Life Rearranged

Swoon Worthy Twin Girls Room

jeannett — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:48:40 +0000

You already know and love The Land of Nod, right?

Please say yes.

Well, in case you are new to it, The Land of Nod is the baby and children’s store owned by Crate & Barrel. Ah, yes. So obviously it’s going to be fabulous. Obvs.

They are opening a new store in South Coast Plaza (That in the OC for you non-So Cal folks) on May 31st…and I get to take an early sneak peek at the new store the night before! This could be bad. But oh so good.

I thought I’d poke around their site and pretend I had a shopping spree to decorate my girls’ room. Decorating shared rooms can be hard if you want that somewhat elusive not-identical-yet-still-coordinating-in-a-non-matchy-matchy way look.

Luckily, The Land of Nod is all about fun, quirky color. And y’all know that’s pretty much my love language. (Color and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and I’m a goner.)

Now pretend I won the lotto…here’s what I picked:

You totally just died, huh?

The raspberry and aqua Jenny Lind beds???!!! It’s just too much. Almost more than I can bear.

The little footstool that looks like a log?!

THE RAINBOW POLKA DOT RUG!!!

It’s like The Land of Nod crept into my brain and made all my happy color, crazy texture dreams come true.

I’m simultaneously deliriously excited and terrified for my trip to the new store.

I’m gonna need your moral support. Be ready on Insta, okay? You’ll have to help me cull it down or Andy will lock me out of the house.

I’m probably going to spend an inordinate amount of time drooling over their storage section…our playroom/schoolroom could use some organization!

If you’re in the So Cal area, the store opens on May 31st…they’ll have all kinds of raffles and a little birdie told me there would even be free goodies for the earliest shoppers!

Also, you might want to consider entering their Win a Room sweepstakes…or maybe you shouldn’t because then I have a better chance of winning myself!

Lastly, seriously follow them on Pinterest and Instagram while you’re at it. It’s all just so lovely. You can’t go wrong.

Now excuse me while I go back to pretend re-decorating my boys’ room…and the play room…and….

“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Land of Nod, but all my opinions are my own. #PMedia #NODinCA http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.”

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jeannett

I'm a mom to four. A wife to one. I believe in story. I love telling you about mine and would love to hear yours. There's really no sense in wasting our suffering and not sharing in each other's joy. We're all in this together...even if it doesn't always feel like it.

Good Stuff from Mom 2.0

jeannett — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:50:51 +0000

As most of you know, I had the privilege of attending Mom 2.0 a couple of weeks ago. If you’ve been around long enough, you know that while I’m happy to turn my fun hobby (blogging) into an income stream, that’s not what it’s all about.

For as much as I enjoy finding ways to work with companies for payment or new product, my overall ulterior motive has been, and always will be, forming brand partnerships for GOOD. Whether it be finding a brand to come alongside one of my fundraisers, or finding a cause that a brand supports that I can help promote. As I said during one of the panels: “I don’t want to work with brands for their swag, I want to work with brands for their influence.” Swag is fun, obviously but I’ve got bigger fish to fry, you know?

I met a lot of great people and chatted with the reps for a lot of really great brands. Hopefully, some of those discussions will come to fruition, and you’ll see some of that on ye old blog in the coming months. In the meantime, I thought I would share a few of the GOOD things I learned about and that you might be interested in taking part in too!

Shot @ Life

Shot @ Life was the official cause partner of Mom 2.0 and I was so excited to see that the conference was using their influence to highlight a cause. The Shot @ Life campaign is “A national call to action for a global cause, the campaign rallies the American public, members of Congress, and civil society partners around the fact that together, we can save a child’s life every 20 seconds by expanding access to vaccines.” You can learn more on their website, but one of the things I learned during a panel I sat in was that your local representative really, truly, actually does take notice of tweets, letters, and phone calls. I must be a cynic because I always just assumed that “tweet your Congressman” was a nice way to make people feel like they were doing something, but you know, it was wasted effort. Well it turns out that your representative figures that for every one person who takes the time to tweet, write, phone…there are at least 500 other who feel the same way but didn’t do it. Take a peek at the site where they have suggested tweets, letter templates, and all kinds of information for how to let your representative know that this is something you care about!

