Organizing over time

 Hello,

WOW ! It is amazing how time flies...with time comes change..change of seasons, change of seconds into minutes, minutes into hours , hours into days, days into weeks, weeks into months, months into years..speaking of which I was last on this blog in October.I make no excuses except for one LIFE !!! Life is constantly moving and moving forward and ahead.The kids the growing up and growing up fast.

I continue to wear many hats..cub scouts, girl scouts leader. mom, wife, chaffeur, nurse, Realtor and the lists goes on and on and on...

So with that said I will stop by here when it takes my fancy to fill you in on something ..who knows who cares..but I will ramble on in the hopes that someone is paying attention and can take an idea or two and make it their own.

This has been a quiet week for me on the work front..today I have 5 girls coming over for a playdate..yeah they are only five but it was motivation enough to organize..yes organize..not clean..with my busy schedule I have been able to keep the house in great shape but there is always room for improvement.

I tackled my laundry room today. I already had the white bins in there with the kids pictures so they know where to throw their winter stuff. I love that my carousel for shoes is working. Every week I switch shoe duty with the kids and they need to make sure that their shoes are hung up.

Reno has set some records with a dry dry winter..in fact it has been so dry that we had two major fires, two months apart and in each fire over 20 homes were burned. Over 10 000 people were evacuated and it has been devastating...Recently we had some snow Finally !!! So off I went to the store to get knew snow shoes that were 1 size too big so they can wear them for another season.

My 9year old has feet that is only a toe smaller than my feet..yeah we can wear almost the same size shoe now..scary..so when I forgot what size shoe he wore I got him a size 4 kids boots as I know that I can fit into a kids 4..yes I have small feet. Well that meant that I no longer have small cute boy shoes. His shoe takes up way more space now. Priyasha is a real diva and has different colored boots for different outfits. I was sick of no space on my shoe rack that I decided to hang up my boots on hangers and I love love love this idea. My floors are neat and tidy and they help the boots dry faster.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy ! Hope you get an idea or two..drop me a note and let me know what you think !

Promises, bribes, threats,rewards..what would parenting be without these ?

Hello World,

Don't know how much you know about me and what I do ? Well it would take a long time to list it all. I am sure it is the same for many moms. Some would consider me to be like and onion , but I do not make people cry, then there is the cabbage, but it is stiff and hard, so I would like to be like a rose , nooo that has thorns,, so a Dahlia I shall compare myself to. What am I talking about ? Layers.. I have many layers ( Oh this reminds me of the clip in Shrek, onions have layers, ogres have layers ) My version is Dahlia's have many layers and people have layers, I have layers and layers.

Click here Shrek video clip to see the video clip. I cannot believe that I found this clip just by googling for it. Amazing technology. See I am already off on a tangent. Like many many of you out there I do a juggling act every single day and I wear many hats to achieve all the things I do. 

So anyway I will get to my story. On Wednesday Priyasha was having an emotional morning and was being very clingy. She is in kindergarten and usually rides the bus. Every so often I drop her off at school on my way to the office or to the gym. On Tuesdays I stay and help in her classroom. Well on Wednesday she decided to imitate the old fashion velcro. She clung to my legs and my heart raced with panic. Her teacher looked at me and re-assured me that she will be fine. I felt helpless as she was peeled of my legs. I walked out of the classroom and did not look back till I was out of her site. I stood outside the gate staring at her classroom and sighed a deep ***siiigghhhh**

What's a mom to do ? I did what was right, I keep on trekking.. I went to the gym and did a kick ass workout... all the while thinking of my baby girl.

Drenched in sweat I stopped by the school again to check in on her and she was fine just like her teacher had promised me. So all sounds good right ? Wait, rewind to when she was crying and holding onto me...her little girlfriend Lauren was also crying and holding her mommy. We met Lauren on day one and she is having a really hard time adjusting to being away from mom. Some of why Missy cries is because she sees someone else cry. She is my sensitive one.

