Decorating with Dixie Cups, A Pinterest Poser Challenge

I cleaned up Christmas quickly.  In fact by December 30th, it looked like Christmas had never happened in my house.  Except for a few leftover paper chains and lights that we never got around to putting outside.

Usually I like the clean-up because I am so over the holidays and my house suddenly feels bigger.  But this year, I admit, it felt a little empty.  A little less full of joy and light.  But never fear, just in time for a Pinterest Poser Challenge*, I found a way to bring back the light.

*In an attempt at not being a Pinterest Poser,** every week I  detail a new Pinterest challenge whether it be a new recipe or a craft.   

**My definition of a Pinterest Poser is someone who is all pins and no substance.**

That's right folks.  Inspired by this post on Pinterest and a picture in this book, I created a weird little lit up garland that is my new most favorite thing.  I'm feeling all kinds of joy and light in my little writing nook/kitchen/room where I spend most of my life.

The Dixie Cup Light Garland

I grabbed the lights that have been sitting on my counter since the day after Thanksgiving, poked holes in some cute little Dixie Cups, put the lights through and hung them over a window.  The whole project took me 10 minutes.  Some people might tell you to measure and mark with an X where you want to poke the hole in the cup.  

But that sounds like a lot of work.  I just jammed a pencil through the cups half-hazardly. It was actually a little therapeutic.

I love the view out of my window.

I love the way it looks with the lights plugged in and without.  

My new happy space.  I like the way it turned out, I might decorate the whole house with Dixie Cups.  Oh boy.

Another fun and totally cheap (um free) thing I did based on a Pinterest find was make snow ice cream.  

What else do you do during a Polar Vortex, right?

Homemade Snow Ice Cream

It's simple.  Brave the blustery winds to collect freshly fallen snow or find someone in the house that will.  Luckily those blustery winds have created drifts that are almost to your doorstep so you don't have to venture too far.

My snow gatherers all bundled up.

Then all you do is mix 1 gallon of snow, 1 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract and milk (add as much as you like to make the consistency you like). Be sure not to add too much milk because then you might end up with frosty snow soup. 

We cut the top off this milk carton to collect the snow.

Eat and enjoy right away.

Delicious and gluten free.

Merry Polar Vortex. 
(I know I can't stop with the polar vortex-ing, I will soon. I promise.  When the kids go back to school, I will stop. Deal?)

Have you made anything on Pinterest lately? Any holiday projects?  How are YOU surviving the Polar Vortex and all the kids' snow days? Share what worked and what didn't, leave a comment here or on my Facebook page.

Come on over and follow my Pinterest boards too.

Here are some of the projects I've attempted--the good and the bad:

DIY Ornaments-click here

Gluten Free Clay- click here

Make Your Own Stamps- click here
Birthday Shirt- click here
Gluten Free Pop Tarts- click here
Front Porch Kid Art Display- click here
Door turned into Table- click here

Summer Wish List Chalkboard-click here

Peanut Butter Nutella Cookie Sandwiches-click here

Painted Mason Jar Vases-click here

Cinco de Mayo Paper Flowers- click here

Earth Day Cupcakes- Click here

Nail Art-click here

Homemade Photo Booth Fun- click here

Fake Bangs- click here

DIY Subway Art- click here

Furniture Painting and Bench/Chest Makeover- click here

Thanksgiving-y Project/Gratitude/Holiday Countdown- click here
The Smoothie-click here

The Free Printable Turned Artwork in a Boring Hallway- click here

The chalk board-click here
Seven Layer Dip in Individual Cups (my favorite so far!)-click here
The pumpkin address-click here
The Kitchen Dancing Sign--click here

Come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed.

Oh yeah, and come follow me on Twitter @AngelaYBlood and subscribe to my MomPulse YouTube channel here.

The Polar Vortex

Tim went away for the weekend to be alone, to read, to catch up on his sleep.  He does this every year and I think it's great.  I support his need for solitude, I get it.  And sure, maybe I look forward to a weekend to rule over Netflix and pick movies that he would hate and not to feel that I am required to defiantly explain every mood swing I have and get to be in total control over the family schedule.  Yeah, breaks can be good.  

Besides what could go wrong while he's gone for a couple days?

Um, just a Polar Vortex/Blizzard that freaked out half the country.  
And a sex talk that I was completely unprepared to have.  

I don't want to write too much about the specifics of the talk because I don't want to embarrass anyone (mostly me).  But Friday night just as I settled in to catch up on the Real Housewives of Atlanta and Beverly Hills, one of my older kids came down to talk.  There were questions.  Questions about naked people.  Thank god I had just taken a Tylenol PM so I was a little calmer than normal.  

