the bucket list has been completed!

Ah, the summer bucket list. We started doing this about 5 years ago. We each pick 5 activites to accomplish, big or small, crazy or calm. I usually try to pick an at home activity to counteract all the driving and spending my kid chooses to do, a cooking or crafting project, and a fun day trip. Then I fill in the rest with whatever fun we haven't seen or done.

This summer I was delightfully pleased to see a variety on this list. I was even able to one-up my little one-upper by taking her mall day (she envisioned Cherryvale Mall) to the next level. I managed to squeeze in the Mall of America without ruining the surprise. She shocked me with a baking day, but to add a twist, she wanted to donate the stuff we made. I killed two birds with one stone by hosting a playdate where we baked and our friend took half home. Everyone wins!

I hope our tradition continues as she ages. I know I will not be cool mom forever, but for now I have nailed it. Once this bucket list ends, I don't know what I will do! I got SO many thank you's this summer, so many arm in arm walks, so many snuggles and a few mother-daughter sleepovers. My heart is full. My cup runneth over. And to think, I have a list of fun to thank.

All ten items are scratched off. We nailed it. Vini, Vidi, Vicci. Farewell summer of fun. Farewell (for now) laughter and shenanigans!

summer baking fun

Someone I know put a baking day on her summer bucket list. The exact wordage was "baking day/ donate what we bake". I am always down for a baking day despite the 86 degree temps outside. We love to bake, we love to experiment with our baking, and it's a great way to turn off the TV and do something hands on. Who could say no to staying at home in pajamas and eating cookie dough?!

We used the cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate chips and I am sad to say, the cookies looked like crap. They tasted perfect, but for some reason they didn't bake the way I expect a cookie to look. Note to self: stick to the recipes we know. Do NOT veer! It was a rookie move, but now we know.

She also decided to bust out the ol' Easy Bake Oven. The pink cookies with lemon frosting and tiny cookie sandwiches are compliments of the Easy Bake. And after almost a year of that thing sitting in the cupboard, she decided she still loves it and it will be back in our regular baking rotation. Who knew? Everyone needs tiny baked goods in their life every once in a while :)

As for the crackers... we bought this delectable bacon ranch packet from Galena and thought it was a dip mix. It turns out it was for crackers. All you do is combine oil and the mix and shake well. Then add the crackers and shake well. Then they rest for 4 hours and you can eat. Simple enough.

Our little playdate was able to help us bake and she took her share home to her family. We considered that the "donation". The rest will be donated to the snack table at our next camping trip, so everyone wins. I love simple activities that turn into fun days making memories. And not every bucket list item involves me packing a big bag for sunscreen, snacks and cash, so I win!

May is the new December

Oh My... May is here and the flowers are blooming, temps are going up, and so is my to-do list creating. I truly forgot about the May frenzy until a few weeks ago and then BAM. It hits you like a ton of bricks. 

The sunscreen has hardly been pulled out and applied when the emails begin. Tryouts. End of year field trips. Buy your ____ now at our pre-summer pricing! Sports physicals. Registration for next year. Seriously??? I will have her registered before the last day of school and inevitably, it will be a rigamarole of finding the right documents to verify that our address of FIVE YEARS is indeed correct.

Add to that the ever growing list of needs to satisfy a modern day pre-teen:

-I am out of concealer

-I need new ripped jean shorts, but not THOSE. I need MORE rips.

-Where is the white paint? And scissors? And tape? How did we run out of tape???

Despite the chaos, we take it all in stride and I relish tossing all those post-its with the firey passion of an NBA player at play-offs. This year got ahead of me, though. I forgot who I was and what month it was. I got inundated and overwhelmed and may have lost it unknowingly at work. After some deep breathing and a quick apology, I simply opened the emails, calendars, texts, and began writing it all down because we all know avoiding the unavoidable is a terrible idea.

