Classroom Treats

As an adult, I adore the fact that my birthday is at the end of November. That means that it's often snuggled right up against Thanksgiving, and consequently, I've found many years to be off work on my birthday. One year it actually fell right on Black Friday, which I celebrated by 1) NOT working and 2) NOT shopping. It was perfect.

My kid somehow lucked out this year having her birthday on Labor Day. That means no school on her birthday, and a long weekend on top of that. As a 4-almost-5-year-old, she's only eyeing the social consequence of not seeing her school friends on her birthday, but I think we've leveraged that with plans for multiple birthday parties. Still... lucky bug!

New rules these days on what kids can take to school to celebrate birthdays. They're probably not new, but all I know is that somewhere in the gap of my elementary days and now, restrictions have been placed on what kids can do to celebrate birthdays at school. It's not a big deal really, and if I'm being honest, I think it's probably a safer way to go. Looking back, I don't know if I was thinking about how that cupcake I just ate was made, or if that kid's parents' kitchen was clean. So yeah, probably the best bet.

Plus, kids [at this age] don't usually eat non-edibles, so from a healthy-snack standpoint, yay!

Long story short, tonight I took Sydni to pick out the stuffings for goodie bags to distribute to her classmates on Tuesday next week. She came home from school today with one from a girl's birthday, and apparently there's a boy whose birthday is tomorrow. I'm now very glad we won't be pumping sugar into these kids for 3 school days in a row, if not more.

done & done. 

kiddie treats! 

The biggest challenge wasn't really much of a challenge at all: Finding things gender-neutral for a co-ed class. Anyone who knows me knows I have a somewhat mild distaste for sparkles, glitter and generally for the color pink, anyway. We had a blast pairing little pencils with play-doh colors and jungle stickers, and she made an assembly line of it all by stickering my finished bags.

I've just figured out why parents have multiple kids: This stuff is fun.
[Go ahead and call me crazy. Check back in a few years to see if I'm still on that page ;) ]

Birthday treat prep = success!

xo | cmd

Dear Universe....

To say this is how I felt this morning wouldn't be much of a lie.. at all:

Yeah.. it was one of those mornings. My mind wanted nothing to do with being productive, a handful of my employees clearly wanted nothing to do with going to work and after that sad excuse for a workout yesterday, my body wanted very little to do with... me. Wah, wah, wah.

Fortunately, lunch proved to be a complete turn of events, and left me without adequate words.

I decided to stop by Chipotle for lunch. Upon entering, there was a man & woman sitting outside on the sidewalk, asking passersby for spare change, saying they'd been evicted. I typically don't give money, but offered to get them some food on my way out. I doubled my order at the counter, still very skeptical about whether or not I was catering to an honest couple or being "conned." I asked the cashier to bag them separately, paid and stopped to get two forks and napkins before leaving. I walked out, handed the bag of food to them, got in my care and started bawling [like, UGLY crying, folks]. I was forced to ask myself,

WHO AM I .. to EVER judge a struggle at face value?!

That's NOT my job. WHO CARES if they did or didn't lie to me?! Call me a fool, call me whatever you want.. but this is the reality of what can happen when we all just slow down for a second and think. I don't want praise or a back-pat for this; I gave up what, 30 extra seconds and $6 - is that really that noteworthy? No. It isn't.

[no other words needed]

^This, by the way, is what I saw when I put the bags down at the fountain drink/silverware stand [& ultimately propelled me into a sputtering mess once I did get into my car. The left was theirs, and the right was mine. I was a [BIT] overwhelmed by irony today, but I wouldn't change a thing. I wonder if they read theirs. Who knows. But... Dear Universe: Message Received.

The string of fortune for me didn't end there; 4:30 rolled around and I was out the door to pick up Sydni! Her dad and I agreed that on the weeks that she is with him, she'll still be here with us every Thursday now.

And that makes me happy :D.

So this was my otherwise-uneventful-night:

my everything ♥

... And honestly, I wouldn't have had it any other way. ♥

xo | cmd

Play With Play-Doh & Love Your Laundry

There's no baptism back into real life that's quite like a Monday. Seriously. We returned yesterday from our weekend camping/boating trip outing and basically crashed. That meant that the ruptured vessel of clothes, shoes, toys and other domestic innards that is our house would be sitting on my plate when I got home.

