The Telecommuting Tyrant

How to Make Shoe Cupcakes | A Tyrant Tutorial

2012-09-03T14:44:00.001-07:00

My daughter loves shoes! She's a walking, talking, two-year old fashonista. If you're anywhere near as addicted to Pinterest as I am you've probably seen the Shoezan pictures floating around. I am completely in love with the idea of hanging out in the garage one Saturday creating one of these for Tiny Tyrant. It rests on a lazy susan at the bottom and has room enough for Tiny Tyrant's shoes now and in the future! I have the perfect spot tucked away ready for it in the closet! So needless to say when I was planning my little diva's second birthday celebration I immediately was drawn to the shoe cupcakes idea. The only problem? I'm a working mom, have two demanding children and ended up with about 1 hour to pull together cupcakes. I decided to see if I could pull off Shoe Cupcakes on a budget, for a house full of food allergies. Here's what I did!

Source: bobthebuilderwilley.blogspot.com via sarah on Pinterest

So needless to say when I was planning my little diva's second birthday celebration I immediately was drawn to the shoe cupcakes idea. The only problem? I'm a working mom, have two demanding children and ended up with about 1 hour to pull together cupcakes. I decided to see if I could pull off Shoe Cupcakes on a budget, for a house full of food allergies. Here's what I did!

Movies

I used a box mix by Gluten Free Pantry and egg replacer by Energ. The cupcakes were slightly crumbly but not bad for a quick box mix makeup. I let the cool completely.

While they were cooling I had to figure out how to replace the graham cracker shoe base used in the examples I found online. I didn't want to waste time or money buying gluten free graham crackers just for this. I decided to go with a white chocolate form so that I wouldn't have to ice it. I looked and looked through my GIANT bucket of cookie cuttters hoping for a foot but no luck...so instead i grabbed the snowman. I filled him with melted white chocolate candy melts that were allergy safe for my crew. The process went much faster than I thought. I sprayed the inside of the cookie cutter and would put it on wax paper, spoon in melted chocolate, spread it out then quickly lift the cookie cutter up and do it again. The chocolate held its form very well even without the cutter in place. I popped the whole tray in the fridge to harden for 30 mins to an hour. When they were hardened I pulled them out and used a vegetable peeler to whittle down the snowman's curves into something more shoe like! :)

Then the fun started. I used food writer markers to write the birthday girl's name on the shoe base. It wasn't as clean as I wanted and next time I'll probably use thinned royal icing to get a better look. Then I brushed the chocolate molds with edible gold dust to give them some sparkle..

Turn them over and use left over chocolate melts (you might need to re-heat it in the microwave or a double boiler) to glue pretzel rods to the white chocolate shoe base. Spend some time before glueing making sure the pretzel rod is the right size for your cupcake /heel height. I glued the pretzel rods and let them sit for a few minutes to harden.

Then I inserted the large end of the chocolate mold into the cupcake and got creative with the frosting. Again since I was on a time crunch I used store bought supplies. I used chocolate can easy frost and some pink for highlights. This is where I had the least time, but could have spent all day. My frosting is a litte sloppy since I did it in about 2 minutes. Don't judge me! LOL Next time I want to spend more time on this super fun part! Hope this helps! The process was actually super easy and a ton of fun.

Childcare...my take on the options!

2012-09-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago a friend asked me for childcare option advice. I stalled, I didn't email or text a response, I really didn't think my somewhat retro opinion would go over very well. However before I get to that let's take a walk down memory lane and see how I arrived at a somewhat less mainstream opinion.

With my two kids we've tried out quite a few options when it comes to childcare. I've juggled my kids and work myself and questioned my brillance when things went nutty. I relied on a flexible stream of relatives, close friends, and the benevolence of my employer to make things work. I spent far to many hours working meetings and phone calls around nap schedules and quiet(er) times of the day. I loved this scenario in my head, on paper and occasionally in real life. The problem was, as I'm sure anyone who's been around children know, kids aren't trains and you can't make them run on time. I would end up stressed, strategically pushing the mute button and simultaneously working and praying. I took a very long maternity leave with my firstborn and phased back on to work slowly. For the most part this system worked for me until I was back full time. At that point even I, telecommuting extrordinnaire and supermom in training, realized I needed more help.

That's when Sam entered our lives. She was a nanny who I adored, until she left us to go to law school that is. For a year and a half though she was a huge part of our lives and made the sun shine just a little brighter. I could still work at home and hear my son's baby laughs and giggles. I could poke my head around the corner and see him decorating the kitchen in purreed sweet potatoes. Most of all I knew he was well cared for because I was there to watch. The biggest struggle for any new parent is trusting those they've entrusted with their children. I knew I would have to continue working once I had children and quickly realized this was going to be one of the hardest parts of early mommyhood for me. Having someone in the house who I could trust was a great transition for me. Sam not only helped my son learn and grow in the first years, she also helped me trust caretakers with him later on.

