Spring Wreath Making: Our First Pinterest Party!

The Sophster and I had so much fun last week! We got together with a couple of our fellow squadron wives and had our first ever Pinterest Party! We made Spring wreaths, got caught up on life, laughed, let the babies play and definitely got some good quality girl time in. It's always so nice to be around grown people, especially these girls. I feel so refreshed today and can't wait to see what our next Pinterest Party will be!

Have you done a Pinterest Party? What theme did you go with? Do you plan on doing another one? I would love to plan some type of Pinterest Party link up, if anyone is interested. We are talking about doing our next one in April some time.

Also, check out my sweet friend, Lashon {pictured here} over at My Crazy Life as a Navy Wife for lots of great inspirational posts. :)

Peanut Butter: Get In Mah Belleh!!

Let me just put this out there: I love Peanut Butter. Like, LOVE the stuff! I didn't used to love it as much as I do now, though. Want to know what changed?? I started making it myself. At home. Peanut Butter. And now, I'm going to teach you! It is literally, the easiest thing you will probably ever make. Trust me. I could make this stuff with my eyes closed.

First you gather your ingredients:



Oh yeah. That's it. Just two things. I mean, if you don't like honey {what is wrong with you?!}, then it's just one ingredient. I told you this would be easy, right?

Ok, so you can just dump your peanuts into the food processor, or you can be...pretend to be anal and measure out to at least a pound of nuts. I used to measure it exactly but, Sophi and I "sample" so much before I get it into the jar that, I just started making sure that I had at least 16oz.



Then, you just dump your nuts into the processor and hit the "ON" button. Then watch those beauties spin for around SIX minutes. First, they will turn into a big glob like this:


Let it keep going. Find something to do so that these six minutes don't feel like a lifetime. You could open up the bags of nine beautiful avocados that you scored for $6 at the Commissary or play some PlayDoh with a toddler while doing the Peanut Butter dance around the kitchen. It's true. I have a peanut butter dance. Toddlers make you do weird things.



After your six minutes is up {finally!}, your peanuts should now look something like this and should drip right off of your spoon:



Now, grab that bottle of honey and do a few good swirls around the bowl with it.



THIS IS IMPORTANT. DO NOT turn your processor back on. Not unless you want peanut butter that is too thick to spread on even warm toast. Just take your spoon and stir that honey in there. And you're done! Now just pour that yummy goodness into a mason jar,



Get a lick {or three...or four}, let the begging toddler have a taste, then make her a PB&J, then, let your mutts lick the spatula.


Those guys are pretty funny, right? Anyway, now you just want to find a place in your overcrowded {ahem...unorganized} fridge. You definitely will want to keep this stuff refrigerated, since you made it fresh and without all of the added preservatives. It will thicken up a bit once it cools off and it will be perfection. Good luck!



I'd love to know if you give my PB a shot! Would you let me know how you like it and if you try any other variations {bananas, nutella, etc.}?

On My Mind....

I have been thinking about something for days now and trying to brush it off, but, I woke up at 3:17 this morning and just can't shake it so I'm going to put it out here and I hope that it comes across more clear than the jumbled up mess in my head and on my heart.

Let me just make a couple of things clear here. 1. I love my daughter more than anything on this Earth. I love her more than myself and nothing she could do will ever change that. 2. I am a Christian who does not 100% follow or believe in the laws of religion. I believe in love and relationships. I believe that Christ submitted himself to a horrific death because He loved me more than anything on this Earth, more than himself, and nothing I could ever do will change that.

Ok, if that doesn't make sense right now, hold tight, hopefully it will by the end of this.

I have been hearing a lot lately about how people are so pro-spanking. I am not. I think that spanking is a disgusting way of acting as a dictator, a controller, over a child. I don't spank my daughter and I do my best to not lose control over myself and yell at my daughter. She is a two year old who is having to learn how to control her own emotions and I will be damned if I teach her that yelling and hitting are ways to treat herself or anyone else around her. I know that I am not the perfect mother but I think I do a pretty good job. My child is happy. She is kind, respectful, polite, and she is all of these things just from learning by example. When I talk to her, I talk to her like a human being and not like an animal. I do not reprimand her when she is wrong, I take the time to explain and to teach because that is what works for us.

When we go out in a public place and she has a meltdown, it's usually for one of three reasons. She's hungry or tired {in which case I shouldn't have her out so close to lunch/nap time anyway} or she wants to get down and explore, instead of being confined to a shopping cart. Some moms would see this as their child "being a brat" or an inconvenience. But I say, she's TWO! Of course she doesn't want to be confined. In her mind, the store is a giant play place and she wants to get down and play and learn and touch and feel. So most of the time, I let her. It takes longer to get through places, but that's ok. She is learning and growing and she will only be this small for a very short time.

