I'm Losing It...

My mind, my patience, and everything else in between! I am at a loss with Bug lately. I fear the "terrible two's" monster has bitten my sweet, well behaved little princess early and turned her into a moody, screaming monster. I have always been so proud that whenever we have taken her out in public, to a restaurant or church we always got so many compliments on how well behaved she was. I felt proud, I guess you could say. It made me feel good that I had a child who knew how to compose herself.

Now.... now I find myself pulling my hair out in the middle of the grocery store and struggling internally with how to handle her. She has suddenly decided that if something is not going EXACTLY her way she wants it to, she screams. Top of her lungs, bloody murder screams. And the look in her eyes... well let's just say if looks could kill!

It started about two weeks ago when we were in the grocery store, Bugs favorite thing is to say hello to EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON we see, and not just once, but over and over again. Anyways, she said hi to this lady in the cereal isle and she didn't respond to Bug, so Bug tried again. "Helllllloooooo!" Still, no response. So, Bug decided to let out this horrible scream, I mean pure rage. Well of course, that got the lady's attention, and had me standing in the isle with my mouth hanging open and my cheeks turning bright red. I was horrified, she'd never acted like that before, I didn't even know how to respond for a second. And I think my momentary befuddlement as to how to react made her little brain see that her scream got mommys attention and the attention every one else who was around. I swear I saw those little gears turn in her head!

Now it's become a daily occurrence; I say no and she screams. Red faced, fists all balled up and pure anger in her eyes. I have tried telling her not to scream in my "stern mommy voice", I've tried time outs (I don't know if she even gets what that's all about yet... jury's out on that), I've physically picked her up and moved her to the couch and allowed her to get her anger out until she's ready to behave like a big girl. And NOTHING seems to be changing/helping/stopping it. (Maybe I need to be consistent with one punishment?? I don't know.) I'm lost. I feel like I spend all day, every day saying "no" to her.

It kills me, it is quite honestly... breaking me.

I hate feeling like all I say to her is "no, don't do that", "no, don't touch that", "no, don't feed that to the dog". I need help, I need advice. I need some other mommy's out there to tell me that I'm not alone and to offer up some suggestions. Isn't that what us mommy's are so famous for, offering up unsolicited advice about how to raise one anothers kids? I'm begging for it... give it up to me!!


ETA: FIY Bug is 20 months old, so she's not even two yet!

Readathon

Bug and I are participating in a Readathon sponsored by MeMeTales and PBSKids.

I am so excited for us to start today! I downloaded the free MeMeTales app on my Kindle Fire and we instantly received twenty free e-books to read together. Each week there's a newsletter and activities to go along with the books, and each week has a different theme.

• Week 1 – Animal Fun
• Week 2 – Friendship
• Week 3 - Character Development
• Week 4 – Imagination
• Week 5 – The Green earth
• Week 6 – Global Cultures 

Bug will earn stickers/points each week for the books that we read and at the end of 6 weeks she'll earn a certificate for being a part of the Readathon. She's a bit young to really understand the concept behind this all but she LOVES reading books on my Kindle and I know she'll have fun with all these different books at her fingertips.

Check back to see all the fun activities we're going to do with each week's theme!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day to all the daddy's out there! :)

And and extra special Happy Fathers Day to my daddy, my father in law and to my hubby! You are all such amazing men and have blessed our lives in so many ways!

 

Hubby and our little Bug when she was only a few weeks old.

 

My dad and Bug a few weeks ago.

My father-in-law with Bug, Easter 2011.

Cloud Dough

Cloud Dough

It's so much fun to play with. It looks like clumpy flour but then when you squeeze it it's like play dough. It makes for a great sensory activity. We had so much fun, and I'm glad we did it outside because Bug flung it everywhere! I just took the hose to the porch when we were done and washed it all away. (Recipe at the end of the post.)

This stuff is so fun momma!

