Perfectly Messy Painting!

Late Night Brainstorm

Last night, after we got home from a long trip there and back to Frankfort in the snow, the kids were kind of restless. They were playing catch and Disney Infinity and then all of a sudden they weren't. It was a moment of realizing we were going to have to figure out what to do and quick. I had just heard a presentation at work about letting kids play and explore and learn to really navigate the world. I've been thinking about painting at home because we haven't done it in a long time and I realized the time was now.

As soon as I said paints, the boys were upstairs and trying to grab paints off of the shelf. We grabbed paints, brushes, paper and carried everything downstairs to the kitchen table. 

First things first - shirts off! My friend Krystie taught me that. It's much easier to clean paint off of skin than off of clothes. I barely had the words out of my mouth and they had their shirts off. I was happy, they were happy. Total win.

Getting Messy

In my experience, most kids love to get messy and these two dudes are not the exception. It didn't take long before Danny had his hands in the paint and Jordan wanted to follow suit. These kids just crack me up. They are such a blast! In the end, we had fun, we learned about not touching anything on the way to the bathroom, we practiced scrubbing with soap to get paint off of our bodies, and we made some great art. I love to see them concentrating and creating.

Danner D

Jordan a

The Brothers

Adding a Background to His Snake

A Mess!

Hooray for Art

I'm so glad we got the paints out! It was so nice that they could spend time being creative together. They were focused and engaged and it was probably the easiest night we've had in a while. Wrangling two boys, keeping them busy and happy with each other, isn't easy at this age. But last night was awesome. Jordan said, "We don't get to paint much at home." And he was so right. Since we got new floors and Danny was born, we don't paint nearly as much as we used to. It's time to change that. I love arts and crafts and being creative. I'm going to plan more painting and more other types of art and craft activities. Just like coming back to blogging feels great, so does the idea of doing more art with the kids. I've always loved being creative and making things. I look around our house and see the photos we have up, the collages I have made, our Color Me Mine painted pottery, our Knufflebunny inspired photo-drawings and it all makes me smile. Our house definitely feels like a home because of all of these pieces and I'm so looking forward to adding more of our personalities to our home.

Take care and talk soon!

It's Time for a Come Back!

Back To Blogging
It's been a little over a year since I last posted anything here at From My Front Porch Looking In! With my new job, things have been busier than ever...and somewhat overwhelming lately as we try to manage all the things. What that also means is that I've been thinking even more about life and celebrating how awesome my life is. All this thinking has reminded me how much I loved sharing personal stories and revelations when I blogged here.

Life is truly amazing. It's this wonderful gift that we have been given to make the most of. I go to bed every night thankful for all the wonderful people in my life and all the great opportunities I have to be the best me, to help others, to make a contribution to this wildly spinning world. I wake up every morning thankful for another chance to make this new day better than the last. It's not always easy but I know I've got it better than a lot of people and for that I'm very thankful.

Capturing life through pictures and sharing stories for myself and with others is what I really love about blogging. I have a pretty great record of Jordan's first few years of life but not so much since Danny was born. Ugh, I can't go back in time but I can go back to blogging here going forward. It's so nice that this little space has been waiting for me. While I don't have much time for blogging but I do have some time blogging. And that will have to be enough. We always make time for what's important, right? And this is important. It doesn't mean I won't need a little nudge here and again, so if you don't see me here, feel free to nag me!

That Was Then
Yup, this picture was from 2008 and one of my first posts here when Jordan wasn't even 1 year old yet! Look at our little family! I remember those little slipper-type shoes he used to wear. We were at Chad's school for a roller-skating party and we pushed Jordan around in his stroller.

This Is Now

So...today! Today we set off for Frankfort, Illinois, a place none of us had ever been, to meet Jordan Lynch, former quarterback for the NIU Huskies. Chad and I met when we lived across the hall from each other in the residence halls at Northern Illinois University. It's crazy to think it's been almost 15 years since we first met there in the fall of 1999. Sheesh. Look at our family now? Jordan is 6 1/2 and Danny is 3 1/2. Our little guys are so much fun.

I have to say, it's good to be back! Sharing stories of my family is a great way of celebrating and it feels great. It seems like a blogging goal or commitment would make sense about now. I think I'll shoot for once a week. If I can at least get here once a week and share a reflection of the week, I think that would be great. Who knows, maybe it'll be more, but once a week sounds good for now. 

Take care and talk soon!

Donating My Hair!

I'm still kind of in shock that I actually cut all of my hair off yesterday...but I did it!  It's hard to get used to short hair again after having long hair for soooooo long.  I cut my hair the week I had Jordan to be really super short and then I have been growing it out since then, just getting trims here and there.  So it's been over three years since I really had a crazy haircut that someone would notice!  

