Creativity...toddler boy style

I will admit that I am a bit of a control freak. Especially when it comes to kids' activities involving paint, markers, glue or any other form of crafty destruction. Sometimes, however, I try really hard to reign in my control freakishness and let them express themselves however they would like...which usually ends up like this:

Yes, Liam's hands ended up covered completely in black paint.

But we ended up with some lovely artwork. I even painted one myself.

It's not anything great, but it felt good to pause from housework, laundry, etc. to just hang out with my boys and stretch my creative muscles (which, clearly, are in desperate need of stretching). :) I should probably do it more often.

Thank heavens for washable paints. :)

Kid-onomics

There is a hard and fast rule of economics as pertains to children (at least in my house), that says there is an inverse relationship to the amount of money spent on a toy and the amount of time that will be spent playing with it.

For example, I can spend $10 on the latest and greatest average-sized action figure, and on the same trip I can spend $0.50 on the gumball machine sticky hand toys (or in this case, sticky foot), and without fail, my child will play with the action figure for a total of 2 minutes, and spend the next 4 days playing with the sticky foot until it loses it's stick, pulls apart, and becomes increasingly more and more dirty and disgusting.

Kid-onomics, my friends.

Is there really a wagon?

So, I find myself saying a lot lately, "I fell off the food wagon" or "I'm back on the food wagon today".  But I have to wonder...if I'm on and off almost every other day or whatever...is there really a wagon?  Or am I just torturing myself?  One of my favorite quotes from any nutrition, diet, fitness, etc. book is by Bill Phillips (aka Mr. Body For Life), taken from his Eating For Life book.  He says that it's not what you do some of the time, but most of the time that matters.  So not to beat yourself up about the occasional indulgence, etc., but to stay postitve about eating right most of the time.  I like that...a lot.  :)

Just a Pod

The name might be a little strange, but sometimes I feel like I am only the means of bringing my children to this world:  the vessel, or pod, if you will.  I threw up for nine months each to get them here, change dirty diapers, do laundry, clean up spills, get screamed at, etc and often feel that the pod is all I am.  But, in an effort of self-discovery, I decided to create a separate blog (apart from our family blog), for all my thoughts on motherhood, weight, pop-culture, television and anything else that crosses the mind of "the pod".

Enjoy your stay!