Author Archives: Heather

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About Heather

I adore my family, writing, books, cats, lazy mornings in bed, and chocolate. I'll never say no to breakfast for dinner, long talks with friends and lazy summer days at the pool with family. My life is often crazy, always awesome and one I'm so happy to be living! My side hustle is editing and proofing work. Find out more at https://heathercaryn.com/
Dec5

Need Help Getting my Martha On…

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It’s well documented that I really don’t have a domestic bone in my body.  Things like curtains and pictures on the wall don’t concern me at all.  We can all thank the Hubs for his constant nagging that we have any of those little touches that tie our house together*.  I’m not crafty- I stand in awe of my friends who are.  My grandmother is a beautiful artist and singer, but that gene seems to have skipped me altogether.

And most of the time, I’m OK with that. I have my talents and 99.9% of the time I like myself just fine, so I don’t beat myself up over what I can’t do.  But occasionally I want to do it up right.  I want to make something personal and heartfelt and I’m  trying to figure out just how to do that, so that is where you come in.  In need help with two things:

1) Teacher’s Gifts
While I don’t think there is a bad teacher in my kid’s school, every year I’m convinced my kids have the best teachers in town. I try to use the holidays to express just how appreciative and thankful we are for them- lord knows I couldn’t do their job and half the time I wonder how they are as sane as they are.    I would really like a holiday gift to give them that shows this.  Whether it’s a homemade gift card holder or an ornament or anything- just hit me with your best teacher gift idea!

2) Holiday Snack
The Bean is scheduled to bring in snack for her class on the last day before break.  This is a lot of pressure and I’m already trying to figure out what to bring in.  Snack time is around 10:30 in the morning so it’s got to be healthy (please don’t get me started on Oreos as a morning snack- it’s my personal pet peeve).  I normally bring in a big fruit salad, but I’d like to make something a bit more festive. Melon balls stuck together like snowmen? Mini-bagel wreathes?  Somebody please, help me!

I’m bound and determined not to screw these things up and I’ll take all the help I can get!

*Please note, he doesn’t buy these things either, but he does nag me until I do.

Dec4

Logic Wins Again

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It’s 8:50 pm and the kids should have been asleep an hour ago. My patience is running thin and I really just want to go unwind after a really fun, but really busy day.

When the Bean comes out of her room for the gazillionth time with some fabricated excuse, I finally pulled the Buddy card. I got right down on her level and spoke to her really seriously-

“Bean, Buddy is really upset with you now. If you don’t go to bed right this second and not get out again, he’s not going to move and he’s going to tell Santa you’ve been naughty.”

The Bean glances up at Buddy and without missing a beat says to me:

“Actually Mom, Buddy is smiling at me. He thinks I’m funny.”

Clearly the inventor of Elf on the Shelf didn’t have any little kids because if s/he did, the Elf would have two facial expressions.  Trying to scare my kid into submission with an Elf who won’t wipe that grin off his face isn’t working at all.

Dec2

Funny at Any Age

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It’s bedtime and just as I tuck Scorch under the covers, he sits straight up.

“Mom- I have a story to tell you!”

“Scorch- it’s bed time, it better be short.”

“It’s short- and soooo funny, Mom. So funny.   Today, at lunch, we were all sitting around talking. And do you know what we were talking about Mom? It was so funny.”

“No idea, Buddy- what were you talking about?

“Boogers!!  We were talking about boogers. Adam asked that everyone at the table who picked their boogers to raise their hand. So all of us raised our hands and then we had to go around the table and say who in our house picked their boogers too. So I told everyone that Bean picked her nose too and when she was little she ATE them!!!!  We laughed so hard that Frank almost snorted out his milk out of his nose.  It was hysterical.”

Tonight I’m thankful for a table full of absolutely gross 5 year olds and the fact that boogers are never not funny.

Nov30

The Elf: Part 2

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The kids went to bed about an hour later then normal tonight because we spent the evening decorating our Christmas tree.  After we got the kids in bed, the Hubs (taking a leap of faith) moved Buddy the Shelf Elf without checking first to make sure the kids were asleep.  I didn’t notice the move until Scorch came out to the kitchen with some fabricated excuse for being awake and immediately noticed that Buddy wasn’t in the same place he had been 15 minutes earlier.

I thought the kid’s eyes were going to bug out of his head.

“Where’s Buddy? Where did he go? Why isn’t he where he was? Did he leave? Is he coming back? OhMyGosh- where is Buddy?”