I nearly broke my neck dragging two full laundry baskets down the stairs with Sasha trying to wiggle down with me. I lost at least four socks on the trip there and wound up dumping half of one basket in the process of retrieving said socks. I finally hauled it all into the laundry room for sorting, and repeated the whole thing until I had about four full baskets lined up for washing.
In some cases, this is room to grumble. Tonight could've been one of those nights, but as I was sorting and filling the washer with the first load, it hit me. It was so subtle that I almost missed it, but a tiny thought dawned on me:

You're a blessed girl, Cori.

#realtalk

That itty bitty little inkling of a thought spidered out into a flood of reasons that started scrolling through my head like a reel of movie credits. I'm not the only person who suffers from the blight of first world problems, but tonight I had a beautiful little moment alone, in my basement, to absorb the truth behind not just this busy little Monday, but my life in general.

This is a lot of laundry.
... Which means that my family & I have clothes on our backs.Cooking dinner is gonna take a little while.
... Which means there is food to cook here, and that my family is actually here to enjoy it.The dishes are dirty, again...
... Which means that others have been here to eat and share that time with me.

There are toys everywhere in the living room.
... I have a healthy daughter who may still want for things she doesn't have,
but she'll never go without the things she needs.

My garage is a greasy, tool-cluttered space.
... Which means I have a man here who knows how to use his hands to fix
what's broken & improve what isn't.
The basement smells like dogs.
... We have two who are more loyal and loving than I could imagine.

The garage [sometimes] smells like dude (:
... Which means the dude who lives here is worth keeping around, is here more often than not,
and in turn values the idea of being present with his family.
My schedule is so busy.
... Which means I'm a functioning part of my own life and fractions of those around me.

My Bible is falling apart.
... Which means it's a working tool in our home.

There are things I didn't accomplish today.
... Which means I have a purpose, and a reason to face every day with a mission.

 

They were in no particular order, but those are just some of the things that made me pause from my human instinct to find all of those things [&more] as burdens, rather than the misleading appearances of the real blessings in my life.

 

This little lightbulb moment pacified my urging anxiety when I subdued the laundry and headed upstairs to start working on Mother's Day cards. I was met at the top of the stairs by Sydni and a bag of play-doh that had been given to her by the Easter Bunny.

 

Folks, spending time with your toddler is always more important than whatever you've got planned. She won't remember the birthday hat, cake and present we made out of play-doh tonight, but she'll remember that her mommy played with her, and even those short couple of hours are something that neither her nor I would ever get back if it hadn't happened.

crafty little miss... ♥

Plus, let's be honest: playing with play-doh is way more fun than making cards. We can do that tomorrow. (:

play-doh party!

 

My daughter didn't miss a beat of her decorating a purple and yellow play-doh cake to say,

"Mommy, thank you for playing with me."

Whoa.
Those 6 little words, delivered by no prompting from me, made me melt. We stopped everything and wrapped each other up in a bearhug for a few minutes. I have no idea if she'll remember saying that to me, but I will never forget it.

 

My little blended family and I ate, played and laughed together tonight. We're a frazzled bunch sometimes, but frankly, I wouldn't change a thing.

 

This is what life's all about, people.
Play-doh playbreaks and loving your laundry (:

 

What a life, I tell ya... what an unpredictable, impromptu, chaotically-fun, sometimes-smelly, laundry-filled, completely blessed life ♥.

 

xo | cmd

Crafty Inner Children

Linda's birthday is this weekend, so I've dedicated a few nights so far preparing decorations for her desk. Ali agreed to help me with her birthday card, which we determined would be posterboard-sized. I stopped over my lunch break to pick up a few items, and Ali grabbed two posterboards on her way to my house. Since I hadn't cooked any of the food I bought Monday when Rob and I got back in town, I made a huge batch of chicken monica/pasta for us and DeShawn, to enjoy while we worked.

pasta & chicken monica. yum!

In our conversation over our separate commutes from work, the topic of play-doh came up. That of course bloomed into Ali buying play-doh and bringing it to my house. If you're wondering whether or not we indulged our inner child with it, please know that we did. We're little sculpture-holics. Yay, play-doh!


flashback to childhood!

 Ali and her artistic ability crafted a beautiful white rose with a single pink petal. We're hoping it stays preserved so she can gift it to Linda as part of her birthday present. I took a picture too, but Ali's came out better so I just hacked it off her instagram. Haha. It's cool though, I gave credit!


white play-doh rose... gorgeous!

DRUM ROLLLLL....

This card, is finished! We'll all be signing it tomorrow, to give Linda on Friday. I... love.... birthdays, especially if they're someone else's and I can just make a bunch of stuff. (:

card card card!!! (:

I'm getting exciteddddd....

xo | cmd