Oh Deer
Deer out the side window... We're now missing half a fender, want to guess why?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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Staying home
We've decided for the meantime to have me stay home with the babe and back out of doing transcription. Transcription was great for helping us out in a rough patch in our lives, and I'm more than thankful that I never had to put Babe in daycare, but now that we've worked through some financial things (still got a LONG way to go!) we decided God is calling us to have me be a homemaker full time.
It's been so nice! I was a little giddy/nervous the first day, but after Babe went to bed 90 minutes early due to being so worn out from our fun 'eventful' day, I knew we made the right decision. 'Stuff' can wait. We can eat more dried beans. And I'll enjoy more precious time with my sweet baby, and preparing our home.
Online Shopping/ Packing the diaper bag
It's a theme one... Online shopping- Etsy is my favorite online shopping place, behind Amazon ;) We go to Amazon sometimes just for the reviews, and then acutally buy the book/DVD/whatever somewhere else. Their reviews rock!
Works for me... I had a great idea last week. Hey! I should remember to actually post that on a Wednesday! LOL And now, Wednesday morning, I can't remember it.
Oh, this was it. When we receive an outfit from... someone... that we're not quite thrilled with, we keep it in the diaper bag. We happen to receive like 6-piece sets (hat, 2 shirts, 2 pants, socks) from people, so it's easy to remember that that particular color/pattern goes right into the diaper bag from the laundry.
That way I don't have to *think* before we leave. I know that outfit's in there just in case, and it's not banishing an outfit I love to the diaper bag just so I have *something* just in case.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Blogging info
Going over our budget today- seeing if I can live off of blogging. No, just kidding. I am seeing if I can give up transcription, though, and just do odd side jobs that don't require a weekly commitment. I know that would help reduce the stress level considerably in our house!
I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
- The best blogging techniques.
- How to get traffic to your blog.
- How to turn your blog into money.
I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Taking Pictures
Want to add a boost to your Etsy shop? Or maybe even your Ebay listings? Come on over to Mommy Techie and learn how to use a free program easily and make your listings pop.
Read more...Friday, February 1, 2008
This afternoon I was going to make Babe eggs for lunch. I set the pan with olive oil in it to heat, and came to fart around on the internet. All of a sudden there was a *flash* *boom* and my olive oil burst into flames. Lets here it for farting around on the internet ;) I put the lid on it and I'm now boiling water in the pan to see if I can turn it from scorched black back to its shiny steel color.
It's 4:55 and hubby is on his way home, with a truck that now has a hole in it's fiberglass fender. He had a match with a deer, and of the two, he won. But we're still left with a shattered fender. It's cosmetic, he says, regardless of the fact that it's there to keep rocks from being sprayed up by the douls. Doules? Don't know how to spell that- the two tires in the back of a one-ton. It's $250 for the replacement part, and the part only comes in primer black- our truck is white. Depending on whether we sell it or not, we'll go ahead and 'rattle can' it.
I have a dishwasher full of clean dishes, my kitchenaid creaming the butter and sugar for chocolate chip cookies, babe sleeping, and two loads of laundry strewn across my couch, in folded and unfolded condition. A bath towel is on my floor, I have three large 'rag' towels both in the wash, another bath towel soaking up the water I spilled when trying to step over the dog bucket, and this one from my apparently splashy attempt at hand washing the pile of wooden can't-go-in-the-dishwasher dishes that had been stacked to the left of my sink for a week.
I've got another 20 minutes at the least until hubby gets home, I'll finish the cookies, kitchen, and stash the laundry in the port-a-crib where it's not as noticable as the couch ;)
I'm really liking blogging anomonously. My sister-in-law can know about it, and then just random people on the net. My sister-in-law and I aren't even best friends or anything, she just knows the good, bad, and ugly of everything. And I seriously doubt she'd get mad at me for saying she's not my best friend. A good kind of in-law to have :)
What IS a bluetooth
I'm so far behind on technology. We don't have TV, and I seem to have become immune to Internet advertising, but I'm entering 5 Minutes for Mom's Bluetooth giveaway from Best Buy anyway. I think it has something to do with music. Hubby loves music, and is more techie than I, so if I win I will have one happy honey!
