Peace To All - UPDATE

Today I woke up in a rush to get 2 of my 3 children off to school on time. Once they were dropped off, I breathed a sigh of relief to have a short break from the crying and yelling and whining. However, throughout the morning and early afternoon, my feelings have changed. I want nothing more to go and pick both of them up and hug them tight. What caused this change you may ask? The continued coverage on the news networks on the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

I live on the other side of the state where this occurred. I cannot possibly imagine what would possess a person to open fire at an elementary school housing children ages 5-10. My daughter recently started Kindergarten and other than here at home, school is another supposed "safe haven" I thought my child could spend her days. I was nearly brought to tears imagining being called to my daughter's school and having to wait an hour, maybe two to find out if she is OK and to hold her again.

As is being reported, the gunman is the son of one of the teachers at the school and one can only wonder, being that he became a victim himself, what his thought processes were to do this in the environment filled with innocent children. Apparently the motive was targeted toward his parents (the 24-year-old gunman's father was also found dead in his home in Hoboken, NJ). No judgment toward the deceased parents, but one has to wonder what the shooter's background was, his childhood, etc. More importantly, this reminds us as parents to hug our children and tell them we love them every day, to teach them to respect others and to be careful of their surroundings.

(I want to note that you please excuse any scatter-brained thoughts here as I have one ear on the television keeping up with the breaking news of this event).

Some facts that the news has reported so far:
- The gunman was a 24 year old male targeting his mother, who opened fire in the front office and continued on to his mother's classroom at approximately 9:30 this morning. The gunman turned out to be a 20 year old male who did indeed kill his mother though she was not in fact linked to the school in any way. It is still unknown why the shooter went to the school.
- 18 of the 26 victims were in fact children, only 3 made it to the hospital (no word on their conditions at the moment) 2 of the 3 that ended up in the hospital did not make it. They were also young students of Sandy Hook Elementary.
- The gunman's father was also found dead in his Hoboken, NJ home. This statement is untrue. Not sure what the connection between the body found in Hoboken and the Lanza gunman.

My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims of this tragedy so close to one of the happiest times of the year. I appreciate all of the efforts the teachers made to shield as many of the students as possible. They seemed very well trained in this situation. It could have been a lot worse seeing as one person recalled that the shooter intended to kill all that was present at the school. I pray those children find peace with the loss of their friends and administrators. I pray they are held tight by their parents tonight and every night.

Love and hug your children each and every day. Cherish them always. Listen to all that they have to say, no matter how minute it is to you, as it is not minute to them.

Peace to all.

I believe myself to be sensitive to the mentally disabled, which is what Adam Lanza was said to have suffered from. In elementary school, I spent a lot of time with a mentally disabled peer who often through fits more suitable to children 2-3 or more years younger than we were and was not able to speak. I enjoyed being her "helper." However, I am also naïve to many situations and unfamiliar with the different aspects of, types of mental disorders, etc. I was pretty upset with this whole situation and have been keeping up with the news. I was also very upset with the individual who started this and in some way probably blamed his parents. However, I came across an article that a friend posted on Facebook. And I must say that my eyes have been opened and unfortunately there is not always anything that can be done and no real reason for the actions that these individuals may take. I pray that some day we find a cure or some way to better help these individuals and their families. I do believe that there ought to be strict laws on gun control, but also believe that guns are not the ones that kill people - people do. Nonetheless, full background checks, home searches, etc should be taken as a precaution to putting these types of weapons and others in people hands and homes. I grew up in a home with a gun and my parents did well to keep it hidden. I was not aware of its whereabouts for the most part. I was also educated to stay far, far, far away from it.

Anyway, I just wanted to clarify all of the "facts" that had originally come out and that I have posted. There is still a ton of unknown out there and I hope to learn more in the coming days as the investigation continues if not for my own sanity and education, but to help better prepare my own children for scary, sad, unfortunate situations.

Thanks for lending an ear.