In just a few short weeks it's goodbye to 6th grade. Clubs will be over, registration will be complete, passes are purchased, summer plans are set in stone, and then it's easy street. We will spend June, July and part of August making memories, eating all the ice cream, and reapplying sunscreen. Bring it on! You can't make lemonade without a few lemons and for now, that's okay.

the mom car

You might be a mom if you have some interesting contraptions in your backseat. We got our trusty Jeep car organizer from a garage sale. It holds all the fun for a short drive or a cross country extravaganza. And it has adjustable snaps so I can't even feel it while I drive. Even though she's much older now, I feel confident knowing books, drawing, and other activities are a fingertip away. This helps prevent the dreaded screen addiction and car sickness from too much screen time.

We got the gray bucket at Goodwill. It was too cute to pass up. It has now become a snack bin for any day of the week or any purpose. Drinks and snacks go on one side and garbage goes on the other. It can be wiped out or washed if needed. No, we are no longer in the juice box phase. However, we go to her gym a lot and snacks are always welcome for anyone stuck in the backseat or needing something extra before practice.

She's already 12. We are closer to teens than toddlers. Yet, I keep finding better solutions and better ideas for life simple problems. The newest Taylor Swift song keeps rolling through my head. It's me, HI, I'm the problem it's (NOT) me :) No one goes bored or hungry in my car and I have all the snack stains to prove it...

ice day, snow day, fun day!

Another day home from school means another day to plan some fun! We slept in and then created a tour de casa so we had something fun to do in each room of the house. We had fun collaborating on what to do. The kitchen is our sweet spot, so we decided to create some beignets. I think Princess Tiana would be pleased 😀

Den- PE (aka Twister)

Kitchen- Science (make beignets)

Computer room- Math (start a puzzle)

Living room- Language Arts (aka watch a movie and discuss)

Her room- Health (spa stuff)

My room- Study hall (Play a game)

She enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. It was a nice break from her e-learning and I can only do so much laundry! I could probably craft all day every day, but even I needed a break from my current project.

the best midwest plans include snuggles

After an amazing and fun weekend, it was time for some downtime tonight. I had three choices for movies and the little lady chose Leap Year starring Amy Adams. It is a cutsie movie about a girl trying to propose to her boyfriend while in Ireland. It's just an easy watch that you don't have to explain or be embarrassed about watching. Every once in a while, you just need an easy, enjoyable movie that is NOT on Disney+ or a sci-fi.

We grabbed pillows and blankets and actually put phones down for a mother-daughter snuggle. When the lights got too bright we turned on the astronaut light she got for Christmas. It was perfect mood lighting. Perfect rest. A perfect end to a great weekend.

Every once in awhile the stars aline and the plans fall into place perfectly. We couldn't have tried to have a better family fun weekend! And to end it with snuggles from my pre-teen who isn't too cool for me quite yet... I am lucky. This chilly weather adds even more reasons for snuggles, so I guess I can say I am even grateful for the chill if it gives me the warm blankets and biggest snuggles.

it's Clue 2.0

The 80s and 90s are back, ya'll!!! Someone I know got a Walmart giftcard and used it to buy Clue. She acted shocked and amazed that I have heard of the game. And played it. AND seen the movie!

A $10 giftcard and a $10.88 game. Well worth the dollar I fished out of my wallet. We brewed some hot beverages and played the inaugural round. Then Friday we played as a family. Minus the graphics, it is just as I remember! Everyone now looks fancy. The rooms have better decor and the clue cards are more entertaining, but still the same!

I am so glad that we have a kid who plays games. She plays card games, board games, and (on occasion) video games. She is always down for some friendly competition. And She loves nostalgia. This includes retro games. 

I say it's Miss Scarlett in the dining room, with a candlestick!

getting organized

Huge thanks to Marie Kondo, Tiny Home Nation, and The Home Edit for getting my kid hooked on organization! We love those Netflix shows and actually have some great new storage ideas because of them. We are pretty organized anyways, but going through all the little places no one looks made us realize we could do better. It didn't cost much. It simply took some time to find matching bins/containers.

