Category: Parenting

Flowers, Gardening, Living, Parenting, Sophia

Apartment Patio Gardening – Planting Flowers & Herbs

Charlene Becker

Sophie was my little helper this morning planting some herbs and flowers on our patio. We have a lovely shaded patio that only gets evening sun for a couple of hours. I wasn’t sure what to plant so I headed to our neighborhood Lowe’s and asked a garden representative what would work best for our shaded patio. I knew that I wanted to have a few herbs that I use quite a bit such as basil and thyme, but I wasn’t sure what else would do well.

The gentleman there didn’t seem very confident, however he pointed me in the direction of the shaded section of the nursery. He said that anything under there would grow well in the shade. I told him that it doesn’t really get much sun, maybe two to three hours in the late evening. I was worried because some of the tags said 1-3 hours morning sun and 6 hours of full sun. He assured me they would still do well.

We found a pretty plant called Coleus, a flowering plant called sunpatiens I’m assuming of the impatiens family, and another flowering plant called a red celosia. My daughter help me make a “flower bed” in each pot with the new potting soil, then we set in the plants and gently covered them with more soil.

The six plants, 1 rectangle plastic pot, one bag of potting soil and 3 pack of gloves was $43 with our military discount.

Not too bad for some quality time with Sophie, some pretty scenery, and some fresh herbs for cooking! Some of my favorite summer things to make are Caprese salad, Margherita pizza, fresh pesto, and using thyme for roasted carrots and my simple everyday vinaigrette. (Stay tuned for recipes to come!)

Sunpatiens and herbs; thyme, sweet basil and chocolate mint!: (planted the chocolate mint just for fun, I love the smell!)

Coleus:

Red Celosia:

Thanks for stopping by! Hope this helps you with your patio planting!!! Xoxo

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Crafting, kids, Mom Life, Parenting

Clothespin Alligator Craft

Charlene Becker

Hi Ya’ll!

One thing I’m doing this summer to keep the kiddos busy is having a craft day!…Or two or three or four 😉 You may have heard of “Make it Monday” or “Try it Tuesday”? Well that’s what we do on those days. Mondays we make something and Tuesdays we try something. I have a whole list of projects and fun things to do with my 5 and 7 year old. Wow. Are they really that old?? Gone are the days of finger painting and water table fun. Now it is on to bigger and messier things like making slime, bath bombs, painting rocks, and making cool crafts.So I saw this cute alligator clothespin craft and thought, I can make that! I even had all the materials on hand in our craft bucket. So read on to see what you need to make this cute little guy! And please come back soon to see what else I’m “cookin up” this summer to keep my kids busy! (and LESS screen time!!!)

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You will need:1 green pipe cleaner
1 clothespin
1 strip of green construction paper (1/2″ x 5″)
2 small googly eyes
1/4 tsp. green craft paint
Hot glue or a strong adhesive like E6000
black fine tip pen (Sharpie is best)
Newspaper, scrap paper or a craft mat to use under painting surfaceStep 1 – Lay down the newspaper or scrap paper to cover your surface where you are crafting.
Step 2 – Paint the clothespin with the green craft paint and let dry. Paint a thin coat so it dries quickly. It should only take about 10 minutes to dry.
Step 3 – Cut 1 piece of pipe cleaner to about 3 inches and the other to 5 inches. Bend the ends around to look like a curved foot. If this is too big for you, trim the feet to the desired length. I started at this length and trimmed them down. Take the hot glue or strong adhesive and put 2 dabs on the bottom of the clothespin, 1 on the back of it and 1 in the middle. Quickly stick on the 2 pipe cleaner pieces.
Step 4 – Use a black fine tip pen to make 2 dots at the front of the clothespin for the nose.
Step 5 – Use a dab of glue about 1/2″ above the 2 dots and stick on the googly eyes. If using the hot glue wait a few seconds for the glue to cool since the eyes will melt a little when sticking to the hot glue.
Step 6 – Take the construction paper strip and fold it accordion fold back and forth or even square folds.
Step 7 – Glue the construction paper right above the eyes to the back of the clothespin and cut off the excess.Done! There you have an adorable alligator clothespin. You can use it as a chip clip or cut up an old magnet and glue a strip to the back so you can use it on the fridge to hang up important artwork! 😉

Happy Crafting!

