Turn off TV? What???

What happens when you turn off the tv or technology for that matter? We did a little experiment in my house and I'd like to share it with you. When my son was little I was a weekender at the hospital so that meant that I could spend M-F with him and work Friday and Saturday nights. During this time we had a lot of "no tv days". He was really too young to pay much attention to it anyway and I found it to be a distraction to my husband and I spending quality time with him. So we turned it off. To be clear we did not turn off the cable. We simply did not turn on the tv for many days. I found my mind to be much clearer and I even slept better. (I know that sounds totally hokey right?) truthfully I grew up in a home that didn't watch much tv to begin with and as an adult I usually only have it on for the noise without actually watching what is really on there. Now that our son is 4 and our daughter is 18 months I have been wanting to do an experiment to see if taking some time off of tv and technology how they would do. As sweet as my son is he seems to display a bit of an attitude if he's had to much tv or iPad time (learning apps included). So one morning I decided to turn it all off. I do believe that children learn from our behaviors. My husband and I work on computers at in this area of life so when I'm off work I do not want to see another computer for days. But our son does see us use our phones. Not in excess but I realized that hey he is 4 years old for crying out loud and has not learned how to budget his time. And he has not yet gotten the hang of being ok if he doesn't get his way. These are things that we need to teach him and display in our own behavior at the same time. So anyway back to turning off the tv. I had a habit of turning it on for them to watch while I made breakfast or took a shower or something like that. And when I realized they don't need to be entertained while I do those things it was so easy to just not turn it on at all! We are so lucky to have littles who love each other and love being together all the time. (Seriously all the time) and they play together and have a wonderful give and take relationship. That alone makes me want to nurture that friendship and not have distractions that could take away from it. After just one day I could already see a big difference in attitude and behavior (in my son AND myself). I found I had more patience and gentleness. I did not get frustrated as easily. So really...what happens when you turn off the TV? You PLAY! With trains, dinosaurs, little people princesses, read a ton of books, sticks and frogs outside, ride bikes (or trikes), take walks, dig in the garden for dinner vegetable or to plant new plants for this season. And no we did not do all of this in one day. Hehe! This was spanned over a lot of days. We had many rainy days in that span also so we did the indoor things then I put the kids in the tub to blow bubbles later in the evening. I notice much clearer minds for me and my family. We all sleep better, make better decisions about what we eat and are not tired as much. We will for sure be continuing the "no TV" days around here:) I have a sweet friend who I told about what we were doing and her response was "um what? How do you NOT turn on the TV when you have young kids?". For me it is simple. For others it may not be so. While I rather like this new method of the day, not everyone responds to it as we do. Other kids may not be effected by the technology as we seems to be. But it's good for everyone to turn it off and go do something else. 😃

Sewing Saturday

So work with me here. I am totally new to this whole diary is on the Internet thing and cannot seem to find the ideal way to add pictures to the blog and edit them to the way I like. So for now this is what I'm going with. Yes I'm posing on the piano bench. It was very gloomy out that day and not good picture taking weather. (Like inside was better right?) haha! I am truly sorry for the few pictures to come in the near future. I managed to get a lot of sewing done over the weekend. (And a good start on a quilt I can't wait to show) so this dress is a simplicity pattern by Cynthia Rowley 2444. Looking good in my dress with my yoga pants on underneath right? While I've made a few dresses before this is the first one I made for myself. I need to hem it and finish the seams and I'll get pictures out of that also. As well as a close up of the fabric. I just love it! It's a cotton lawn I found online at quit home. I also made a sweet little polka dot top and a hot pink knit maxi skirt. (Pictures soon) Very productive weekend for my sewing. I am a long time quilter and used to using 100% cotton fabric but the apparel fabric is a whole world that needs to be explored. I am one of those girls who can stay in fabric stores for a very long time. There are so many textures its really amazing! I think that's all for now. Hopfully I'll be back with better pictures this week. 

Blessings! 

Blessings, BeccaQuilt Home

App overload?

