Toast 2 Mom

Since A Long Time Ago….

So many events have happened since my last post. It's been bonkers-ville. We had company, lots of cookie orders, teacher appreciation week, my blog 6 year anniversary, girls in a play, wedding anniversary, mother's day and fun, warm weather social events with friends. It's just been hard to keep up with all types of tasks. But I never want to not have these memories. So here is my much-abbreviated version of the past couple weeks. 

Grammy, Papa and Grandma Iva came for a visit. We went to a fun burger place downtown and to view the bats. This photo of Sydney was taken at Guadalajara for breakfast - one of our fav spots.

Cinco de Mayo weekend. Miss Cheeks got her face painted at a festival we went to downtown.

The girls were in a play - Peter Pan. Sydney played the role of Peter Pan and Natalie was Wendy. It was FANTASTIC!

 

 

 

Happy 12th Anniversary celebration dinner with the Hubby. 

 

The girls had Field Day at school - lots of fun activities. So glad I could be a part of it. 

 

 

 

Happy Mother's Day (and anniversary too) to me. The girls brought my presents in this morning by wearing them when they woke me up. I got a cute new shirt and a pair of earrings (Tiffany's nonetheless). I went for a nice long run today. The girls and I went to lunch and then to a movie. A perfect way to spend a day. Cheers!

A Goal

Truth be told, I'm just not sure what to say anymore. I miss my girls while they are at school all day greatly. I hate it that they are growing so fast. I want my little baby girl side-kicks to hang with during the day at home and at Target and the grocery store. But this is life - and I've been writing about it for years. 

Now my big girls go to school every day. They learn. They play hard. They make new friends. They experience life. I get to hear their stories at the end of every day. 

I'm not bored while they're away. Not even close. Now I'm figuring out "me" time again. "Me" time happens to involve a whole lot of time working on my business. I also have begun substitute teaching - just one job so far. I am a home room parent and school volunteer. And if all those jobs and the house and our animal friends weren't enough, just trying to catch up on the pile of projects that have added up over the years is what I do to fill in any remaining gaps of time. 

So with all that, it's left very limited time and priority in my day to capture one more soccer picture. Or one more sob story about my growing girls. But I still don't want to miss any documentation either. So with that, I'm going to try and set a goal for October. I'm going to do a photo month. My words might be brief, but hopefully I'll find some ways, maybe creatively, each day to capture our world - the girls, mine, ours, all together. 

When a goal is set, it helps. 

A Fast Five!

It's hard to say this and believe it...but see this picture below, I think when that was taken life was actually less busy? I don't know, it's hard to imagine that with a three month old and a two year old, things were easier than today. I do know one fact for sure, the days these days feel like they fly by WAY faster than they did back then. For it seems that all the time time now I miss a milestone here and a milestone there simply due to the fact that the days just race by and I lose track of time. 

There is another reason I have chosen this picture to post today. It represents the very first photo I had on this blog five years ago. Yes, three days ago marked my five year anniversary to starting this blog!! Very exciting! I thought about it about a week ago. And like most weekends, our past weekend was a whirlwind. So come time to celebrate my blogging milestone - well I missed it. 

A LOT has changed in five years. Look at these babies I used to have. Then it was diapers, nursing, ABC's, stroller walks, and daycare. Now it's grade school, swim team, math homework, reading and sleep-overs. 

When I began this blog five years ago, I was late to the blogging world. I saw it as an opportunity to keep my writing juices flowing. I wanted to network with others like myself. I hoped it would become a reading favorite to many - and perhaps be successful in some way. Though as it turns out, while my creative ideas were big, the best part to this blog has been my opportunity to snapshot and capture, as best as I can, how fast this little life we have goes by. I've been able to cherish each precious moment with my precious babes. 

I still wish I had more time to get more information down. But this will have to do. 

So to anyone who continues to read about our little life, thank you for your interest! We are grateful. And I am thankful to have had this platform over the last five years. 

Cheers!

Taken From Above

Sydalie's Cookies for afternoon snack - taken from above....Mmmmmmmm.

Something Green

Cutest freshly painted toes in the green grass....