My mom raised my brother and myself as a single parent. My dad was a piece of crap drug addict who abandoned his family when his daughter {that's me} was only eight years old. My mom had a tough time. She did a good job. But, if you ask me to recall some of my most vivid memories of growing up, I will mostly remember the bad times. The day my dad left, the spankings done with a paddle, the slaps across my smartass teenage mouth, the knock down drag out fight between mom and I that ended in my little brother having to break it up. Even though my mom and I went on to have a good relationship, I don't want these memories for Sophi. Ever.

Last weekend, I made a remark about how Sophi has been having a difficult time controlling her emotions lately and has been acting out quite a bit more and about how I refuse to spank. Mom reminded me about Proverbs 13:24. You know, the spare the rod, spoil the child verse? I can't even begin to tell you how quickly the bad memories came flooding back in. I tried to forget about it but then I saw something on Facebook yesterday that upset me to the same degree. So, here I am today, waking up at 3:17am, thinking {and writing} about all of this.

I did a little looking into Proverbs 13:24 because I was struggling with how I've been taught {God is Love} and this verse {beat your children into submission}. I actually found several verses {from the KJV} where King Solomon writes about heavily disciplining children:

Prov 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (diligently)."
Prov 19:18: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Prov 23:13: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
Prov 23:14: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Shoel)."
Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."

It is believed that, King Solomon wrote these things about his son, Rehoboam. Funny thing {not really}, as an adult, Rehoboam was a viscous leader, unfeeling, inconsiderate to his subjects, had no regard for human rights, and was widely hated {narrowly escaping death at the hand of his own people in 1 Kings}. What does that tell you about the parenting methods used by King Solomon? Can we not agree that as parents, the way that we raise our children will reflect heavily on who they become as adults?

Like I said, I am a Christian, I believe in the Word, but I also believe that some bible verses {like Proverbs 13:24} should be reevaluated to some degree. Of course, I discipline Sophi, to a degree. I am not here to be her buddy. But, I am also not here to be a ruler over her. I am here to be her MOTHER. I am firm when I need to be, but above all, I am her teacher and I am the one who will always love her more than anyone. Ever. It is my job to make her feel loved, deserved, important. And I don't ever want her to think otherwise.

I don't think that my God wants me to beat my child. I think that the second part of that verse, "but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them" {NIV}, is often left out. Careful to discipline. Love. These are the words that hold true to me. I will love and I will be careful to discipline and correct. I WILL SPARE THE ROD. My child may be spoiled, but she is spoiled with LOVE. And I'm ok with that.

I'm sure that I will have some readers that will disagree with things that I have said here, and that's ok. This blog is not written to please everyone. It is an outlet for me. I needed to get this out there and now I have, so thank you for sticking with me.

On a brighter note, here is The Sophster enjoying our first spring strawberry from our local farm delivery. :)

Soph Stuff: What we've been up to.

Ever since Sophi turned two last month, she has been fully engaged in learning. And learning FAST. She picks up new things every day. I know that this is normal for her age, but it doesn't mean that I was fully prepared for it! I have had to do a little research and have had to be all sorts of creative in order to quench her thirst for new knowledge. I am forever grateful for Pinterest and for fellow mommy blogger Nicole over at The Kavanaugh Report. I have been able to draw from so many ideas of fun ways to teach the Sophster new stuff. She always lets me know when it's time to learn because she'll say "C'mon mommy! Come do Soph stuff!". Hence, the blog title. ;) And it's amazing the things that we come up with when we apply ourselves. It's like mom teaching baby, teaching herself, teaching mom, teaching myself. Wow, did that make sense? Ok, I teach, Sophi teaches herself, she teaches me, and in turn, I am teaching myself that I do have what it takes to be a GOOD MOM. And I think that's pretty stinking cool. So, without further ado, here are some things we've been up to lately!

Painting
The Sophster has loved to paint for some time now, but she is now more into painting with a brush and not with her hands {and all over herself}. So, I thought I would draw some simple shapes for her to color. I drew a green square on one piece of paper and labeled it "green square" and did a blue circle on another piece. Then gave her blue and green paint and encouraged her to try to keep blue on blue and green on green. We talked about drawing a circle and a square, too. She can do a circle without a problem but was getting upset when I tried to teach her square, so I left it alone and just let her have fun with it.