When we hired our nanny we knew she was in college and there was a finite amount of time she would be available to us. Attending her graduation luncheon was bittersweet. By then we had grown to know her, we wanted the best for her and I knew she would make a darn fine lawyer one day. It was also the end of an era for us though since I knew we would have to make other arrangements for my son. I reverted to childcare option 1 for a few weeks. Just long enough to realize there was a darn good reason I had hired Sam in the first place.

Thus started the era of the small neighborhood church preschool, which was great but expensive. That was a bit of an adjustment for us. Arriving and picking up at scheduled times, my son had to adjust to other napping conditions and of course the onset of separation anxiety. We also hit the school during a sudden onset of staff turnover which left me very uncomfortable at the beginning. Once things leveled out I was happy with the location, teachers and my son's adjustment, but man the beginning was rough. Time went on and he grew and before I knew it he was in preschool. Same school, so no sudden transition there and I absolutely loved his teacher. When she left to start her own in-home childcare and focus on kinder prep we followed her without a thought.

Our in-home experience was fabulous but owe most of that to knowing my provider before hand in a school setting. I was her classroom parent and spent a lot of time with her one-on-one. She also kept her class size small, only 5 kids were in her kinder prep in-home care. They had spanish, music and art teachers and during the day she taught them core cirriculum for kinder that left my son very well set for his first year. My son also had the chance to learn in a way that we don't teach anymore. My provider's husband did several projects with the kids during the school year building forts in the play area, birdhouses, demonstrating lifeskill lessons that aren't always a part of school teaching. We loved it!

But time continued marching on and soon my son was ready for kindergarten and my daughter's nanny had graduated leaving us in a position of new childcare situations for both kids.

That led us to our first official round with the more mainstream daycare chain solution. I'll be honest, I wasn't happy with it. I know a lot of people have great experience with daycare chains, but we did not. Items went missing, staff turnover was high, too many kids in a class and constant sickness plagued our 9 month stint. At that point we withdrew from the daycare and returned to a smaller, church preschool setting that seems to fit our lifestyle better.

My two cents, think long and hard about what you would want in a school setting and backtrack. I wanted a small charter school, smaller class environment and rigorous academics for my school age child. After trying all the daycare options I found that the small church environment for my daughter was very similar rule and structure wise. It seems to be my comfort zone!

Balance is hard for an overcommitting Telecommuter

2012-05-13T05:18:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling a lot with working, traveling and parenting. This year my oldest started kinder and I added volunteering to my plate. Although multitasking seems second nature most of the time, the last few weeks have seen me have not one, not two but several mini meltdowns as I tried to deal with all life was throwing us simultaenously. Even though my husband doesn't read my blog I'm giving him a shout out on record for stepping up and jumping in wherever I needed him.

Sometimes I wonder if I would try to balance as much if I worked in the office. Something about working from home and being instantly able to shift from Working Woman to Multitasking Mom on a moments notice makes me more inclined to commit to after school activities and planning lunches. Two years ago when all my work was local that might have worked but now when you throw travel into the mix, I seem to be spending more time planning how the day can run smoothly than actually doing anything.

Some of this I seem to bring on myself...I need to work on that! :) My son's kinder class is representing Norway in an upcoming International Fest and instead of coloring a few flags and ordering a DVD to show I decided that our class would concentrate on Norway's viking history.

We have a viking ship that is 10 feet long and 5 feet tall, a 4 foot tall viking cutout, a forest on the walls, a fishing station and some viking food to sample. Those have taken some time to pull together! For the record I'm not the only crazy mom, the class next store has a 7 foot tall castle you can walk in! :)

I need a clone and since that's not possible :) I need to practice what I preach and get back to the basics of work life balance. There are 24 hours in a day, 8 go to sleep, 8 go to work, by the time I pack lunches, make dinner, do house hold chores, factor in travel time for pick ups and drop offs, there are really not that many hours left. It's time to make them count instead of counting them down!

To Volunteer or Not to Volunteer

2012-04-24T03:46:00.000-07:00

I have a school age kid now and with that apparently comes great responsibility to volunteer! (Did you hear that in the same Spiderman voice over that I did?) When my son switched schools in October with the school year already underway I knew it was going to take me reaching out to get plugged in and involved at his new school. I happened to run into several moms on our first day and walked up to ask what they thought of the school, any advice and it they knew how I could get plugged in. Little did I know I had run into the very group that was at the core of anything and everything that happened at our new school. This group of woman are amazing and I quickly knew that friendships were coming fast and furious! I told them laughingly that I loved to help out and they hadn't seen the last of me.

A few weeks later I attended my first PTO meeting where I heard some complaints voiced about the lack of communication from the school and PTO that was leaving parents with questions but no recourse for answers. I offered to jump in where another parent had left off and create the PTO website. A few meetings and weekends later and it was off and running. Fast forward a few weeks and I had gone from flying under the radar offering advice to front and center jack of all trades volunteer with an honorary position on the board.

Then came my personal Waterloo! International Fest...an amazing event intended to open the eyes and minds of children and teachers at our school and allow them to embrace the diversity and culture that our charter school represents. My planning expertise landed me at logistics coordinator and we were off. Over the last several months we have had conference calls, meetings, craft sessions, shopping trips, commercial production, promotions creation and production, you name it! It's going to be great...I know it is, but it has brought up a big question for me.

