Road Trip to the Black Hills

Last month we took a family road trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. The drive took us a little longer than we planned (10.5 hours) but the kids did amazing and we had a great time. We’re a camping family but didn’t feel up to doing a full on camping trip so we decided to split lodging and stay in a hotel for the first part of the trip then move to a cabin in Custer State Park.

Day 1, Sunday - Explore Rapid City

After a long day of travel, we slept in, enjoyed the hotel breakfast and took a morning swim.  After the kids had sufficient pool time, we headed out to explore Rapid City.  First stop was Storybook Island Park.  Our family was underwhelmed.  Although it had unique play structures based on classic storybook characters, it seemed a little young for our 6 and 4-year-old.   Unless you have kids who are really into nursery rhymes and classic stories or under the age of 4, I would skip.  Note, Storybook Island Park does not allow outside food inside the park.  There are a few picnic tables outside the park for use.

Our next destination was the iconic Dinosaur Park just outside Rapid City.  We found a picnic table there and had our lunch then headed up the hill to check out the bright green concrete statues.  The kids were hot and tired at this point but did enjoy climbing on the dinosaurs and taking fun pictures.

After some downtime at the hotel, we drove to the Rapid City town square for dinner.  The town square is very charming with fun shops and restaurants and also statues of former Presidents on every corner.  In the middle of the square are fountains and a grassy area for kids to play.  We packed extra clothes and let the kids splash in the fountains before we headed to dinner.  We ate dinner at the Firehouse Brewery and if you’re driving westbound on I-90, the signs for the brewery rival the Wall Drug signs.  The restaurant is in an old restored firehouse with lots of memorabilia including the original fire pole.  They have a good selection of their own beers on tap and typical bar and grill menu.  The food was decent but the environment makes this worth the visit.

Day 2 Monday – Bear Country U.S.A. and Keystone, SD

First stop today was Bear Country U.S.A. located just 9 miles south of Rapid City off of Highway 16.  We got an early start in hopes of seeing more wildlife.  It did not disappoint, as we drove through the park we got a glimpse of elk, coyotes, big horn sheep, fox and of course bears.  It probably takes 30 minutes to drive through the park but our family (me!) really enjoyed watching the animals so we took almost an hour to drive through.  In my opinion, Bear Country U.S.A. is a must stop on your Black Hills vacation.  

After Bear Country, we continued another 11 miles on Highway 16 to Keystone.  One of Evan’s “must” activities was to pan for gold.  We went to Big Thunder Gold Mine to tour the mine and try our luck at finding gold.  The tour is about 30 minutes.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining as he told us the story of the mine.  After the tour, you learn how to pan for gold and then for an additional cost, you get your turn to pan.   The kids were fortunate to find a few flakes of gold. 

Next we booked our seats on the 1880’s train then grabbed some ice cream while we waited for our departure.  The train is a true steam engine and runs back and forth to Keystone and Hill City several times a day. This was one of the most expensive activities of our trip (around $100 for our family of 4) and where it was a nice way to relax and see the Black Hills, even my train enthusiast son thought it was long.  The train ride is an hour each way with a 15 minute layover before the return trip.

Day 3 Tuesday – Badlands National Park

An hour back east on I-90 is the Badlands National Park.  The best way I can describe the Badlands is AMAZING.  The beauty and mystery of these rock formations just left me awe struck.  I could not get over how we would be driving through the park and on one side would be flat prairie and on the other would be these huge canyons or mountainous rock formations. 

We had a slow start in the morning so the kids could swim so we didn’t get to the park until later.  I could have easily spent another day here exploring.  The visitor center gives you a good overview of the history of the Badlands and the unique makeup of the rock.  There are three trails that are good for kids.  Kids can also earn their Junior Ranger badges here.

 

On our way back to Rapid City, we stopped in Wall to see the famous drug store, Wall Drug.  This place is huge and has everything and anything you could think of to buy. It’s one of those things that I’m glad I can say I’ve done but I have no desire to stop there again. 

Day 4 Wednesday – Mount Rushmore, Train Museum and move to Custer State Park.

After four nights in the hotel, we packed up and moved to a camper cabin at Legion Lake Lodge in Custer State Park.  On our way there we headed back through Keystone to one of the nation’s most famous landmarks, Mt. Rushmore.  I would recommend visiting the monument late morning or early afternoon.  We arrived around 9am and it was pretty crowded but as we left, we noticed the crowds and parking area had thinned out.   

You can’t help but feel patriotic as you walk through the Avenue of Flags showcasing the flag of each state.  You get a great view of the faces as you walk up to the visitor’s center.  Kids can get Junior Ranger badges at the visitor center too.  There are trails to walk around to give you different views of the faces.  

