a little paint makes a big difference

We needed a change up. The dark blue room came with the house, so we got dark beige curtains to match. And now... it needs lightened and brightened. What a better way to get a clean slate and teach your kid a life skill? One can of paint and 2 paintbrushes. Two days, big messes, laughter, conversations. So worth it!

I painted the aqua and my little one helped paint all the trim white, the shelves and the closet. They're finally white again! It looks so fresh and clean in there. Now when she takes friends in there to play or has a sleepover or does a movie night, it will look nice and fresh. She can take ownership for the work she has done.

I got more work done with my buddy than I would have done alone. I got to show her some useful skills. She got to feel useful and grown because she got to help. Painting isn't my favorite thing, but the results make it so worth it! It was a fun little project that kept us busy and it doesn't take much money to get a clean, new look. 

We just love it. It's a bit bright and a bit girly, but oh well. The room looks bigger and cleaner. The little one feels good about herself because she got to help me. And now her beanie boos will have a clean, fun room to live in :)

we DID find it here!

This blue arch make us so happy! It means grandma time. Time to unwind, bake, eat ice cream, thrift shop and movie watch. Is it quite the drive? Yep! Have we done it enough that it's no big deal? Yep! 

We spent an entire afternoon binge watching children's movies and playing Uno. Then we moved to the front steps to watch my daughter ride her bike all over the neighborhood. There were naps and honey do lists. There was a day of reminiscing. An afternoon of hiking. A morning at the library. In my mind, this roadtrip always means SLOW DOWN AND ENJOY IT. 

The beauty of taking an 86 year old (but 68 at heart) and a 10 year old anywhere means you can go at your own pace and you aren't going far. Our big outings are always Goodwill, Dollar General and picking up Popeye's for dinner one night. I mean, we are party animals! These places are purely tradition. Even my ten year old looks forward to hearing, "I will give you this twenty dollars and you can buy whatever you want!" 

Spring has arrived. April has arrived. We got grandma time in. Things are looking okay! Heads up because the next stop is Easter!

it's butterfly time!

The butterflies are back in town! We headed over to Nicholas Conservatory to see the new butterflies exhibit. They had quite the set up. It was organized and easy to get in. I am shocked we haven't seen the display sooner. So fun!

They had a slideshow to start in one room and then you walked into another room to meet with another expert. He showed us cocoons and explained the whole process of caterpillar to butterfly. There were lots of questions for the kids. Lots of fun things to see. They had fish, cocoons, and pupae to observe in the second room.

Then you go into the arboretum to view the plants and butterflies. We enjoyed all the pretty flowers and displays. The koi were a big hit with the little ones. I love all the waterways that flow through the room. They had statues and benches hidden around the room to enjoy. 

In the butterfly room you get a sponge on a stick soaked in Gatorade. Apparently butterflies like Gatorade! It took a minute, but the butterflies eventually came over to us. Then they were everywhere! It was so fun to watch the joy in my kid's eyes. It was a nice relaxing hour where we got to slow down and enjoy nature and (literally) all the little things :)

an ode to Orbeez

We got a gallon bag full of Orbeez (aka water beads, aka squish balls) last night. I don't know why these things are so entrancing! They're squishy, they're colorful, they're calming fun. You can buy them anywhere. All you do is pour water over them and voila!

Whoever created these is a pure genius. Seriously. For $2 you have an afternoon of fun. It's so simple, yet so genius. Keep them in a bowl and squish, scoop and play. Leave them in the gallon baggie and you have a pillow-like product to play with.

We decided to make stress balls since we had so many Orbeez. Sounded easy enough. We figured we use a funnel to pour them into a balloon. But... that didn't work. Cutting a water bottle in half and using THAT as a funnel worked better. But not really. 

Google check! Pour them into an empty water bottle, blow up a ballon and put it over the mouth of the water bottle, then turn it upside down and squeeze the water bottle. All the Orbeez pour into the balloon and then you knot the balloon shut. So easy.