To Volunteer or Not to Volunteer...it's an eternal question. When you volunteer your efforts benefit your child and a slew of others, the school, the teachers and other parents. Your time is given over benefit the collective, but what does that do on a small-scale to your family. While I know that volunteering does benefit my kid, does he? For my five-year old the activities I do for him, for his school, his class, his soccer team, I do them all for him, but in his eyes it's all just one more thing (more realistically a dozen more things) Mom has to do before she can play.

I'm adding Volunteering to my list of jobs. First and foremost I'm a Mom, it takes priority over everything else. Second I'm an employee of a great company and work set hours to get that work done. That leaves a little time for job numero tres, Volunteering where I need to split time between soccer team mom, home room mom and school volunteer. Moving forward I realize that I need to be a bit more structured, allocate some hours and plan my volunteer time instead of agreeing to tasks without taking into account the hours I'm giving over and where they're being taken from.

On that note I bring you this week's

TELECOMMUTING TIP!

Check out www.slimtimer.com if you are trying to juggle the hours you spend on any activity. Whether you freelance, are a telecommuter or just need a handle on those volunteer hours www.slimtimer.com allows you to create tasks that fit your life. When you click on a task it starts a stopwatch. Click again to stop it. Then on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis you can run reports on how many hours you spend on each task. It's a great way to track time and stay on top of whatever schedule you set for yourself. I've been using it for years and recommend it far and wide when I encounter a situation where someone is trying to get a handle on where their time is spent!

[contact-form subject="Volunteering Post comment feedback" to="tracisyn@gmail.com"] [contact-field label="Name" type="name" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Email" type="email" required="true" /] [contact-field label="Website" type="url" /] [contact-field label="How much time do you spend volunteering? " type="text" /] [contact-field label="Any advice for this volunteering Tyrant or other readers on balancing the motherhood, work, school chaos? We\'d love to hear!" type="textarea" required="true" /] [/contact-form]

Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Party

2012-04-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to host a House Party. In exchange for some social media and word of mouth reviews Duncan Hines sent over a fabulous party pack for me to try out...and boy did I have fun! They sent Coupons for free cake mixes, Frosting creation flavor packets and a case of Frosting starters. There was also an apron and some great free frosting coupons for my guests. What was a a girl to do but throw a party!

Today I am celebrating my seventh anniversary to an amazing man. There are a lot of guys out there that are born ready to take on a family and all the responsibility that comes with them, but the guy I married impressed me even more. He has risen to every challenge our tiny tyrants throw at him and at the back of it all is a solid wall of love for all of us. We are blessed to have him in our lives. Oh, but I digress, you're here for cake right?

So on the same weekend we had our Anniversary right around the corner and my grandmother's 79th birthday, not to mention I was finally wrapping up some major redecorating throughout our house. So I sent out some invitations and invited family over for a good time. To keep things fun, low key and let me enjoy the party I cooked up 4 dozen mini cupcakes in three different flavors (Chocolate Decadence, French Vanilla and Lemon). Lemon was dairy free and my tiniest tyrant really enjoyed getting to participate in the party. I left everything unfrosted and set out a buffet of cupcake goodness! I also wanted something a little showy in the center so a tiny two tier cake was my nod to the big events of the day. The top layer was French Vanilla and the bottom Chocolate decadence and the entire thing was frosted with my favorite Frosting Creation flavor-Cherry Vanilla. Boy was it a hit!

To keep the party rolling and ensure I wasn't left with dozens of cupcakes I dug out my trusty lazy susan condiment server and let the party guest choose what flavors we were starting out with. We filled each serving bowl with a sample of Chocolate Marshmallow, Orange Creme, Cotton Candy, White Chocolate Raspberry, Cherry Vanilla and Chocolate Almond. I added spoons and everyone jumped in to frost their cupcakes. It was a great party and knowing that there was great food helped me relax and enjoy the fun.

I give Frosting Creations by Duncan Hines two thumbs up!

Working from home with a sick kid

2012-03-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

Is there anything tougher than knowing work won't wait when your child is sick? As a telecommuting, work from home mom, I can honestly say no. When I was in an office and stayed home sick I was out of sight out of mind, but now my co-workers see no difference on the days when I'm out either caring for a sick kid or home sick myself. What ends up happening is we pull double duty trying to please everyone. How many of you have ended up more exhausted than your sick kid by running back and forth between caring for your kid and checking email.

All I can say is Thank Goodness for the mute button! I've had a sick, cranky kid home all week. Between teething and the horrible allergies she is overtired, wants nothing more than an around the clock supply of juice and Wonder Pets (side note: I want to know how to call that can phone so they come rescue me from this tiny tyrant ;)). I've held two live webinars and more than 7 conference calls this week and although they all went well there were some nerve wracking moments.

My advice if you are home with a sick kid- don't even open the computer, but if you don't have a choice, plan ahead. I hold off on the WonderPets until right before a meeting, we eat lunch early and get in a good nap so I can power through some pressing work and I work early or late so I can take time when she needs me to just sit and cuddle on the couch.