I mentioned to Chad that I was thinking of getting my hair cut and he agreed that he had looked at my hair the other day and thought how long it really was.  Then I started thinking about how long my hair was and realized it might be long enough to donate.  And guess what?  It was!  I chose to donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths because the donated hair is made into wigs for women who have lost their hair from cancer treatment.  I have an aunt who has survived breast cancer and another aunt struggling with a brain tumor right now.  

Of course, I had to take pictures!  Here they are!  This is my long hair!  I had to blowdry it straight so I could measure it easily.  

In the chair!  Getting ready to chop it off!

 AH!

 Gone!  Unfortunately even though it was still fairly long after this, I had to cut quite a bit more off to make it look normal again...plus my hair is curly...

So this is how short it ended up being!!!!  I feel kind of like a little kid, but that's okay!  I like it.  It definitely feels light.  It's going to take some getting used to, but it will grow back and hopefully someone else can enjoy my hair!

Fat Cat

Most Recently Read Book:

Fat Cat

By Robin Brande

I am definitely recommending this book...I've already told lots of people about it. I miss reading Meg Cabot's books, she wrote the Princess Diaries series and has tons of other books out there with great female characters and the sweetest boy characters they fall in love with. After all the sci-fi and fantasy it seems like I've been reading lately I was in the mood for a Meg-Cabot-like book not written by Meg Cabot...and guess where I found Fat Cat? Meg recommended it on her blog. Perfect. It was a great book.

It's about Cat, an overweight girl, who decides she's going to go back to living like a cavewomen for a high school science project. The project causes a whole shift in her life and I loved reading about how amazing the changes were. It's part of the reason why I'm totally contemplating becoming a vegetarian...and at least trying to make recipes with whole foods instead of processed food. It just makes sense to me when you think of all the crazy foods we put in our bodies. The non-meat part of it comes from Fat Cat, but I've seen more and more lately about how cruelly animals are treated and I'm kind of over meat. It's weird but reading this book has made me really think more about the kinds of food I eat. We'll see...I've already been to the library to find some cookbooks with more healthy foods so I think I'll start there. I'll post what I find!

Olympic Musings

Sheesh, it's been forever and ever and ever since I last posted! Sorry blog followers! I've just been super busy lately and blogging has been a low priority. Not that I don't love my blog!

I can't believe it's already almost the end of February. Have you noticed the sun more and more? I say that as we are in the middle of a winter storm watch, but it has been sunnier lately. It means March is right around the corner and that means spring!

Until spring officially makes its way into our lives once again, Chad and I are enjoying the Winter Olympics. Chad explained to me that no dude likes or ever admits (if they do) to watching the opening ceremony because it's so parade-y and girly. I watched until I fell asleep...they were cool this year but I do like the closing ceremonies much better because I feel like I know the athletes more.

Kathy posted this week about watching the Olympics and I figured I would post my own Olympics memories. I have always loved watching the Olympics, my family always watched when I was a kid. When the torch was on it's tour before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta I went to see it when it made a stop at the train station in Lake Forest. That was super cool. I remember watching with my dad and my sister.

We've met a few Olympians but I can't find any pictures! I think they may be on my old computer. But here are the people we have met: Jenny Finch (gold medal-winner for softball), Magic Johnson (gold medal-winner in basketball), and Michael Phelps (million time over gold-medal-winner). Chad also took Jordan to meet Mark Spitz who held the record for winning in swimming before Phelps broke his record.

I have to say meeting Jenny Finch was pretty cool. We've met lots of athletes but she had her gold medal with her and let me hold it. I barely held back tears because I was so moved. There is something profound about holding a golf medal. Amazing. Sorry I have no pictures...maybe I can dig some up. I hope to post again soon!

Jordan and Daddy

It's funny to think of what kind of a person Jordan is going to be when he grows up. I think he is going to be so much fun...but lately the goofy, class-clown, attention-demanding behaviors have been more and more evident in this kid. I'm pretty sure I have Chad to thank for that. I'm glad Jordan is developing such great sense of humor, it just cracks me up that he can be so funny already and he's not even 3.

Makeover

With my Christmas money this year I replenished my Mary Kay makeup. I'm not really a high maintenance kind of girl so spending so much money on makeup drives me crazy. I always wear blush and mascara and usually some concealer on my eyes.

Being pregnant and being so tired lately, though, has made me feel like I look like a zombie so I forked over the money for concealer and foundation. This is the same makeup I wore for my wedding (without the eye shadow). I was anxiously waiting for it to arrive!

I can't believe I'm posting this, but here's a picture of me in the morning, straight out of the shower pre-makeup.