When we had our layover in Hill City from the 1880’s train, Evan noticed a train museum and we briefly stuck our heads in there. He kept asking if we would have time to do that so we swung 12 miles north from Mt. Rushmore back to Hill City to visit the South Dakota State Railroad Museum.  It was actually quite impressive for how small it was.  There is a replica of an engine that visitors can climb in as well as model train exhibit.  I personally enjoyed looking through all the records of old train schedules and routes. 

We finally made our way to Custer State Park to find our lodge.  The lodge sits on Legion Lake in Custer State Park.  The scenery was so picturesque and when we drove up to our cabin deer were waiting there to greet us.  The cabin we rented was a one room sleeper with two queen beds and housekeeping service.  We had electricity, air, cable tv, full bathroom, mini fridge and microwave.  Outside was a fire pit, picnic table and two outdoors chairs.  We had great views of the Ponderosa Pines the Black Hills is known for. 

 

Day 5 Thursday, Mammoth Site and Evan’s Plunge

Mammoth Site in Hot Spring which is 40 miles south of Custer State Park is an active dig site where visitors can see bones of Mammoth’s and other creatures actually being discovered.  Visitors watch a video on the history of the site then each person gets their own audio device as the guide takes you on a tour of the dig site which lasts about 40 minutes.  You can also can go to the lab in the basement to see the paleontologists working.      

Since we were in Hot Springs, SD, we had to find a hot spring.  Evan’s Plunge is a natural spring indoor/outdoor water park.  It was refreshing being in a pool that didn’t have the strong smell of chlorine but other than that it wasn’t anything great.  Well except for the fact that it’s “Evan’s” Plunge so my son thought that was pretty cool.  Unless your family loves waterparks and has plenty of time, I would skip the Plunge. 

Day 6 Friday

Our last day of vacation we spent the morning at Jewel Cave.  There are two caves to visit in the Black Hills, Wind Cave being the other.  We chose Jewel Cave because they have a 20 minute presentation where visitors just have a few steps to walk down to a large room of the cave.  All the other cave tours had 300+ steps and were close to an hour long.  Our 6 year old could have handled that but knowing our 4 year old daughter, she wouldn’t have been able to handle the steps or the length of tour. The 20 minute presentation worked well for our family.  

After the cave tour, we headed back to our cabin for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at the lake.  After the lake, we drove the Wildlife loop in Custer State Park.  If you want to see buffalo and prairie dogs, this is an excellent drive. 

The Down and Dirty

Food - Mike and I determined this was not a foodie vacation so food was a small part of our budget.  We stocked up on groceries before we left and did a restock on groceries before we headed to Custer. We ate breakfast at the hotel when we stayed there and cereal and fruit when we were at the cabin.  Lunches were all picnic style with sandwiches, chips, fruit and veggies.  Yes, by the end of the trip I think we were all a little sandwiched out but it saved us a ton of money.  Plus, a lot of places we traveled were in remote areas so not a lot of food choices available.  Dinner we always ate out.  We had intentions of grilling hot dogs over the fire pit at the cabin but the food at the lodge was so good and very convenient so we did splurge a bit there.

Lodging - Rapid City makes a great home base for the activities we wanted to do. Country Inn and Suites was a good fit for us; nice pool, water slide and good breakfast.  If nature is your thing, make sure to spend a few nights in one of the many lodges in Custer State Park.

  

My Must List - Bear Country U.S.A, Big Thunder Gold Mine, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, Mammoth Site, Badlands National Park.

My Redo - I would skip Storybook Island Park and replace that with Reptile Gardens which is just outside of Rapid City.  Spend more time at the Badlands, possibly even a night there and add Minuteman Missile Site.  Skip Evan’s Plunge and explore Wind Cave.  More time hiking and exploring Custer.

Blowing the Dust Off

Wow, it's been over a year since my last blog post. It's time to blow the dust off this thing and get back to writing. Not only because it's something I enjoy, but life it moving at lightning speed and this is my way of capturing moments. With a four year old and two year old, life is busy but oh so fun. I'm loving this stage of life right now. Both kids are old enough that we can do activities as a family and they actually can participate and enjoy them. We've been camping, fishing, swimming, and hitting up every park we come across. The conversations we have as a family are priceless as Evan and Cora learn about their world.

I'm in awe of the relationship the two have. Maybe it's because I never had a sibling and I don't know that bond. But I do know that those two have something special between them. Sure, there are fights and tears but for the most part it's love. I see it in the way Evan looks out for Cora, when he takes her hand to guide her to the playground. I see it in the way Cora looks up to her brother, when she follows him and around and wants to be, "Just like Evan."  It truly is my greatest joy seeing those two together.