Organizing a Kindergarten Room

2012-03-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

A few parents and I got together and decided to organize our kindergarten teacher's class room. Check out the bookshelves that we picked up for a great price to get the project started. I'm thinking about a peg board in the middle section to organize supplies, and then finishing up the 17 foot long wall with rain gutter bookshelves inspired by Pinterest.

Fisher Price Little Tykes Car DIY Makeover

2012-02-16T20:26:00.000-08:00

I hinted at the "upgrade" I was giving Livi's Little Tykes Fisher Price car a few days ago in this post. My little diva lives in pink and needed a cute ride for her trips up and down the sidewalk. The hand me down car from big brother was looking a bit faded and worse for the wear and the spray paint for plastic was calling my name.

Here's my quick tutorial, a few fun pictures and my advice if you're going to tackle something like this!

Be sure to get painters tape, plenty of newspaper, spray paint intended specifically for plastics (Krylon Fusion for Plastics, Rustoleum and a few specialty brands at Michaels and Hobby Lobby all note clearly that they can be used on plastics).

Use the newspaper to tape off and cover the top portion of the car. Also tape off any accent pieces you want to stand out later. I taped off the "grill" the gas cap, the license plate, the tail lights and the bolts on the front. I also taped the steering wheel and used plastic bags to cover the tires.

Turn the car over and spray the "under carriage". I used a silver for this.

Turn the car back right side up and spray the body of the car. Use light even coats and just keep building up for even coverage. I did three light coats to get a solid robin's egg blue for my car.

I then lightly covered all but the interior seat area, and sprayed that silver for a little "leather look." My girl's got style! :)

Once everything was dry, really, really dry...I took off key pieces of tape and switched the paper from covering up to covering down. If it's easier just yank the paper and recover the body of the car. Spray the top and four sides of the top with your top color.

Once everything was dry and all the paper was off I could see yellow and red in the cracks. I used a fine paint brush and some craft paint to cover that.

Finally I pulled out some great sterling silver craft paint and painted "rims" inside the black tires, painted the front boltcovers, painted the gas cap and tail lights. I used black craft paint to paint the front grill.

Last I did two light coats of Clear UV glossy protectant for plastics (Krylon) to seal it and make sure my hard work lasts!

It was a fun project and just looking at the car and my little girl having so much fun makes me smile.

Now for the pictures!

[slideshow]

My advice:
Get in there and get your hands dirty! There is nothing like making something for your kids to make you feel like super mom! I turned an old TV stand into a play kitchen (tutorial coming soon), upgraded this car, who knows what's next! Be sure to buy real blue painters tape to be sure you don't pull your paint right off. Also try to tape paper to paper when wrapping your car!

Cost: $15

We had the car---$0

4 cans of spray paint (3 from Hobby Lobby on clearance, 1 regular price from Walmart) - $15

It's Primal for the Win

2012-02-15T04:17:00.000-08:00

I've been looking for a way to maintain my weight loss so far, keep losing slowly, and generally steering my family to a healthier way of eating. I looked a more "lifestyle" diets than I care to write about, but in my love of all things real and natural this family is heading down a Primal road! Primal and Paleo share some common ground and this caught my eye. I'm a visual learner! More to come on how and what we will be eating. I'm teaming Primal cooking up with kid friendly and freezer crockpot preperation for a whole new way to eat healthy for fast moving families!

I grabbed this infographic from Pinterest! Follow me there! Click the button over ------------->

Learn more about the Paleo Diet.

Clash of the Titans...Work versus Family

2012-02-10T05:14:00.000-08:00

It's an eternal scale that every mom tries to balance. It's the sneaking, sinking belly feeling that hits when the euphoria fades.

At least for me the thought process went something like...

I'm having a baby...I'm Having A Baby... I'M HAVING A BABY (celebrating, a few tears, some quick leave it to beaver flashes) and then came the Oh I'm having a baby. What are all the men in my office going to say, am I going to lose my job, can I afford this, and on and on and on. That part at least never faded for me. I still struggle to balance work and family on a daily basis. I work early and late so I can avoid any mid day guilt when I break to do carpool.

Lately it's been even worse. We made a choice on our son's school. We avoided the neighborhood public school and looked for somewhere that would challenge him without bankrupting our budget. We thought we found it in a charter school. So I made the commitment. I drove my son 15 miles north each day, fought 30-55 minutes of traffic home each day. Started getting up at 5:30 am to ensure I'm not sacrificing any work and tried to convince myself that I was over reacting when everything started going wrong.

What is a Mom's Work Worth?

2012-02-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

Saw this today on http://degreesearch.org/blog/ and just had to share! :) For all the mommies out there, this one's for you!
Via: DegreeSearch.org

What is the HCG Diet

2012-02-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

I was pretty quiet when I decided to take on the HCG diet. I've tried everything and failed miserably at losing weight on every proven, recommended, and failsafe plan. I can't stand the look on peoples faces when they hear me say that and they assume I'm lying. I'm not. I did weight watchers and while it's an amazing program it didn't do jack for me. My husband lost 30 lbs but I didn't. I worked out every day for a year and a half in the gym, in the pool and with a trainer. I was the healthiest overweight person you might meet.