Charlene

Adventure, Air Force, Mom Life, Parenting

My First Couple Weeks as a *Temporarily* Single Mom

Charlene Becker

May 20th 2019, my husband left for basic training. At 36 years old he was enlisting into the greatest Air Force in the world.

swearing in

He came to a crossroads in life, a point where he had to make a decision to either go back to school or do something he’s always wanted to do, serve his country.

We we’re both a little excited and terrified for this change. Our children are 5 and 7 so good ages to handle this but still old enough to understand what’s going on and have challenges dealing with having an absent father.

For me the challenge would be to have a busy, fun-filled summer, as a single parent. I would need to be able to balance our life, finances, meals, household chores, and basically everything else.

So far it’s been three weeks since he’s been gone it hasn’t been too bad. I prepared myself by making a summer binder in which I was able to put our summer schedule of activities, fun things to do around town, some free city programs and events, a summer bucket list and even my diet program for a little bit of weight loss. If you’d like to see more about what I created click here! I also included the direct links so you can go to these websites, support the creators and print directly from there! They are a cute design too!

I know my challenges this summer will be to stay busy, spend quality time with my kids, lose a little bit of weight and tone up, and also be able to have some me time in there somewhere…without losing my mind or drinking too much wine! 😜

I’m thankful to have family close by so if there is a need for me to have some help I do have a couple resources. I know they have their own summer plans though so I would only use that as a last resort. Luckily my daughter’s preschool teacher offered to do some babysitting so I have her number if needed!

Only 6 more weeks until my husband’s graduation from Air Force BMT! After that we’ll get to spend only 4 lovely days with him then he will go on to his technical school training in Biloxi, Mississippi for another 136 days.

Right now this seems to be a moment where we are frozen in time, moving at a slow-motion type of pace. It’s only because we are all counting the days till we can see him again, talk to him, hug him and tell him how much we love and appreciate him.

I hope you follow us on this exciting journey. It would be nice to have some new friends, especially military or military supporters. If you are Air Force please give us a shout out and leave a comment below. My husband is in Flight 531, Graduation date is 7/19/19. If you also have a Blog please let me know so I can follow along with your journey as well!

Thank you for reading and supporting us!!! Xoxo

Charlene

Life, Living, Mom Life, Parenting, Writing

Things To Say…

Charlene Becker

So, I have some things to say. I’ve always been a writer and a talker, but mostly a talker. However, I’ve always loved to write and I’m not sure why I don’t do it more often. Probably because I just don’t have the time. I’m a part-time, working mom, and taking care of a Pre-Schooler and 1st Grader. Ask anyone, they’ll tell you, that’s a handful. At least in my world it is. 😉

A few things have been bothering me. Maybe you can relate to this or at least understand my points of view. I have a couple of pet peeves and I will elaborate on this. This is just my opinion, and like that even matters (haha!), but I love to write about things that others only think about. Especially things that people think but do not say.

So here we go…

Did you ever notice that we are now older but not wiser? We have more money, but we are not richer. We have more conveniences but do we have more time? We have more friends, (ie 365 friends on Facebook) but we are lonely. We have more toys, tools and gadgets and gizmos but are bored out of our minds! These are the “things” that are truly bothering me these days!

I guess to start, I am just feeling my age! I’m 43 and I do feel older, a lot older. But when I really think about it, do I feel wiser? I did get my Associates degree, and a Culinary Diploma, but I really don’t feel any “smarter”. I have friends and associates that continued on with school, obtained their Bachelor’s and now have that “dream job” or that “career they’ve always wanted”. Way to go friend. I feel like I was in that same educational “race” but then tripped on a rock or bump and I have stumbled into a learning abyss, I fell flat on my face and never crossed the finish line. I don’t believe that I’ll be advancing or moving forward because I’m stuck in that comfy rut. In my job that “pays pretty good” and that gives me that schedule that is convenient for my kids and I. But is this what I really want?? Will this “job” fulfill me and have me thinking, this is the best job for me and I’m finally happy! In the end, that is all we really want, to be happy. To feel we have accomplished and succeeded. Are 95% of us feeling this way? Are you looking for motivational Periscope videos too and signing up on Linked In to make connections with people that you will never come close to meeting or being in their “circle”?? Is it just me?

