Toddler art {Mother's Day gift}

This project couldn't be easier, cheaper, or more adorable...and BONUS!...it fits right inside the cards Leila got for her Grandmas and her Great-Baba.

Materials:
paint
paper
paintbrush
craft stick
green pipe cleaner
Sharpie or other kind of marker
white glue
stickers (optional)

1. Paint your child's hand and carefully press it onto the paper. Let it dry before you cut around the outline of the handprint.
2. Paint the craft stick green to look like a stem.  I used a sponge-like paint brush but fingers, Q-tips, or a regular paint brush will do the trick.  Set it aside to dry.
3. Put glue on the back of the handprint flower and position it onto the painted craft stick.  I wanted mine were short enough to fit nicely into the card/envelope I was mailing.  Lay the flower flat to dry.
4. Make a small loop on one end of the pipe cleaner to look like a leaf and secure it to itself.  Wrap the long end of the pipe cleaner around the painted craft stick, make a loop for another leaf and tuck the remaining part of the pipe cleaner into itself.  (You can also use paper to make leaves. Melissa suggested making green footprints for leaves!)
5. Add the year, a message, and stickers if you'd like.
   

Happy Mother's Day!

Budget-friendly toddler adventures

I have said it before, and I will say it again, I LOVE where we live. Jeff and I have lived in San Diego for nine years and we can still feel like tourists any given day.

Who wouldn't love living in a sunny beach town?!

(Honestly, I could do without the high cost of living and underfunded public school system.)

Now that I entertain a toddler on a daily basis, I have begun to see San Diego with a new set of eyes.  The possibilities for fun on a budget seem endless.

A new picnic spot, a local bake sale, a free concert at the library...fun, fun, fun!
Leila with my mom and Aunt Carrie
Watching the local elementary school kids rock out

After seeing this list posted on one of my favorite local blogs last year, I was inspired to make a list of my own.

Here's what I have so far...



It's time to take advantage of your hometown! Start your list today.

I plan on adding activities that are not specific to San Diego like bubbles, sidewalk chalk, nature walk, and pet store to mine after reading the posts linked up here...


Please share your favorite budget-friendly activities!

Mission Bay on Dwellable

How I got here

If you have been here awhile, you know that I consider myself a temporary stay-at-home-mom.

I never planned on staying home when I became a mom. My teaching career allowed me to work 180 days out of the year AND be home around 4pm. Sounded to me like a perfect way to do the all the things I love.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon

Going back to work after my maternity was the toughest thing I ever had to do.

Not because I didn't want to leave my child, I was excited to go back to teaching. I was desperate to get some structure back into my life after three blurry months of newborn filled days. (You know the drill...eat, sleep, poop, cry. Never in the same order, yet always the same.)

Those six months of teaching were rough on me. I felt guilty leaving Leila and loving the young children in my class. Guilty that I arrived at school ten minutes before class started, and guilty that I rushed home right after school was over.

Ashamed that I still hadn't lost all the baby weight, I spent my afternoons pushing Leila in the stroller while my anxious mind raced with all of the things I thought I should be doing (washing pump parts, bottles, packing my lunch, lesson planning, cleaning house, changing the sheets, going grocery shopping, making dinner...)

I felt like I was giving 110% but no one was reaping the benefits.

I was running on empty.

I learned I would be laid off (for real that year) due to budget cuts and increased class size in a meeting I was, of course, late to. I sat in the back of the room sobbing, wondering if I could take more changes in my life. At the same time, I was relieved it was almost over and afraid I would fail at being a stay-at-home-mom.

This June I will be celebrating one year of being a stay-at-home-mom to my little Leila.

Sure, this new role has had it's challenges. I have struggled with my new identity, making mom-friends, finding a routine that works for us, and feelings of uncertainty when it comes to my teaching career.

These personal struggles, although not resolved, have changed me. They have shed light onto what's important to me.

Family. Friends. Love. Balance. ME!

Life can be difficult when you have a plans. It can be great when you realize you can change them.

Things I will never understand about my husband

Today is Jeff's 35th birthday.

Happy birthday babe! (Who am I kidding?  He doesn't read this blog.)


He has already started calling himself 36. I just don't get how he never remembers how old he is and that he thinks it's funny to be older.



In the twenty years I've know him, I have not been able to find the answers to any of Jeff's man-mysteries.

Can you help me out?

Why does he get a tiny hole in the middle of every T-shirt he owns?

How does he manage to lose eight pounds in four days?

Why do his feet still smell after showering?

Why does he refuse to pay for a haircut even though he hates cutting it himself?

Why is it that I am always ready to leave the house before him?

How is he able to snore when he inhales and exhales?

Please. I'm stumped.