A Mom’s Year – Page 12 – Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

May 22, 2014

A Fairy Garden + ABCs of Summer

Grammy gave Lily a Fairy Garden starter kit in her Easter basket this year, and they spent a pleasant afternoon shopping for flowers and putting the garden together. It’s really just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Grammy picked up the kit at Gordman’s, but you can find one on Amazon or probably any garden supply store. And, of course, you can go old school and make a fairy garden with little treasures from your own yard.

I don’t know about you, but I love being on our own schedule during the summer. But without any structure, we don’t get anything done. So I love the ABCs of Summer. We got the idea from the third-grade teachers at our school, who are ending the year with an ABC list. We borrowed a few of their ideas and added some of our own and came up with this list. I think it will provide just the right amount of “something to look forward to” without making us (a.k.a., me) feel overwhelmed.

So starting on the first Monday after school gets out, we’re going to tackle one letter a day, Monday through Friday, until we go through the entire alphabet. Here’s our list:

The ABCs of Summer

A—Art Projects
B—Books
C—Crafts
D—Dance Party
E—Experiments
F—Fairy Tales
G—Games
H—Hike
I—Ice Cream
J—Jokes
K—Kumbaya & Songs Around the Campfire
L—Languages
M—Memory Games
N—Newspaper
O—Obstacle Course
P—Popsicles
Q—Quest
R—Rejuvenate (Spa Day!)
S—Scavenger Hunt
T—Tongue-Twisters
U—USA
V—Volunteer
W—Water Balloon Fight
X—eXercise
Y—Yummy Treats
Z—Zoo

So how about you? Do you like a little structure or a lot? Would a list like this be fun in your house?

May 12, 2014

Books! What We’re Reading

I finally finished the first post-writing read-through of my manuscript (the one I wrote last November, for heaven’s sake) and my reward is I get to write a blog post! We haven’t talked about books for a while, so I thought I’d share what we’re reading around here and ask if you have any recommendations—for any age.

Here goes:

The Beach Club by Elin Hilderbrand. Hilderbrand is one of the queens of the “beach read,” so I’m reading this for research—to get a feel for pacing, character, point of view, etc., for my own attempt at a beach read. Plus, a little escapism on Nantucket is kinda nice.

Night by Elie Wiesel. Andrew is reading this account of the Holocaust for his English class. As a mother, part of me is glad he’s reading this, but another part of me wishes I could protect him from what’s in the pages. Have you ever experienced that?

Writing Irresistible Kidlit by Mary Kole. I bought this book after hearing the author speak at a writing conference Lexie and I attended recently. Kole is a former literary agent, and her presentation was full of humor and great information, so I’m sure her book will have more of the same.

The Never Girls: In a Blink by Kiki Thorpe. A friend of Lily’s recommended this series about Disney fairies, and she’s loving the first book. And with five more books to go, it’ll keep her busy for at least part of the summer!

April 8, 2014

Happy Birthday, Tim!

Tim and Will on the Giant Map of Europe at the National Geographic Bee in Madison.

Today is Tim’s 46th birthday. To celebrate those 46 wonderful years, I thought it would be fun to list 46 Awesome Things about Tim Taylor. So in no particular order because I’m typing as I go, here they are:

1. He never complains. I’m not exaggerating. The entire time he was in the hospital after his mountain biking accident, he didn’t whine or fuss once. Not once in more than three weeks. He just worked hard to get better.

2. He patiently listens to me complain.

3. He has a knack for finding great new music and introduced me to some of my favorite bands, like Over the Rhine and The Cowboy Junkies.

4. He’s an amazing father.

5. He makes me laugh every day. Even when I’m mad at him, he can still make me laugh.

6. He’s incredibly loyal and inspires loyalty in others. He’s worked with the same core group of people for more than a dozen years, and they’ve got each other’s backs. One of them is even Lily’s godfather.

7. He plants bulbs with the kids in the fall and a vegetable garden and pumpkin patch in the spring.

8. He spends countless hours making a skating rink every winter.

9. He doesn’t treat his girls like princesses. He has too much respect for them to do that. They’re growing up strong and confident because of his belief in them.

[Read more…] about Happy Birthday, Tim!

March 28, 2014

Happy Weekend

Hello! Did you have a good week? We’re back from Andrew’s high school band trip to Walt Disney World and are settling into our regular routine. Funny how easy it is to slip into vacation mode and how hard it is to slip out of it!

I’m so happy we tagged along on the trip. The weather was wonderful (low 80s) and the high schoolers put on fantastic shows at Epcot and Downtown Disney. The best part is that our younger kids are old enough now so we could all play and go on most of the rides together and there was hardly any fussing! I really felt for the parents of little ones who had Had Enough. We’ve all been there.

We took lots of photos, but this one of Will and me is one of my favorites. We were on the Kali River Rapids ride at Animal Kingdom, happily chatting away with the mom, grandma, and daughter sharing our raft. The mom happened to catch the very moment that Will and I got soaked. And I mean soaked. As we got off the ride, she was kind enough to get my phone number so she could text me the photo. Technology can be pretty awesome.

While I catch up on laundry (and sleep), here are some links I thought you might enjoy:

+ Recipes to make with 6- to 9-year-old chefs.

+ Heavenly hummus wrap.

+ How to put a toddler to bed in 100 Easy Steps. Sounds about right.

+ Thanks to this exercise move, I’m feeling like Po. Ouch. But it’s a good pain.

+ Speaking of fitness, Dani at Fitness Food and Style always has fun monthly challenges to get you motivated. Lots of great recipes, too.

+ The most awkward things that ever happened. Some of these made me laugh out loud.

+ Will is heading to the state championship for the National Geographic Bee next week! To celebrate, we’ve been playing this cool game even more than usual.

Do you have any plans for the weekend? We’re celebrating the birthday of one of my lovely goddaughters (bonus: we get to meet their new puppy) and I hear it’s supposed to reach 60 degrees this weekend. Fingers crossed!

March 19, 2014

Dear Future Mom: World Down Syndrome Day—March 21

I’m expecting a baby. I discovered that he has Down Syndrome. I’m scared: what kind of life will my child have?

I think many of us are familiar with “Welcome to Holland,” an essay Emily Perl Kingsley wrote to offer encouragement to parents of children with special needs struggling with the lost dream of a “normal child.”

Well. Imagine that the letter is coming from your future child. And instead of a letter, it’s a beautiful video.

Grab a tissue and check it out:

CoorDown, Italy’s National Coordination of Associations for People with Down Syndrome, created the Dear Future Mom video—with help from ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi Italy—in celebration of World Down Syndrome Day, coming up on March 21st:

The chosen theme for World Down Syndrome Day this year is the right to happiness and well-being of people with Down syndrome. The goal is to promote a culture of diversity and true integration into society, especially in the worlds of school and work.

Jeff Ryan, who is, among many things, Andrew’s history teacher, baseball coach, and our friend, sent me this video and a link to a lovely article written by his niece Erin Gloria Ryan in honor of one of his six brothers, Stewart, who had Down Syndrome. Stewart passed away in 1995, but, as Jeff said, “He had a great life. All of us have said that he defined us a family. My niece sent all of her uncles this video knowing how much it would resonate with each of us. It did.”

I hope this video resonates with you, too. Pass it on.