The linen closet now has all matching baskets. Our closets have all matching hangers. The coat closet has bins for gloves, scarves and hats. The junk drawers have tiny baskets for all that junk. Even the pantry got sorted. 

She actually asked for clear, small bins to put in her bathroom drawers. Thank you, Amazon! She even asked for under drawer storage. Also an easy Amazon purchase. Anything that makes clean up faster and easier is a good purchase!

The after.

Totally worth it!

plants might be the sign of good times!

We got a Christmas cactus 14 years ago. It was huge and pretty, but didn't flower a lot. Then we moved and it flowered almost 6 months of the year. Once 2021 hit, the plant stopped flowering. It was kind of an ironic and sad reflection of how the world was going. 

Last year it started dying. It was the weirdest thing ever. The same lighting, same water, same watering routine. I began to think it was another reflection of how the year was going. I tried everything to save it.

I can't grow anything. I have a black thumb. BUT this plant was symbolic of our new home and new careers in a new town, so it meant something. And for 14 years I had kept it safe and not killed it. We ended up splitting up the huge plant into small little starter plants and sharing them.

My four small plants are safe and well. They are something my daughter and I can tend to together. We check on each other's plants and remind each other to water weekly. My daughter was excited to have a starter plant in her room that came from MY plant that came from my MOM'S plant from many years ago. And finally, her plant is flowering!

Who knew that having a plant could create a mother-daughter hobby and strengthen our bond? She got so excited to show me :) We saved it. And go figure, life is good. We are healthy, happy and employed with good grades and attitudes all around. We will never be the crazy plant ladies, but we have a sign that life is good and maybe 2023 will be, too :)

It's about that time!

 

Fall is on the back burner, ya'll! We already hit up Curran's Apple Orchard to get our apple cider slushies with a dozen apple cider donuts. And now it's time for the best fall food of them all... Soup season! You make a crockpot of chili for football Sundays, I make soup.

We already made our loaded baked potato soup and even bought bread to make bread bowls. I can already feel the warmth of the crackling bonfire, smell the spiked hot chocolate, and envision the leaf piles waiting to be jumped in. Don't get me wrong. We LOVE summer! No work, no alarms, no worries and tons of camping and day trips, BUT fall... Sigh...

Football, soup, bonfires, movie marathons by a fire in the living room, pumpkin decorating, homemade costumes, fun townie events. I love it! Even as I write this, my heart is fluttering with all the happiness from those cutie fall crafting sessions. Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, our favorite weatherman is informing us it's going to be a HOT weekend. Oh, Illinois! Get it together! Lucky for me, I get one more crazy summer weekend with flip flops and swimsuit options before I pull out my oversized sweatshirts and fuzzy fleece socks :)

my heart can't handle the changes some days!

I needed to take a writing break to just take a few deep breaths... We had some big changes recently. I got over the shock and sadness of my daughter starting middle school. She has a look. A fashion. A groove. She is LOVING IT!!!

I, on the other hand, am working on getting used to all the new changes: 

-We do our hair and find matching earrings now. 

-We wear flannel shirts around our waist now. 

-We pack fancy lunches and eat chef salads.

-Parents are NOT ALLOWED to wait for the bus any more! (As soon as the bus rounds the corner, I am asked to step back inside).

-We talk about rec nights, dances and lock-ins (my heart can't handle that!).

Just when I feel like she's turning a leaf and growing up, she does something to grab my heart. Today she hooked her arm through mine while we were in the store. We chatted like old bitties. I heard, "Mom look! How about this?" We shopped and laughed. It was amazing. My heart loved all of the time we spent together today.

It's not that she's growing up and turning out amazing. It's that all the little things are becoming less things for me to do for her. No more piggy back rides. No more pigtails and naptimes. BUT instead of mourning the loss, I am trying to find the joy in all the little things and celebrate who she is becoming. I am finding joy in all the new things instead of being sad for what is changing. 

I plan to make all the small moments my joy!