And here I am post-makeup and with dry hair. Isn't that better? It's amazing how much better I feel about myself in general just knowing I look at least like a living, breathing human being.
I believe it's so important for women to take care of themselves. I have especially agree with this more and more since having Jordan. There is lots of pressure to be a great mom: to take care of kiddos, to clean the house, to do laundry, to go to work...the list goes on and on. I know that if I don't take care of myself and do things for myself once in a while there's no way I could even start to live up to an ounce of the mom I want to be.

I do also believe in balance in life. I don't agree with moms who do everything for themselves and don't really spend time with their kids. There comes a point when taking care of yourself can get extreme. But I believe it's okay to be selfish and do something for yourself now and then.

So, women out there (mothers or not), make sure you take care of yourself while your taking care of everything else: read a book for yourself, go out to dinner with friends, buy yourself a drink AND a treat at Starbucks (I love the apple fritters), get a pedicure (hot pink? red?), get a massage, buy some new makeup. LOVE YOURSELF!

Sitting with Santa

We spent the day yesterday with our friends who just had their third baby. I love newborns. They are so tiny and sweet and just have do the cutest things that only newborns do. I can't believe my baby is already 2 1/2. It's crazy. I love him to pieces. He is really a sweet boy. It's crazy how much he has changed. Here's a look back at his visits with Santa!

2007

2008

2009

Fa La La La La La La La La!

It seems like Thanksgiving went by in a flash...and now it's time for Christmas! Yesterday we put up the Christmas tree and our Christmas decorations! Jordan was a great help!!

We have a fake-y tree so we had to put it together. Chad was calling out colors and letters and Jordan was checking each branch to make sure he gave Chad the right one. It was a great letter/color practicing game!
Find the branch, hand it to Dad!
It was such a perfectly sunny day. I love when sun comes in the windows and I can take pictures with great lighting. It makes me look maybe even a little bit professional when I'm sooo not.
This ornament was new to our tree this year! Isn't he sweet?
He's not looking at the camera but I love the sweet smile and his little dimple! If you look really really closely in the background you can see my reflection in the mirror...it's really small...

And now we're in Christmas mode! I love seeing the sparkly lights on the tree. It makes the house feel very cozy. Today Chad's parents came over and we took our Christmas picture so I've got to get those printed and hopefully I'll have the cards out sooner than later this year!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late on my Thanksgiving post but at least it hasn't been a week yet! I was up at 4:00 in the morning with my aunt getting the bird in the oven. After that we went back to sleep for a little bit and then when we woke up again we were all about getting everything else ready. It all came together pretty well actually! (The only down side was I so didn't get a shower until after we ate!) Jordan is being goofy in this picture and I'm unshowered and un-made-up!

The turkey and part of the table!
Another goofy Jordan face!
Jordan finally crawled into Jane's lap so she could help him with his Thanksgiving dinner. This was his face when he first tried the cranberries!
By now he couldn't get enough of the cranberries!
Apple-cranberry pie! Doesn't it look great!?! It was very yummy! We had pumpkin pie, also, of course! And...later, Silvia came over with strawberry shortcake that was amazing!
Happy Thanksgiving to all! We have lots of be thankful this year! So happy for our family and friends and that everyone is healthy!

Speaking of Family and Friends

Kathy graciously and bravely agreed to pick Jordan up from our babysitter's last Monday when Chad had basketball games and I had my National Board meeting/class. She took Jordan and her daughter, Maddy, to our library and then to McDonald's...all before she went to our house and cooked an amazing spaghetti sauce and noodles for us! How awesome is she?

Here's an oh-so-cute picture of Jordan listening to the audio books at the library. Love it!

Dear God,

Lord God, I trust in your goodness and mercy. I am sorry for all the bad things I have done. I'm sorry for all the good things I have not done. I want to love you with all my heart.

Thank you so much for everything I have in my life. Thank you for keeping my family and friends healthy and happy and safe. Please, watch over them and help them to be healthier and happier and safer tomorrow than they are today.

Amen.

My New Car!!!

I still can't find my camera, but here's what my new car looks like:

It's a 2010 Honda Insight Ex (hybrid!!!!)!
Isn't she purty? I feel completely thankful that we were able to fit this into our budget. It is a million times easier not to have to worry about anything going wrong with my car (hopefully not!). I love that it's a hybrid, it is fun to drive and to see when I'm being "green" and energy efficient. Chad even spent most of yesterday afternoon reorganizing the garage so my car would fit. It was a lot of moving bikes and strollers and other cluttery-garage madness but finally my car fit!

Saving the Earth

Today I'm teaching a lesson about answering questions after reading a book and the book I'm using is called "Introducing Planet Earth". It's a simple book but it talks about how proud Earth is to be the only planet in the solar system that can sustain life, and how it rotates so everyone around the Earth gets its fair share of sunshine. It made me refocus on how important the Earth really is. It does say we can trust it to keep rotating for us for billions of years to come...but after movies like Wall-E and AstroBoy I really realize more and more how much we have to pay attention to what we do to our Earth.