Never one to miss an opportunity to freak my kids out, I immediately told Scorch that Buddy must already be on his way to the North Pole to report into Santa (all the while praying Scorch didn’t see Buddy in his new perch on top of the cupboards) and that if he, Scorch, didn’t get into bed right this second and not get out again, Buddy may not come back.  Ever.

Off he ran without a peep.

Two minutes later Bean comes out telling me she needs to go potty for the umpteenth time. The minute she got in the kitchen, her eyes immediately went to where Buddy was when she went to bed.  She stops in mid-sentence and asks me where Buddy was. I gave her the same song and dance about the trip to the North Pole all the while ushering her to her bedroom.  I haven’t heard her say a single word since getting back into bed.

So tonight I’m thankful for a freaky looking elf with a fishy backstory and how easy he makes it to scare my kids into compliance!

Nov29

Suspicious Minds

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Upon returning from our Thanksgiving travels, the first thing I did was get out our Elf on the Shelf, Buddy.  This is Buddy’s third Christmas with us. Buddy has been with us for the past 3 Christmases and even though the kids still don’t know what to make of him, they wanted to know when he was coming back.  The first year we had him, he scared the life out of Scorch- in fact, Buddy never moved because Scorch would freak out if he did.  So Buddy spent all holiday season watching us from the top of our china cabinet while Scorch adjusted to having him around.  Last year was more successful as Buddy was allowed to move around our house- but he was NOT allowed in the kid’s room.  Scorch wasn’t having that.  Bean all but ignored the Elf- until this year.

She’s oddly fascinated by him and will not stop asking questions-

“When Buddy goes to the North Pole do his legs work?”

“Why doesn’t his head move?”

“Why is he always smiling even when we’re being bad?”

“If I stand here or here or here or here can Buddy still see me?”

And on and on and on.  You can tell she doesn’t quite believe but she’s scared not to believe too.  Right now I’m trying to sell Buddy as best I can to the Bean in the hopes that he keeps my little tornado in line for the next month!

Nov27

Thanksgiving 2011

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I really enjoyed having a thankful theme to my posts these past few weeks. I may cheat and keep it going through Christmas because I feel like I have so many more things/people to be thankful for that never got mentioned here.

Our Thanksgiving weekend officially started last Wednesday and since then we’ve traveled 400+ miles, visited 3 homes, attended one 6th birthday party and two 1st birthday parties, went swimming, ate some amazing meals (none of which I prepared), visited with more family members and friends then I could count, saw the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in the wild, watched my kids play with each of their cousins (no mean feat considering 2 of them live in Missouri!), put out all our Christmas lights and cut down our Christmas tree.

All in all, our weekend was just about perfect. Many, many thanks to all our friends and family who helped make it that way- we are so blessed to have you in our lives!

 

Nov22

The Blessing of Friends

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This afternoon was a typical one- the craziness of school pick up, the fun of trying to juggle work and the kids until 5 pm, the dinner rush and the bath time antics. All normal, but I couldn’t stop staring at my watch. My patience wasn’t what it should have been and I just wanted to get out of the house.

Tonight was Girls Night.

I have been so lucky over this past year to carve out a great group of girl friends.  Making friends as an adult is hard and it doesn’t come easy.  The bar was set really high because of the wonderful friends I still have from elementary school- it was really hard to find women that measured up.  Which makes it that much sweeter when things finally did click into place.

We started doing monthly girls nights back in September and now they are as essential to me as date nights with the Hubs.  I need a group of supportive, funny, smart, compassionate women around me- just like every other woman does.  I need shoulders to not only cry on, but woman to laugh with over the craziness that is life.  Women with advice on everything from relationships to books to child raising to vacation tips.  I can share everything with the Hubs but sometimes he just doesn’t get it- and that’s fine.  Sometimes a woman just needs a girl friend and I’m so very glad I’ve found a new group to call my own.

So tonight I’m thankful for laughing so hard my sides hurt.  I’m thankful for honest advice and friends who like to eat as much as I do.  I’m thankful for the joy, the richness and the fun that all my friends bless me with.

