The joy of reading

When I was little, I read ALL THE TIME. And I mean, every second that I could squeeze into my life.

At bedtime, I would have a flashlight tucked away under my pillow so I could read under the covers. If I was brave enough, I'd sneak into the closet and read. I always got caught but it was worth it. Although I never really got into trouble over it, except for the lectures from my Mom about hurting my eyes. (Hence, glasses by age 11.)

Car trips were my favorite because it meant that I had more time to read. I couldn't bring a flashlight for night-time driving since it was too distracting for my Dad. But I read until the very last ray of light filled the sky.

At school, I'd finish my work early just so I had time to read at my desk. Sometimes we'd be assigned to read from a page from our textbooks and I'd go ahead and read the entire chapter. Once I finished that, I'd hold my textbook up and read my own book inside of it.

Now almost 34 years old, I almost feel like that little girl again having to sneak in time to read because I have so much else to do.

Lately I've been reading on my iPhone because it's handy when I'm waiting at the DMV or sitting with the kids while they watch Power Rangers. But I enjoy actual books more. I just finished reading Hunger Games - a real book and everything! I bought Catching Fire and Mockingjay yesterday at Target, which I plan to read this week while on "vacation" in Phoenix. And for this short episode in my semi-hectic life, I will read uninterrupted.

And it will be awesome.

My mom would be so proud of me

My mom would be so proud of me - this is what my friend Jennie said when I told her I wore dresses on my trip to Florida last month. My mom always wanted me to dress more like a "lady". ;)

I actually started a big long post about balancing working at home with all of the other things that come along with being a stay at home mom... and now I feel like I'm too tired to finish it. So that about sums up what it feels like every day as a stay at home working mom, heh heh.

So instead I share with you something that was a really big deal for me today.

I wore a skirt. All day.

Yep, I'm actually kind of a girl and stuff.

Lots of stuff

Man it felt like a long weekend! And a good one.

I got to see my friend's baby on Friday when I took her son home. SO cute! I lose all sense when in the proximity of a newborn. The cuteness is too much to handle and I'm a cooing, grinning, Awwww-ing madwoman. I wish humans could gestate like hamsters in 15 days. Maybe we'd have 15 kids right now.

GAP was having a big sale with an additional 50% off clearance so I bought a tank and 3 pairs of jeans for $35. I am still getting used to weighing less (I'm down 9 lbs from January 1st) apparently since I bought a pair that do NOT fit me. I tried them on for Bill and he looked at me like I was stupid - "Yeah honey, those don't fit you." I guess those will go back. But the other two are cute, just had to cut 3 inches off the bottom of each since I'm not 5'9". One pair I'll probably have to hem and the other I pegged.

Friday after I visited my friend, Bill, Holden and Lucas went to see Green Lantern. Ash and I went to the playground and then had Japanese food for dinner, just the two of us. He's my only kid who has an adventurous appetite so I like to take him fun places. And he pigged out on edamame, sushi and yaki soba.

Master of Chopsticks

Saturday, Bill and I had the sitter over to watch the boys and we escaped for a few hours. Had sushi, which I think I could eat every day. And then saw X-men: First Class which I LOVED! Michael Fassbender as Magneto = amazing. Michael Fassbender in anything = LOVE

This has also been a blanket knitting/crocheting weekend. I may not have time to finish out the month of June strong with many creative projects since I have these other time sensitive projects to wrap up in time for certain events.

For Father's Day, I had the boys put their handprints on a shirt for Bill, actually a little kit that his uncle gave us. And they also had written a letter to him in school which I posted here. A must read!

Next week we're going to Phoenix for a while. Bill's aunt has been offering to take the boys for a few days so they can have some fun and give Bill and I some time alone. Our 12th anniversary is in August so this will be an early celebration of sorts.

I looked up hotels online last night. Nice hotels in Phoenix are cheap in the summer since the average temperature is EQUAL TO THE SURFACE OF SUN (i.e. hot). I found some decent places for $80 and really nice places for $200, which I'm not willing to spend. I ended up on hotwire.com (if you don't know how it works, you don't get to see the name of hotel until after booking but you can pick specific areas and ratings) - my go to place for hotel deals. Seriously love this site. I looked up the area I wanted to stay in and picked a 5 star hotel, knowing from searching Expedia that it would only be 1 of 2 places that were available for those dates. And Voila! ended up with a room at the Royal Palms Hotel for only $117! (reg price $204) It was my first choice so I'm excited! More exclamation points!!!!!

When not sleeping, I'll be here.

Sackboy Clothing Designer I am NOT

We have my friend Luong's 3 year old with us for a couple of days because she had a C-section scheduled today. We picked him up last night and so far he and Ash have only tried to kill each other a few times which is pretty good for 2 stubborn hot-headed 3 year olds.

She had her baby boy Max this afternoon - 9 lbs 1 oz, 18 1/2 inches long. Kai is officially a big brother so we've been trying to help him understand that. So far... well... his parents have some work cut out for them, heh heh.

We took them to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch. Yeah, there's that.

