a new year, new teacher, and new friends with the sadness of losing the ability to wake on your own every morning, ride bikes, and eat popsicles all day with the glorious anticipation of finally having five consecutive minutes without a child asking me for something (usually the aforementioned popsicles) and you get the first day of school.

Neely climbed into bed with me sometime the night before, so when 7:00am came and her alarm started playing…well, it wasn’t very helpful. At 7:15am, I threw back the blackout curtains, opened the blinds, and watched the vampire burn. (I’ve discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns on Pivot. Sue me.) Anyway, she grumpily clomped down the stairs in search of a darker spot and decided the kitchen floor was good enough. That’s when I decided to take the first of the first day of school pictures.

The worst part of the school year is getting this little darling out of bed each morning. Last year, I kept hoping it would get easier. It didn’t. She’s just not a morning person. Ah, well.

Everyone did manage to get dressed, eat breakfast, have lunch packed, and do their chores on time. They even left me enough time to take MORE pictures. (bwoah-ha-ha-ha…)

My first grader. She perked up pretty well.

My fourth grader. He’s my early riser. This little man has been up at 7:00am every day, all summer long. He gets himself dressed and makes his bed without being asked. Thank goodness one of them makes mornings easier.

Of course, I had to take a sweet pic of the two kiddos together. And then this happened…

I literally laughed out loud when I found those in the camera. I remember telling them to act silly and snapping a few pictures really quickly, but I was so intent on putting the camera away and getting everyone to school on time that I didn’t realize what I’d gotten.

In case you were wondering, they both have had a great first week so far. They like their teachers. They have friends in their classes. The love riding bikes and scooters to school and home with all their Rockridge friends. I have high hopes for this year. I’m glad it’s all beginning well.

 

The Fairy Garden

On my last visit home, inside Yarrow Acres, a lovely gardening shop on Main Street, I discovered something wonderful – fairy gardens. I know these are not a new phenomenon, but somehow, I had never seen one before!

I love all things miniature and really, really wanted one to call my own. My first step was to turn to Pinterest. I searched the web for all things fairy. There are all kinds of wonderful crafters on Etsy, creating tiny houses, furniture, animals, fruits and vegetables, everything you need! Another great resource is the dollhouse section of Hobby Lobby…just don’t forget your 40% off coupon!

When it came down to the wire, though, I wasn’t confident in my ability to plant the fairy garden. Accessorizing and decorating it? No problem. But no one has ever accused me of having a green thumb.

Enter Lowe’s Floral in Minot. Just before Mother’s Day, Lowe’s posted photos of a gorgeous fairy garden on their Facebook page. When John and the kids started making noise about buying flowers, I firmly hinted that a fairy garden would be a much better idea. 🙂

My garden was custom made, so I had to be patient. We picked up my lovely last weekend.

I adore it! I added the little red wagon, the pennant, and the tiny gardening tools, but the rest is exactly the way it came from Lowe’s. I need to get some tiny flowers and maybe some veggies to add to the pots.

And look! It even has a little gnome friend! He likes to drink coffee with me on the porch. What’s up, Gnomey? 😉

I love my fairy garden, and I’m really glad I didn’t try to tackle it myself. You’d probably be seeing me on one of those Pinterest fail lists if I had.

Summer Travels – What I’ve Learned

As most of you know, me and the munchkins traveled a heck of a lot this summer. We hit…hold on, let me count how many states…

1. North Dakota (where we started)

2. Minnesota

3. Wisconsin

4. Illinois

5. Indiana

6. Kentucky

7. Tennessee

8. Alabama

9. Florida

10. Georgia

11. Hawaii

12. Arkansas

13. Louisiana

14. Texas

15. Oklahoma

16. Kansas

17. Nebraska

18. Iowa

19. South Dakota

Holy cow. 19 states. We almost visited half of the 50 states. To say we’re exhausted, tired of the car, and relieved to finally be home is a bit of an understatement. We have definitely had an adventure. I think I can safely say that we won’t be doing it again on purpose.

What has the nomad summer taught me? A lot, actually. Since I’ve already started with the numbering business, I might as well keep it up.

1. I cannot eat healthy when I’m not at home. I don’t know why. It’s practically an impossibility. If I’m not cooking, I feel completely out of control. Unless I’m at my parents’ house, where I have no choice but to be Paleo. So I’m still out of control, just in a healthy fad kind of a way.

2. Having to do laundry in someone else’s home makes me feel like an alien. I have no idea why. I apologize to (and thank) everyone who allowed me to put our dirty underpants in your washing machines all summer long. I’m glad to be back to my own machine.

3. I do not need over half the clothes in my closet. No, really. I packed what would fit in a carry-on sized suitcase. For the entire summer. I hardly missed a thing I left behind. Some major purging is happening now, folks. I realized that if I didn’t miss it, I definitely don’t need to keep it.

4. She & Him Volume 3 puts Neely to sleep almost instantly. Every time. It’s like road trip magic.

5. Home is where your stuff is. Not that carry-on and duffle bag I hauled all over the country. My STUFF. Home is where I have piles of junk mail and catalogs accumulated on the counter. It’s where I can walk into a room and rearrange the furniture, because it’s MINE. It’s where I can sleep without pants on and roam around without a bra under my baggy tee. It’s where I have to cook and wash the dishes every day, because I am not a guest. It’s where my slippers and my bathrobe are, because they’re too big to pack. It’s where bedtime goes down like a charm, because everyone has their own room.

When I left North Dakota, I was dissatisfied. I don’t live here because I chose to, but because I was told I have to. It has taken me an incredibly long time to come to terms with that. I have never not wanted something as badly as I didn’t want to live in North Dakota. I mean, I’m from the South. Surely this can be seen as cruel and unusual punishment. And for what? I have no idea. It took leaving for a while, leaving all of our possessions behind, for me to figure out that North Dakota is, in fact, my home now. I may not love the snow, but I get to live with it. I get to sleep in my own bed here and use my own washing machine, which is a really, really good thing. 🙂

I’ll be getting back to my usual-type posting very soon.

Make – Jewelry Organizer

I have been in desperate need of jewelry organizing solutions for a while now. A small jewelry box on my dresser houses my favorites and most oft-worn pieces. I also have an earring frame that an aunt made me years ago that holds my earrings. But that’s it. Everything else has been crammed into jewelry boxes and bags in a small drawer in my dresser for a while now. It’s a complete disaster. When I try to find something, pretty much everything has to come out until I locate what I want.

Enter this empty frame that I found in the Hobby Lobby clearance aisle a few years ago. It used to live on my living room wall…two houses ago. Since then, it’s just been hanging out in various closets. I finally found a way to give it new purpose. All you need to do this project yourself is an empty frame, a roll of mesh hardware cloth (mine has 1/4-inch squares), a staple gun, wire cutters, and some S hooks.

Begin by cutting the hardware mesh to fit the back of the frame. This is the trickiest/most time-consuming part. I’m sure there is something more efficient to use than the little wire snips that I have. If you have something better, by all means, use it!

Once you have your piece of mesh, flip the frame over, and staple the mesh to the back.

I stapled mine down every 3-4 inches, making sure the wire was pulled tight and flat all the way across. It will flatten out some when it hangs against the wall, but you don’t want it all bowed and saggy.

All that was left to do after that was to hang it on the wall, add the S hooks, and hang my necklaces. The whole project took maybe 20 minutes, and the bulk of that time was spent cutting wire. This isn’t every necklace that I own, but it gets the bulkiest ones out of the drawer. I love that I’m wearing them more now that I can see my options all the time.