Sunday Citar:: Cuddles

 

“I will not play tug o' war. I'd rather play hug o' war. Where everyone hugs instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles and rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, and everyone grins, and everyone cuddles, and everyone wins.”
~Shel Silverstein

Today, the bug that's been passed around our house hit my girl with a vengeance, and between the hair holding, back rubbing, fever fighting and praying, this mama decided that it's time to see the end of it. I ran around the house cleaning up and disinfecting, washing loads of laundry in hot water and added extra vitamin C to our routine. But mostly? It was a day of cuddles. It's been a week of cuddles really... while we've had family in town and had taken them around to our favorite spots, and most importantly our favorite beaches, my littlest has stayed close to my side, not wandering much further than a few inches from my hip and back again. But today? It was a day both nestled close to me. My independent girl tucking her head into my neck for relief and rest. And even though our plans were for a fun sitter to round up all the kids while us adults (my brother and his wife included) headed out for a night on the town... something I'd usually whine about missing, I knew my babies needed me. And home I stayed with a grin on my face and my arms around my little ones... knowing everything they needed was right there in my cuddles and kisses.
 
And soon, very soon, I'll be back to regularly scheduled posting... gotta get this bug out!

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I would love to have you join the Sunday Citar inspiration and have all of us come to your blog to read what quotes inspire you! Simply write your own post on your blog, link within your post to my blog, and sign up with the linky below, leaving your name and the link directly to your Sunday Citar post. Just click here if any of that sounds confusing. There you'll be able to get the complete rundown, as well as learn how to link back to my blog if you don't already know how. Take a moment a visit at least three of the participants around you... you'll be glad you did!

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Our Week in Review:: 5.16.12

...Otherwise known as Hump Day Dump!

This week my brother and his family are in town and staying with us which means COUSINS! And FUN! And late nights for the four little ones, and even later nights for us when we stay up until the wee hours of the morning talking, laughing and catching up.

So, while we're all yawning through breakfast, here's a look at some of the things we've been enjoying:

• Helping big sister with word puzzles.
• Bike rides. And a mint green bike!
• The cute tree covered bridge on our trail.
• Open skies over Alligator Alley.
• A rainy day at the pool... and swimming anyway.
• Busch Gardens, and cousins!
• Self portraits... and finding hundreds of them, taken by Brayden, on my phone.
• Up close with the animals.
• Finding ways to cool off on a hot day.
• Brayden's driving.

How was your past week? We'd love to hear. 

Welcome to our tradition here on Fresh Mommy Blog... on Wednesdays, when I try to be wordless, I'm just going to dump the previous week's photos from my phone. A little piece of where we've been and what we've been up to. And the resulting collage? Well, I think it speaks so much more than I could. Welcome to Hump Day Dump, we'd love to have you join, whether it's one photo or many, phone pics or camera pics, wordless or not!

All of my photos were taken on an iPhone with the instagr.am app and were put together using Big Huge Labs mosaic maker... super simple and free. If you want to find me, I'm on instagram as TabithaBlue. For more fabulous Wordless Wednesday memes, check out Project Alicia, Better in Bulk and Wordless Wednesday

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A Happy Mother's Day:: Sunday Citar

I love seeing life through my "rose colored glasses."

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.”

Tonight I stifled a cough that was trying to rage up and out of my throat and interrupt the tickle fights that were happening as I tucked my little ones into bed. A cough and sinus thing that just a day or so before had caused so much drainage I ended up throwing up. In Chris' coffee cup. In the car. Not long after we'd set out on a quick overnight getaway, just the two of us. Romantic, right? It totally had a few of my friends convinced that I was pregnant.

There are times when "busy" isn't just used as an adjective thrown out there to seem important or to fill a void in conversation. Times when deadlines, and chores, and kids, and phone calls, and flights, and trips to and from the airport either for me or to pick up someone else all seem to stack on top of each other until I can't see where it ends. And during those times, I can rally. I stay up late, I get up early, I delegate and multitask... and then when the ebb of the crazy busy starts to concede to the flow of the more quiet and calm times, well, sometimes my body revolts and finds ways to make me slow down even more.

But when that reaches my children, when they cough and cry out for relief, my entire body aches for them. Every fiber of my heart and my soul yearns to give them what they need, to find a way to bring peace to their own heart, their own bodies.

I think that's when you realize what motherhood really is. When you know that if you could take and carry every burden, every care, every tear, every cough... you would. When you realize that their very breath and happiness means more to you than your own. When you strive to a better version of yourself so that you can be the woman you want your daughter to be, or your son to marry. When you make the best of everything just to see another smile, to hear another giggle.

So, make the best of everything is what we do.




Want a tip on making the best with what you've got? Find a place you love, that you can pack up the car and run to on a moment's notice. A place you can hear your children's giggles strum your very heartstrings.

For us, this beach is one of those places.

I need to start keeping Brayden's swimsuit in the car, he's getting too used to wave diving with his clothes on.

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I would love to have you join the Sunday Citar inspiration and have all of us come to your blog to read what quotes inspire you! Simply write your own post on your blog, link within your post to my blog, and sign up with the linky below, leaving your name and the link directly to your Sunday Citar post. Just click here if any of that sounds confusing. There you'll be able to get the complete rundown, as well as learn how to link back to my blog if you don't already know how. Take a moment a visit at least three of the participants around you... you'll be glad you did!

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And the winner of last week's amazing petiteBox giveaway is Staci A with her comment... "It's always the little moments that really make the day!" Staci, email your information to fresh mommy@me.com and you'll get a goodie box delivered right to your door!

Happy Mother's Day!


 

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DIY Kid's Chalkboard Table Makeover

Given my love affair with chalkboard paint, I knew that I had to use it when we decided to make over our worn down, worn out kid's table from Ikea. The table has served us well, giving my littles plenty of space for their creativity to soar and their food to spread and spill. At it's low price point, it's not a hard table to replace, but I figured I'd try and give it a makeover first. It's been needing one. So I went all Clinton Kelly on it... and I have to say, it turned out freakin' fabulous.

(If you get that reference, you win! Not that I have a prize, but you still win.)



First up was a trip through the paint aisle at Home Depot. I already had leftover chalkboard paint from this project, but we wanted something else to brighten the chairs. After narrowing down the 15 yellows we looked at to the favorite, Bright Star, we learned that spray paint would save us the steps of sanding and priming... and I'm all about saving. So we found the closest in-a-can match to that beloved chosen color.




Big sister insisted on doing as much of the project as she could on her own. Hand the girl a ratchet and she's got some mad skill... disassembling the furniture in record time. Also, notice the messed up table top? It was in pretty bad shape.



Once we had all of the pieces separated, we went ahead and began spraying the table top with the chalkboard paint. One, because sister girl couldn't wait to get her spray on. And second, because I knew we could get the first coat in and then spray it again after we added some sunshine to the other pieces.

After the first coat of chalkboard fun on the table top, we taped off all of the chair legs since I wanted to leave them in their natural wood state to match the table's still wood legs.



And then we set out to add the coats of sunshine.



Yes, there's a little peek at another project I was working on with the same paint.

Can I just say that I'm loving yellow right now? Because I'm totally crushing on it.



Add a little tin of chalk and you've got yourself plenty of time to make dinner while the kids play and let their imaginations take over... or draw a place setting and carefully try and fill each drawing with the correlating tableware from the kitchen.



So far, this project has been a hit in our home! Definitely one of our favorites.

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