The Mission List

“The Mission List connects non-profits, NGOs, and socially conscious, pro-woman brands with people who are passionate about taking meaningful steps to increase awareness of and take action for social good causes. Anyone can join, whether you make yourself heard via social media or in-person in your community: all you need is a passion to make the world a better place and shout it from the rooftops.” By joining The Mission List, “members receive opportunities to participate in social good campaigns involving issues such as child and maternal health, global development, women’s rights, and hunger.” When possible, the opportunities are even paid! I like this. A lot. It’s basically a Social Good version of blogger ad networks! Sign up and see where it goes. I’m excited!

The Million Moms Challenge

The Million Moms Challenge ”brings together a coalition of more than 30 world-class partners working around the globe to improve the lives of women and children. The Million Moms Challenge will focus on crucial issues that are a priority for all mothers, including access to proper nutrition to support healthy pregnancies, trained midwives to assist in safe deliveries, and vaccines that enable children to survive to their first birthdays and beyond.” You can sign up to take the challenge and learn more about how you can help from where you are.

Whirlpool Brand Cares

Whirlpool was one of the major sponsors of the conference, and boy was I ever impressed with them! Did you know that Whirlpool has donated more than 140,000 appliances to Habitat for Humanity projects?! Yeah. That’s Awesome. With a capital A. That video gives me goosebumps. I LOVE when corporations see beyond their bottom line. Happiness in my heart, I tell ya. Habitat for Humanity is amazing. Whirlpool partnering with them is incredible. Plus, their pretty appliances don’t hurt. Take some time to poke around the website, it’s really cool.

Any of these interest you? Will you be joining/signing up for any of them? Don’t you just love loving?!

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jeannett

Sunday Smiles

jeannett — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:39:24 +0000

{source}

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jeannett

InstaFriday

jeannett — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:15:56 +0000

Whew!

Man, that post I wrote about #fitchthehomeless got some traction! I don’t know what qualifies as going “viral” officially, but hot dang my site got some traffic the last couple of days! Lots of people downright disagreed with my view, but that’s okay…I didn’t really expect them to…mostly, I’m just glad the conversation is happening at all. And that’s a good thing.

Nonetheless, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming…InstaFriday!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! (Because seriously, controversy exhausts me. I like happy a lot better.)

Every Friday we put those instagrams we snap all week to use and tell the stories behind the filtered pictures. It’s the simple, sweet, everyday moments that are my favorites.

Will you join us? (I’m jeannettg on insta if you want to follow!)

Mother’s Day weekend…oh yes, weekend…was awesome. We spent a lot of time just hanging out as a family, and I spent a lot of time relaxing, and not changing diapers.

My family knows my love language: a 3 pound bag of the best gummy bears in the history of gummy bears, and the cutest kid writing EVAH:

“Love Henry and the sisters and Owen.”

I die.

We look over and see Jill sitting on the grass trying to hit a wiffle ball with a bat. It’s the cutest.

I think to myself: “oh yay! Look at that! She understands what a ball and bat do, and look at how strong she’s getting! I’m so impressed with her cognitive and physical improvements! Go Jill!” And I go back to the dishes.

Dad: Walks right to her, props her up and helps her hit the ball. Over and over and over again.

Oh the giggles! Be still my heart.

Our chicken coop is all put together, and set up in the garden area.

It felt like something was missing…bunting. Obvs.

Besides, I have yaaaaards of it leftover from the boys’ room…might as well put it to use. Am I right?

I feel like it needs a little welcome mat and maybe some cute little flowers at the base. Yes, yes it does.