Pom Pom Play
Pom poms. Who knew?! Ok well, apparently a bunch of other moms did and I was completely out of the loop. I mean, I had seen them on Pinterest for some time but just thought there was no way they could be that big of a deal. Let me tell you....THEY ARE. So, I snagged a bag at my local JoAnn for 50% off and brought them home. The afternoon I decided to pull them out was kind of impromptu. It was a "we are getting close enough to nap time to be cranky but not quite ready for a nap yet" moment. I needed something to stimulate her and I needed it FAST. So, I didn't have time to set up anything fancy like this or like this. So, I popped out a couple of our recycled yogurt cups, ripped open the bag of pom poms and plopped down on the floor with our whiney toddler. Instantly, she was smiling. We started by doing some simple sorting but that didn't prove very effective because she couldn't remember which color I said to put in which cup, since I hadn't had time to color code them. But then, like lightning, the learning lesson hit me! Before I knew it, she was telling me that these balls were soft and not hard, which ball was the big one and which was the small one, we matched the different shades of greens in the bag, we practiced "sneezing them" out of our hands {this taught her to hold her hand out flat, palm up and blow, when she usually won't turn her palm up, like ever}. Anyway, it was SO cool and it was a learning lesson for us both. Needless to say, it won't be our last time playing with those little fluffy balls.







St. Patty's Day Fun
This is the first year that we have done crafts that focus on holidays other than Christmas so I was pretty excited going into this. We did a few different things. Mostly focusing on shamrocks {of course}, green, and rainbow activities.

First thing we did was make shamrock necklaces. I found a kit on sale at JoAnn 50% off. Ended up being like $1.50 to make two necklaces. I set it up while she was napping, so that she could come out to it fresh. Basically, it was lacing beads onto a string. Developing those fine motor skills. This was not a hit with Sophi. She has a really hard time getting the beads on the string and got even more frustrated when I tried to help her. She insisted that I do mine and then she wanted to wear it.




Next, I made her a yummy green breakfast {Saturday morning}. It was a green egg, spinach and cheese omelette {OO-mah-lette in Sophster language} with kiwi fruit. She loves a spinach and cheese omelette. It is literally the ONLY way I can get veggies to her without sneaking them into her food. She wasn't too keen on the kiwi. We'll keep working on that one. :)



We played with water beads. Ok moms, if you haven't made these for your toddler yet, stop reading this right now, go here and order some. When they come in, make them and then thank me. No but really, these things are so cool that I even find myself playing with them in passing {they are still on the kitchen counter in a big bowl because we play with them daily} even when Sophi isn't around.

I made the rainbow ones, to try and somewhat stick the theme of St. Patty's day. I later made some green ones, too, because we decided that we definitely needed to make another bag of them. I filled a tupperware bowl with them and provided another clear bowl, a bowl with a rainbow and a green frog and a large spoon for scooping. I housed them all inside a 9x13 roasting pan to keep them from getting all over the floor and the dogs eating them.



At first, Sophi was a little unsure about them, but that didn't last long. She scooped them all, very carefully from the clear bowl, into her frog bowl and refused to touch them with her fingers. Once she got them all over to the frog bowl, she decided it was time to dig in. She investigated them by grabbing one at a time and trying to dissect each one and then she pretended to wash her hands in the bowl of beads. She sang "wash wash wash! All clean!". We stood there and played for half an hour. Then we went back to them again later. She loves them. I love them. They're fun.


Shamrock Painting. This was just something simple. Yesterday {actual St. Patrick's Day}, mommy was having a {ahem} rough day and just really wanted nothing more than a couch, a heating pad, and a bar of chocolate. So all Sophi got was a shamrock to paint. That's ok, though. She loves to paint and always makes it a good time. I just drew a picture of a shamrock on some recycled cardboard with a green marker and then drew some big G's and some little g's for GREEN. I had her identify the picture {she thought it was a tree. Mommy drawing fail number one}, then identify the letters {she thought the big G was an S and had no idea what the little g was. She never has problems with her letters. Mommy drawing fail number two. lol}. So, I handed her a cup of green paint and let her go crazy. She painted all of the letters first, and then the rest of the shamrock, exclaiming "It's a TREE!" the whole time. Good Lord I Love That Kid! Also, I want to point out that, Sophi is obviously left handed, so when I give her the paint cup, I intentionally place it on her RIGHT side. This isn't because I want her to be anything other than left handed {I'm a lefty, too}, but I want her to practice reaching across the middle of her body, instead of only using the left hand for the left side and visa versa.




That's it for our St. Patty's Day fun. I'm glad that, for the most part, it was a hit with the Sophster. I've got a few fun things planned for us for Easter in the coming weeks. Definitely going to do this Glow in Dark Egghunt, we'll be doing some more painting on a craft that we picked up from JoAnn last week, and of course, coloring some eggs!

I'm also working on getting my brain wrapped around the Montessori style of learning for her. My one downfall here is not that I'm not creative, it's that I'm messy...and unorganized...and more of a spontaneous mom than a thought out and planned mom. Anyway, Nicole over at The Kavanaugh Report made these Montessori Inspired Cup and Ball Sorters for her son and I am obsessed with them. I know that Sophi will go nuts for these, so I'm making some for her, but in yellow instead of blue. I'll definitely post an update on that later. First coat of paint went on today and I hope to have them finished in the next couple of days.

What are some of your favorite learning/playing activities to do with your children?