I do love the apps that I use on my phone and iPad. I am the first to admit it. In cleaning up our messy lifestyle right now I mean cleaning up my phone also. Getting rid of apps that I never use or cannot use right now. I have tried out many in the past that are for one thing or another but ended up not liking them for one reason or another also. I have noticed for my personality if an app is good for one thing only then I don't need it or want it taking up space. Several that I love and will be using in the future (if The Lord allows) are the baby bump app (to track pregnancy) and the Tiny Time app (to track the newborn). And as I am neither pregnant or have a new born right now I did delete them off of my phone. As funny as it may sound it was so difficult for me to delete these. After our recent loss I just didn't want to get rid of anything that reminded me I was no longer pregnant. If I deleted them then I was faced w it every time I used my phone because they were missing. But, I did it. Life moves on and I have to as well. I think of the baby so very often everyday. But my 2 sweet littles I do have keep giving me random hugs and kisses through out the day that just make me so much happier!

When my friend and I were talking about my weird cleaning schedule she said "I bet there's an app for that" haha! If there is I don't want it. I still like to see my list in my handwriting that I can mark off the things I have finished. Old school I know. So after cleaning off my phone and ridding myself of the apps I don't use I discovered that I really didn't gain that much space. Haha! Oh well. I feel so much better with a much simpler phone and tablet. No more junky space. It's clean and only what I use is on there. No more distracting things to sift through to get to the things I really want to use. So what's next on my clean up list?? My closet! Dun dun dun!!! Ha! Really it's bad. And the very very sad part is that for such a huge mess, I know where everything is in that tiny space. We live in a tiny house and I have a hobby that takes up a lot of space. (Quilting and sewing) and we have no spare room for the things that go along with that. So it's all in my closet along with my clothes and shoes. I have a little cubby unit that stores all of my fabric, scraps, patters, tools etc. And yes I use all of it. It's sort of spread out a little here and there around the house also. All of my rulers are hanging on ribbons in my laundry room and my cutting mat is stored behind the hutch in the dining room because that is where I do all of my sewing. Ok so enough about that. I am going to learn how to get pictures from my phone into my blog so I can show the mess before and after:) (doesn't that sound fun) there has got to be a simpler way. Anyway. Off to another day:) blessings.

Love random cleaning?!?

I have a random cleaning schedule. Really it's totally weird. But it's the only way I can get all of the things clean that I don't really want to do. And honestly I don't think about doing them either. Dishes, floors, bathrooms etc. I'm cleaning all of the time. But ceiling fans, kitchen cabinates, windows  all of the things I use all of the time but don't think about cleaning can get very dirty with just a short span of time without cleaning.  So how do I remedy this? I first praise The Lord for my wonderful mother for instilling this in me;) thanks mom! As for the doing a little picking up every room every day I have been doing well really well so far:) actually finishing laundry once I start it. No more living out of clean clothes baskets. For my random cleaning schedule I decided to set it up to go along with something I would always remember on a regular rotation that does not come around too often. What is that? My car insurance. It's the perfect thing to sync my randoms too. It's due every 3 months like clockwork and over the last 12.5 years of marriage I've not forgotten it. The things I do on the 3 mo rotation is windows and doors, clean all appliances (fridge, dishwasher, stove, microwave, toaster oven, washer and dryer, vacuum cleaner and carpet cleaner.) for those grossing out right now we don't use the microwave very often and the fridge gets a tidy up every Monday night. Why? Well bc Tuesday is trash day. I'm not big on making huge meals that we can eat on for days. When I cook dinner it's usually for just that night and we have a sandwich or something easy for lunches. The exceptions to that are lasagne and spaghetti of course;) so there isn't usually a ton to clean out. Very little in fact. I have a few things I put on the "clean the first day of the even months" schedule. Base boards are my biggest picky item on this list. I cannot stand for my base boards to be dusty. It truly does not bother me at someone else's house but in my own. It is not happening. Cleaning out and vacuuming the car is also on the even month schedule. Sweeping the porch and patio. That sort of thing. I had a sweet friend who thought I was crazy for my cleaning schedule but it gets the job done my way:) We work hard for our income and pay for the things and home that we have so I want to take care of it the best way I know how. My husband had asthma and bad allergies when we first got married and I am from a home that used natural cleaners for the most part so I've been using them from the beginning. His allergies have gotten much better and asthma is way better too! I'm from a shacklee home and we use basic H, vinegar and baking soda to clean. And a lot of it. And I just really like the smell of vinegar. It's not for everyone but I love it. Well I think that's all for today. Anyone else have a very random way of cleaning to get the job done?

Disorganized life? Yep.