Read more...Confessions in motherhood
I scheduled a job interview for yesterday at noon. Babe goes down for her nap usually around 11:00 so this would be perfect. I knew I'd have to conduct the interview in the bathroom, on the opposite end of the house, but that's not a big deal.
Come 11:20 a.m. naptime was nowhere in sight. I frantically folded the 4+ loads of laundry residing in the port-a-crib and put a dozen butterscotch chips (no dye) in the bottom of her plastic glittery Valentine's day cup from Grandma. Set child and cup 'o candy in the crib and the interview was conducted without a blip (other than my tendency to over-explain everything). Came out to child happily retrieving butterscotch chips from her cup.
Guess what my new parenting tactic is? Other people, like Musician's Friend, who I'm on hold with at the moment, understand a few baby chirps, but it's much simpler to write notes on phone conversations sans the grabbing fingers, loud input, and overall baby 'help'
We got our water back on this morning. I'm rather embarrassed about this, I generally don't mention it until after the fact, and generally never to my mother. We live in a single wide with minimal insulation in Montana. No matter how much we crank up the stove, the pipes/drains will freeze outside. While *I* realize that running water isn't a necessity of life, oftentimes others, especially others who don't live in a cold climate think that we are total savages.
Hubby's boss lent us what looked to be a jet engine that ran on diesel. We blew it under the trailer, the water wasn't on as of 11 last night when we turned it off to go to bed, but this morning I flipped the breaker and the water came pouring out. As I type this the babe is still asleep due to the lingering 'radiant floor' heating, Dog #2 is barking outside on her tether, dog #3 is frantically running around my feet, no, now Dog #3 is out, and Dog #1 is snorting under the door, but I know he doesn't really want to go outside. I have the dishwasher and the washing machine running, and hubby is on his 60 mile commute to work.
Is it bad that oftentimes I'm jealous of his commute?
I'm returning his guitar today. He had Christmas money and he researched and researched... and they air-mailed him a guitar with a crack in it. The crack is down at the bottom and painted over, but still very noticeable. Obviously something that didn't happen in shipping, I'd really like to know how this passed QA.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Pay Per Post
blog reviews
I applied with Pay Per Post just one day ago, and today they approved my blog. I'm excited to see the opportunities out there. I don't have a video camera, and I see oppertunities for videos in blogs, but we'll see what text ones come through.
Being laid off my job last week and still searching and testing (Medical transcription requires extensive testing before even getting an interview) for companies, I'm happy to do something to fill the gap in the meantime.
As a work-at-home mom, sometimes it takes some creativity to makethe money you need while still being able to keep a watchful eye on your child. I had a phone interview earlier today wiht a transcription company, and it involved a playpen, mason jar of chocolate chips, and me in the bathroom wiht the door closed ;) Don't know what my mama did without a portable phone!
As I type this, my daughter is sitting on the couch waving the phone at me and taunting that she might touch the 'no touching' lamp. I can look over and smile at her as I type, chant one of our favorite nursery rhymes (hickory dickery dock today), and keep on typing... A skill WAHMs have mastered, I'm sure :)
Parenting by grace
I've hugely changed my mind on what the 'right' way to parent is since my daughter was born. And I fully anticipate changing my mind 57 more times as different children and their different stages come along.
I thought she'd be on a schedule, be spanked for disobedience, and sleep in her own bed ;) She sleeps with me, is not on a schedule, and I do swat for disobedience, but that's rare.
I guess, it's a matter of the heart. I'm not set on spanking her, if there was something that worked better I'd do that. I don't believe spanking is for all children or all parents. It's just that for her it works. If I was having to swat her multiple times a day, I think I'd find something else to do.