What I mean by we are richer but we have less money, is exactly that. We are making more money than we did 10 years ago, but we don’t really have money. Things are more expensive, there are now daycare costs and other costs we never even dreamed of. We are working moms, paying for daycare costs to help take care of our kids, which would cost us nothing if we were just able to stay home! Part of our pay is going to those costs, along with subscriptions to Ipsy, Sephora and Birchbox, so we can get products to help us look better and feel better about being a tired mother. We are also going broke paying for those uber convenient meals-in-a-box like Hello Fresh, Blue Apron and the like so we can get dinner on the table in 30 minutes because life is crazy and we are exhausted from working all day. The last thing we want to do is meal plan, grocery shop or cook a home cooked meal for God’s sake! Not to mention, we are buying more of those convenience foods like toaster breakfasts, lunch in a bento box, or even just forking out the $3.30 per hot lunch per day for our kiddos. Then we factor in the pizza at least once a week or even twice a week due to sports, extra curricular activities and just being down right tired! What about school pictures – 2 x a year @ at least $25 a pop, plus all of those darn fundraisers for the school? I mean, I’m all for buying some delicious cookie dough (thank you Otis) but darn, I sure as heck didn’t figure $30 into the food budget for that! Or what about the jump-a-thon, dance-a-thon, jog-a-thon or bike-a-thon fundraisers! Did you factor all of that into your budget?? Does your budget allow for all of this or do you somehow just make it work, like I do???  Do you see what I mean about not having any money? Because after all this, I am pretty much broke. Well, I have money for the wine and bourbon that we feel we need to have because we are so stressed about money (and kids! haha)…so after buying that, we definitely have no money. (I’m kidding, but you get the idea right???)

We have all these conveniences but do we have more time? We have a microwave that can “nuke” our food in minutes, yet we still spend hours in the kitchen! We spend hours on You Tube and Facebook watching foodie and recipe videos and we still have no idea what to cook for dinner! We have a cell phone where we can order food in minutes, buy tickets, shop for anything anywhere at anytime, check our emails, voicemails, talk to people with the push of a button, order groceries, buy something and have it delivered in 2 hours, look up information and ask Google or Alexa for anything. Yet we are still rushed, pressed for time, stressed about everything we have to get done and have even more to do now than we did 20 years ago. I’m constantly hearing my parents say, “When I was your age, we didn’t have to worry about cell phones or giving our kids tablets or electronic devices!”….Oh my gosh, how in the world did you order a pizza, check the weather,do that book report or get your kids to listen??? The answers were, call it in, watch the nightly news at 10 pm, go to the library and spank them! But these things took time! So, if we are saving SO much time by having a cell phone (ordering online), looking up the weather online or using the internet for that book report, where is all the saved time going?? I figure that would save us about 4 – 5 hours right there! Where did it go? And then there is the hour that we saved by microwaving our dinner. Plus the two hours that we didn’t waste grocery shopping at the physical store, hmmm…that is at least 8 hours! Dang, I could do A LOT with 8 more hours in the day! Even if you cut that in half, that is four freaking hours! Well, I suppose I didn’t get to level 255 in Candy Crush overnight.

I never used to have 365 friends. At least I don’t think I had that many in my “contacts” or “address book” as it was called then. I had maybe 30 or 40? So, now that Facebook helped me find all these people that “I might know”, I seem to be lingering around the 365 mark of “Friends”. Thank you Facebook for also importing them ALL into my contacts on my phone.  Did I know I was doing that at the time?? Now I have eight, yes that is 8, Michelle’s in my phone that I’m pretty sure I have no idea who they are but you seem to think they are my “friends”. Well, I may know 1 of them, and we might have been close at one time. (This is an example! One of my best-est friends is a Michelle!) Do you see my point?? So, why is it that I feel lonelier than ever? It could be that I’m a 43-year-old mom with younger aged children and most of the moms my age kids are graduating high school. Or it could be that most ladies my age are settled down in a house and I’m now in an apartment. Or it could be because stupid Facebook said and led me to believe these people would be my friend and they are not! I might hear from about 25 of them on a daily basis, if that! In fact, just recently that number of 365 dwindled to 273 and not one of those 92 people even reached out to say hey, why did you delete me? Hmm, not so much a friend in the end. We use social media so much these days like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Linked In, so why do we feel so disconnected? We are losing our “connections” by putting our face into an electronic device instead of picking up the phone and saying “hey, I miss you, let’s talk”.  But…we are saving time by not picking up the phone and having that 2-hour phone call and texting instead…so where did those 2 hours go that we saved?? Well, we spend 1 hour on the phone texting that person, then spent 1 hour playing Farmville? However we also sent 3 emails, made 2 appointments and listened to 4 voicemails. *Sigh*