Then about three months ago my blood pressure started creeping up and I did something I swore I wouldn't do. I checked out the fad diets promising drastic changes. I love my children and am determined to see them through every major milestone life has to bring them. A friend had recently made some amazing progress on the HCG diet and what I read caught my eye.

If you are interested in it, definitely do your own research...there is no better way to learn, but for my friends and family wondering what the heck I've been up to, here's the nuts and bolts.

The HCG diet has been around since the 50s and is modeled after what our bodies do while pregnant. The science behind it is that when pregnant and producing HCG your body process fat differently than at any other time. Basically, to ensure baby always has what it needs the body uses both normal (healthy) and abnormal (not healthy, belly, hips, etc) fat for energy. A doctor back in the 50s realized that if non pregnant people took small quanties of HCG that made their bodies think they were pregnant, the hormonal response was to activate abnormal body fat into energy. The kicker is you have to eat 500-600 calories a day and no more, no fats whatsoever, no oils even in products like lotion/shampoo, etc. Your body HAS to go to the fat for energy and nothing you're giving it. If you do it right there is no hunger pangs, and after 3 days on a super clean lean meat, veggies and limited fruit diet there are no cravings either. I did a detox first for 2 weeks, the diet for 30 days and am doing 3 additional weeks of no sugars or starches at all. To be completely honest this is the easiest thing I have ever done, which is kind of scary. I eat healthy all the time and nothing works, so for me to eat to fullness (you really can on 500 cals which is weird too, plenty of meat and veggies), and lose was just crazy. During the 30 days there is no exercise because you aren't taking enough in to support it but I am adding in yoga/walking/jogging now that I've tripled my calories. What's weird is that even though it was only 21 lbs and I have a ton more to go, it was all in my belly and made a huge visual difference. The results are definitely keeping me motivated and I feel great. Once my three weeks of no sugars/no starches are up I start adding things back in slowly. Like a few starches/day at a time and see what my weight does. As long as it maintains or decreases I'm fine, if it goes up I know what triggered it and back off. This isn't a long term diet but definitely a gateway into better eating habits/lifestyle changes in general.

So there you have it, my take on a diet that is controversial in some corners but a winner in my book!

Crafty Goodness

2012-02-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

At the end of the day, when the dust has settled, the house is quiet and I have a beverage of choice in hand, my mind generally turns to some crafty project or other that I have been contemplating. Tonight is no exception, but I thought long and hard about starting anything after the crazy day I had.

Most days I roll with the chaos. I think any parent worth their cheerios knows schedules are pipe dreams and that once the alarm buzzes anything goes. Today the alarm didn't buzz, kids wore the wrong clothes to the school with a uniform policy, other kids made it out of the house shoeless prompting a quick walmart run, I spent a gazillion dollars in tolls before 8am and went home twice before I got everyone dropped off. Of course after a morning like that I should have been rewarded with a random email from my boss telling me I'm so great I should take the day off, hit the spa and come back refreshed tomorrow, but instead the phone rang. As I was walking out of my Doctors appointment I got a call that my baby had spiked a fever and was being booted from daycare for 24 hours or more. And off we go again. I won't beat a dead horse...the whole day went like that, you get the point.

Suffice it to say that by the time we left the pediatricians and waited through the carpool line, I was determined to rescue this day with something fun. So we hit Michaels and Hobby Lobby, grabbed some spray paint specially made for plastics (which happend to be on clearance...cha ching!) and headed home. That was at 4pm. I didn't get the house settled down and get ready to paint until 9, but who's counting.

So project pictures coming tomorrow, but let me just say I'm taking the Fisher Price Little Tykes car to a whole new place for my little girl. I always feel bad when she gets a tired, faded hand me down that her big brother has outgrown. I don't want to be wasteful and really hate having two of something so spray paint and a crafty momma to the rescue.

I was inspired by a mini cooper and an awesome robin's egg blue color! Come back tomorrow, you won't want to miss this transformation.

My inspiration!

[gallery columns="2"]

HCG has treated me well

2012-01-31T07:58:00.000-08:00

22 Pounds in 26 days!

Exhaustion, Fatigue, Sleep Deprived...

2012-01-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

There at some words that don't do a feeling justice. My daughter has night terrors...every night. However due to the crazy OCD genes she inherited from her father she is rather prompt about it, and I can usually count on the shrieking beginning at either 10, 12, or 2. It has only been a month of regular episodes, but I have already forgotten what being rested feels like. Even coffee is not doing the trick, and being smack in the middle of an HCG round isn't helping either. Well its not helping my exhaustion, but it is doing super sweet things to my waistline!

Night terrors are truly evil from my point of view since it's not something I can make better. The tiny tyrant isn't coherent and not only isn't aware of me, but trying to hold or comfort her just escalates things, so I'm left sitting by watching a heart wrenching, ear splitting fit where the best I can do is try to stop her from hurting herself. It is truly awful to withhold comfort whether it helps or not. So each night we pray for peaceful sleep, tuck the kids in bed and wait...