There are parts of this stage that I'm ready to be done with though. I'm tired of playing musical beds at night and no one sleeping in their own bed. I'm tired of changing diapers and yes they are both in diapers. Potty training has been a battle with Evan. I'm tired of making snacks and refilling sippy cups with milk and water all the time. I'm tired of sippy cups!

But for the most part life is pretty great now and I don't want to miss a moment. So hopefully I can stay committed to this blog and capture these moments but also continue writing and storytelling because it truly is something I enjoy.

Life Lessons from Vacation

Mike and I recently returned from our anniversary trip. We spent a week in Arizona, first in Phoenix visiting friends and then some alone time in Sedona. We had a great time and I learned some valuable life lessons along the way.

- Mexican food tastes 100 times better in the desert sunshine.

- I've always been a beer girl but a great cocktail is hard to beat.

- Spa treatments are an investment in my well being and should happen on a regular basis.

- I all of a sudden developed a paralyzing fear of heights.

- Mountains are beautiful but the ocean has my heart. (See above.)

- My ideal vacation must involve some sort of nature. I can only shop or museum(can that be a verb?) so much. I love being outdoors much more.

- A week is way too long to be away from my babies.

E is Three!

I have a three year old and I still find that hard to believe. Three seems so much older than two. At three years old, E is wicked smart and has a very active imagination. The boy can talk and talk and talk. He's going to be a great story teller some day. The questions he asks and the things he remembers about his life amaze me. It's hard for me to believe he's only three.

His kindness just melts my heart. He dotes on his sister, calling her "Sweet Baby" and brings her toys when she first wakes up. Sometimes he brings her toys if she's playing with his toys and he doesn't like it. But the fact that he even thinks to bring her something in exchange is just a testament to how kind he is.

We had a great day celebrating E's third birthday. Just Grandmas and Grandpas and Auntie Andrea came to celebrate. We ordered pizza from Park Tavern and ate it off paper plates in the livingroom. We had construction birthday cake and ice cream for dessert. It was simple. The best part of the party was everyone sitting out in the yard on a beautiful evening watching E and Cora play so well together. There were no Pinterest decorations or fancy foods. In fact, I forgot to put out the watermelon but no one missed it. There was no stress making sure everyone was enjoying themselves or the food was done in time. The day was all about E and celebrating him turning three.

E's Birthday doughnut.

Opening his scooter from G&G McDonald

Birthday Construction Cake

Construction outfit from Auntie Andrea.

21 Day Fix, End of Round 1

I did it. I finished the 21 Day Fix. Part of me is surprised that I actually finished it and stuck with the plan. I did have one cheat day. On our anniversary I had a glass of wine and beer along with ribs. But I did swap out the fires for steamed veggies. Other than that, I stuck to the program and I'm pretty proud of myself.

I didn't take before and after pictures, nor did I take measurements. I did weigh myself at the beginning and end of the 21 days and I'm down 11 pounds. Mike was down 13. More importantly, I loved how I felt and that I can fit into jeans I haven't worn since before I was pregnant with Cora. That was my main goal, to not continue buying clothes in a bigger size because nothing I had fit.

All in all, I enjoyed the fix and I'm going to start Round 2 on June 12th. This will only be a 19 day fix because I'll end it on my birthday which is June 30th and then enjoy the 4th of July weekend and then most likely start Round 3 after the holiday.

In the meantime, I've learned that I still haven't developed enough will power when it comes to food. We had pizza from one of our favorite places for E's birthday. I ate it for the party and enjoyed it, however, I continued enjoying the leftovers so the pizza had to be thrown out. So after a five day hiatus from tracking and working out. I'm doing a modified version of the fix to get me through the next three days plus a week of vacation then it's onto Round 2!

My plan for the modified version is to continue tracking. Tracking helps me make sure I eat enough veggies which is a struggle and also help me monitor my carb intake. I'm not going to track my fruit because I love fruit. And let's be honest, am I really going to gain a bunch of weight by eating too much fruit? I'm also allowing myself two blues because I love both avocado and cheese and I was having a hard time choosing either or for the day. I don't have a fancy way of tracking, I just write out 6 G's, 4 P's, 5 R's, 4 Y's, 1 B, and 1 O for the day and cross them off after I eat a portion. It's much easier than WW.

Mike and I plan to continue the workouts during the hiatus because it's a quick 30 minutes and you do feel pretty good afterwards. While on vacation, we'll probably be more relaxed but since we're going to the mountains, I anticipate some pretty good hikes to keep us active. I don't plan on monitoring alcohol. It is vacation after all. But I do plan to be alcohol free until I get to the airport and have a Bloody Mary while I wait for my flight.

Our Nightly Prayer

We thank God for all of our blessings.

We thank God for this day.