Peace To All

Today I woke up in a rush to get 2 of my 3 children off to school on time. Once they were dropped off, I breathed a sigh of relief to have a short break from the crying and yelling and whining. However, throughout the morning and early afternoon, my feelings have changed. I want nothing more to go and pick both of them up and hug them tight. What caused this change you may ask? The continued coverage on the news networks on the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

I live on the other side of the state where this occurred. I cannot possibly imagine what would possess a person to open fire at an elementary school housing children ages 5-10. My daughter recently started Kindergarten and other than here at home, school is another supposed "safe haven" I thought my child could spend her days. I was nearly brought to tears imagining being called to my daughter's school and having to wait an hour, maybe two to find out if she is OK and to hold her again.

As is being reported, the gunman is the son of one of the teachers at the school and one can only wonder, being that he became a victim himself, what his thought processes were to do this in the environment filled with innocent children. Apparently the motive was targeted toward his parents (the 24-year-old gunman's father was also found dead in his home in Hoboken, NJ). No judgment toward the deceased parents, but one has to wonder what the shooter's background was, his childhood, etc. More importantly, this reminds us as parents to hug our children and tell them we love them every day, to teach them to respect others and to be careful of their surroundings.

(I want to note that you please excuse any scatter-brained thoughts here as I have one ear on the television keeping up with the breaking news of this event).

Some facts that the news has reported so far:
- The gunman was a 24 year old male targeting his mother, who opened fire in the front office and continued on to his mother's classroom at approximately 9:30 this morning.
- 18 of the 26 victims were in fact children, only 3 made it to the hospital (no word on their conditions at the moment)
- The gunman's father was also found dead in his Hoboken, NJ home.

My heart and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims of this tragedy so close to one of the happiest times of the year. I appreciate all of the efforts the teachers made to shield as many of the students as possible. They seemed very well trained in this situation. It could have been a lot worse seeing as one person recalled that the shooter intended to kill all that was present at the school. I pray those children find peace with the loss of their friends and administrators. I pray they are held tight by their parents tonight and every night.

Love and hug your children each and every day. Cherish them always. Listen to all that they have to say, no matter how minute it is to you, as it is not minute to them.

Peace to all.

Save the Knees!!!

Man, I think it's been a while. Well, I'm here now and that's what matters, right? Hope you missed me. Lol. Anyway, tonight I'm posting about another DIY craft I did. My youngest is almost 10 months young and well, he's on the move...and fast. I don't know how this happened. One minute he was idle and cried every time he wanted to move. He didn't like being on his belly for very long...he even refused to roll over from his back onto his belly, but had no problem going the other way around. I know, I know. Every mother says that time flies and kids grow up too fast. But seriously...I don't know how this happened. And as if this wasn't bad enough, he's sprouted 4 teeth. What the what? I am not happy about this. And quite frankly, neither are his knees. They were starting to get red and full of scratches. :( Therefore, all of this recent activity has sparked a craft project!!

Sure, you can purchase knee bads online or what have you...but really, why bother when this stage is only going to last a few mere months? So, I got to thinking and researching online for DIY knee pads. I didn't care for much of what I saw online, so I decided to take a few different ideas and a couple of my own and put together my own little thing. It was rather simple. All it requires is a pair of old tube socks, reusable nursing pads (just in case you find the need to wash them you don't want to use disposable pads), fabric scraps, needle and thread. I kindly asked the hubby for a pair of old socks (he would only give a pair of plain ol' white ones...not the cute stripedy ones) and since I recently finished nursing, I collected a pair of my old reusable boobie pads. And I have some scrap fabric laying around from old projects I did. You can find some at your local fabric store or by about a pound on Etsy for about $5-$10 depending on the quality/brand of the fabric. But you really are only going to use about 2-3"x3" squares. And this is what I did.

The first step was to wrap the fabric over one side of the pads and using a simple hand stitch, secured it to the pad. This is just going to add a little bit of comfort and padding to baby's poor little knees.

Then I cut the tube off the socks and to keep it from fraying, I "hemmed" the side I cut.

The next step was to attach the fabric-covered pad to the sock. Again, all of this sewing really requires the simplest of stitches. Whatever you think works best. I also doubled up on the thread just to increase durability. Ta-Da! You've got knee pads for your little one to move about wherever he wants. If only I could create a DIY invisible baby gate to go around the Christmas tree!!!