 

Nov21

Simplification

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The Hubs and I aren’t big on New Years resolutions, but we both agreed that 2011 was going to be our year of simplification. Back in January, the Hubs and I were both working 40+ hour a week jobs and balancing 2 small businesses on top of trying to be hands on, involved parents.  The Hubs job at the time was  crazy one where his life was frequently not his own.  When you’re 22 and don’t have any kids,  being given 18 hours notice before having to leave on a 3 week business trip was annoying. Trying to do the same thing at 34 with 2 kids and 2 businesses to run was next to impossible.  Our primary small business was a labor of love, but as the kids got older the sacrifices being made didn’t seem worth it.

So over the course of this summer and early fall we started making the changes needed to streamline our lives to ensure that our family was our primary focus.

Best. Decision. Ever.

The Hubs is now home every night for dinner. He no longer has to work a second job that is an hour away 3 nights a week and all day Saturday. We have true family time.  Before, we’d try to squeeze in a full weekend worth of activities and task in on a Sunday after Church.  It wasn’t restful or fun and more often then not we ended up more stressed then ever.  Now we have time for family hikes, time at the park, lazy Sunday’s watching football and so much more.

The decisions we made to get us here weren’t easy, but I’m so thankful we made them. I’m thankful to have my husband around every night after 5 years of pure craziness. I’m thankful our kids aren’t surprised any more when Daddy is home for dinner.  Can’t wait to see what 2012 brings!

Nov17

Lala Love

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Almost a year ago, my sister was admitted to the hospital.  She was 27 weeks pregnant and had a routine prenatal appointment on a Wednesday. That day her blood pressure was a little higher then normal and her doctor wanted to monitor her, so he asked her to come back in two days later for a quick check.  We weren’t worried- Red was healthy and her pregnancy was completely normal up until then.  But during that check on Friday, her blood pressure was even higher and they found protein in her urine.  She was put on strict bed-rest all weekend, but things weren’t any better that Monday.  In fact, her liver was starting to fail and an ultrasound that day showed the baby was smaller then she should have been.  She was sent immediately to the hospital.  Red was told that the best case scenario was that her baby could stay in for 2 more weeks and be born at 30 weeks gestation.

But the base case scenario wasn’t meant to be- for the safety of the baby and my sister, the baby had to be born soon. Sweet baby Lala was born the next day at 28 weeks.  She weighed 1 lb 14 oz and, against all odds, was as healthy as a micro-preemie could be.  But even a healthy 28-weeker is a sick, fragile baby who has to fight just to keep breathing.  Lala spent over 10 week in the NICU gradually learning all the things that we take for granted- how to breath, how to suck, how to regulate her temperature and a million other things most babies learn in utero.

Lala at 2 days old- the first time Red met her

Lala is going to celebrate her 1st birthday very soon.  She’s army crawling everywhere and has the brightest smile you’ve ever seen.  Lala is a peanut- she’ll hopefully be a little over 13 lbs when she turns 1- but she’s a healthy kid.  She’s an absolute delight and to simply meet her is to love her. She is an honest to God miracle and brings more joy to our family then you can imagine.

Today is World Prematurity Day– did you know over a million babies a year die from complications related to prematurity? That number is simply staggering to me.  Today and everyday I’m so very thankful for my sweet, strong, feisty niece.  I’m also thankful for organizations like the March of Dimes that have spearheaded the fight against prematurity to give babies like Lala a chance at life.  I urge you to read about prematurity because you never know when it may hit close to your home.

Nov16

A Whole New World

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It’s no secret that I love to read.  I love being able to find new worlds, new friends and new experiences in the pages of a book.  I love being able to share my love of books with friends and family and geeking out with complete strangers over how awesome The Hunger Games is.  I don’t have a lot of extraordinary talents to pass along to my kids- I’m not really athletic, nor am I any kind of artist- but I do have my love of books.  We read to the kids at least 2 books a day and the centerpiece on our coffee table in the living room is a stack of books.  If I pass along one things to my kids, I really hope it’s this passion for reading.

So far the kids seem to love books- both kids will happily pick up a book and leaf through it while making up their own stories. But tonight we hit a whole new level when we went to Family Reading Night at Scorch’s school.  The night was designed to give the kindergarteners a chance to show off their newly acquired reading skills.  Frankly, I didn’t even know Scorch had reading skills- I knew he could read his sight words and identify other common words that we work on, but I didn’t know he could actually really read.  But he can.  And that is astoundingly, amazingly awesome.  I am so excited to see Scorch’s reading skills explode this year- I can’t wait until he’s reading to me every night!

Tonight I’m thankful for smart kids, dedicated teachers and whole new worlds opening up to my son!