I am by no means completely eco-friendly but I am proud of a few things we do around our house...little things that I hope make some kind of a difference. I'd love for you to share simple changes you have made to be nice to our Planet Earth!

1. We recycle like crazy. Seriously, everything that can be recycled, we recycle it. We already up-sized from the small orange box to the giant brown recycling bin and there are many times when it is completely full.

2. We use the Target shopping bags every time we go get groceries...AND now they scan a special coupon barcode that gives us 5 cents off for every bag we use when we check out. It's only 5 cents...but it's something!

3. When I pack my lunch in the morning, I use the reusable buckets instead of plastic baggies or foil so I don't have any waste that way...I've even started packing real silverware with my lunch.

4. I take a water bottle or mug filled with water to work and refill it throughout the day versus buying water bottles. I even took my mug into Starbucks the other day to get hot tea and she only charged me for the tea since I had my own mug...it was less than $1 at STARBUCKS!

5. And, finally, this is the one I am most proud of. I didn't think we were going to be able to do it, but we actually did it and it's not that big of a deal now. On a "green" website I read that one of the things you should never do is buy papertowels. It makes sense, but at first I completely thought there would be no way we could ever possibly live without paper towels. We used them for everything: napkins, drying the table, drying our hands...you name it, we used papertowels. When I thought about it, I told Chad I really wanted to try and not use papertowels as much so we bought a ton of kitchen towels at Target. My sister's boyfriend thought we were crazy and said maybe we could compromise and not use as many papertowels...so I kept that in mind. Less papertowels was at least better. After a few months with the dishtowels though we ran out of papertowels one day and we just never went to buy more. We are papertowel free!!!! Sometimes it freaks out other people when they come over because they instantly look for a papertowel and we don't have any...but I'm proud to say we are papertowel free!

These are just a few things we do! It's amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it. Little changes will really add up. What do you do to protect our wonderful Planet Earth?

Honest Scrap Award

I just got an award!!! Woo hoo! I've never won a blog award before! Thank you, Lara!!!! Here's my first one!

It's the Honest Scrap Award. So here's what I have to do now:

1) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me. 2) Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award. 3) Share "10 Honest Things" about myself.

Here are 10 honest things about myself:

1. I'm a tad obsessed with being on my laptop...I love to check my e-mail, check Twitter, check blog updates, check FB, shop online, digital scrapbook.

2. I forgot to take in a half gallon of chocolate milk last week when I was bringing the groceries in and then forgot that I forgot it in the trunk...for the whole week...I did finally pitch it today...it was G-R-O-S-S.

3. I can't fall asleep at night unless I've gone in to see Jordan and whispered that I love him (just one more time) and said my prayers.

4. On the first day of the month, I try to remember to say, "Rabbit, rabbit," before I say anything else because in high school I heard somewhere that it would bring me good luck for the month.

5. At some point in my life I developed a crazy Kleenex folding routine for when I have to blow my nose in order to get maximum use out of each tissue.

6. I want my hair to be just like Evangeline Lily's. She's Kate from Lost.

7. It's actually hard to think of 10 honest things about me when I actually have to do it...

8. I can make friendship bracelets blindfolded...the colorful ones made from embroidery floss.

9. Sometimes I have very little, if any, patience for people who just can't seem to understand something that seems to simple to me...and especially no patience for someone who refuses to understand/accept something that just makes sense.

10. Kevin is my favorite Jonas brother. (He just seems to be the most normal and mature and no one likes him...but I do.)

I am proud to bequeath this "Honest Scrap" award to the following people:

http://www.lauramikewalker.blogspot.com/

http://kathylouwashere.blogspot.com/

http://www.callitaclan.blogspot.com/

http://stateiamin.com/

http://windingdowntheroad.blogspot.com/

http://thelongestyear.typepad.com/my_weblog/

http://fuchsiag.wordpress.com/

New Floors!!!!

Last week we got our new floors! Here are pictures of the carpet and floor before and after!

I probably should have taken closer pictures because the carpet doesn't look all that bad...but it was totally destroyed!

The kitchen
From the living room looking into the dining room/kitchen.
Here is Jordan watching the man bring in the flooring. He was excited to see the big truck with all the tools and to watch the man.
Here's some of the wood sitting in the house...in the end there were two more stacks at least this high.
Woo hoo! Installation day! I wanted to take pictures but I didn't want the guys to think I was crazy. We had five guys here to rip out the old floor and put in the new floor. You can kind of see the floor how it's just a concrete slab. I have to say, when I saw the guy put his knife into the carpet and just slice into it was awesome. The sound of it just being shredded was music to my ears!
Here they are already putting the underlay and the floor down!
Almost done!
Done!!! Woo hoo! Here is the dining room.
Living room.
Kitchen.
Here's a video of before and after!