It's moldable! I tried to build a measuring cup castle, but Bug didn't seem to think that was fun!

Rolling it into balls was lots of fun though!

She even washed up the measuring spoons and cups for me when we were done!

My cutie hanging out in her jammies!

All done!

Here's the recipe. Are you ready for this... it's very complicated so read closely!

8 cups of flour
1 cup of baby oil

Dump each ingredient into a tub and mix with your hands.
Yep that's it!



I think I had as much fun as she did playing with this stuff, and my hands are all soft now from the baby oil! BONUS! ;)

Mothers Day!

I know, I know it was weeks ago but this is just how summertime goes in my life. Things get nuts!

For Mothers Day my parents came up and stayed the weekend. It was so much fun to have them here and getting to play with Kaylee. I was extra spoiled by my hubby and daughter this year. They bought me two beautiful hanging baskets and a Kindle Fire! I'm crazy in love with it already, and it's been invaluable for my school work! Sunday morning I had reservations for brunch and we had a great time! I guess I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!

She's getting so big!

No Photographs, please mom-a-razzi!

Squish the cat!

Going for a ride with Grandma and Grampie in the Ranger

Rockin mommy's shades!

K, Mom and I

Have some Goldfish Gramma!

Hop on Grandpop!

she was giggling like CRAZY!

They have a very special bond

Nursing In Public (comic)

 

I had to share this because it made me laugh! I guess these days are behind me for now until the next little one comes along but I still remember the funny looks I got from people when I NIP (nursed in public). I was never told that I couldn't do it somewhere though. 

And the winner for rolemodel of the year is....

I was in that wonderful store that we all love to hate (Wal*Mart) the other day and I heard the most horrific thing come out of someone's mouth and it's been on my mind non-stop since then. I was walking down the toy isle and a little boy who was probably about 4 years old went jogging by me with a big smile on his face. He said hi to K and then kept on sprinting down the isle. Not too far behind him was a woman who I'm guessing was his grandma, but may have been his mom for all I know and she was NOT happy with him. She kept yelling at him "get back here", "get over here", and on and on. Said little boy was not listening of course because it was much much more fun to stare at the wall of toys laid out in front of him. So Grandma/Mom tried one more time "If you don't get over here I'm going to KILL YOU". I am  pretty sure my jaw hit the floor, I could not believe that she said that to the little boy.

How in the world could any parent, grandparent, or caregiver say that to a child?! I was stunned. I know how frustrating kids can be, I know that the can test your patience to the very end, but I just can't wrap my head around telling a child you would kill them for not listening! What's going to happen when that little boy goes to school next year and gets mad because something doesn't go his way and he tells a teacher or another student that he's going to "kill them"? What a horrible thing to teach a child to say!

Okay that's the end of my rant for today! Happy Friday Everyone!

What's For Dinner Wednesday!

Every Wednesday evening we get together with our neighbor Dee, that lives over the hill and have dinner here on the farm. Sometimes I make the main course and she makes the sides and sometimes it's the other way around. This time it was my turn to make the main dish and I just had to share it with you because it was so yummy! At the request of Dee for something Italian, I made stuffed shells and the recipe is below!

Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

1 package of jumbo pasta shells
1/2 pound ground hamburger
1 container of ricotta cheese (16 oz)
1 pound of shredded mozzarella (divided)
12 ounces of Parmesan cheese (divided)
2 eggs- beaten
1 teaspoon of salt (optional)
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
1 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of garlic (or more if your a garlic person like I am!)
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (we like mushroom)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Boil water and cook pasta approx. 10 minutes until they are al dente. Drain and rinse.
2. Brown the meat.
3. Mix together ricotta cheese, half the mozzarella, half the Parmesan, eggs, salt, parsley, pepper, garlic and onion. ***Please see note at the bottom*** Split mixture into two mixing bowls. Leave one bowl as is and in the other bowl mix in the ground burger.
4. Start filling up the shells and lay them into a 9x13 baking dish.
5. Spread remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese over the prepared shells. Then pour the sauce over top.
6. Put in oven and bake on 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

***Note***
We like to have some of our shells be just the cheese mixture and some with the meat and cheese mixture. That is why I divide the mixture. If you want it to be all one flavor you can skip this step!

