From your Child

Jora from Domestic Reflections posted this over the weekend and I had to share it with you.

21 Memos From Your Child

1. Don’t spoil me. I know quite well that I ought not have all I ask for. I am only testing you.
2. Don’t be afraid to be firm with me. I prefer it, it makes me feel secure.
3. Don’t let me form bad habits. I have to rely on you to detect them in the early stages.
4. Don’t make me feel smaller than I am. It only makes me behave stupidly “big”.
5. Don’t correct me in front of people if you can help it. I’ll take much more notice if you talk quietly with me in private.
6. Don’t make me feel all of my mistakes are sins. It upsets my sense of values.
7. Don’t protect me from consequences. I need to learn the painful way, sometimes.
8. Don’t be upset when I say “I hate you”. It isn’t you I hate, but your power to thwart me.
9. Don’t take too much notice of my small ailments. Sometimes they get me the attention I need.
10. Don’t nag. If you do, I shall have to protect myself by appearing deaf.
11. Don’t forget that I can’t explain myself as well as I should like. This is why I’m not always very accurate.
12. Don’t make rash promises. Remember that I feel badly let down when promises are broken.
13. Don’t tax my honesty too much. I am easily frightened into telling lies.
14. Don’t be inconsistent. That completely confuses me and makes me lose faith in you.
15. Don’t tell me my fears are silly. They are terribly real to me and you can do much to reassure me if you try to understand.
16. Don’t put me off when I ask questions. If you do, you will find that I stop asking and seek my information elsewhere.
17. Don’t ever suggest that you are perfect or infallible. It gives me too great a shock when I discover that you are neither.
18. Don’t ever think it is beneath your dignity to apologize to me. An honest apology makes me feel surprisingly warm toward you.
19. Don’t forget how quickly I am growing up. It must be very difficult to keep pace with me, but please try.
20. Don’t forget I love experimenting. I couldn’t do without it, so please be patient with it.
21. Don’t forget that I can’t thrive without lots of understanding and unconditional love, but I don’t need to tell you that, do I?

original author unknown

Hugs!

My sister sent this link to me. Have you seen it? I LOVE it! http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hN8CKwdosjE

A Magical February

February has been a special month in our house over the past 5 years since it is the month we celebrate the birth of our beautiful girls. This year it was extra special because we celebrated in Disney World!

I've always heard Disney World described as "Magical" but never felt that magic as much as I did during this visit, my first as a parent. WOW! There were moments where I was brought to tears over my children's excitement and awe. Although my kids will most likely forget much about our trip as the years pass, I know I will remember and treasure these memories forever!

Woody!

A very special private meeting with Cinderella!

(I have pics of A&O with virtually every Princess and Disney Character!)

Happy 5th Birthday to my sweet little girls!

I surprised myself!

Yesterday the schools were closed due to snow so the girls had a nice, lazy morning in their jammie's and I had some extra time to work on my valance project. Guess what? I finished them! I like one of them better than the other so I may remake it (I have extra fabric), but that can wait until another time. I might even make a matching mini duvet cover and valance for the girls' doll house master bedroom!

(that was my dresser when I was little!)

I took these pics to show my Mom, but will post them here so you can see the valances. Sorry you can't see much of the beds. I'll try to remember to take a pic when my kiddos aren't in them (as they are right now!)!

Mirror, Mirror

Before I get into this post I wanted to let you know that I met my goal of getting the down comforters cut, sewn, washed, dried, inserted in duvet covers and placed on my girls' beds that Monday night! They look and, more importantly, feel amazing!! And, we think the current bed skirt color works just fine with the new duvet covers so I was able to cross that dye project off of my to-do list. I'm working on the matching curtains and will post a pic of their room once the curtains are up ("getting it done" goal: 2/4).

****

Kevin and I bought our house as a 'fixer upper'. I can't even begin to describe the dilapidated state this gorgeous house had been allowed to fall into (we have photos that prove we aren't kidding!). We had a plan in place for the renovation but once we started the demo part of the plan, we were pretty overwhelmed with everything. At that point we took a step back and decided to work on one project at a time, from start to finish. I should also mention here that we were both working full time, Kevin was working on his second Master's degree and we were hoping to start a family. So, that's part of the reason why we have not had a door or mirror on our medicine cabinet in our bathroom since 2000! I'm happy to report that my dear Kevin managed to finally build a custom three paneled door for our extremely large medicine cabinet and it is finally done and we love it (although it was much easier for two people to get ready at the same time when you didn't have to step aside to let the other person get into the cabinet!).

The only "before" pic I have but it allows you to see some of our toiletries lined up in our "open styled" cabinet! This is from '09 when the girls were watching Daddy wash his face one morning.

The finished product!

Getting things done!

I have so many projects that NEED to be completed (1/2 started and left or bits piled somewhere waiting to start). One of my resolutions for 2011 is to GET THINGS DONE! I'm happy to say that I'm on my way...

The thought for the project I'm working on today began months ago. Kevin and I have had a down comforter on our bed that I think has what is called an 'open baffle box' construction where the squares are not closed and the down can shift around. It is a great comforter but it is a pain having to shake the whole king sized thing out to redistribute the down each morning. So, we bought a wonderful new comforter that is perfect in every way. As one who attempts to be thrifty and hates to waste, I decided I could turn our old king comforter into two twin comforters for the girls' beds! We found cute duvet covers at Ikea and the covers and the scrunched king comforter have been sitting in a corner of our room for at least 6 months! This morning Kevin and I redistributed the down and I sewed two tightly stitched seams down the middle before cutting the comforter in half (with only minimal down escaping!). Now I just need to stitch all of the squares of the two comforters so the down doesn't shift, wash the comforters and covers and we'll be good to go! I'm hoping to have the comforters on the girls' beds Monday night. I'll let you know if I do it! :)

Next project: Curtains for the girls' room & dyeing bed skirts to better match the new duvet covers!

By Far, the Best!

I'm not quite sure where I found out about Portable North Pole but last year I had messages sent to several kids and it was a HUGE hit (it even made a believer out of an 8 year old who was 'on the fence'!). If you've got any little ones in your life, create a special message just for them. Click here and enjoy!

Special thanks to little. lovely. for sharing the 2010 link to Portable North Pole!

Image via here.