Snow Day!

If you ask me, this winter has been GREAT. Sure, we had a week of deep freeze, but you kind of need that or else you'll end up bug-ridden in the summer. More often we've had a lot of 30-something degrees and sunshine, which I much prefer to 40+ and grey, drizzly.

And the snow.

The white powder has come down just a few times, but when it rains it pours drops it creates a shimmery blanket over everything. Enough to close down the school for a day or two.

We totally took advantage, and I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the kids!

We're fortunate to live near a decent sledding hill. It was already a beautiful scene with the sound of kids yelling "weeee!" and then a family of gorgeous red cardinals played around us, making it picture perfect. We returned home to have hot cocoa, of course. Followed by getting all cozy again while reading Keat's The Snowy Day.

I think the Danes have a name for this, it's hygge.

p.s. I've received some questions about the mug. You're right. That's not my family. I purchased this over a decade ago at a Salvation Army in Chicago. Ten cents! I'm pondering now if I should try to find these people...

Star Wars Festival

Joliet, IL, the gathering place for Star Wars geeks like our family. This town has seen some highs and lows, but it has always maintained its pride, and wonderful architecture. Here is the library, which was the starting point for the town's annual Star Wars Festival.

There were indoor games. 

 And parades.

And wampa footprints. 

And a lot of getting up close and personal with the characters!

Something for everyone, of any age. 

And of course, we end with crying kids who don't ever want to leave!

(The Force is strong with this family.)

Rainbow Writing

Pauline at LessonsLearntJournal.com has a fantastic lesson plan for teaching kids how to write. It comes with a suggested sequence of how to introduce letters to children and includes downloads for your own use. I appreciate the time and effort she has put into this project, and am currently in the process of linking each letter back to its respective page below for easy finding.

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

Out and About

The kiddos in a field of wild chamomile, on the Mississippi.

We've made a resolution to get out there and do more stuff with and without the kiddos. We have a bunch of fun things planned for the summer months and I'm really looking forward to it.

One thing I realized is that mothers need to be very organized and pro-active about planning activities for kids. While I think it's important to have unstructured playtime, there is also a lot of value in taking advantage of educational programs and activities nearby. There were several options available through our local park district, but of course the good and cheap stuff went quickly. Now I know that early May is the time to start signing up for activities. 

The buddy-system is always good for keeping commitments, so I invited my friend Mimi over and we went through our calendars to make play-dates for our kids. Our goal is to enjoy as many activities as possible, for the lowest cost, and to save on transportation by car-pooling. We'd also like to spend more time in the city, Chicago.

A goal that Tim and I share is to do more road-trips. Now I must confess something, we got a minivan. Egads, what has happened to us?! Here's the deal, though. I see it more as a party wagon. -I'm Latino, we travel in packs and this vehicle is fulfilling my destiny, OK? Anyway, we went on a maiden voyage with our new ride (named Donatello because it's green and looks like a ninja turtle) over Memorial weekend and it was glorious.

We went to a town called Nauvoo (IL) on the Mississippi, though we stayed in Keokuk, Iowa. It was perfect for my boy, Leepo. They put on demonstrations of how things were made in the mid-1800s, with the actors dressed in period clothes. We learned how bricks, wagon wheels, ironwork, ropes, bread, clothing, and candles were made. As for souvenirs, we were given our own brick with an impression of the town name, a ring forged from an iron nail, ginger cookies, and Leepo got to keep the rope he made himself.

Let's lasso everything in sight. 

More important, we survived our 4 hour car ride and managed to have a bit of fun during it. This is what helped:

Stay tuned to see what adventures lie ahead!

Renovating a Home with Kids in the Mix

When we bought our first home, we thought things would be a bit tricky because we both worked. We didn't have kids at the time, so we had no idea how good we had it with respect to flexibility. If we forgot something at the hardware store, one or both of us would simply hop in the car and pick it up. Let's just say a lot more pre-planning must go on these days with these kiddos.