So nowadays, we have less time, we are busier, more stressed, have less money and feel lonelier. Internet to blame? Social Media? Most people say that social media brings their family closer. Hmm, I have to disagree myself. I’m sure others would disagree as well. They would see that picture of the girl’s night out that they didn’t get invited to and be like “that bxxxx didn’t invite me!”. Hmmm, that has ever happened to me. (RIGHT!)

We have all these cool gadgets from Pampered Chef, Harbor Freight, Best Buy, Fry’s, we have tablets and devices, game systems and toys…oh so many toys, but we are bored. Our kids can’t sit and “play” for five minutes without saying “I don’t have anything to do”…as I look around in the SEA of toys surrounding them. We can’t wait in a line for 3 minutes without pulling out our cell phone and checking our Facebook feed or sending a text. We are constantly looking for that instant gratification or quick fix. We are all a bunch of junkies! That’s it. We are junkies who haven’t much money, we are short on time, without real friends, with too much stuff.

I have recently moved from state to state. I’ve lost touch with some of my friends, well all of them really. I wonder why they don’t call or text even, but then I realize I haven’t called either. It’s been a hard few months transitioning from a home to an apartment. It’s still hard. I have been purging like crazy because like I said above, we have too much “stuff”. It’s all been a learning experience.

I hope to make some new friends here or at least reconnect with some old ones. I don’t have much time because I am a busy working mother, but hey maybe you can come over and I’ll open up a Hello Fresh bag and that bottle of bourbon I was talking about?

I hope you liked my rant and my “deep thoughts”. I do love writing and hope I get to do it again soon…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom Life, Parenting, Uncategorized

I Feel the Need, the Need to Write…

Charlene Becker

Anyone else get this 80’s term? Maybe this will help, “I feel the need, the need for speed!”. Whoever thought that would be iconic one day.  (Top Gun…if you didn’t get it!) Maybe something in my writing will be iconic one day. Ha…one can dream right?

I am sad that I haven’t been writing. I haven’t had that “release”. Where you feel that things and emotions are bottling up inside of you and you might explode if you don’t get it out…do you ever feel that? Well maybe you need to write. Let it out. Let it go. “Let it goooo!” (Little Frozen reference there)

It’s about to get REAL…

I can’t believe I haven’t written since November. I have been slacking. That’s probably also the last time I have felt “creative”. It’s so sad really. I was really into Stampin Up and thought I was good at it but now I’m not so sure. I guess when you don’t get much business and sales you start doubting yourself. I’ve done a lot of that…doubting…

Let’s take a poll, shall we?

How many of you have done home based businesses? (Hands raised…ME!) Now, how many businesses have you done? …. Let’s see…Mary Kay, Stampin Up, Premier Jewelry, Thirty-One, It Works… ok so that’s 5. That’s not too bad I guess. I guess most of us stay at home moms are looking for the next best thing. The next thing that will get us out of the house for a “break” for some “me” time. Because why? Because “Mommying” is HARD. Being a mom, I’ve realized after 5 years, is the HARDEST job, EVER. Sometimes probably just as stressful as being an air traffic controller. Well almost.

