The I.D.E.A. Museum

Every Tuesday the girls and I go to the I.D.E.A. Museum (Arizona Museum for Youth) and we have a ball. I think we came across it by mistake one day and the girl at the front desk told us we could go in and play for free because they were closing in an hour and after dragging a screaming Izzy out of the building because she did NOT want to go, the next day I was back buying a year pass. I go at least once to two times a week and the girls love it!

Where do I even began?

They have a few of these noise makers that move and and wiggle as you push them around the room. There are about three or four of them and the girls love to track them down. I think Izzy spent 20 minutes pushing this one around one day.

Yes, there is a garden. Pepper likes to put the carrots in the garden ground and then go find one of the baskets and "pick" them. They have a felt tree too with apples, oranges, pears, and bananas that you can pick.

 Behind the girls you can see a block mat. All the blocks are soft and today we spent a great deal of time stacking them up and pushing them over. Pepper has been very helpful of letting me know when she picks up a yellow one. "Yeyo" as she likes to call it.

The biggest light bright wall I have ever seen! The girls love this one so much, I have spent hours in this spot.

The big red piano. It is on the ground so the girls can crawl all over it and they can play the keys too. This one sometimes has a wait because my girls are not the only kids who like to play on this thing.

Everywhere you turn there is something on the walls for the girls to play with. They also have art stations throughout the place so the kids can color, draw, paint, glue, cut, stamp, and tie. They are always switching it up too. So there is never a dull moment.

 

Play Kitchen. Complete with sink. They also have a refrigerator, oven, microwave, stove, table, chairs, phone, oven mitts, mop and broom, aprons, and food! Drawers and drawers of food!

They have a living room with books and kid couches. My girls are always about the books! Love that about them. Today went to "artful tales" where one of the workers came in to the stage room (yes they have a room with stage that you can put on shows and plays) and she read us a book. 

Touch and feel room

 On the walls of this room you can find all kinds of things to touch and feel. 

We Love this place so much we invited our friend Juslee one time and she had fun too. (please see the kid in the background mopping the roof. Don't know why but that always makes me laugh)

 Well, until next Tuesday . . . .

Mondays

Most people hate Mondays. I, myself was once one of those people, but over the last year my attitude has changed toward them. Yes, they are the beginning of a work week for me too. (although my work week never ends) I treat my role as a mom like a full time job. The hours are planned out. I have to have things done by certain times on certain days. I have to-do lists and sometimes work with very difficult people. I do not sit around eating bon-bons all day, and I do not get to do whatever I want. I take my job very seriously and strive to be the best mom I can each day. The hours are crappy but the pay is so worth it!

So, back to Mondays, Cory gets up and heads off to work and my day begins. I try to pack as much as I can into my Mondays so that I can enjoy the rest of the week with my girls. The errands need to be run and the house needs to be cleaned. The clothes get washed and the food gets prepped.

We start our day at 7:00am, almost on the dot!

 My girls have a build in timer. They know when everything starts and ends and if I'm off or not paying attention, they are happy to let me know! Loudly!

Breakfast is a very casual affair in our house. I make a few things like eggs or sometimes we get french toast or pancakes but for the most part cereal works. However, a banana must be eaten! Every morning I hear, nana, nana, nana, nana? nana! nana?!?!
After breakfast the girls are allowed to play with their toys. Sometimes they sit nicely in the family room and play with a few toys and sometimes they like to scatter them all over the house.

Either way, I like to use this time to get ready and get some of my chores done around the house. Because Monday is my laundry day I make sure and start a batch and move a batch before we head out for our errands.

At 10am the girls are ready to leave and we load up. I hit the farmers market, Costco, and walmart. Sometimes if I have an extra errand I'll leave a little early, but today I didn't need to. The girls are always a hit and I have yet to go anywhere without hearing some kind of twin comment. But I guess who can blame them.

Today I got home from running my errands at noon. I quickly put together lunch for the girls and my real work began. I have little games I play with myself to try and get as much work done as I can on Monday. One is trying to get all the food put away and prepped by the time the girls finish lunch. Today I almost did it too. By the time they were done I only had the carrots and broccoli left to prep for dinners and they didn't take my very long to finish.

Once the girls went down for their nap I attacked my to-do list. Move the laundry, put the toys away, clean the bathroom, move the laundry, take out the trash, sweep, mop, vacuum, move the laundry, clean the laundry room, dust the family room, clean out the fridge, move the laundry, pay the bills, change the sheets, do the dishes, move the laundry, do I hear movement from the girls' room?

Now to the reason I love Mondays . . . . .

LET'S GO OVER TO GRANDMA AND GRANDPA'S!

Every Monday my parents take the girls for a few hours in the afternoon so I can do whatever I need to do. Most of the time I am finishing housework and sometimes I watch a movie or read a book, or when the girls were younger I have gone back to bed. Whatever! It's my time! And during that time the girls do . . . . . .