Hope you have fun saving your baby's knees!!! Stay warm!

P.S. These photos were taken with my awesomely bad camera phone!!!

Upcycling this Season

Part of our Thanksgiving week traditions are for 1) to have a scrumptious homemade meal of the works - turkey, gravy, stuffing, rice/mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. etc. etc., 2) Black Friday shopping at midnight and 3) getting our Christmas tree and decorating the house Friday-Sunday. This year we mostly skipped tradition, but for good cause. We ended up hitting the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC (though I still want to go again when the kids are a little bit older and will remember the day and actually get up on the parade route even if that means waiting around for 3+ hours). Then we did indeed go Black Friday shopping, but not at midnight seeing as the drive back home from New York took a lot out of us. But on Saturday morning I gathered the family and dragged them to a Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree and have it freshly cut even if it caused my hubby to miss almost the entire first half of a very important football game he really, really, really wanted to watch!!! Nonetheless, the tree is up and decorated.

We had to trim a few branches from the bottom of the tree in order for it to sit nicely in our stand. And since I like the smell of fresh Christmas tree, I decided to make some cute decorative branches with them. It was a great way to use up the excess and I've listed a few of the extras on Facebook for sale. :) Alright, I guess I have to admit that my husband teases me for being a "hippy" and a tree hugger because I like to recycle and reuse good stuff. Haha. Whatever...let's save the planet one branch at a time. Check them out. They are super easy and cute.



Simply bunch branches together, rubberband them, attach ornaments with wire, twist tie, ribbon, etc. and complete with pretty bow and ribbon to hang.

From a quiet home (successfully got 3 kids in bed), to yours...whatever decibal it may be at. :)

All Aboard!

As you know, I put together a train themed birthday party for my son who just turned 2. He had a great time. It was intimate in our home with few family and friends - we had originally requested the neighborhood community center and were pretty upset to find another party going on there...oh overbooking. Anyway, just about everything I put together was handmade. Take a look at the fun, however please excuse the photos themselves. I was a bit distracted by the party that the pictures are really subpar. I was a bit scatter brained and couldn't figure out the lighting for the life of me!!

I ordered the invitations off of Etsy. I also made all of the snacks that were served including Pizza Bites, Apple Chips, Candied Popcorn, and Chips and Salsa for the adults. The snacks were labeled and served aboard a train constructed by the hubby and I from cardboard boxes and wrapping paper. The drinks consisted of bottled water (labeled Steam Water) and chocolate milk (labeled Fuel) - all labels were made by myself and were super easy...just print out the words in your favorite font, cut them out and glue to layers of scrap paper.

 

The décor was really simple as well. It consisted of balloons and railroad tracks (electrical tape) leading to the front door. A "Happy Birthday" sign that we reuse every celebration and more balloons.

Since my son is only 2 (even if most of his guests were over that age), the activities were pretty limited, but still maintained a decent flow throughout the party. I passed out favors at the beginning of the party including a conductor's hat, a wooden train whistle (both ordered off of Amazon) and Chuggington coloring pages with molded crayons I made. They had a great time snacking and blowing their whistles for the first half hour-ish. Luckily we were at home and had the availability of my kids' toys. They started playing with cars, trains, dinosaurs, books and more right here in the living room where parents could keep an eye on their kids. And all of them got along great! They were playing well together and sharing and talking and laughing. It was amazing. Another simple activity I had lined up was a Silly Photo Booth. You can buy prepackaged props from Wal-Mart - the one that I got was in the party section and included a plastic background and face props (mustaches, hats, lips, glasses, etc.) And before a lull could make its way into the party, I brought out a cardboard box my husband had transformed into a train with windows (luckily we had just received our new couch in this very large box) and the kids colored away on it. :)

 

The reoccurring theme of the party is that it was simple, but fun. Nothing too extravagant and beyond my means...we saved a lot of money by making things ourselves (we probably spent on the lower end of somewhere between $100-200). This was all for 6 children and 10 adults.