(We ordered our coop from here. We got it for 40% off plus free shipping, so it was worth not trying to design and build our own. Plus, it’s in a pretty prominent spot in my small backyard. It had to be cute and functional. No affiliation. Just saving myself a few emails.)

Have I mentioned that this boy couldn’t be bothered with baby food?

He pretty much went straight to table food. He just doesn’t like the consistency of the mush.

So, I let him have at it with the other kids with Muffin Tin Lunch.

The blueberries were his favorite. If you couldn’t tell.

1,896.

That’s approximately the number of times that Henry has asked me to buy a mini basketball hoop.

So he can train our chickens to play.

But of course.

Andy bought himself a new coffee mug for the office.

It’s gigantic. Like, 2.5 cups of coffee worth.

But hello?! TMNT.

(TJ Maxx $3.99. Because I know some of y’all will ask. And who could blame you? It’s pretty amazing.)

Oh this girl.

She is growing up much too fast.

She’s such a little mama.

I get all excited when I see blogger friends’ books for sale.

Like, I want to tell whoever is closest to me: “I know her!!! Can you believe it?! I’m so PROUD of her!!!!”

Maybe someday I’ll see a book of my own at Target.

Except I’d have to think of something to say first.

And find a babysitter to come move in for 6 months while I write.

Details.

Speaking of books, this girl is a bookworm.

Loves, loves, loves books.

Can’t find Jill? Check the bookshelves throughout the house.

99.9999999% of the time she will be quietly perusing pages.

She got this Tag Reader for Christmas and loves it. Such a great toy for kids with special needs. Highly recommended.

Alright, it’s your turn!

Grab a button, link up, and visit each other!!!!

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jeannett

Why I Can’t #FitchtheHomeless

jeannett — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:50:59 +0000

By now, you’ve probably heard about the scandalous, and ugly stance of Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Mark Jeffries. And by now, you’ve also probably heard, and even shared, the video by Greg Karber imploring us to #FitchtheHomeless.

In case you don’t know about it, the basic premise is that A&F makes no apologies for refusing to carry sizes bigger than a Large/10, and only hiring good looking “cool” kids to work their stores. If you’re not thin, beautiful, rich, and popular, you aren’t welcome to wear their clothing. Furthermore, A&F burns defective merchandise rather than donating it…for fear of it tainting their image by getting into the wrong hands. Because, cool, hip, beautiful people are rich enough to buy new…the people who can’t afford it are the wrong people altogether.

In what seems on the surface to be an ingenious idea, Karber started a campaign where he encourages everyone to find any and all Abercrombie clothing…whether it be in your closet, your friend’s closet, or even your local Goodwill…and donate it to your local homeless shelter and/or even pass it out to the local homeless guy on the corner.

You know, when I first saw the video, I smirked. After all, A&F needs a major kick the gut after being such pompous jerks. It’s just gross, and “giving it to The Man” is always kinda fun. Jeffries doesn’t want to donate clothes? Let’s do it for him! He wants only pretty people to wear his stuff? We’ll show him!

Right?

Look, let me start by saying this: I love the act of clothing the homeless. Truly. My heart aches every time I see a poor soul begging on the corner. Do I find the words of A&F CEO disgusting and appalling? Absolutely. Do I want him to get one, great, big slice of Humble Pie? You know it. And you know, I realize that the creator of #FitchtheHomeless has nothing but good intentions at heart. Frankly, I think we could be fast friends. Just like I know that anyone who shared the video, helping it go viral almost overnight, was simply joining in what they genuinely believed was the Good Fight.

That is, if the Good Fight is telling Abercrombie (and every other major corporation) that discrimination is ugly and will not be tolerated, I’m in.

But at what expense? Are we inadvertently fighting judgmental discrimination through another, more subtle form of discrimination?

