Easy Spring Preschool Crafts

My preschooler has stopped taking his naps. It's a sad day. Also I know that 4 years old is way past napping age but hey I was enjoying every minute of it. Since we now have a couple hours a day to spend just N and mommy while little brother naps I've been looking for simple things for us to do together. I still want it to be relaxing quiet time but without always turning on the TV and I also want to be able to have some "me time" if needed.
We've been setting out all our Spring stuff and I found a few things at Target (because #mommylovestarget) that looked like they would be a nice afternoon project for N.

Garden Holder
-Wooden Garden Fence
-Glitter glue sticks
-Felt flower stickers
Total cost: $5
I got all the supplies for this project in the dollar section. N got to place everything where he wanted and squeezed those glitter glue sticks dry. Not sure what I'll use it for yet but it was sweet to watch him be so into it and make sure his stickers and glue were just right.

So proud of his work!

Flower Wreath $5
This was one of those pre-packaged crafts they sell at Target. It was a simple busy work type project but he loves peeling the stickers and placing them in the right spot. This is the type of craft that I set it all out for him on the table and did the cleaning I needed to get done for the day. I placed the picture of from the package in front of him and he went to town. I may have passed off my perfectionist attitude on to him, he was pretty exact with the flower placement. But his face shows how proud of his work he is!
Hopefully naptime stays a peaceful time in our house for a few more years, at least until little starts not napping- then it's all over I'm sure! Two boys together are not always peaceful.

Hello Monday: It takes a village.

Hello happy boys and Saturday mornings with people we love.

I have been working on cherishing moments with my boys more. I actually spend a lot of one on one time with them because of my husbands job which is good but can also be hard. It's hard to make dauly decisions on your own and to carry the burden of parenting by yourself a lot. I try to not let the pessimistic attitude overcome me at the end of the day (why is bedtime the hardest?!) and actively try to take in all the good. Take in the joy and the laughter. Listen to my four year old tell me stories and watch his imagination take him places. Help my toddler understand why his emotions are so crazy! We do a lot of fun things together, rarely staying home because adventures are so much easier (and fun!) then keeping little ones cooped up. I'm always trying to plan the next outing and finding people to join us in what we have going on for the day.
We got to spend the morning with friends from out of town this weekend and although it started out rough with tears of anxiety from my littlest one it ended up being a really fun morning. Full of talking, laughter and love. Full of a feeling of gratitude.

Working on stranger anxiety with L, obviously N doesn't have that problem.

It makes me realize that having people who truly love my boys, almost as much as I do, is so important. It really does take a village and we've been using our village to it's fullest extent lately. Being a mom is hard, I'm not a single parent and I couldn't even begin to imagine the difficulties of that, but I have a husband who works 60+ hours a week so we have to adjust to our own reality. We have to spend our time with him wisely and have to remember to be intentional when he is with the boys. I don't want them to miss out on anything but I do know that we are incredibly blessed to be a two parent household. Even if it's in an unconditional way.
My village is full of love. It has grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends who are family and a loving, giving Church. I am blessed. I can call on a friend and know that there will be support. I can ask a favor and know that there won't be a guilt trip attached. I know that as much as I love my village, they love me and they love my kids in return.
Cherish the village you have. No matter who is in it, no matter what it looks like. There's no wrong way to have loving, supportive people in your life and remembering to be grateful for each and every person can sometimes be the hard part. Love your village, they will be the ones to love you and your family back.

Colorful Windowsill Makeover

Spring is here! I would be lying if I said it's my favorite time of year (I'm partial to Fall) but it runs a close second. The weather is perfect and the colors are vibrant thanks to mother nature. I took advantage of naptime and decided to spruce up our kitchen windowsill! It was rather drab and had become a clutter shelf for the many "projects" I had in mind.

We live in a townhome so our patio is far from a backyard, but has just enough space for our boys to enjoy some fresh air. I am in no way a gardener, in fact my husband and I have decided to plant one last batch of flowers and try to keep them alive before finally giving up. We just don't have that green thumb (although he may disagree!). I wanted something simple and easy to maintain for the window, something that would be happy and have lots of color.

Finding pots I liked for the little succulents was proving to be difficult, when I saw some empty mason jars in our pantry I decided to give them a try- and I love it! The height with the little plant gives it fun balance. I am in no way an expert on these plants- I'm hoping to keep them alive through the spring time, but I love that they are contrasting all the fun colors I have with them.

Since I wanted to stick with easy plants I decided to use colorful accessories. The plants and pots are all from Home Depot and the garden stones are from Target (couple seasons back). The multiple plants in the yellow bowl was bough from Vons and inspired the whole windowsill!

I threw in a few knick-knacks and added a little chalk, just enough to say Happy Spring!

New Space! New Name.

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This post is from my previous site, Unintentional sahm.
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I've been working on this move for quite some time. After having serious writer's block and having a lot change in my life I finally saw that I needed to take my own advice. Embrace the changes going on and start something in a new direction. I am no longer a stay at home mom, I've been blessed with an amazing job and the kids get to be in childcare where they are loved and learning. It was super scary to take the leap into this job, lots of prayer and talking with the husband was involved. I feel like I found my voice again but I need to change where I'm writing. Thus the URL change. Still the same person, just a slight change in my role. Still being Brave.

Find me here: www.embraceunintentional.com

Adventures in the Sand

Growing up in Southern California was pretty sweet. This is not a woe as me story, it's all sunshine and a little rain down here. The polar vortex didn't even touch us.. Did I lose some of you yet? But something that I was never a fan of was the beach. It just didn't call to me like it supposedly does to everyone else. I didn't want to feel the ocean breeze and the thought of sand everywhere was enough to send me running.

When we had kids my husband (who loves the beach) pointed out that I was going to have to make some sacrifices in that area for the boys- him included. I fought it for awhile, I was making the decision that hey- my kids are totally fine without the beach. Then this happened:

As a mom seeing pure joy on your child's face means that you keep doing what makes them so happy. Splashing and exploring made them ecstatic and the sand everywhere- pure joy.

Sand panic aside, it has been really fun letting go of the anxiety the beach used to give me and embrace the mess. This is another part of me being brave, letting my littles go crazy and enjoy the sunshine.  

PS this was in February. 

East coast.. you can hate me now.