I am telling you... $4. $2 for Orbeez and $2 for balloons. There are so many happy people in this house tonight! Stress relief, craft time, mother-daughter bonding, and we still have a huge bag of Orbeez left to play with. I win!

enjoying the little things

Making time to sit down... I have been doing a much better job at this! This time of year is when things calm down a bit. No more holidays, birthday bustle is over, sports seasons end. I can enjoy spring unfolding and relax.

I picked up my bullet journal from the library last month. The month before we made our dip dyed coffee cups. This week I figured I should probably put all my good stuff to good use. I got all set up and realized my 10 year old mini-me had set up shop right next to me. 1 coffee, 1 hot chocolate, and 2 bullet journals waiting to be filled with all the fun.

We now have bullet journals started. Mine is a big book of lists: favorite memories, favorite vacations, future plans, etc. Her book is filled with sleepover plans, party ideas, and lists of beanie boos. We are so much fun! Crazy, I know...

Our new plan is to write in our journals once a week. Or just read through them and reflect. This requires sitting down! This requires us to find time to chat, read, reflect and enjoy each other. So far, so good.

Note to self: reflect, relax, and sit down every once in a while!

sidewalk chalk is an underappreciated item!

Remember the good ol' days when you just went outside and played? No agendas, no phones, no plans. Just you and fresh air and fun. It is so nice to head outside and just know that regardless of the season or weather, there's always backyard fun to be had. Even though we don't have a country yard any more, there is still plenty of townie yard fun to be had! 

My kid still plays like that when the snow piles up. She will spend hours digging tunnels and building snowmen. This year she learned how to make snow ice cream. We went sledding and snow boarding on the biggest local hill we could find. I spent the winter freezing and she had to be dragged in each time.

In the summer we ride bikes and walk constantly. There are hammock reading sessions, coloring in the fort, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, swings. And you can't forget about gardening, picking raspberries, and wading in the creek. Kites, cloud gazing, backyard yoga... Man, I love summer! 

Today we were waiting for the bus and we noticed the driveway was cleared off of all the excess ice and snow. I grabbed the sidewalk chalk and we colored while we waited for the bus. We sat there in puffy coats and knit hats with huge puff balls on top. For 6 or 7 minutes, we drew. We chatted. We created. We made it colorful and fun. 

It felt like spring. It was nostalgic. It was fun. Sidewalk chalk is a dollar a box. We pick up boxes here and there from spring to fall. It's so easy. It encourages smiles and creativity. Have you ever turned your driveway into a huge game of Chutes and Ladders? Or hopscotch? Or traced your bodies and colored them in? Or played the alphabet game? Options are endless.

I am here to say that everyone should own sidewalk chalk. I was smiling and happy after our mini drawing session. There was no mess and no cleanup. It is cheap and easy and so underrated! When bike season rolls around, we will be drawing pictures in the roads, on the sidewalks and around town just to spread the smiles. I would say that's a dollar well spent :)

detoxing everything can be so good

We love inspiration. It comes from all different places! I saw this on a friend's FB page and quickly borrowed it. I hear detox and I think diets or treatments or skin care regimens. Detox means so much more than that!

When you clean it up, clean it out, downgrade, downsize, simplify, tidy up,  and rearrange, it can be so much simpler. Granted, it takes some practice. It takes mindfulness. It takes patience. It takes awareness. 

Every winter and summer break, we clean out the junk drawers. We clean out closets. I clean out phone contacts and social media accounts. We toss expired products. We go through coloring books, dried out markers, journals, the whole craft room. It took some time, but we created and established routines.