Years ago, I read this book, and it completely changed the way I viewed the homeless. And it is because of my deep love of ALL human beings, that I had to stop short of sharing that video and rushing to my local thrift store scour the racks and do the same. Even if I want nothing more but to see a tail between the legs apology (or better yet, a full collapse of their hyper sexualized brand).

Hang with me for a second…

Let’s change the parameters of this Screw A&F Campaign real quick: what if we suggested that we go to every local high school and gave A&F clothing to the fattest, ugliest, pimply faced teenagers we could find? You know, the “dork” who sits eating his sandwich alone? The one who is bullied and threatened and has soda “accidentally” spilled on him by the jocks? You know, the exact type of person who A&F absolutely does not, under any circumstances want wearing his clothes?

YEAH! Let’s give it to A&F! Let’s find the exact opposite of what he wants, and do it! Screw him! And you know, let’s not only do it, but let’s take pictures of the fat, nerdy, socially awkward kids wearing his clothes and let’s share it! Twitter! Facebook! Pinterest! We’ll show HIM! HaHa Sucker! There’s your cool clothes and the biggest, ugliest dork we could find!!! BOOYAH!

I probably don’t have to say that this would be appalling and unacceptable.

In fact, this “idea” would be as despicable as the A&F CEO himself.

So…what are we saying…as a culture…as a society…when we don’t see homeless people in the same light and with the same level of respect? After all, aren’t we seeking out the least cool, unhip, lowest tier of the economic ladder, and doing the exact. same. thing.?! We paint it with the broad brush of philanthropy…but we’re clothing them!!! We’re standing up to Big Corporation and doing Good all at the same time!

Well, yes. And that is good. So very good. But at what price? Good intentions don’t always translate into good things. Do you want free clothing…homeless or otherwise…if you were the inadvertent butt of an internet joke?

Now, I’m pretty sure someone is thinking “But they’re homeless! They don’t have the internet. So they don’t even know. And they’re getting desperately needed clothing. It’s a win-win! You’re being too sensitive, Jeannett.”

I mean, if that’s me being sensitive, I guess I can’t get mad when a group of kids makes fun of the mentally disabled kid in class…because, you know, it’s not like they understand that we’re making fun of them…in fact, they smile and think we’re laughing with them…so really, it’s nice of us…we’re making him laugh!

::cringe::

Maybe I’m being sensitive. Maybe I’m reading into it too much. Maybe.

Or maybe, we are all buying into the lie that homeless people are simply bums…and not homeless people. People with feelings and hearts and souls and worth.

It’s a subtle belief that none of us (myself included) would admit to holding onto: the homeless population are our modern day lepers. But here it is, front and center…albeit a little hidden under all the layers of a society who is absolutely sick and tired of all the gross and over the top focus on only Photoshop attainable beauty. Can I tell you how absolutely thrilled I am to see our collective anger over this? I love that we are fed up with Hollywood’s ridiculous standards. I am so excited to see us join forces to tell the powers that be that we will not tolerate this unnatural obsession with perfection any longer. It is a good, good, good thing. Truly.

But positioning the homeless as the butt of an internet hashtag, does not cease to make them a pawn in our little internet games. Nor does it undo the fact that we are now committing the very crimes we are trying to fight against!

So now what? I mean, maybe you’ve shared the video to all of your friends…maybe you laughed and thought it was a brilliant ploy…whatever. It’s okay. It sucks that we forget and compartmentalize others…but it happens…and the real test of beauty is in being humble enough to make an about face and admit that it wasn’t the right approach after all.

Rather than #FitchtheHomeless, perhaps it simply needs to be #DitchtheFitch. Period.

Scour your closets. Get rid of it all. And you know what? Donate it to the thrift shop. Quietly. Unceremoniously. If someone (poor, hipster, or otherwise) chooses to buy it…great. But no need to seek out the homeless specifically.

But more importantly, don’t shop there. Ever. Again.

If you have children who like their clothing, teach them that you cannot in good conscience support a company who’s values are so disgusting.