Keeping Out of the Public Eye

2012-01-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

Oh boy have we ever reached the home bound point. My kids were embarrassingly bad in the stores this morning. Running, shouting, flinging toys, you name it...ughhhh. Am I the only mom out there ready to order everything online until I can whip my kids into shape?

Oh well at least it was a mildly successful trip since hubbub and I both agree on my new decor ideas! Check out my inspiration courtesy of world market.

And for my future office table

And finally the colors for the living room refresh

I can't wait to get started!

Mommy can...

2011-12-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

Mommy can...two words that result in less sleep but pays out in smiles and a warm heart. My little moody tyrant is five, and still has that blind faith that all he has to do is ask and Mommy can make it happen. His first school program is tonight and I found out that he needed a costume less than 48 hours ago. A form "should" have come home two weeks ago but it didn't and yet that is not something you can explain to a 3 1/2 foot tall mini person with blind faith. So what's a mom to do but create the cutest, fast costume Wal-mart can offer up. :)

Statistics Suck

2011-11-29T20:44:00.000-08:00

So I just finished comforting my 17 month old baby back to sleep from yet another night terror and it got me thinking how our family got a raw deal when it comes to statistics. Generally statistics are used to comfort people and show them how unlikely whatever big, bad, ugly thing is to occur to them. Well here's a few not so comforting stats...

3-6 percent of children get night terrors (both of mine have them)

According to the experts at the Allergic Child website, 2 to 3 percent of children under the age of three years are allergic to the protein in cow's milk just like Livi

4 percent of adults have a food allergy ...my husband has three, gluten, corn and egg

10 percent of people are allergic to penicillin..Alex being one of those

I'm not throwing a pity party here, just had to go on record that watching my baby girl flail around in hysterics that not even Mom or Dad's arms can help sucks and the statistics don't make me feel better.

Leave it to Beaver Lied

2011-11-20T13:57:00.000-08:00

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Not at my house!"][/caption]

Does anyone else wonder what happened to the quiet, calm peace of the 1950's Dinner table? Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing wrong when I glance longingly at the wine bottle wondering if I should have it with dinner or enjoy a glass as a reward once the kids are in bed. Dinner at my house could qualify for armed forces training. There is flying plates to dodge when Tiny Tyrant spots something she would rather have than her designated dinner, search and destroy missions by Moody Tyrant when he flees the evil poison hidden in his food (anything red or green is immediately under suspicion) and negotiating worthy of the United Nations as I try to keep Mr. Tyrant from loosing his temper with all the drama and chaos.

Meal planning helps to some extent (www.savingdinner.com thank you so much!) but for the most part any given night can be a surprise raid that can turn my world upside down. I constantly walk a very fine line between trying to cook dinners that will suffice for my kids (or have components that I can quickly change up to something they enjoy (such as making Pad Thai but leaving noodles and chicken out and plain), and creating an atmosphere that doesn't completely cater to the tiny tyrants in my house.

I wonder sometimes how much of this is the changing society that our children grow up in. Are they so demanding of our time because they have so little of it anymore? Did kids use to enjoy playing outside or by themselves more because they were home with mom all day? Or have we created a generation of children that need to be entertained constantly since they are so very used to the instant gratification of television, toys and constant companions at childcare centers. Moving into the holidays I'm attempting to keep digital interruptions out of our evenings by keeping the computer, iPad and my phone off or ignored until the kids are in bed. It's my own little social experiment and at the very least I'll spend sometime proving to myself that Pinterest doesn't run my life! :)

Today it's The Traveling Tyrant

2011-11-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

Let me start this by saying that 5 am is a ridiculously early time to get up. I know there are some amazing/crazy people who get up at this hour every day to workout and do all kinds of good stuff, but since the onset of Moody Tyrant and Tiny Tyrant, the little people that run my life, there is never enough sleep. However today I was up bright and early at 4:45 am to catch a 7 am plane to the wintry northern lands of Detroit.

Generally I love to travel. I love the break from my routine chaos, love the adult time where conversation doesn't require an encyclopedic knowledge of every superhero every made, their superpowers and who's nemesis is whose. However this has been a tricky trip from the beginning. I got late notice, booked a super expensive flight, only to realize that Mr. Dictator was also traveling. So starts the scramble for a sitter for my kids who is willing to pull a 36 hour shift.

Sitters are never in short supply but I always feel a bit Machiavellian booking anyone for an overnight. My kids are not solid sleepers, nope not one bit. Matter of fact, Tiny Tyrant who is definitely showing significant signs of being another High Sensitivity Child (HSC) woke up with a blood curdling scream at 10:05pm last night just as I was getting into bed and for the next hour rivaled Paris Hilton with her dramatics. She screamed, she flung herself around, she demanded food and beverage befitting her tyrant state and then flung every offering away as unacceptable. All of this while tears pour down her face, she breaks out in a face rash from the screaming and refuses to be held and comforted, but also refuses to be put down. (this results in a series of back bends out of my arms so that she can be both in my arms and as far away from me as possible at the same moment)

Let me just tell you that there is nothing that will break your heart more than a child whose emotions are so overpowering to them that they are lost at sea and can't even recognize Mom as a safe harbor. Both of my kids handle the ups and downs that life dishes out with screams, tears and extreme joy. Every moment is an up or down and our life is a runaway roller coaster. Learning to accept this as normal for us, learning to brush off the judgmental among us and learning to accept my kids for who they are instead of who I pictured they would be.