We pray for our house that keeps us safe and warm.

We pray for the food that fills our bellies.

We pray for our toys that are so much fun.

We pray for our health.

We pray for our friends and our family because they bring us so much love.

We pray for God to help us be brave.

We pray for God to help guide us through difficult situations.

We pray for people to be kind.

We pray for there to be peace.

And we pray for people who need help.

Amen.

21 Day Fix

Well, here I am trying yet another weight loss program. From Weight Watchers to Paleo to extreme exercising; I've tried many. But I'm 10 days into my 21 Day Fix and I must say, I'm not miserable and more importantly, I haven't given up.

I heard about the 21 Day Fix from several blogs that I follow and I became intrigued. The more I researched, the more I thought this might be a good fit for me. I liked the idea that it was only 21 days. You can do anything for 21 days. If I hated it, I would be off to have pizza and a Blizzard on day 22. I also liked that the premise was eating real food which is something that is important to me and I want to set that example for my kids. The downside was the exercise. In order for me to be successful, I would need to do a 30 minute at home workout everyday. Remember, I have an aversion to exercise, that "runner's high" everyone talks about doesn't exist for me. But again, I can do anything for 21 days and even if I half assed the workouts it would still be more than I was doing now. And they were at home so I could do them in the playroom while the kids played. Which actually didn't sound like a bad idea. It would get me out of doing yet another Paw Patrol mission.

I shared my research with Mike to see if he wanted to do it with me. I figured it would be easier if we did it together and I knew he wanted to drop some lbs as well. Sympathy pregnancy weight gain...it's a thing! Mike was on board so we started to game plan. Planning is an area where I've failed before. When trying other weight loss programs, I sign up on a whim and usually after a I've had several days of glutinous eating or have gone through my closet and determined nothing fits. WW is my default program. I've signed up more times than I can count and have seen some success, but I couldn't sustain it. I tend to think, oh I can never have a cookie or chips again and then I give up. Who wants to live life like that? I'll just be happy and fat. The 21 days was the real appeal to me. I can have cookies and chips again, just not for 21 days.

Once Mike and I both committed, I went to Amazon and made the purchase. Done. When the product arrived, the first thing I thought was that they had forgotten some of the food containers. Nope, they are just that small. Yikes! Mike was already second guessing this decision. We started reading through the literature to see what was on the food lists and how much we could eat. Once we calculated how many containers we could have each day we felt better. It looked like you got plenty of food. We also committed to no soda, no alcohol and only black coffee. No delicious creamer or half and half.

Now, when to start this 21 Day Fix? Easter was coming up along with Cora's birthday. Our anniversary and E's birthday followed shortly after. Yes, we wanted to enjoy food and adult beverages for these occasions so we wanted to work around those days. We decided to start May 1st which would be right after Cora's birthday and we would end right before our anniversary. But then Mike realized he had his NFL Draft boys' weekend at the beginning of May and wasn't about to participate in that without alcohol. So we decided May 6th was our start date and now here we are, 10 days later and we're still going strong.

Preparation has been key. I've always been pretty good at meal planning but now I'm strict about it. We stock up every Tuesday at Sam's Club so we have plenty of produce and sometimes make an extra run during the week. We do the workouts together with the kids hanging on us and it's turned into a family event. I love to see E get into it and am so proud we are setting good examples for our kids. I love to hear E say, "Exercise is fun!" The workouts do go pretty fast and they are tough. Yes, sometimes I half ass them, especially when it comes to push-ups. But I usually fight my way through. One alteration we did make was that we skip workouts on Sunday and Monday. With my work schedule, sleep is more important to me on those days.

I didn't take full body pictures of myself or measurements before I started the program. I didn't want this to be about weight loss. I wanted it to be about feeling better and creating healthy habits. I already do feel better and my pants aren't quite as tight which is a great feeling. I will weigh myself at the end just to see if I dropped some lbs. I'd be lying if I said it was easy. There's some days when I just want a Diet Coke so bad I can taste it. And on those beautiful spring afternoons we've been having, I'd love nothing more than to have a Sam Adams Porch Rocker while we play in the backyard. But I'm sticking with it and I feel proud of the commitment I've made. We'll see what happens when the 21 days end. Mike and I have already talked about modifying the plan a bit to keep these healthy habits going and if we feel we've gotten too laxed we'll start up again with another 21 Day Fix.  I'm so glad he's doing it with me, it's so much easier. And the lifestyle we're creating for our family is priceless.

My last meal, beer and glazed doughnut
 at 7am after work.

Here we go!

Sweaty workouts.

The kids love yoga!