I had to talk about things like "natural urges" and use anatomically correct names for body parts.  It was surreal and horrifying.  I told the story of the first time I saw a naked man.  My friend Susie* had a much older sister.  That sister had a Play Girl magazine hidden in her room (really? why did she have that? I mean really!).  Susie, a few other girls and I snuck up to her room and took a good look at the magazine.  We screamed in horror and threw the magazine on the floor and ran back downstairs.  I was 10.  I was traumatized.

(*Susie is a fake name used to protect my friend who I am still friends with on Facebook's sister because come on, who wants to be outed for having Play Girl in their room.  I mean really!)

But I also didn't ever talk to anyone about it, ever.  I never asked my parents questions about naked people, sex, bodies and stuff like that.

I did tell my mother when I got my period for the first time.  Reluctantly.  She made a BIG deal about it, told me I was a woman now and that I needed to pick out a special dessert that she would make me in honor of womanhood.  I flipped through the cookbook she gave me and picked a fancy torte.  I picked it because I had never heard of or tried a torte and because it sounded like something a real woman would have.  My mother made the torte and we celebrated my period and my new womanhood as a family.  I was 12.  I was traumatized. (And I have never had a torte since that day.)

I don't want to traumatize my kids. But I can't even say "penis" or "vagina" without smirking.  I mean come on, how am I in charge of this kind of discussion?  I'm the lady whose phone goes off in church and Britney Spears' Toxic starts playing.  I'm the lady that posts silly pictures of herself dancing on YouTube.  Oh shit, I am already so traumatizing my kids.

Looking back, I remember one conversation my father had with me about being a young teenager.  He didn't get into any specifics by any means.  There probably wasn't even a whole lot of eye contact either.  "I would never want to be a teenager again, ever, it's hard," he said to me very seriously.

It is hard, especially the beginning.  When you're all mixed up.  When you're all I want to be a kid, is it okay to still want to be a kid? but what about all these feelings and "natural urges" and oh god I have to watch videos at school and I am I supposed to think this and feel that and I hate everybody and I love this cartoon but why can't I go see that movie just because it has a sex scene I know what that is you know? wait do I know what that is, oh why, what, ugh.  It sucks.

So the other night, I listened, I didn't judge, I explained, I loved.  I channeled every cool TV and movie mom I could think of to pull this off.  I was Diane Keaton in The Family Stone, Phylicia Rashad in The Cosby Show and Sally Field in Brothers & Sisters.  I stayed open-minded and calm.  I might have thrown in a few sentences about the objectification, victimization and over-sexualization of women in our society.  I mean there was an opening to plant the seeds of my liberalism/feminism and you better believe I will always take advantage of that.  But most importantly I was there.  

I hope all my kids come to me and talk about this because I am so ready.  Bring it awkward sex talks, I can handle it (I think).  I love that my kids feel safe and secure enough to talk to me about all the mixed-up-ness of life.  I truly, truly hope that never stops.  

The rest of the weekend was spent surviving the Polar Vortex.

At the library:

The library is one of the best places
in the world in my opinion.

The books I chose kind of sum up 

my whole heart and mind right now.  

And I watched a movie about Frida Kahlo this weekend 

because I know Tim would hate it.

In the snow:

The kids found a patch of ice in the yard and spent hours playing hockey.  And yes, that is an old sprinkler left out from the summer as one of the goal posts.

Tim should be home soon.  He got snowed in for longer than anticipated with the whole Polar Vortex/Blizzard and all.  While I handled things pretty well, I am ready for the break to be over.  I'm ready to settle in and watch whatever we both decide on Netflix and do this whole parenting gig together.

Default Parenting and What I Know For Sure

"I'll give you three clues and we'll see if you can find the salt," he told the eager children.  "Who wants to go first?"

They all wanted to go first, but took turns patiently.  When the child found the salt container the other children cheered for them and complemented their clever nature.  The simple game carried on for almost an hour.

No, this isn't a scene from the f*cking Waltons, this was my living room last night.   

A proud Wade holding his Salt high in the air after winning his round. Woot. Woot.

We played Find the Salt.  Never heard of it?  Yeah, because it is a totally made up game and my kids loved it.  While one one kid hid the salt, one kid closed their eyes and plugged their ears, the other kids made a lot of noise (which we specialize in doing) and then that kid had to find the salt based on three clues.  For example, Lucy hid the salt in the laundry basket full of clothes that I was folding.  Tim's clues for the seeker were #1 opposite of clean, #2 wrinkly and #3 mom spends a lot of her time doing this.  JT, the seeker in this round, found it right away. Niiice.