We did have a funny parenting oversight worth mentioning. The other evening we headed to the "new home" with the intent to bring over the master vanity (it was delivered to our current home). This would require both of us to carry it in due to size and weight. Our first concern was to make sure Leepo didn't get underfoot. But of course the house is mostly empty, and we didn't bring anything to keep him busy. Also, up until now I had been carrying Beanie in the Bjorn, or leaving her in the carseat (within the house, people). Nowadays she wants nothing to do with that, and there was literally no place to put her down. We had to brainstorm.

Enter the package styrofoam:

A sheet of styrofoam for baby
(this kind was thick, she wasn't able to scratch it up into pieces). 

Styrofoam for the boy became snow, icebergs, and karate chopping blocks.

One of the other tasks I tackled was to do yet another walk-through to determine what things we still have left to purchase for this home, and measure them out for fit. The decorative items are not a pressing issue in terms of needing to have them done before we move in, but to keep costs down I'm keeping an eye on them now so that we're ready to pounce on any sales that might be going on at the moment. This next picture shows four different sizes of frames being outlined in painter's tape above the dining table. I used this as an opportunity to talk about rectangles/squares and right angles with Leepo. (We got him his own little measuring tape, too!)

Is the horrible lighting getting to you? Same here. 

As things start to get more "intense" during the renovation and the dust starts flying again (we cleaned up after the first downfall), we'll have to keep these kids away. For the most part, that will mean one of us stays behind, which further entails us having to make sure our communication about the house progress is solid. Our plan is for one of us to visit the "new house"  daily to further clarify things with the contractor, take pictures, and report on what's going on with each other during the evening. If something needs to be addressed with both of us in person, then it will likely have to happen on a Saturday with help recruited from my parents for babysitting. 

So, you know, just a tad bit trickier. 

Art These Days

I was in AP Art Studio in high school and studied painting under Russell Harris (he's the man, by the way); later in college I was instructed by Enrique Martinez Celaya. I had the pleasure of taking an intro course alongside Jessica Drenk, who now makes fabulous artwork like this one:

Carving 12 by Drenk

How, you might ask, am I using my talents these days? Well, looky here.

Yep, I'd say I'm doing pretty well for myself. Awesome, right?

New Traditions

These boots were kinda meant for walkin'.

I admit to feeling a bit goofy when I'm on a hiking trail in my Sunday clothes, especially when I see sweaty athletes in their gear pass me by. And yet, this is going to be a regular occurrence!

Tim and I decided to take walks as a family after church each week. (I don't know how this will work in the dead of winter, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.) It has been SO nice to get out in nature with the kids, enjoy this beautiful earth we've been given, and talk without interruptions. All too often we're distracted at home with phone calls, Facebook status updates, and chores. Getting outdoors does away with such things. The exercise is a nice bonus, too. Before we leave the house, we try to get something cooking in the crock-pot so that when we return we can have something hearty waiting for us. (Coq-au-vin is a favorite here.)

And to think these moments were few and far between when I was a resident. Have you heard of the term 'Golden Weekend'? In the medical world, that means you have Saturday AND Sunday off. Yes, you read that correctly, a Golden Weekend is what nearly everyone else would consider a regular ol' weekend. As a resident, however, it was the thing of folklore and akin to winning the jackpot.

These days I work weekends on-call about once a month. And when I miss out on our Sunday traditions it leaves a space in my heart that I can't wait to fill in. It's the simple things.

High Yield for Life

In medical school you're asked to learn a lifetime's amount of information in just 4 years, so the phrase "high yield" comes up a lot. That is to say, you can't actually know everything about everything, but if you find resources that teach you what you need to know, as efficiently as possible, then you've struck gold. This is the essence of "high yield."

For me nowadays, Pinterest is the ultimate high yield resource. (Check out my account here.) I can easily find problem-solving websites and DIY tricks to help get me through whatever task I have for the day. It's all so wonderful!

Yesterday, for example, I needed to do some gardening and distract my boy while I did it. Through Pinterest I found Cheri of 'I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar' and this wonderful activity for kids. I modified her template to make it more applicable to the Midwest and I've included it below. The results were great, both for my home's curb appeal and my son's learning.

I'm very thankful to be living at this time when knowledge is so readily available and shared.