Cora at 1 Year

Last week Cora turned one. This was one of the fastest years of my life. I feel Cora's first year went a lot faster than E's. Maybe it's because life was busier with two kids instead of just one and I wasn't constantly monitoring milestones. With Cora I was a lot more relaxed and didn't worry as much about doing everything "perfectly". There's something to be said for "second child syndrome".

We celebrated Cora's first birthday pretty low key and simple. On the actual day, April 21st, we headed out to one of our favorite ice cream shops, Adele's. We don't go there too often because it's kind of a drive but it's so good and near Lake Minnetonka so the scenery is great. Unfortunately, it was a rainy cold day so we just sat inside and ate our ice cream and went home.

The following weekend Cora was baptized (this was the rescheduled date since she was sick in January when we originally planned it) and after the service, had family over for lunch, cake and ice cream. The simplicity of Cora's birthday celebration was wonderful. So much less stress than E's parties. I truly enjoyed the day and wasn't worried about getting people fed or introducing different groups of friends and family to each other. Just the grandparents and Auntie and it was perfect!

At Cora's 12 month check-up, she weighed 19.6lbs and was 30 inches long. She isn't walking yet but she crawls everywhere including on the cement driveway. Nothing stops her. She loves being outside and digs in the dirt and sandbox right along with her brother. Mike and I got Cora her own pink and purple dump truck for her birthday so she doesn't have to borrow E's anymore.

She's a champion eater and I hope she keeps this up. She'll try anything and likes just about everything. Her favorite goods so far are grapes, scrambled eggs, chicken, and pizza! She doesn't like bananas or avocado. I guess I'll be the only avocado lover in the family.

Cora says a few words; Momma, Dadda, boat, book, bubble and hello. She knows how to tell us what she wants without words, she'll point and grunt until we figure it out. She's also a swatter when she doesn't want something. Don't try to help her with her bottle, she'll swat you away. Mike and I call her our wild woman.

Cora has always been a horrible sleeper and I was hoping with age she would get better. Nope, if anything she's regressed. She did sleep through the night for a few months but that was a while ago. She usually ends up in bed with Mike and me and she's such a light sleeper if you try to move her she's back up. We play musical beds in our family. For now it works and maybe someday I'll have the heart to let her cry it out.

That's my baby girl at 1 year old. Happy Birthday Cora Lee! You are the sweetest sassiest girl and I love bunches and bunches!

Where I've Been, My Blogging Hiatus

I'd like to say I've been off traveling or doing creative wonderful DIY projects around my house. But I haven't. I'd like to say I've been focusing all my time on potty training or sleep training my almost 1 year old...again. But I haven't. Nope, I've been spending any free minute to binge watch Scandal. I jumped on the Olivia Pope bandwagon shortly after the holidays and I was immediately hooked. I would sacrifice sleep to watch just one more episode on Netflix. When I got caught up to the current season, I paid my $1.99 per episode on Amazon Prime and now I'm caught up and look forward to my weekly Scandal fix. 

I'm a sucker for any political drama, but with Scandal I get so much more. The chemistry between Olivia and Fitz is addicting and then there's Scott Foley. Need I say more? It's like a I'm a teenage girl again watching Felicity. 

So yes, the past 3 months have been filled with lots of TV watching. Isnt' that what MN winters are for? We've also been keeping busy as a family with a trip to Florida in early March, both kids are in ECFE, church activities, and a 2 week stint of flu/cold that got the entire family. Now with spring upon us and my binge watching addiction in the past, I'm ready for days spent outside, bedtimes pushed back and the simplicity that warmer weather brings.

Christmas

This Christmas was filled with lots of family, food, gifts, blessings, and some sadness. I had two weeks off from work which allowed me to be fully present for the holidays. My house was festive and my meals were planned. I love Christmas time so I had been decorating, baking and listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving (yes, I'm one of those). My parents came up the Tuesday before Christmas and the plan was they would go home the Friday after then we'd head out to Mike's mom and dad's for the weekend and come back Monday. We'd have the reaming of the week to relax and have fun. Well, God had other plans. On Christmas Eve, my lovely Grandma Ruby went to heaven. She was 97 years old, lived a very full life and went peacefully. She went to sleep and didn't wake up for several days and then she was taken home. 

When my mom and dad arrived, we knew it was only a matter of days before Grandma would be gone but we decided to go on with our plans because that's what she would have wanted. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve service at our church and came home and opened presents that night. Mom and I were stayed up late watching Christmas with the Kranks (a favorite). We finally decided to go to bed and as I was getting ready for bed, Cora woke up. I rocked her and was having a hard time getting her back to sleep. I heard my Mom's phone ring, it was shortly past midnight now, Christmas Day, and I knew Grandma was gone. I believe Cora knew too, that's why she wasn't sleeping.