Here at Parsons drive we don't really do New Years resolutions. Why? Well to be honest I have no idea. It's just something we have not ever done. Not once. However we do have goals. Long term goals, laundry washing goals. Stuff like that. I have a saying that my friends are familiar with. "We live by the seat of our pants". And I'm not very proud of that really. What I mean by that is I don't mean plan. Our kids are not on a schedule (just bedtime is around the same time everyday but not exact). While I have a house cleaning routine it's not done every week. My second saying is "all I promise my family is clean clothes, sheets and dishes". Due to our work schedules we eat dinner really late. Too late sometimes. I get off of work around 6pm and have to pick up my littles from my parents house then come home and settle them while I get to making dinner. My wonderful husband who is a great help around here is also in school again. So he's either working or studying. And we both believe in taking time away from all the busy to play w our kids and be with them everyday. Neither one of us work the same days each week. That ever changing schedule sort of overplays out the rest of our week. We have been like this since before we had kids. Well you know I mean the house was cleaner and we still ate dinner later when I worked at the hospital bc I didn't get home until after 8pm. So now w 2 littles that is where we are. We have no schedule, the house needs picking up, I have 3 loads of laundry that need to get moving, a 16 month old who will not sleep on her own (a jealous 4 yo big brother) and no idea of what to make for dinner. And praise The Lord a sweet amazing husband that smiles and laughs thinking I'm crazy for worrying about it all. Truly we don't like living a messy life. So after this recent 17 week loss of another little baby boy I am working on getting things in order for more of a distraction but it needs to be done regardless. Being more intentional about what goes in my house, mouth and mind. Spending a few minutes everyday picking up things that are out of place. FINISHING laundry. (Anyone with me out there?) ha! I am working on the meal planning thing. I have begun exercising again and it feels so great! I am being more intentional about pouring into my husband and kids emotionally and loving on them and taking more time for them when they need me. I know they get tired of hearing "in a minute when I finish doing..."  My son told me last night he did not want to grow up because then he couldn't play. I asked him why he thought he couldn't play and his response "because you don't play mommy". Ugh. He's right. Don't get me wrong we do play play dough or hungry hungry hippos at least 2x a day but he is wanting to play ALLL day. And who doesn't?? My husband and I have so many commitments that it can be very hard to have time to speak to each other on any given day. We just stopped teaching the young marrieds connect group at our church. (Like last week was the last week) it's very sad to stop doing something we've done for 3 years but it's still good to move forward. There are still things out there we have committed to do (like work, church, school and preschool of course:) but we are making more time for each other.

For my family, house and myself I'm making small changes. Changes I can do then add one more on as time goes on to get to a more organized life. I'd like to eventually get to having about 20 minutes a day I can work on sewing projects. And I'm growing my hair out again. Family and friends know I usually grow it out (to my elbows) so it grows for about 3 years then I cut it. This last time I cut it was right after my daughter was born. And I have kept it shorter for a little longer than I usually do. Which means I'm a year behind:( if I can get my long hair back and my body in a better shape (which will happen faster of course) I'll be much more happy with myself. So that's where we are right now for February 2015. Anyone else have a messy life they are working on getting rid of?

