Thursday, April 14, 2016

Kid's Sports: T Ball


Baseball is in full swing, with opening game day for many local leagues happening this past weekend. Our family was a part of the fray, squeezing in a game between other activities.


Daniel was a trooper and gave up his afternoon nap (before his last night shift of the week) to attend Jack's first game.


Practices have been pretty comical. As you might expect with 4 and 5 year olds, there is a lot of looking at the sky, throwing dirt, using gloves for things other than catching, etc.


Thankfully, Jack seems to be enjoying himself. 


When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said "hitting the ball."


During the game, each player gets a chance to hit the ball and run the bases twice (for a total of two innings with no score). The last hitter gets to hit a "home run" and runs all of the bases at once.


For our first inning Jack went last and he loved getting to run all of the bases.


In the second inning, they batted in reverse so Jack was first up. We had to tell him to stop at first, and each subsequent base.


Evidently where we live baseball is a pretty big deal, and it can be taken really seriously (even on the T Ball level). 


I have to say that we are very pleased to have fairly laid back coaches who encourages parents to get out on the field to help direct the kids.


The kids have a little bit of a herd mentality as they try to simultaneously field the ball and throw to first.


Jack managed to field and throw to first once, and was pretty proud of himself.


Jack's team is the Hot Rods and he was really excited to get his jersey and ball cap. He wants to wear them everywhere.


I don't know if we will be a baseball family forever, but it is fun to see Jack make new friends, and learn some new skills along the way. 


With practices every Monday and games every Saturday for 8 weeks, it helps with our goal of getting outside everyday!


A glimpse of what 4 and 5-year-olds look like practicing T Ball.


Lots of herd mentality, chasing the ball during their first game.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Balance Studios Birthday Party


This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend a birthday party at the Balance Studios in Chattanooga. I have been following Balance Studio's Instagram account for some time, so I was thrilled about getting to check it out.


According to their website:
Balance was founded with the mission of increasing awareness and confidence in children through art and yoga. We have worked to create an environment that echoes the wonderful communal spirit of Chattanooga, where families and friends gather, grow, and learn together.

I wasn't sure what to expect, and on top of that Jack was going to be the only boy at the party, but it was a great experience.


The party kicked off with an art project, which Jack was a bit ambivalent about, instead wanting to play in the secret room under the stairs or explore the upstairs room.


After the art project, the kids ate pizza before heading upstairs for yoga that was adapted for kids. I was curious as to how that would go and it was really delightful.


The instructor lead the children through actions that followed a story line of searching for pirates. Jack ate it all up. The kids even got to walk a plank (a balance beam).


Teaching kids yoga by moving through a story is a fantastic way to learn and my preschooler ate it up.


After yoga we finished up with cake. It was a wonderful evening and definitely a fun place for a kid's birthday party.


Monday, April 11, 2016

Muffins with Mommy


Last Thursday night was a Muffins with Mommy night at Jack's preschool. Daniel was working night shift last week, but was thankfully able to make arrangements to go in late so that he could be with Isaac while I had some one-on-one time with our first born.


After eating muffins and snacks, and visiting with friends, we went to Jack's classroom where he showed me some of his favorite things including the reading corner. He also demonstrated how to play the board game "Trouble" which he had been talking about all week. His teachers graciously allowed us to take the game home for the weekend.


We were sent home with a booklet that each child made as well as a present they had made (a pretty painting of flowers).


It seems that Jack believes that I am 10 years old (he thought Daniel was 100) and thinks my jokes are funny!


Jack said that this was a picture of us pretending to be robots.


We had a lovely evening together.

I'll leave you with our favorite joke:
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
The interrupting cow.
The interrupting...
Mooooooo.

Wednesday, April 06, 2016

No More Monkeys


When we moved into our current house, a little over two years ago, we decided to paint Jack's room immediately because it was purple... with a large monkey on one wall. 


Since his existing furniture was white and gray, we agreed that light blue-gray walls were a good place to start. 


I originally had a vision of painting large horizontal stripes on one wall, so at the time we left one wall as plain white.


Two years later we finally got around to putting the stripes on the white wall.


The room has evolved somewhat since we moved in. 


Jack's crib/toddler bed was long ago removed from the room (Isaac sleeps in it now). I think Jack slept in the toddler bed for one nap time. We are currently on the hunt for a bed so that Jack's mattresses are no longer on the floor.


It was a good solution when he was learning to sleep in a big boy bed, but now I would like a really bed with a head board. 


I have a vision of what I want and I have a feeling we will just build something when we have more time.


I found a dark blue, reversible comforter at Target that I liked, as well as construction themed bedding.


All of Jack's wall art was originally transportation themed (bikes, airplanes, etc.), but I am trying to be flexible and let Jack have some say in what his room looks like (though when he asked to have a green room, I said no for now because I didn't want to repaint what I had already started).


I found white and blue striped, blackout curtains and almost ended up ditching the striped wall because I thought the stripes might conflict. 


But I'm glad I stuck with my original plan. We are really happy with how it turned out.


There is a bedside table at Target that I have been eyeing. It is blue and has a locker-style drawer. Daniel doesn't want to commit to a side table until there is a bed so we will have the right scale with the height of the bed and table.