This post is a bit rambling but hopefully you'll forgive me since this was written by a sleep deprived, caffeinated traveler!

Me, Myself and I

2011-11-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

I'm planning to join Tera Warner's Body Enlightenment Program and she's asking us to list 10 things we love about ourselves each day for 30 days. I thought it would be great to journal what those were for me since it's a great reminder on the not so smooth days!

Day 1:

1. I love that I’m a mother. It makes me smile and brings me joy even in the incredibly tough times.
2. I love that God gave me brains and the sense to use them. I am good at my job and that helps my confidence when it’s down.
3. I love my hair. It’s curly, wacky and uncontrollable, but it leaves no doubt that I’m me!
4. I love my husband for being supportive when I need it most but not hesitating to push me to pursue what I want
5. I love that I am ok with my parenting style even when no one else is
6. I love that I know that i will always stand up defend my family and friends regardless of who it is to or what the situation is about
7. I love that my five year old tells it how it is and doesn’t think twice about it.
8. I love that I am trying to change my life to benefit my family but not because of my family! This is all for me
9. I love my facebook friends can put a smile on my face with Pinterest words of wisdom and I can let that elevate my mood and make my day.
10. I love that my one attempt at raw food led me here and that this is looking like my light at the end of the tunnel.

Day 2:
1. I love that I fought to work from home and now even on the craziest days I get to enjoy my children and not miss their milestones.
2. I love that my family loves and encourages me, never asking me to be anyone but myself.
3. I love that I buy every diet book and magazine known to man and my husband never throws their lack of results back in my face.
4. I love that I have enough confindence in myself to stand up the nutrionist that asuumed I wasnm't following her plan when we didn't see results.
5. I love that my smile can bring a smile to the face of those I love on the roughest days.
6. I love that I'm a cheese romantic and that chick flicks can change my mood and inspire me.
7. I love that I have a network of friends who focus on the positive and bring me up just by being who they are.
8 I love that facebook has a block button and I'm not afraid to use it to erase the negativity that some people spout every day.
9. I love that I can enjoy a sugar free, fat free beverage and love it because I'm hanging out with someone who lifts my spirits more than food ever would.
10. I love that today's list of 10 came fast and easy because focusing on the positive brings nothing better moods and smiles for me.

Birthday Bums

2011-10-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

So after Tyrant A's first day at his new school, which went amazing by the way, I hoped that Tyrant O had food posioning. Now don't get me wrong, I would never wish that on anyone but at least if it was something bad that she ate then it would be short lived and not contagious. However fate decreed otherwise. It was a bug and over the last week it has run rampant through our house. Today, 8 days later and the Tyrants and I have both been taken down and are in recovery mode.

I've made some homemade bread, some fabulous homemade chicken soup and homemade chicken nuggets and I've been dreaming of my missed birthday cake all week.

Now my family was all down and out with me on Sunday night...all except Eric who managed to escape the madness somehow. I wasn't sick yet but had to grab a picture of my replacement birthday festivities. Who needs an adult party downtown when you can live it up with this crew!

Pants, Pukes and Panic

2011-10-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

I will never learn. My days should start with Starbucks...when I try to avoid this pattern the fabric that holds my world together begins to unravel!

This morning started late at 6am. I slept in thinking I had earned it after the last few crazy days dealing with A's school chaos. At 6 I jumped out of bed, got ready, joined my insomniac 5 year old downstairs and spent 20 minutes trying to get him to try on his new uniform for school. At 9 minutes in I realized THIS is what I should have done the night before. We reached a standoff when I refused to rip tags off before he tried the clothes and he refused to try anything on with tags. Fast forward a few tense minutes and my non-negotiating with anyone under 4ft tall rule won the morning. So clothes were on for a total of 4.2 seconds before the inevitable freak out complaints started about how the clothes didn't fit.

So what's a mom to do but throw her kid in the car, grabbing everything he needed for his first day at a new school on the way out and hightail it to the only store smart enough to be open and taking money at 6:45am. We looked at every pair of pants, every pair of shorts, any possible options (including those in the girls department -don't tell my husband I even considered it :)). It's not like the school is overly picky. Any navy or kahki pants that are not cargo style will do. However that left me zero, zip, zilch as an option. I finally in desperation grabbed our 3rd and final attempt from the dressy section (if this didn't work we were headed home to have a play hooky day) and rushed Alex over to the dressing room.

Did I mention that he was eating fast food pancakes in the shopping cart since we hadn't had time for breakfast yet? No, well ignore that bit of slacker momminess then. :)

Luckily the size 4 dress slacks were soft enough, loose enough, almost long enough, and the waistband was forgiving enough for my size 6 wearing kiddo. I didn't even bother to check the price tag as I grabbed them, a lunchable for the lunch I hadn't had time to pack and softer, larger white socks and rushed to the checkout. We made it to school with literally a minute to spare. Just in time for the bell to sound and scare the crap out of A.   I spent 20 minutes getting him settled and adjusted in his new room and headed out the door thinking I was doing good (the day before I would still be in traffic trying to get home from his old school) and I had brought my work computer with me! Since the baby had a sitter for the day I was off to Starbucks for coffee and a morning of powering through the task list taking over my droid.