I've also come away from the idea of 'punishment'. I don't punish her because she 'deserves' it. I'm not called to judge what she deserves, but more to encourage her to do what is right. And if what is 'right' is not swinging the lamp around or touching the electrical outlet, then a little flick might encourage that. Just consistently pulling her away from something sometimes might do the trick as well. I'm now a big believer in doing the least amount of negative response as possible, so if a consistent distraction works and accomplishes the desired outcome without negatively impacting the family, I'm happy to do that.
I've also seen families where the children dictate everything the family does, and I know I didn't want that. This is what initially turned me off from 'grace based parenting' that I'd heard about, but I believe that's just some people taking a concept and following it to a ridiculous extreme.
Both hubby and I come from families where the parents really had an agenda to 'show us who's boss'- his parents by physical discipline, mine by emotional manipulation. I don't really feel a burden to have her believe that I am boss. I'm guessing she does, but proving the point isn't something I'm interested in. Believing that God gave her to me for a time, rather than believing her to be 'my property' has been the best thing He has taught me regarding parenting, I think.
When I ask her to do something, I tend to really check myself to make sure she is capable of doing it relatively easily and that it's really necessary. I'm sure she *could* sleep through the night without nursing, but it's not necessary for me right now. If I really wanted to push, I *could* blanket train her (to stay on a blanket quietly on the floor for a set amount of time) but again, it's not really necessary. We were at a friend's with a Christmas tree a while back, and I knew it was perfectly within her ability to not touch it even though she would really like to, so I did require that of her. It's not so easy for her to get in her jammies at night without complaining if she's over-tired, so I don't require her to be quiet while I do that, but I do demand that she not physically fight me about it as I'm dressing her.
This whole experience has been really interesting to me, and humbling. I have to admit that I *do not* have control of her, I'm not ruling her by fear but rather encouragement. I don't believe disobedience is always sin on her part (this was what I believed before), and it may be not necessarily sin, but at least wrongness on *my* part for asking something of her that she is not really able to do or was for my selfishness rather than what she needed.
An example of something that illustrates my change is if a toddler is going over to the dog food bowl in a friend's house. He wants to see what it's all about. Curiosity is how children learn, it isn't a bad thing at all. But mommy doesn't want him to make a mess and tells him not to touch the dog food bowl. He is still inching closer to it, and she tells him again not to touch it. He continues to go closer to it.
Before, I thought that he 'deserved' a spanking for touching it, and if he spilled it, he would have to pick up all the pieces and put them back, and if he didn't, he would get a spanking for not following directions and it would repeat until he had picked up all the dog food.
Now, I most likely would try to distract the toddler with something else, but not completely remove the dogfood bowl from the situation as I do still desire to teach my child self control. If he didn't want to play with the other distractions I provided, and he still went back to the dogfood bowl, I might give a little flick on the hand as he went to touch it. This isn't about punishment, it's about a little negative stimuli to encourage him not to touch it. If he presisted, and the dog food got spilled, I would tell him we had to clean it up, and taking his hands, 'together' we would pickup the dog food. This isn't as overwhelming to a small child as being instructed to pick up the food on his own, by an angry parent. This is gently but firmly encouraging him to fix his mistake, and helping him do so.
If the dog food was absolutely still tempting after all this, then the child just most likely isn't capable of resisting the temptation and I *would* put it up. I'd prefer to use things like this, if possible, as a self discipline training tool rather than making everything 'babyproof' but I don't desire to exasperate my child either.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Taking your own child's protraits
I wrote this on Associated Content and wanted to share. I'm thrilled with the way our pictures have turned out, they really are meaningful to us.
Read more...My favorites on Etsy
Favorites right now
Hmm, java isn't working?
How bout a list, then
Georganne
SoBenArts
Just ordered a couple diaper covers from Georganne, and a tie dye heart tee for Babe from SoBen :)
Learning to draw
Still learning to draw with Mona Brooks, the biggest thing I've taken so far from this was 'draw what you see, not what you think you see'
Using a specific point to start with, notice how every line and dot relates to the starting point. This is ball point pen because I was sitting at my desk as my sweet hubby and I had a 'discussion' and I needed to expend some energy, I suppose ;)
Certainly not a masterpiece, but a big improvement over anything I've drawn before.
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