Greenery

It's funny that I enjoy plants now.  As a child I couldn't stand them.  My mother had and still has a ton of them and they were always blocking the windows.  However, things have changed and I grew to appreciate them.   This is one of the "mini-gardens" in her place.

I love this space and look to it for inspiration.  One of the things I didn't inherit was my mother's green thumb.   It's crazy but I even manage to kill succulents, which is supposed to be one of the easiest type of plants to maintain.  I have about 7 plants and they have been the lucky bunch that have survived living with me.   They are mostly tropical plants and I have found that putting them outside until the temperature dips helps to rejuvenate them.  One plus for our yucky east coast heat and humidity!  I water them every few days or so, weather depending.  

I wish I had taken before shots, so you could see how they looked before.  I will probably be adding two more plants soon, a snake plant and something else that's hard to kill! 

Do you guys have any tips to share?

Adventures in road-tripping with a newborn and a toddler-Saratoga Springs, NY

Finally!!! The baby is napping, my daughter is out with Nana and the oldest is away at camp.  I am sitting in my childhood home which my mother has made into her own garden oasis.  I am enjoying a lovely cup of coffee and I have time to post!
Last Saturday, we drove our son up to The Adirondacks to attend summer camp.  On our way home, we stopped in Saratoga Springs, which was beautiful.
We had the younger two, so getting pics was a bit of a challenge since my daughter is still adjusting to the new baby and has become very clingy.
Anyhow, we spent time in Saratoga Spa State Park, which looks like one of those gorgeous college campus's from 80's films, but better and bigger.  There are big plush lawns and buildings from a time when beautiful architecture was appreciated.  There are geysers throughout the park and many have been tapped so you can just pull up and fill up your water bottles right there!  Which, many folks were doing.  People even pulled out there huge 5 gallon bottles (several of them at a time.)
We enjoyed walking in the springs, until my daughter didn't enjoy it.  She's at a stage where she likes something and then doesn't like it within seconds.  She's suddenly scared of bugs and the cloud of dirt that formed in the water when she moved, and a numerous amount of other things.  She has a strong personality and wants what she wants IMMEDIATELY, ha!  We also did a brief hike because my husband didn't pack the back pack to carry her and we didn't want to have to carry her all the way back.
After the park, we decided to head to the Downtown area, which was full of people and plenty of restaurant options.  We chose a Mexican restaurant and ate the quickest meal ever for several reasons.  It was noisy inside and too hot outside.  Also, it was the witching hour for Mena, so she wasn't into sitting in her high chair or with Daddy, and recently she's started doing this high pitched screaming-thing and then laughing when she's getting tired.  So we took a short walk around and grabbed some ice cream and headed to NYC.  FYI Ben and Jerry's has cotton candy ice cream that is soooooo good!
The ride home was lovely......NOT!  The baby wanted to nurse about every 45 minutes-1 hour, so a 3 hour trip turned into 5 1/2 hours by the time we hit the lovely traffic at Lincoln tunnel.  Thankfully, there was a parking spot waiting for us, which is huge here!
All in all, it was a lovely day!  We would definitely like to head back there and stay over for a few nights to enjoy the many mineral spring spas, visit the park again and try some different restaurants, but definitely not until the kids are a little older.

Making time for my girl

So the baby is finally here and.....It's a boy!!!!  Its been about a month since my last post as I have been quite busy with the  kids.  Anyway, I have learned a few tricks along these last few weeks which I will discuss in another post.  One of them has been learning how to squeeze in some much needed one on one time with my 21-month old daughter.  She is definitely in toddlerhood and although she loves her brother and is learning how to be patient, she needs her Mommy time.  So whenever I can, I try to give her my undivided attention.

Some days its impossible, and she makes do.  Today it was playing out in the backyard and a few days ago, we managed to make cookies.  The fun thing about toddlers is they enjoy doing pretty much anything.  So I do manage to get some chores done, although they take forever with my "Little Helper!"  And she loves, loves, loves going for walks.  Today, we played with her toys and then attempted to re-pot some plants.  She was scared of the earth, so I ended up repotting by myself. The gloves were a hit though!

It has definitely been more difficult to get acclimated to life with a new baby this time, but slowly, make that very slowly, we are getting there.

Do you have any tips to share?

December Treats

It's cold and snowing so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things for the Winter.

1. HOT COCOA 2. VITAMIN E CREAM 3. COCONUT BODY BUTTER 4. NAIL POLISH 5. BOOTS 6. THE SNOWY DAY

Enjoy!

A much needed rest

Hey there! I was in dire need of some rest from everything.  So, I haven't been posting, or picking up much time at work and have just been focusing on my family.  Since my last post much has happened.  I lost my mother in law to cancer.  That has got to be one of the most devastating, aggressive diseases out there.  This is the second family member I have watched be taken by this disease and no matter how often you experience it, nothing quite prepares you for the end.
I had a birthday, which in spite of what was going on, we still had an enjoyable dinner.  My husband seemed to enjoy doing something nice to get his mind off of things.  I was also the Matron of Honor at my sister's wedding, took a trip Down South with my husband(post coming soon)and enjoyed Thanksgiving with almost all of my family except for one brother (that's a first for us since everyone is so spread out.)
I wish I could say I read some great books and did some cleaning out of things or took a class, but the truth is I just did the mundane day to day activities and vegged out in front of the TV and took naps in the middle of the day, which is great, by the way.  I think I have had my fill for the most part and am ready for some new activities, which means....New Posts!