I was so heartbroken to see them both cry, I had a GENIUS MOMENT ...NOT !!!! Have you ever open your mouth and said something and then wanted to reach in your mouth and tie up your tongue in a knot... Yep that was me. I bribed the girls and told them that Lauren could come over and have a playdate tomorrow ( Thursday ). Wait there is more and we can bake cookies... Now remember I work, I had two closings this week, 5 active buyers and cub scouts and girl scouts in the works..yeah did I mention I had layers...

So the minute I suggested it, I wondered how the heck I was going to pull it off. Well I did and it was a blast. I had the other mom follow me home and she visited for a while. Then when she left we baked brownies. I chose to go with the package kind to keep this a simple task for five year olds. We also had very little time to pull it off. The girls learned to measure, take turns and be patient. Lauren had to be picked up right when the brownies were ready. I sent her home with some yummy brownies. It was easy enough for the girls.They did make a mess but it is no fun with no mess right ?

 Now I need to work it off tomorrow with my body sculpting instructor wah wah !!

Okay so a very good friend of mine Kelly has a point.
She said " This is such a sweet thing you did for two little girls. What memories they will have!!!! "  
She also added " That is so adorable! It may have been a bribe in the beginning, but now it is a wonderful memory in the start of a little girl's friendship "


Kellie thank you for being a great friend and for stopping by for tea today. Kellie started her own blog about motherhood too. Please stop by her blog and say hi. She needs some encourage in our wonderful blog world. You can find her here scoutmomx2.blogspot.com

Hope you enjoy my pictures.

Thank you for stopping by...

Barley Soup and Snowy mornings

Hello World

It is only Oct 6.. it was not even two weeks ago when we said goodbye to summer. I was looking forward to the harvest season.You could feel fall in the air. The kids and I have been dreaming of apple pies, pumpkins and cider. So much to look forward to in the fall season....but the last two days have been cold. I have the heat turned on already. I am so tempted to get the fireplace going too.

This morning we woke up and there was snow on the mountains. Can you see it in the picture. Off course my son decided to take off his jacket at the bus stop. I noticed and yelled after I took the picture heheee ! As for my daughter she out grew all her jacket wah wah !! Well I stuffed her into something one size too small and called it good. Her head and hands did not grow much yay !  So this weekend I am off to do some winter shopping.

I cancelled my appointment with the personal trainer at the gym and decided to work at home.Work in real estae that is and not a work out. I have been running around like a mad woman and needed some time to catch up. So yesterday missy was as clingy as could be and I left the school and wanted to cry ( No I did not, teach me how to again ) It was heart breaking having the teacher peel he off my legs and me walking away. Yes she is the new velcro strap in town. I thought that was supposed to end when we started pre-school and here we are in kindergarten and she is still attached to me. She loves he mama... but I am ready to stretch the cord to all day in school ( wohoooo for me ) I feel guilty that she is in school all day but I really shouldn't , shoud I ???

So yesterday I bribed her and told her if she did not cry when I left then she could have a friend come over and bake cookies..What was I thinking...Oh dear..So I will bake cookies and enjoy the afternoon with her. I had to get dinner under control so I took out the crock pot today.

So much has been going on in the Real Estate world. That is another discussion. So if you need to know about short sales and having the deficiency waived please ask even if you are in a different state. 

Anyway back to cooking for now. This is a super duper easy recipe that I stole from a very good friend. See pictures below and recipe below that.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.. Please leave me your comments. 

I 

Barley Soup

Stew Meat
1 can corn
1 can tomatoes
1 large can chicken broth
1 small bag barley
celery
carrots

open up cans and dump into crock pot with veggies..Cook on low 6-8 hours..

Enjoy !

Eezzy Peezy !

It is now 6pm and dinner is served !

Hope you give it a try. Let me know how you change it and how it turns out. 

Snow blankets Reno today

After a long warm fall, we have the first snow fall of the season. Well, I guess it was more of a blizzard. 

Here is the view from my front door. You cannot see the mountains. It is a white out for sure.