At least that was the plan until I got in my car, turned it on and answered the ringing phone to find out the baby had puked everywhere. So I rushed home, spent 30 minutes cleaning the bed, the floor, the kid and starting a load of laundry...the first of many today apparently. We kept her on fluids until lunch and her sneaky, happy self convinced me that maybe it was a one time thing. I was off to Target to locate more appropriate clothes than the fancy pants I sent A in today and her good mood and lack of any subsequent stomach issues convinced me that the time was right to try a few saltines. That lasted us exactly 15 minutes which was how long it took to get to the gas station.   As we pulled in she showered my car. This is why I have leather!

I handed her off to the sitter after stripping her outfit and they played in the back of the van while I attempted to clean the car seat with minimal supplies.   The day got better after that, it was just another trip home, stripping the car seat and another load of laundry, about half a dozen pedialyte popsicles and then a screaming fight at bedtime as she banged on the pantry like a kid deprived of food for weeks. So against my better judgement I gave her three more crackers.

Say a prayer for me, lets hope tonight goes better...and you can bet tomorrow morning will find me at Starbucks righting the wrong I have done the universe today.

How Do I Love My Tiny Tyrants

2011-10-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's funny, one of my daughters favorite books right now is How Do I Love You, Let Me Count the Ways by Marion Dane Bauer. What is funny is in my world instead of

How do I love you

Let me count the ways

I love you as the sun

loves the bright blue days

I love you as the bee

loves a fragrant flower

I love you as the thirsty duck

loves a sudden shower

in my world it reads more like

How do I love you

Let me count the ways

I fight traffic for you

each and every day

I skip breakfast

I eat on the run

I get up at 5:30

Just to get my work done

I clean up toys

morning, noon and night

I even try not to complain

about the lack of sleep at night.

How do I love you

let me count the ways

There are more and more

each and every day.

To Plan or Not to Plan...is that even a question?

2011-09-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="281" caption="This Action Figure of Supermom Cracked me up!"][/caption]

Let me preface this by saying that today has been a long, long, long day. I'm not normally given to pity parties, fits of depression or mindless rants but it's been a 3 day weekend filled with brush fires all around, an over anxious kindergartener, a toddler that makes me look like a benevolent ruler instead of the tyrant many think me and a husband with food poisoning.

It's been an interesting few days to say the least. I've had the chance to have some wonderful adult conversations (crazy how 5 minutes conversing with an adult about something non child related can make me remember that I'm smarter than I generally think on a daily basis), had tiramisu ice cream (way to go Blue Bell!) and had absolutely no chance to sit down and prepare for the upcoming week. I'm a planner by nature so this willy nilly roundabout I've been on since we started school has driven me nuts.

To me the absolute key to telecommuting success is planning and organization. Now I know that sounds like a no brainer but think about how many times you get up, walk into the office, pop open the computer and respond to whatever email sounds the most urgent. Five hours later the to do list you made three days ago hasn't been touched. We're a reactionary society and it's a pitfall that telecommuters espeically have to be careful to avoid.

When I first started working from home I was worried that my boss was going to sit in front of his computer around the clock waiting on my IM status to go to "away" and then message me something to try and see if I was really working or had flipped on Oprah. Five years later and I still feel the need to prove myself worthy of working from home. I used to send emails first thing in the morning so people would know I was on the clock and I would rarely take a real lunch break. But the funny thing is to my company at least, results matter far more than the exact minutes I'm in front of the computer. I've gotten creative with my time as my kids came. I still work 8 to 10 hours a day but it's rarely from 8 to 5. That is the real beauty of telecommuting. I work from 5 to 7am in a quiet house knocking out any tasks that I need peace and quiet to think through. Then I take a break, have breakfast with my kids, load them up and take my oldest to school. On the way back I visit with family, make work calls or just catch up on my podcasts. I'm usually back in the office around 8:15 and can spend an hour catching up on email. When my daughter goes down for a nap mid morning I'm back to phone calls and any other activities that need a quiet house. I take a quick lunch and then power through the afternoon until 3 or 4 when I do the carpool lane to pick my kid up from school. I rarely have anything major left to finish at that point but if I do, I do it after 8pm when the kids are in bed.

It makes for a long day but when the house is quiet, when I have that great cup of coffee and can actually catch my breath and some perspective I realize that in a society where two incomes are usually needed, this is a great solution. I have my cake and am eating it too (maybe on the run, but still...).

When I get asked how to balance it all, how it all works, and if it's really possible to work at home with kids I just smile and say Yes! If you're willing to plan, organize and make it a priority it's absolutely possible and 100% worth every frustrating moment, every early morning.

Now I need to wrap this up because the crockpot is this Tyrant's best friend for busy weeks and since soccer season just started I need to go prep tomorrow's dinner and have it ready to roll!