This Time, Four Years Ago

I am a little bit obsessed with documenting my days. When I'm not using this blog to capture moments, I am writing down everything that I did for the day in my calendar. It's kind of a problem because I can't seem to find the right method of documenting my days without doing double work most of the time.

I really like to write things down. I think it looks and feels a bit more authentic to see what I've done by my handwriting - on paper, with a pen. Though in today's day and age, and having the convenience of a calendar on my phone - and coordinating the busy days - my phone seems to be more efficient. Well, it's kind of more efficient. I always have my phone; so in that way recording my plans and such, it just makes more sense to do it electronically. But I still struggle to type short little notes on my phone versus the quickness of writing with pen.

And in all of this detail on my struggles of "how is the best way for me to document my days," I digress.... One of the biggest reasons I love to write down what I've done for the day is to often look back and see what was going on that day, that year.

Being that today is a rather special day, I couldn't help but wonder, what was I doing the last Leap Year. A few things I could recall, but it was more special than I thought. 

On Leap Year, 2008, my sweet Cheekers was celebrating her first month of being born. The other thing I know that was going on that day was I was in Illinois visiting my family. At the time I was on maternity leave, and that was the opportunity to travel and show off my new baby!  That day was the tail end of my visit; so my girls and I joined my Mom, Step-Dad, Dad and Step-Mom for a good-bye dinner at Outback Steakhouse. If I recall correctly, my children were absolutely perfect during the whole dinner. :) 

And today, Leap Year 2012... today was a school day for Sydney. Cheekers and I joined Sydney at her school for lunch today. After school we went to the gym. Wednesday's are swim lesson days. After the gym, we came home. The girls kept me entertained in the kitchen while I experimented in the kitchen with a new recipe I found on Pinterest. They played "the Barbie Princess Fairytale" game while I whipped up din-din. 

So while today doesn't seem all that exciting of a day, I bet in four year it will seem like a wonderful day. The next Leap Year I will have an 8 and 10 year old. I only hope their wish is to play "Barbie Princess Fairytale"....and be in the same room with me. 

Happy Leap Year!

Would You Pay For These?

When does a person know when to take a leap of faith? I guess in this case, it's not a leap of faith for me - rather just getting the guts to do "it". 

My husband is right - I seem to have something stuck in my head that unless I'll become an over-night success with something, then why bother doing it. Although he's kind of wrong too - becuase I'm also the queen of trying new things. I start and try a lot, but, yeah, I don't dig very deep to really give them a shot at success. 

He and I joke that I should write a book about all the things you should sort of, kind of, maybe, I guess, try to start up and achieve when you beome a mom. Things like... sew - make one dress for each child and call it a wardrobe, knit - make a row with yarn, then throw the needles across the room because knitting sucks, half-way write a half dozen children's books - maybe some kids will only want to read half a book anyway. 

I, like a lot of moms, love my role as mom more than any other role. But it doesn't pay the bills. And as time goes by, I am facing a period of time when I'll need to find "something" to do, along with my mom roles, to add to the savings account. 

It's my biggest hobby - coming up with ideas to be with my girls the most and be in a non-stimulating, life-sucking cubicle the least. But my challenge is....as always....me.

I like to do lots of things. I like to come up with a lot of ideas for things. Some things I can do well.... but "well enough" are always the last two words out of my mouth. "Yeah, but a lot of people are writing books." "Yeah, but a lot of people take pictures of their kids." "Yeah but a lot of people make better food than I do." 

So my latest "well enough" question is do I make cookies "well enough, good enough"? A lot of people have told me I make good cookies. Many are those comments have come from family members - which do not count. There are others, though - non-family members, who have sung my cookie praises. 

And here's the part where the "but" enters my mind.... I only currently offer one good cookie - can I make more as well? How do I sell them - door to door? From a truck? Online? They only taste fresh for one, maybe two days....do they get dry too fast? Have I really mastered my recipe yet - are they always consistant? Would anyone really pay for these?

I'm just not sure. When will I find that "thing" that my gut says, "do it" vs "buttttt"?

Today's deep thoughts have been sponsored for you today by Melissa's Magical Cookies :)