My husband works in Truckee, California and most times during the snow chains or four wheel drive is necessary for safety reasons. He will sometimes take my car and I am happy to stay home. Today I had several appointments scheduled and needed my car. He was sweet to make arrangements to car pool. He left home at 6am only to sit in traffic since Highway I80 was shut down. It was not too long before he called me to let me know that he was on his way back home. The roads were terrible and the highway was dotted with many vehicles that went off road  and several car accidents. A few involving 18 wheelers. No matter how careful a driver you are, we have to always watch out for the ones that are not.

Due to the weather I cancelled my appointments for the day. Here is my car armed with studded snow tires. I love that we have studs. It makes driving in the snow a little better. It gives the car a lot more traction.

I checked facebook periodically, watched the news and called the parent hotline to see if there were any delays for school. Nope nothing of that sort, not even a snow stop announcement. If the roads are really bad, (and they were this morning ) the kids are picked up at designated stops so the bus does not have to travel on the smaller roads that are snow ploughed last. 

As a parent I was not comfortable sending him on the bus that does not have seat belts. I am glad I made that choice. On my way we saw cars sliding on the slippery roads, a couple of accidents and drivers spinning their wheels. Not a pretty site on the road today. 

Here is Pravan before he went to school this morning. He was such a good sport to do a mini photo shoot in the snow.

The snow however is pretty soft powder that my kids love to eat, sled on and make snow angels. Snow ball fights and a snowman is always a warm welcome in winter play. Since Friday we have managed to go sledding and eat snow. That is a whole other post as I have too many pictures to post. 

I am looking forward to the long holiday weekend and having some quality time with the kids in the snow. I have a feeling that tomorrow the phone might ring at 6am to announce some sort of delay for school. The high is expected to be 6 degrees Fahrenheit. For my metric friends that will be -14.4 celsius.

Here are some highlights from the news today : 

Mayor Bob Cashell has cancelled the tree lighting ceremony tonight due to the treacherous road conditions. 

The artic front will also bring some windy conditions, with gusts to 45 mph in Reno-Sparks.Record lows are likely to be set with this cold blast of Arctic air.

So as I write this I got a connect ed call from the school district informing us that we may have a delayed start in the morning  due to icy road conditions from a drop in temperature. This will be determined in the morning and I am sure we as parents can expect to be woken up by a phone call super early. So what is the point of a delayed start if we cannot sleep in.... arrghhh!!!

Thanks for stopping by... Send some sunshine my way :)

Mwah !!!

 

Glitter and Gold, Fairies and dust, Magical childhood is a must !

Hello World !


This is by far my post popular post. Thanks for stopping by. Please please leave me a comment or a thought. Another tooth is lost and one more loose...stay tuned as I update this post.


Glitter and Gold, 
Fairies and dust, 
Magical childhood is a must !

Being a child is surely a wonderful thing, the laughter and excitement and the glow on their faces when the fairy visits or when Santa comes makes being a MOM truly amazing. So why is loosing a teeth so special... It is a SMILESTONE !!! 


Read on to learn a little about the tooth fairy and some beliefs.... 


( okay not sure why there is so much space above, I cannot see it in the draft but it shows up when I post. Anyone blogger out there can tell me how to fix it. Thanks. ) 


Inflation seems to have crept into the tooth fairy’s economy as the price of a tooth seems to be going up. According to records back in the 40's a kid was paid a dime and in the 1950's that quickly changed to a shiny new quarter.In the 60's the Kennedy half dollar was more common and this quickly changed to a dollar in the in the 70's and 80's. So in the 90's to the 2000's it varies from a dollar to five dollars.

Seems as thought the going rate in 3rd grade is $5. So Pravan was thrilled to redeem 5 gold coins per tooth and bonus coins for setting out 2 teeth and saving the fairy a trip. After all the fairy has to figure out a way to get in the house, bypass the cat, find the right room, bunk beds can be an issue. How does she know a kid lost a tooth anyway ? How does she do the currency conversions ? Carry all those GOLD coins  ?? 