So, enough about me...what have you all been up to?

New projects, New me

Reading all these other blogs has made me realize I need to start taking advantage of my time and take on some new projects.  Things I have been putting off learning how to do for a variety of reasons/excuses/laziness!  Things that are purely selfish....but in an indirect way will be enjoyed by everyone.

The first is sewing.  My mother and sister both know how to sew and my mom used to make her own clothing.  I am so jealous, I can't even hem a pair of pants.  It's really bad!  I was able to mend my son's pants and sew on some patches but I mean  really sewing with a machine and patterns (I think that's what they're called).  Luckily, for me, my sister gave me a sewing machine last year.  My girlfriend mentioned that Joanne's has a class and guess who's signing up?!  I will have to let you know how that goes.

Next up is photography.  I truly enjoy looking at images and took a photography class in high school.  It was so cool developing the film and learning how to get the shot that I wanted.  However, priorities changed and truthfully I didn't focus enough on it to be as good as I believe I can be.  So, thanks to my birthday present from my awesome hubby about 5 years ago, I will be getting lots of practice in with my Nikon D50.  Obviously, a class would be helpful but I don't have the time and I think just getting out and shooting will do wonders.

Lastly, and this is the biggest task is redesigning our home.  I am a late bloomer in the self-discovery area.  It has taken me a long time to be cool with myself and not be so concerned with what others think about what I am doing, or wearing or whom I'm hanging with.  I mention that because I think that your home should represent who you are as an individual and I don't feel that mine does.  Mostly, because I am still figuring out who I am, what I like, my interests and taking time to learn new crafts.  So, this project will be ongoing.  But, occasionally I will post little changes we make!

Do you have any new projects you are looking forward to starting?

Home again

We have finally returned from our trip and like always, its bittersweet.  I love California!  Its beautiful, its laid back and the light there is unlike anywhere else I've been, not to mention, I will thoroughly miss my family.  However, its so nice to be back in my own home and easing back into our routine.

I didn't have a good internet connection while there, so I decided to forgo adding looking for a wifi spot to my daily activities and skipped blogging while there.
This trip was quite a different one for me, which I will go into further detail in another post.  I don't like to be on a schedule per say, but I do make a list of things I'd like to do when I vacation.  That way I can usually get to most of them, as I please but also have chill days.  What I noticed to be a recurring theme on my list was choosing outings which allowed us to take advantage of California's greatest resource....the outdoors.

One of the places we visited was Muir Woods National Monument.

Oh my, it was majestic!.  The forest is located in Mill Valley (right outside of San Francisco) and is full of beautiful, huge redwoods.  They have several hikes you can take, which vary in intensity and length and can show you such locales as the coast.  We decided to take a short one hour hike through the forest.

I took photos, which as hard as I try, can't grasp the true beauty there.  Maybe its because while hiking you are inhaling the fresh, crisp air, and enjoying the forest sounds, which without sounding too crazy are intoxicating.  While walking we came across a sign that had this written on it:

In every walk with nature,

   one receives far more

      than one seeks.

                    -John Muir

This said it all for me!  If you are in the area, definitely check it out....

Let it Go

Working is for the birds!  I'm over it at the moment and I still have at least 30 more years to go.  It feels like such an interruption in my life.  I think its mainly because I have the baby and I'd rather be at home doing home stuff.  Some folks think I'm nuts.  They can't imagine being at home all of the time and prefer getting away from the kids.  I understand that too, but getting away from them to go to a 9-5?   I do like my job, thankfully, but I want it all!

I was getting that overwhelmed feeling again.  I felt like the day to day tasks were piling up.  Planning things on paper made it all seem do-able.  However, that didn't take into account the days I was tired or my child was at home sick from school and I was busy taking care of him or my normally chilled out baby was cranky and wanted some extra snuggling.  I kept trying to keep some semblance of a neat and tidy home and having dinner made at a reasonable time, while trying to do things that were enjoyable, but I couldn't.  At least not all the time.  I ended up feeling like I was working all day and never getting anything accomplished.  I know women that are able to maintain it all...but how did they do it?  I wanted in on the secret!
Then like a ray of light, my husband said to me, "Just leave it.  Stop worrying about doing it all."  Something so simple had such a huge impact on me.  I felt like it released me from my own unrealistic expectations.  This is the only time the kids will be this small and I want to look back on this time with enjoyment.  Its okay for my house to look lived in and not something out of a magazine.  I can have days that I lay around and do nothing.  In fact, its good, I am in better spirits and have energy for the children.  Now, the entire house is not clean all at the same time and if I do laundry, but its not folded for a few days, who cares?!  The kids are fed and clean and most importantly my family is HAPPY!