We are a lot closer to finishing up this room and I love how it is coming together. It's a long way from the purple walls with the monkey.


When the rooms is completely finished I will share a more finalized tour... 



Now to tackle Isaac's nursery!

Monday, April 04, 2016

Outside 365 | March 2016


Even though we started out the month with snow, March became progressively nicer and we were able to spend all but the first day of the month outdoors (30 days outside!).
 

In March we spent countless hours at parks, we took hikes, we visited a cave in Florida, Isaac learned the joy of swinging, Jack discovered tee ball, and Daniel and I got to go on a mountain biking date.

This month we welcomed spring to our mountain with red buds blooming wherever we drove and the trees coming back to life with vibrant greens. It was a good month to be outside.

We experienced a few good rains and wrapped up the month with Jack enjoying puddles at one of our favorite playgrounds. I'm looking to continuing to spend our days outside, adventuring when we can and enjoying the stillness of nature on days that are slower.

A video posted by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on


A Look Back at Project Outside 365: January 2016 ⎮ February 2016

Sunday, April 03, 2016

Books I Finished in March, 2016 (#4)


I started reading The Fringe Hours, Making Time for You by Jessica N. Turner back in February. It's an easy read but I had a hard time really getting into it, thus the two months to finish. 

The idea of finding extra time in your fringe hours is a solid one, and I think this book is worth the read if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and in the middle of a busy season of life.

That being said, I already implement many of the suggestions in this book, and I tend to under commit instead of over committing myself... I have meal planned for years; I find time to exercise because I find that I am a nicer person when I work out consistently; I read books while I have to wait any kind of line; and I carve out time in the evenings to do my freelance work (the author uses early morning as her extra time, but I am a night owl). Similar suggestions can be found in the pages of this book. 

The area I struggle the most to find time for is personal time with God. Last year I offered to facilitate a women's bible study on Wednesday nights and it helped me to be more consistently in the Word during that time period. 

Likewise, last fall when I felt like I was in need of connecting with other moms, I started inviting a group to my house on Tuesday mornings for coffee. An unexpected benefit of having ladies over on a weekly basis was that it helped me to consistently clean my house in preparation for company.

So, while I didn't personally garner great insight from this book, I do think it offers good tips if you are struggling to better manage your life, or to find time to do the things you love without feeling guilty.

A few quotes that stuck with me:
We can't have balance if activities in our life are neatly scheduled but we are overwhelmed, exhausted, and emotional.

Research shows that people who keep a gratitude list are happier people.

Acknowledgment of your passion is significant, courageous, and meaningful.

Your kids are never going to remember the condition of your cabinets, but they will remember what their home felt like.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Not because it isn't a good book, but because it didn't provide me with additional understanding of my own life.

Some other things I've been reading online lately:
The Lay of the Land by Design for Mankind
Parenting Around the World by A Cup of Jo
Can We Bring the Holidays Down a Notch? by Rage Against the MiniVan via HuffPo
Serial and Modern StoryTelling by Hither and Thither 
Funniest Parenting Tweets by The Huffington Post 
CarePortal (111 Project) by Under the Sycamore 
Mom, You're Doing a Great Job by We Are THAT Family 

In addition to reading, I recently went on two road trips and had the opportunity to listen to Season 1 of the Serial podcast while driving through the night. The podcast is from the creators of This American Life, and hosted by Sarah Koenig. Sarah spends a year looking into the conviction of a teenager in the murder of his ex-girlfriend. It was the perfect late night story to listen to as it is not for little ears. I look forward to listening to Season 2 when I have a chance.

Friday, April 01, 2016

Friendship of the Grown-Up Variety


I have been thinking a lot lately about the friendships you experience as an adult, and how they are different from the friendships you have at earlier life stages.


For one thing, it is harder to make friends as you get older. For another, once you are married or have kids, you not only have to find people that accept you and mesh well with you, you kind of hope they have a spouse and kiddos that mesh with yours.


If you're lucky you have friends from your youth that meet all of this criteria... or they are just more accepting because you already have so much history together.


Earlier this week, Daniel's good friend (and best man from our wedding) came to visit us, his family in tow. 


While we don't see them nearly enough (it's been 3 years since our last visit), we love to get together when we can. They are the kind of friends we can just pick up with where we dropped off, even three years later.


As an added bonus, even though our kids are slightly off in ages, they play really well together.


We had so much fun taking Matt and Melissa, and their kids, to the Creative Discovery Museum here in Chattanooga, then to our neighborhood playground, and finally to the Pumpkin Patch playground on our mountain.


We visited. We ate good food. We enjoyed the sunshine. And the visit ended too soon. I'm so grateful for the friendships we have, old and new, near and far.


While it can be increasingly difficult to make and maintain friendships in this season of life, we have been blessed with some really great friends over the years. I hope our kids grow up to have these longstanding friendships as well.


Speaking of friendship, one of my favorite bloggers recently instagrammed this photo and caption:


It captures what I long for (not necessarily 139 visitors in one month), but a door that is always open, regardless of the messiness of our house or life.

Word for the Year: Reframe

For fifteen years now, I have been starting my year with intention. Last year I hoped to find contentment in my life, and I believe I did. T...