Now that it is second nature, everyone jumps on board. For 2 or 3 days over each major break, we work together. And then we enjoy. We enjoy the simplification. We enjoy the cleanliness. We enjoy the detoxification. We have less to focus on, mess with, clean around. This leaves more time for fun and laughter and making memories. 

finding gratitude makes us smile

We started doing fun New Year's challenges instead of resolutions I will eventually forget or give up on. A few years ago, we did the coin challenge. We did the hanger challenge. The clutter challenge was a good one. This year we focus on gratitude. You notice we got classy and decorated a Hawaiian Punch bottle!? We also get resourceful for these!

This year we focus on gratitude. It's that time of year when we are itching to get outside, to go on a bike ride, go swimming, or for a walk. We typically go to the Dells in February just to break up the cold and have a little fun. Not this year. Everyone got so excited for 2021 to arrive without even realizing it's the distant, evil cousin of 2020. Instead of focusing on all that snow, the temps, and everything else that hasn't resumed like usual, we're focusing on gratitude. 

We write on slips of paper and drop them in. Done. I even made it easy and put paper under the jar and left a few markers behind it. I don't ask what she's written. I just remind her to put the date on each entry. I do the same. Om New Year's Eve we will dump them put and go through a Year's worth of memories, fun, and gratitude. 

Hopefully it will be enough to fuel us up for a year of positive attitudes and being able to see the bigger picture. One site I saw suggested having each person read someone else's. You could even collage them when you're done (probably won't do that, but it's a nice sentiment). We have a year of camping adventures ahead of us. We have plenty to be grateful for, so I am hoping for a full jar by the end of the year full of memories and gratitude we can all be proud of.

the fun of having a girly one

Sometime during quarantine we changed my daughter's room to a unicorn theme. It's nothing fancy, but there are details here and there that are really cute. We even flipped over her summer quilt and put a huge unicorn on it. Then we made a matching pillowcase. It was a fun way to craft away a day in quarantine!

For the winter months she is back to the trusty paisley duvet set. I was scrolling Amazon the other day and came across this set. It is holy adorable! Of course I had to screenshot it to show her. I immediately thought two things: I am SO jealous we didn't have cuteness like this when I was a kid and Is she too old for this now? (Tear, tear at that thought!)

The good news is that she loved it. She was actually ecstatic. The unicorn theme lives on! And now during the cold winter months, she has something bright and cheery to enjoy. We all need a warm, fun pick me up in the cold winter months and I do believe we will be bonding and smiling over the magic of unicorns ;)

We love thrifting!

We get this magazine every month. Not sure why we get it, but I read it. There are always fun recipes or local places highlighted. It's a fun little magazine for those who love their local areas (aka- me!). 

This month they highlighted thrift shops. We LOVE thrift shops! It's not classy, but it's fun. You support local, you score fun finds, it's like treasure hunting :) 

Two years ago my lovely daughter asked for a Goodwill giftcard for her birthday. I just smiled and got on the phone. The lady at Goodwill was so kind. They even gave her a scratch off card to get a discount off for her birthday. And you know what? She walked out of that thrift shop with a big smile and 2 bags of fun. 

Support local. Local businesses are suffering due to Covid. Go shop for treasures! We plan to tour the midwest this summer and do a lot of treasure hunting :)

sometimes excess is necessary

We like to have a good appetizer night at this house. There are so many good options to choose from now that Costco is so close by. The possibilities are endless! 

This morning started with a good cry-it-out movie. That led to, "Can I have cheese sticks for breakfast?" Because when we cry, we need comfort foods, right? The cheese sticks turned into an appetizer platter and we waited for the movie to end and called it brunch. Voila. 

It's not healthy, but it's delicious. It's also fun. Thanks to the air fryer and toaster oven it is easy. This means that she can do it herself with light supervision. I win. 

Notice the complete absence of fruits and (real) vegetables. Not even worried about it. Rumor has it that we will be playing in the snow later and when we come in all cold from the snow we will need a nutritious snack. Enter fruit slices with peanut butter! If starting our day with meatballs at 11am and tears in our eyes makes us happy, then so be it! Happy snow day everybody!