TOMS shoes taught our youth that giving is good. They managed to take a simple canvas shoe, and build an empire by encouraging others to think beyond themselves. Buy one pair of (ugly) shoes…give a pair. Our kids bought into this form of philanthropy and have spent millions in this kind of one to one campaign. Is it perfect? Probably not. But it’s a start. It’s the beginning of the next generation remembering that there is someone else out there…that life isn’t all about them and those in their zip code. It’s a start.

Let’s also teach our kids that the reverse is true: encourage companies who make a difference for the better…and do not support companies who’s value system is contrary to ours.

There are so many ways to make a difference in our world…and our dollars….and where they go is absolutely a part of that picture.

But so is our response to collective frustration. We must not jump to embrace a proposed solution if it simply poses a different problem.

In the end, it’s just not worth it.

*Disclosure: amazon affiliate link used.

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jeannett

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Family Night

jeannett — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:58:59 +0000

Henry and I slowly plod through chapter books before bed.

I try to get in one chapter a night, but it doesn’t always happen.

Some nights, he falls asleep after a few sentences…others, it’s the mama who can hardly keep her eyes open. It takes weeks, but eventually we get through the books, and I’m always amazed at how much detail he can remember considering it looks like he’s dozing off through every word.

After each of the other books (Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little), he’s watched the movie…but this time, I thought it would be fun to make it a family movie night.

We had fish and potatoes for dinner (like Mrs. Beaver served the children in Narnia).

I made “White Witch Cupcakes” and tea (which was really hot chocolate).

My gray eyed baby wandered around.

Clothes? He owns overflowing drawers of it. More than any one baby could possibly wear.

But this is my favorite.

Owen will someday bemoan “Mom!!! Why is every picture of me without clothes???!!! Did you not have money for clothes for me???? Everyone else was dressed as babies!”

And I will say: “Son, it is because you are the Caboose. And I want to drink in every last bit of fleeting babyhood. Baby clothes are cuter on the hangers. One day you’ll get it.”

Plus, the clean up is easier.

Eventually, exhausted and secretly wanting to just call it a night and send everyone to bed…we settled in.

Everyone in their self-appointed spot: Henry in the cozy corner with a giant blanket (always with a blanket), Lu the Daddy’s girl (always with her Daddy), and the goofy blonde with her tired mama (who leaned over for kisses every 32 seconds).

It turns out that the movie is really long so we had to split it up over a couple of nights. And that Stone Table scene where Aslan is being killed? Holy moly. Way more graphic and terrifying than the book…and yet, still PG. Andy and I looked over little kids’ heads and mouthed “What the heck?…” Trying to decide if we should stop the movie, or do some fast forwarding…but it ended with kids not seeming to mind the scary. Even still, the movie has been put away for more grown up viewers, even if the kids have been begging to watch it over and over since. (I had seen the movie years ago but obviously forgot the details.)

I was shocked at the occasional comments from the boy “Wait, that didn’t happen in the book…Mom, is that how the book said it was?…I don’t remember this part?….” Kids are pretty amazing.

The next day, Henry made shields for him and Lucy out of cardboard and asked me to draw red lions on them…and I listened to a 5 year old and a 3 year old rendition of a beloved classic out in the backyard.

I am forever amazed at how much we underestimate our kids. Lucy has been begging to sit in on night time chapter reading…I think it might be time.

More than anything else, this movie night made me think…in this day of Pinterest and Martha…I get caught up in detailed perfection. I like pretty parties. I prefer food made from scratch. My love language is delicious, lick your fingers clean food. I often find myself putting things off for later…when I’ll have time to make it uh-mazing. And then it never happens. Or it does, and I’m left a frazzled, stressed out mess who can’t even enjoy whatever it was I was trying to do because I forced it.

I considered making a “wardrobe door” out of a giant box for the kids to walk through. Putting together costumes. Even creating a scavenger hunt throughout the house.

But I knew that I would just end up bitter and annoyed…because I really did not have the time for all of that.