Her only source of light is the fairy dust so she shed a ton of it everywhere. The bookcase, window sill, ladder, pillows, sheets, floors and even Pravan's hair. Boy did she make a mess. A huge mess, no fault of her own... Special fairy dust makes her fly and touching a human child makes her shed.... she has to be cleansed before she returns to tooth heaven.


So after the tooth fairy visited last night I spent hours sucking up the glitter with the vacuum hose.. and still there will be glitter everywhere.... Pravan loved every bit of this....He laughed as I whined and whined and I tried endlessly to vacuum up all the evidence she left behind. He says that I should not blame her as she was bringing him treasures and had no intention of making mommy mad. Princess piped in and told me that she was super excited and needed to shed more glitter to carry two teeth. She is about the size of Thumbelina so two teeth would weight more than she does... LOL !!!


Perhaps it is a reward for a "passing of age." A lost tooth is one of the first signs of growing up. It was not too long ago I was making notes of each tooth and documenting when they came in. Now I find I am doing the opposite.Perhaps a piece of childhood is lost with every lost tooth.

There are many stories available on the internet as to how the tooth fairy came to be. Here are some traditions of other countries:

Centuries ago in Europe it was common practice to bury a tooth in the ground.One reason for this ritual was the superstition, that if a witch got a hold of the tooth, a curse could be placed on the child, (as with fingernail clippings and/or hair). So by burying their children's teeth, this unfortunate curse was prevented from happening.

In some countries there is a mouse instead of a fairy ( I love the idea of the tooth fairy, Oh by the way have you watched the movie... " Tooth Fairy " My kids and I loved it... You should watch it...It is a barrel of laughs and giggles...

Other countries like Taiwan and Greece instruct their children to throw their tooth on the roof for good luck.

In Argentina and Sweden, a child places his or her tooth in a glass of water. Overnight

a Magical Mouse drinks the water, takes the tooth and leaves money.

  

                                                                                    




                                                                                       Two teeth for the fairy to collect ...

Pravan was excited to put his teeth under his pillow... I am so glad that we have a tooth fairy and no longer have a mouse or rat to collect the teeth. Now if she can lay of the glitter on her next trip. I may have to use a night light the night she is expected...heheehehehee....

             






Pravan's teeth are ready to exchange for his treasure....

And here is his treasure...... 5 gold coins for each tooth and one bonus for each tooth since he saved her a trip... that is 12 gold coins but he got 11 and two half dollar coins, she knew he has been collecting special coins....

I got out of bed just in time to freeze this special moment... These are the special moments that make motherhood soooo rewarding.... 

Pravan got a letter from the tooth fairy and a certificate showing when she took the teeth away and his address... I will post at the end of this post for a closer view... Yeah the tooth fairy is up to technology speed and made sure mommy got an emailed copy for the scrapbook.... heheheeee....

         


                                            reading his letter ....
















Of course it doesn’t end there. Children often ask  "what happens to my teeth after the tooth fairy takes it away ? " Parents have had many different answers to this question. For example: The Tooth Fairy 

- Gives them to newborn babies who don’t have any teeth as yet.
- Gives the teeth to Santa to give to dolls in his workshop or turn into jewellery.
- Turns them into seashells for fish to live in
- Plants them in her garden and grows children
- Grinds them into fairy dust that she uses to enable her to fly.
- Makes tooth castles in the sky.
- Turns the teeth into the stars of the night sky. 

The tooth fairy certificate

Whatever the answer, the story of the Tooth Fairy has endured for hundreds of years and will surely endure for hundreds more to come.

The traditions mentioned in here about the witch and tooth mouse was information I read on various sites. I do not take credit for it nor did I make it up.


And that's the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.


Thanks for stopping by... Please leave me your comments or share with me your tooth fairy story. It will be published in the comment section for other moms to read... 


Mwah !!!!!

xoxoxoxo !!!!!!

Last , First Day of Pre-school

Hello World !

Last month my little Girly has her last first day of pre-school. You may not know that she graduated from pre-school last year as she met all the academic requirements for kindergarten.Unfortunately for her she is still not five and needs to be in pre-school one more year.

