5 years

The sun has risen in the sky, birds of all kinds are making their beautiful sounds from all directions. The bumble bees have woken up and started buzzing around the cherry blossoms and the school bus has just drove by. Usually I'd be getting my son on that bus but he gets a ride from his grandma some mornings and this morning happens to be one of them, giving me just a little extra ME TIME! I'm celebrating by enjoying a peaceful quiet moment on my deck, drinking coffee with my girl Goose. Our half husky half boxer 5 year old dog.

As I catch a hummingbird zooming through the tree branches and other birds compete with the red winged black bird for bird seed, I can't help but remember the first year in our home, back when the red winged black bird use to dive bomb our heads. While we were pregnant with our son, Maverick, we were looking for a new home. We were living in a decent two bedroom, two bathroom townhouse in a nice town but shoulder to shoulder to nosy neighbors. We not only wanted more privacy, but we needed more space and an extra bedroom so a 7 year old Jonah could still have his own room.

Ben found our home driving around on his bike (motorcycle) one evening and immediately put an offer on the table assuring me after he got home that it was perfect for us. Over the next couple months while I was still pregnant, we'd drive past. Started eating out at the houses local food places. We had the house taken from us with a better offer, just to get it back with the other buyers bad luck, then lost it a second time just to luck out again and find out the buyer was just buying it to flip it a little bit. Eventually, while in labor May 1st 2014, Ben got a phone call saying we could pick up the keys. Ben told him he'd come for the keys the next day. Our family helped us move while I was still in the hospital with Maverick.

We were officially moved in by May 3rd and I couldn't have felt more blessed. New home, new baby, help from family, and OUR PRIVACY! I felt  such bliss that whole first year. Besides the slight fear that comes with a newborn and every terrifying story you hear on the news! I couldn't get much sleep though. Not because Maverick was up all night...no, he slept through the night very well. I couldn't sleep because I couldn't stop staring at him. When he was a baby we had him sleeping in a bassinet right next to my side of the bed. I couldn't help but risk it when I had to lay my hand on his belly every hour to make sure he was still breathing!

We took our first year slow. Giving ourselves time to plan what all needed to be done with the house. One big job was we needed to finish adding on a bedroom for Jonah downstairs. That first year while Maverick slept in our room, Jonah slept in Maverick's room. Still, we took our time. We even took on a puppy against my wishes, having a dog and cats already and not to mention the newborn! It was still a great year, spending as much time as possible outside. Due to our nosy neighbors at the previous house, we didn't get much peace in our old backyard. I was thrilled to lay with Maverick as he just stared at the green trees, blue skies, white clouds floating by. Imagining what he must've thought of it all experiencing it so fresh! Other than trying my best to keep him protected from the  dang mosquitoes all summer long, it was a magical time everyday. Maverick was such a good baby. Didn't cry much, eager to learn and eager to get moving. With having a big brother, you can imagine that he felt he needed to catch up. That motivation getting him to walk by 10 months for sure! He was a pro by his first birthday. Dancing, walking, running, climbing and of course a lot of mini heart attacks for this mama!

Now that big brother is going to be 13 this summer and that baby is 5 years old, we are still excited for our everyday adventures but entering a new set of fears. The preteen is always looking cranky and just had dumped his first girlfriend (to which this mom says, WOOHOO! GET OUTTA HERE!) Then of course we have the 5 year old. I named him Maverick to be wildly independent and boy did he come out living up to his name but now that 5 year old is still looking up to the big brother and thinks hes 15 trapped in a 5 year olds body. Our peaceful mornings of snuggles and cartoons have turned into me having to drag him out of bed early, get him dressed and fed and out the door for school. The easy baby that never cried started giving me the tantrums when he was 3 years old and they haven't stopped yet but we do seem to be getting through them easier and less often. Then of course this house! We've been here for 5 years, time to get our butts moving for all the jobs we planned. (and yes, if you're wondering, Jonah was in his own room shortly before Maverick's first birthday!)

Well, I hear a car pulling in. Our daycare friends are arriving and its time to start the day! I did start this blog stating that I was enjoying a peaceful MOMENT. This mom doesn't get much ME TIME! Hope everyone has a great Friday and enjoys some peaceful moments.

To post or not To post

Here I am trying to start a blog and completely torn about sharing my children's faces on social media. Yes, I post pictures of my sons or nieces and nephews on Instagram or snapchat but I've always been a private account. I only add friends and family with the occasional mom account after looking up and down their pages before allowing them to see my page. I use to not allow any strangers  but with wanting to start this blog, I feel I need to make myself more public. The tricky thing is I don't want to be so public, which is obviously a big problem when at the same time I want to get myself out there.

I've had an Instagram since late 2012. Since then I've posted beautiful memories of my life and my loved ones. Ben was very against social media and showing our kids faces and I was always on the fence. When our son Maverick was born I didn't post anything! It wasn't until our son was 6 months old that I posted a picture and from then, its just a picture here and there every few weeks if any.