How do I know this? Because I think I lost 6 months of my life when I went out to lunch with my 2 toddlers today, by myself. Because I have 2 toddlers that are 19 months apart. I wasn’t by myself, actually, I was with a few other mom’s from my daughter’s pre-school. I said ok to the lunch invitation in hopes of meeting the “cool” moms, making new friends and just feeling accepted. I knew that it would be tough. I knew that Sophie would not want to sit in a “baby” chair and would try to leave the table after 3 bites. I knew that Wyatt would start acting cranky after barely eating anything. The kids had already been at school for 3 hours and I knew they just wanted food and a nap (or quiet time).  So did I too. Want them to have nap time that is. Well, lunch went well, it was great meeting new people. They were helpful letting Sophia sit on her lap and watch our things when I had to take the kids to go potty, twice. Of course my son had to poop while we were there. I let him go by himself, but thank goodness one of the other moms was in there and came out to let me know my son needed me. Of course. All the while Sophie kept running away from the table. I finally strapped her into the baby chair much to her chagrin. I even pulled out the crayons, small tube of play-doh and coloring books to help keep my kids busy. (Since the cute paper puzzle dinosaurs the restaurant gave us were not working)

One of the moms commented, “you’re so good, look at you with your bag of stuff for the kids!”…Um well, that’s one way to look at it, put nicely. It’s more like, I know my kids are going to misbehave at some point and they’re gonna need some shit to do. Hahaha!

So that’s cute that other moms thing I’m prepared, that does make me feel good. But don’t think for a second it’s because I have my shit together, because trust me, I don’t.

As I left the restaurant $22 later and with 2 takeout boxes of leftovers of all the kids food they didn’t touch, I vowed that I wouldn’t go back to that restaurant without reinforcements…or any restaurant without a “play place” for that matter. We all decided to do that next time.

I don’t feel like I have “bad” kids, I just think that the timing was off for them, they were tired and also needed “something” to do. It’s hard keeping a 2-5 year old “entertained”. If you don’t believe me, just ask a mom or a dad of one.

Anyone, hope you enjoyed this writing and maybe got a little chuckle out of it. I know I did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life, Love, Mom Life, Parenting, Sophia, Writing, Wyatt

Good Morning! Shhh kids still sleeping…

Charlene Becker

Yes, it is almost 8:30AM and my 2 kids are still sleeping. (3-1/2 year old and 2 year old) I get a lot of friends asking me, do you wake a sleeping child? No! Why poke a sleeping bear? More on this in a minute…

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So this morning, I set my alarm for 7:15AM. It went off, I grabbed my phone like I was going to get up, then stretched, curled back up and closed my eyes. I rested for what seemed like 5 minutes, but it was actually an hour! Oh man, there goes my blogging time. However, I got up, made my coffee and got the kid’s milks ready. Back to the keyboard I go and here I am typing away and it is 9AM. I feel blessed. Relaxed. So back to the question, do I wake the kids? So they are “sleeping in” a little, don’t bother them. Enjoy sipping your coffee for one minute and just breathe. Because you and I both know that it is short-lived. 😉

(Enter kid #1)

I’ll keep writing until I have to make breakfast, but I just wanted to say some more about this. So back to waking them…why wake them if their bodies are telling them to sleep? So, they will get a little off schedule. That’s ok! I know my son was very tired from going to a Monster Truck show with daddy last night. He didn’t nap yesterday and woke up at about 9am and went to sleep on his way home about 9pm. That’s a LONG day for a 3-1/2 year old so I know his little body needs that rest.

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My daughter is teething or growing because she has been extra feisty lately. So I know that any extra sleep will help her. If I were to wake either of them, there would be sadness, confusion, whiny children and then an irritated mommy. Why cause all that? 🙂

Instead, we have 2 adorable “quiet” toddlers, a calm mommy getting fueled up for another busy day. There’s a load of laundry to do, dishes to put away and a possible grocery trip. However, it’s pretty rainy out and as you know that would not make it a fun trip for mommy or the toddlers. Hmmm…I wonder if I can get what I need on Amazon Prime Now. Have you tried it? WOW, it’s amazing. No fee, (except for the $100/year Prime Membership), optional tip for the driver and 2 hours later you have your order. I’ve used it several times and I’m spoiled! I think I could find something to order everyday 😉 Anyway, it’s only available in major cities right now so you might not be able to try it, but if you get a chance definitely give it a go!