Fabulous for me as I want do not really want her to grow up so fast. Well since she is my last baby this is the last time I have a first day of

pre-school moment.

Since Pravan ( Lollipop ) was in pre-school we have been doing the kissing hand tradition. We read the book and I love that we have done this since his first day.Off course he is not in third grade and I could not get away with doing this in front of the school. He says he it is too embarassing :( **sigh ** They grow up so fast.

The Kissing Hand~A perfect first day story. This is a story about a little raccoon ready to start school. He talks about his

fears to his mother, fears that most children have before beginning school. His mother comes up with a wonderful solution to help her little raccoon remember that she loves him and is thinking about him, even whenshe isn't with him. A wonderful and heart-warming story to share with little ones.

Girly on the other hand still loves being with her mama. She was not shy giving me my kissing hand as her friends waited for her.Some kids cried and refused to let go of their mom. Priyasha was happy to be in school but she also lets me know that she missed me, whenI pick her up. That is what makes being a mommy so worthwhile.

Now we continue this with Priyasha (Girly) and she makes sure that Pravan never leaves the house without giving her a kissing hand.

Daddy had the day off today and I love that he is such a great dad and always makes time for the kids. He is a positive influence in their lives and helps maintain the balance of our discipline in this house when I over re-act.He certainly helps keep the peace with me and the kids.

Girly was most excited today. She picked out this cute outfit at the store and was thrilled to wear it to school. I took her on a date with mommy and shopping was a huge part of our special day together.

Well it seems as though I am slowly aging and I have passed the milestones many young mothers look forward to. I am moving on to a new chapter in motherhood and the this was my last First day of pre-school. One of my absolute joys in life is freezing the moment and here are some of mine that I can proudly share with the world.

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry this has taken me so long to post. Life is crazy right now..

Mwah !!!

A quiet morning can only be wishful thinking..

Hello World

Yesterday I spent most of the day spring cleaning and as you know I love having a clean house. It makes me feel like I have control. Scattered toys, splattered toilets, crumbs on the floor, dishes and laundry drives me crazy. I took care of most of that yesterday so when I got up this morning I would have a relaxed morning. Ya right !!!

Well recently I have been put on mandatory rest and have been asked to slow down. I consciously have been going to bed around 11pm which is two hours earlier than my 1am lights off routine. This morning my wonderful husband let me sleep in until 9am in the hopes that I would not wake up Bitchy today as I did yesterday when he got me up super early to ask me a dumb question... aahhhh finally he did something right.

We had a good start to the day, I had a nice cup of tea while he sipped he coffee that was probably cold since he made it , What an hour ago...why do coffee drinkers sip that coffee forever ???? Pravan got his reading done for the day and Priyasha was happily playing pretend with her dolls. Todd finally sat on the couch and decided to take football of pause.. All of a sudden we heard Pravan screech.. " Mommy look at the trampoline !!!! "

This is the neighbors backyard. Notice their shed lost the roof...

Todd and I were in shock as this gale force winds lifted up the trampoline that was not staked down as we finally got grass, yes we finally got a backyard...that cost way too much for grass, so taking care of it by not staking a trampoline before the roots take to it's new surrounding was priority..

..

Todd runs next door to check it out... Thankfully there was no damage.

So we worked together as a team to get the trampoline back into out backyard...

I helped gather all the legs and just when we thought we were in the clear...

There was another gust of wind and the trampoline took off again... Missing hubby by inches. It landed back in the neighbors backyard.

Thank heavens we have wonderful neighbors and they were understanding and came out to help. Just as we got the trampoline over the fence , it blew right back into the neighbors yard. We then decided to leave the trampoline in their yard and weight it done with some wooden pallets.

All of these pictures are courtesy of my eight year old boy. He did a pretty good job taking these from the upstairs bedroom window. He takes after his mama... life through the lense...

So much for a quiet morning and this time I actually scheduled it in my day ****SIGH ***

Much love to you all