Being on time

Posted on July 29, 2015 by 24useablehours

Being prompt is something that I value. It shows planning and forethought, two things I love.

I grew up in a house where we were always on time. We always left having carefully calculated how long it would take to arrive at said party, doctor’s appointment, or special event. When I married my husband I inherited part of his timing issues. His was similarly cultivated over time starting in his childhood. If his family was due to leave at 8, that meant in the car at 7:55 and ready to go, no exceptions. It bled through into his adult life and subsequently mine. He has a thing about travel. And I mean a THING. We have to be there early for flights, even before that was a thing. When we didn’t have kids that meant more time for magazines and a pre-flight cocktail but with the advent of kids that became a necessity.

Throw that out the window. Kids prepare you for the unexpected.

By a miracle you are ready early to leave for school that day…..”what do you mean you spilled pomegranate juice all over yourself, the dog and the floor”.

Walking out the door to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s house…why would you color on your face with Sharpie?

Kids are the true equalizer with time. I have had to get used to being late on occasion. I still try to get there with time to spare but that happens less and less. It is more common place to call the (insert appointment name) to say we are running 10 minutes behind or apologize for being the last one to the family gathering. It takes time and planning to move more than yourself. As soon as I think we are ready to leave the unexpected happens. I have had to learn to let go. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. Things are not always in my control and even when they are the best laid plans are just that, plans.

So here’s to late mornings and all the pending adventures that will further delay me. Continue reading →

Halloween Birthday Party

Posted on November 10, 2013 by 24useablehours

So I had promised low-key party this year. However, my daughter made a plea that I could not resist.

“What if we just have a Halloween Birthday Party at the house.”

An innocent statement. I thought we have lots of Halloween decorations already and I am already making your costume. How hard can it be? (Insert echoed voice and ominous music here)

As always we started with the best invitations by Nickel Design.

And we were off.

My little one made my heart swell this year by asking to be a villain. I was so proud, so I set off to find the perfect version. I found a few ideas on Pinterest. I said I can do this with no pattern and off we went to the fabric store we went, for the first time. Now how much tulle could this take, I mean really. Thirty-two yards! Thirty-two yards! So three trips to the store later and more glitter in the house than I care to mention. We had the perfect Queen of Hearts costume.

She loved the costume so much. I was equally proud of it. The absolute best part was half way through the party when she promptly told me she was done wearing the skirt and proceeded to take it off and walk off. Yeah!

I needed fun but not scary food ideas for this year. Here are a few I went with. Amazing food cards by Nickel Design.

The Hummus Octopus was very scary.

Banana Ghosts

Orange Pumpkins – a note on these. The peeling takes some time for all these little clementines and the meticulously cut bell peppers for stems. I was lucky enough this year to have a team of devoted Grandma’s helping.
Mummy Pigs in a blanket complete with mustard eyes.

Fresh fruit for color KettleCorn fresh from the farmers market. The World’s Best Sugar Cookies. I was very proud of the spider webs. I took white frosting and thinned it in the microwave for a few seconds. I dipped the cookies into the frosting and while they were still wet took black frosting and made a spiral on the cookies. Then take a toothpick and drag it out from the center.

I may have gone a bit over-board with the cupcakes. I couldn’t decide if I liked the pumpkins or the owls more so I went with both.
As favors I tried my hand at Carmel Apples.

And as the last person left the house this year I fell onto the couch and looked at my husband and said we were not doing this again.

Then my daughter came up and told me, “I was the bestest mom there ever was and this was the best party ever because she got to spend time with her friends and family.”

Resolve failing. See you again next year.

Adventures in Tie Dye

Posted on July 21, 2013 by 24useablehours

At one of the local ubiquitous art, wind, wine, craft fairs that liter the landscape over the summer months my daughter saw something her young eye had never witnessed.

It was an assault.

Of color. Of pattern.

It was loud. It was flashy.

It called to her four year old sense of aesthetic like a siren song.

It was a tied dyed dress.

After discussing with her that it was not worth the $45 price tag and stupidly mentioning that we could do it at home. I thought nothing more of it. Then week after week, day after day, she ask. When we would me making a dress? She forgets NOTHING. We were off to the local craft store for one of the less intelligent crafting projects of the summer.

It should be noted that here is where the step by step section of the blog begins. And here is where you will see NOTHING. Tie dying with a child is like herding cats that are hopped up on Jolt Cola and Pixy Stix in the dark.

It started out OK, as most adventures do. We bought a kit, which had the dye, rubber bands and gloves. It felt like it was going to be so easy….

We soaked the shirts in the solution that was provided.

Then layer out a giant old tablecloth. Because doing tie dye inside the house sounded like a really good plan. I mixed the dye. How could I have been so naive?

With primary colors my daughter was sure I could mix any color she wanted. This proved a bit complicated later as the ratios for lilac are a little more complex while wrangling a child.

So next is the step by step process of how we tied the shirts to make a “kind of” heart and the detailed way I was careful not to get dye all over the house. Wait, that is not what happened. It was a lot of ‘Don’t touch that!’, ‘Why is this spraying dye everywhere?’ and ‘Yes honey it is going to stain, it’s dye!’. So needless to say there were “NO” pictures, as I was changing gloves every two minutes and having my daughter say, “That doesn’t look like purple.”

So magically here are the end results. After we dyed them, left them to rest, and had an argument with the husband about whether or not they needed to dry outside overnight, even when the instructions didn’t say it. Let’s all say ‘magic’, cause that is how I am going to remember it.

So based on what my daughter said we will be doing this every weekend. So in like three weeks I will be a master at this.

Epic Lego Party

Posted on March 18, 2013 by 24useablehours

My family and I had the opportunity to go to one of those birthday parties recently where you just stand back and say, “WOW, what the hell am I doing with my time?”

You make recognize the work from previous posts as a very talented friend of mine. So when she invited us to a party for her boys I stood back in amazement, as did every other parent in the room.

Treat boxes for over 50 kids.

Custom water bottle labels.

Yes, she did individually wrap each of the 50 juice boxes she had as Lego bricks. I didn’t pay this much attention to detail for my wedding.

Custom signs with lego holder for the food.

She made yes say it with me MADE chocolate Lego mini-figs and flag for each homemade cupcake she did. The children of course really appreciated the detail as they were cramming them in their mouths.

If the cupcakes were not enough she made marshmallow pops in the shape of the mini-figs heads.

Each of the activities had custom-made signs. Just like the parties that you throw for your kids, right?

As we left and my daughter lovingly appreciated the detailed treat boxes, and by that I mean tore it open in the car. She revealed that she got handmade chocolate Lego bricks and a handmade and packaged necklaces. They were amazing favors!

Needless to say she had made MORE of her 24 useable hours than I can ever imagine. The important part was that her boys were thrilled with the party and it was artfully done. Congrats for an amazing party.

Times Flies

Posted on October 18, 2012 by 24useablehours

We just celebrated my daughter’s birthday and I am again in reminiscing mode. Just yesterday I was holding her in my arms and today, today she went on her first field trip. Let me say that so the people who did not hear her at 4, 5, or 6 this morning.

“We are going on a FIELD TRIP.”

An actual on the ‘big kid’ bus field trip.

To be honest I can’t say I was not equally excited. As a child you rejoiced in field trip day. A specially packed lunch, permission slips and a day to do something extraordinary. Let me tell you it is just as amazing to watch the excitement in her eyes. I was so happy to share that with her and be reminded that we still have a million first things to do still.

I say banner day at the pumpkin patch was had by all.

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How to make the most out of your 24 useable hours

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