Mom, Cora and I snuggled on the couch and talked about Grandma and how much fun she was, how much we would miss her but how happy we were together during this time. I'm so glad my last memory of my grandma is from this past fall when we visited her. E was playing basketball in the community area of Grandma's nursing home and whenever the ball would roll by Grandma, she would try to jump out of her chair and get it for him. I kept telling her not to do that! I'm grateful I was with my mom when she got the call about Grandma. This will be one of my most cherished Christmas memories, although sad, it was a special night of four generations being together. 

Mom and Dad left Christmas Day to take care of arrangements but we still had a wonderful Christmas. We had to cut Christmas short with Mike's family, we went out just for Saturday then headed to Iowa on Sunday for the funeral on Monday.  

Despite the sadness this Christmas came with, I still feel it was one of my best Christmases. E was totally into Christmas, enjoying Christmas movies and books and the decorations. He loved driving at night seeing all the houses lit up. "Do you see any Christmas lights Mommy?" he would ask. Then when he saw some he would shout, "Christmas lights!" It was also special because it was Cora's first Christmas. She wasn't into it much but she did enjoy eating the pine needles from the tree and pulling off the ornaments.

I think the reason I enjoyed this Christmas so much was because I was with family the majority of the time. We were able to carry on the Christmas spirit during a sad time because we were together. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas with ones they loved.

The Reality of Sharing

Cora is crawling now. Well it's more of a scoot than a true crawl. Needless to say, she is mobile. And that has turned E's world upside down. I would even venture to say that this new development has been a harder transition for E than when we first brought Cora home from the hospital. She wasn't touching his stuff then. Now it's "Oh no! Cora has my (insert whatever toy here)." Then E will take it away and Cora will cry. On the positive side, E will replace whatever he has taken away from Cora with one her "baby toys" as E likes to call them. But of course those aren't near as fun for Cora as what her big brother has. So there's been a lot of talk about sharing and modeling what taking turns looks like which can be exhausting. And honestly, it's kind of comical watching the two struggle over toys as long as I can step in before a complete meltdown from either one happens.

Mike and I agree that we don't think our kids need to share everything. That's just not a reasonable expectation to set for our kids. As adults, we don't share everything and me being an only child, I really don't share everything. Some things are mine and only mine and that's ok.

A while ago I read a story about a mother criticizing another mother at a park for not teaching her child to share. I can't remember what publication this story was in but the gist of it was that a child brought a truck to the park to play with and another child wanted to play with the truck too and the child was not sharing. The mother of the child with the truck did not intervene and make her child share. That's when the mother of the child without the truck made the criticizing comment about how that little boy must not have been taught to share. The mother defended her choice not to intervene because she felt her child had made a conscience choice to bring his truck to the park to play with and that's what the child was doing. Why should he have to give that up just because another child was upset he didn't have a truck to play with?

I find myself agreeing with this mom's logic. As adults we aren't required to share just to make someone happy. Why should we teach our children this when it's not reality? For instance, if I'm reading a book and someone sits down next to me and wants to read a book too but doesn't have one, I'm not going to automatically share my book just because sharing is the nice thing to do. There will be disappointments in life and not always getting what you want will be part of that. And yes, as an only child, I have on the rare occasion experienced the disappointment of not getting what I wanted.

Mike and I are trying to teach our children that some things we do share but it's ok to have special things that we don't always have to share. For example, E's blanket that he sleeps with every night, he doesn't need to share that with Cora. That's something that is very important to him. But when it comes to blocks, those we share. Mike and I use the phrase "that's a sharing toy" a lot. As we navigate through this lesson of sharing, I'm sure it will create some confusion for our kids on what to share and what doesn't have to be shared. It certainly is easier to teach them to share everything. But I'm hoping our approach in the long run will teach E and Cora to stand up for what is important to them but also know the importance of sharing what we have.

Basement Space

Our basement is done, well almost done if we're being completely honest. Done enough that we have been practically living down there. All we have left is a few trim boards to put up and finish up the closet that is behind the couch. We love it! It may have taken us Mike along with his dad and my dad a while, but it was well worth the wait. The amount of extra space it provides our family is priceless. Instead of having all the toys crammed into our tiny livingroom, we are able to spread out downstairs. I don't think my family could survive another long Minnesota winter without this additional space. We now have a place to play basketball and race cars. I also love that I don't have to constantly pick up toys. I can simply shut the door to the basement on those days when there just isn't enough time to get organized.

Not only do we have an amazing play space, but we've created a cozy area to watch movies and relax. During this season, we've been watching more TV than normal with all the Christmas specials. It's so fun to be cuddled up in our new basement watching Christmas shows and eating popcorn. Mike and I find ourselves spending time down here as well after the kids have gone to bed.