Holden had Taekwondo class today and he earned his first stripe on his white belt! He just had to memorize the first set of basic techniques and be able to do them on his own, like front kick, punch, low block and whatever the others were. He got them perfect. Pretty cool :)

Lucas asked me to sew an outfit for his Sackboy toy. So I took 30 minutes to sit down and whip up a shirt, bowtie and hat. Day 16 of my creativity-ness. I sew everything by hand and it is not pretty. But at 6 years old, my son is forgiving. And I'm perfectly okay with the seam on my dress being crooked.

New-ish dress

I bought a dress at H&M which is now too big. I really love it but I can't exchange it now since I've worn and washed it. So I decided to cut it up and resize it down.

I wore it out today and belted it so it wouldn't look so baggy but from the back and side it just looks like I'm wearing a bag. Or I look pregnant.

Here's how much fabric I cut off. I'll probably make some pockets out of it.

Still nice and flowy but actually has some shape to it now.

Now you can tell I actually have a butt.

I bought some kelly green jersey knit fabric at Joann today so I can make this next.

Parenting like a BOSS

Yesterday at Taekwondo a row of parents behind me watched me barely react as Ash fell backwards in a chair, got his finger stuck in another chair and rip a chunk of paint off the wall. No one said anything but I could see it in their eyes and the way one of the women screamed "HIS FINGER IS STUCK!! HIS FINGER IS STUCK!!" as I gently pulled his finger out of the chair and sat him down, that they were confused by my "non-reaction". It's not that I wasn't worried he would get hurt or pissed off that he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing. It's just that... well, Ash is Ash. And he's 3 years old.

This is a normal day for him- getting into shit and living his life in peril.

When Holden was my only child, I did everything in my power to prevent every minor scrape or accident, and dedicated every minute to making sure he was on his best behavior. But guess what?! It didn't work! He got hurt just like every other kid and he did stuff he wasn't supposed to do like sneak out the backdoor and run across the street to the neighbor's yard when he was only 2 years old - in the BLINK of an eye, I tell you!

When Lucas came along, I finally understood that kids will be kids and I let him do his thing. Of course I wanted to protect him and I wouldn't let him put himself in danger. But climbing and jumping and being a kid were nothing to be concerned about. When he started preschool, his teacher gave me a lecture about letting him climb on top of things because he could break his arm, break his leg, break his head, die, etc.... I know these things. I worried about these things too. But he did it anyway!

It's not a matter of discipline. My kids for the most part are pretty well-behaved and I'm not delusional. I've heard it from multiple people, even strangers. Sure I've had the occasional old woman shoot them dirty looks in the salad buffet line but some people just don't understand kids. And I leave them to their misery.

My point is, again, I let my kids be kids. If they get hurt doing something stupid, they learn not to do it again.... eventually. If they do something wrong, I take them aside and let them know. It's not anyone's place to judge or question my parenting style.

Especially when my kids are awesome.

Summer Vacation Schedule

No blogging or crafting this weekend! AAAHHH! But we had a great weekend.

Saturday we went to Bill's cousin Dave's house and hung with his family. Had a great time and even got to see Bill's Grandpa play the Kinect. Dave had a swimming pool at his house and I didn't bring the boys' bathing suits - MISTAKE. They ended up in the pool anyway stripped down to their underwear. After they soaked their clothes. But yeah, oh well, thank goodness for dryers. Sunday we had a late breakfast with the fam and then they headed back to Arizona. Short weekend but was really great spending good quality time with everyone.

Now that family is gone and it's kind of our actual first day of summer vacation it feels like, I started thinking last night that I needed some kind of schedule for the boys. I don't want them sitting around playing video games or watching TV all day. They really do better when there is some kind of plan for the day. They like to follow the schedule and look forward to each thing on the list. I'm not super anal about it so we kept things flexible but it really seemed to work out well... so far. I'm hoping too that with this schedule they'll know how to keep themselves occupied so I can work easier and not have to hire a babysitter. I'd rather spend that money on summer activities for them. We'll see how it goes this week.

First thing in the morning I have to get most of my work done so I give them FREE TIME until 10:00. Limited all video game and computer time to 30 minutes at a time. And then...
10:00 CLEANING - I figure we clean the playroom first thing so they have room to play during the day.
10:30 DRAWING
11:00 BROTHER TIME - I wanted to designate a time for the boys to play together because Lucas will bug Holden all day to play with him and then arguments start. If Holden knows he gets his own time away from his brother he enjoys his brother time more. Ash doesn't care.
1:00 READING - alone, to each other and with me
1:30 FREE TIME
3:00 WRITING - letters, journals, comics, stories
3:30 FREE TIME
5:00 CREATING - legos, computer/video game level creators, paper projects
5:30 FREE TIME
6:00 FAMILY TIME - This is usually when Bill wakes up on his work days after his night shift so we do stuff all together as a family.

For Day 13 of creativity...-ish, Lucas and I worked on his Nanoblock giraffe. Have you seen these things? The blocks are TINY!!!

My Dad said, "He looks exhausted."

I also signed them up for Taekwondo today which will be twice a week. And Lucas is going to start Teeball at the end of the month with one practice and one game a week for 8 weeks. Going to look into science camp for Holden too.

Looking forward to a fun summer with LOTS to do. And hopefully some relaxing good family time too.

Also, THANKS to my friend Vann who surprised me with some of her hand-made goodies. YAY!!!