This wasn’t well thought out or elaborate. The cupcakes were boxed mix and a tub of frosting I had in the pantry. The hot cocoa was nothing more than packets dumped into warm water. Nothing from scratch. I ran by Target and bought the movie and a jar of clear sprinkles (although table sugar would have worked too) that morning. And I had to make dinner anyway, so I picked something that would tie in.

Sometimes I forget that the kids don’t care if it’s a pin-worthy event.

They just like that it’s an event at all. Henry’s begging for us to start a new book so we can do another movie night. A simple, no frills movie night.

Keep it simple, mamas.

Save the elaborate for when you can.

Don’t put off traditions or moments until you can make them perfect with printed cupcakes banners, personalized place settings and scenes set up in your living room.

Also, keep baby clothes on the hangers. It’s just better that way.

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jeannett

Because having a mama’s heart can be HARD {Sunday Smiles}

jeannett — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:54:48 +0000

My incredible friend Jenni posted this on her Instagram feed yesterday, and I immediately knew it was perfect for today’s Sunday Smiles. Love to all you, friends. Today is beautiful and hard too.

I, myself, have three littles waiting for me in Heaven. I cannot wait. It’s going to be AMAZING.

{source}

This is for the children of Mothers who have gone before them.

This is for the Mothers who await heaven to be reunited with their child or children.

This is for the Mother who longs for the miles & red tape of adoption to end soon.

This is for the Foster Mother loving in the gap of birth and forever.

This is for the Mother waiting for God’s promise to come to fruition.

This is for the Mother who has experienced heartache after abortion or adoption.

This is for the Mothers who didn’t have a Mother who loved well & are loving their babies well anyway.

This is for the Mothers waiting by a hospital bed.

This is for the Mother praying through a deployment.

This is for the Mother seeing her baby grown up locked away in a 4X4 cell.

This is for the Mother believing for the years of addiction and sin to fade into repentance.

This is for the Mother who loved a student, a neighbor, a child’s playmate because your mother heart ached to make that child feel loved & known.

This is for the Mother that is praying hurts heal & distance fades.

This is for the Mother who was told you aren’t good enough or worthy or needed.

His grace is sufficient, His promises are always true & His love abounds. Praying for your heart’s dear sisters may you feel loved, needed & blessed in the eyes of the Father.

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jeannett

InstaFriday

jeannett — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:50:36 +0000

Little moments. Simple. Sweet. My favorite.

It’s the everyday that makes up our lives.

I’m jeannettg on insta if you want to follow!

Our week was full.

Full of last minute, sweaty parking lot changing…

Beautiful brand displaying…

Ice cream filled cupcake eating…

Fancy stroller rocking…

Husband dating…

Japanese food stuffing…

Silly blogger seflie-ing…

Creative imagination-ing…

Chicken coop building…

Little mama shopping…

Impatient cupcake waiting…

Throne building…

Sunshine schooling…

And two bitty teething!

I’m tired…but oh so happy.

How was your week?

Grab a button, link up, and comment on at least two other InstaFridayers!

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jeannett

Pessimists, Pyramids, and Playing

jeannett — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:46:54 +0000

Let me begin by saying this is not a sponsored post.

National Geographic Kids was at Mom 2.0 last week, and they had a table of their products on display…with one of those throw-your-business-card-in-the-bowl raffles. They pulled my (gorgeous ifIdosaysomyself) card, and I won this kit. I wasn’t asked to blog about it. In fact, I had my camera because my intention was to play with it and take pictures of flowers and stuff while Henry did his thing, but this activity turned out to be so dang cool, my focus shifted and voila…there you have it. A blog post.

* * * *

I’ve decided that I’m a cynic when it comes to kids products. I guess that four kids and almost six years of all manner of STUFF coming and going into my home, I’ve kinda been there, done that. Sleek packaging and professional graphics always decree a cool, fun, exciting experience…and let’s face it, 9 times out of 10 the packaging way over promises.