We've also created an office area in one corner which helped Mike and I get somewhat organized with all the paperwork one seems to accumulate. And now we finally have a space where we both can comfortably write, Mike with his books and me with my blog.

After growing up in a big four bedroom farm house with lots of space inside and out, I never dreamed that I would be able to raise my family of four in a small two bedroom house, but I'm doing it. We love our location. There's quick and easy access to the city and all it has to offer and I'm reasonably close to my work. Our experience with the school district has been great and we've found a church that feels like home. We know eventually we will outgrow our home but having this basement space will help us stay in our house longer until we are truly bursting at the seams and need to make a move.

As you can see from the pictures, we get lots of use from our basement, everything from farming, jumping, and folding clothes.

Sledding

Last week, we had a great day for sledding. The sun was shining and the temperature was warm enough you didn't need a hundred layers to stay warm. Mike and I wanted to take E sledding. He loves the snow and big slides so we thought sledding would be right up his ally, WRONG! We were gone for about 10 minutes and E only went down the hill once.

Let me back up. When we told E we were going outside to sled he kept saying, "I want to shovel." The kid loves to shovel snow. He talks a lot about shoveling snow and gets excited when it snows. "It's really coming down." he'll say. "We'll have a lot of snow to shovel." So when E told us he wanted to shovel instead of sled, we should have known that this sledding thing was going to fail.

However, Mike and I persisted and got both kids bundled up in snow suits. Anyone who has ever done this knows what an event this can be. By the time everyone is ready to go, I'm carrying my coat, hat, and gloves because I'm sweating.  Despite the crying from both kids, Cora was tired and E wanted his shovel, we were finally loaded in the car, ready to make the two minute drive to the soccer field where there were perfect sledding hills. I even packed some snacks because I envisioned us sitting on top of the hill taking a break from all the sledding we'd be doing.

When we got there, I plopped Cora in the baby sled and pulled her to the hill so she could camp out and watch. Mike was pulling E's sled and he was slowly following behind still talking about his shovel. Mike was talking to him about sledding, really pumping it up about how cool it was going to be. There were other kids sledding and we said, "Look at those kids, doesn't that look fun?" E wanted nothing to do with it. Mike decided to take a turn to show E how fun it would be. Still nothing. I took a turn and he still just wanted to shovel. Time to bribe, we thought if E just tried it, he'd like it. We told him to go down with Dad and then he could shovel. He quickly jumped on the sled with Mike and they went down the hill. When he walked back up he said, "Ok, now can I shovel?" How can we argue with that? We brought his shovel but decided it was pointless for the whole family to just stand at the top of the hill and watch him shovel. So we loaded everyone back in the car and made the two minute drive back home and E shoveled the yard, happy as can be.

My Social Media Cleanse

I went off of social media for the month of November. It really was only Facebook and Instagram since I don't Twitter or use Snap-Whatever. I did continue to read blogs because who has time to read a book these days so that's my "reading" time. I still was on Pinterest because I do actually make a lot of the recipes I pin. I don't do much with the other thousands of things I pin but I can dream.

What prompted my cleanse was a new low I hit, I was scrolling through my newsfeed while brushing my teeth. That's low. I also would check my newsfeed and nothing would have updated, Facebook wasn't broken, I was just on it that much. Not to mention the countless minutes I was wasting. Minutes I could use wisely by being productive or heaven forbid spend time with my children. Yes, it was time for a cleanse.

I also found myself getting annoyed and even competitive by some posts from people. People I barely knew anymore. My gosh, just typing that sounds pathetic. This should not be effecting me the way it was. Again, time for a cleanse.

So today is the day I jump back on Facebook and Instagram. Did I miss it? Not really. What I missed was the connection I felt with my close friends who live far away. I miss seeing pictures of their kids and random updates about their lives. Yes, there are other ways to stay connected to those we love; email, texts, or dare I say even a phone call. During my social media cleanse, I did try calling my best friend who lives out of state. I had no idea what she or her family was up to, I missed feeling connected to her. It took us two weeks and four phone calls before we actually spoke. Who has time for that?  Facebook is easy and quick. And when my closest people live far away, that's what I want.

After my cleanse, I will be using social media differently. I like Instagram for pictures, it's a great record of daily moments and I don't follow many people on there. Honestly, I mostly follow celebrities on Instagram, it's my celebrity gossip fix. I'm going to clean up my Facebook "friends" so I'm truly connected with people who are friends. I don't care what that girl I had one class with freshman year of college is up to. I don't need to be updated on that guy who graduated from high school two years after me. I care about my friends, the real ones. The ones that it doesn't matter how much time has passed since the last time we saw each other because we pick right back up where we left off. Besides, I don't want to risk pissing them off by defriending them...they know to much about me.