Whatever!

Today, from what I was told, they picked and juiced oranges from my parents' orange tree. My dad even got them cute miniature pink wagons to put the oranges in and take them over to the orange bucket.

Whatever! I'm glad they have fun.

I came home and cleaned.

I moved the laundry, again and sat down and folded six loads of laundry. I reorganized the shelving in my laundry room, throwing away a lot of junk, put together dinner, and then went to pick up the girls. All in all, I'm happy with the work day. 

Oh, I better go. Just heard the last load of laundry timer go off.

See ya tomorrow.

Uh-oh!

Oh the messes I catch these little girls in! 

They must pull every little toy out of where they find it!

What, mom? We are just playing.

They found the Tupperware.

Oh! Pretty!

What does this do?

Oh, I see.

That cookie was delicious. May I have another?

What's for Dinner?

Lately I have been on a role with cooking dinner for my family. I am lucky to be able to stay home and lucky that the girls will let me (sometimes help me) put dinner together every night. I have found that the better I am at planning out what is for dinner the better I am about making it.

So every Sunday I sit down and make a list of dinner ideas, put together my list: One for Costco, one for the farmers market, and one for Walmart, and on Monday I head out in the morning and run all my errands.

Today as I sat down to make my list of dinners I remembered a pin that I pinned on Pintrest the other day of this cute weekly board that you could post what was for dinner. The cards could be rotated and it had the days of the week on it.

See how super cute!

Now if your like me, you go onto pintrest and pin a bunch of things with great intentions of doing them, but you never get to them. Either you don't have the time, the money, or the energy. And like me, your pins just sit there, being all cute. (if you happen to be one of those people that are so on top of your pins, Get lost! This blog is not for you!) But today, . . . . . 

I PUT TOGETHER A MENU BOARD!

Mine is not as cute as the other, and was made from things I had laying around the house, but it serves the same purpose as the other and has the one thing I loved from the first idea. Reusable, rotating cards!

I put it up next to my fridge (not sure if I like it there or not) so that I could see it whenever you went into the kitchen. I am hoping that this will keep me on track with my dinner plans and as I learn to make more and more dinners, hopefully having the rotating cards will make for a better menu with different things to eat.

Can't wait to get started cooking. I better go see what is for dinner tomorrow. See ya.

I'm back, . . . .for now.

Has it really been 6 months?

Why yes it has. Time really does fly when you are having fun. I guess the silver lining here is that we have been having lots of fun. So, here I am, again, trying to be a good blogger and write down a few things that are going on in my crazy life.

Life is still crazy! We have a fun times and hard times, and more than anything my goal is to remember this time goes by so fast. I have had so many people tell me that, that I have made it my personal goal to not let messes and chaos rule my life. I mean, wow, my girls are already 19months and before I know it they will be two. And then I'll blink again and they will be in high school. Arggg! Slow down!!!

Okay, one day at a time. Let's start there.

Over the past six months life has been super sweet to my family and I. We are so blessed and have so many things to be thankful for. When I stop and think about it I am overwhelmed with love. I have the  best family in the world. The support system that is in place around me can not be beat. My parents and  Mother-in-law are always close by and so willing to help, even if I'm not always willing to take. I am blown away by their generosity and love for me and my little family.

Today I had a wonderful opportunity to go and speak at the LDS Mesa East Stake Relief Society Women's Conference (for my non-lds friends, it was a church thing). There were about 20 other speakers with different topics and different classes where you could pick and choose a few to go to. It was amazing and uplifting. I did have the opportunity to go to a few classes myself and enjoyed myself more than I thought that I would. I walked away with ideas, thoughts, goals, and new insight, but most of all, I walked away with a huge feeling of gratitude. 

Cory and Amy Ellsworth spoke today. They spoke of their life, of their children, and of the trials that they have had to face as a family. The hand that they were giving was not a fair one. The things that they have had to endure, no one should have to endure, and yet the attitude that they choose to live with is: Come what may and love it.

How grateful I am for my life. I love my life!

I mean, come on! Look at all I have to be thankful for!

How did I get so lucky?

After coming home today all I could think of doing was spending time with my family. So that is exactly what I did. 

Sometimes, all we need to do is step back for just a minute to really see the big picture. It is not about having the biggest house on the block, or the nicest things. It really doesn't matter if you have the latest or greatest, or if you are the best at this or that. A clean home does not always equal a happy home, and  just because you have quotes on the wall that speak of love it does not mean anything unless you work at bringing love into your life and home.

Each day is a blessing!

Each breath is a gift!

 And each minute is a chance to love!

How truly blessed I am! How grateful can I be? 

I absolutely, one-hundred percent, over the top, am in love with my life.