For my son's 2 year portraits, check out my photography blog at Happy Child Images. :)

If I don't get a chance to post before Thursday, Happy Turkey Day to you!!!

Fabulosity On A Dime

Hope everyone is having a great morning so far. My littlest lil' man and I are hanging out with one eye on the Today Show as we do every morning. Yesterday, I caught a segment talking about a new trend in shopping for baby clothes...borrowing or renting children's clothes. They estimate that we spend $13,000 a year on kids' supplies and this is one way to save a little bit of that. Our children grow out of their clothes so quickly that it seems we are constantly having to buy them new socks or new jeans or new shoes. Well, as I saw on TV yesterday morning, there are sites online that you can rent children's clothes from.

Borrow Baby Couture offers the opportunity to rent high end brand name clothes like Dior and Versace for children 9 months to 4 years for a small weekly fee. Shop online and the kiddie couture gets sent right to your door. Once returned, the company themselves have each item professionally cleaned so you don't have to worry about small accidents. Most items are special occasion items, but can also be outfitted for slightly less fancy moments. BBC was started by a couple who realized their son would never use the suit they purchased for a wedding a second time and figured there were other parents out there who could benefit from borrowing these one-time-use outfits for a fraction of the retail prices.

The segment also mentioned an online consignment website called Moxiejean.com. Here you can buy and sell gently used clothing for minimal cost. They offer clothes for Preemies up to 8 years old. Click here to get $10 off of $20 and share the site with your friends in order to save even more.

I had heard about consignment before, though I wasn't clear on the details of how it worked until I had my 2nd child 2 years ago and came across a couple of consignment stores in my area. You can find some really cute and unique items at these types of shops, but you can also find your everyday play clothes made by Carter's and other well known child clothing companies. The closest consignment boutique to me doesn't always have the types of clothes that appeal to me so I'm pretty excited to have found an online option as well.

I am not going to sugar coat it. I am a self-proclaimed "Brand Whore," but I am also a "Discount Diva." "Full price" is almost considered a swear word while the word "Sale" is kind of a turn on. Hahaha. I would prefer an item that is brand new that no other person has ever worn, but quite frankly kids are kids. They grow out of their clothes way too fast for me to keep buying brand new...especially now that we have 3 little youngins and I'm looking to close up my Mary Kay business by the end of the year. There is a new invention out there called a washing machine and laundry detergent, so I think I can manage a few not so brand new pieces without having a cow, but I will be picky about the things that I purchase from these types of stores. And besides, you can make a little money back on those clothes your child has outgrown to purchase bigger sizes they will need.

I might also point out that you can do a search on Facebook for sites that recycle children's clothes and toys, etc in your area. I know of several groups I am a member of on FB where I've bought gently used toys and sold gently used clothes to other local moms. It's like an online yard sale.

These are all great ways to save money and help save the planet. Don't forget that you can also donate your items to places like Goodwill and the Red Cross for those who have been affected by natural disasters. Hope you'll think about it. You can still be fabulous. Items may not be brand new but you can make them brand new to you!

Have a great day!

A Deal That's Hard To Resist

Alright...this is kind of too good not to share! For all you new momma's and expecting momma's or ladies who know expecting or new momma's or those who are looking for a gift for new or expecting momma's this is just for you!!! So, my daughter's school sends home the Scholastic Parent & Child magazine regularly and I came across the page that offers great new items for kids. I've seen it in several different issues of P&C as well as Parenting magazine. There is an offer listed for a FREE car seat canopy from carseatcanopy.com with offer code PC11. It is originally $49.95 for free, but you will be charged shipping of $12.90. I think it's still a pretty good deal. Shipping is kind of pricey, but I think of it more like the canopy itself costing $12.90 in the store. They have some great prints and you have to hurry and get yours because many are backordered for a couple weeks to a month. You want to get it before it starts snowing (if you're in an area that snows). It will be great for protecting baby from the rain as well. And once you place the order, check the confirmation page for codes to use for a free nursing cover and baby sling carrier. Get going! Now!! GO!!!

Enjoy!