Truthfully, I didn’t expect much out of this archaeology kit. Henry, on the other hand, my child forever fascinated with all things science and math, asked me to play with it every second of every minute of every day since I got home with it.

FINALLY, a loooooong four days later, I gave in.

First, we started by watching some YouTube videos about archaeology and pyramids. Primarily because he didn’t know much about it so he needed some background to understand what this kit was trying to teach him…and secondly because I needed to fold some laundry.

It was a gorgeous morning, so I thought I’d set him up outside while I fiddled with my new cammy.

The kid’s excitement was palpable. He could hardly wait to get the box open.

I immediately knew I was in for a treat, and had judged the toy by it’s predecessors too harshly. I expected the pyramid to be plastic for some reason.

It is not. Fairly heavy, made of plaster (I’m assuming). Detailed.

Maybe I won’t be taking pictures of flowers after all…

After reading through the booklet about pyramids and pharaohs, Henry’s first job as an archaeologist was to decipher the hieroglyphics on the side of the pyramid to see which side was the secret entry.

Henry is almost 6, and while the box says it is for children 8+, it can be accomplished with adult supervision.

Also, I would guess that the goggles are supposed to cover the eyes…details.

Plus, Henry’s kind of an old soul. An old soul who can’t sit still during coloring and glitter projects to save. his. life. but can do this kind of thing for hours without a hitch.

I normally struggle to get him to write and practice his lettering…but apparently this was different.

Home school mental note: create hieroglyphic games for him to use for lettering practice.

He was sooooo excited.

As words appeared…or didn’t appear…he giggled and oohed and aahed. Jumped around.

When he found the secret entry side, he cheered. This was rich.

Next came the serious business of chiseling open the entry site.

Kid was not messing around.

Intense.

Then a little peg was hammered into the metal key hole that had been chiseled to…slide the lid…and…you’re IN!

Inside the pyramid was packed sand.

Delicate chiseling, scraping, and brushing was the next step to discover the pyramid’s ancient secrets.

The photos don’t capture it, but he was just beside himself excited about finding the “treasures”.

“Oh MOM! I think I found something…!”

At one point, I popped inside to see if Owen had woken from his nap (he hadn’t), and Henry came running inside breathless…”Mommy!!! I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! I found the treasure! Hurry!!! Come see!!!”

And we both ran back outside. King Tutankhamen wasn’t going anywhere, but good adventurers run when they find something of value, right?

A golden sarcophagus with a little wrapped up mummy inside.

And the death mask. Creepy.

The kid kept digging, and also found the four canopic urns (they held the organs of the deceased…grody!).

I’m not kidding you, it was like Christmas for this kid as he found each item.

Later that day, after carrying his pyramid around with him, filling it, and refilling it, he DREW.

A detailed, hieroglyphic copying, canopic urn faced, multi colored drawing.

The kid never draws. He will only doodle if I basically “force” him to as “art time”. And even then he complains and wants to be done after 30 seconds.

He spent a full 40 minutes painstakingly creating this.

Shocked.

The experiment manual also has instructions on how to mummify an apple.

We’re totally doing that today.

Are you a toy pessimist like I am? Have you ever played with Nat Geo toys? Did you even know they carried stuff like this?! EEK!

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jeannett

Evolution of a little boy’s room

jeannett — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:48:06 +0000

I had Henry’s room painstakingly decorated before he even entered this world.

Everything was perfect. Bumper pads and crib skirts hand sewn. A checkerboard pattern on the wall that took an entire weekend to finish. Everything matched. Exactly.

And it had to. It had to be just so or he would be robbed of a childhood. Or something like that.

#firsttimemomproblems

I loved that nursery. But then we moved and that checkerboard wall that I adored was not going to happen again. I mean, it was rad, but holy moly it was a pain to do.

The wall felt a little plain, but with his crib in the center, it worked.