Ok #2 is awake now and I’m ready for today!

Have a great, restful day!

Charlene 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life, Mom Life, Parenting, Writing, Wyatt

New Years Resolutions…More Writing in 2016!

Charlene Becker

 

I got up at 7:30AM this morning. Ok, so that’s not early for most of you but it is for me LOL! My kids have been trained to sleep in. We usually put them in bed about 9 or 9:30 so they sleep until 8:30 or 9. It’s NOT clockwork by any means and it’s been rough the last couple weeks. After the holidays we got off schedule because of staying up late and the kids were sleeping until 9:30-10! Which hey, that’s ok for me since I was staying up until 1 or 2am stamping! (Ugh…crazy I know!) We finally had a couple of days (4 or 5 really) where we got the kids up by 8:30 so they went down for a nap by 2 (instead of 3!) and in bed by 9. I’m okay with that. I’m a night owl, so if I get 2-3 hours in the evening to cuddle and watch shows with my hubby, then I’m happy. :-)Even happier if I get to stamp and make cards! However, I need to also sleep train MYSELF! I have gotten used to going to bed at 12-1am and sleeping until 9! I would love to have a couple hours in the morning to myself. Me and coffee. Quiet. Then I could write, journal, read, stamp and make cards, scrapbook…or whatever! So that is a definite resolution for me. I feel like I have all these thoughts and ideas in my head and I need to get them out!

One BIG problem is that the computer now lives in the garage. Why? Well, we wanted to make room for other things and not have the rooms look so cluttered. My stamping space was also out in the garage (I had a space heater), plus it’s California, not like the weather is that bad. So in November my husband said just move what you NEED to stamp and make cards into the spare room and he moved the baby’s crib into our son’s room. SWEET! Dude, I moved all my stuff in a couple hours during the baby’s nap time. IT WAS ON. I am nice and toasty when I’m crafting now. 🙂

So now, I’m happily crafting away…but I have this deep desire to write. Not just “blog” but actually write! I have ideas for children’s books in my head as well as two ideas for novels (fiction and sci-fi). I have no idea why I feel this pull to write but I know I must. I think it must be what “The Force” feels like. So, moving the computer is next.

This leads me to my New Years Resolutions! C’mon, we all do it. We make them. We break them. Maybe we make them just to have something to break? HA! Well anyway here they are!

  1. Get up earlier
  2. Write more
  3. Blog more (yes different than writing!)
  4. Eat more salads
  5. Eat healthier
  6. Scrapbook more
  7. Make more cards
  8. SEND more cards
  9. Pray more & pray more for my kids!
  10. Spend more time with my kiddos!

Yes, I realize that #9 and 10 should be at the top…these aren’t really in any particular order…but I do feel that in order to do #2 – 10, #1 definitely has to happen first! hahaha

When I started this blog, I hoped it would be a place where I could write my little anecdotes, share pictures of the littles and their cute videos, share my photography (another hobby of mine), share my cards and scrap booking.

However, being a mom of TWO toddlers…well there’s that whole I don’t have time for ME thing. Well, I’m making it! I recently saw a video of Jada Pinkett Smith answering her daughters question about how hard it is being a wife and a mother. I feel like she was answering this question for me! She hits the nail on the head. It’s very hard to balance being a wife and a mother and still being able to enjoy what we want in life. It’s our life too, remember? So the list above doesn’t include “spend more time doing things for myself” but I feel that 1-8 are doing exactly that. I mean, the list could go on and on…get more massages, get more pedicures, go mall shopping (for myself), have more coffee dates with friends, have more girl’s (mom’s) nights out, etc etc etc.  I would really love all of that…but time, money and resources are all a factor. So for now, I’d be fulfilled with the 10 above…for now.

Now my son has come into the garage (with his Kindle) and is asking me to hold him so I must go for now…but I’ll leave you with this…sometimes the only thing holding us back is US.

Here’s a couple of pictures of my cuties opening presents at Christmas! Sophie was fully aware of what was going on and loved every minute! This one is a bit blurry (most are because my kids never sit still!) but I just loved how she held up these Frozen toys. She loves her Frozen 🙂

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Ok, so my son is now out here and in full “I’m going to annoy my mom mode”. Can’t get writing done yelling “stop” every 2 minutes. Guess my time is up. Guess 30 minutes of writing will have to do!

