Day 1085 | Busting Out of Our Comfort Zone

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Today marks our first (but hopefully not last) Family Challenge Day. What was the challenge, you might ask? Today each one of us was challenged to do something that pushed us outside of our comfort zone. Here's the breakdown:

ROBBE: He's been a little bit shy about practicing his new letter sounds (from his speech therapy sessions) around other people. Today, he put himself out there by say "Go" to the teacher at the Tot Spot!

CHASE: The underlying reason for the challenge...he's been feeling blue lately because he hasn't had the chance to turn off the lights in his classroom on the way to snack time. We've been encouraging him to talk to his teacher about it. Today, because of the challenge, he actually did it! And, drumroll please, he got to turn off the lights today (she just hadn't noticed he hadn't been selected)!

SARA: I put myself out there and interviewed for a blogger position today. It's super part time (obviously) and would be a good way to get out in the community and make a name for myself. I haven't decided yet, but you'll be the first to know.

CHRIS: Details are a little foggy on this one (and he's a little selfie-adverse as you can tell by the photo above), but his challenge was to push himself outside of his comfort zone at work. He told us he did, so we'll just believe him. 

Day 1081 | Here a Chick, There a Chick

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Remember when you thought the baby robin was the cutest thing on the blog?

Today might be another contender. These are the baby chicks at Chase's school. The kids have been keeping an eye on the eggs for 21 days and three have hatched so far. It's been such an entertaining and educational process for the kids...and a little bit for me, too.

To commemorate the occasion, Robbe let me paint a chick on his cheek. We're all pretty excited about our new fluffy friends.

Day 1078 | A Perfect Weekend

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This weekend was really really wonderful. I won't bore you with all the details of what a perfect weekend looks like to me, but here are a few of the highlights:

  • Entering the weekend with no plans. No plans. 
  • Spending every waking moment with my three favorite boys.
  • Enjoying the loads of time taking in the beautiful spring weather.
  • Doing something productive and time-consuming, but totally frivolous (the garden boxes).
  • Managing to complete a fairly complicated project (it was for us, ok?) while the boys happily entertained themselves by playing.
  • Finding one of my all-time favorite flowers blooming around the perimeter of our backyard (Lily of the Valley).
  • Eating two meals as picnics...one of which was a sushi feast.
  • Receiving some of the best Mother's Day gifts ever: sweet hand-drawn cards from my boys, an extension to my Book of the Month club, and a really beautiful stained glass feather (which I tried to capture a photo of and it just wouldn't cooperate).

My heart is happy.

Day 1077 | Mother's Day

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Motherhood. Wow. You would think ten months of carrying a tiny human in your body would give you *just a little* of the time + space necessary to process some of the new realities that will occur when that baby is born. Nope.  

Motherhood is a wild ride, to say the least. I have said this over and over again throughout the past five years (in my mind as well as to others) and it still rings true:

Motherhood is the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows - often occurring within minutes of each other. Your best hope is that, on any given day, the high moments overshadow the low ones. That's a good day. 

I'm feeling reflective today as I type. I've been thinking about my life just over five years ago. Past Sara definitely wouldn't recognize the person I've become. And that's ok. Current Sara really loves my life and all the ups and downs that come along with it (but I'll still shoot for a day with no downs, thank you very much). 

If you're a mom, thank you for all you do. Your job is hard and often under-appreciated.

If you're my mom, thank you for making me into the woman + mom I am. I love you more than words can say.

If you're my husband's mom, thank you for raising the most supportive and empathetic man I could ever have asked for in my soulmate.

And for anyone struggling with becoming a mom or someone who is bearing the heavy burden of loss this year, my heart hurts for you and I'm sending healing thoughts. 

I hope you all are enjoying the sunshine and warm temps as much as we are this weekend. It's maybe the best gift of all.

Day 1076 | A Garden Box

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The windows are open, there's a lovely breeze in the air, and our family has been outside all day long. The kids are filthy, and sweaty, and tired. Just what a low-key Saturday should be. 

I may have buried the lead...we also managed to craft this amazing garden box. It may have taken a good chuck of the day (and we're still not done with the project), but we have a new garden box for our backyard. The boys and I are crazy excited about all the yummy vegetables we're going to grow in this (and the twin version that will be finished tomorrow when we procure more wood). 

I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished project when we get to that point, but for now just make sure you fully appreciate these photos of Chris with his saw and me with a drill. This scene doesn't occur very often. 

Day 1074 | Touch + Feel Fun

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I don't know why I didn't think of this activity before! I had the boys use their sense of touch to identify items I found around the house + backyard.

Exploring Our Sense of Touch

What you need:

  • A few plastic cups (five seemed about right)
  • A random assortment of items identifiable by touch: I used pine cones, dandelions, rocks, mini trains, and chocolate chips
  • A blindfold for each kiddo

How it's done:

Present one cup with one type of item for each round. Make sure they're not peeking (a definite challenge at our house) and let them guess what's inside. 

 

The surprise chocolate chips as the last round was a total shock to them and made the activity that much more enjoyable. 

Yay for free + fun educational activities!

**Special thanks to Uncle Matt for joining us for this activity via FaceTime.

Day 1072 | Spring in EC

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Remember when spring used to arrive on the blog in April? Yeah, I miss those days, too. Luckily, the gloom + rain of last week was followed by some warm + sunny temps over the weekend. The trees and plants are loving it (and so am I!). 

See above for a few of my favorite signs of spring that I've captured in our yard + around the neighborhood. We might not have cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin (like here or here), but these trees are holding their own.

Day 1071 | A [Final?] School Tour

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After too many school tours to list (seriously, between DC + EC, it's pretty ridiculous), I think we might have completed our final school tour! This sweet little elementary school is where Robbe will be attending his speech + language intensive program in the fall. The teacher was delightful and seemed very motivated and experienced with little ones dealing with exactly Robbe's challenges. There's something very reassuring about that. 

As we were leaving, Robbe said, "me like my school really bad." Translation: he likes his school a lot. So sweet, right? 

Day 1070 | What a Weekend

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I think we might have crammed as many things as physically (and emotionally) possible this weekend. The warmer temps + sunshine were calling our name and we took advantage. 

Just a few of the weekend activities: 

  • hosted a Cinco de Mayo get together  
  • sold one million sandwiches
  • gave the family who designed + built our house a tour
  • took in an art event at a nearby park
  • went to church  
  • attended a two-hour church meeting
  • spent an afternoon chatting in the sunshine + sitting around a bonfire with some of our favorite people. 

I'd say we made the most of the 2.5 days.  

Day 1069 | Working for a Living

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Chase and I spent the morning selling pork sandwiches at the family grocery store for the town's thrift sale day. He was such a trooper! We labeled him Money Man as he was responsible for taking the money and giving back change. Luckily, the sandwiches were exactly a $1 so it was the perfect math challenge for him!  

Plua, we got some quality time with a couple of my nieces. Woohoo! 

Day 1068 | Cinco de Mayo Crafts

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We used today's holiday for extra crafting inspiration. We made these fun maracas with some friends this morning and then made cute flowers (used as pins and hair flare) with family this afternoon. I couldn't find a simple enough online tutorial so here you go instead:

A *Super Easy* Tissue Paper Flower

  1. Fold a full piece of tissue paper into about 5"x5" squares.
  2. Cut into a flower shape with rounded petals.
  3. Staple center of flower.
  4. Crinkle each individual sheet to bring the flower together.
  5. Hot glue a safety pin or a bobby pin onto the back of the flower to make it wearable.

It was a good day.