Thankful at Thanksgiving (in pictures)

Here's what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving...and all year long.

These two!

E loves Grandpa Claude's Allis Chalmers.

He likes the green ones too.

My world!

Such a good helper.

Halloween...
"Home of the Wicked Witch and Her Little Monsters."

Minnie Mouse
(E would not wear his Mickey Mouse costume.
He told me he was going to be Evan for Halloween.)

Punch Pizza after E's first professional haircut.
It was time, Mom kept messing it up.

Playing camping.

This lady thinks she can walk.

My Rut

It's the last night of my Thanksgiving vacation. I'm sitting at my computer, with my hot chocolate and a delicious chocolate chip shortbread cookie that I made. They're almost as good as the ones at Rustica. I'm sure I can make them just as good if I keep trying but that means I need to keep making them which means I will continue to eat them. Not good. Anyway, I'm here. I'm blogging for the first time in weeks. I felt like I was in a writing rut, but then I realized, I can't be in a rut. I'm just telling my stories, there's no rut when you're telling the stories of your life. Then I thought, maybe life was in a little bit of a rut. And it kind of was. 

I felt like things were moving so fast but nothing was getting done. Life was so busy, but busy doing what? There were a few weeks when I felt like I was just floating through life in a haze. Work was stressing me out and I took it home with me. I felt angry, I felt sad, I felt helpless, and I was anxious. And then there was a moment that lifted me out of my rut. I was vulnerable with my husband. I gathered the courage to let walls down that I didn't even realize I had up. After being together for nine years, I still had insecurities I hadn't shared with him mostly because I didn't realize I had them. 

I've always considered myself a strong confident woman, but somewhere, somehow, my confidence has been shaken. I have all these insecurities of being good enough. A good enough Mom, wife, friend. Being good enough at my job so I can be promoted and make more money for my family. I shared this all with Mike and it felt good. I no longer needed to pretend that I was strong and confident and had it all together when I did not feel that way at all. That conversation helped me end my rut. 

You would think I would have no problem being vulnerable with Mike, especially after the condition I was in after E's birth. Mike was fortunate enough to have the experience of helping me put on those wonderful mesh underwear you get after having a baby. The ones that are as big as a tent so they can hold that giant pad. I really have no dignity left with him. But this was different. I didn't want to let him down. I liked having him think of me as strong confident woman. But the stress of pretending to have it all together made manageable things in life less manageable. I was overwhelmed and couldn't deal with it. That's the great thing about my marriage, Mike is a true partner, we're a team in life. When one is down, the other steps up. 

Cora at 6 Months

Today Cora turned 6 months old. That's half a year which means I'm that much closer to not having a baby but a 1 year old. A 1 year old!  I felt my pregnancy with Cora took forever and now I'm packing up totes of baby girl clothes that no longer fit, swings that her feet hang off of, and looking at buying a bigger car seat.

This girl never ceases to amaze me. She has a huge curiosity for her world. Grabbing, touching, looking, and tasting everything she can. It's like each day she wakes up hungry to learn more. Cora makes her presence known in our family, she wants to be involved in everything we do. If we're eating, she watches with her big blue eyes and wants to eat too. For that reason, I started her on baby food shortly after she turned 4 months and there's no turning back. She gobbles up everything, except for carrots, those mostly get spit back at Mom.

I love that she has already developed a love of books. If anyone has a book or magazine, she wants it too. And when we read E stories, she listens just as intently. If we're watching TV, she watches too (so much for no screen time). She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse just like her brother.

Cora seems to be growing up faster than E. Maybe it's because she has an older brother and we're doing more kid things and not all baby things. With E, it was all age relevant activities where Cora is experiencing so much more at her age than E ever did. This is good, but I want to her to still be my baby so I make sure I get plenty of cuddles in the rocking chair.

Cora has her 6 month check up next week and I'm curious to know her stats. Here's what else Cora is up to at 6 months:

• Wears size 2 diapers, size 3 at nights.
• Wears mostly 9 month clothes. A few 6 month still fit and buying pretty much 12 month stuff now.
• Has the best giggle I've ever heard and her brother makes her laugh the most. 
• Goes to bed 8/8:30, dream feed 10/10:30 and sleeps until 6/7 in the morning.
• Can sit up almost on her own.
• Rolls from back to tummy but that's about it.
• When she's on her tummy, can spin and scoot some.
• Eats solids for lunch and dinner. Has tried, peas, green beans, chicken, squash, sweet potato, pears, bananas, and carrots. 
• Started playing around with a sippy cup, doesn't quite know what it's for yet.
• Weighs 16.8lbs and 26 inches long.

Happy 6 Months Cora Girl! I love you from the top of your head to the tip of your toes!