Outside my box

So what is this sad event I spoke about in my last post? To share I'll give you a little background history. My husband and I will have our 13th anniversary this year. When we married I was 20 and he was 22. We had a life plan that we loosely followed. He had a year of college to finish and I worked full time. Once he graduated and established in his career I went to college myself. After I graduated we bought a house and celebrated our 7 year anniversary and were ready to start trying for a family. 3 months later we were pregnant. At the 12 week check we found that the baby didn't have a heart beat anymore. It was so very devastating for us as we didn't know anyone who had experienced this before. There was just no answer as to why it happened. People didn't know how to talk to us. Everyone sort of stepped back from us and left us to ourselves. It was a time that there was a darkness that could have taken me over if I allowed it to. But I didn't allow it to. We decided to try again and 3 more months later we were pregnant again. This pregnancy went very well. I was a full time RN running around the hospital floor at the time and at 39 weeks went into labor. After a long day he and I got into major distress and had to have an emergency c-section. Our son was born health and perfect. I however had a complication in that my bladder had been totally punctured and needed to be repaired. All went well with that and I went home with my husband, new baby and a catheter (for 2 weeks) all healed very well in time:) when our son was 18 months old we tried again and got pregnant of course. And lost that baby at 8 1/2 weeks. After this loss we went through testing of all kinds and everything looked normal. The one that did ton to look normal was that I came back with the MTHFR gene mutation. We went to the fertility doctor found out the treatment and went on our way. In the mean time we had gotten pregnant and lost our 4 the pregnancy at 6 weeks. Once i started the treatment we were pregnant the next month and all went smoothly. Praise The Lord! At 34 weeks we had a strange hiccup of my water breaking and delivering our sweet daughter that same day. But after a week in the NICU she was healthy and full time breast feeding wonderfully. Today our son is 4 and our daughter is 16 months old. On her 1 year birthday we discovered that we were pregnant again. We started the usual treatment of the low dose blood thinner, Rx folgard, progesterone, all the usuals. All looked very well and we found out the baby is a boy. A little over 17 weeks I was not feeling well and went into the doctor. We found out again that he had no heartbeat. W have never had a second trimester loss before so this time around was totally different from the d&c's of the past. We went into the hospital to deliver. The cytotec medicine usually kicks a woman's body into gear in about 3 doses. However after 6 mine was still staying put. It was not moving anywhere in the right direction. So we ended up with another surgery. A d&e this time. Which was for me more painful. But recovery was still about the same. Like I said its only been 4 weeks and I and struggling with it. I have a lot of moments. I simply cannot believe it's all over. Already! We had so many plans and all of the sudden he's gone. My daughter weaned from breast feeding a couple of weeks before that and I cannot believe I'm not Brestfeeding or pregnant anymore. Everything reminds me that I'm not pregnant. That I have lost him. That he's not with me anymore. Our son had a very hard time the first 3 weeks and is now back in a normal routine. He wouldn't do anything alone. Not even go to the bathroom alone. Would not sleep alone. Cried when he had to go back to preschool and church again. (Which he never does) he talked to his teachers about his baby brother going to heaven. I spend a lot of time in prayer about healing for me. I am not and have never been bothered by life moving on. My wonderful husband and amazing littles help me so much to move on. So for now I am doing things that I hadn't been doing. Whitening my teeth, exercising. Weird things like that. I have changed my eating habits and cut out sweets, all carbonated drinks and eating more fruits and vegetables. (Have you seen the thing that makes noodles out of squash and zucchini? It's so great!!) so that's our story. I titled this post outside my box because I am naturally a private person. (I don't even have a Facebook page) but if I can help anyone who is going through this as well then it is worth it to post it out there for all to read.

Vicks vapor rub??

Anyone ever have sick kids who cough ALL through the night? And of course you have to work early in the am and of course they won't sleep alone when they are not feeling well. Me right now x2. My sweet 4 yo son and 1 yo daughter both have colds that are at bay during the day and just terrible at night. By 12:40am my daughter had not slept a solid 15 minutes without coughing. So I pulled out the Vicks vapor rub and smeared it on the bottom of her feet then covered them in socks. And praise The Lord she finally got some sleep! She still coughed some but it was decreased by at least 85-90%. And for anyone with sick littles that is a huge number! She and my son still managed to wake up totally rested somehow. Me not so much but let's be honest. Who really went into parenthood looking for sleep? Right?!? Hehe! So exactly what is the science behind the Vicks on the feet?? I have no idea! But I'm using it again when needed. I honestly thought it's hokey (bc it sounds totally not like it's gonna work) but it does;) I will be looking it up to see if I can find any research on it hanging around out there but for now I'm not really gonna question it:)

In actual sewing around my house I am working on a new dress for me. I found some lawn fabric that I just love online and have it washed and pressed ready to be cut out. So last night I decided I would cut out the pattern pieces and get them ready to place on my fabric. Like usual I went to take my own measurements and found some not so happy information. We've been through something sad recently (more about that later) and I have apparently gained about 5 lbs. so when I usually measure out to be a simplicity size 12 right now it's more like a 16. Now it's only been 4 weeks since the event and I've just gotten back into the healthy eating / exercising routines about 1 1/2 weeks ago soo I think I'm gonna put that to the side for a few weeks and get back to some therapy quilting. I'm making the all people quilt "butter churn" quilt however I'm not using yellow (but it is just so pretty it was very tempting!) I'm actually using navy and white fabric. Why? Because navy is my top favorite color! For me it's a neutral color and goes with everything. (I wear a lot of it and decorate with it a lot also) I'm making a king size quilt so it will take me a long time to make. (Why it's a great therapy sewing project)! For a king size I need to make 100 10 1/2" blocks. One down 99 to go. Wish me luck!