I promise next time to try to remember to get a picture so you can see what it looks like, I know with recipes it is much more appealing to see the food!!

This is my modified version of a recipe I found, the original recipe can be found here. And I have to say the original version submitted by Renee is excellent too, I just enjoy adding my own flair and tweaked it to fit my families taste!

DIY Body Wash

Few weeks ago I made another of my DIY concoctions, body wash! I've been dying to tell you about it but wanted the chance to "test" it first. I found my recipe over at One Good Thing by Jillee, if you haven't already discovered her you must go check it out! I am addicted to her Pinterest board! AMAZING!


Here's what you'll need:
6 cups of water
3 bars of soap (I used 2 bars of Dove Sensitive and one of my favorite locally made goat milk soap)
Grater
And a pot to cook it all in!

Grate your soap (the purple and yellow flakes are from the goat milk soap, it's Love Spell scented and smells amazing!)

Next put it all together in a pot on the stove and start cooking. You're not going to want to go too far from the stove and make sure you stir it frequently or it will bubble over and make your freshly cleaned stove-top look like this!!

Once it's all melted down it's going to be pretty runny. Pour it all into a bowl and let it cool for 24 hours.

After it's all cooled down it will thicken up quite a bit and I poured it into an old body wash bottle of my daughters using a funnel.

And VIOLA, now I have my very own body wash! Stupid me, of course, threw away the receipt so I can't do a price breakdown for you but I know it's at least half the cost of buying body wash from the store!

finished product, all thickened up!

Results after 3+ weeks of use:
I'm still in love with this body wash, but there's been a few snafu's along the way. It seems to have thinned right back out. I don't know if it's simply a result of being in the hot steamy bathroom all the time or if it's because instead of used that one bar of goat milk soap in place of the 3rd Dove bar. It's not going to last me as long as I had initially anticipated, but I'm still using it and I plan to make it again after I tweak it. The other thing I thought of was maybe I shouldn't have used as much water because the goat milk soap is naturally a thinner consistency anyways. I promise to do another update when I do my second batch!

Picture Dump and 18 months!

Since my long time absence I haven't really given you an update on what's been going on around here lately. So I thought I would do a big picture dump and fill you in on all the goings on. Which I'm sad to say, isn't much.

My little farm girl in her bib's and boots!

March was so warm here in central PA and we took full advantage of it! We spent lots of afternoons out enjoying this nice summer-like air. Bug and I spent lots of time "helping" daddy with barn chores!

daddy and K in the tractor

All dirty after a hard days work in the barn!

Since we had such nice weather I decided K needed to bust out some of her pretty hand-me-down dresses from my friend Kaity! We particularly love this one!

If you look in the back of the wagon there's lots of clean clothes we took off the clothes line. Nothing says spring like fresh off the line clothes!!

Can you believe this?!? Bug finally has enough hair in the back to get an itty bitty little ponytail back there! Too cute!

Bug showing off her fancy new barn boots! Nope she's not a farm girl at all! LOL

She's recently become my little buddy in the kitchen. It can get a little messy sometimes, but that's half the fun! She's a very good at stirring and loves being able to dump the ingredients in after I measure them!

Can you believe that this little one is a year and a half old tomorrow?! It's insane. I can't believe it! My little baby is going up so fast and is turning into a toddler before my eyes! She no longer walks, she runs every where. She's got a huge vocabulary and is constantly surprising me with the things that she knows. A little bit of the "terrible twos" is peeking out here and there but overall she's a really well behaved kid. People are constantly telling me what a good little girl she is, it makes momma proud!