There are a lot of parenting books/magazines/web sites/blogs that tell you to get back to basics.  Simplify.  Don't buy your kids every gadget and new tablet available.  Great advice right?  I totally believe it's great advice.  It's just advice I don't need.  Because you see we are kind of teaching that whole "get back to basics" lesson no matter what.  We are sort of doing the "right" thing by default.

We simply can't afford every new gadget or fancy anything (hence the Find the Salt game).  We have a good life, just not a very fancy one.  And here's the what...we are really happy.

Tim and I wrestle with wanting more for our kids and wishing we could impress the hell out of them by whisking them off to Disney World and buying them each an iPhone 5.  But for now, they will have to settle for the Ohio Turnpike rest area arcades,  Blizzards at Dairy Queen and taking turns on our family iPad,a first generation antique with a cracked screen.

I'm not complaining, I am marveling.  The experts are right.  My kids are happy.  They are grateful when they get something extra or special.  They understand the value of things and have heard "that's too expensive" before.  We don't want them to worry about money or not having enough, but I don't think there is anything wrong with telling them that we are a family that can't afford to do or buy certain things.

My kids read this to me yesterday after shoveling our driveway. We all had a good laugh.

  
I've always been a little mistrustful of those "don't sweat the small stuff" books and "keep it simple" people.  Maybe because years ago a guy at my work, a really nice, wonderful guy, whose cubicle was decked out in "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" paraphernalia died of a massive heart attack. It didn't really teach me any lessons except that life is totally unfair and sucks.  So, yeah, I'm a cynic and not sure that I would be very disciplined to do the "right" parenting thing if I was really wealthy.

So yay! I'm so not wealthy and don't have to worry about crossing that whole do-I-buy-my-kids-an-iPhone-5-or-not bridge.  And what do I know? I'm no expert  Maybe my kids are going to be totally scarred from the Find the Salt game and the free nature walks and the low-budget road trips, but right now, today, they seem pretty happy and well-adjusted, I know that for sure.

Our first nature walk of 2014.  They were counting deer. I was hiding in the bushes because I am afraid of deer.

My kids living it up at the rest area arcade
like it's Disney World.

All snuggled up watching a movie. Awwwww.

Here's what else I know for sure this week:

• We can't stop singing the Frozen soundtrack.  And I don't want to, it's so good.  This is one of my favorites--Love Is An Open Door.  

• Toys aren't just for the kids after Christmas.  

Tim at Wade's easel.

• I may not know what day it is because of holidays and school breaks, but on Sunday I will be watching (or recording and then watching) Jimmy Fallon's special.  Because he is funny and I love funny.

• My kids are loving Calvin and Hobbes.  My brother loved the comic books when we were kids and he's given my kids a book every Christmas for the past few years.  So fun to see them share that with him, with each other, with the little brothers. 

• I need to work out and get healthy.  It's just way overdue.  I have fallen off the fitness wagon which I never thought would happen to me.  But January seems like a good time to get real with myself and that means making a commitment.  Not only to working out, but to going to the doctor for check ups, getting the mammogram my OB suggested two years ago, rescheduling that dentist appointment I cancelled because one of the kids had something or needed something.  And resolving not to feel guilty or self-indulgent about making my health a priority.

• I like Carson Daly better than Ryan Seacrest. After flipping back and forth between the two on our really rockin' New Year's Eve, that is my conclusion. 

What do you know for sure (this week)?  C'mon, we're friends, share what you know. 

Leave a comment here or on my Facebook page or on Twitter.

Please come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed. 

Amazing

2013 was both teaching and learning, crying and laughing, happy and sad and frustrating and infuriating.  It was same-old-same-old and life-changing.  It was a year.  It was life--all the good and bad parts.

I can tell you that 2013 wasn't my favorite year because some of the bad parts were harder than I ever imagined they could be.  But I can also tell you that the good parts were indeed amazing.  

One of my favorite pictures of Lucy from last year.

Here's a look back at some of my family's stories of 2013.

2013 Montage from Jumping With My Fingers Crossed on Vimeo.

So, there's nothing wrong with hoping for more amazing in 2014 is there?

Wishing you a year filled with more good parts than bad and much more amazing.

Here are a few more highlights from 2013:

The time my lifelong dream came true when I got to visit SouthFork Ranch last spring.

The time I got some Me Time & got a little crazy.

The time I met (and totally impressed) a celebrity.

The time I got fancy with fake eyelashes.

The time I packed up the minivan and went on a VERY long road trip, just me and the four kids.

And of course all the times I danced in 2013 (or at least that were caught on video).

If you wish, head on over to my YouTube channel to check out more videos.  Click here, while you are there subscribe to get a new video every week.