Then we needed the crib for one of his new little sisters.

He graduated to a big boy bed.

And that wall that seemed kinda plain now drove me batty.

It was this big, giant sea of icy blue. A great blue. Love that blue. But boooooring.

I thought about doing a gallery wall with lots of fun art and printables, but…I don’t know. It just didn’t seem right.

And that big blue wall taunted me. I loved the rest of the room…but it felt unfinished.

Well, the crib is back in the room again…only now it hosts the head of his little brother. Because my kids have to share rooms. The injustice of big families. How will they ever manage?!

Either way, the wall sat boring and blue, and I couldn’t think of how to make it not so.

Until I saw this.

And I knew exactly what I wanted. It was perfect.

But, it was kinda expensive. Not really expensive, but more than I really wanted to spend on something we didn’t NEED.

And then one day, months later, I was wandering the clearance end caps of Target, and I saw it.

On clearance.

Half off.

It was like God knew of my boring blue wall and it was driving Him batty too but He knew I was too cheap to pull the trigger (even if I had had it in my Amazon cart multiple times.)

The box says it’s so cotton pickin’ easy to put up that ANYONE can do it.

They even underlined it in red for emphasis.

This should only take an hour, right?

Just one, easy, anyone can do it, hour until that big boring plain characterless blue wall was vanquished.

I even did a little jig, I was so excited. No, really. I did.

This would be cake.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Oh no. Not easy. And I can tell you that it is a good thing I am married. Because left to my own devices, I would have crumpled it up in a fit of rage in ten seconds flat.

I mean, maybe if your wall was the perfect size and you didn’t have to do any trimming. And if your wall didn’t come to a peak where the ceiling pitches. Then it would be easy.

Maybe.

This mural is wallpaper. As in, you put glue on the back and put it up “permanently”.

But I wanted to be able to take it down if we ever moved, and/or if I wanted to put it up in our school room instead someday…so we used a staple gun…and to hopefully avoid tearing away from the staples, we put a square of clear packing tape wherever we were going to staple. And we folded the map down rather than trimming it off so that it would be reusable.

In theory.

(I realize this will never work as beautifully in real life as it does in my mind. Humor me.)

This folding and stapling may, or may not have contributed to why it was so difficult to put up. I really don’t know. But dealing with glue seemed pretty awful too.

So there it is.

Looks great, right?

But still…even with the ENTIRE EARTH literally on the wall, it felt like something was missing.

Hmmm…

BUNTING!!!!

Itty, bitty, teeny, tiny felt bunting.

I feel like it is more “little boyish”, don’t you?

Plus, it gives it a little more texture and color.

See? Doesn’t Russia just look so much cuter now?

Obvs.

Want a super quick tutorial for making the bunting? (Because it’s so complicated.)

Get lots of fun happy felt. I wanted it to be mostly blues and greens, so I bought one of each hue that Joann’s had. And then a few extra colors to give it some character.

Then I cut 1.5 inch strips along the “landscape” side of the felt piece. (I cut three strips of each color and there was still WAY too much.)

Then, take scissors and just cut triangles out. No measuring, not perfect lines, not exact sizes. Not only can you not really tell, but I’m all about catywompus character.

Put it all in a pile and mix it all up.

Then, sew. And sew. And sew. Take a few breaks. No pattern of colors. Just whatever color triangle you grab from the giant pile. More fun that way.

Catywompus.

But isn’t catywompus oh so pretty?!

Pretty in the most boyish way possible of course.

And that boring blue wall is finally complete.

Even if poor Alaska didn’t really make the cut.

You can see the seams where the panels meet. My bunting flaps around, twisting flags pointing up, down and to the side from the breeze that comes from the open window.

But me and my boys?

We like catywompus.

A lot.

(I realize it was a total fluke that I found my map mural on clearance, but if you want one too Amazon has them. I’m sorry but you’re welcome.)

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jeannett