Now, go out and do what YOU want to do. It’s a new day, a fresh start.

Charlene xoxo

 

 

 

Life, Living, Mom Life, Parenting, Picture Storage, Shutterfly, Sophia, Writing

My Silly Little Girl, Potty Training & a Picture Storage Solution – Finally!

Charlene Becker

I love being a mom. More than that, I love being a stay-at-home-mom. It’s definitely a FULL-TIME JOB. 🙂 It’s worth it. It is hard at times…but worth it. I have a 3 year old that has almost mastered potty training but it has taken a long time. I never pushed him or forced him when he wasn’t ready. I thought he would show interest but never did to my dismay. Finally after he turned 3 this June, and when I thought he would be in Pull-Ups forever, we got serious. We put up a sticker chart (I printed one I found online HERE) and I taped to it a small picture of a toy he had been eyeing for a while.

potty chart

I said if you just sit on the potty, pull down your pants, flush the toilet or wash your hands you get a sticker. (of course for making a pee or poo too but he wasn’t at that point yet) When the charts are filled up with stickers, you will get your toy! He wanted to sit on the potty. So he did and he helped me flush the toilet when I went and he started to get interested. I also had underwear ready for him to wear. Finally a couple weeks ago he went pee pee in his little potty! He was SO happy he made a pee pee. I praised him A LOT plus he got stickers and ONE M&M candy. After doing this for about 2 weeks he would forget about the M&M’s and sometimes the stickers, he was just excited to make something in the potty. We used 3 charts since he started to fill them quickly. We ordered his toy for him and told him that was for filling up his chart. After a couple days of a dry pull-up I put underwear on him. I also said if you need to make a poo poo just sit on the potty. He only goes #2 once a day so I thought if he has an accident it won’t be that bad. He only pooped two times in his underwear and you could tell he didn’t like that. The third day he went into the bathroom and came out saying he made a poop. I went in and didn’t see it. Uh oh…just like the Clorox commercial lol. I said where is the poo poo Wyatt? He said under the towel. So I lifted the towel and sure enough the poop was under the towel. I’m not sure how it got under there but I think he just squatted and went. (Clorox bleach to the rescue!) I told him next time just sit on the potty buddy. The forth day he didn’t go and in the evening he said my tummy hurts. I said well if you go poop in the potty you’ll feel better. The fifth day he went into the bathroom and closed the door. He came out and said I made a poo poo Mommy. I was scared to go look, but he said come see! I went in to find a very large poop in his potty! I was SHOCKED (at the size of the turd and also that he actually went in the potty). He was so proud of himself! I praised him and I said mommy is so proud of you! He has been pooping in there everyday and stays dry all the time. It’s been about 1 month since we started this! We just put a pull up on him at nap and at night (just in case) but usually he wakes up dry after his nap. Now we are trying to conquer going places and having outings in dry underwear. If you have any tips on that, please comment! Right now we have a little potty in the back of our truck. Not sure how to get him to use a public toilet. I might have to use cheerios and have him start standing up to go. This is the toughest thing I’ve encountered with raising my kids, but I said that about everything else with them! LOL! I’m sure I’ll look back and say, that was easy! hahaha

So that brings me to this picture of our little Sophia. Naturally she followed her “brah-brah” into the bathroom and was curious. I was picking up toys and came in not 1 minute later to find this! I just love how she was trying to hide. She’s a cute little stinker. I’ll be starting potty training with her very soon!

Sophia Potty

Sooo because these littles are SO cute, I have like 15,000 pictures of them. I decided I needed to find a picture organization solution so I can start putting albums together and scrapbooking them! I recently found This Life by Shutterfly! I’m loving it. I connected my phone, 2 computers, Dropbox, Facebook and Instagram and it automatically uploaded ALL my pictures, FREE! (it only costs if you upload & store videos) Apparently it will also delete duplicate pictures and organize them by date. I’m no longer overwhelmed with pictures on my computer and I can delete them to save space for other things. If you haven’t tried this, I definitely recommend it!

Thanks for stopping by!