Recently I came to terms with knowing that if I want people to come to my blog, I need to put myself out there more, something I never wanted to do. I get plenty of requests from people wanting to follow me but I decline. I just can't get myself fully comfortable with many people being able to see pictures of my children or my personal life. Then why start a blog right? Well the reason is, like anything, if you put the work in, something can be successful. There are women out there (and dads!) that are able to be full time parents to their kids and still make an income for their family....through blogging! I figured why not try? I know not everyone can wham bam become a successful blogger but if I could, how swell. How easy! NOT! One big cut back, I'm so nervous about sharing too much.

I read blogs that are very detailed and personal where it seems like they don't hold much back then I see other blogs that are open and personal but keep their kids faceless and some even nameless. Either way it has been fun connecting with women around the country. Some chats I've had with people are short and sweet while other conversations I have had are more open and sharing.

Knowing that as of right now, I want to see how it can go, I deleted at least 20 or more pictures of our kids that showed their faces from my Instagram to open myself up to more followers.  I'm finding myself a little sad that I took down so many pictures mainly because it was such a convenient place to hold their memories and now I need to print the pictures off and hope to not lose them physically. The other half of me is ready to walk to the deep end of blogging and let myself explore more openly to the experience and possibilities!

My Mary Kay

Hello! I hope you're having a good day! Today I want to know what people use for skincare? There is so much out there!! I personally, have used Mary Kay since 2009 for sure. My mom before that but now I am a Mary Kay independent Consultant.

When I first became a Mary Kay Independent consultant a few years ago, I took it very seriously. I went to all the weekly meetings! I did my weekly accomplishments every Monday, I held skincare classes and brought guests to my Directors skincare classes. I went to weekend retreats and I went to Dallas, Texas to the Mary Kay headquarters and sat in Mary Kay Ash's office! Love the experience (had bad luck at the beginning of the trip to Dallas but I don't regret going!) I really do believe if you work that business, you can find great success! I even made queen of sales in my Unit a couple weeks in a row! Although for me, I ended up slowing way down. Stopped going to the weekly meetings, ran out of people to ask to host and decided, I don't know if public speaking at multiple different skincare classes was for me.

I still love the products and I am still an active consultant but now I mainly do it to not only continue supplying for some friends and family but for the 50% off discount I get as well.

My go to products are
* 4in1 Timewise Cleanser!
* Night solution
*Mary Kay perfumes (at the moment I'm wearing 💗 thinking of Love💗 )

I also Love to use
*mint bliss energizing lotion feet & Legs
*clear proof cleansing charcoal mask!

There is so much more they offer and of course I love their Make up! Their oil free eye make up removal is  A LIFE SAVER!!! Let me know what you are using?!

Astronomers in training!

I'm so happy to continue sharing our Outer Space theme with you! The kids and I have had much fun reading our night sky books. From learning the phases of  OUR planets moon to learning that Jupiter has a total of 67 moons as of 2018! Rather my group of young school age and toddlers are remembering everything they hear, they are gripping on to some facts! Encouraging them to read more and learn more is the best part! The younger the better! Its so fun hearing one of the young boys was talking about living in the Milky Way Galaxy or hearing my 3 year old niece get excited about the sun facts. 

Sun and "Blue Giants" painting! 

While teaching them what the Sun is made out of and how the sun is the closet star to us, I had my group take Q tips and paint inside a circle with orange, red and yellow paint to create the fire look.

We also discussed the different stages of a star. Proto Stars being the baby, Blue Giants being the stars we down here, see the most clearly when we look up to the night sky. With a different Q tip, they made blue dots for their Blue Giants.

Telescopes! 

Future scientists and astronomers need telescopes to be encouraged to explore more! With decorated paper towel roll, then add toilet paper roll to help them be able to extend their telescopes. (another boy made a red one with shiny star stickers that isn't pictured but was great!)
 

Future Scientists

The last couple weeks the kids and I have been little astronomers! I have 3 and 4 year olds earning awesome planet stickers by telling me an astronomer is a person who studies astronomy. What is astronomy? They earn space stickers by telling me astronomy is the study of the sky and all the objects and forces in it! It has been such a fun theme and fun listening to them point out blue giants or supernovas in the sky. One boy has grown so interested in dwarf planets and he feels bad for our little Pluto. Given the choice of a big ol' Saturn or Jupiter sticker, he wants the tiny Pluto sticker 😊

Here are some of the crafts we worked on during our outer space theme:

Alphabet Rocket! Helping them identify their letters and bonus, what boy doesn't love rockets!?

Star stamping!! Fun for all of them and great for the smaller kids too!

This blog is continued in a second post to show you some more fun crafts that helped the kids learn about space and be encouraged to explore and understand more of what is out there! Please keep reading! The BEST of what they learned so far is coming in my next post!